UA students take part in NASA project
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 15
A group of University of Alabama students plans to take photos and video of the solar eclipse later this month using a high-altitude balloon as part of a nation-wide science project led by NASA. Similar to a weather balloon, the team’s payload should rise 100,000 feet in the air, high enough to see the curvature of the Earth, and send live video of the eclipse to a website as part of the NASA Space Grant network’s Eclipse Ballooning Project.
UA to host solar eclipse event
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 15
The University of Alabama will also be joining in on the solar eclipse fun. They are holding a viewing event on the Quad for incoming freshmen. One of the UA professors who will be on hand to explain the phenomenon says he is excited to share the experience with the University community.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Aug. 15
UA Honors Students help clean out gardens at Tuscaloosa Magnet School
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 15
The University of Alabama teamed up with a local organization today getting Tuscaloosa magnet school ready for the fall planting season. About 35 incoming freshmen and upper-classmen were working with School Yard Roots, formerly known as the Druid City Garden Project.
What’s ‘alt-left’? Experts say it’s ‘made-up term’
Local Memphis (Tennessee) – Aug. 15
President Donald Trump equated white supremacist marchers in Charlottesville to counterprotesters by calling them “alt-left,” prompting an immediate backlash and questions about the term itself … George Hawley, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Alabama, said the “alt-left” term has been most aggressively pushed by Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity, but it’s not a label anyone or group has adopted for themselves. “There is no such movement as the alt-left. Obviously, there are left-wing extremists but there is no congruence between the far-left and the alt-right.”
Fox 6 (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) – Aug. 15
Why is the US still fighting the civil war?
The Guardian (UK) – Aug. 15
One of the core beliefs at the heart of the Jim Crow project – and which these laws sought to implant – was that the civil war had not been an ignominious defeat, but a noble struggle … George Hawley, a political scientist at the University of Alabama, and author of two books that examine dissident rightwing movements, says that national far-right movements have been attracted to the fight over Charlottesville’s monument partly from “opportunism, and a desire for controversy … But it also comes from their sincere feeling that attacks on confederate monuments are attacks on whiteness, per se.”
Are there white nationalists in the White House?
Politifact – Aug. 15
The “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville has brought the issue of white nationalism to the top of the nation’s agenda — specifically, whether white nationalists are part of the White House staff … George Hawley, a University of Alabama political scientist and author of the forthcoming book, Making Sense of the Alt-Right, said he “would probably not describe any high-ranking White House officials as white nationalists.”
Pan African News – Aug. 15
‘Unite The Right’: Charlottesville Rally Represented Collection Of Alt-Right Groups
NPR – Aug. 15
Last weekend, white supremacists gathered in Charlottesville, Va., under one banner: “Unite the Right.” But in reality, it was a patchwork of different alt-right groups attempting to show a unified front. NPR’s Audie Cornish talks with Professor George Hawley of the University of Alabama about the current landscape of alt-right organizations.
Roy Moore, Luther Strange face brutal 6 week Alabama Senate runoff
Al.com – Aug. 15
Alabama Senator Luther Strange entered Tuesday’s special Senate primary with millions of dollars of support from the Senate Leadership Fund and a coveted endorsement from President Donald Trump … “It seems to me that a lot of Brooks’ votes will go to Moore because they obviously want change,” said William Stewart, professor emeritus of political sciences at the University of Alabama.
A ‘disorder of deception’: When a mom makes her child sick
KMJ Now – Aug. 15
“I never saw it coming,” said Susan, whose family requested that we not use their last names. In 2008, her daughter’s cancer came back for the third time. Hope was in her early 30s. They cried together visiting the funeral home, as Hope decided which kind of flowers she wanted at her own memorial. She wanted doves to be released … This is a pattern among mothers who confess, said Dr. Marc Feldman, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, a way of admitting what they did without fully admitting their guilt. “It clashes with everything that we think we know about motherhood,” Feldman said. “It’s not just wrong to medically abuse a child, but it’s immoral.
Loop – Aug. 16
820 AM (Texas) – Aug. 15
Moore, Strange Advance To Alabama GOP Senate Primary Runoff
Alabama Public Radio – Aug. 15
The Alabama GOP Senate race is headed to a September runoff, with incumbent Sen. Luther Strange — who had the backing of both President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell — set to face-off against conservative favorite Roy Moore … But, as University of Alabama political science professor emeritus William Stewart told NPR earlier, “Right now the Democratic Party is very impotent here. I think whomever the Republicans choose as their nominee will be the winner.”
Maine Public – Aug. 15
Northwest Public TV – Aug. 15
Alabama Finds Limit of Trump’s Influence: GOP Senator Limps into Runoff
PoliZette – Aug. 15
Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.) limped into a GOP primary runoff Tuesday, getting less than a third of the vote in his bid to finish the term of former Sen. Jeff Sessions despite enjoying the backing of President Donald Trump … “Moore showed that he can do well other than [in] a judicial race,” said William Stewart, a University of Alabama political scientist and longtime observer of state politics.
School News: Aug. 15, 2017
Yakima Herald (Washington) – Aug. 15
The following local students were named to the Montana State University Spring honor roll … President’s List: Ellensburg — Morgan Shiver named to the President’s List at the University of Alabama.