Andrew Frear. Image courtesy of Alabama Humanities Foundation.
People who made a difference will be honored Sept. 21 at the Alabama Humanities Foundation luncheon. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Cynthia Tucker will receive the Alabama Humanities Award. James Noles, a Birmingham attorney, will be honored with the Wayne Greenhaw Service Award, and the Mike & Gillian Goodrich Foundation will be given an award honoring charitable organizations giving to the Humanities.
The keynote speaker will be Andrew Freear, director of Auburn University’s acclaimed Rural Studio, which for more than two decades has worked to creatively improve housing and other structures in poor communities from its base in west Alabama’s Newbern community. The 11:30 a.m. event will be held at The Club. Tickets are $50 each, tables of eight are $500 and sponsorship levels are available. For tickets or more information, visit alabamahumanities.org.
Go see the governor — if you’re in the Rotary
In a week when the state legislature took off without finalizing the budget — when the state is in the middle of a substantial, ongoing budget crisis — people want to hear from the governor. If you’re one of them, you’ll find Gov. Robert Bentley in city center Birmingham talking to at least 250 members of the Downtown Rotary Club.
The event begins at 12:20 p.m. at the Harbert Center, 2019 Fourth Avenue N. The governor’s press office was unclear on whether non-Rotarians, other than the media, would be able to get in to see Bentley.
EWTN starts publishing venture
Irondale-based Eternal Word Television Network is getting into the book publishing business. EWTN Global Catholic Network will form a nonprofit joint venture with the New Hampshire-based Sophia Institute Press. EWTN Publishing Inc. is expected to publish books in print and electronic form.
EWTN Global Catholic Network, is the largest religious media network in the world with 11 networks reaching 250 million television households in more than 140 countries and territories. Sophia Institute publishes Catholic books and magazines as well as teaching materials for Catholic schools.
Alabama: 10th worst state for underprivileged children
In its latest listicle, Wallet Hub has ranked Alabama as the 10th worst for child welfare, out of all 50 states and Washington D.C. Wallet Hub looked at 15 “key metrics” ranging from infant mortality rates, to the rate of food-insecurity among children, to the percentage of children being abused. “By bringing such key issues to the forefront, WalletHub aims to engender change and galvanize groups to act on society’s future propellers of progress,” according to the firm’s press notice.
Here’s how Alabama stacked up in the metrics:
- 46th – percent of Children in Households with Below-Poverty Income
- 16th – percent of Maltreated Children
- 43rd – Child Food-Insecurity Rate
- 49th – Infant-Death Rate per 1,000 Births
- 45th – percent of Children in Single-Parent Families
- 31st – Ratio of Children Living in Renter-Occupied Homes to Children Living in Owner-Occupied Homes
- 44th – Child-Death Rate per 100,000 Population
WalletHub offers dire results for not just Alabama, but for the nation as a whole, according to its report. “Despite its position as one of the world’s most powerful and prosperous countries, the U.S. disappointingly has the second highest rate of child poverty among economically developed nations.
“To put that in perspective, about a fifth, or 14.7 million, of all children in America live under poverty, according to the Children’s Defense Fund. Consider these other facts: In the U.S., a baby is born into poverty every 32 seconds. And by the end of the day, 1,837 children will have been confirmed as being either abused or neglected.”
For more information, and to see the report in detail, visit: http://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-states-underprivileged-children/5403/
Southern diet – tasty but deadly
Image credit: American Heart Association
The American Heart Association this week released a study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham showing that the typical Southerner’s eating habits may be taking him to an early grave from heart attack and stroke.
Despite any evidence of Birmingham becoming a haven for haute cuisine, the study defines Southern-style eating in the time-honored terms of fried foods, fatty foods, egg dishes, processed meats, organ meats and sugar-sweetened drinks.
Apparently — and for some, this may come as a surprise — too much of that stuff will kill you, according to the researchers.
The study is one of the first to take in a “regionally and socioeconomically diverse population,” according to the AHA press release. Researchers compared the diets of more than 17,000 people, white and black, across the U.S. and determined that people who habitually ate the Southern diet had a 56 percent higher risk of heart disease when compared to those who ate it less frequently. The people most likely to eat the Southern diet are black, male, not high school graduates, or were residents of Southern states.
“No other dietary pattern was associated with the risk of heart disease,” according to the study.
“Regardless of your gender, race, or where you live, if you frequently eat a Southern-style diet you should be aware of your risk of heart disease and try to make some gradual changes to your diet,” said James M. Shikany, Dr.P.H. lead researcher and a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Division of Preventive Medicine. “Try cutting down the number of times you eat fried foods or processed meats from every day to three days a week as a start, and try substituting baked or grilled chicken or vegetable-based foods.”
The AHA, in an effort to head off what it labeled a growing health threat, worked with state legislators to pass the Healthy Food Financing Act, which provides financing to help business owners open and/or expand grocery stores in communities with little access to healthy food. AHA is also supporting a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages in Alabama to increase revenue while improving public health.
For more information, visit, http://newsroom.heart.org/news/southern-diet-could-raise-your-risk-of-heart-attack
