UA Honors students take part in Alabama Action
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Aug. 12
Over a hundred University of Alabama freshmen are getting to work even before class starts. They’re working to improve local elementary schools. The students are spending the week updating landscaping, creating a garden and outdoor classroom. It’s part of Alabama Action, which is a student created service-learning experience that allows 150 UA Honors College freshmen to respond to the needs of the community…Other freshmen are working on Taylorville Primary, a high school in Marion and cleaning up Hurricane Creek.
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Aug. 12
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) no video available – Aug. 12
ALEA: Alabama has less than half the state troopers it needs
Al.com – Aug. 12
Alabama State Troopers say they’re facing a manpower shortage. In a press release headlined “staffing at critical levels,” the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) laid out some numbers that indicate there are less than half the recommended troopers on the roads. “I am proud of our Alabama State Troopers. They diligently patrol all roadways in Alabama – state, federal, and county,” said Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier. “But we are operating at 42 percent of recommended staffing, according to a recent study by the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS), with only 418 state troopers to cover Alabama roadways which is also substantially less than surrounding and similar size states.” ALEA reports that CAPS concluded that Alabama should have a minimum of 1,016 troopers, including field supervisors, assigned to patrol the state roadways. CAPS is independent of ALEA.
WLTZ (Columbus, Ga.) – Aug. 12
ABC 31 (Huntsville) – Aug. 12
Mississippi last state to ban gay adoptions: Why that’s likely to change
Yahoo! – Aug. 12
In a span of two decades, gay Americans have gone from having almost no option to adopt a child as a couple to having adoption become a routine way for same-sex parents to create a family. That is, in 49 out of 50 states. The last state to still bar homosexual couples from adopting a child together is Mississippi. Given a lawsuit filed Wednesday, the state’s holdout position may soon change as part of a dramatic shift in thinking in the US about parental abilities and the likely success of kids raised by two moms or two dads. In the lawsuit, four same-sex couples argue that Mississippi’s ban, enacted in 2000, is legally untenable given the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage in June … “I think it’s very likely that the federal district court will invalidate the state law on equal protection grounds,” says Ronald Krotoszynski, a University of Alabama constitutional law professor. “If Obergefell requires respect for the equal dignity of all families, then it would necessarily follow that states don’t have discretion to not recognize existing family units, just because one parent is not a biological parent.”
Boston Globe – Aug. 12
The News Daily – Aug. 12
The Week – Aug. 12
Scientists discover precise location of active sites on popular catalyst
Phys.org – Aug. 13
If you want to change a situation, it’s often best to get to the heart of the matter. For chemists, this often means delving into the active sites of catalysts, which speed the reactions behind billions of dollars worth of chemicals and other products. Active sites are where the reaction actually happens. If active sites work slowly or fail quickly, the result is higher costs and lower production rates. To make better active sites, scientists need to see the sites. For the first time, a team led by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory saw the active sites on a well-known vanadium-based catalyst … In addition to the PNNL staff, the team included experts from Washington State University, the University of Alabama, and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
LETTER: Get involved or suffer consequences
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 12
Dear Editor: I’m an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Alabama. Most of my generation does not know and does not care about the coming election cycle. They are instead focused on school, or work, and have decided to leave the voting to more concerned citizens. Plato once said, “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.” This quote rings true thousands of years after the death of Plato. If my generation does not begin to develop more political efficacy, we will be governed by individuals whose views we will not agree with, who will not provide what is best for us, and this will continue until we participate. Decisions are made by those who are present. If we are not present at the voting booth next November, then our voice will not be accurately heard. Therefore, I urge my fellow Millennials to begin watching the presidential debates. (By Will Jones)
Puppy Party at UA
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 12
Nicholas Harris, a junior from McCalla, Ala., left, Kaitlyn Kilday, a senior from Thompson Station, Tenn., center, and Melissa Goldblatt, a freshman from Houston, Texas, right, play with one of five adoptable puppies on the lawn at the University of Alabama Ferguson Student Center at a Puppy Party with puppies from the Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter as part of UA’s Tied with the Tide program in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015. The Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter has about 50-70 dogs for adoption and about 20 cats.