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Bentley signs Leni's Law, Mobile County EMA new control center

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley has signed HB61, also known as Leni's Law.  The law will make medical cannabidiol available to Alabamians.

Bentley says "As a physician, I believe it is extremely important to give patients with a chronic or debilitating disease the option to consider every possible option for treatment.”

Bentley adds "With Leni's Law, citizens in Alabama will have access to cannabidiol that may help with treatment. Through a study at UAB, we have seen the benefit of cannabidiol to help with chronic seizures."

The law will go into effect on June 1.

The Mobile County Emergency Management Agency has a new control center in the works.

Officials will break ground later this year on a brand new Emergency Operations Center. It will to serve as a central command hub in the event of a disaster. The new thirty one thousand square foot facility will serve as the year-round headquarters for the emergency management agency. It can also accommodate up to one hundred officials for major emergencies like hurricanes.

Mike Evans is the deputy director of the Mobile County Emergency Management Agency.   He says there’s a lot more than just hurricanes to worry about.

“We have the Port of Mobile, which is very busy. We have a lot of petrochemical and oil and gas manufacturing, robust transportation network. That means there are a lot of opportunities for some type of serious incident or disaster.”

The ten million dollar project is expected to be completed in the spring of 2018.

Energy Huntsville is hosting an event this week to help small businesses learn about opportunities in this field.

Innovate Energy is part of the week-long Innovate Huntsville initiative. Organizers hope to diversify Huntsville’s economy by expanding in the fields of energy, cyber security, and geo-information.

Organizer Bill Carswell says this event will also promote collaboration around energy technology.

“The other opportunity is to have exhibitors with technologies that they think might be valuable in this field to come present those technologies, put them on display, and then work with other partners to actually start getting them to be applied in the energy field.”

The event will start at eight in the morning tomorrow at the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.

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