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Saturday, November 12, 2011

Spectators injured in Veterans Day Parade crash

Huntsville, AL.
Emergency crews responded to a wreck at the Huntsville Veterans Memorial about 45 minutes before the Veterans Day Parade was scheduled to begin.
Three spectators injured
Witnesses on the scene said a woman had a medical emergency, lost control of her van and flipped at the intersection of Monroe Street and Jefferson Street.
Police said when the van overturned, it struck three spectators. Emergency workers said four people were transported to the hospital from the scene.
The driver, a 52-year-old female, was taken to the hospital. Her 17-year-old daughter was treated for her injuries at the scene.
The van struck a 40-year-old female spectator, her 63-year-old mother and her 8-year-old son. They were also taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries.
All four of the victims transferred to the hospital suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Investigators said it doesn't appear that the driver of the van was speeding. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
Police cleared the scene and the parade started at 11 a.m. as planned.

Bay Minette meth case forwarded for grand jury review

BAY MINETTE, Al.
COURT.jpgA grand jury will review the cases of three people accused of making methamphetamine at a motel in Bay Minette.
Dorthy Haney, 25, of Perdido, Harvey Tillman, 30, and Gerald Underwood Jr., 41, both of Bay Minette, face charges of unlawful manufacturing of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to court documents. Each had bail totaling $26,000, according to court records.
According to testimony at a Nov. 3 preliminary hearing, police trying to serve an arrest warrant on Tillman at a local motel on Oct. 5 discovered a working meth lab. Police also found a shotgun by the motel room door.
Underwood is also facing a first-degree theft of property charge involving two stolen four-wheelers found in the motel parking lot. The vehicles had been stolen from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, according to police testimony.

Syphilis spikes in Baldwin County prompts state to unveil billboard

FOLEY, Al.
The syphilis rate is spiking this year in Baldwin County, prompting the state to herald a cautionary message via billboard in Foley on Ala. 59, the main highway between the city and the beach.
The 45 reported new syphilis cases through Sept. 28 mark a five-fold increase from the number in all of 2010, according state data. In fact, those account for more than 10 percent of the syphilis reports statewide. The new billboard, visible to northbound motorists, features a photo of someone's palms in the second-stage of the disease.
The message, worded in English and Spanish: Know the Signs. Syphilis. It's curable & the test is free. Contact Your Local Health Department.
The rising incidence of syphilis caused the state to act, according to Mary McIntyre, assistant state health officer for disease control and prevention with the Department of Public Health. It can result in some really significant problems, McIntyre said, but it's completely treatable.
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum.
In recent years, Alabama has recorded the fifth-highest syphilis rate in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The primary stage of syphilis is usually marked by the appearance of one or more sores, known as a chancre, according to the CDC.
The chancre is usually firm, round, small and painless, and appears at the spot where syphilis entered the body. The chancre lasts three to six weeks, and vanishes without treatment. But if there is no adequate treatment, typically a shot of penicillin, the syphilis progresses.
Often in the second stage of infection, blisters may form on sections of the body, including the palm of the hand. Many of those infected show no symptoms for years, yet remain at risk for late complications and loss of brain function.
In Mobile County, the number of reported cases has fallen this year. There were 60 in 2010, then 29 through the end of September, state data shows.

North Alabama vegans protest Lobsterfest

HUNTSVILLE, Al.
For the past 18 years, St. Thomas Episcopal Church in southeast Huntsville has drawn thousands of people to its biggest fundraiser of the year, the Lobsterfest.
The church has raised over $300,000, which has gone toward building Habitat houses in Huntsville and providing medical care for poor Hondurans and Haitians.
Around 3,000 people attended Saturday's event, said church rector, the Rev. Matt Doss.
But that didn't include four people who showed up on the sidewalk in front of the church to protest the annual event -- Dr. Carole Edmonds of Jackson County, Jenni Moody of Huntsville, John Ezell of Decatur and Kathryn Dalenberg of Dekalb County.
The four are members of a Huntsville vegan group that opposes the practice of boiling live lobsters. Edmonds, a dentist who has a practice in Boaz, organized the three-hour peaceful protest.
"What we're trying to do is to bring public awareness that fundraisers should be humane," said Edmonds who has gone on medical mission trips to other countries. "We totally support helping the Hondurans, but not in a cruel manner. The fact they are a church, they should recognize how inhumane it is to boil a lobster alive."
Edmonds, a biology major, said lobsters have the ability to feel pain. She would like the church to consider other alternatives for its fundraiser. The protesters carried a sign that said "Blessed in October. Boiled and roasted in November," referring to the church's practice of the October "Blessing of the Animals" service.
Rev. Doss said if he thought for a minute that boiling lobsters was inhumane he would not be part of the event. While he disagreed with the group, he said they have the right to protest, just as the church has a right to hold a fundraiser.
"That's what's great about America," he said. "I support their right to protest as long as they operate within the law."
The group said it's not only interested in what it considers the inhumane treatment of lobsters and pigs, but for the health issues it can cause humans by eating fish, pork, beef and chicken.
"Lobsters contain a lot of chemicals include mercury and petroleum from the oil spills," said Edmonds. "There are environmental concerns as well. We fish and trap from the ocean and it is not being replenished. By 2048, most of our marine life will be endangered or extinct."
Edmonds doesn't expect to change the minds of most people about becoming vegans, but she said if the group's presence "changes one person's mind, it was worth it."
For information on the Huntsville Vegan group, email huntsvilleveg@gmail.com or check them out on Facebook at Huntsville.vegans. For information on St. Thomas Church's mission work, visit http://stthomas-hsv.dioala.org/or call 256-880-0247.

Man killed after being struck by Hueytown police cruiser, authorities say

BIRMINGHAM, Al.
Birmingham police say a man was struck and killed by a Hueytown police car after a chase early this morning.

The incident occurred at 2:10 a.m. in the 2700 block of Pike Road Alley, according to a statement from Birmingham police.

They said at around 2 a.m., an officer from the Hueytown Police Department began pursuing a burglary suspect in a chase that took them into Birmingham. The pursuit traveled along Interstate 59 North from 19th Street in Bessemer to 20th Street in Ensley, Birmingham police said.

After leaving the interstate, the victim crashed his vehicle into a fire hydrant at 17th Street and Barbour Avenue.

Birmingham police said the man fled on foot, while the Hueytown police officer continued after him in the police cruiser. The man was struck by the Hueytown police car in the 2700 block of Pike Valley Road. Birmingham police said paramedics pronounced the man dead at the scene.

The identity of the man, described as a 34-year-old white male, will be released after relatives are notified, Birmingham police said.

Birmingham police said it was not involved in the incident but that a traffic homicide investigator is looking into the matter.

Memorial service set Monday for former Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar

MONTGOMERY, Al.
Funeral services have been set for former Montgomery Mayor Emory Folmar, who died Friday at age 81.
Emory Folmar
His family said in a statement Saturday that a private graveside service is scheduled, followed by a memorial service at 3:30 p.m. Monday at Trinity Presbyterian Church.
"He was a patriot, a statesman and really the grandfather of the modern Republican Party in Alabama," said state Rep. Mike Hubbard, the first Republican House speaker in more than 100 years and a former GOP state chairman. "He was a Republican before it was cool to be a Republican in Alabama."
Folmar served as Montgomery's mayor from 1977 to 1999, and also worked on the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also made a run for governor in 1982.

Alabama prisons face 'tough choices'

Attorney General Luther Strange
WASHINGTON
Alabama’s prisons are overcrowded, underfunded and could face "tough choices," such as whether to release inmates deemed statistically unlikely to commit future violent crimes, Attorney General Luther Strange said Friday.
While releasing some prisoners could ease beleaguered state budgets and prisons, Strange said, it would be politically unpopular and must be packaged with some stricter crime laws to gain support.
"We have a ... (prison) population that’s about 195 percent of the designed capacity, so we understand the problems," Strange said.
The attorney general spoke as part of a panel on prison overcrowding and criminal justice held by the Federalist Society, a conservative think tank.
He was joined by university professors, a former prosecutor and a federal appellate judge. The group spanned a wide ideological range but largely agreed on a few points: Some prisoner releases are likely inevitable across the country in coming years; they will be politically difficult; and the best way to release prisoners while minimizing the harm done to society is through use of statistics.
"You probably could release a third to a half of all the individuals in major prisons and make a cost-effective and public-safety-effective decision," said Richard Berk, a professor of criminology and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania.
"There are certain individuals you never want to see out there, but there are also a lot of individuals who are not a threat to public safety, for whom you’re paying thousands of dollars a year to incarcerate, and these days we can tell you which is which," he said.
When the wrong people are released, the consequences are dire.
Sarah Hart, a longtime Philadelphia prosecutor, recalled tracking a long list of inmates, released under a court order, who went on a collective crime spree in the year-and-a-half after they were freed.
"In that one, 18-month period, they ... were re-arrested for over 10,000 new crimes, including 79 murders," Hart said. "Even I, as a very cynical prosecutor, was absolutely blown away by that number."
Such concerns resonate across society and make even carefully thought-out prisoner releases a political albatross. Proposals that makes public officials appear tough on crime, by contrast, are a boon politically, even if they’re not effective, panelists said.
Three-strikes laws, which impose long prison sentences for repeat offenders, are much more likely to incarcerate criminals through their late 20s and 30s — not the teen years, when they are most likely to commit violent crimes, said Deborah Daniels, a former U.S. attorney now with an Indianapolis law firm.
"If you try to do anything that might approach this scientifically, and in any way appear to be releasing people or just not putting them in for long periods of time ... you get accused of being soft on crime," Daniels said.
One way around this problem, Strange said, is to package statistically based prisoner releases with mandates that death row inmates be put to death sooner, guarantees that those likely to re-offend will serve their full sentences, and other measures widely seen as tough on crime.
When states fail to shrink the populations of overcrowded prisons themselves, federal courts can take over the process — an outcome that few panelists favored.
"I — personally, philosophically, practically and every other way — would like for the state to solve its own problems ... rather than turn over the prison system to the Supreme Court of the United States to run," Strange said. "I know that that cannot end well."

Friday's Alabama (Prep) High School Football Scores

Friday Night High School (PREP) Football          


Class 6A
Second Round
Central-Phenix City 41, Benjamin Russell 14
Fairhope 24, Blount 20
Hillcrest 17, Vestavia Hills 14
Hoover 26, Bob Jones 17
McGill-Toolen 31, Murphy 28
Mountain Brook 31, Huntsville 14
Oxford 55, Northridge 19
Prattville 13, Daphne 3
Class 5A
Second Round
Briarwood Christian 24, Fort Payne 14
Center Point 26, Etowah 20
Hartselle 22, Pinson Valley 21
Hueytown 51, Eufaula 14
Muscle Shoals 35, Cullman 7
Spanish Fort 31, Valley 16
St. Paul's 31, Charles Henderson 0
Vigor 48, Greenville 17
Class 4A
Second Round
Anniston 25, Dora 20
Bibb County 46, Lincoln 20
Dadeville 28, Thomasville 26
Deshler 59, Alexandria 19
Fayette County 40, North Jackson 32
Jackson 44, Beauregard 14
Oneonta 35, West Limestone 0
UMS-Wright 47, Elmore County 25
Class 3A
Second Round
Clay County 35, Bayside Academy 21
Handley 21, T.R. Miller 19
Lauderdale County 21, Glencoe 20
Leeds 21, Gordo 6
Madison Academy 42, Elkmont 0
Piedmont 34, Sheffield 24
Rogers 14, Saks 13
Washington County 19, Walter Wellborn 14
Class 2A
Second Round
American Christian Academy 17, Barbour County 14
Elba 59, Vincent 20
Flomaton 20, Goshen 0
Fultondale 27, Red Bay 15
Leroy 33, Highland Home 7
Lineville 48, Oakman 14
Tanner 37, Reeltown 14
Woodland 27, Fyffe 21
Class 1A
Second Round
Collinsville 24, Lynn 22
Donoho 28, Shoals Christian 20
Linden 41, Pleasant Home 0
Maplesville 35, Geneva County 0
Marion County 41, Cedar Bluff 21
Pickens County 14, Brantley 12
Ragland 51, Berry 20
Sweet Water 49, Winterboro 0
AISA Class AAA
Championship
Bessemer Academy 21, Monroe Academy 14
AISA Class AA
Championship
Edgewood Academy 41, Clarke Prep 6