Pat Duggins

Former White House advisor Steve Bannon is heading to Alabama to campaign for former State Chief Justice Roy Moore ahead of Tuesday’s GOP runoff election. Bannon will speak Monday at a Moore which will also feature “Duck Dynasty” personality Phil Robertson. Moore is facing current U.S. Senator Luther Strange who held a rally on Friday headlined by President Trump. Both candidates are embroiled in controversies ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

President Donald Trump stumped for Luther Strange, despite controversies that dog both candidates in the GOP runoff race for Alabama’s junior U.S. Senate seat. The President declared Strange a "swamp" fighter without close ties to GOP leaders. The runoff remains right between Strange and suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Prosecutors claim Strange’s fundraising chair has ties to a non-profit accused of bribing a former member of the Alabama State House. Moore has his own legal worries as well.

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore may be in hot water with the IRS just days before the GOP runoff election for U.S. Senate. Moore is in a dead heat with sitting U.S. Senator Luther Strange. Now, the Washington-based Campaign Legal Center is filing a formal complaint with the IRS claiming Roy Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law has violated the law regarding charities and political action. Brendan Fischer is with the Campaign Legal Center. He says for several months, the foundation has used its Facebook page and newsletter to promote Moore’s candidacy for U.S. Senate.

President Trump and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin aren’t the only big names to campaign in Alabama’s upcoming vote for the U.S. Senate. Former Vice President Joe Biden is coming to support Democrat Doug Jones. Mr. Biden will headline a campaign rally in Birmingham on October 3rd. The former Vice President says Jones is a proven leader in which we can place our trust. Jones will face either Strange or Moore in the December twelfth special election for U.S. Senate. The seat previously belonged to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Jones is a lawyer and former U.S.

Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin will campaign for Roy Moore in Alabama on Thursday. This visit comes one day before President Trump holds a support rally for Moore’s GOP opponent Luther Strange in Huntsville. Palin’s rally will take place in Montgomery after Moore and Strange face off in their first, and only, debate before next Tuesday’s runoff. Former Trump strategist Sebastian Gorka will also appear. Strange and Moore, both Republicans, are vying for Attorney General Jeff Sessions' former U.S. Senate seat.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is launching an advertising push on behalf of Luther Strange in Alabama's heated U.S. Senate runoff. The effort includes TV ads supporting Strange as well as mail fliers featuring an endorsement from Alabama Senator Richard Shelby.

Luther Strange and Roy Moore are exchanging jabs following a cancelled debate ahead of the GOP runoff for Jeff Sessions U.S. Senate seat. The two contenders have tentatively agreed to face off on stage later this month. The two traded accusations after Moore withdrew from a debate hosted by the Alabama Policy Institute, a conservative think tank. Moore claims he withdrew because API's president also serves as treasurer of the PAC backing Strange. The Strange campaign then accused Moore of ducking a debate.

The nonprofit Bipartisan Policy Center is teaming up with four U.S. Senators to unveil a detailed economic initiative for Appalachia. The goal is to help reverse struggles with poverty and isolation in the region. Appalachia spans thirteen states including Alabama, and has more than twenty five million people The senators are Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mark Warner of Virginia and Republicans David Perdue of Georgia and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, says the White House is approving federal emergency aid for the state of Alabama ahead of the arrival of Irma. These dollars will supplement state, tribal, and local response efforts due to the emergency storm conditions in the area starting from last Friday. Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent federal funding.

The city of Greenville, south of Montgomery, is buying its local hospital from a Tennessee company. Tennessee based Quorum Health says it signed a definitive agreement to sell the seventy two bed L.V. Stabler Memorial Hospital to a city health care authority. No price was disclosed. The sale is supposed to be finished before year's end. The company, spun off by Community Health Systems, has heavy debt and is losing money. The Alabama Public Radio news team has spent the year investigating rural health in the state.

The Alabama Department of Insurance is hitting Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama with an eight million dollar penalty. The insurer is being fined for charging rates higher or lower than those approved by the state. The unauthorized rates were imposed between 2005 and 2013 and resulted in thirty three million dollars in over charges and one hundred and seven million in undercharges. Al.com reports the charges occurred in about 1,400 plans issued to small group employers and some insurance plans for former employees.

The National Weather Service put counties on the eastern side of Alabama under a tropical storm warning ahead of Irma. Communities in east Alabama, including Huntsville and Guntersville, could see tropical storm force winds with gusts up to seventy miles per hour. Governor Kay Ivey activated the Alabama National Guard and Alabama’s Emergency Response Center ahead of the storm. Georgia spent the day under a Hurricane warning after State troopers turned Interstate 16 into a one-way escape route for a few hours Saturday as evacuees packed cars and fled the Georgia coast ahead Irma.

Researchers at UAB are seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration regarding a new potential treatment for cancer.

Scientists say they’ve developed a way to genetically modify a cancer fighting immune system cell so that it survives chemotherapy. Project Director Dr. Lawrence Lamb says the so called Gamma Delta T-cells recognize cancer cells because of signals of stress the infected cells give off in the patient.

Huntsville may benefit from the White House directive to revamp the nation’s intercontinental ballistic missile arsenal. The Air Force says it has awarded contracts to Boeing and Northrop Grumman for work that could lead to replacement of the nation's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Chicago-based Boeing has built long-range missiles for the Defense Department since Minuteman I in the 1960s. It’s missile-replacement effort will be done in Huntsville, Alabama as well as Utah, Ohio; and other locations. The contracts are part of a planned overhaul of the U.S.

Alabamians from the Tennessee Valley to the coast are getting ready to view Monday’s solar eclipse. The prime spot to see the sun completely blotted out by the Moon is north and east of Alabama along a line extending from Nashville, Tennessee to Columbia, South Carolina. But Alabama is expected to get about a ninety five percent eclipse over much of the state. Stores in northern Alabama are selling thousands of protective glasses to view the sun, and the University of Alabama in Huntsville has an eclipse-watching party.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is clashing with Secretary of State John Merrill over Alabama voters listed as “inactive.” The civil rights organization is asking the state to restore hundreds of thousands of people to active voter status ahead of a U.S. Senate runoff election in September and the General Election in December. The SPLC says there was widespread confusion in Election Day last Tuesday. The group believes large numbers of people were incorrectly moved to inactive voting status during an update of rolls.

President Trump is making his feelings known on Alabama’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate. The Commander-in-chief is endorsing Luther Strange ahead of next week’s contentious GOP election. Trump’s support came in the form of a Tweet. Strange is in a tight race with former state chief justice Roy Moore and Congressman Mo Brooks, a member of the House Freedom Caucus. Republican contenders have openly tried to woo Trump voters in the state where he continues to enjoy heavy popularity. Civil Rights icon and Congressman John Lewis is endorsing Doug Jones in the Democratic primary race.

NASA is gathering stakeholders in the International Space Station to look at the future of the orbiting complex, and potential changes could impact the city of Huntsville.

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville controls science work that’s done aboard the football field-sized space station. That could soon mean working for or with private industry on the complex.

Alabama will be part of a new U.S. Justice Department initiative aimed at crimes related to opioid addiction. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is dispatching twelve federal prosecutors to focus on health care fraud and opioid scams. The northern district of Alabama will get one of the prosecutors as well as states like Florida, Tennessee, Nevada, Kentucky, and Maryland. Today’s DOJ announcement was a reversal of Obama-era policies that may send more people to prison and for much longer terms. Sessions is making aggressive prosecutions of drug crimes a top priority.

Alabama U.S. Senator Luther Strange is far outspending his challengers in the Republican primary to fill  Jeff Sessions' old Senate seat. Session left Congress' upper chamber to be U.S. Attorney General. Fundraising reports show Strange raised nearly $3 million dollars so far in the Senate race. Strange has also benefited from high-dollar spending on his behalf by a super political action committee with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The money has allowed Strange to dominate airwaves in the GOP battle to replace Sessions.

Descendants of African-American men in the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis study want what’s left in a $9 million dollar legal settlement. The group sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson asking him to withhold a decision on the money until they have time to hire a lawyer and file documents in the long-running, class-action lawsuit over the study. Supporters of the Tuskegee descendants say the money could help fund college scholarships the group provides, and members would like to develop a memorial garden dedicated to the men.

The city of Huntsville is rolling out the red carpet for what it hopes will be a new employer. The city council unanimously approved a two-part deal to bring the Blue Origin rocket engine factory to town. If built, the facility could bring with it four hundred high paying positions. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns Blue Origin. His two hundred million dollar factory could reduce America’s reliance on Russian rocket engines to blast cargo into space. Rocket builder United Launch Alliance would have to ink a deal with Blue Origin for the Huntsville factory to become a reality.

A lot of outdoor activities are scheduled for Independence Day today. The temperatures are also creeping into the nineties with lots of humidity. So, health officials say it’s important to be aware of the risk of heat illness. One of the most common conditions is heat exhaustion. That’s when you get overheated and lose electrolytes through sweating. If it goes untreated, heat exhaustion can lead to heat stroke, which can be fatal. Dr. Ed Geno teaches family medicine at the University of Alabama. He says people need to know what to look out when it comes to heat stroke…

A new survey shows optimism is high among Alabama business leaders. The latest Alabama Business Confidence Index shows level of sixty one point six percent. That's well above the five-year average for the third straight quarter. The report is compiled from a survey on expectations for the coming quarter. Those numbers are compared to the current quarter. The index looks at industry sales, profits, hiring, capital expenditures, plus expectations for Alabama’s economy and the nation’s. The survey is conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama.

If your Fourth of July plans include a visit to Orange Beach, it’ll cost less to get there. The company that operates the Beach Express Toll bridge is lowering its prices for the summer. Toll rates for visitors to Orange Beach are dropping by seventy five cents. The toll is going from three dollars and fifty cents to two dollars and seventy five cents until after Labor Day. Orange Beach residents will see their tolls drop by a twenty five cents, down from a dollar twenty five to just a dollar. The drop is meant to help ease congestion on Alabama highway fifty nine.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill says his office will not share voter data with a Presidential commission on elections integrity. Both Republican and Democratic States are refusing to comply with the request for voter names, social security information, and voting history. The Commission grew out of questions from the Trump administration after the GOP candidate won the White House, while losing the popular vote to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to a Washington Post analysis, Alabama joins one third of U.S.

Thousands of Alabamians may see a difference in their credit scores starting today. Not because their finances have changed--but, rather how their scores are added up. The three major credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion will change which records they use. These companies will now only use public records with someone’s name, address, social security number, and date of birth. That means tax liens and civil judgments may be deleted since many of these legal actions lack all this information.