University of Alabama conducting study to help children in wheelchairs
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – March 24
2.2 million people in the United States depend on a wheelchair for day to day living and mobility but carrying out even simple tasks can be hard for children in manual wheelchairs. A study with the University of Alabama is working to help children and their families overcome these difficulties. “It has changed our life but it has been a good change and I am really thankful for him, he’s a blessing,” said Luke Henderson’s mother, Amber Henderson. 5-year-old Luke has Spina bifida but it does not stop him from going fast and popping wheelies. Luke has been working with Dr. Margaret Stran since last summer. Stran knows first-hand the challenges Luke faces. “He does things that she asks him to because she does it too, because she’s sitting there in the chair as well, it gives her a voice in his life that’s another person encouraging him to be independent, to be active, to engage in his world,” said Henderson.
Read Bama Read Express visits Verner Elementary School
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – March 24
The Read Bama Read Express visited Verner Elementary School for a literacy program today. The Read Bama Read initiative presented a check to the school during their visit. Co-founder of the program Donna Benjamin explains why reading is so important to the children. Read Bama Read was also founded by Alabama Gymnastics Coach Dana Duckworth.
Experts disagree on fallout for Bentley
Tuscaloosa News – March 24
Two political science experts at the University of Alabama disagree on the likely ramifications for Gov. Robert Bentley after he admitted making inappropriate remarks to a top-level staffer. Bill Stewart, a professor emeritus of the University of Alabama’s Department of Political Science, said if the second-term governor has broken no laws, his relationship with senior political adviser Rebekah Mason should not have significant legal or political implications. “I personally don’t think it ought to affect his ability to serve as governor of Alabama,” Stewart said. “Those things that go on in his private life, we as citizens might say we don’t like it or we don’t mind, but he has the right to have his own behavior.”
Associated Press – March 24
What legal trouble could Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, Rebekah Caldwell Mason face?
AL.com – March 25
With many questions and few answers about the alleged relationship between Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley and his senior political adviser, Rebekah Caldwell Mason, it’s unclear exactly what legal trouble, if any, the two could face. But there are civil and criminal complaints that agencies or individuals could explore depending on the facts, two law professors said Thursday. “Nobody knows all of the facts,” said John Carroll, professor at Cumberland School of Law. “There are a lot of questions still out there,” said University of Alabama law professor Jenny Carroll, who is not related to John Carroll.
Huntsville Museum of Art to hold Fashion Fusion Face-off
WAAY-ABC 31 (Huntsville) – March 24
Live Interview – Fashion design students from The University of Alabama and Auburn University will face-off in a fashion design contest that is being held by the Huntsville Museum of Art. www.fashionfusionfaceoff.com.
Easter 2016 By The Numbers
Wallethub.com – March 23
Kyoung Tae Kim, assistant professor of consumer sciences in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Alabama, provides tips on how to celebrate Easter on a budget.
Stars Fell on Alabama: The Hodges Meteorite
Crimson White – March 24
On a Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 30, 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama, Elizabeth Ann Hodges was taking a nap on her sofa when an 8.5-pound meteorite busted through her ceiling, bounced off her radio, and bruised her square in the thigh. It is the only recorded instance of a meteorite striking
a human. Now, it sits on the second floor of The Alabama Museum of Natural History on The University of Alabama campus. Under a glass case, the burnt exterior is covered in miniature hills and valleys. Next to it, there is a clear impact site on the radio, where wood is missing and the glass over the dial is cracked. Todd Hester, the museum naturalist, begins the story with the meteorite’s descent to Earth. “So when the larger chunk of this meteorite encountered the resistance from the thick atmosphere, it got super-heated and started to expose the fissures and started to split up,” he said. “So the charcoal appearance and potholes on its surface are the result of that.”
Bradley Arant partner named co-chair of NYU Institute on State and Local Taxation
Al.com – March 24
Bradley Arant is pleased to announce that Birmingham partner Bruce P. Ely has been appointed co-chair of the New York University Institute on State and Local Taxation, the 35th annual Institute being held this December in New York City. Ely will serve as co-chair for a 2-year term … He also has served as counsel to multistate taxpayers in cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, but more often before the Alabama appellate courts, circuit courts, and the Alabama Tax Tribunal. He also proudly serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse School of Accountancy, teaching SALT and tax policy in its graduate accounting program.
Hillary Recharges Presidential Campaign
Tennessee Tribune – March 24
Hillary Clinton was in Nashville on St. Patrick’s Day when she picked up green backs at a fundraiser. The next day, two Middle Tennessee women advocated Clinton’s return to the White House, and a long-time Democrat noted it was her third trip to Tennessee Clinton “made me feel like I could do anything,” Rachael Ledbetter, 22, Columbia, said. Meanwhile, Ledbetter is studying in Cuba this summer. She won’t comment on the Communist country, preferring to see for herself and then form opinions. Obviously, she’s interested in President Obama’s Cuba trip this week. … A Nashville law office employs Ellis. Ledbetter studies political science at the University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa. Her minor; public policy. Clinton’s campaign proves women can run for “big political positions,” Ledbetter said. She wants to attend law school, is thinking about becoming a politician, and “helping develop policies [on] problems like mass incarceration and institutional racism,” she said. She’s reading Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”
Designing Women: The Art of Cloth Bindings
New York Public Library – March 24
Currently on display on the third floor of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the wonderful Printing Women exhibition celebrates the work of female printmakers over the course of more than three hundred years. Whenever I walk by, I think of another area of book arts dominated by women: the design of publishers’ cloth bindings. Publishers’ cloth bindings flourished during the 19th and early 20th centuries … There are also several websites devoted to images of publishers’ cloth bindings. The University of Alabama has an extensive digital collection with the ability to search by designer, as does the University of Rochester. You can use these print and digital sources to identify appropriate books, then search our catalog to see if we hold them.