Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram II says ‘it feels good to be home’ in Flint
Flint (Mich.) Journal – May 22
Mark Ingram Jr. has been interviewed by David Letterman, featured on “Today” and even met President Barack Obama at the White House. But he said there was nothing like coming home to Flint Saturday for the first time since winning a national college football championship with the University of Alabama in January and the Heisman Trophy in December. “I’ve been celebrated and honored in lots of places, but it’s more special to me to be honored at home,” said Ingram, a Flint native who played football at Grand Blanc High School and Flint’s Southwestern Academy.
UA’s MBA Program Holds Pigs in Flight Competition
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – May 21
Along with the sunrise community balloon race at the Tuscaloosa regional airport, you’ll find the “pigs in flight” barbeque competition. The competition is being put on by the University of Alabama MBA program. Event organizers say they’re working with the Tuscaloosa Department of Transportation, to make sure the recent rain, doesn’t dampen the plans..
Battle of the Bulge: America is fat and getting fatter. And everyone is weighing in with solutions. Even lawyers. But can we sue our way to better health?
Birmingham News – May 23
“I figured it out,” a heavyset patient once joked, “I’m 329 pounds, and at my weight I should be 8 feet 7 inches tall. So I’m not fat, I’m short.” But obesity is no laughing matter. It’s a major risk factor for heart disease and diabetes, and it is even linked to cancer of the breast and colon. Alabama has the nation’s second highest prevalence of adult obesity (31.2 percent, after Mississippi’s 32.5 percent) and ranks sixth in the percentage of overweight and obese children (36.1 percent). – Written by Dr. Alan Blum, a professor and Endowed Chair in Family Medicine Director at the University of Alabama Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society.
9 Diet Tweakments: Make these blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em diet changes and drop a dress size without realising
Fabulous Mag (U.K.) – May 23
Fact: most of us don’t get fat eating hundreds of calories for a few weeks. Instead, weight gain creeps up slowly, with studies* revealing it can be attributed to eating as little as 50 extra calories each day – think nibbling a Jaffa Cake while the kettle boils. But fret not, the good news is that losing the added weight can be easy, too. . . . It’s BBQ season – but this summer switch to eating your steaks rare rather than well done, as it will help your body burn more calories. Why? “Meat contains collagen fibers that our body finds hard to break down in their raw state, so we expend more energy eating it, meaning more weight loss. Cooking softens fibers so you use less energy eating it,” explains Dr Stephen Secor from the University of Alabama.
Growing up with autism: Lack of support programs and high costs create challenges for adults with ASD and their families
Tuscaloosa News – May 23
For young adults living with autism, life is anything but simple. The challenges that children with autism, a neurological disorder that is often characterized by impaired social interaction and communication face only become exacerbated with age. While most people with autism have problems developing social skills and interacting with others, adults with the disorder also face the challenges of acquiring health insurance, finding employment and navigating adult relationships. And despite an increasing public awareness of autism in children, adults with autism often have fewer resources and opportunities. . . . Laura Klinger, the co-founder and director of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Clinic at the University of Alabama, said that insurance coverage varies widely, usually based on an individual’s cognitive ability. “The vast majority of insurance companies in Alabama do not cover autism,” Klinger said. “They might cover medication but not intervention, which means no therapy or behavioral intervention.”
Experts say voters need to examine candidates
Times Daily (Florence) – May 23
In 2006, Democrats nationwide underscored problems in the Bush administration and won congressional campaigns using the phrase “culture of corruption.” In 2010, Republican candidates in Alabama use the phrase and the word “corruption” in describing why voters should not elect Democrats. . . . Bill Stewart, University of Alabama political science professor emeritus, said when voters hear a phrase or political buzz word over and over, they tend to believe the message regardless if the statement is factual.
YouTube ad livens Alabama ag commissioner race
Associated Press – May 22
Dale Peterson was looking for a way to jump-start his low-budget campaign for Alabama agriculture commissioner, and he took it over the top with a YouTube video ad that has drawn 1 million viewers. The clip has left some horrified or outraged, some in stitches and some finding it stunningly effective. . . . Jennifer Greer, the chair of the journalism department at the University of Alabama, said Peterson’s ad is a new twist on the old strategy of running an ad once with a sensational or controversial message and hope that it will then be picked up by other media and spread to a much wider audience. The one minute, 11-second campaign ad was designed for YouTube, the Internet site where people can post videos for free on anything from children’s birthday parties to political proclamations.
Candidates turn to social media; Facebook, YouTube help propel campaigns into national spotlight
Tuscaloosa News – May 24
Less than a week after being unleashed upon YouTube, the horseback-riding, gun-toting persona of Republican candidate Dale Peterson, candidate for agriculture commissioner, spread to every corner of the United States. . . . While it is a quick, easy and effective way to keep in touch with supporters, social media can also have an economic impact on a campaign, said David Lanoue, chairman of the University of Alabama’s political science department. “Barack Obama really showed the way,” he said. “He was able to use various Internet tools to raise a lot of money in relatively small amounts from people who don’t normally donate.
Dems say race will be settled in primary
Tuscaloosa News — May 21
The state Democratic Party said Thursday that a primary should be held in the race for district attorney of Tuscaloosa County. Whether a vote will actually take place on June 1, however, is another matter. . . . Bill Stewart, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama, said he’s not seen a situation like this in the 50 years he’s followed Alabama politics. “It sounds like it’s something that has to be decided by a judge,” Stewart said. “Someone needs to make an authoritative decision and make it quickly.”
Oil spill casts doubt on rentals, sales on beach
Birmingham News – May 23
Sales of beach houses, condos and other vacation properties are bouncing back across the nation after a deep slump, but a giant question mark looms over the budding recovery in Alabama’s coastal communities, in the form of the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. . . . The average selling price of condos in Baldwin County in 2006 was $457,757, and by last year, it had fallen to $293,880. So far this year, the average price continues to slide, to $235,937, according to the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama.
UA Biology Department Studies Bluebirds in Local Garden
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – May 23
…Unique to this particular garden are the nesting bluebirds who have been studied by the University of Alabama biology department.
Seniors from Oak Hill to Participate in UA’s Crossing Points Program
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – May 21
Oak Hill School handed out diplomas today, to seven seniors…All of today’s graduates have participated in Special Olympics, and some of them will attend the University of Alabama’s “Crossing Points” program next year.
Author wins praise for ‘The Help’
Chicago Tribune – May 23
The last time a white writer tried to give prolonged fictional voice to the thoughts and emotions of an oppressed black person in a major novel, the result was devastating — not for literature, which gained a profound and powerful novel titled “The Confessions of Nat Turner” (1967), but for the life of William Styron, the man who wrote it. . . . Forty-two years later, “The Help” (2009), a novel narrated, in large part, by African-American maids in the Deep South of the early 1960s, was published. Instead of scorn and enmity, author Kathryn Stockett, who is white, has been greeted with rapturous reviews, spectacular sales and a movie deal. . . . Stockett’s voice carries the delicate lilt and soft inflections of the Deep South, and no wonder: She was born and raised in Jackson, Miss. She graduated from the University of Alabama and then headed to New York to work in publishing — much like Skeeter, a character in “The Help.”