News

6am Newscast

Thursday June 26, 2014

The Alabama Department of Agriculture says the deaths of more than 50 whitetail deer at a breeding facility in northeast Alabama has been linked to a virus.

Department officials say they worked with a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab to determine that the deer had malignant catarrhal fever, which is also known as ovine herpesvirus-2. They say domesticated sheep housed in a pen adjacent to the deer initially had the virus that spread to the deer. The sheep didn't show any symptoms.

Germany and the United States are meeting in the World Cup, and an Alabama-based group is making the most of it.

The AlabamaGermany Partnership is holding a game-watching party in Birmingham on Thursday.

The organization promotes better relations and trade between the two countries. There's a strong German influence in Huntsville because of the space industry, and the German auto company Mercedes-Benz has a plant in Tuscaloosa County.

5pm Newscast

Wednesday June 25, 2014

The state attorney general's office says its prosecution of former state Senate leader Lowell Barron will be over if an appellate court upholds all three rulings issued by the judge in Barron's case.

The attorney general's office makes the argument in papers filed with the Alabama Supreme Court. It is asking the court to review rulings by a DeKalb County judge.

Barron and former aide Jill Johnson were indicted last year on charges of misusing campaign funds.

The state Department of Public Health has confirmed the first case of a nasty mosquito-borne virus in Alabama.

Deputy director for medical affairs, Thomas Miller, says a Huntsville woman got chikungunya (chik-in-GUHN'-yuh) while traveling in Haiti. He says she was beyond the transmission stage when she returned to Alabama.

6am Newscast

Wednesday June 25, 2014

Franklin County health officials say a northwest Alabama restaurant that was linked to a salmonella outbreak has been allowed to reopen.

Franklin County environmental supervisor Jamie Medley tells the TimesDaily El Patron met the county's regulations to reopen after 14 people were sickened in a salmonella outbreak that was linked to the restaurant. Before the restaurant was closed, health inspectors said they found food handling and sanitation violations.

5pm Newscast

Tuesday June 24, 2014

The only abortion clinic in north Alabama is expected to close by the end of the week.

Officials at the Alabama Women's Center said Tuesday that they'd rather close voluntarily than be faced with a state intervention.

The clinic was faced with a July 1 deadline to bring its facility up to code with a surgical treatment center.

Alabama Labor Commissioner Tom Surtees is stepping down after a decade of leading major state agencies for two governors.

It's rare for someone to serve in key positions in two administrations. Surtees was hired as state revenue commissioner in 2004 by Gov. Bob Riley. Then he moved to the Department of Industrial Relations in 2007. He remained in the post when Gov. Robert Bentley took office in 2011, and he became labor commissioner when the departments of Industrial Relations and Labor were merged under Bentley.

U.S. Rep. Martha Roby says the latest report on the Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System is consistent with what she's been hearing about phony medical practices and the Veterans Administration inspectors not being aggressive about complaints.

6am Newscast

Tuesday June 24, 2014

The two Republicans still competing in Alabama's 6th District congressional race are going head-to-head in a candidate forum.

State Rep. Paul DeMarco and policy analyst Gary Palmer will appear jointly at an event scheduled for Tuesday night at Jeff State Community College.

The campus is located in vote-rich Shelby County, a Republican-dominated area key to the 6th District race.

DeMarco and Palmer are on the GOP ballot in a runoff election scheduled for July 15. They're vying to replace retiring Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus.

The U.S. Small Business Administration is getting ready to close its disaster loan offices in Alabama.

The SBA says the offices will close at the end of the day Thursday due to a steady decrease in activity. They were opened to help victims of the severe storms and flooding that hit Alabama between April 28 and May 5.

The offices are located in the Fairhope Civic Center, the Elberta Town Hall, the Graysville Public Library, the Ripley W.O.W. Hall in Athens, and the old Navy and Marine Corps Reserve building in Mobile.