Center to focus on athletics, technology
Tuscaloosa News – June 17
The University of Alabama is launching a new interdisciplinary center focusing on technology and athletics with the aim of improving training and performance. “First and foremost, it will be looking at the athletic arena, but it is clear to us what is going to happen is it will have broad impacts and technology will trickle down,” said Tim Haskew, the new center’s director and UA’s electrical and computer engineering department head. The UA System board of trustees on Friday approved establishing the Integrative Center for Athletic and Sport Technology. The center will draw on the expertise from various colleges and be a research platform devoted to the development of new technologies and applications of existing technologies.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – June 20
WAAY-TV (Huntsville) – June 20
UA professor’s film earns award
Tuscaloosa News – June 20
“Service to Man,” University of Alabama theatre professor Seth Panitch’s first feature-length, earned the grand jury prize for best film Sunday at the 20th American Black Film Festival in Miami. The film was one of 25 selected to be showcased at the festival, which is the largest of its kind in the country. The festival is dedicated to bringing awareness of entertainment content made by and about people of African descent to a worldwide audience, according to its website.
University of Alabama team takes fourth in national EcoCar competition
Alabama News Center – June 21
Dubbed as the “Team to Watch” in the 2015 EcoCar3 Year One competition, the University of Alabama engineering students knew they were going to have to work hard to live up to their reputation in Year Two. Fast-forward a year and the new kids on the block not only lived up to but have exceeded expectations at the 2015 competition in Yuma, Arizona. Competing with 16 other university teams from the United States and Canada, UA’s EcoCar3 team placed fourth, moving up four places from last year’s finish.
Longtime University of Alabama music teacher dies
Tuscaloosa News – June 20
If the matriarch of the Penicks on Windsor Drive wasn’t putting the living-room piano through its paces, chances are one of the daughters, Mollie or Drew, was at work on the keyboard. “I would be practicing my pieces, and Mama would be vacuuming, and she would yell from the other side of the house: ‘E flat! E flat!,’ ” said Drew Baker. “She knew exactly what note was wrong; she could hear it from there.” Amanda Ward Penick possessed not just the ears, but the talent, drive and charm to lead generations of pianists and piano teachers to their greatest heights. From shortly after earning her master’s at the University of Alabama in 1952, she taught in UA’s School of Music for 61 years, the longest tenured faculty member not just at UA, but in the state of Alabama.
Who would fake a tragedy on Facebook just to get sympathy and attention?
Washington Post – June 20
The Dirrs of Saskatchewan had all the makings of a young power couple. John “J.S.” Dirr worked as an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, while his wife, Dana, was a trauma surgeon at a hospital. The two ran a busy household brimming with adorable, smiling children — 10 in all, including 5-year-old Cliff Elias, nicknamed “Warrior Eli” for his ongoing fight against cancer. On Mother’s Day in 2012, tragedy struck … “Actually, Munchausen by Internet has now become more common than real-life Munchausen syndrome because it’s so easy to do. It used to be that real-life Munchausen patients would have to go to medical libraries, research the illnesses they would feign and go to doctors’ offices to reenact the symptoms,” said Marc Feldman, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama who coined the term “Munchausen by Internet” in 2000.
Why NATO Should Cooperate with Fellow Regional Organizations
Atlantic Community – June 20
Regional organizations are emerging as the preferred forum for solving intrastate, interstate and regional issues. NATO needs to engage with more regional organizations and in more constructive ways to solve issues in its region, abroad and between its member states. Doing so would be a major first step in a holistic approach to addressing the concerns of NATO and its member states. By engaging more constructively with current regional organization partners and beginning relationships with others NATO will be able to address the following issues: differences in prioritization of crises in the eastern and southern European neighborhoods, burden sharing, and better NATO-EU relations. (Nicholas K. Sobecki is a doctoral student in the University of Alabama’s Department of Political Science. His research interests include grand strategy, and foreign and military policy.)
Number of Fatal Cashes up
CBS 8 (Montgomery) – June 20
The number of people dying in car accidents in Alabama has significantly risen this year. Fatal crashes are up by almost 40%. 277 people have died since the beginning of the year. The number of wrecks is up as well…More than half of the people killed were not wearing seat belts. The data comes from the Center for Advanced Public Safety and is quoted in the Tuscaloosa News.
WNCF-ABC (Montgomery) – June 20
Despite more public support, gun control measures fail
WTNH 8 (New Haven, Conn.) – June 20
Despite a poll showing more support among Americans, lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on new gun control measures. This is the second time since December that similar amendments did not get the required 60 votes to pass. Public support for gun control change is high and that was evident at Monday night’s vote where the gallery was unusually crowded for a Monday night. But, there is still gridlock among the GOP and the democrats. And both parties proposals failed to move forward … A recent study by the University of Alabama says the United States accounted for one third of the world’s mass shootings from 1966 to 2012. With numbers on the rise, Connecticut senators say they will continue to push for changes despite the lack of bipartisan support.
When mass shooters die, some feel better off with no trial
Associated Press – June 20
Through his death in a gun battle with police, the Orlando nightclub gunman deprived his victims’ families of the chance for a trial that could have helped to channel grief, offer a sense of justice or provide answers for the bloodshed. But some touched by other mass shootings in which the killers have died say they were grateful to be spared the extended, emotionally gruelling legal proceedings of the kind that have added to publicity for killers like the Aurora, Colorado, theatre shooter … Studies indicate killers survive in roughly half of US mass shootings. Adam Lankford, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama, said his review of 185 shootings between 1966 and 2010 in which a person targeted victims in a confined, populated area found that of the shooters who died, about 80% killed themselves and 20% were killed by police.
LegalNews.com – June 21
The Paris Post-Intelligencer – June 20
News 24 Ghana – June 21
Two GCHS students receive $1,000 Alfa Foundation Scholarships
Gadsden Times – June 21
The tuition bill for two local college students will be a little lower in August thanks to scholarships awarded through the Alfa Foundation. Two Etowah County students — both GCHS graduates — received awards. • Ashley James of Gadsden is a freshman at the University of Alabama studying chemical engineering. • Timothy Dalton Robertson of Gadsden is a junior at the University of Alabama studying athletic training and sports medicine. Each student will receive a $1,000 scholarship to use toward tuition, fees, books and supplies required for coursework in the 2016-2017 school year.