2015 could mean higher power bills for customers of Alabama Power. The utility is planning a rate hike that will mean a monthly increase of close to seven dollars for the average household. Alabama Power says the increase is due to higher costs including overhauling its coal fired plants to reduce pollution. Alabama Power is allowed to file for yearly adjustments. The last one was in 2011. The increases will begin in January unless staff at Alabama Public Service Commission staff object to the company's calculations.
A coalition of cancer specialists is the latest group calling for Medicaid reform in Alabama. APR student reporter Elayne Smith has more…
The American Society for Clinical Oncology is worried about the two hundred thousand Alabamians who don’t have health care coverage. The group is calling on Governor Robert Bentley to expand Medicaid in Alabama. They’re also challenging Washington to reform the Medicaid system to make it more cost effective. Society spokesman Dr. Blaze Polite teaches medicine at the University of Chicago. He says people without insurance can’t get the care they need early on to avoid the spread of cancer…
“When patients do not have health care, they are more likely to present with more advanced cancers. So they are more likely to have cancers that spread further and are therefore less likely to be cured.” The Centers for Disease Control says Alabama’s overall cancer death rate is two hundred per one hundred thousand residents, among the highest in the nation. For APR news, I’m Elayne Smith in Tuscaloosa.
The Marshall Space Center in Huntsville is about to watch of key piece of its hardware fly into space. NASA is getting ready for tomorrow’s test launch of an unmanned version of its new Orion space capsule. Engineers in Huntsville built a connecting ring that attaches the capsule to its Delta Four booster rocket. APR spoke with design manager Johnathan Walden last year and he explained what the adapter does.
“And what the adapter does, it attaches the Orion crew vehicle to the top of the Delta-IV Heavy upper stage. And then, it transitions to the Delta-IV upper stage, so it goes from larger diameter to a smaller diameter and that’s the purpose of the adapter.”
Marshall is inviting social media and users and the general public to a launch viewing opportunity for the capsule as it blasts off from Florida.
Democrats in the Alabama Senate have picked a new leader. Four term senator Quinton Ross of Montgomery is the new minority leader in the upper chamber. The Senate Democratic Caucus picked Ross to replace Senator Vivian Davis Figures. She’ll become the minority treasure after declining another term. Ross is taking over the leadership of a smaller minority. Going into the Nov. 4 election, Democrats held 12 of the 35 seats in the Senate. They now have eight. Along with his political career, Ross was a high school principal and a consultant.
