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Informational Workshop for TEMPO Satellite, Finalists Announced for State Superintendent

TEMPO data
NASA
Example of data TEMPO will provide

NASA is inviting scientists to use data from a satellite set for launch around 2020.

The program is called Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO. It’s designed to look for pollution in the upper atmosphere. NASA is teaming with the University of Alabama in Huntsville for a workshop on how scientists can get data from the TEMPO satellite for their research.

Professor Michael Newchurch came up with the idea of having the application workshop at the university. He says he only expected twenty to thirty people to attend.

“It’s not a science workshop. This is about talking to and listening to the users, and we have a broad spectrum of users. We’re up to about one hundred and thirty registered people for this workshop already, and they come from all over the country, all walks of life. Quite a broad spectrum of users.”

The workshop is a way for scientists on the TEMPO project to answer questions that general users may have about the data and workings of the satellite.

Six finalists have made the short list to replace Tommy Bice as the next school superintendent of Alabama.

The state Department of Education announced the finalists yesterday. They include three local school superintendents, one of whom previously served in the state education department.

The finalists are Bill Evers, a research fellow at Stanford University; Dee Fowler, superintendent of Madison City Schools; Janet Womack, superintendent of Florence City Schools; Craig Pouncey, superintendent of Jefferson County Schools and former deputy state superintendent; Jeana Ross, secretary of the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education; Michael Sentence, an education consultant and former education adviser to the governor of Massachusetts.

Members of the state Board of Education will interview the six candidates in early August. The board began searching for a new superintendent after Tommy Bice announced his retirement in March.

Physical education teachers will be sharpening their skills today at the University of South Alabama.

The campus is hosting a health and physical education conference featuring activities including bowling.

Nancy Ray is a health and physical education specialist with the state Department of Education. She says the conference is looking for a specific type of teacher.

“Any physical education teacher in the state of Alabama that teaches kindergarten through 12th grade at a public or private school, or even our pre-service students that are in the universities that are going for certification in physical education, can attend.”

If you’re interested in more information on today’s event, go to the Alabama Department of Education website.

A new mobile game is spurring millions of people to visit landmarks and other real-world locations to capture fictional creatures on their cell phones. But one Alabama cemetery is banning people from playing on its property.

The president of Mobile Memorial Gardens, Timothy Claiborne, says a cemetery is supposed to be a place for peaceful reflection. But Claiborne tells WKRG-TV Pokémon Go players are walking around burial plots with cellphones in hand and driving cemetery roads aimlessly as part of the game.

Claiborne says the cemetery wants to keep game players away from funerals. The cemetery has put up signs saying no game playing is allowed, and workers have asked the game developer to remove the cemetery from the game map.

Pokémon Go sends players to various locations to collect various fictional creatures called Pokémon. It was created by Niantic Inc., a tech company owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc.

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