Army spouse prepares to graduate from UA
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Dec. 7
Hundreds of students will walk across the stage this weekend officially graduating from The University of Alabama. Some of these students have some pretty inspiring stories. Lacy Sellars for example is one of those outstanding students. She wasn’t sure if she and her husband Jason would even have enough money to put diapers on their children.
Three local businesses honored for innovation
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 7
Three Tuscaloosa businesses were honored for their innovative ideas Wednesday at the H. Pettus Randall Entrepreneur of the Year awards luncheon at the Hotel Capstone. The ceremony is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, which appoints a committee of 11 community members to nominate, visit and scrutinize area companies with entrepreneurial ideas and products. This year, the Entrepreneur of the Year award was given to Mark Tegan and Rusty Sutterlin, the founders of Inventure Renewables. Their chemical engineering company began at the University of Alabama’s incubating AIME center in 2008 and moved to its own facility in downtown Tuscaloosa in 2013.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Dec. 7
Army veteran prepares to graduate from UA
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Dec. 7
As The University of Alabama prepares to send thousands of grads out into the world, we’re taking a look at some incredible stories of students getting ready to walk across that stage. Twenty-four year-old military veteran Tyler Hohbach didn’t know anyone at UA until he joined the Campus Veterans Association. He would later serve as president and help strengthen the outreach program by working with SGA. Hohbach served four years of active duty with the National Guard and in Iraq. He told us despite his start at UA, Tuscaloosa has come to feel like home. After graduation, Hohbach will begin working as an investment banking analyst for Citibank in New York.
Decatur students spend a day learning to write computer code
Decatur Daily – Dec. 8
In libraries, classrooms and computer labs in Decatur City Schools on Wednesday, the majority of the district’s more than 8,400 students were learning how to write computer applications. They participated in a national campaign that allowed them to create games, and in some cases play the games they created. The campaign, called an “Hour of Code,” was designed to emphasize the need for school districts to expand computer science education in secondary and primary schools and expose students to technology they may never have seen … Jeff Gray, a University of Alabama professor who in September trained teachers in coding at Julian Harris, Ben Davis and Leon Sheffield elementary schools, said most school systems do students a disservice by failing to provide them more access to computer science.
Researchers study watermelon’s effects on blood vessels
Indiana Ag Connection – Dec. 8
University of Alabama researchers soon will launch a study that looks at watermelon juice as a way to reduce heart disease
False allegations suppress honest research
The Oconee Express – Dec. 8
Professor Robert Kuehn at the University of Alabama’s School of Law summarized one of my whistleblower cases in the American Journal of Law & Medicine in 2004.
Expect the unexpected, say college disaster prep officials
Columbia Tribune – Dec. 8
When Jefferson Community College was making plans to build its first residence hall, there was one must-have for President Carole McCoy: generators for backup if the power went out. With her campus in Watertown, N.Y., in the bull’s-eye of 100 inches-plus snow each year, she knew students might get stuck. They would not be cold and hungry … “Expect the unexpected, basically. … Don’t think that things can’t happen,” said Donald Keith, emergency preparedness director at the University of Alabama, where a 2011 tornado just missed a direct hit but laid bare, among other details, the need for a system to accept and distribute donations of money and supplies offered by well-wishers.
Will President-elect Trump’s visit help Mobile ‘Build the Bridge’?
Al.com – Dec. 8
When Donald Trump comes back to Mobile Dec. 17 on his “Thank You” tour, it wouldn’t be surprising to hear him pledge again to “Build the wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border … “Trump could not have gotten to where he is without Alabama and the South,” said William Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama. “Even though we wouldn’t be so crude as to say, ‘Now, it’s payback time,’ it is a fact that, in politics, rewards go to the areas that supported you.”
BOE takes a closer look at bus seat belts
Herald & Tribune (Jonesborough, Tenn.) – Dec. 8
Seat belts on buses have been a prevalent discussion throughout the state of Tennessee after the deadly bus accident in Chattanooga on November 21. The Washington County Board of Education continued that discussion during their Thursday night meeting with a look at different study perspectives. One of those perspectives came from board member Phillip McLain who recalled a report brought to light by a Tennessee School Board Association member who had mentioned a study conducted by the University of Alabama. The report offered a different way in which to address the safety of school buses.