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Montgomery, Alabama – State Health Department and Department of Education officials are joining forces getting the word out on ways to prevent transmission of influenza this Fall.

State Health Department spokesman Dr. Jim McVay tells WVAS that most of the cases of H1N1 Influenza, or Swine Flu, in Alabama are among children with the median age of 12.

Montgomery, Alabama –
(AP) - Alabama's two Republican U.S. senators voted
against approving Sonia Sotomayor for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby were on the losing side
of the Senate's 68-31 vote Thursday in Washington.
Shelby says he voted against Sotomayor because of concerns about
her willingness to properly and dutifully uphold fundamental rights
guaranteed under the Constitution.
Sessions says that until Sotomayor was nominated for the Supreme

Montgomery,Alabama – Governor Bob Riley says he will make a decision by the end of the week on whether to call a special session addressing Jefferson County's financial crisis.

Members of the Jefferson County legislative delegation say they have legislation that would re-enact an occupational tax and change that county's management.

Jefferson County has placed 1,000 of its employees on unpaid leave. A judge declared a previous occupational tax constitutional - that measure had generated $75 MILLION dollars annually for Jefferson county.

Montgomery, Alabama – MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) A Democratic candidate for governor, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, wants to raise Alabama's school dropout age from 17 to 18.

That's one of several proposals in Davis' plan to reduce the school dropout rate. Davis says he will unveil details of the plan at a news conference Tuesday in Montgomery.

Davis' plan calls for after-school programs to help students at risk of dropping out of school. The candidate is also calling for the revocation of the driver's license of any student who drops out of school for non-medical reasons.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – (AP) The Jefferson County Commission meets today as a financial crisis enters its second day with more than one-fourth of the county's work force off the job.

Commissioners have furloughed nearly 1,000 of the county's 3,600 workers due to plunging revenue after a county occupational tax was ruled illegal.

The county's legislative delegation is also meeting Tuesday to consider a new tax to end the crisis. No bill was agreed on when the legislature met earlier this year.

Birmingham, Alabama – Money woes in Alabama's most populous county today leave 965 Jefferson County employees on unpaid leave.

These layoffs as Jefferson County struggles with a budget shortfall sparked by loss of revenue from an occupational tax ruled invalid earlier this year.

Without legislation re-enacting that tax or in some other way replacing that money, it's not clear when those Jefferson County employees will be back on the job.

POINT CLEAR, Ala. –
(AP) _ Eight candidates for governor of Alabama
have gotten together for an early candidates forum with the election
more than 15 months away and showed some areas of common agreement.
They also showed common disagreement with federal government
efforts to reform health care.
The Business Council of Alabama played host to the weekend forum
at Marriott's Grand Hotel. Participants gave opening and closing
statement and answered a wide range of questions.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – (AP) - A longtime Alabama lobbyist has pleaded guilty to paying thousands of dollars in bribes to Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford.
Al LaPierre admitted being the middleman Thursday in a
conspiracy to route money to Langford from Montgomery investment
banker Bill Blount. Blount's firm received millions of dollars in
work from the Jefferson County Commission while Langford was a
member.
Langford is accused of accepting more than $230,000 in bribes in
exchange for funneling business to Blount's company. Langford and

MONTGOMERY, Ala. –
(AP) - U.S. Rep. Artur Davis of Birmingham says he can't support the health care bill pending in the House unless significant changes are made.
Davis voted for a portion of the bill in the House Ways and Means Committee on July 17.
He said Thursday the bill has become an incentive for small businesses to hire fewer workers because the mandates are based on the size of a company's payroll. He calls the bill hypocritical because it does not require congressional campaign committees to insure their employees.

Montgomery, Alabama – A state lawmaker out of Gadsden wants the state's ailing Prepaid Affordable College Tuition program to the subject of a special session of the Alabama Legislature.

State Representative Craig Ford says he wants the governor to call a special session during the week that the governor receives a report from the Retirement Systems of Alabama on the program.

Lawmakers asked RSA to review the plan after it was revealed the PACT program did not have enough assets to cover future obligations. That report will be released to the PACT Board August 19th.