William Henry McMullen II Trust donates $2 million to UAH College of Science to fund chemistry initiatives
On Friday, the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) College of Science announced that it has received a $2 million gift from the William Henry McMullen III Trust to fund three initiatives in the Department of Chemistry. Barbara Wadsworth, McMullen’s daughter, selected UAH for the donation to honor the memory of her father, an analytical chemist. “It was auspicious that we had come up with this at the same time that UAH had just started to develop the Ph.D. in chemistry,” Wadsworth said. “That was the deciding factor on my part because then it would make a difference.” The first of the three initiatives is the William Henry McMullen III Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. Its goal is to attract and retain exceptional chemistry students and internationally recognized chemistry researchers. UAH President Dr. Charles Karr said that acquiring outstanding graduate students to invigorate and attract faculty members is essential in the initial phase of building the Ph.D. program. “Barbara Wadsworth’s remarkable generosity will allow us to jump-start an area of great need at UAH, namely an increase in the production of Ph.D. graduates,” Karr said. “As a consequence of this gift, the Department of Chemistry will be able to immediately recruit high-quality Ph.D. students for their program, something that will accelerate the development of the program. Being able to do this while honoring the incredible life of her father, William Henry McMullen III, is a blessing for all of us involved. We are extremely grateful and tremendously proud to be able to utilize this gift in order to advance our university and to benefit our community.” Dr. Rainer Steinwandt is the dean of the College of Science. “This generous way of honoring the legacy of William Henry McMullen III is transformative for our Department of Chemistry,” Steinwandt said. “Such impactful support enables us to strengthen our graduate program well beyond our traditional abilities, and it allows us to equip our faculty and students with the chemistry laboratories they need to excel.” The fellowship will be created with a $1 million endowment. The Department of Chemistry will nominate current and prospective UAH students for this award of $40,000 to cover their tuition, single coverage health insurance, and a stipend for the academic year. The other two initiatives will support the laboratories that are vital to the work of these students and faculty members. The William Henry McMullen III Laboratories Fund is an endowment of $750,000, which will be used to maintain and replace instrumentation in UAH’s chemistry laboratories. This will ensure continued access to state-of-the-art equipment for faculty and students. The William Henry McMullen III Chemistry Teaching Laboratory will be funded with a $250,000 gift. It will be located in the Shelby Center for Science and Technology. This space is home to the laboratory components of the department’s introduction to chemistry course as well as some general chemistry labs. McMullen passed away in 2006 at 81 in Raleigh, N.C., where he had worked with Pfizer for much of his career. He also played a role in the creation of high-fructose corn syrup. “He worked for a company at the time called Novo Industries AS, now Novo Nordisk AS, from Denmark,” Wadsworth says. “They made enzymes. The Cuban crisis was going on, which made sugar so expensive. He designed a batch system that took the most available starch, which at the time was corn, and added enzymes to it, and it made fructose. It allowed them to industrially substitute it for sugar.” High fructose corn syrup today is an ingredient in numerous foods in grocery stores today. McMullen was a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and a member of one of that city’s founding families. After serving in the U.S. Army in World War II, he returned to New York to study chemistry and start a family. He had three children: Wadsworth, a daughter- Margaret McMullen, and a son – Richard McMullen. Wadsworth came to Huntsville when her husband, E.J. “Butch” Wadsworth, a Birmingham native, went to work for Boeing as a defense contractor. She worked as a retail store manager and training store manager with the furniture company This End Up for 19 years. After that store closed, she worked for the Bombay Company. “This was a small market, but I managed to sell a lot of furniture,” Wadsworth said. “A lot of it was through relationship selling. If you sold somebody a piece of furniture for their kid to get out of the crib and into the bed, eventually, you would sell them the whole bedroom and hopefully their whole house. We had some great people that you knew from the time their kids were born until their kids went off to college.” “He loved being in the lab,” Wadsworth said of her father. “Of course, you have to have the ability to interface with others, and you have to grow in your business, so he couldn’t stay in the lab. But he would have stayed there for the rest of his life if he could have.” She recalls her father taking his grandsons to his lab. “He taught them chemical experiments that completely overwhelmed them,” Wadsworth reminisced. “He’d turn water blue, or he’d make something smoke, or he’d freeze something, and it would break. He really enjoyed making an impression on young people.” UAH is a part of the University of Alabama System. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Etowah County Republican Party passes resolution urging Alabama Public Library Service to withdraw from American Library Association
The Etowah County Republican Party is the latest conservative group to voice concerns about the state of libraries in this country and express concerns that the institutions are being used to indoctrinate children in age-inappropriate sexually explicit content. The group is calling for Alabama’s libraries to disaffiliate from the American Library Association (ALA). At their November meeting, the Etowah County Republican party unanimously passed a resolution condemning exposing minor children to inappropriate content in public libraries and calling for the Alabama Public Library Services (APLS), the Alabama Library Association (ALLA), and all seven local Etowah County libraries to individually disassociate from the American Library Association. The Etowah GOP said in a statement, “The ALA has long been a conduit to allow libraries across the county to bring in pornographic and age-inappropriate books. Parents are called “Book Banners” when they advocate to relocate inappropriate books in the children and youth section of local libraries to the adult section of the library as the American Library Association Bill of Rights deems this as censorship.” Amy Dozier Minton is the Secretary of the Etowah County Republican Party. “It should be known that we are in support of and greatly appreciate the majority of the services and programs provided by our Etowah County libraries,” Minton said in a statement. “The library directors and staff have always been very professional and courteous. However, some of our local Etowah County libraries are full of books, paid for by our tax dollars, that the ALA recommends on “gender identity,”; choosing your own pronouns; and transgenderism that have been recommended by the ALA even for children 0-5 years old. An online search in the library’s card catalog under the search of “gender identity” will lead to a full listing of many of these books in the children and young adult sections.” “Why does the ALA feel it necessary to encourage books on sexualizing our children and teens?” Mintor continued. “Why does it include a section under intellectual freedom on how to advocate for “Drag queen story hour” in our libraries with our children?” And why should our tax dollars in Alabama be funding ALA?” “Our children are called dependents for a reason,” Minton concluded. “We don’t allow children to drive, carry a firearm, drink alcohol, vote, marry, join the military, attend certain rated movies before they are physically and/or mentally capable, and being exposed to some information should also not be freely available to wander upon in the children or young adult sections of a library but rather at the time of their parents choosing. We are not in support of “banning books” in America, so adults should be able to check out any books they want in the adult section.” Minton was recently appointed to the Etowah County Library Committee. The group cited the fact that ALA’s President Emily Drabinski, who is a self-proclaimed Marxist, in her words stated she wants to “turn libraries into spaces of Queerness and difference rather than democracy and Citizenship.” Drabinski called herself a Marxist in a now-deleted post on X. In an interview in August, Drabinski said of the post, “I was excited to highlight and celebrate two aspects of my identity that are really important to me and are often under a lot of scrutiny. I didn’t anticipate these kinds of targeted attacks being used as a bludgeon against library workers across the country. I really think that is regrettable, and I wish that wasn’t happening right now.” The group also claimed that the ALA has long been a conduit to allow libraries across the county to bring in pornographic and age-inappropriate books and that parents are called “Book Banners” when they advocate relocating inappropriate books in the children and youth section of local libraries to the adult section of the library as the American Library Association Bill of Rights deems this as censorship. The Resolution urges, “The Directors of local libraries as well as those in leadership to appoint candidates to local library boards who reflect conservative values and will ensure that sexually explicit, obscene content or gender ideology/transgender material not be available within reach to children, teens or young adults nor accessible on the internet on public computers, and will encourage reading instead of indoctrination. (While we do not support ‘book banning,’ any books could be available in the adult section of the library and may be checked out by an adult over the age of 18.)” .It also urges that the “Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) and the Etowah County public libraries to disaffiliate from the American Library Association (ALA) and its affiliates which espouse a philosophy of collectivism, i.e., communism and Marxism and who have stated in their Library Bill of Rights that the rights of minors to retrieve, interact with and create information posted on the Internet in libraries are extensions of their First Amendment rights.” The Resolution further expresses support for “legislative action to make it a policy in Etowah County that all elected officials may not allow or authorize the display, promotion, or availability of obscene, sexually explicit, gender ideology/transgender materials to minor children, teens or young adults and are directed to remove the aforesaid.” Governor Kay Ivey and Alabama Republican Party John Wahl, both APLS board members, have denounced the ALA and expressed support for disaffiliation in recent weeks. The Alabama Public Library Service is expected to vote on whether or not to disaffiliate from the American Library Association at their next meeting. This is likely to be an area that the Legislature will address in the 2024 Alabama Regular Legislative Session. Critics argue that this amounts to censorship and is an effort on the part of conservatives to silence the LGBTQ+ community and limit their influence on children. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Tommy Tuberville wants aid for Israel separated from aid for Ukraine
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) spoke on the Senate floor about what he sees as the importance of separating funding for Israel from aid for Ukraine. Sen. Tuberville reiterated his support for Israel and called on Democrats to prioritize Israel’s fight against terrorism. He also urged Democrats to defund the hiring of 80,000 new IRS agents. “I join my colleagues on the floor to support our ally, Israel,” Sen. Tuberville said. “On October the seventh, Israel was suddenly and deliberately attacked by Hamas terrorists. The terrorists targeted innocent people – not military targets. That’s very important. They killed thousands of civilians, including dozens of Americans. They filmed their own atrocities and put videos on the internet. They were very proud of what they were doing. It is absolutely disgraceful.” “The United States has supported Israel from the very beginning,” Tuberville continued. “The first leader in the world to recognize Israel was Harry Truman. Administrations from both parties have strongly supported Israel. But now the Biden Administration is trying to ride the fence. Joe Biden knows that his voting base does not like Israel. The left dislikes Israel. In their woke ideology, they say Palestinians are oppressed by Israel. It’s just not true. Since the war broke out in October, liberals in Congress and around the country have expressed sympathy for Hamas. It’s been especially bad on college campuses. I’m not even going to repeat some of the things that have been said by Democrat members of Congress.” Tuberville has been an outspoken critic of the Biden Administration’s foreign policy. “Joe Biden has also continued to practice appeasement of Iran. When Joe Biden took office, Iran was dead broke,” Tuberville continued. “They had access to just a few billion dollars in foreign currencies. Today, they have ten times that much money. This is because of loosened sanctions and because of oil sales by Iran. Iran is the number one sponsor of terrorism in the world. Iran provides funding for Hamas and for Hezbollah. Joe Biden is helping Iran to get rich. There is no question that sanctions relief for Iran will end up in the hands of terrorists. Joe Biden wants to ride the fence, but we can’t ride the fence on this one, not for our ally. This is a battle between good and evil. This is about an ally of the United States of America fighting terrorists who kill innocent women and children. And let’s remember the terrorists killed Americans too. Hamas would love to kill more Americans, and they will kill more Americans if they get the chance.” While Tuberville helped block the aid package in the Senate, he does support the House version that funds Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza but does not fund Ukraine in their war against Russia and which pays for the aid by eliminating partisan funding passed in the last Congress to dramatically enlarge the number of IRS enforcement agents the agency fields. “So, Israel needs to wage a war of extermination against Hamas,” Tuberville explained. “I’m supporting this legislation to provide fourteen billion in aid to Israel. Unlike the Democrats’ requests for foreign aid, this is paid for. We pay for it by canceling out the Democrats’ plan to supersize the IRS. Are they more important than Israel? Last year, the Democrats cut the IRS a check for eighty billion dollars. They’re planning to hire eighty thousand new IRS agents. They want to double the size of the IRS. They want to shake down the American people for every last dime. The wealthy, they’ll be just fine. The wealthy have tax lawyers and accountants. It’s families and small businesses who will pay this price. A report from the joint tax committee says that the Democrats’ bill last year raised taxes on almost every tax bracket.” Tuberville said that he stands unequivocally with Israel and is horrified by the rise of antisemitism among Democrats, especially on college campuses. Tommy Tuberville was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Katie Britt questions top bank about economic consequences of the Biden Administration’s Basel III Endgame Proposal
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) participated in a Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing featuring testimony from the CEOs of the eight globally systemic banks (G-SIBs) in the United States. The witnesses were Charles Scharf of Wells Fargo, Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Jane Fraser of Citigroup, Ronald Hanley of State Street, Robin Vince of BNY Mellon, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, and James Gorman of Morgan Stanley. Britt asked Wells Fargo’s Scharf whether the Basel III Endgame proposed rule, recently issued jointly by three federal banking regulators, would affect lending at rural bank branches, especially given that over 42% of residents in Alabama live in rural areas. “Well, Senator, we are going to be commenting to the Federal Reserve,” Scharf said.“We do think there are a series of asset classes, when you look at the increases in capital that are proposed, [that] would affect both the availability of credit and the pricing of credit in the marketplace. And additionally, as we’ve seen in other asset classes when regulation like this has taken hold, you can see substantial migration outside of the regulated banking system.” Britt asked Bank of America’s Moynihan, “Briefly explain this trickle-down effect, and if your banks are squeezed by the requirements of this rule, what does this ultimately mean for maybe small business owners seeking a loan, a first-time home buyer, or a small financial institution in, let’s say Alabama?” Moynihan responded, “Thank you, Senator. As Mr. Scharf said, and we talked about a lot today, if you have the same capital requirements increase by 20 percent to do the exact same activities you did yesterday, you have to get a higher return, and that higher return will be borne by the customer base, or you’ll have to leave the business. And either one of those is not good for the customer base, and it applies across the board.” “In fact, the idea that this doesn’t trickle down through the banking system. Overall, we provide services to a lot of those smaller banks, and those costs of those services will go up to them,” Moynihan added. “And, so, it has much more of an impact than people think.” “Would it be an inaccurate statement for regulators to assume that under this threshold, those under the hundred-billion-dollar asset mark, they have said, you know, they won’t feel the impacts of this?” Britt asked. “So, my question for you is, will those institutions and people and things that I just mentioned under the hundred-billion-dollar [asset] mark, that are quote, “not affected by this,” will they feel the impacts of Basel III? Just if we can ‘yes’ or ‘no’ down the line.” Scharf replied, “Ultimately, yes.” Moynihan answered by nodding his head in affirmation. Dimon answered, “Absolutely. You provide a lot of services.” Fraser replied, “Yes. The trickle-down effect is real.” Hanley said, “Yes. It’s an integrated system.” Vince replied, “Yes, Senator, that’s likely.” Solomon said, “Yes, I agree.” Gorman answered, “Yes.” Britt asked, “And last but not least, if this rule is implemented as written, do we risk putting the United States banking sector at a global competitive disadvantage? Mrs. Fraser, do you mind answering that?” “Yes, we will,” answered Citigroup’s Fraser. “We already have an unlevel playing field with the European banks. The American banks play an incredibly important role globally in the financial system and ultimately affect the competitiveness of American companies. This is important.” The Biden administration wants to raise the reserve capital requirements on large banks. Critics of this move are concerned that that will lead to fewer dollars available economy-wide to borrowers meaning higher interest rates and fewer American families and businesses having access to credit. Vice Chair for Supervision of the Federal Reserve Michael Barr told the committee that he believed the proposed rule would have a “minimal impact on lending.” Britt questions the need for the new proposal and worries about there being a trickle-down effect from this tightened regulation. “Over the last year, we have seen a host of incredibly complex and market-altering rules come out of nearly every financial federal agency,” Britt said. “Interestingly, five of our top financial regulators sat before this very committee last month and unanimously told me that they believed the U.S. banking system to be strong, while at the same time, they argued for proposals that could fundamentally weaken it without providing any adequate answer to the question, ‘Why?’” “At the end of the day, the G-SIBs play a vital role in the U.S. economy, and I don’t want to diminish that,” Britt said. “However, I do want to focus on downstream. So, impacts on, let’s say, Alabama’s smaller financial institutions, small businesses across the country, those in manufacturing and energy sectors, individuals seeking maybe a short-term liquidity, to help pay their bills. I think the list of these potentially impacted goes on and on and on and on. And on this point, your banks have said that by raising capital requirements by nearly 20 percent, the proposal would ultimately limit access to capital across the board and undermine economic growth.” “The rule assumes that banks are significantly undercapitalized for operational risk but yet cites no evidence to support this assumption,” Britt said recently of the proposed rules change. “Not only are these risks already accounted for in stress testing, but the new standardized approach is not tailored to the varying business models of various banks. Katie Britt was elected to the Senate in 2022. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Americans plan to spend more this Christmas than in two decades
Americans plan to spend nearly $1,000 this Christmas, newly released polling shows. Gallup polling shows that Americans expect to spend $975 this holiday season on Christmas presents and other holiday gifts. That figure is the highest since 1999. “Last year at this time, U.S. holiday retail sales seemed poised to increase by between about 4% and 6%, according to Gallup’s modeling comparing its holiday spending estimate trends with actual holiday retail sales for each year. In fact, average November-December 2022 retail sales (not including autos and gas) increased by 6.2%,” Gallup said. This increase in spending could be good news for retailers. “The same modeling procedure applied to Americans’ restrained spending estimate this October suggested holiday sales would increase by about 4% — a relatively moderate rate of annual growth similar to the long-term average,” Gallup said. “Now, with consumers’ spending estimate rising to $975, it appears year-over-year holiday sales could grow by somewhere between 6% and 9%.” Spending on holiday gifts took a sharp dip during the 2007-2008 financial recession but has steadily risen since then. “Americans’ November forecast for their holiday gift spending has more than recovered from the $616 low recorded during the 2008 financial crisis when it had tumbled by $250 from the year prior,” Gallup said. “Since then, it has generally trended upward, although it was fairly steady near $850 for the past four years before surging well past that this year.” While Americans will spend more on gifts this year than in years past, they may not get much more for it since inflation has risen more than 17% since President Joe Biden took office. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
AGs, industry groups sue feds over new water rule
A group of attorneys general and industry organizations are suing the federal government over a new water protection rule that went into effect last month. The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana to vacate the 2023 rule, which went into effect on Nov. 27, and block the EPA from enforcing it, leaving a Trump-era rule in place. The EPA says the final rule under the Clean Water Act “enhances certification review and provides regulatory certainty to advance federally permitted projects” by creating a 6-month default timeframe for certification agreements with a one-year maximum for review. “The rule emphasizes that states, territories, and Tribes may only consider the adverse water quality-impacts from the activity,” the EPA said in September. “To limit delays, the rule also provides a clear approach to defining the required contents in a request for certification.” The plaintiffs argue the changes are “sweeping and unlawful.” “The 2023 Water Quality Certification Rule is arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of the EPA’s discretion, exceeds the statutory authority on which it relies and is otherwise contrary to law,” the complaint says. The American Petroleum Institute, Interstate National Gas Association of America, and National Hydropower Association are listed as plaintiffs, along with attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming. “The Trump administration’s reforms preserved the role of states in protecting their water quality while stopping states acting in bad faith and abusing the process to achieve unrelated policy goals and stopping or delaying nationally important projects and critical infrastructure,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said in a statement. “In its new rule, [Joe] Biden’s EPA has once again turned the Clean Water Act on its head, ignoring congressional intent and exceeding its authority.” Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Louisiana’s economic growth outpaces 40 states despite some concerning data
Louisiana’s gross domestic product jumped 3.2% in the second quarter of 2023, faster than 40 other states, though experts contend the data doesn’t tell the whole story. Figures released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Tuesday show Louisiana’s gross domestic product 3.2% bump in the second quarter outpaced 40 other states, including all states east of the Mississippi River except West Virginia at 3.6%. The growth in Louisiana compared to declines in neighboring Mississippi of 1.8% and Arkansas at negative 0.4%, while Texas was up 4.9%. The national average GDP growth was 2.1%. The rate increased in 46 states and the District of Columbia in the second quarter, ranging from 8.3% in Kansas to negative 4.3% in North Dakota. Gov. John Bel Edwards touted Louisiana’s top-10 growth rate as “yet another sign that our hard work is paying off.” “We have the lowest unemployment rate in state history. We have increased capital investment every year since 2017, including three consecutive years of more than $20 billion for the first time in our state’s history,” he said in a statement. “And our economic growth is expected to continue. Economist Loren Scott recently predicted that Louisiana will add 80,000 more jobs in 2024 and 2025 thanks to our success positioning Louisiana as a leader in the global energy transition.” Vance Ginn, economist with the Pelican Institute, told The Center Square there is more to the numbers in Louisiana that’s not obvious in the bureau data. “When you look into the contributions of real GDP … the government portion increased by 0.1%, so if you subtract that off because government really is just a redistribution of money from the private sector, the real private economy increased by 3.1%,” he said. “That shows there’s still some weakness out there, but the economy was growing,” Ginn said. “The contributions really were from oil and gas activity, mining activity, durable goods in the manufacturing sector, and professional business services, while there were a lot of other industries and sectors that declined in the second quarter.” Ginn said those declines are a “cause for concern” that became apparent in October, when “there were job losses across Louisiana. “That’s something we really need to be watching moving forward,” he said. “There’s a lot more room for better policies to support more economic growth of less government spending, … putting income taxes on a path to elimination, and reducing regulations.” “That’s the way to really make sure we have a comeback story in Louisiana that is sustainable,” Ginn said. Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Techstars Demo Day highlights energy innovators’ Alabama experience
A dozen energy tech startups on Tuesday got to strut their stuff during Demo Day for the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator – the fourth cohort of energy-sector entrepreneurs to converge in Birmingham for a 13-week mentoring program that continues to grow its reputation across the globe. This year’s cohort included companies from nine states and the nation of Latvia. Founded in 2020, the program so far has welcomed 42 companies from across the U.S. and beyond. Not including the latest graduating class, Techstars Alabama companies have created over 200 jobs. Of that number, 32 positions have remained in the state, helping expand Alabama’s innovation economy. Tuesday’s Demo Day drew hundreds of business leaders, energy and tech entrepreneurs and enthusiasts, and investors to the Red Mountain Theatre campus in downtown Birmingham. The event provided a forum for the 12 companies chosen for this year’s cohort to showcase their products, their accomplishments to date, and their plans for growth. During their presentations, several companies announced new partnerships and commitments from investors, with one company unveiling a name change. Learn more about the dozen presenters and their companies here. Cohort members also praised their experience in Birmingham, a city many of them had never visited before being accepted into the accelerator. This year, the accelerator moved into Birmingham’s Innovation Depot, giving the entrepreneurs access to dozens of startups that operate from the long-running incubator, as well as additional business experts and depot programs. Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator is focused on nurturing promising startups working in fields related to climate tech, clean tech, and energy efficiency, including energy distribution, smart grids, electric vehicle technology, and renewables. Myla Calhoun, vice president of Alabama Power’s Birmingham Division, welcomed attendees to Demo Day, which included a vibrant networking reception. Alabama Power is among the key supporters of the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator, along with the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, the Alabama Department of Commerce, PowerSouth, the University of Alabama, and Southern Research. The Birmingham program is part of the Techstars global network of accelerators, which was expected to invest worldwide in more than 600 companies this year. To learn more about the Techstars Alabama EnergyTech Accelerator, click here. Republished with the permission of The Alabama News Center.
