HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Alabama-Huntsville’s hockey program has gotten a reprieve — for now.

Athletic director Cade Smith says “numerous individual donors” had combined to raise more than $500,000 this week to help save the program from the chopping block.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A lawsuit is seeking to ease Alabama’s restrictions on absentee ballots and in-person voting during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The League of Women Voters of Alabama and eight voters over age 60 filed the lawsuit against Secretary of State John Merrill and others. It asks that public officials use their emergency powers to ease restrictions during the pandemic.

HAYNEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Sparsely populated Lowndes County has the sad distinction of having both Alabama's highest rate of COVID-19 cases and its worst unemployment rate. 

The county and nearby poor, mostly black counties in rural Alabama were initially spared as the disease ravaged cities, but are now they are facing an increase in confirmed infections.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Department of Corrections says a prison infirmary has been quarantined after two inmates there tested positive for coronavirus. 

The inmates were transferred to a hospital and the  infirmary at Kilby Correctional Facility placed on quarantine. The prison system said in a news release that a total of 55 staff members, including contract staff, and 11 inmates have so far tested positive for the virus.

GRAND BAY, Ala. (AP) — A sheriff in Alabama says six veterans were hospitalized after being found in an unlicensed group home without access to food, drinks, their medications and a phone. 

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Authorities say they've arrested a woman on charges of helping two prisoners who escaped from the Tuscaloosa County Jail last week. 

The sheriff's office says 28-year-old Remona Dailey of Northport is accused of giving rides to Seth Williams and Cameron Newell after they escaped through the jail roof on Friday. Those two men and a third prisoner who escaped have since been arrested and returned to custody.

An Alabama teenager has died in what authorities are calling an accidental drowning in a state park lake. 

The Lee County coroner's office says 18-year-old Jamari Smith went under the water while swimming with friends at Chewacla State Park in Auburn on Wednesday. Firefighters found him underwater and Smith was rushed to a hospital, where he died.

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama school district says a student who attended a graduation ceremony last week has tested positive for the new coronavirus. 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama added more than 5,000 coronavirus cases over the last 14 days as the state began lifting restrictions. 

As of Wednesday, more than 15,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in Alabama and 581 have died. State Health Officer Scott Harris said an increase in testing is behind part of the increase, but that doesn't explain all of it.