July 24 Morning Newscast
July 24, 2012 Morning Edition News
Scientists studying long-term effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill are looking for 15,000 more people who worked on the cleanup, even for one day. Nearly 25,000 people already have signed up for what the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says is the largest study ever of long-term effects in oil spill workers. Lead researcher Dale Sandler tells The Courier newspaper of Houma, Louisiana, that it’s been hard to find people who helped with the cleanup, because many have moved and changed phone numbers.
The Alabama Department of Mental Health’s Greil Hospital in Montgomery will close next month. State officials had said this spring they’d be closing Greil to deal with budget cuts. They announced the official closing date yesterday. Greil currently has 119 workers serving 62 patients. The patients are being moved into community-based care. Department of Mental Health officials say they’re working with Greil employees to help them find new jobs.
The man who allegedly went on a shooting rampage in Northport and Tuscaloosa last week will have a preliminary hearing in Tuscaloosa County District Court on September 7th. Nathan Wilkins faces 18 counts of attempted murder for the shootings at a private home and the Copper Top bar in downtown Tuscaloosa. Two victims remain hospitalized. Wilkins remains in the Tuscaloosa County Jail on a $2 million bond.
A former Anniston police officer who allegedly shot his wife to death yesterday is in custody. Police captured Frederick Boyd in Meridian, Mississippi, just hours after he shot his wife and shot at his uncle. The incidents caused a lockdown of several Anniston city offices and the Ayers and McClellan campuses of Gadsden State Community College. Boyd resigned from the Anniston Police Department last August.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference now boasts college football’s winningest coach, but says the focus should remain on the sex abuse victims and their families in the Penn State scandal. The league sent out a statement yesterday after the NCAA vacated 111 of Joe Paterno’s 409 wins at Penn State. That leaves Bobby Bowden’s 377 wins as tops in major college football and the late Grambling State coach Eddie Robinson as the leader at all levels.
Honda says it’s expanding its Alabama operations. The company says it will invest another $115 million, move to a two shift work schedule and fill 50 new positions in an effort to meet growing demand. The Birmingham News reports that since last fall the company has announced nearly 300 new jobs and $390 million in new investment in Lincoln, Alabama. All told, Honda employs more than 4,000 people at the plant.
BancorpSouth says profits in the second quarter of 2012 rose 61 percent from the same period last year as the regional bank set aside less money to cover future loan losses. The Tupelo-Mississippi based bank has offices in Mississippi, Alabama and five other states.
The man who founded the company that helped build some of north Alabama’s best known roadways has died. Cecil Ashburn was a member of the Army Corps of Engineers during World War II. In 1946 — and with just one bulldozer — he helped form a road building company called Ashburn & Gray Construction. In about 10 years the company had grown into one of the state’s largest road builders with offices in Huntsville, Decatur and Guntersville. His company built U.S 72, much of Huntsville’s Memorial Parkway and the runways at Huntsville International Airport. Cecil Ashburn was 92.
Mentally ill people are stuck in jail because they can’t get treatment. Here’s what’s to know
Hundreds of people across Alabama await a spot in the state’s increasingly limited facilities, despite a consent decree requiring the state to address delays in providing care for people who are charged with crimes but deemed too mentally ill to stand trial. But seven years since the federal agreement, the problem has only worsened.
Ivey appoints Will Parker to Alabama Supreme Court
Parker fills the court seat vacated by Bill Lewis who was tapped by President Donald Trump for a federal judgeship. The U.S. Senate last month confirmed Lewis as a U.S. district judge.
How Alabama Power kept bills up and opposition out to become one of the most powerful utilities in the country
In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators.
No more Elmo? APT could cut ties with PBS
The board that oversees Alabama Public Television is considering disaffiliating from PBS, ending a 55-year relationship.
Nonprofit erases millions in medical debt across Gulf South, says it’s ‘Band-Aid’ for real issue
Undue Medical Debt has paid off more than $299 million in medical debts in Alabama. Now, the nonprofit warns that the issue could soon get worse.
Roy Wood Jr. on his father, his son and his new book
Actor, comedian and writer Roy Wood Jr. is out with a new book -- "The Man of Many Fathers: Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir." He writes about his experience growing up in Birmingham, losing his dad as a teenager and all the lessons he learned from various father figures throughout his career.
