Business incubator will open in town next month
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 7
Regions Bank gave the building. The University of Alabama gave money to help spruce it up. And volunteers gave much of the sweat to ready Tuscaloosa community’s first business incubator — something that has been talked about for years, but was finished in just a few months. Known as The Edge — Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, the incubator was unveiled Thursday by local officials. The Edge is a place where very small, young businesses can get help and share resources that can help them grow. Its goal is to help the businesses grow enough so they leave the incubator for a facility of their own, said Jim Page, president of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, which is partnering with UA and the city of Tuscaloosa on the endeavor. The incubator is in an 8,700-square-foot white-brick building at 800 22nd Ave. in downtown Tuscaloosa…Among the incubator’s early tenants will be three UA student-run companies. J. Michael Hardin, dean of UA’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, said UA will formally announce a campus-wide competition in which teams of UA students will pitch ideas for new businesses. Three teams will be selected and will receive some seed money to start up their business. The teams will work at the incubator, giving them a valuable hands-on experience in business while still in school. While The Edge will be a community-based incubator, UA has committed staff and resources to help the entrepreneurs. UA is relocating three of its entrepreneurial-related centers to The Edge…”The university should be involved in the economic development of this city and this region,” Hardin said. “There is no reason why the next business that skyrockets on Wall Street shouldn’t be saying ‘Roll Tide.’”
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Sept. 7
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Sept. 7
Clinical trial to test combination of two drugs in treating fibromyalgia
News-Medical – Sept. 7
A chronic pain condition and numerous gastrointestinal disorders may all be caused by a virus. That’s a Tuscaloosa-based surgeon’s theory likely headed for a clinical trial early next year and one drawing support from a University of Alabama researcher who studies how viruses replicate. The theory of Dr. William “Skip” Pridgen, the physician, is now at the core of a start-up company, Innovative Med Concepts, which has already raised most of the capital needed to fund the Phase II clinical trial to test a novel pain-treatment therapy. Pridgen is the company’s president and managing partner. Dr. Carol Duffy, a UA assistant professor of biological sciences, serves as the company’s chief scientific adviser. The clinical trial will test the effectiveness of a combination of two drugs in treating fibromyalgia, the chronic pain condition known both as a diagnostic and therapeutic dilemma. The trial, pending FDA approval, will involve 140 fibromyalgia patients at 10 sites around the country. The researchers hope it will begin by February 2013. Results from lab work performed by Duffy could further support trial results and also lead to a potential diagnostic tool for physicians treating patients who exhibit fibromyalgia symptoms.
‘Eating Alabama’ comes to Bama Theatre Sunday
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 7
Friends and relations of Andrew Grace (a University of Alabama film instructor) know about “Eating Alabama,” even if until this weekend they haven’t had a chance to see it. The film, four years in the making, grew from a consuming passion for connecting to the land, learning more about food choices and how to make them wisely and healthily. The documentary grew out of Grace’s and his wife Rashmi’s desire to find their way back to the farms of their families, and to share the experiment of eating only food grown locally. “So many folks in Tuscaloosa have been hearing me talk about this film for years; it’s nice to know they’ll finally get a chance to see it,” Grace said. In case you didn’t make it into the full-house screening at Birmingham’s Alabama Theatre during the recent Sidewalk Motion Picture Festival, or to any of the half-dozen other film festivals where the film has been screened this year — including the prestigious South by Southwest in Austin, Texas — you can see “Eating Alabama” in a free screening at the Bama Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday. “I was sort of shocked at how many people” were at the Alabama showing, during a prime-time block of Sidewalk. “They closed the doors before it started; there was a line around the block,” Grace said. About 1,500 saw it, the biggest single screening of the film yet. The next day Grace’s film won the award for Best Alabama Film, joining an array of accolades that will no doubt grow as it continues its way around the festival circuit, playing in Florida, California and elsewhere in the South. Turner is the only full-time staff member for the nonprofit organization, with part-time help from Rashmi Grace as education coordinator, and Josalyn Randall as garden designer. Volunteers come from the community, and from various partnerships with the University of Alabama.
Arizona illegal immigration law gets final go-ahead from court
Christian Science Monitor – Sept. 6
Law enforcement authorities in Arizona are now required to check the immigration status of individuals they suspect are in the country illegally. According to a federal judge’s ruling Wednesday, the provision in the state’s immigration law is constitutional, leaving open the possibility of a legal challenge by potential victims… Skip to next paragraphVictim advocacy groups, such as Respect-Respeto in Phoenix, say they are organizing call centers to track possible civil rights violations. Similar efforts are underway in Georgia and Alabama where a US District Court ruling in Atlanta upheld similar provisions in those states in late August. Michael Innis-Jiménez, a professor of Latino, immigration, and labor studies at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, says, “at this point it’s going to take a legal challenge” to ultimately block the provision, which could take months, or even years. The law passes constitutional muster because of wording that requires a documentation check of every individual who is detained on the street or in a vehicle regardless of race or ethnicity. “On paper, they’re not discriminating. The only way to not discriminate is to ask everyone you pull over for proof of citizenship,” Mr. Innis-Jiménez says.
UA Paralympics athletes playing for gold
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 7
At least one University of Alabama wheelchair basketball player will leave London with a gold medal at the Paralympic Games. On the men’s side, Canada, featuring Alabama graduate student Bo Hedges, is playing Australia, featuring incoming UA player Janik Blair in the gold medal championship game on Saturday. Hedges scored 12 points, made one assist and grabbed two rebounds in Canada’s 69-52 semifinal win against Great Britain on Thursday. Blair had six points and one rebound in Australia’s 72-63 semifinal win against the United States. On the women’s side, Alabama senior Annika Zeyen and her Germany teammates will play Australia in the women’s gold medal game on Saturday. In the semifinals, Zeyen scored four points, had four rebounds and six assists in Germany’s 49-46 win against The Netherlands.
Dr. Bailey’s first day
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Sept. 6
Today, the new University of Alabama president, Dr. Guy Bailey talked about his first few days on the job. Dr. Bailey started Tuesday, and he says he couldn’t have picked a better day to start. Timing is everything, there’s nothing like starting the day the team is number one in the country. Dr. Bailey replaces Dr. Robert Witt who is now chancellor of the University of Alabama system.