Chip Brownlee

It took nearly two years, but the Alabama Supreme Court has ruled on former Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard’s appeal of his felony ethics convictions. The court upheld six of the 11 counts previously affirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. The Supreme Court reversed five of the counts upheld by the appeals court. … Continued

Add Alabama to the list of states that have had trouble acquiring needed medical supplies from commercial vendors because the federal government intervened and took the supplies. The federal government has been quietly seizing orders of medical supplies, protective gear and testing materials across the country, and Alabama has not been immune. The federal government’s … Continued

Nearly 400 health care workers and 90 long-term care facility employees have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The Alabama Department of Public Health said Thursday that at least 393 health care workers, 90 long-term care facility employees and 65 long-term care facility residents have tested positive. Health care workers includes those who work at … Continued

More than half of the deaths so far in Alabama from COVID-19 have been among black people, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Black Alabamians make up only 27 percent of the state’s population. New data released Wednesday shows that the number of deaths among black people infected with COVID-19 in Alabama is … Continued

More than half of Alabama’s hospitals were already in a precarious situation before coronavirus. About 52 percent of the state’s hospitals had negative total margins before COVID-19, and 75 percent of them had negative operating margins, according to Alabama Hospital Association President Donald Williamson. In layman’s terms, they were bleeding money. Rural hospitals were in … Continued

Black people are being disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in Alabama, according to new data released by the Alabama Department of Public Health. The Department of Public Health’s data shows that about 44 percent of the verified COVID-19 deaths in Alabama so far have been among black people, but black people make up only about … Continued

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Alabama surpassed 2,000 on Monday, marking another grim milestone in the outbreak. At least 53 deaths have been reported. [visual-link-preview encoded=”eyJ0eXBlIjoiaW50ZXJuYWwiLCJwb3N0Ijo4MzEwOSwicG9zdF9sYWJlbCI6IlBhZ2UgODMxMDkgLSBNYXBwaW5nIENPVklELTE5IGluIEFsYWJhbWEiLCJ1cmwiOiIiLCJpbWFnZV9pZCI6ODU1MjMsImltYWdlX3VybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFscmVwb3J0ZXIuY29tL3dwLWNvbnRlbnQvdXBsb2Fkcy8yMDIwLzA0L0FydGJvYXJkLTEtMTAwMHg2MDAuanBnIiwidGl0bGUiOiJNYXBwaW5nIENPVklELTE5IGluIEFsYWJhbWEiLCJzdW1tYXJ5IjoiV2UncmUgdHJhY2tpbmcgdGhlIHNwcmVhZCBvZiB0aGUgdmlydXMuIENsaWNrIGhlcmUgZm9yIHRoZSBsYXRlc3QgdXBkYXRlcy4iLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6InVzZV9kZWZhdWx0X2Zyb21fc2V0dGluZ3MifQ==”] Cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed by lab testing in 66 of the state’s 67 counties. At least five of the state’s counties have at least a … Continued

Alabama on Saturday started publicly reporting the number of people hospitalized because of COVID-19 on its data dashboard. As of Monday morning, 240 people have been hospitalized since March 13, according to that data. The day before ADPH began publishing the number of cumulative hospitalizations on its dashboard, I reported that 255 people were hospitalized … Continued

Early last week it said 7,500 would die in Alabama by August. This modeling from the University of Washington’s Institue for Health Metrics and Evaluation has been cited by the White House’s coronavirus task force. This modeling — that last week suggested somewhere between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans could die — spurred President Donald Trump’s … Continued