INFLUENZA
Hospital leaders across the state are telling the Alabama Department of Public Health they are seeing a significant number of patients with various strains of the influenza virus. A press release Thursday says that influenza-like illnesses have been above Alabama’s threshold for significant activity for seven consecutive weeks. According to the Department of Public Health, 53-percent of samples in hospitals have tested positive for some form of the influenza virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reports a growing number of influenza-like illnesses across the country, the most widespread cases being in the eastern section of the continental US. The CDC and state department of health encourage children, the elderly, those with chronic illnesses, and health care workers to get immunizations from the very contagious respiratory illness. State health officials say while there may be isolated seasonal shortages of vaccines, state pharmacy director Charles Thomas says “there is no reason to believe that there is any significant long-lasting shortage at this time.”
MOORE
Roy Moore is to take the oath of office as Alabama’s Supreme Court Chief Justice. The Associated Press reports a formal ceremony for Moore and for Supreme Court Justice-elect Tommy Bryan will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday in the Supreme Court courtroom in the Alabama Judicial Building. Moore served as chief justice from 2001 to 2003 before he was removed from office for refusing to obey a federal judge’s order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the judicial building. In all, 11 appellate court justices including five Supreme Court justices will take office on Jan. 14. All but Bryan and Moore will be sworn in without investiture ceremonies since all are incumbents.
DENSON
A 33-year-old Gadsden man has been sentenced to 119 years in prison in his mother’s death. The Gadsden Times reports Justin Denson was sentenced Thursday in the December 2009 death of his mother, Nita Denson. Authorities say an investigation showed Denson and his mother had been arguing about money before her slaying. Denson is ordered to serve 99 years in prison for intentional murder and received two 10-year sentenced for two counts of fraudulent use of a debit or credit card. Authorities say the man used his mother’s card in Florida, Louisiana, Nevada and Colorado while he was on the run. Police used his trail of purchases to track him down and eventually arrest him in Memphis, Tennessee.
JASPER
The teenage pilot who crashed a small plane on New Year’s Day was working at the Walker County Airport in exchange for flying lessons, according to a preliminary investigation by the NTSB. The National Transportation Safety Board said 17-year-old Jason Smith did not make radio contact during the short flight before he crashed. Authorities learned of the crash in Walker County only after witnesses called 911. The report said the aircraft was flying very low on a rainy night but did not directly say what caused the crash that killed the pilot and two other teenage passengers aboard. Smith had completed a solo flight as a student pilot in April of last year in a single engine Cessna before he stopped taking lessons from the airport manager. The owner of the twin-engine Piper PA-30 said that he knew Smith from his work at the airport but never gave him permission to fly the aircraft.
CHURCH
Authorities say a pastor’s wife is dead and two people are hospitalized after a shooting and stabbing at her family’s home near Birmingham. The coroner’s office says 52-year-old Lisa Greer died early Friday. She was the wife of Gardendale-Mt. Vernon United Methodist Church senior pastor Rev. Terry Greer. Police aren’t releasing any names, but they say a man is suspected of shooting two women before stabbing himself inside the Greer home on Thursday.
Police say the man and another woman remain hospitalized. The church has posted a note on its Facebook page about an unspecified “tragedy” involving its pastor’s family. A worship leader at the same church was recently arrested on charges of soliciting a child for sex. Police say they are trying to determine if there’s a link.
RAIN
Forecasters say the next few days will be soggy across Alabama. The National Weather Service says parts of the state could see as much as 5 inches of rain between Friday and early next week, and some areas could receive even more rain in small downpours. While forecasters aren’t predicting severe weather, they say brief periods of heavy rain and strong, gusty winds are both possible. So are rising streams and rivers that could lead to flooding. The weather service says the storms are from an unseasonably warm and humid air mass that’s moving across the Southeast. Rains could become more widespread and heavier late Sunday as a cold front moves in. Forecasters say rains will continue into early next week.