Category: Uncategorized
Scott Fairfield
West Jefferson
Lowery, Fultondale
New Drug Shows Promise for Treatment of Diabetes, UAB Researcher Says
After 30 years of research and the screening of 300,000 compounds, a new drug has shown promise in mice and larger animals to control blood glucose in Types I and II of diabetes, UAB announced Thursday.
“Diabetes is a serious disease,” said Dr. Anath Shaler, director of UAB’s Comprehensive Diabetes Center. A Center for Disease Control report this year found 34.2 million Americans, or 1 in 10, have diabetes.
“It is a major public health problem worldwide, with the South particularly hard hit over the years,” Shaler said.
“In fact, the prevalence of diabetes in adults in Alabama is over 15%, which is really huge,” she added.
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DOJ Finds Excessive Use of Force In Alabama’s Male Prisons
In a report released Thursday, U.S. justice officials said men confined to Alabama’s prisons are subject to excessive force at the hands of correctional officers. They said the issue is pervasive and systemic and likely violates the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
In the 30-page document, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the three U.S. Attorney’s Offices for Alabama said prison staff regularly use batons, chemical spray and physical attacks to improperly and unjustly punish inmates. They said the excessive force can result in serious injury or death, citing two men who died in 2019 at the hands of correctional officers. Autopsies found both men were beaten so badly, they were left with intracranial bleeding and multiple head and body fractures.
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Senate Passes General Fund Budget, Stakes Domain Over Coronavirus Funds
The Alabama Senate on Tuesday passed a General Fund budget totaling $2.389 billion. It includes modest increases for mental health, public health and state prisons, but no state employee pay raises that were expected earlier this year.
The fiscal year 2021 budget, which pays for non-education state agencies and services, contains $167 million more than the budget for the current fiscal year, but less than the record levels projected before the coronavirus outbreak impacted the state’s economy.
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Small Business Loans Site Crashes Amid Flood of New PPP Applications
Alabama bankers couldn’t access the federal Paycheck Protection Program application site on Monday so that small businesses hurt by the coronavirus could apply for the loans.
Alabama Bankers Association President Scott Latham said the U.S. Small Business Administration promised that its systems would be prepared for action on Monday, but they were not.
“Despite the agency’s efforts to be ready, it has failed,” Latham said in a press release.
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COVID-19 Deaths Grow to 197 in Alabama
Alabama reported 5,677 confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, with deaths increasing to 197.
Since the pandemic began, 768 people have been hospitalized with the disease in Alabama. Read more.
Alabama’s COVID-19 Numbers: 1,265 Confirmed Cases, 17 Deaths
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Alabama climbed today to 1,265, the state Department of Public Health reported. The agency said it has confirmed 17 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic and is investigating the cause of death of another 15 people who had tested positive for COVID-19.
The total number of people diagnosed with the disease rose by 104 since Wednesay night, but the number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 remained the same.
Jefferson County continued to have the most cases in the state with 327. But the state’s most populous county still had no confirmed deaths from the disease, though health officials were investigating the deaths of five people who had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
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Alabama COVID-19 Death Toll Rises to 13, Five More Being Checked
Alabama’s death toll from COVID-19 rose this morning from six to 13, and the state Public Health Department reported it was looking into five more deaths of people who had been diagnosed with the disease.
The department said there have been three deaths from the coronavirus pandemic in Chambers County and two deaths each in Lee and Shelby counties. These counties reported one death each: Jackson, Lauderdale, Madison, Mobile, Montgomery and Tallapoosa. Officials did not say where the other five deaths occurred. The department verifies the cause of death before adding a case to its official lisst.
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