Roberts: Presidential address is ‘pep rally’
USA Today – March 10
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts told an Alabama audience Tuesday that he found the atmosphere “very troubling” at January’s State of the Union Address, during which President Obama criticized the high court. He questioned why justices attend the annual event. “To the extent it has degenerated into a political pep rally, I’m not sure why we’re there.” Roberts’ remarks constituted the latest salvo in criticism between the branches tracing to the court’s January decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which struck down a federal limit on corporate spending in elections. Roberts was responding Tuesday to a question from a law student during an appearance at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, which posted a podcast of the event on its website. The student asked about Obama’s remarks during the Jan. 27 address as six of the nine justices sat before him. Obama said the Citizens United decision “reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections.” Roberts first responded, “I think anybody can criticize the Supreme Court.” Yet he continued, “On the other hand, there is the issue of the setting, the circumstances and the decorum. “The image of having the members of one branch of government standing up, literally surrounding the Supreme Court, cheering and hollering while the court — according to the requirements of protocol — has to sit there expressionless, I think is very troubling.”…
ABCNews.com – March 10
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Associated Press – March 10
Birmingham News – March 10
Huffington Post – March 9
Supreme Court Chief Justice visits UA
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 9
NBC13 (Birmingham) – March 9
CBS42 (Birmingham) – March 9
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – March 9
FOX6 (Birmingham) – March 9
WHNT (Huntsville) – March 9
WSFA (Montgomery) – March 9
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KCEN (Bryan, Tex.) – March 9
KGNS (Laredo, Tex.) – March 9
Madison junior wins UA SGA presidential race
Tuscaloosa News – March 10
James Fowler was elected Tuesday as the next Student Government Association president of the University of Alabama, defeating Matthew Brown by almost three times as many votes. Fowler received 72 percent of the 8,099 votes cast. Brown finished with 26 percent…
Chef to speak at UA tonight
Tuscaloosa News– March 10
Frank Stitt, author and chef of Highlands Bar & Grill, Bottega, The Café at Bottega and Chez FonFon, will speak at the University of Alabama at 5:30 tonight at ten Hoor Hall, Room 30, in a visit sponsored by First-Year Writing, Housing and Residential Life and the Honors College. A reception with light refreshments will follow. The event is free and open to the public…
The Community College Spinoff
Chronicle of Higher Education – March 9
Leaders of a Florida community college are planning to create an independent university offering baccalaureate and graduate degrees, arguing that existing four-year institutions in the region are not helping enough of the two-year institution’s low-income and minority graduates continue their educations…Community college scholars acknowledge the rarity of Edison State’s move, but they also admit it should not come as a surprise to Floridians. “While such efforts are rare, it’s not surprising it be proposed in Florida, a fast-growth state whose elected leaders have not recently been accused of overfunding public higher education operating budgets,” Stephen G. Katsinas, professor of higher education and director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, wrote via e-mail. “That in recent decades the proprietary institutions have seen their greatest brick and mortar penetration regions in states where the long-term underinvestment in public higher education funding has been the greatest should surprise no one.”