News

Summer break is coming to an end and students are gearing up for the classroom. Here is a list of start dates for school districts across central and south Alabama.

Aug. 4

• Macon County Schools

Aug. 5

• Autauga County Schools

Aug. 6

• Dale County Schools
• Ozark City Schools

Aug. 9

  The Alabama Department of Public Health is offering updated COVID-19 guidance to K-12 schools in Alabama as classes start for the 2021-22 school year.

Some of the key points in the ADPH recommendations:

  Alabama renters who are financially struggling are in jeopardy of being evicted, as the federal eviction moratorium will expire this weekend.

Many people are turning to the state and county for relief through renter’s assistance programs, but not everyone has received funds yet.

The feet of students, teachers and faculty of Montgomery Public Schools will all reenter schools for learning once again for another school year, this time face-to-face for the entire year and the MPS school board says they have precautions in place for safety.

They are still encouraging each person in school to wear masks, and students will be 3 feet instead of 6 feet in schools. You can expect fewer students in the classroom.

Despite these safety measures, some board members still worry about the new delta variant.

  A new type of manicure is allowing customers to keep their digital contact details at their fingertips and share the information with others in seconds.

Hundreds of customers in Dubai are paying for microchip manicures. Hanane Spiers says, “Now if I’m in a loud place and I want to share my Instagram or my social media, I say: ‘Scan my finger!'”

  Violence is plaguing communities in Montgomery.

“I don’t know if it the parents, but you got to keep a ring around them sometimes because they are getting out of hand here,” Chisholm community resident C.W. Rose said.

As the violence continues, more people are speaking out against it.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency says it investigated 10 traffic fatalities during the Fourth of July holiday period, which officially began at 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 2, and ended at midnight Monday, July 5.

ALEA’s Marine Patrol Division saw a continual trend of zero boating fatalities and zero non-boating fatalities (drownings) on the state’s waterways.

Officials at UAB are seeing hearing loss from long-hauler Covid patients.

“This is part of the neurological manifestations of Covid,” Director of UAB’S Post Covid Treatment program Dr. Turner Overton said. “Because of the closeness of the auditory canals and the relationship between the sinuses and the respiratory track, there is an ability for the virus to affect the nerves that are involved in hearing.”

Overton said they’ve seen around 1,700 people with long-term Covid symptoms overall.

Vaccinated Alabamians can feel safe and protected against the new Delta variant of COVID-19, according to UAB. We spoke with an infectious disease expert who says the vaccines are still working well even as the virus mutates.

The Delta variant is a hot topic of conversation because doctors have learned it’s extra contagious, making it riskier for unvaccinated people to get.

“It also is somewhat vaccine resistant as well,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert at UAB.