Has Obama administration’s stepped-up pressure on police departments worked?
Los Angeles Times – Oct. 23
Dennis Spaulding, a baby-faced “bully with a badge,” as the FBI called him, was in the middle of a raid against newly arrived Ecuadorean immigrants when he made a costly mistake. He arrested a priest. Father James Manship, his clerical garb covered by a big winter coat, was videotaping Spaulding and other officers who, according to federal prosecutors, were illegally searching My Country Store, a Latino grocery in the largely Italian suburb of New Haven. Manship took video of his own arrest and collected 23 affidavits detailing what he believes is a pattern of abuse against his mostly Latino congregation. He handed the complaint to the U.S. Justice Department in 2009. The timing was perfect … “Under Bush, the Department of Justice took the view that they could not force, or did not want to force, police departments into court,” said Stephen Rushin, a professor at the University of Alabama Law School and an expert on federal enforcement of police reform. “Under the Obama administration, they take the view that if a city isn’t willing to play ball, that the DOJ will go to court and force that city to comply.”
Hillary Flings Charges of Racism
LifeZette.com – Oct. 22
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton took a trip to Alabama last weekend and got straight to race baiting, diving into a local dispute over voter IDs that Democrats say is ripe with racism. Except, it’s not, and Clinton’s eagerness to play the race card suggests Republicans should prepare for some divisive nastiness should she become the Democrat’s nominee. When Alabama officials recently announced that budget cuts would force the closure of little-used driver’s license offices, it did not take long for Democrats to see a conspiracy to suppress the black vote. The state passed a law requiring voters to show a photo identification before casting a ballot, they noted, and some of the driver’s offices on the chopping block were in black-majority, rural counties … “I don’t see any controversy if the state absolutely guarantees that anyone can get one,” said William Stewart, a longtime political scientist at the University of Alabama. “It’s an easy issue to demagogue … Not until the first person comes forward and says, ‘I can’t get a photo ID’” will the suppression charge be valid, he said. “I haven’t heard of a single person.”
Marco Rubio says EPA rule covers ‘water barely bigger than a puddle’
Politifact – Oct. 22
On the presidential campaign trail in Ohio, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., called for reversing some of President Barack Obama’s environmental policies and vowed to allow more drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Rubio argued that Environmental Protection Agency rules are too burdensome, pointing to two businesspeople who joined him at his speech, James Mackall, president of Artex Oil, and Tom Mackall, president of East Fairfield Coal. “The EPA has unilaterally changed how the Clean Water Act is interpreted. Now it not only protects rivers and lakes, but also drainage ditches and private retaining ponds. So when mining or drilling, Jerry and Tom now have to take caution not to disturb bodies of water barely bigger than a puddle.” … Environmental experts, for their part, said they could not think of any examples in which the EPA attempted to regulate something barely bigger than a puddle. “It is an absurd assertion, said William L. Andreen, University of Alabama law professor. “There are no cases on point because the agencies have never asserted jurisdiction in such fantastical situations.”
WRITE TEAM: Staying a bit proved to be good decision
The Ottawa Times (Ill.) – Oct. 23
My senior year of high school was a crazy emotional year. It was full of positive memories as well as negative. It was a time when members of the Streator Township High School Class of 2014 was truly beginning to find themselves and realize where they wanted to go to achieve their dreams. My dream? The University of Alabama. However, I wasn’t going there right away. There were certain things that had happened in my life that made it so I wasn’t emotionally ready to leave home. So, while all my friends began declaring where they were going away to attend college, I decided to stay and declared “Illinois Valley Community College.” … Now at the University of Alabama, studying public relations, it has been an incredible semester so far. I have been blessed to be involved in multiple interview process organizations. I have become an active member in a sorority, an active member of the Student Alumni Association, and an official 2015-2016 UA Parent Ambassador. God has truly blessed my life in more ways I could ever have imagined.
Alabama wheelchair tennis team wins national title
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 21
October marks Halloween month, so, perhaps it’s fitting that Tuscaloosa-area tennis teams have done scary-well of late. In the course of the last couple of weeks, the University of Alabama Adapted Athletics’ wheelchair tennis team won the national collegiate championship, the Tuscaloosa United States Tennis Association’s Women’s 18 and over 3.5 team finished fourth in the nation, and the University of Alabama’s Tennis On Campus club team finished 11th nationally in the USTA Tennis on Campus Fall Invitational. It’s Alabama’s second wheelchair tennis national championship, pairing with national domination in 2013. “It’s extremely exciting,” said Evan Enquist, who doubles as first-year coach of the wheelchair tennis team and as a member of the University’s club team. “This is the first time that I’ve been a part of a national championship. They’ve worked hard. We’re looking forward to growing and building for next year.”
Speaker educates on-campus sexual assault prevalence
Daily Mountain Eagle – Oct. 22
Students at Bevill State Community College received a lesson Thursday, intended to raise awareness on sexual assault and provide the tools necessary to combat the growing problem at campuses across the nation. Director of the University of Alabama Women and Gender Resource Center Elle Shaaban-Magaña spoke to students on the Bevill State Jasper campus, a visit made possible by the executive director of the Daybreak domestic violence program, Jan Hulsey, and sponsored by Bevill State Campus Ministries. Shaaban-Magaña provides counseling and advocacy for students at UA, and she travels across the country as a recognized national leader in the area of sexual assault. “We often have an image of who a sexual assault victim is, but we have so many misperceptions. We know that anyone, regardless of their gender identification or their age or their background, could be victimized,” she said at the beginning of her lecture.
Repairing the beauty of art for heart’s sake
Crimson White – Oct. 22
The tornado flew through the streets, leaving devastation and destruction in its wake. The woman had no basement, no place to hide. She and the dogs stood in the bathtub and waited for it to hit. A branch crashed through the bathroom ceiling. Terrified, she and the dogs ran into the living room. “Look out at it,” her roommate said. Every tree in their yard lay flat on the ground like paper blown away by a breeze. They watched the tornado travel up the hill, ripping through streets and homes and lives … Craig Wedderspoon, associate professor of art and sculpture at The University of Alabama, displayed the remains of his metal sculpture, “Fast,” for people to view and relate to. The sculpture stood taller and wider than a person. It was square shards of metal attached at the tips to form an abstract shape. Wedderspoon said he liked the piece a lot. Now, there isn’t much left of it. According to Wedderspoon, the tornado picked up the piece from where it was being stored, in Professor of Book Arts Steve Miller’s yard, and threw it, leaving metal shards from the sculpture scattered all across the Southeast.
SEC Nation in Tuscaloosa
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Oct. 22
It’s Tennessee Hate Week here in Tuscaloosa, and the SEC Network is in T-Town for the game against the Volunteers. The stage will be set up in front of Little Hall, next to the President’s Mansion on the University of Alabama campus. But, if you’re not going to be tailgating on campus this Saturday, you can watch SEC Nationa live from UA’s campus on the SEC network.