The number of active tuberculosis cases is getting worse in a small town in West Alabama. One new active case has been confirmed 27 people have now tested positive for the respiratory illness.
The current case rate for TB in the small Perry County town alone is 100 times higher than the 2014 state average. Almost 36-hundred people live in Marion and fewer than a third have gotten tested.
At last count, the state’s tuberculosis outbreak has affected at least 76 people. 27 cases are active TB and 49 are latent infections.
Division of Tuberculosis Control Director Pam Barrett says the agency is still paying people 20 dollars to be screened and to come in for a follow-up until January 29th.
Lower demand for gasoline and more oil on the market are credited with driving down gas prices in Alabama.
The cost per gallon has dropped fifteen cents a gallon in just the last month. Regular is going for a dollar sixty five on average in Alabama, while some states have seen prices go even lower. The question appears to be how much lower will prices go?
Clay Ingram is with Triple-A Alabama. He says prices in Alabama will not drop to considerably…
“But I don’t think we are going to see anything crazy there have been a lot of predictions of gas going below $1.00 a gallon. While that certainly is possible I don’t think it’s likely in Alabama.”
Ingram thinks a dollar fifty a gallon is possible. He adds that lower gas prices probably helped put more than one hundred million people on the roads for the Christmas Holiday.
Laid off coal miners from the Walter Energy Coal mines near Birmingham may get a chance at new jobs today in Walker County.
The West Alabama Job Fair was held at the Community Health Systems Activity Center in Jasper.
Tara Hutchison is Communications Director at the Alabama Department of Labor. She says displaced workers at the Walter Energy Mines are invited to attention…
“The focus of the job fair is actually for the recently displaced coal and steel workers in the Birmingham area of which there have been several hundred laid off over the past few months. So, we’re attempting to get these folk back into the workforce and help them get back on their feet. However, the job fair is open to the public.”
More than 40 companies will be present. That includes the new Yorozu** Automotive factory. The company says it will bring three hundred new jobs to the area.