Alabama’s enterprise recruitment staff wrapped up its mission on the 2022 Farnborough Worldwide Airshow with its sights on at the least six development undertaking alternatives and contemporary insights into the developments shaping the way forward for aerospace, aviation and protection.
Whereas in London and at Farnborough, the Alabama working staff engaged in additional than a dozen scheduled appointments with trade executives, in addition to quite a few casual discussions with officers at aerospace corporations.
The undertaking potentialities unearthed in the course of the present have been break up between new amenities and expansions at current Alabama websites.
“We come away from Farnborough 2022 with a greater understanding of the instructions and alternatives that exist inside the trade,” stated Greg Canfield, secretary of the Alabama Division of Commerce. “Due to the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, aerospace corporations are realizing they want redundancies of their provide chain, and that’s one thing we will capitalize on.
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“One other development revolves across the expertise development going down within the trade, significantly within the realm of hypersonics, and there are stable development alternatives for Alabama in that,” he stated.
Canfield stated talks in the course of the Farnborough mission point out there’s potential for Alabama to learn from the large funding that may happen inside the aerospace and aviation sectors in the course of the subsequent 5 years.
Concentrating on aerospace
Alabama communities represented at Farnborough are making strikes to faucet into the funding wave.
A type of is the Birmingham area. Its strategic efforts to develop its aerospace sector obtained a lift from an announcement at Farnborough that protection contractor Kratos plans to develop its superior ideas engineering heart within the metropolis. The $8.6 million funding will create 76 high-paying jobs.
“A significant focus for Kratos is hypersonics. For us the query is: How can we make ourselves extra interesting for that and develop on what Kratos is doing?” Jefferson County Commissioner Steve Ammons stated.
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The Birmingham metro space, whose inhabitants exceeds 1 million, is well-suited for aero trade development, he stated. For starters, it has a big out there workforce, plus upskilling coaching applications. The Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Worldwide Airport can accommodate upkeep, restore and operations (MRO) amenities and plane mechanic coaching initiatives.
As well as, a teamwork effort to win Kratos has strengthened the partnership between Jefferson County and the town of Birmingham on the financial improvement entrance, Ammons stated.
“We now have to diversify the Birmingham area’s economic system. We now have nice alternative in bio and life sciences, in automotive and now in tech. However with the trade’s trajectory of development and the place it’s going, we have to have a footprint in aerospace,” Ammons stated.
Monitoring developments
Bob Smith, the Commerce Division’s level man on aerospace, stated a number of key themes emerged throughout talks at Farnborough 2022 that shall be monitored intently by the Alabama staff.
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First, the trade’s long-standing concentrate on effectivity has been elevated by the pandemic, leading to streamlining and consolidation in staffing. There’s additionally a powerful merger development as main corporations mix and smaller suppliers turn into acquisition targets, Smith stated.
In aviation, single-aisle passenger plane — just like the A320 and A220 jets produced by Airbus in Cell — proceed to dominate orders. Smith stated projections present that the worldwide plane fleet will develop by 80% in the course of the subsequent 20 years, due to natural development and a rush by operators to interchange older planes with fuel-efficient new fashions.
Within the protection sector, the eye is on hypersonic applied sciences and superior supplies, he stated.
“We now have Alabama corporations well-positioned in these segments, and we mentioned how we may help their efforts to be aggressive and compete for market share,” Smith stated. “The necessity for college/firm/workforce collaborations was introduced up persistently and underscores the urgency of addressing shortages of mandatory ability units and numbers of wanted employees.”
How can Alabama keep on high of the trade’s altering instructions?
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“Our greatest alternative for capitalizing on the developments transferring the aerospace trade is to do exactly what we did right here in Farnborough — that’s, conserving the relationships open and the dialogues going down,” Canfield stated. “This enables us to higher perceive from the businesses what their alternatives appear to be, in addition to what their dangers are. Then we will higher articulate how we generally is a associate to assist them benefit from these alternatives and cut back their dangers.”
This story initially appeared on the Alabama Division of Commerce’s Made in Alabama web site.
The SEC has taken the men’s college basketball world by storm this season. When this week began, the SEC had nine teams in The Associated Press top 25, including six in the top 10.
Auburn and Alabama are in the top 10 and making their marks as favorites to win the national championship. Before they cut down the nets in the Final Four, they will try to win a conference championship.
The SEC regular season conference winner odds for Auburn and Alabama show a pair of teams expected to be there at the end. That’s what we are examining today.
Note: Odds are based on the best value our experts find as of publication; check lines closer to game time to ensure you get the best odds.
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SEC regular season conference winner odds
These are the odds for each team to win the SEC regular season men’s basketball conference title from BetMGM Sportsbook:
Team
BetMGM odds to win SEC regular season
Auburn
-115
Alabama
+450
Tennessee
+500
Florida
+800
Kentucky
+1800
Mississippi State
+2000
Texas A&M
+2000
Ole Miss
+5000
Arkansas
100-to-1
Georgia
125-to-1
Oklahoma
125-to-1
Texas
125-to-1
Missouri
200-to-1
Vanderbilt
200-to-1
LSU
250-to-1
South Carolina
250-to-1
The top five teams in this betting odds market rank in the top eight in this week’s AP poll. The next two are not far behind at Nos. 10 and 14. After that, the odds drop significantly, but even Ole Miss is a top-25 team.
Don’t nitpick about how the odds and rankings compare. Tennessee entered this week undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the nation but lost to Florida on the road by 30 points. With so much parity in college basketball, the regular season is more of a survival challenge than an expectation to win every game.
Auburn and Alabama were among the favorites to win the regular season title when the season began and both teams have played well thus far. They’ll be favorites if they win a large majority of their games and beat a couple of fellow contenders along the way.
Auburn SEC championship odds
Sportsbook
SEC championship odds
BetMGM
-115
FanDuel
-130
DraftKings
-105
No. 2-ranked Auburn (14-1) has lit the court on fire throughout its 14-1 start, including marquee wins over Houston, North Carolina, Iowa State and Purdue. The Tigers’ only loss came on the road against Duke.
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The biggest spark has been forward Johni Broome, who averages 18.7 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 2.7 blocks. His performance has catapulted him to the top of the Wooden Award odds listed by DraftKings Sportsbook. Broome has odds of -280 while Duke’s Cooper Flagg is at +230. No other player has odds better than 16-to-1.
Broome is the MVP, but five other Auburn players average at least 10 points per game. That’s an incredible feat in this day of college basketball.
The Tigers rank fourth in the nation in points per game with 87.9. They rank first in blocks per game with 6.9 and 26th in shooting percentage allowed at 39.2%
Auburn hits the road to play South Carolina on Saturday before returning home to face No. 14 Mississippi State on Tuesday. A home game against Tennessee looms Jan. 25.
Alabama SEC championship odds
Sportsbook
SEC Championship odds
BetMGM
+450
FanDuel
+380
DraftKings
+550
No. 5 Alabama (13-2) has had an incredible season with the only blemishes being losses to Oregon and Purdue. The Crimson Tide have big wins over Illinois, Houston, North Carolina and Oklahoma.
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The whole SEC schedule will be tough, but the next three games especially stand out for Alabama. The Tide play Texas A&M on the road, Ole Miss at home and Kentucky on the road.
Like Auburn, Alabama has balanced scoring at the top. Five players average double figures, led by Mark Sears’ 18.3 points. Fellow returner Grant Nelson has been pivotal, too. He averages 13.1 points and a team-high 8.8 rebounds.
If Alabama is going to win the regular season title, it will have to earn it over the final handful of games. The Tide’s final five games are against Kentucky, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Florida and Auburn.
North Alabama Lions (10-6, 2-1 ASUN) at Stetson Hatters (4-12, 2-1 ASUN)
DeLand, Florida; Saturday, 4 p.m. EST
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BOTTOM LINE: North Alabama visits Stetson after Jacari Lane scored 22 points in North Alabama’s 75-70 loss to the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
The Hatters have gone 3-3 at home. Stetson has a 0-2 record in one-possession games.
The Lions have gone 2-1 against ASUN opponents. North Alabama has a 0-1 record in games decided by less than 4 points.
Stetson’s average of 8.1 made 3-pointers per game this season is only 0.2 fewer made shots on average than the 8.3 per game North Alabama allows. North Alabama has shot at a 45.7% rate from the field this season, 0.9 percentage points greater than the 44.8% shooting opponents of Stetson have averaged.
The Hatters and Lions square off Saturday for the first time in ASUN play this season.
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TOP PERFORMERS: Mehki is averaging 15.8 points for the Hatters.
Corneilous Williams is averaging 9.8 points and 8.4 rebounds for the Lions.
LAST 10 GAMES: Hatters: 3-7, averaging 74.5 points, 30.5 rebounds, 12.2 assists, 6.2 steals and 3.4 blocks per game while shooting 42.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 82.0 points per game.
Lions: 6-4, averaging 76.3 points, 34.6 rebounds, 13.5 assists, 7.3 steals and 3.0 blocks per game while shooting 45.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 70.2 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WIAT) — State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey said student’s mental health, and cell phone use are at the top of his priorities this year.
“We certainly have a mental health crisis in families,” he said. “And particularly in youth in this country, and we want to make sure we’re addressing that.”
That crisis, Dr. Mackey said, is fueled by cell phone use and social media. He said this is a concern that he will be very vocal about in the upcoming legislative session.
“It’s really limiting social media. But, the only way we can get social media away from students during the school day is to limit the access to cell phones or smartphones,” Dr. Mackey said.
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Rep. Mary Moore (D-Birmingham) said it’s not just about cell phone use in schools. She wants to see a better pay frequency for educators, and recruiting in this session.
“Some of the problems that we have is recruiting the type of; not only educators, but child nutrition workers, custodians, bus drivers, and people that can be committed to the system,” she remarked. “If the system was committed to them.”
Rep. Susan DuBose (R-Hoover) said cell phones should be put away from bell to bell. She said she wants to put more money towards the school choice program.
“We probably, with our current budget of $100 million allocated to school choice, only have room for up to 16,000 students,” said DuBose. She said over 11,000 students have applied to the program so far. “So, in less than a week, we’ve almost already utilized our full budget allocation.”
Besides cell phone use, Dr. Mackey said the board wants to see reading and math scores continue to go up. And, he said extended learning programs like after school and summer school will be key in 2025.
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“Those times that we have children outside of the regular school day, how are we using that time to make sure that we are promoting learning?” said Dr. Mackey. “But also, promoting high quality childhood, keeping those children off the streets, out of trouble, and in very good, engaging programs.”
Dr. Mackey said he doesn’t know what the solution will be to cell phone use in the classroom. Some bills have already been pre-filed for the upcoming session that address the topic.
The 2025 legislative session starts on February 4th.