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3 Alabama lawmakers tested positive for COVID-19
Updated Mar 16, 2021;
Posted Mar 16, 2021
The Alabama House of Representatives meets on March 2, 2021. Some seats are empty because representatives moved to the gallery and overflow areas to allow for social distancing.
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Alabama House of Representative spokesman Clay Redden said three representatives received positive COVID-19 test results this week.
House Speaker Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, said the three were Reps. Wes Allen, R-Troy; Tommy Hanes, R-Bryant; and Ritchie Whorton, R-Owens Cross Roads. McCutcheon said they got sick over the weekend and did not come to the State House today.
Lawmakers and legislative staff have been receiving regular COVID-19 tests since the session began last month. McCutcheon said no representatives tested positive at the State House today.
State lawmakers want to change the way Alabama handles future lockdowns
Updated Feb 09, 2021;
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The shutdown could not come at any worse time last spring for the mom-and-pop children’s boutiques in state Rep. David Wheeler’s district.
“Easter was their business,” said Wheeler, R-Vestavia Hills. “Yet, there was Target and Walmart open and selling children’s clothes.”
Owners had no recourse, and nowhere to lodge their complaints, he said. Wheeler wants to change that and is pitching legislation creating a citizens’ health advisory board in Jefferson County to provide oversight of the county’s health officer.
He’s not alone. A host of mostly Republican state lawmakers, relegated to the regulatory sideline for much of the coronavirus pandemic, want to enter the fray during future health emergencies and are pitching bills aimed at reforming the public health administration in Alabama.