KAY IVEY

A federal judge has blocked President Joe Biden’s administration from enforcing a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees of federal contractors.

Ex-President Donald Trump’s former ambassador to Slovenia has become the third Republican candidate to announce a challenge to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey in next year’s gubernatorial primary.

Alabama's governor is honoring the state's first Black poet laureate, a creative writing teacher from Birmingham who delves into the pain and difficulty of being Black in America.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has extended through the end of the October a COVID-19 state of emergency that relaxes some health care regulations to help hospitals cope with coronavirus patients.

The Hoover Fire Department wrote on Facebook​ that the city saw "unprecedented intense rainfall that caused flash flooding in numerous areas" on Wednesday.

"I would be surprised if that was the intention of the funding," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said this week.

Alaska has activated emergency crisis protocols that allow 20 health care facilities to ration care if needed.

Republicans are using money from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package for projects on conservatives' wish lists.

Some schools hit the inoculated with four-digit penalties, while others take the opposite tack and offer scholarships.

The U.S. Gulf Coast is glowing like a bad sunburn on maps that show COVID-19 trouble spots in red.

The new iteration of Fred, which has brought maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, is moving northwest over the Gulf of Mexico at 12 mph.

The Texas Supreme Court has blocked mask mandates ordered by two of the nation’s largest counties that defied Republican Gov. Greg Abbott as COVID-19 cases surge and hospitals are stretched thin.

The National Hurricane Center said Fred has regained tropical storm status in the Gulf of Mexico as parts of the Caribbean began seeing impacts from tropical depression Grace.

Poland has sent one million COVID-19 vaccines to Sydney where the delta variant continues to spread, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Sunday.

Republicans are responding with hostility to new masking guidance from public health officials.

NIAID director calls for more public comments from GOP figures

The U.S. Department of Education approved Georgia’s plans to use $1.4 billion in federal coronavirus relief money.

After mostly avoiding direct attacks on Trump, Biden says Friday he “whipped Donald Trump in Virginia” and so will McAuliffe, highlighting a key strategy for Democratic candidates: linking opponents to Trump.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey drew fire Friday after saying she's done "all I know how to do" as COVID spikes in her state and vaccination rates remain low.

Experts say all but a handful of new COVID hospitalizations and deaths are people who didn't get the shots.

"It's time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It's the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down," Ivey said of COVID cases in her state.

At this point, it feels like governors McMaster and Ivey are preaching to the choir, our opinion editor writes.

Republican lawmakers are under increasing pressure to persuade vaccine skeptics to roll up their sleeves and take the shots as a new, more contagious COVID-19 variant sends caseloads soaring.

Republican lawmakers are under increasing pressure to persuade vaccine skeptics to roll up their sleeves and take the shots as a new, more contagious COVID-19 variant sends caseloads soaring.

Families and advocates for the elderly in Kansas argue that with most nursing home residents vaccinated against the coronavirus, some facilities need to relax visiting rules.

With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations up sharply over the last month in Alabama but still far below when the pandemic was at its worst early this year, school officials have said vaccines won’t be required in the fall and local systems can decide on their own whether to require masks or other precautions. INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge is allowing Indiana University to continue with its COVID-19 vaccine requirement for all students and employees.

The U.S. surgeon general says he's worried about what lies ahead with cases of COVID-19 increasing in every state, millions still unvaccinated and a highly contagious virus variant spreading rapidly.

New COVID-19 cases per day in the U.S. have doubled over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings.

Fifteen Republican governors have sent a letter to the U.S. Commerce Secretary, urging that the U.S. Census bureau release redistricting data as soon as possible.

There's been a huge debate surrounding vaccine passports as the country tries to return to activities from before the pandemic.

While yoga is now allowed, some rules added to the bill limit what is taught.

Alabama banned yoga back in 1993. The ban is now revoked — but students won't be allowed to say "Namaste." And meditation is not allowed.

Several Republican-governed states are ending Biden stimulus jobless aid months before they legally expire in September. More might join them.

The state will end participation effective June 19, though benefits will continue to be processed until then.

An Alabama state trooper arrested last week on charges he raped an 11-year-old girl had been kicked out of the FBI amid a string of sexual misconduct allegations but was hired anyway with the apparent help of a forged bureau letter that scrubbed his record clean.

Alabama is marking the 10th anniversary of a horrific tornado outbreak that killed more than 250 people statewide.

Ten years haven't filled the voids created by a massive tornado outbreak that killed more than 320 people in six states a decade ago.

The U.S. 7th Fleet that operates throughout the Indo-Pacific says more than 14,000 of its service members have received their full doses of the coronavirus vaccine, which it began administering on January 5.

South Korea’s daily increase in coronavirus infections exceeded 500 for the fourth straight day, a pace unseen since January, as experts raise concern about another viral surge amid a slow rollout in vaccines.

But his medical care could soon become illegal in Alabama as Republican lawmakers seek to criminalize gender transition treatments for people under 19. Opponents, including parents and trans youth, say such measures interfere with medical decisions and target trans individuals for the sake of politics. He said he was unaware such treatments were already happening in Alabama when he first introduced the bill last year. Ad“The whole point is to protect kids,” said Shelnutt, who acknowledged after the Senate vote that he never spoke with a trans youth while preparing the bill. You are asking me to arrest the folks I know saved my kid’s life,” Fuller told a legislative committee.

But Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchison announced Tuesday he is dropping the state’s mask mandate immediately, a day earlier than previously announced. Gretchen Whitmer to ask whether the White House has considered surging additional vaccines to states with rapidly increasing infection rates. Kay Ivey intends for her state’s mask mandate to end on April 9 as planned, though she urged people to wear masks as a matter of personal responsibility. Eric Holcomb, to reconsider dropping the state’s mask mandate.

Officials found “heavy, heavy damage” in parts of the city’s historic district, Newnan Fire Chief Stephen Brown told a news conference. One of the victims in the hard-hit town of Ohatchee, a small community of about 1,170 people in eastern Alabama, was Dwight Jennings' neighbor. AdBad weather wasn't limited to Georgia and Alabama. ___Chandler reported from Shelby County, Alabama. Associated Press journalists Kevin McGill in New Orleans; Desiree Mathurin in Atlanta; Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia; Butch Dill in Ohatchee, Alabama; and Rebecca Santana in New Orleans, contributed to this report.

(AP Photo/Butch Dill)A string of deadly tornadoes roared through Alabama on Thursday, toppling trees, demolishing homes and knocking out power to thousands, part of a broad swath of violent weather sweeping across the Deep South. In the city of Pelham, James Dunaway said he initially ignored the tornado warning when it came over his phone. “Thinking of everyone in Alabama and all of those impacted by the severe weather across the South tonight. Kay Ivey issued an emergency declaration for 46 counties as the severe weather approached, and officials opened shelters in and around Birmingham. Associated Press writer Kim Chandler in Montgomery and photographer Butch Dill in Alabama contributed to this report.

Henry McMaster remains firmly opposed to the Medicaid expansion. The bump in federal funding would last two years for the states that join the Medicaid expansion. Laura Kelley this year called for legalizing medical use of marijuana and using the tax revenue to pay for expanding Medicaid. "It’s a nonstarter, and we will continue to oppose the liberal wish list item of Medicaid expansion,” he said. Kay Ivey left open the possibility of expanding Medicaid at some point in the future, but there are no plans to do so.

Debris litters weather-damaged properties at the intersection of County Road 24 and 37 in Clanton, Ala., the morning following a large outbreak of severe storms across the southeast, Thursday, March 18, 2021. But no serious damage or injuries were immediately reported in North Carolina from the storms near High Point and Charlotte, which both had tornado warnings. Forecasters worried the storms would intensify as they move into South Carolina and North Carolina on Thursday afternoon, but they mostly stayed below severe limits. House Speaker Jay Lucas kept his promise from the day before to meet less than an hour Thursday so members could beat the severe storms home. ___Associated Press writers Tom Foreman Jr. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

More than 70,000 homes and businesses were without power from Texas to Alabama, and radar showed additional storms moving across the region as initial cleanup work began. AdLarge vaccination clinics where hundreds of people an hour can get shots without leaving their vehicles were canceled in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee. In the Mississippi capital of Jackson, state employees were warned to head to stairwells if they hear weather sirens. At least two waves of storms were likely, forecasters said, and the worst might not hit until a cold front passes overnight. Elsewhere, the severe weather threat led the South Carolina Senate president to caution senators to state home Thursday while urging staff to work remotely for their safety.

AdHe also sanctioned a bill that makes the purchase of COVID-19 vaccines easier. However, the actual numbers of COVID-19 cases, like elsewhere in the world, are thought to be far higher, in part due to limited testing. Murphy, who’s running for re-election this, said the state’s COVID-19 trends are headed in the right direction, though they’ve been up a bit this week. ___SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s governor says all adults in the state will be eligible to receive COVID-19 vaccines on April 1. Ad___PHOENIX — Arizona on Wednesday reported 830 confirmed coronavirus cases and 78 deaths, following two days of no new deaths.

Kay on Thursday extended the state's mask requirement until April 9, at which point she'll let it lapse and leave the decision up to individuals. Patrons who prefer not to wear masks can shop through Target's no-contact options, such as shopping online, the retailer added. Aldi said it would stick with its nationwide policy requiring its workers and customers to wear masks in its more than 2,000 grocery stores in 36 states. A spokesperson for Home Depot said the retailer "requires associates and customers to wear masks while in our stores or any Home Depot facility nationwide. "H-E-B will still require all our partners and vendors to wear masks while at work, and we urge all customers to please wear a mask when in our stores."

Kay on Thursday extended the state's mask requirement until April 9, at which point she'll let it lapse and leave the decision up to individuals. Patrons who prefer not to wear masks can shop through Target's no-contact options, such as shopping online, the retailer added. Aldi said it would stick with its nationwide policy requiring its workers and customers to wear masks in its more than 2,000 grocery stores in 36 states. A spokesperson for Home Depot said the retailer "requires associates and customers to wear masks while in our stores or any Home Depot facility nationwide. "H-E-B will still require all our partners and vendors to wear masks while at work, and we urge all customers to please wear a mask when in our stores."

Eric Holcomb received his COVID-19 vaccine shot Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the opening of the state’s first mass vaccination clinic. Holcomb wore a face mask in the front passenger seat of an SUV while getting the shot of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the drive-through clinic. Ad___TORONTO — Canada is getting a fourth vaccine to prevent COVID-19, approving the Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose. Canada has pre-purchased 10 million Johnson & Johnson doses, with options to buy another 28 million. The U.S. approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last month.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Thursday extended her statewide mask order until April 9, but said the order would not be implemented afterward. Ivey said the order will give residents more time to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and allow businesses to implement their own face mask policies. "Even when we lift the mask order, I will continue to wear my mask while I'm around others and strongly urge my fellow citizens to use common sense and do the same thing," she said. The governor's announcement comes after Texas and Mississippi lifted mask requirements and eased COVID-19 restrictions. "I think it's a big mistake," the president told reporters.

Alabama plans to on April 9 lift a statewide order requiring people to wear masks in public, even as Gov. Kay Ivey extends the state's health emergency proclamation for Covid-19 by 60 days. "Let me be abundantly clear, after April 9, I will not keep the mask order in effect," Ivey said Thursday. Ivey extended the mask order and other health measures that were set to expire March 8 to give businesses enough time to institute their own policies, she announced at a news conference. The Republican governor's decision to lift the state's mask mandate comes just days after both Texas and Mississippi announced similar moves on Tuesday.

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Zoo has vaccinated nine great apes for the coronavirus after a troop of gorillas in its Safari Park became infected. AdThere have been no new community cases of the virus found in Auckland or elsewhere in New Zealand for the past five days. Ad___SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah will open up COVID-19 vaccine appointments to people ages 50 and older on Monday. ___JACKSON, Miss.-- People ages 50 and older in Mississippi are now eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine, Gov. — Arkansas’ highest court and the governor are at odds over whether judges, prosecutors and other court employees should be immediately eligible for the coronavirus vaccine.

The governor signed two 30-year lease agreements with separate entities of CoreCivic, one of the nation’s largest private prison companies. While President Joe Biden has ordered the federal system to eliminate the use of private prisons, these facilities will only be built and owned by private companies. AdIvey called the new prisons “the cornerstone” of improving the state’s troubled system, replacing aging prisons that are costly to maintain. “Alabama is about to spend 3 billion dollars over 30 years on building new prisons that won’t fix the problems within our prison system,” tweeted Rep. Chris England, a Democrat from Tuscaloosa. “It is astounding that Governor Ivey is prioritizing fiscally irresponsible and devastating contracts for prisons that do not address our most urgent needs as Alabamians,” the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, Alabama Students Against Prisons, the Ordinary Peoples Society and others wrote in a letter to lawmakers.

Kay Ivey visits for homecoming festivities during the first half of an NCAA college football game between Alabama and Arkansas, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Alabama Gov. Ivey spokeswoman Gina Maiola said the governor will sign agreements to lease two new men’s correctional facilities to be constructed by CoreCivic, one of the nations largest private prison companies. The governor's office has said the prisons would be run by the state but the buildings would be leased from the companies. The prison building proposal has met with sharp criticism from a coalition of advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, Alabama Students Against Prisons and the Ordinary Peoples Society. Instead of a bond issue to borrow money to build the prisons, which would require legislative approval, the governor can sign the leases without legislative approval.

Fultondale, Alabama — A tornado that teared through the city overnight ripped roofs off homes, pulverized walls and scattered debris so high it showed up on radar. The tornado hit an area that was heavily damaged by a tornado a decade ago. That tornado ripped through Alabama from Tuscaloosa to northern Jefferson County on April 27, 2011, killing 65 people and injuring 1,500. The people of Fultondale took a hard hit last night — I’m grieved over the loss of life, injuries, homes & damaged businesses. #alwx #alpolitics — Governor Kay Ivey (@GovernorKayIvey) January 26, 2021The same storm that spawned the tornado that tore through Alabama rolled through the Midwest.

Patti Herring sobs as she sorts through the remains of her home in Fultondale, Ala., on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2021, after it was destroyed by a tornado. At least 30 people were injured as the tornado carved a 10-mile (16-kilometer) path through Birmingham's northern suburbs, an area severely damaged by a much larger tornado a decade ago. Sobbing, Patti Herring was shaken and as she picked through the debris looking for a missing cat and her late mother's cherished belongings. Fultondale Fire Chief Justin McKenzie said 18 of the 30 people injured had to go to hospital. “The people of Fultondale took a hard hit last night — I’m grieved over the loss of life, injuries, homes & damaged businesses," Alabama Gov.

(AP Photo/John Bazemore)ATLANTA – As his adopted hometown mourned Hank Aaron's death, some fans called on the Atlanta Braves to change their name to the Hammers in his honor. The NFL's Atlanta Falcons, Major League Soccer's Atlanta United and Georgia Tech's football team all announced they would retire Aaron's trademark No. The Hammer spent nearly all of his 23-year career with the Braves, whose nickname has drawn some criticism as being offensive to Native Americans. The Braves have steadfastly resisted calls to change their name, saying they view it as a tribute to Native Americans rather than a slur. There has been no indication that Aaron's death would change the team's stance on its Braves nickname.

The U.S. Air Force is expected to announce Huntsville, Ala. as the location for the U.S. Space Command headquarters, according to Gov. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The U.S. Air Force announced Wednesday that the new U.S. Space Command headquarters will be in Huntsville, Alabama, after the state was selected over five others competing for the project, including Colorado, where Space Command is provisionally located. The role of Space Command is to conduct operations such as enabling satellite-based navigation and troop communication and providing warning of missile launches. That is different from the Space Force, which is a distinct military service like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. “I couldn’t be more pleased to learn that Alabama will be the new home to the United States Space Command,” Alabama Republican Gov.

Ten beds normally used for less severe cases were transformed into intensive care rooms, with extra IV machines brought in. “We’re kind of like a bathtub that’s filling up with water and the drain is blocked,” the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. William Smith, said last week. The variant was found in a man in his 20s who is in isolation southeast of Denver and has no travel history, state health officials said Tuesday. As of last week, 15 Alabama hospitals had intensive care units that were at or above capacity, and the ICUs at six more hospitals were at least 96% full. On Tuesday, 2,804 people were in Alabama hospitals with COVID-19, the highest total since the pandemic began.

(AP Photo/Kim Chandler, File)MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A Justice Department lawsuit over conditions in Alabama’s prisons for men ignores progress the state has made to improve the lockups, the Department of Corrections said. The prisons agency acknowledged past problems, but said the Justice Department “continues to mischaracterize these limited instances as sweeping patterns. Alabama said it had been negotiating with federal officials to settle their concerns, but the Justice Department filed the suit without warning. The Justice Department investigation was launched in 2016 in the closing days of the Obama administration. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Wednesday that the Justice Department demands go “beyond what federal law requires” and are thus unenforceable.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2020, against Alabama over conditions in the state prisons, saying the state is failing to protect male inmates from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff. (AP Photo/Kim Chandler, File)MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Alabama over conditions in the state prisons, saying the state is failing to protect male inmates from inmate-on-inmate violence and excessive force at the hands of prison staff. The lawsuit comes after the Justice Department twice released investigative reports that accused the state of violating prisoner’s rights. Alabama had been in negotiations with the Justice Department since the first 2019 report in the hopes of staving off a lawsuit, but federal officials said the state has "failed or refused to correct" the unconstitutional conditions. The 24-page lawsuit said that conditions in Alabama prisons have gotten worse since the initial findings — with homicides increasing and prisons becoming even more overcrowded than in 2016 when the investigation was initiated.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey on Wednesday extended a mask order until January 22 as the state experiences a record-setting surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Ivey and State Health Officer Scott Harris announced the extension during a news conference at the Alabama Capitol. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey seen August 27, 2020. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Alabama has risen over the past two weeks from 2,288 new cases a day on November. Since the pandemic began, the state health department has reported more than 280,000 confirmed and probable virus cases and nearly 4,000 confirmed and probable virus deaths in Alabama.

And we must act as though anyone we are around may be infected.”The cases reported Saturday trailed only the record 10,322 cases reported Tuesday. ___ROME — Italy had more than 21,000 daily coronavirus cases and added 662 deaths in the last 24 hours. There were 14 more deaths reported Saturday, bringing the total to 1,874 confirmed deaths. Russia’s 2.4 million confirmed cases is the fourth-largest caseload in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil. ___NEW DELHI — India has registered 36,652 confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.

Hurricane Zeta passed through Wednesday leaving much of the city and metro area without power. Even as Zeta battered the south, the upcoming election was still on the mind of some residents. “Guys, we received the brunt of Zeta, and Zeta gave us a good punch,” McInnis told WDSU-TV. More than 875,000 customers were without electricity in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, including about 350,000 in metro New Orleans. Zeta had top sustained winds of 110 mph (177 kph) as a Category 2 hurricane at landfall and is the 27th named storm of a historically busy Atlantic hurricane season — with over a month left to go.

FILE - In this July 26, 2020, file photo, mourners gathered at the Alabama Capitol following the death of Rep. John Lewis. Alabama voters will decide whether to remove racist, segregation-era language from the state's 1901 Constitution in the upcoming election. (AP Photo/Julie Bennett, File)BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Alabama voters once again have the chance to remove the racist language of Jim Crow from the state's constitution, which was approved in 1901 to enshrine white supremacy as state law. Voters in neighboring Mississippi will decide on a replacement for the Confederate-themed state flag, and Rhode Island voters will decide whether to remove a reference to plantations from the state's official name. Two decades ago, Alabama voters voted to repeal an unenforceable section of the constitution that made it illegal for Black and white people to marry.

More than a dozen sticks of dynamite planted by Ku Klux Klansmen exploded at a Birmingham church in 1963, killing four Black girls. George Wallace, at the time encouraged the racial violence that led to one of the most infamous acts of the civil rights era. The blast killed Denise McNair, 11, and three 14-year-olds: Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, and Addie Mae Collins, who was Rudolph’s sister. Rudolph recalled that she and her sister had gone to the washroom to freshen up after walking to church. After the bombing, Rudolph for years lived anonymously.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. – Winston Groom, the writer whose novel “Forrest Gump” was made into a six-Oscar winning 1994 movie that became a soaring pop cultural phenomenon, has died at age 77. “While he will be remembered for creating Forrest Gump, Winston Groom was a talented journalist & noted author of American history. “It touched a nerve,” Groom told the Tuscaloosa News in 2014. They “took some of the rough edges off,” Groom told the New York Times in 1994. Groom got $350,000 for the rights to “Forrest Gump” plus 3% of the net profit of the movie.

FAIRHOPE, Ala. – Winston Groom, the writer whose novel “Forrest Gump” was made into a six-Oscar winning 1994 movie that became a soaring pop cultural phenomenon, has died at age 77. “While he will be remembered for creating Forrest Gump, Winston Groom was a talented journalist & noted author of American history. “It touched a nerve,” Groom told the Tuscaloosa News in 2014. They “took some of the rough edges off,” Groom told the New York Times in 1994. Groom got $350,000 for the rights to “Forrest Gump” plus 3 percent of the net profit of the movie.

Hurricane Sally is expected to make landfall along the Gulf Coast sometime through the night and morning. – Hurricane Sally, a plodding but powerful storm with winds of 100 mph, crept toward the northern Gulf Coast early Tuesday, with forecasters warning of potentially deadly storm surges, flash floods spurred by up to 2 feet (.61 meters) of rain and the possibility of tornadoes. Claunch marveled at how the Gulf waters had already crept over swaths of sandy shore and infiltrated bike paths and parking lots. Sally achieved hurricane strength Monday and quickly intensified to a Category 2 storm with 100 mph (161 kph) winds. Forecasters expect winds to increase to up to 110 mph (177 kph) over the warm Gulf waters before the storm blows ashore.

– Storm-weary Gulf Coast residents prepared for a new weather onslaught Monday as Tropical Storm Sally churned northward. He said a matching pelican marker on the opposite side of the driveway was washed away in Tropical Storm Cristobal earlier this summer. “That system is forecast to bring not only damaging winds but a dangerous storm surge,” said Daniel Brown of the Hurricane Center. Once a tropical storm, Rene was forecast to become a remnant low Monday. Tropical Depression Twenty was expected to strengthen this week and become a tropical storm by Tuesday, forecasters said.

– Tropical Storm Sally slowed down Sunday as it churned northward toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, increasing the risk of heavy rain and dangerous storm surge before an expected strike as a Category 2 hurricane in southern Louisiana. He said a matching pelican marker on the opposite side of the driveway was washed away in Tropical Storm Cristobal earlier this summer. Once a tropical storm, Rene was forecast to become a remnant low Monday. Tropical Depression Twenty was expected to strengthen this week and become a tropical storm by Tuesday, forecasters said. “It is likely that this storm system will be impacting Alabama’s Gulf Coast.

Alabama became the most recent state to enact a stay-at-home order amid the coronavirus pandemic, with Gov. Residents will still be allowed to leave their homes for food and medicine, as well as for other essential reasons. They will also be able to attend religious services that are limited to fewer than 10 people and have worshipers stand at least six feet apart, according to the order. Alabama currently has 1,454 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has the most COVID-19 cases of any country in the world, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, with more than 270,473 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 7,077 deaths.

Woods and his friend Kerry Spencer were convicted for the 2004 murders of Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, Harley Chisholm and Charles Bennett. On the morning of July 17, 2004, Woods and his friend Kerry Spencer got into a hostile, profanity-laced argument with Owen and police officer Michael Collins and threatened them, court documents showed. Later that day, the officers along with Chisholm and Bennett went to Woods apartment to serve him a warrant and arrest him for dealing drugs. Owen, Chisholm and Bennett were killed and Collins was wounded, according to court documents. In December 2005, Woods and Spencer were convicted of capital murder and attempted murder and sentenced to death.

Nathaniel Woods received a lethal injection at the state prison in Atmore, Alabama, state Attorney General Steve Marshall confirmed in a statement. Woods' execution comes after the nation's highest court refused to block the execution plan, according to local affiliate CBS42. Officers were attempting to arrest Woods on an outstanding warrant, according to a summary of the case in an Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals' opinion. In a handwritten letter delivered to a lawyer for Woods this week, Spencer wrote Woods is "100% innocent." "Nathaniel Woods doesn't even deserve to be incarcerated, let alone executed."

(Reuters) - The Trump administration has backed off plans to quarantine patients from the Diamond Princess cruise ship stricken with coronavirus at a federal facility in Alabama, the states governor and a U.S. senator said on Sunday. He told me that his administration will not be sending any victims of the Coronavirus from the Diamond Princess cruise ship to Anniston, Alabama. It was unclear where those patients would be quarantined if the plan to house them in Alabama had been scrapped. More than 630 passengers of the Diamond Princess have been confirmed as infected with coronavirus and at least three have died. The British cruise ship, which sails primarily in Southeast Asia, is quarantined near Tokyo.

"I am grieved to hear of the Huntsville Police Officer killed in the line of duty and extend my deepest sympathies and prayers to his family for their unimaginable loss. It has been an exceptionally tough year for our law enforcement community, and this will be felt across our state," Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said in a statement.

A new statue was dedicated to civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks in Alabama's capital of Montgomery on Sunday. The bronze monument was unveiled on the 64th anniversary of one of the key moments in the civil rights movement. Mayor Steven Reed unveils a statue of Rosa Parks in downtown Montgomery Sunday, December 1. On the 64th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, we honor Rosa Parks by dedicating this statue in her name. I hope its presence will remind us of the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement & ensure that future generations will be better & do better.

An Alabama sheriff was shot and killed Saturday, authorities told CBS affiliate WKRG-TV. Lowndes County Sheriff "Big John" Williams was responding to a call at a convenience store and gas station when he was fatally shot. Details on the shooting weren't immediately clear, but Williams was apparently killed around 8 p.m. local time at a QV gas station in Hayneville, Alabama. "I'm saddened to hear about Sheriff Big John Williams, who was tragically killed this evening in the line of duty," Governor Kay Ivey tweeted Saturday night. I offer my prayers and deepest sympathies to his family and to the men and women of the Lowndes County Sheriff's Department."

Law enforcement agencies in Alabama and beyond posted messages of condolences on social media Sunday in the aftermath of the fatal weekend shooting of a sheriff in the state. Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham initially told news outlets that Williams was shot at a gas station. The state law enforcement agency canceled the emergency alert early Sunday, saying Johnson was taken into custody. Bob Riley 's appointment of a white law enforcement officer to replace the county's deceased sheriff. Al-Amin was wanted and later convicted in the fatal 2000 shooting of a Fulton County sheriff's deputy in Atlanta.