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The number of COVID-19 cases in Alabama has jumped by thirty percent over the past two weeks. The State Department of Health puts out data on a county by county basis. This dashboard includes things like the number of deaths, the number of cases, and how many people have recovered. One area of interest is how the virus is spread from person to person. Apple and Google have announced a high tech way of doing that. Experts on that subject here in Alabama are saying watch what you wish for.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama prison system says a second inmate has died after testing positive for COVID-19. 

William Hershell Moon, a 74-year-old inmate at St. Clair Correctional Facility, died Wednesday at a hospital. The prison system this week reported additional cases among inmates and staff.

SPANISH FORT, Ala. (AP) — A lawyer for a city worker who accused an Alabama mayor of slapping her has now been fired after refusing to perform temperature checks at City Hall. 

Attorney Ed Smith says Lyndsey Cooper was dismissed Monday for insubordination by the coastal town of Spanish Fort. He says Cooper has no medical training and refused to take the temperatures of people entering City Hall.

DECATUR, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama inmate has been captured in Tennessee about five hours after authorities say he escaped from custody. Prison officials say 38-year-old Michael Kimbrough was arrested Tuesday night in Fayetteville, Tennessee. 

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — The city of Auburn is changing the name of a street named after a former Alabama House speaker convicted of felony ethics charges. 

City Council members approved changing the name of Mike Hubbard Boulevard to a continuation of Bent Creek Road. The city's planning commission recommended the change last month.

MOODY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama police officer is dead after a shooting at a motel east of Birmingham and two people are in custody. 

News outlets report that Sgt. Stephen Williams was 50 and had spent three years with the Moody Police Department. Alabama's governor says he was a father of three.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Confederate monuments are once again coming down in the South. 

Relics of the Old South have been removed from public display in at least three states amid continuing protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. In Alabama, crews working overnight took down a huge stone monument in a park in downtown Birmingham. 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama congresswoman says it's time to end a state holiday celebrating the president of the Confederacy. 

Rep. Terri Sewell's comments came Monday on the state holiday honoring Jefferson Davis. And they come amid protests in Alabama and elsewhere over the death of an African American man at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama has topped 18,000 cases of coronavirus.  

The state's Department of Public Health says Alabama had more than 18,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 600 deaths as of Monday.  

Restaurants in Tuscaloosa are changing their business practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The risks COVID-19 poses on dine-in customers have forced these restaurants to serve customers through safer alternatives such as curbside and drive-thru.

Andrea Snyder is the owner of the Urban Cookhouse restaurant in Tuscaloosa. She said the restaurant now relies on drive-thru and their food truck, which it may use even after the pandemic ends.

Former Auburn football coach Pat Dye has died at the age of 80. 

Dye took over a downtrodden program in 1981 and turned it into a Southeastern Conference power.

HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Police said 20 people were arrested at a weekend protest near Hoover City Hall while demonstrating against the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. 

Hoover police Lt. Keith Czeskleba told WBRC-TV most of Saturday's arrests resulted in disorderly conduct charges after protesters blocked traffic on a highway. Other charges included criminal trespass and resisting arrest, and one person was charged with carrying a firearm during a demonstration.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Shelters that open during dangerous hurricanes may look and operate differently this storm season, state emergency officials said, as the new coronavirus complicate response plans.  

Across the coastal United States, concerns over COVID-19 has added a new complication to response planning as emergency officials prepare for the hurricane season that officially starts Monday.  

PRATTVILLE, Ala. (Montgomery Advertiser) — An Alabama jail is getting a new tool to fight efforts to bring contraband into the facility. 

The sheriff’s office is spending $125,250 for a full-body scanner for the Autauga Metro Jail. Inmates will be scanned by the machine as part of the intake process.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Montgomery might become the latest Alabama city to require the wearing of face masks in public as the city deals with rising COVID-19 cases. 

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said Friday that the proposal may be brought to the city council as soon as Tuesday.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama prison system reported that an inmate died after being assaulted by another inmate. 

A spokeswoman for the Alabama Department of Corrections said Jamaal King, a 34-year-old inmate at Elmore Correctional Facility died Wednesday from injuries sustained in an apparent inmate-on-inmate assault.

Montgomery might become the latest Alabama city to require the wearing of face masks in public as the city deals with rising COVID-19 cases. Coronavirus cases in Alabama's capitol city are reportedly up by 38% since last week, and COVID-19 deaths have increased by 27% since a week ago. Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed says that the proposal may be brought to the city council as soon as Tuesday. Birmingham currently has an ordinance requiring face masks in public. The Birmingham City Council on Friday voted to extend the face mask ordinance through June 12.

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.