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UA In the News — April 20-22

University of Alabama’s CCN to create vital learning opportunities with Nursing Kid
Yellowhammer News – April 22
A Nursing Kid Simulator is a skills-based, child-sized manikin designed to train nursing students for the care and management of a variety of pediatric patients. The simulator represents a 6-year-old child and will allow students to practice numerous skills, including IV insertion, tracheal and nasogastric suctioning and wound assessment, among others. The current pediatrics manikin at the University of Alabama’s Capstone College of Nursing, known as Pedia, has several cords that connect to a control panel to program various scenarios and can be used only in the simulation lab.

Hewson named to Time’s ‘100 Most Influential’ List
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – April 19-20
More recognition for a prominent alumna of the University of Alabama: Time magazine puts Marillyn Hewson on its 100 most influential people for 2019. She’s the chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin.

A gymnastics accident left Avery Downing paralyzed. She still became a national champion.
 Commercial Appeal – April 19
Avery Downing called her father right after she became a national champion last month. Sooner than even Philip Downing expected. So soon that when he picked up the phone, all he could really hear was his daughter and the rest of the Alabama women’s wheelchair basketball team screaming.
 
LEND A HAND: University of Alabama unveils student engagement center
Tuscaloosa News – April 20
Efforts to strengthen ties between the University of Alabama and its surrounding community received a boost April 18 with the unveiling of the UA Student Community Engagement Center. The center is a 4,000-square-foot hub in Capital Hall that will house 14 anchor student organizations from six UA colleges and schools. It is open to all students and groups with an interest in connecting their efforts to engagement work in the community, said Carol Agomo, director of community and administrative affairs at UA.

University of Alabama researchers uncover critical insights into bacterial immune systems
Alabama News Center – April 21
Researchers at the University of Alabama discovered how a common skin bacteria wards off viruses by leveraging cellular processes normally not considered part of any immune system. This discovery constitutes another milestone in understanding how to harness bacterial viruses to combat antibiotic-resistant infections.

Why the Mueller Report Shouldn’t Be the Final Word on Trump, Russia and Obstruction of Justice
TIME – April 19
In “The Special Counsel’s Charging Decisions” section of Volume I of the Mueller Report, the Special Counsel reveals some of the frustration that prosecutors can face in the course of an investigation. (Joyce White Vance, a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law at the University of Alabama, served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017.)

Education Briefs
The Newnan Times-Herald (New York City) – April 19
Ivy selected UA Honors College ambassador: Riah Ivy of Newnan has been selected as a University of Alabama Honors College ambassador for 2019-2020.
Tuscaloosa NewsApril 21
Stamford Advocate (Connecticut)April 19
MagicValley.comApril 21
Moultrie Observer (Georgia)April 19

T-TOWN 200: TUSCALOOSA COUNTY PRESERVATION SOCIETY HONORS CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL HERITAGE
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – April 19
The Tuscaloosa Bicentennial honors this month’s theme, culture and religion. Following this theme year-round, The Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society is committed to preserving the historical and cultural heritage of the city.

Alabama EV infrastructure grant program could provide model for nation
Made In Alabama – April 22
The Rebuild Alabama Infrastructure Plan could provide a significant spark for efforts to expand the network of charging stations available to drivers of electric vehicles across the state. While several states offer various incentives for EV charging station infrastructure, researchers at the Alabama Transportation Institute at The University of Alabama say it appears that only one other state – Washington – has a similar grant program.

Two decades of killing inspired by the Columbine massacre
New York Daily News – April 21
If mass murder by alienated young men is a contagion, as many experts believe, then Eric David Harris is the Typhoid Mary of this particular disease … Adam Lankford, a University of Alabama criminologist whose research explores fame and criminality, told me that while many killers have basked in infamy, Harris and Klebold created a mass murder tipping point.
MSN.com – April 21
New Zealand Herald – April 21
Ed Watch – April 23
 
Murals at Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter created by students
Tuscaloosa News – April 22
Local students are brightening employees’ and animals’ lives by painting murals on the Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter’s walls. By adding color to the industrial cinderblock walls, they hope sprucing up the space will also increase adoption rates, according to organizers of the project … Those involved in the initiative are mentored by University of Alabama undergraduates enrolled in a Youth Development and Civic Engagement course directed by Jeffrey Parker.
 
Scientists Say Climate Change Led To Extreme Hurricane Maria Rainfall Levels
Brinkwire – April 21
Hurricane Maria, which killed thousands of people and caused $90 billion worth of damages in Puerto Rico, was exacerbated by climate change … “What we found was that Maria’s magnitude of peak precipitation is much more likely in the climate of 2017 when it happened versus the beginning of the record in 1950,” stated David Keelings, a geographer from the University of Alabama.
InfoSurhoy – April 21
Watts Up With That? – April 21
DailyHeralds.org – April 20
Tech Times – April 19
Minnesota Star-Tribune – April 19
 
Climate change could be a factor in decline of wild bee species
The Westerly Sun (Pawcatuck, Connecticut) – April 20
More than a dozen wild bee species critical to pollinating everything from blueberries to apples in New England are on the decline, according to a new study … Jeff Lozier, a bee expert from the University of Alabama who did not take part in the research, said the study was interesting and that the findings were a critical step in expanding research into lesser known species of bees.
Brinkwire – April 21
Concord Monitor (New Hampshire) – April 21
News 24 – April 19
Courthouse News – April 19
Natural Blaze – April 20
Zero Hedge – April 19

THEATER REVIEW: Energy and drive highlight Austen adaptation
Tuscaloosa News – April 20
Even if you don’t know Austen, you know Austen: Women in need of husbands. Smarter, sharper older women; impulsive, yearning youngsters; dumber, more callow contemporaries, paired with cads and bounders and decent but boring dudes, oh my … The money stuff’s not trivia, because economic necessities, the security and status of a good marriage, lie at the heart. Kate Hamill’s stage adaptation of that first novel, being performed this week by the University of Alabama Department of Theatre and Dance, is a bright, bounding version that nonetheless shows marks of being the writer’s first full-length play, emphasis on length.

Alabama attorney general files temporary ban of massage parlor chain over human trafficking concerns Montgomery Advertiser – April 19
A chain of massage parlors in north Alabama has been temporarily banned from operating after investigators found evidence of human trafficking. Attorney General Steve Marshall said Friday his request for a temporary restraining order against TY Green’s Massage Therapy, Inc. has been granted by the Madison County Circuit Court … Last summer, a team of University of Alabama researchers conducted a study to investigate the scope of human trafficking in Alabama.

Vanderbilt researchers to develop and test ‘safe harbor’ standards of care
Medicine News Line – April 22
A team of researchers from Vanderbilt University’s schools of Law, Medicine and Management has received a five-year research grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality of the Department of Health and Human Services to develop and test “safe harbor” standards of care based on scientific evidence … The multi-disciplinary project team is headed by James Blumstein, University Professor of Constitutional Law and Health Law and Policy … Assistant Professor Benjamin McMichael, JD/PhD’17, of the University of Alabama School of Law.
News-Medical – April 22
ScienMag – April 19
BioEngineer.org – April 19

Alabama senator says Christians ‘should speak out’ over prison conditions, sparking reaction
Al.com – April 21
In September 2017, at the rear of a dormitory in the so-called “Hot Bay” at the medium-security Bibb Correctional Facility, two inmates stabbed another … Michael Altman, a professor of religious studies at the University of Alabama, said there is an overall lack of attention to the terrible prison conditions from conservative Protestants in Alabama, which is reflective of “their larger disinterest in criminal justice issues.”

School zone, opportunity zone
Anniston Star – April 19
A little-known passage in the 2017 federal tax law rewrite is about to give new life to a historic school building in Heflin … “I think money will be tripping over its own feet to get into these zones,” said K.C. Conway, a researcher for the Alabama Center for Real Estate, a think tank at the University of Alabama.

Study confirms no such thing as negative calorie food
 Dunya News – April 20
There are few vegetables dieters worship more than celery. With only a handful of calories per stalk, this bright green leaf is often touted as a negative-energy snack, tougher to chew and digest than it’s worth … “Regardless of the [calories] in the food, you’re always going to be able to get something out of it,” senior author Stephen Secor from the University of Alabama told LiveScience.

The Haunting Power of “In The Pines”
SLATE – April 19
Kurt Cobain died 25 years ago this month, and the weekend after his body was found, MTV ran the MTV Unplugged special on a loop … “The way he delivered that song, it really felt like he was almost foreseeing his own demise,” says Eric Weisbard, a music critic and professor of American studies at the University of Alabama. And however romantic and absurd that sounds, nonetheless I think that was a real experience that many people had watching that.”
KANW-FM (Albuquerque, New Mexico) – April 19

Hodges’ Meteorite
WCIUDT2 (Chicago, Illinois) – April 20
Don’t believe it? Well, go see it for yourself. The meteorite that hit Ann Hodges is currently on display at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.