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GOP Presidential Candidates visiting Alabama, State unemployment increases

During the next week nearly a third of the Republicans who want to be President will be in Alabama. 

Alabama’s Governor Robert Bentley endorsed Ohio’s Governor John Kasich earlier this week. Tonight the G-O-P front runner, businessman Donald Trump will be in Mobile where he is expected to draw a crowd of nearly thirty thousand.

Terry Lathan is the Chairwoman of the Alabama G-O-P. She says Alabama is a key to the South…

“We feel very strongly that they understand the pathway to the presidency if you’re the republican nominee is the south. Alabama has been named by USA Today as the reddest state in the nation. Can’t be a serious presidential candidate and not come through Alabama.”

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will arrive in Alabama Saturday, Senator Ted Cruz and Doctor Ben Carson will arrive Tuesday and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush will be in Birmingham Wednesday.

Alabama’s preliminary unemployment rates for the month of July are out, and APR’s Alex AuBuchon reports the numbers are moving in the wrong direction…

Alabama’s unemployment figures are on the rise again, but only slightly. Preliminary figures show a 6.2 percent unemployment rate for the month of July. That’s a tenth of a percent higher statewide than in June.

State labor commissioner Fitzgerald Washington says the stagnation and slight increase is common for summer months, because school employees are mostly out of work.

It’s not all bad news.  State officials stress July’s total is nearly a full percentage point down from a year ago, when Alabama saw 7% unemployment.

The lowest unemployment rates in Alabama were Shelby County at 4.6% and Elmore and Baldwin Counties at 5.6%.Wilcox County had a jobless rate of 16.2%.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham has a new graduate school dean.

 Lori McMahon was chosen after a national search and will begin her new role Oct. 1.

McMahon is a professor in the department of neurobiology who began working for UAB in 1998.  She earned a doctorate in neuropharmacology from Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center.

Associate Dean Jeffrey Engler had been the graduate school's interim dean when Bryan Noe retired in December 2014.

Officials say McMahon will work with faculty in all academic disciplines and will report directly to the provost.

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