The Future of Coal in Alabama
Alabama Public Radio – May 8
There were a number of audiences being targeted during the race for the Presidency. One that hits home here in Alabama were coal workers. That energy source was once Alabama’s lifeblood. However, new regulations and new energy sources are changing the story and promises from the White House may not do much to breathe new life into what looks like a struggling industry. . . . These smaller upturns are part of a larger picture, and that picture may not be as optimistic as what Cody Woods is hoping for. Ahmad Ijaz is executive director and director of economic forecasting for Center for Economic and Business Research at the University of Alabama. He says the decrease in coal jobs is long term. “If you look at the coal industry for say like, last ten years, you know that employment in coal industry has gone down, but the GDP or the production side of it has not really gone down.”
Why Alabama lawmakers could still consider a gas tax increase
AL.com – May 9
But a quarter-century later, the Legislature is likely to leave Montgomery this spring without having approved a fuel tax increase to pay to improve roads and bridges. It would leave the state’s levy at the same 18-cent-per-gallon rate it has been at since Guy Hunt was governor. . . . That limitation has been blamed on two circumstances since the last time the state’s fuel tax was increased: The soaring cost of building roads, and the increase in fuel efficient vehicles that require fewer trips at the pump. “(A fuel tax increase) is a tax so it takes money out of consumer’s pockets,” said Amah Ijaz, executive director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. “But it’s a necessity, too, because the more fuel efficient cars get, the less money that goes into the highway trust funds.” Ijaz said with fuel prices still at affordable levels about five years after reaching all-time highs for many cities and states in 2012, the timing could be good to pitch an increase.
Williams: By any name, half-acre of slave trade history not enough
Richmond Times-Dispatch – May 9
Regardless of whether Robert Lumpkin has his name immortalized, his half-acre slave jail site does not measure up to the task of fully telling Richmond’s slave-trading history. Lumpkin’s name has become a source of disagreement among elected officials and residents debating how to best commemorate the horrors of Shockoe Bottom, epicenter of a domestic slave trade market in Richmond that was once second only to New Orleans. . . . Here’s mine: Cease the myopic focus on the jail site at the expense of the rest of the story. “The site of Lumpkin’s Jail is certainly worth commemorating in light of its notoriety, but to me a proper commemoration of the trade in Richmond would encompass a range of sites in a three- or four-block radius from the Lumpkin site,” said Joshua D. Rothman, chairman of the history department at the University of Alabama, in response to an email query.
75-Year-Old graduates from UA
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – May 8
Fifty-seven years later, recent graduate Larry Cummings proved that he was strong enough to go back to school, and earn a spot at graduation from The University of Alabama.
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – May 8
UA Crimson Racing Team to head to national competition
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – May 8
We don’t see a lot of race cars at Bryant-Denny Stadium, but we did today. The number 15 race car is the work of Mechanical Engineering students, right here at The University of Alabama. These students are all part of the Crimson Racing Team. They designed and built the race car and will leave tomorrow for Michigan, where they will compete againist 120 other teams from al around the world.