Depression, Catastrophic Thinking Influence Pain
Clinical Pain Advisor – May 12
Clinicians should consider the total patient – including psychosocial variables – to best treat patients with chronic pain, according to the results of a study presented at the American Pain Society 2016 Meeting. Jacob Baxter, of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Al. and colleagues examined data on 300 patients with chronic pain who were treated at low-income clinics in Alabama.. Most of the patients have very low income and more than half of the sample are African American.
CrossingPoints Celebrates Graduation
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – May 12
Family and friends gathered tonight at the Ferguson Center to watch seven students walk across the stage and graduate from CrossingPoints. It’s a program on The University of Alabama campus that services adults with intellectual disabilities from the Tuscaloosa City and County Schools.
Help select the winner of the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction
ABA Journal – May 12
The ABA Journal and the University of Alabama School of Law are pleased to announce the finalists for the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction. The three books chosen to compete for the prize are: Allegiance by Kermit Roosevelt, Pleasantville by Attica Locke and Tom & Lucky and George & Cokey Flo by C. Joseph Greaves. . . . A committee of ABA Journal and University of Alabama representatives select three finalists for the prize each year, and then a panel of judges votes for the winning book. The panelists who will vote to select a winner from the group of finalists this year are Philip Beidler, author and professor at the University of Alabama; Helen Ellis, author of American Housewife; Homer Hickam, author of Rocket Boys; Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author, journalist and syndicated columnist; and Angela Johnson, author of Wind Flyers and Heaven. The public is invited to cast their own votes on the book they think most deserves the prize; the public vote will act as a sixth judge. Voting closes on Monday, July 11 at 11:59 p.m.
Study shows body art could be healing
ABC 8 News (Richmond, Va.) – May 12
Body art might be a great way to boost your immune system and relieve migraines. The “American Journal of Human Biology” published a study from researchers at the University of Alabama, reporting that receiving multiple tattoos can strengthen your immunological responses. This could potentially make it easier to fight off infections. Eddie Stewart, a tattoo artist, says your body’s immune system kicks into action when you get a tattoo.
University of Alabama Astrobotics Team working to defend title at NASA competition
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – May 12
The University of Alabama’s Astrobotics Team is heading to the Kennedy Space Cener. The team hopes to defend its national title in NASA’s Robotic Mining Competition. If this year’s team comes out on top, it will be the first time ever for a team to take the title two consecutive years. “Definitely would be something to remember forever if we come back and defend our title,” said University of Alabama student, Joe Cabalin. The UA Astrobotics Team spent the last year preparing for this year’s NASA Mining Competition creating a robot they hope will out-work all of them.
Remembering UA student John Servati
WTVA-NBC (Tupelo, Miss.) – May 12
Tupelo has announced a partnership between the aquatic center and Bancorp South. They also revealed a meeting room dedicated to a special Tupelo hero. Just over two years ago, Tupelo lost University of Alabama swimmer John Servati in the midst of a vicious tornado. As a tornado blazed through his home, John held up a retaining wall for his girlfriend to escape. But, while saving her life, he lost his own. In honor of John and his heroic act, Bancorp South, the company his mother works for, revealed it’s new room dedicated to John, located just inside the Tupelo aquatic center.
WLOV-Fox (Tupelo, Miss.) – May 12
Alabama school board member appoints campaign backer to state committee, blames questions on “leftist attacks”
Al.com – May 13
One of the members of a state committee charged with writing new school standards for Alabama says “there is absolutely no connection” between his appointment by Alabama Board of Education member Matthew Brown and hefty contributions that his group made to Brown’s political campaign … “Maybe the one appointed was the best qualified. I don’t know,” said William Stewart, professor emeritus of political sciences at the University of Alabama and a long-time observer of Alabama state politics. “However, it doesn’t look good.”
Common themes in current, past cases against Alabama justice
Star Media – May 12
Common threads link the current effort to remove Roy Moore as Alabama’s chief justice with the case that resulted in his ouster from the same post more than a decade ago: Particularly, his conservative Christian beliefs and his views on the power of federal courts. The Republican is suspended from duty and faces a trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary after a complaint was filed Friday. The complaint accuses him of willfully failing to respect the authority of U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal court decisions that cleared the way for gay marriage, which Moore opposes on the basis of his faith … Susan Pace Hamill, who has observed Moore’s career for more than two decades as a researcher and law professor at the University of Alabama, said Moore’s actions in the two cases are consistent, but still wrong. “The first thing any first-year law student learns is the supremacy of federal law,” she said Monday. “What a federal court says goes.”
A History of Insurgent Candidates’ Impact on Down-Ballot Races
Governing – May 13
During a May 5 rally in Charleston, W.Va., Donald Trump said something no one was expecting. He told the audience not to bother showing up to the polls in the following week’s primary. “What I want you to do is save your vote — you know, you don’t have to vote anymore,” Trump told the crowd. “Save your vote for the general election, OK? Forget this one. The primary is gone.” “Rather than Wallace recruiting like-minded candidates, it was rather the like-minded candidates trying to latch onto the popularity of George Wallace,” said William H. Stewart, an emeritus professor of political scientist at the University of Alabama.
MyPlates releases stats on the best-selling college license plates in Texas
Houston Chronicle – May 13
MyPlates, the vendor that designs and markets all those cool and interesting license plates for the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles, released a list of the best-selling college license plates in the state. As it turns out, Aggies and Longhorns rule the roost but a few out-of-state schools also check in. Three Texas A&M plates and three University of Texas plates pepper the rankings. . . . Iowa State and the University of Alabama made it into the top ten.