360-degree police dash cam wins University of Alabama business plan competition
Al.com – April 15
A 360-degree camera for the dashboard of police cars is one of three new products University of Alabama students hope to develop over the next year thanks to UA’s Business Plan Competition. The competition, in its second year, allows students to develop their own product and business plan before pitching it to a panel of judges in the multiple round competition. Cody Caver, Carson Davis and Ryan Hazel developed the 360-degree dash camera plan, which upgrades the traditional front-view dash cameras. The other winning teams developed InstaSplint, a medical splint that combined “NASA technology with modern innovation in responding to common injuries with first aid,” and Soap N Go, a soap cloth that can be activated with water.
University of Alabama to join fight against human trafficking
Tuscaloosa News – April 14
University of Alabama student-athletes will join multiple organizations to raise awareness of human trafficking by uniting the student body with student-athletes through educational events from Sunday through April 23 with a “Shut Out Trafficking” awareness week. The week kicks off at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at Coleman Coliseum with a dual keynote address from Richard Lapchick, founder of the National Consortium for Academics and Sport, and Malea Otranto of the U.S. Fund for the UNICEF End Trafficking Program. Student-athletes will educate the student body using a display of living quarters used to house human trafficking victims and video screenings of human trafficking documentaries at 10 a.m Monday at the Ferguson Center. On Tuesday, all UA athletic social media channels will change their avatars to the “Shut Out Trafficking” logo and post interactive videos and facts about human trafficking.
Walt Maddox, “Bud” Cramer to speak at child abuse conference
Crimson White – April 15
The University of Alabama’s School of Social Work and College of Human Environmental Science are hosting a conference addressing child abuse on the morning of April 20 at the Child Development Research Center. The conference, held from 8:30 a.m. to noon, is titled “A Blue Ribbon Event: Leading the Way in Protecting our Children – An Alabama Legacy of Innovation and Leadership.” Mayor Walt Maddox will serve on a panel with three other speakers in a discussion titled “Child Maltreatment and Economic Implications,” where members of the audience can address the panel with questions. The keynote address will be given by Robert E. “Bud” Cramer, who served as an Alabama congressman and founded the Children’s Advocacy Center Movement in Huntsville. The conference is free and anyone can attend. For more information about the conference, contact David Miller in UA Media Relations at 348-0825 or dcmiller2@ur.ua.edu.
10 apparel design students to showcase work in fashion show
Crimson White – April 15
Ten students studying apparel design in The University of Alabama’s College of Human Environmental Science will compete for the Birmingham Fashion Week Emerging Designer title for 2015. Competition finalists from The University of Alabama are Paige Denton, Liza Rogers, Seline Meisler, Valerie King, Chelsea Rae, Megan Mitton, Kenya Buchanan, Leslie Beattie, Kerstin Marie and Shannon Warren. These women will compete with six other finalists during Birmingham Fashion Week beginning May 7. For more information contact Kim Eaton in UA Media Relations at 348-8325 or kkeaton@ur.ua.edu.
Behind on retirement savings? Here are 3 ways to catch up
CNN Money – April 14
Generally, you should have six to nine times your salary tucked away in a 401(k) or other accounts by your mid-50s to early 60s to have a good shot at maintaining your standard of living in retirement. So you’re definitely short of where you ought to be. On the bright side, at least you know you have some catching up to do. Not everyone who’s behind does. For example, a study by researchers from Ohio State and the University of Alabama found that 27% of 55- to-60-year-olds hadn’t accumulated enough to maintain their standard of living in retirement, yet seemed to think they were doing just fine. The researchers labeled them “unrealistic optimists.” But even though you’re behind, there’s no need to panic. You’ve got plenty of time to improve your retirement outlook, provided you’re willing to embark on a bold catch-up plan starting right now. Here are the three things you need to do.
Sylacauga holds event in honor of Childhood Prevention Month
Anniston Star – April 14
The Sylacauga Alliance for Family Enhancement held an event honoring Childhood Prevention Month in front of City Hall on Tuesday. The event, a collaborative effort with the Talladega Department of Human Resources and the Alabama Department of Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention, served to highlight the issue of and prevent future cases of child abuse. … According to a report released from the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Alabama, programs and resources for treating child abuse – welfare, special education, juvenile delinquency, mental health care – cost the state $2.3 billion in 2013. That total covered the cost of anywhere between 9,000 and 10,000 children who were annually reported as abused or neglected in Alabama that year.
Unionization Pays Off for Community-College Instructors
Chronicle of Higher Education – April 15
Being represented by a union appears to pay big financial dividends for full-time instructors at community colleges, a new study concludes. Depending on the size, location, and public-financing sources of their institution, unionized full-time instructors earn from about 5 to 50 percent more in pay and benefits than do their nonunionized peers at similar community colleges, says a paper summarizing the study’s results. “The differences are stunning,” says Stephen G. Katsinas, a professor of higher education at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa who is one of the study’s three co-authors. Among the forces influencing how much community colleges pay their instructors, “collective bargaining, in itself, matters,” says Mr. Katsinas, who plans to present the study’s findings in New York on Sunday, at an annual conference held by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions.
Alabama-Cuba Initiative group applauds Pres. Obama for removing Cuba from terror list
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – April 14
On Tuesday, President Obama announced he wants to move forward with plans to remove Cuba from the state department’s list of terror sponsors. When Chip Cooper heard that news, he saw it as a very positive move. Cooper is a photographer professor at the University of Alabama who frequents the island nation. “For those of us that have a lot of interest and a lot of work in Cuba this is fantastic news. What it does it starts the process of moving a lot of obstacles between the two countries. This has been key to get that process started,” Cooper said. Cooper is a part of the Alabama-Cuba Initiative which allows students and faculty a chance to visit the nation to study abroad, conduct research, and more. With the U.S. and Cuba now trading more, Cooper believes this latest move will be big for the president. “I think this will be one of the key note pieces of his legislation and his activity while in president over the 8 years,” Cooper added.
RecycleBama on the Quad coverage
Crimson White – April 15
RecycleBama hosted a tabling event in the Ferguson Student Center on Tuesday as part of their Green Week initiative. The event aimed to educate students on the importance of green initiatives and show ways to be environmentally friendly. The tabling event was modeled after Get on Board Day and featured a variety of student groups and activities including Tide for Tusks and the Yellowhammer Festival. This was the first event of the weeklong program to help students become more environmentally friendly. RecycleBama, an SGA-led initiative, will be at the Homegrown Alabama Farmers’ Market on Thursday and students can participate in their scavenger hunt on Friday to win prizes. “We have this fun quote on the back of our T-shirts, ‘The future will either be green or not at all,’” said Julie Buzzard, a member of RecycleBama and a sophomore majoring in nutrition and marketing. “There’s so much waste, especially cans everywhere. There’s recycle bins, but people just don’t use them. It’s more about awareness to get people to realize it’s super easy to put your can in a blue bin instead of a trash can.”
Errant report remains infamous 150 years after Lincoln assassination
West Alabama Watchman – April 14
On April 14, 1865, actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Abraham Lincoln at a play at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. The attack came five days after the Gen. Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate army, surrendered at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, ending the American Civil War. While most of those living in the northern states mourned Lincoln’s death, a very different reaction occurred in the South, as shown by an excerpt from a Demopolis newspaper five days later … The Alabama Department of Archives and History Library in Montgomery has original copies of the paper from April 11 and 13, 1865. The University of Alabama has an original from March 23, 1865, and an issue on microfilm at UA probably is the one used by the Smithsonian for its story.