Hitched to the Corps: Married couple commissioned as Marines
Tuscaloosa News – July 15
Rebecca Horwath Reynolds stood facing her husband in front of family and friends in a Friday ceremony. But instead of wearing her mother’s wedding dress, as she had a few short months ago, she was in uniform. And instead of reciting vows led by an officiant, Reagan Reynolds repeated his wife as she administered to him the Marine Corps oath of office. The Reynolds’s were both commissioned as second lieutenants into the United States Marine Corps on Friday … Although Reagan Reynolds, from Nacogdoches, Texas, and Rebecca Reynolds, from Muskego, Wisconsin, attended the University of Alabama, where they earned degrees in business management, they didn’t meet until they began going through the Marine Corps program in 2014.
Tuscaloosa News (gallery) – July 15
Defense Video Distribution System – July 15
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – July 15
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – July 15
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – July 15
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – July 15
WDAM 7 (Moselle, Miss.) – July 15
Five options for Sen. Jeff Sessions after Trump’s VP pick
Anniston Star – July 15
This week, Alabama almost actually mattered in a presidential general election. Until Republican nominee Donald Trump picked Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions seemed a likely pick as Trump’s potential vice president … Senator, still. Trump may want Sessions to stay right where he is, said University of Alabama political science professor George Hawley. “My guess is that Trump would rather have Sessions in the Senate as a stalwart ally,” Hawley said.
Gadsden Times – July 16
L.A. author Attica Locke wins 2016 Harper Lee Prize
Tuscaloosa News – July 17
Los-Angeles-based author Attica Locke has won the 2016 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for her book “Pleasantville.” The prize is co-sponsored by the University of Alabama School of Law and the American Bar Association Journal. “I think the finalists this year were, collectively, the best in the history of the Harper Lee Prize,” said Allen Pusey, editor and publisher of the ABA Journal, with the announcement. “‘Pleasantville’ is a richly constructed narrative truly worthy of this recognition.”
ABA Journal – July 16
Was the Nice attacker really an IS “lone wolf”?
Homeland Security Newswire – July 17
The Bastille Day terror attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice has been claimed by the Islamic State Group – sort of … My research on suicide terrorism has demonstrated that affiliation with a group is quite different from the research of Criminal Justice professor Adam Lankford of the University of Alabama who insists that many terrorists are suicidal and not sacrificing themselves for a greater cause or for some underlying altruistic motivation of self-sacrifice.
R News (New Zealand) – July 17
The Wire – July 17
Study Shows Stark Differences in How Conservatives, Liberals Value Empirical Data
Stone Heart Newsletters – July 17
Conservatives are less interested than liberals in viewing novel scientific data, according to a psychology researcher at The University of Alabama. Dr. Alexa Tullett, assistant professor of psychology at UA, recently conducted the project, titled “Is ideology the enemy of inquiry? Examining the link between political orientation and lack of interest in novel data.” The article will be published in the Journal of Research and Personality in August.
Hundreds arrested in protests over shootings by police
You Don’t Know Football – July 17
But with tensions rising since last week’s killings of Sterling in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile in Minnesota by white officers, and an attack on police by a black sniper in Dallas that killed five officers, many have questioned whether the police response has been appropriate. The smoke was used after about 200 protesters refused to leave the roadway just after midnight as police in riot gear slowly moved in … Union contracts, meanwhile, often allow the destruction of police misconduct records, require the withholding of names of officers involved in shootings and grant police steep discounts on punishment even when police chiefs try to fire them, notes Stephen Rushin, a law professor at the University of Alabama who specializes in policing.
THE PORT RAIL: Reaping the hate that’s been sowed
Tuscaloosa News – July 16
A headline on the front page of the July 9 issue of The Tuscaloosa News screamed in huge letters “Is This Really Us?” The answer to the question is “Yes, indeed, it is us,” if we understand what the Apostle Paul wrote to the small but growing Christian community in Galatia two thousand years ago. “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows [italics added]. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” Galatians 6:7-8, NIV. (Larry Clayton is a retired University of Alabama history professor. Readers can email him at larryclayton7@gmail.com.)
Murphree gains fellowship
Mississippi Business Journal – July 16
Dr. Vanessa Murphree, associate professor and graduate coordinator for The University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Mass Communication and Journalism, is one of nine educators nationwide selected for a fellowship in public relations with the Plank Center for Leadership. The Fellowship that provides opportunities for skill enhancement through the organizations sponsoring each fellowship. This is the seventh class of fellows selected by the Center. The Plank Center was founded by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in 2005. Its namesake, the late Betsy Plank, was an advocate of lifelong learning for public relations practitioners.