Program sheds light on city’s civil rights role
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 24
A program held Thursday night at First African Baptist Church on Stillman Boulevard focused on Tuscaloosa’s role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “The sun is still shining on Tuscaloosa,” said Lee Richardson, a student historian from the University of Alabama and one of the speakers for the second annual “A Day Without Civil Rights Is A Day Without Sunshine” program. Sponsored by the arts and sciences dean’s office and the New College at the University of Alabama, the program was coordinated by Latrice Dudley, a senior majoring in Afro-Women’s Studies. “This program is important to the community because (then-Gov. George C. Wallace’s 1963 stand in UA’s schoolhouse door against integration) mistakenly overshadows the riches of other civil rights history here in Tuscaloosa,” Dudley said.
Writer says blacks treated worse after slavery
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 24
In the 80 years after the Civil War, blacks in the U.S. endured conditions that were in some instances worse than slavery, author Douglas Blackmon said during a lecture Thursday night on the University of Alabama campus. “What was happening in the rural South in particular, out in the country, to black people in the first years of the 20th century was tremendously more terrible than anything any of us really can readily realize,” he said. Blackmon, a former senior editor and correspondent at The Wall Street Journal and a current contributing editor of the Washington Post, is the author of “Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.”
Trooper post earns honor for tornado response
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 24
Resources were limited when an EF3 tornado destroyed much of the town of Geiger in Sumter County last year…There weren’t enough Sumter County sheriff’s deputies or local police to provide the assistance needed during the aftermath, but as soon as word traveled that the area needed help, every available on- and off-duty Alabama State Trooper assigned to the Tuscaloosa post responded. . . . The Exchange Club also presented Officer of the Year awards to representatives of other law enforcement agencies in the county, including the Northport, Tuscaloosa and University of Alabama police departments, and the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. . . . The recipients, who were presented with plaques by Malone, were: University of Alabama Police Officer John Hooks, an investigator who has also worked for the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and as a crypto-linguist with the U.S. Air Force.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 23
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 23
Gabe Watson acquitted in honeymoon death case
Associated Press – Feb. 24
An Alabama judge has acquitted the man accused of drowning his newlywed wife during a honeymoon diving trip to Australia eight years ago, saying in an unusual ruling that prosecutors did not prove the man intentionally killed his wife to collect on a life insurance policy. . . . Montre Carodine, a law professor at the University of Alabama, said the judge’s decision to end the trial without the defence even presenting evidence was a “serious indictment” of the prosecution’s case, particularly considering it was a capital trial. “It means the evidence was weak,” she said.
Man acquitted of drowning wife on Australia honeymoon
Reuters – Feb. 24
A judge on Thursday acquitted an Alabama man accused of killing his new wife on a honeymoon scuba dive trip in Australia. Prosecutors said Gabe Watson, motivated by potential insurance payouts, had drowned his wife Tina in October 2003 by turning off her oxygen supply during their dive in the waters off Townsville, Australia. . . . Judges rarely grant acquittals in murder cases, said Steve Emens, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law. He said Tina Watson’s family could still file a wrongful death claim against Watson if they have not done so already.
U.S. Energy Department: Alabama manufacturers saved $60 million through student training program
Birmingham News – Feb. 24
Alabama manufacturers have saved $60 million over 27 years through a university training program, the U.S. Energy Department said. The program, funded by the Energy Department, gives students a chance to learn skills and receive training related to conducting energy assessments to create cost savings for manufacturers, according to a statement by the Energy Department. University of Alabama engineering students participating in the Tuscaloosa center of the Industrial Assessment Program receive training in industrial processes, energy assessment and energy management. They’ve worked with small and medium-sized industrial and manufacturing facilities to conduct 168 assessments across the state.
Sophomore Caitlin Brunell crowned Miss UA 2012
AL.com – Feb. 23
University of Alabama sophomore dance major Caitlin Brunell was recently crowned 2012 Miss UA at the Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa. The Morristown, N.J., native won the competition among a field of 18 contestants. She will represent the University in the Miss Alabama competition June 6-9 in Birmingham. The winner of the state title will compete in Las Vegas for the title of Miss America.
UA’s women’s wheelchair basketball team to receive national championship rings
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 23
Both squads will be facing the fighting Illini of Illinois. The women’s game and the men’s game will follow. Also, the women, who have won three consecutive national championships, will be presented with their national championship rings from last season by University of Alabama President Dr. Robert Witt.