Alabama’s auto industry able to adapt to shifting demand
Associated Press State Wire – May 25
…Sam Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, said the state’s auto industry has been a great boon for the economy and predicted that it would continue to develop. “I think the auto industry in Alabama is not yet mature,” he said. “I think we have a chance of landing more plants and of expanding current plants.”…Addy said the continuing evolution of the state’s three plants will allow the auto industry to remain a major driver of the state’s economy. People should not worry, though, that the state is pinning too much economic hope on this one industry, he said. “Although it sounds from media reports that we are putting all our eggs in one basket, the data actually shows that the state’s industry is being diversified,” he said. He said the auto industry tends to have a high profile, but that Alabama is also experiencing growth in the aerospace, biotech and national defense industries.
New memoir closes the family circle
Atlanta Journal-Constitution – May 26
… Rick Bragg has become a best-selling voice of the colorfully down-and-out South, as related through his own family…Bragg, who teaches writing at the University of Alabama, reads from his new book Tuesday night at the Jimmy Carter Library…
UA Researcher Discusses SIDS
MSNBC National – May 25
…Dr. Mark Feldman is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama. “We have to understand a few things about sudden infant death syndrome. One is that there is typically no warning sign…”
Tuscaloosa home sales grow, state sales stay flat
Tuscaloosa News – May 24
Tuscaloosa home sales jumped nearly 20 percent in April while state figures remained relatively flat, according to data released Thursday by the University of Alabama-based Alabama Center for Real Estate…Grayson Glaze, director of ACRE, said the increase in inventory at both the state and local level follows a historical pattern that shows such increases between March and April of every year dating back to 2000, with the exception of 2002…
Law enforcement beefs up patrols during holiday weeks
Alexander City Outlook – May 26
…According to the University of Alabama’s CARE Research and Development Laboratory, the top three causes of traffic deaths in Alabama are not wearing a safety belt, driving under the influence and speeding…
Economist: ‘Drive less, and drive a smaller car’
Gadsden Times – May 24
…“Clearly as countries like China and India develop their demand for fossil fuel and their economies are moving up, we have to compete globally for those fossil fuels,” said Robert Brooks, the Wallace D. Malone Jr. endowed chair of financial management at the University of Alabama. “It’s something we’re not used to, and it’s not going away.” Brooks said its human nature to be mad at high gasoline prices and search for someone to blame — a foreign government, maybe oil company profits. “Whenever there are uncertain times, we tend to prefer getting angry rather than trying to understand what’s going on,” Brooks said…
UA organist in Paris
Birmingham News – May 25
Next month, University of Alabama organ professor Faythe Freese will record “To Call My True Love to My Dance,” by Naji Hakim, at L’Eglise de la Sainte-Trinite in Paris.
The recording engagement is significant on several fronts. Freese commissioned Hakim, a well-known organist and composer, to compose the work for the 2008 UA Church Music Conference at UA, and she premiered it in January. Feese also will be only the second American allowed to record at the church, where renowned composer Olivier Messiaen was principal organist for 62 years…
Reading people
Tuscaloosa News – May 25
…When Michael Martone, a writer and professor of English at the University of Alabama, moved here about a dozen years ago, he and his family spent a year or so looking for a home to buy. “What surprised me was not what was on people’s bookshelves, but the fact that, for a college town, it was amazingly free of bookshelves,” he said…Wayne Rau, a digital media specialist at UA’s Sanford Media Resource and Design Center, is also a filmmaker, musician, writer and actor, so it’s maybe a little surprising that his likes tend to be hands-on non-fiction. “I really like to see ‘How-To’ books on friends’ shelves,” he said. “To take action into your own hands and learn the ways of the world, or maybe just the ways of your high-tech DVD player, is a plus. “I’m also a sucker for a good set of encyclopedias. The true want for the knowledge is way sexier than the knowledge itself.”…Steve Burch, an assistant professor of theater history at UA, lists Ayn Rand and the “very popular and awful” crime writers Sue Grafton, Robert Parker and Agatha Christie…