Ancient America: Moundville, Alabama
Native American Netroots – Dec. 12
Mississippian is a cultural complex whose hearth appears to be in the American Bottom area near the Mississippi River in Illinois. It is characterized by: tempered clay pottery, square houses, and pyramidal mounds. By a thousand years ago, this complex was moving into Alabama. About 1050 CE, Mississippian people were building a village at the Moundville Site in west-central Alabama. The village had a well-planned mound-plaza layout and wall-trench architecture. The Moundville residents produced shell-tempered pottery and had some degree of social rank differentiation. . . . Today, Moundville Archaeological Park is a public facility owned by the University of Alabama. It has an onsite museum.
Commentary: Obama’s job generator can’t cope
The Australian – Dec. 12
In the President’s test-marketing Osawatomie speech last week he proclaimed community colleges the nation’s job generator. The post secondary two year system has 6.5 million students, accounting for half the US undergraduate population. It is where the greatest number of Americans experience post school study. . . . However two days later the Education Policy Centre at the University of Alabama warned the system could not expand graduation rates. According to a new report by Stephen Katsinas, Mark D’Amico and Janice Friedel, over half the state systems report budget cuts while tuition costs are rising at twice the (admittedly modest) inflation rate. Training schemes for unemployed workers are winding down in 21 states due to funding shortages and there is little money for training in the new high-skill disciplines President Obama advocates.
Employment outlook brighter
Times-Daily (Florence) – Dec. 10
Even in the current economy, the Department of Labor Statistics reported that the Shoals could be feeling the effects of unemployment less harshly than the United States as a whole…Ahmad Ijaz, director of economic forecasting at the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said there are several reasons North Dakota is so far ahead of the national unemployment rate. One of the biggest reasons he listed, in addition to lacking a high percentage of retail employment within the state, is North Dakota did not have many people employed in the construction business prior to the recession. “Economies of different states have different structures, that is why different states enter economic recessions and recoveries at different time periods,” Ijaz wrote in an emailed response. “Nevada (the state with the highest unemployment rate at 13.4 percent) had a larger percentage of their workers in the construction industry, which was one of the hardest hit sectors of the economy during the most recent recession, which began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009, one of the longest and deepest since the Great Depression.
Legislators divided over Alabama immigration law fix
Gadsden Times – Dec. 11
Democratic state Sen. Billy Beasley seeks to repeal Alabama’s strict anti-immigration law next year, but Republicans including Gov. Robert Bentley want only to tweak it. Attorney General Luther Strange has recommended more than tweaks to significant portions of the law that are being challenged in federal court and in the streets by pro-Latino, civil rights and civil liberties interest groups. . . . Retired University of Alabama political science professor William Stewart said the law has produced unfavorable publicity that has not gone unnoticed in the economic development world. “The states we’re in competition with will use any advantage over us and this falls into that category,” Stewart said. “Republicans have to find a way to make changes without losing face politically,” he said. “They can’t just come out and say we made a mistake, we blew it on this one, but have to correct damage to the state economically.”
Commentary: Human Rights: What they are, what they mean for our us, our world
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 11
Earlier this month, I attended a conference in Washington, D.C., on human rights. It wasn’t sponsored by the government, but by a small college, Alma College, in Michigan founded by Presbyterians. It was not a political rally or a forum with code words promoting one political agenda over another. It was devoted to the moral and ethical commitments we as a people hold very dear, expressed best perhaps in our Declaration of Independence, and the first 10 amendments (the “Bill of Rights”) to the Constitution. . . . Larry Clayton is a professor of history at the University of Alabama.
Luminaries on UA Quad meant to raise education awareness (photos, video)
AL.com – Dec. 11
Thousands of white paper bags with small candles and sand inside softly lit the heart of the Quad on the University of Alabama campus in hopes of raising awareness to help raise money for underprivileged children in need of a good education. UA’s Circle K student organization puts on the annual “Luminaries on the Quad” event to shine a light on a district project benefiting a local charity or cause during the holiday season. This year, the group’s district project focuses on Jan Dean Reading is Fundamental, which helps put books in the hands of children who cannot afford them.
UA student who donated his organs will be featured on Tournament of Roses Parade float
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Dec. 9
An organ donor, whose organs saved the lives of five other people, will be honored on a float in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Daniel Brannon will be pictured on the float. The University of Alabama student lost his life two years ago to a drunk driver.
UA is decorated for Christmas
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Dec. 9
…the University of Alabama is getting into the spirit. Decorations went up this week. There is a large Christmas tree in front of the Rose Administration Building.