NEW YORK (AP) — A key witness for prosecutors at a trial stemming from a crackdown on corruption in college basketball says he paid college football players to secure their business when they joined the NFL.

Louis Martin Blazer, testifying Tuesday and Wednesday, described paying players at schools including Pittsburgh, Penn State, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, North Carolina and Alabama.

Blazer said he did it so they'd hire him as their financial adviser when they became professionals.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama police department is investigating a video of an arrest that shows two Tuscaloosa police officers punching and using a baton to hit a woman during a traffic stop.

News outlets report 22-year-old Jhasmynn Sheppard is charged with disarming a police officer, assault and resisting arrest. One officer's account of the Friday arrest is detailed in court documents filed Tuesday.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama lawmakers are advancing a bill that would allow the use of medical marijuana to treat some illnesses and conditions.

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday voted 6-2 for the bill after a public hearing. The bill now moves to the full Alabama Senate.

The bill by Republican Sen. Tim Melson of Florence would set up state oversight and a process for prescribing marijuana as medicine. Patients with a valid medical cannabis card could not be charged with the crime of marijuana possession.

DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — A missing woman has been found alive in her wrecked car five days after she was last seen in south Alabama.

Authorities say a passer-by noticed a car that was mostly hidden by brush in a ditch off a road Monday.

Rescuers found Robin Joyce Fancher trapped inside. She was last seen five days earlier when she left for the post office in a Mitsubishi sedan.

News outlets report that crews from five agencies worked for more than an hour to free the woman, who suffered multiple injuries but was communicating with rescuers.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama deputy has been put on administrative leave for posting a homophobic comment on a Facebook post about a gay teen who killed himself.

Al.com reports Madison County Deputy Jeff Graves wrote the comment Sunday on a WZDX-TV Facebook post about the death of 15-year-old Nigel Shelby, who killed himself last week. His family says he was bullied for his sexuality.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's most populous county will immediately end arrests for misdemeanors including the possession of small amounts of marijuana, officials announced Monday.

Officers will begin issuing tickets for nonviolent misdemeanor offenses rather than taking people to jail, Capt. David Agee, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, told a news conference.

"People are always talking about criminal justice reform," he said. "Well this is more than talk, this is action. This is big.'"

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A historically black college in Alabama is using the state's Confederate Memorial Day to highlight the 1981 lynching of a black teenager by Ku Klux Klan members.

A "teach-in" about the slaying of 19-year-old Michael Donald was planned Monday at Alabama State University in Montgomery. Meanwhile, Confederate history buffs gathered outside Alabama's Capitol for an event honoring rebel dead.

FLORENCE, Ala. (AP) — Two young anglers competing in a high school fishing tournament rescued two other competitors whose boat was sinking on a lake in northwest Alabama.

Sardis High School 10th graders Garrett Howington and Isaac Darden are being called heroes for their actions during an Alabama Student Angler Bass Fishing Association tournament at Pickwick Lake.

Howington and Darden were fishing on Saturday when they heard another fishing team calling for help. They tell the TimesDaily of Florence that the back of the other boat was filling up with water.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Lawmakers are headed to a vote on lottery legislation next week, as supporters aim to change Alabama's status as one of the few states without the games.

The Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday on one of two rival lottery proposals introduced this session. Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh said his hope is to get a bill before the full Senate on Thursday. If a bill is approved by both chambers, the proposal would go before Alabama voters.

Research by Northern Illinois University finds that tornadoes are occurring more frequently in the South than in part of the Great Plains which has been known as "Tornado Alley," Professor Victor Gensini found that twisters are occurring more frequently in the southern version of Tornado Alley. "Dixie Alley" includes Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia. The Montgomery Advertiser reports the cause of the shift is unknown, though some theories focus on climate change, the newspaper reported.