CeCe Winans headlines Realizing the Dream Concert
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 17
Grammy Award-winning gospel artist Ce-Ce Winans headlined the annual concert. Details are in tonight’s top story. The annual realizing the dream concert was held tonight at Moody Music Hall on the University of Alabama campus. Event organizers hope the concert helped remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as those in the community who honor and continue the legacy of the Civil Rights leader. Concert attendee Gladys Hill told WVUA why she thinks it’s important for people in the community to remember the work of MLK, Jr.: “it is an opportunity for we in the community to pause, to give thanks for all of the work that he did on behalf of others.”
UA to hold Realizing the Dream Concert
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 16
A major event celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther K Jr. is this weekend: The 2015 Realizing the Dream concert. Grammy award-winning gospel singer Ce-Ce Winans will perform, students from the University of Alabama, Stillman College, and Shelton State Community College will welcome and introduce Ms. Winans.
FOX News analyst Juan Williams says “Selma” movie distorts history
Tuscaloosa – Jan. 16
History changes as people change. Juan Williams, political analyst for Fox News and author of “Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965,” said that is what he has learned in the 25 years since his book’s release. Williams explained this to a crowd of more than 100 people in his Legacy Banquet lecture — one of several events of the 26th annual Realizing the Dream celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy — at Hotel Capstone on the University of Alabama campus Friday night … The University of Alabama, Stillman College, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Shelton State Community College sponsor the event each year to “raise consciousness about injustice and promote human equality, peace and social justice by creating educational and cultural opportunities for growth, empowerment, and social change so that every person may experience the bounty of life’s abundant possibilities,” according to realizingthe dream.ua.edu. The Realizing the Dream celebration began in 1990 and has featured people such as actors James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson, author and poet Maya Angelou and singer John Legend. Gospel singer CeCe Winans is the featured artist this year for the 2015 Realizing the Dream Concert, which will take place at 7:30 tonight at the Moody Music Concert Hall on the UA campus. The event is sold out.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 16
WBRC-Fox 6 (Live interview) (Birmingham) – Jan. 16
Kingwood native developing platinum replacement
Humble Observer (Texas) – Jan. 18
University of Alabama senior and Kingwood High School graduate Natalie Anderson and her entrepreneur team, Conductive Chemistry, has developed a new electrode material called NanoCOT that has many of the same electrical properties as platinum, but is less than half of the cost. The team will submit a business model to produce and commercialize NanoCOT in the 2015 Alabama Launchpad Start-Up Competition, which will award $250,000 to winning companies for further business development. “NanoCOT outperforms platinum in conductive properties and could be used in medical devices, hydrolysis, and in medical engineering,” Anderson said. “I am the lab technician for the team. I deal with more of the scientific aspects. My partners handle the business side of it.” Platinum, which was listed at $1,516 per ounce in 2013, is one of the earth’s rarest precious metals – substantially more rare than gold or silver – and is used extensively as a microconductor in internal medical devices such as pacemakers due to its exceptional conductibility and resiliency to corrosion.
University of Alabama set to oversee transportation museum
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 19
After approximately three years under the exclusive control of City Hall, the oversight of the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum is returning to the University of Alabama. When the $1.53 million museum was given its name in July 2010, it came together from a partnership with the city of Tuscaloosa and the University of Alabama Museums department. That partnership still was in place in early 2011 when Shaina Strom was hired by the University of Alabama to be the museum’s first director. But by the time it opened in December 2011, the city already was moving to take over the full operations of the facility. Officials said at the time that a city-owned facility should be operated by a city employee. Next week, the City Council is expected to return the museum to the management of UA’s Museums department, a move that is being praised by members of both institutions. “We’re very excited about the opportunities this presents,” said William Bomar, who was named executive director of UA’s Museums department in June, “and we’re just now starting to explore those possibilities.”
University of Alabama associate professor earns recognition
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 17
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recently recognized Margaret P. Garner, University of Alabama associate professor and interim executive director of the Student Health center, as a Fellow. The designation honors her commitment to dietetics, her professional accomplishments and her pursuit of lifelong learning. She served as an assistant dean for health, education and outreach in the College of Community Health Sciences for more than 10 years and as a full-time nutritionist in the department of family medicine for more than 35 years.
NCAA honors Tupelo tornado victim
WAPT-16 (Jackson, Miss.) – Jan. 17 and 18
A Tupelo native and University of Alabama swimmer, who died after a tornado touched down in Tuscaloosa County, was honored Friday night. John Servati was recognized at the NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C. Servati’s parents received the award of valor on his behalf. The 21-year-old died when a wall collapsed on him inside his home in April. His girlfriend said he saved her by holding up the wall just long enough for her to escape.
strong>WTVA-NBC (Columbus, Miss.) – Jan. 16
UA students volunteer to help clean Village Creek on MLK Day
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Jan. 19
“There was a lot of paper, a lot of plastic, a lot of cups.” And more garbage that didn’t need to be in Village Creek in Ensley. But it was the goal of these two students from the University of Alabama and many others to spruce it up. Rachel Bell said, “my pastor always said it’s not a day off, it’s a day to serve so what better way to serve my hometown of Birmingham that’s only forty-five minutes away from Tuscaloosa.” University of Alabama student Cynthia Green is from Georgia and she said, “I wanted to come out with my best friend help out the state of Alabama since I’m a student here and help out Birmingham and give back to the community.”
SaveFirst offers free tax preparation for working families
Dothan Eagle – Jan. 16
Impact Alabama’s SaveFirst initiative is providing free tax preparation services for working families statewide beginning on Jan. 22. Impact Alabama and Wiregrass United Way 2-1-1 held a press conference Friday on the help available to Dothan-area families. Daytime, evening and Saturday hours for tax preparation are available at the Saliba Center for Families, 301 W. Lafayette St. The services are provided in coordination with Wallace Community College – Dothan. To schedule an appointment, call 1-888-99-TAX-AL. The free service is available to working families making less than $52,000 a year with children in the home or $20,000 a year without children in the home … Impact Alabama is an AmeriCorps program housed at the Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility at the University of Alabama.
University of Alabama, Shelton State cheerleaders earn top national prizes
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 19
Cheerleading teams from the University of Alabama and Shelton State Community College took home top prizes during the Universal Cheerleaders Association national championships in Orlando this weekend. It is the eighth consecutive national championship for Shelton State and the first national championship win for the UA squads since 2011. UA’s coed and all-girl squads took first place in their respective Division 1A competitions. “I’m absolutely thrilled to have both teams coming home as national champions,” said Jennifer Thrasher, UA’s coordinator for cheerleading/Big Al. “It’s never been done before in Division 1A. … Two teams from the same school winning coed and all-girl divisions. I’m just so proud of our teams’ hard work and relentless effort to reach their goals of becoming champions.”
WHNT-CBS (Huntsville) – Jan. 19
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 19
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 19
Federal Judge to calculate BP’s fine for Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill
National Public Radio – Jan. 19
University of Alabama law professor Montre Carodine has been following the case. She says, “When the judge is thinking about how much money ultimately to impose … he’s going to be thinking about that testimony that led him to believe that BP acted with gross negligence.”
Now that white people have declared ‘bae’ over, black people can use it in peace (Robin Boylorn, University of Alabama)
The Guardian (U.K.) – Jan. 14
While “bae” only made its way to mainstream parlance in the last few years, it is a word that most black folk have been intimately familiar with for decades. Its etymology was unclear, but its meanings and nuances are deeply understood in context. “What’s up, bae?” “That’s my bae,” etc., have been ways of staking claim and announcing intimacy between oneself and one’s (sometimes prospective) lover. Bae is also used as a term of endearment and affection for someone with whom there is no romantic involvement or interest (not unlike “honey” or “sweetheart” is used in Southern dialogue), as in “Hey bae, can you pass me that plate?” And then Pharrell put it in a song, Miley Cyrus did a cameo, and it gained the attention of mainstream media. Suddenly there were articles attempting to define the word “bae”, otherwise reputable businesses began implementing “bae” in their social media ad campaigns, and everybody and they mama started using it. At which point it was declared overused by organs of upper-class white folk media like Time magazine. Fair enough: white people’s adoption of the term distorted it to the point of misuse and meaninglessness.
National Review – Jan. 17
Forum at University of Alabama to focus on science, ethical issues
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 17
The University of Alabama Student Chapter of the Air & Waste Management Association will present a forum — “Good Science, Good Business and Good Ethics” — at 6 p.m. Jan. 26 at Farrah Hall, Room 214. Speakers will analyze the qualities of science and business as they relate to ethical issues for both the professions and the general public. Speakers will be: — Willie Soon, an astrophysicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who will discuss quality of environmental data distinguishing model projections from concrete data. …
University of Alabama Black Warrior Film Festival hosting screening of “Selma”
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 18
The Black Warrior Film Festival and the University of Alabama Honors College Assembly will present a screening and panel discussion of the Oscar-nominated film “Selma” today. “We really want to give students on campus an opportunity to see the film,” said Katie Howard, executive director of the student-run Black Warrior Film Festival. The film, which was nominated for best picture and best original song, dramatizes one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement in Alabama and has ties to campus, Howard said, noting that students were part of the production team and the director, Ava DuVernay, was a guest at the 2014 film festival. “We felt like it was a natural project to take on,” Howard said. The screening will be at 6:45 p.m. at Cobb Theaters in Tuscaloosa. The organizers are providing free tickets to 75 students with valid UA ACT cards on a first-come, first-served basis at the theater.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 19
Crimson White – Jan. 20
Writers Hall of Fame to induct Rick Bragg
Crimson White – Jan. 20
The Alabama Writers Hall of Fame will honor University of Alabama professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Rick Bragg, along with 11 other local writers, into its first class of inductees on June 8.Last June, Executive Director for the Alabama Writer’s Forum Jeanie Thompson and Director of the Alabama Center for the Book Lou Pitschmann decided to co-sponsor the first ever Alabama Writers Hall of Fame with the purpose of recognizing literary talent in Alabama.“Because we were both state-wide organizations, we thought this would be a good partnership and great for the state of Alabama to have such an award program,” Thompson said.Thompson said the upcoming class of inductees, which can be found at writersforum.org, includes some talented writers from the state of Alabama.
UA Quad named one of nation’s most iconic
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 16
The University of Alabama Quad is receiving a great accolade. Business Finder ranked UA’s Quad No. 2 in the nation. Although the College Quad first became associated with academia on the campuses of Oxford and Cambridge, most are now built around a similar model.
UA transfer students see potential in ‘College Promise’: Obama proposes plan to pay for community college
Crimson White – Jan. 20
College tuition rates have increased twelvefold since records began in 1978, according to a report published by Bloomberg in 2012. As a result, student loans have officially reached over $1 trillion, making paying for a college education a less viable option for many young Americans. In the past decade, middle class families have increasingly struggled to provide the finances necessary for their children to attend college. … Last week, President Barack Obama announced his plan for a new initiative to federally fund community college for students who are willing to work hard and have the desire to pursue higher education. The plan, called “America’s College Promise,” is centered around providing two years of free tuition to 9 million students, if states are willing to participate. … Maria Keener, a junior majoring in math, is one of many University of Alabama students who attended community college prior to becoming a student here. She saw her experience at Wallace Community College in Dothan, Alabama as a benefit to her college education instead of a hindrance. “One of the greatest benefits of me starting at Wallace first was the opportunity to receive multiple scholarships,” Keener said. “I didn’t have to pay anything for my first two years at Wallace. This relieved a financial burden for my parents and for myself. Not having to pay for school allowed me to save up from my job and even allowed a better focus on my schoolwork. During my last year at Wallace, I received a transfer presidential scholarship to UA for my last two years of school.”