UA professor receives grant to develop flood prediction system
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Aug. 25
One University of Alabama geography professor is keeping a close eye on the historic flooding in Baton Rouge. Dr. Sagy Cohen specializes in Global Hydrology. His research unit has recently received a grant to develop a flood inundation map using remote satellite images. This grant will allow him to develop a new flood prediction system that can alert people sooner and give them crucial time to get to safety. The flooding killed 13 people and damaged 40,000 homes.
Clinton slams Trump’s ‘racist ideology’ that ushers hate groups into mainstream
The Guardian – Aug. 25
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton today disparaged her Republican rival as a tool of the racist, radical right, a man who foments “paranoia and prejudice” and ushers hate groups into the mainstream. Donald Trump is “a man with a long history of racial discrimination”, Clinton said during a Thursday rally in the flag-festooned student center at Truckee Meadows Community College. . . . Those inside and outside the alt-right were equally surprised at Clinton’s choice of topic. And they wondered what she had to gain by wading into an arcane world filled with sour slurs and angry, anonymous chatrooms. “In order to have this speech make any sense, she’s going to have to explain what the alt-right is – anime Nazis and frog memes … and undercurrents of white supremacy,” said George Hawley, assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and author of the book Right Wing Critics of American Conservatism.
Public invited to see Saturn, Mars Friday night
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 25
The public is invited to look at the stars in a series of free telescope viewings held by the University of Alabama’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. The series begins Friday night, when observers will be able to view Saturn and Mars from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the Gallalee Hall Observatory on the UA campus.
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Aug. 25
Two companies graduate from The Edge
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 25
Two start-up companies graduated Thursday from Tuscaloosa’s business incubator. Ugo Convenience Delivery and SWJ Breilmann were honored at The Edge — Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation incubation program. They will leave their space at The Edge, located at 800 22nd Ave., to move into their own facilities. Ugo’s CEO John G. Newman II founded the delivery service company with the help of fellow UA students William Randle, Cole McGuire and Matthew Tietz. He said his business is “convenience store in the palm of your hand.”
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 25
EDITORIAL: Going bonkers over football? That’s OK
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 26
College football is a great game. But, it is still just a game. Yet, it means so much to so many. Aside from making it very loud in an effort to disrupt an opposing team, very few of the 101,821 people watching the Alabama Crimson Tide play football on a crisp fall Saturday at Bryant-Denny Stadium will have any direct impact on the outcome of a game. . . . And all of that incongruity is perfectly OK. If you were raised in the South, at least, it feels so natural and normal to see college football as more important than a diversion from everyday life. If you call Tuscaloosa home, it most certainly is. It is a big part of the economy. The Center for Business and Economic Research at the Culverhouse College of Commerce at the University of Alabama estimated in 2013 that each of the seven home games had an economic impact of $25.4 million. So combined, the total impact in 2016 should easily be more than $178 million.
Campaigners creep closer to the polls in Alabama than in most states
Al.com – Aug. 25
For some voters, the throng of candidates and supporters holding political signs a mere 30 feet from the front door of a polling place on election day can be annoying, if not downright intimidating … William Stewart, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama, said if there are serious problems with campaigning too close to polling places, the Attorney General’s office should be notified as well as the county probate judges. “It is intolerable for citizens to be subjected to this form of intimidation,” he said.