Tuscaloosa philanthropist, businessman Jack Warner dies at 99
Al.com – Feb. 18
Tuscaloosa philanthropist and businessman Jack Warner died early Saturday morning, his wife confirmed to the Tuscaloosa News. He was 99. Warner served as the chairman and chief executive officer of Gulf States Paper Corp. for nearly 50 years. He gave to many groups including the University of Alabama, Auburn University, Culver Military Academy, Washington and Lee University, the First Presbyterian Church, the United Way, and the City of Tuscaloosa … University of Alabama President Stuart R. Bell issued this statement after learning Warner’s death: “We have all lost a legend. Throughout his long and distinguished life, Jack Warner has been a generous benefactor in this community, across the nation and here at The University of Alabama.”
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 18
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Feb. 18
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Feb. 18
Crimson White – Feb. 18
Bristol Herald-Courier (Virginia) – Feb. 19
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Feb. 19
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Feb. 19
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Feb. 18 and 19
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 19
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 18
CBS (Huntsville) – Feb. 18
Remembering Jack Warner
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Feb. 19
The businessman also helped to restore the President’s Mansion on the University of Alabama campus by making a large donation.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 19
Stage experience prepares students for adulthood
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 18
Elizabeth Hubbard already sees what lies over the rainbow as she prepares for her starring role as Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz,” presented by the Crossing Points program at the University of Alabama. “I will feel proud when I get on stage,” she said. “I know my mom and some other part of my family will be there. I am hoping that when they watch me that my mom will cry happy tears, my dad could cry happy tears and they are all going to clap. Who knows, I might even get some flowers afterwards.” Hubbard is one of the developmentally disabled actors who will take the stage in the Ferguson Center Ballroom at 6 p.m. April 4 for the Crossing Points Dinner Theater.
Pioneering astronaut to speak at UA
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 18
Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space, will be the keynote speaker March 4 at a symposium hosted by the University of Alabama’s Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math initiative. Jemison, a Decatur native who is founder/president of the Jemison Group and BioSentient Corp., will join several presenters from UA who will cover topics on career, education and lifestyle issues for women in technological fields.
UA play embraces the unconventional
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 18
Eccentric characters can steal a story. As in the case of tormented Blanche from “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the louche, prancing Captain Jack Sparrow in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies, or Heath Ledger’s maniacal Joker in “Dark Knight,” audiences often feel drawn to the broken, the weird and the wacky. “Even as an outcast, we can still have a full life and a fully realized life if we embrace who we are,” said Raines Carr, a third-year master of fine art directing student, and director of the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance production of Tennessee Williams’ “The Eccentricities of a Nightingale.”
Crimson White – Feb. 20
How all areas of Alabama embrace the mirth, mystique and economic boon of Mardi Gras
AL.com – Feb. 19
Wiley Blankenship’s conversation with Kim Mitchell several years ago sparked an idea foreign to folks in northern Alabama. “I remember standing there and saying, ‘You really ought to try and do an event, maybe a ball and bring Mardi Gras to Decatur,'” said Blankenship, the president and CEO of the Coastal Alabama Partnership. “I was doing it kind of tongue and cheek. Mardi Gras is a feat to pull off.” Over the years, though, Mardi Gras has lost some of its religious gloss, becoming more of a cultural event steeped in family traditions, according to Michael Altman, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Alabama. “There are fewer Catholics and Catholics have been outnumbered by Protestants over time. But with those Catholic families, those traditions tend to endure whether one is an practicing Catholic or not,” Altman said.
For decades they hid Jefferson’s mistress. Now Monticello is making room for Sally Hemings
Philly.com – Feb. 20
When Jefferson’s critics wrote salacious stories in the early 1800s alleging that the widowed politician had a long-term liaison with one of these slaves, it was said that he kept her “in a room of her own” at Monticello. To pinpoint that room, historians relied on a description provided long ago by a Jefferson grandson, who placed it in the home’s south wing. Archaeologists are now peeling back layers in the 14 foot, 8 inch-by-13 foot, 2 inch room to reveal its original brick floor and plaster walls … And other historic plantations are recasting their exhibits to reflect a crueler truth “beyond the sort of old moonlight-and-magnolia plantation tour,” said Joshua Rothman, chair of the history department at the University of Alabama. “Talking about the history of the enslaved community is one thing, but recreating that space and trying to give it material substance takes it really to another level.”
Washington Post – Feb. 20
Hints from the fossil record on how to re-oyster the Chesapeake
Phys.org – Feb. 20
Rowan Lockwood is extracting pearls of data from long-dead oysters. Lockwood, a professor in William & Mary’s Department of Geology, has strung those data pearls together to craft a set of suggestions for the re-oystering of today’s Chesapeake Bay … Lockwood took some oysters to the lab of collaborator Fred Andrus, a geoarcheologist at the University of Alabama. Andrus had instrumentation that allowed her to drill into the white and gray growth bands, taking samples. “I can put those samples in a mass spectrometer, and that lets me measure the isotopes of oxygen. Those isotopes of oxygen allow me to reconstruct temperature through time,” she explained. “So I can tell you how cold the winters were and how warm the summers were 400,000 years ago.”
Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily (Virginia) – Feb. 20
Twisted Barley brewpub coming soon to Jasper
Daily Mountain Eagle (Jasper) – Feb. 20
The owners of Twisted Barley Brewing Company gave supporters a sneak peek of their progress turning an old hotel into a brewpub on Friday. . . . Carolyn Long of the University of Alabama’s Small Business Development Center helped them with a business plan that was necessary to secure funding from an area bank.
Judge Agnes Chappell sworn in
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 16
Dozens of people turned out today for the swearing in of Judge Agnes Chappell. Chappell was elected to serve on Jefferson County’s Circuit Divorce Court. She was the second African American woman to graduate from The University of Alabama Law School.
Discussion will focus on breast cancer
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 18
“Breast Cancer Awareness and Survival: A Personal Journey Through Research” will be the topic of a discussion Tuesday at the University of Alabama. Mary Ann Kelley, an assistant professor of nursing at UA, will discuss research projects that will aid in the early detection of breast cancer. Kelley’s talk will begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Rodgers Library for Science and Engineering, 335 Hackberry Lane, on the UA campus. A question-and-answer session will follow.
Crimson White – Feb. 20
Demo Day exposes local business
Crimson White – Feb. 20
The Culverhouse College of Commerce’s Alabama Entrepreneurship Institute, in conjunction with the Edge Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation will be hosting a Demo Day of local startups. Demo Day will take place on Feb. 24 from 11:30 a.m. – 3 p.m. in the Lackey Room of the Bryant Conference Center. The Edge’s focus is to aid in the development of management, financial and technical skills in a maturing environment so that they can thrive in the local business community
Sharp increase in traffic fatalities
CBS (Huntsville) – Feb. 17
According to data from University of Alabama researchers, more than 1,000 people died in traffic fatalities in Alabama in 2016. That’s nearly 25% more than the almost 850 people who died in traffic related incidents in 2015.
Lawmakers consider Back seat seatbelt law
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 16
Researchers at The University of Alabama Center for Advanced Public Safety estimate of the 295 people that died last year not wearing their seatbelt, 40 of them were back seat passengers.
WSFA-NBC (Montgomery) – Feb. 17
WAFF-NBC (Huntsville) – Feb. 17
Social Media and Teens
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 16
Dr. Desmond Patton spent part of his Thursday night in Tuscaloosa talking about a possible link between teenagers, social media and violence. Dr. Patton’s discussion brought in teens from all over the Tuscaloosa area to dig deeper into their social media outlets that are right at their fingertips every single day. Patton talked about what safe and what’s not on social media platforms and shared the gang-related Twitter post of a young woman who is dead today. Patton says it’s important for teens to realize just how much their Tweeting and posting can affect their lives and their community.
Wow Way – Feb. 17
Study Says Crime and Immigration Are Not Linked
News Blaze – Feb. 20
To delve deeper on the impact of immigration, researchers from the University of Buffalo conducted an intensive study on the real link between immigration and crime. The results are quite astounding, opposite of general opinion, and opposite of results shown by others … This study was spearheaded by a powerhouse of researchers composed of Lesley Williams Reid, University of Alabama; Gail Markle, Kennesaw State University; Charles Jaret, Georgia State University; and Saskia Weiss, an independent scholar.
Blood Drive to be held at UA
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 16
LifeSouth will be on The University of Alabama campus on Feb. 27.
Did Asheville councilman get a pass on mortgage rules?
Asheville Citizen-Times (North Carolina) – Feb. 18
Language in a home mortgage obtained by City Councilman Keith Young is clear on this point — the house must be his primary residence. But whether the requirement holds any weight is less certain, experts and Young’s lender said last week … If someone signs a mortgage intending to violate an owner-occupancy requirement, that is fraud and possibly a felony, said Julie Hill, a banking and commercial law professor at the University of Alabama. If that happens, the lender usually has the right to make the entire loan payable in no more than 60 days, Hill said.
400 High School juniors learn at Youth Leadership Conference
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 16
More than 400 high school juniors from all across West Alabama learned all about leadership at The University of Alabama. Today, students participated in the 15th annual Youth Leadership Conference at the Bryant Conference Center.
Can the courts protect democracy? Yes, but they need these three supports.
Washington Post – Feb. 16
President Trump’s executive order suspending travel for those who hail from seven primarily Muslim countries quickly landed in the federal courts. Many decried this action as unconstitutional, and several federal judges (both Democratic and Republican appointees) ordered an immediate halt to its implementation. (Douglas M. Gibler is a professor of political science in the Institute for Social Science at the University of Alabama. He is the author of several books, including “The Territorial Peace: Borders, State Development, and International Conflict.”)
Unity Christian announces honors for seniors
Northwest Georgia News – Feb. 17
Unity Christian School’s graduating class of 2017 is continuing successes reached by the class of 2016, the school’s 10th graduating class. Nine of the 19 members of the class of 2016 earned AP Scholar awards … Earnest also received a full-tuition Presidential Scholarship offer and School of Engineering scholarship from the University of Alabama.
A resurgence of investigative journalism
Al.com – Feb. 18
One way or another, good investigative reporters will ultimately unravel even the most complex web of lies. Most recently, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who served under both Presidents Obama and Trump, has stumbled upon the reality that one lie begets another lie and another and another. At some point, the cover-up becomes the story. (By Dr. B. Joyce Stallworth, who retired from the University of Alabama in 2016. Until then, she served as the associate provost for special projects and as a professor of English education.)
A WARM BREEZE FROM ALABAMA
MY Informs – Feb. 19
Bringing fiery and virtuosic playing to spicy repertoire, organist Faythe Freese managed to heat up a cold winter’s night on Friday at St. Cecilia’s Church in the Back Bay with her recital for the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. Having studied with a number of eminent performers and pedagogues in the U.S. (Indiana University) as well as France, Germany, and the U.K., Freese is currently Professor of Organ at the University of Alabama and a recitalist in some demand. Playing the Smith & Gilbert | Nobscot (1999), one of Boston’s most exciting organs in a wonderfully opulent acoustic, she offered a stimulating mixture of compositional styles considerably more varied than the composers’ dates would seem to indicate: two of the four were born in 1870 and another in 1873.
Boston Musical Intelligencer – Feb. 18
Face lift continues at UA’s Sorority Row
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 16
Sorority Row at the University of Alabama continues getting a facelift. The Delta Zeta and Alpha Omicron Pi sorority houses are being demolished. They’ll be replaced by houses larger than 40,000 square feet. The new Alpha Omicron Pi house alone costs $15 million. University of Alabama Media Relations released this statement recent upgrades to sorority houses and other buildings on campus.
ABC 9 (Columbus, Ga.) – Feb. 16
Al.com – Feb. 16
Students and faculty collaborate for Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre
Crimson White – Feb. 19
This week, student dancers will show their dynamic abilities in multiple styles. The Alabama Repertory Dance Theatre (ARDT) is a program where both faculty and student productions take the stage during the fall and spring semesters. With creative and diverse faculty, students in ARDT experience a range of techniques and perspectives aimed at helping their creativity and individuality flourish. Furthermore, ARDT faculty prepare the students to succeed in the realm of professional dance as dancers, choreographers and educators. ARDT’s spring show runs Tuesday through Saturday in Morgan Auditorium.
COLLEGE STANDOUTS
The Moonpark Acorn (Camarillo, California) – Feb. 16
Erin Donley of Moorpark has earned placement on the dean’s list for fall semester 2016 at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash. Students must earn a 3.5 to 3.84 grade-point average to be listed. Gonzaga University is a humanistic, Catholic University providing a Jesuit education to more than 7,500 students. A total of 11,758 students enrolled during the 2016 fall semester at the University of Alabama were named to the dean’s list with an academic record of 3.5 or above, or the president’s list with an academic record of 4.0.
Times Daily (Florence) – Feb. 18
Pembroke Mariner (Marshfield, Massachusetts) – Feb. 16
Baytown Sun (Texas) – Feb. 16
South Coast Today – Feb. 18
The Republic (Columbus, Indiana) – Feb. 19
Glens Falls Post (New York) – Feb. 19
Bowling Green Daily News (Kentucky) – Feb. 19
Cleveland Daily Banner (Tennessee) – Feb. 19
Wicked Local Dover – Feb. 19
Golden Isles News – Feb. 19
Edmond Sun (Oklahoma) – Feb. 19
Newark (Delaware) Advocate – Feb. 19
Appleton (Wisconsin) Post-Advocate
State of the Black Union Address touches on improvement, innovation, unity
Crimson White – Feb. 16
To the music of “Hold On (Change is Comin’), a slideshow played depicting peaceful protests held in support of Civil Rights that dated as far back to the 1960s, and as recently as last semester on The University of Alabama campus. So started the night of the State of the Black Union Address on Thursday.
PORT RAIL: We’ve lost control of language
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 18
I have seen the word “inappropriate” used often these days, as a substitute for something which should be labeled venal, wrong, sinful, immoral, lying and a dozen other “appropriate” words which I can think of. If we dip into our handy online Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, we find inappropriate to mean: not right or suited for some purpose or situation: not appropriate or suitable. (Larry Clayton is a retired University of Alabama history professor. Readers can email him atlarryclayton7@gmail.com.)
Students at Capitol School write “Big Al, Big Al, What do you see?”
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 16
This really cool group of 4th and 5th graders from the Capitol School gathered on the Walk of Champions for a really big event. Their teacher, Missy Richey, opened boxes full of the students’ book hot off the presses. It’s called “Big Al, Big Al, What do you see?” It’s somewhat based on the popular children’s book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?” Each student was responsible for a page in the book. What began as a lesson in learning adjectives has turned into a great book from these now published authors.
Students from Alabama Scholastic Press Association visit UA
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 17
Students from the Alabama Scholastic Press Association state conference were at The University of Alabama.
UA professor to host book reading and signing
Crimson White – Feb. 20
Robin Boylorn, an associate professor in communication studies at The University of Alabama, and her co-authors will host a book reading and signing for their collaborative work, “The Crunk Feminist Collection.” The event will take place at Barnes & Noble on March 1 from 6-8 p.m. and is open to the public. “We offer a crunk perspective that is intersectional, accountable, political, conscious and informed,” Boylorn said to UANews. “We use our academic and at home voices to theorize, critique, think through and call out things we find to be problematic, oppressive or discriminatory.”