DOTHAN, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama day care employee is charged with multiple counts of child abuse after allegedly using force to make children behave. 

News outlets in Dothan report that 36-year-old Candelin Hyde was charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse. She was jailed with bail set at $360,000.

ALBERTVILLE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama county plans to spend $3,500 building a fence to protect a Confederate monument outside the courthouse. 

The stone marker and accompanying rebel flag outside the Marshall County Courthouse have been the scene of repeated protests during national demonstrations against the police killing of George Floyd.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Long absentee ballot lines in one Alabama county have brought accusations of voter suppression. 

The Alabama Democratic Party said Thursday that voters in Tuscaloosa County have waited five hours or longer without getting to vote.  

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth says he has returned to work after being diagnosed with COVID-19 last week. 

Ainsworth said Wednesday he returned to the office after completing quarantine after a positive test for COVID-19.

Ainsworth announced last Wednesday that he had tested positive following a possible exposure at church. He said he experienced few symptoms and was able to work from home.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — More people are hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19 in Alabama than any time since August as the coronavirus pandemic worsens across the state. 

Statistics from the Alabama Department of Public Health showed that 1,001 people were hospitalized with the illness Monday. That marked the first time since Aug. 31 that hospitalizations statewide passed the triple digits.

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge has apologized for calling the state’s female governor “MeMaw” in a court order he issued earlier this year to cancel a hearing due to Alabama’s stay-at-home order.

TROY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Sen. Doug Jones is urging voters to look at his record and not what he called Republican distortions about him. 

Jones says he does not want to defund the police or take away people's guns, despite what some in the GOP claim. Jones is considered the most endangered Democrat in the Senate and is facing Republican Tommy Tuberville.

ATHENS, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama man is accused of sex crimes involving three victims while he was working with a county corrections program. 

A statement from the attorney general's office on Monday said 61-year-old James Michael Hardaway of Elkmont was arrested on sexual misconduct and ethics charges on Friday.