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Turkey Drive at Huntsville Mission, Task Force Reconsiders Chemical Endangerment Law

Downtown Rescue Mission
NASA
Volunteers prepare Thanksgiving meals at Huntsville's Downtown Rescue Mission

The city of Huntsville is working to make the holiday season special for local families.

Every year the Downtown Rescue Mission helps the homeless and families in need during the Thanksgiving holidays. The Mission provides Thanksgiving boxes filled with items to prepare a Thanksgiving meal. The boxes include a frozen turkey, stuffing, yams, a fruit cocktail and rolls.

Tonia Beverly is the Director of Events and Business Partnership at the Downtown Rescue Mission. She says that these packages give families something to be thankful for during the holidays.

“We have so many people in our community that really are struggling, that would not have Thanksgiving for their family otherwise, that really have to choose you know, am I going to keep the power on or are we going to eat.”

Families can sign up to receive Thanksgiving packages at the Downtown Rescue Mission. The goal this year is to give away 800 boxes to these families.

Members of the Alabama Health Care Improvement Task Force are currently crafting recommendations to change a state law that has led to pregnant drug users facing felony charges and more.

The Decatur Daily reports committee member Dr. Darlene Traffanstedt presented a recommendation to make sure the law is applied to prevent children from being exposed to meth labs and paraphernalia instead of leading to criminal charges for pregnant women.

The law imposes felony charges for knowingly, recklessly or intentionally exposing children to controlled substances, chemical substances or drug paraphernalia. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that the law also applies to fetuses.

The law has come under scrutiny after Al.com and ProPublica reported that 479 new and expecting Alabama mothers have been charged between 2006 and 2015.

It was smooth sailing for the Crimson Tide Saturday as they faced off against Charleston Southern.

Alabama jumped out to a 28 point lead by the end of the first quarter and was up 49 to nothing at halftime, before closing out the game 56 to 6.

Now it’s on to the Iron Bowl. The 6-5 Auburn Tigers may be down in strength from years past, but this week’s contest is still a crucial and emotional rivalry game. Head coach Nick Saban wants his players to try and treat it like any other week.

“You know, these kind of games where guys get so wired emotionally that they don’t do a good job of executing, or they run out of gas at some point, so I really do think you have to focus on execution and playing your best football, and have the expectation it’s going to be a tough game and you’re going to have to fight for 15 rounds.”

Saturday’s game will be played in Jordan-Hare Stadium at Auburn. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on CBS.

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