Alabama
Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama announces $1.275 million investment in Alabama-based breast cancer research
![Breast Cancer Research Foundation of Alabama announces $1.275 million investment in Alabama-based breast cancer research](https://www.uab.edu/news/media/k2/items/cache/845f6d2246c2c25dff65809db02ceae5_XL.jpg)
The funding will assist 24 analysis tasks at seven establishments in Alabama.
Media contact: Bob Shepard
The funding will assist 24 analysis tasks at seven establishments in Alabama.The Breast Most cancers Analysis Basis of Alabama as we speak introduced a complete funding of $1,275,000 in Alabama-based breast most cancers analysis in 2022. Grants fund 24 analysis tasks at seven establishments throughout the state, together with the O’Neal Complete Most cancers Middle on the College of Alabama at Birmingham, Auburn College, CerFlux, the Mitchell Most cancers Institute on the College of South Alabama, Tuskegee College, the College of Alabama, and HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. This 12 months’s grant awards improve the BCRFA’s lifetime funding complete to just about $14 million since 1996.
“With this 12 months’s historic funding in analysis, the BCRFA is proud to proceed our legacy of driving breast most cancers breakthroughs throughout Alabama,” stated Beth Davis, BCRFA president and CEO. “From advances in early detection to therapy choices, BCRFA-funded analysis is giving hope to the numerous people touched by breast most cancers — and finally saving lives.”
BCRFA {dollars} operate as seed funding for early-stage research, permitting researchers to generate the extra information wanted to draw main nationwide funding. Many BCRFA-funded tasks have later acquired multimillion-dollar nationwide grants from the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and others.
“The Breast Most cancers Analysis Basis of Alabama has made outstanding investments in most cancers analysis in our state, specifically by funding investigators and tasks with vital potential to enhance most cancers outcomes,” stated Barry P. Sleckman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the O’Neal Complete Most cancers Middle. “The BCRFA has been an unimaginable accomplice, and we’re grateful for his or her assist.”
The 2022 grantees embody:
Auburn College (Auburn, AL)
Alexei F. Kisselev, M.D., Extremely Energetic Liposomal Formulation of Proteasome Inhibitor Carfilzomib for the Therapy of TNBC
In partnership with the College of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, AL)
Robert D. Arnold, Ph.D., (Auburn College) and Yuping Bao, Ph.D., (College of Alabama): Provider-Free Quercetin Nanoparticles for Overcoming Breast Most cancers Drug Resistance
CerFlux (Birmingham, AL)
Karim Budhwani, Ph.D., and Chelsea Crawford, Ph.D., Getting the Proper Therapy to the Proper Affected person by Matching Regimens to Affected person Biopsy Earlier than Therapy
HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology (Huntsville, AL)
Sara Cooper, Ph.D., Inherited Breast Most cancers Threat Screening and Training – Traditionally Black Schools and Universities Enlargement
Tuskegee College (Tuskegee, AL)
Deepa Bedi, M.D., Ph.D., Most cancers Genomic Examine to Characterize Genetic and Epigenetic Range of Immune Panorama in Triple Damaging Breast Most cancers in Ladies of African Ethnicity
College of Alabama at Birmingham (Birmingham, AL)
Rita Aneja, M.D., Evaluating Associations of Rurality and Neighborhood Drawback with Racial Disparities in Breast Most cancers Mortality Amongst Ladies within the State of Alabama
Smita Bhatia, M.D., Predicting the Threat of Coronary heart Failure in Breast Most cancers Survivors
James Bibb, Ph.D., and Tika Benveniste, Ph.D.: Mobile and Molecular Foundation of the Neurological Results of Chemotherapy
Anindya Dutta, Ph.D., FAM129B/NIBAN2 as a Biomarker for Remedy with NRF2 Inhibitors
Blake Eason Hildreth, III, Ph.D., Concentrating on CSF1R/PU.1 Signaling and PU.1 Superenhancer Regulation in Tumor Development Throughout Breast Most cancers Subtypes
Katia Khoury, M.D., Section II Single Arm Trial of Low Dose Capecitabine in Sufferers with Superior Breast Most cancers
Jianmei Leavenworth, M.D., Ph.D., Hijacking Axonogenesis to Promote Breast Most cancers by a Subset of Regulatory T Cells
Catherine Parker, M.D., Analysis Assist for Breast Surgical Fellowship
Amr Rafat: Elucidating the Results of Hypoxia on Ribosome Biogenesis in Breast Most cancers
Bin Ren, M.D., Ph.D., and Lizhong Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Distinctive Arteriolar Area of interest in Enlargement of Breast Most cancers Stem Cells for Metastasis
Rajeev Samant, Ph.D., Identification of HIF-1a Interactors within the Nucleolus of Breast Most cancers Cells
Lalita Shevde, Ph.D., A Novel Clinically Actionable Method to Disable Resurgence and Metastasis of Triple-Damaging Breast Most cancers
Keshav Singh, Ph.D., Intercellular Mitochondrial Trafficking as a Novel Mechanism in Breast Most cancers Development and Metastasis
Jia Xu, Ph.D., Growing Novel AKT Degrader to Selectively Inhibit the Development of PI3K/AKT/PTEN Pathway Mutant Breast Most cancers
Eddy Yang, M.D., and Zhuo Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., RNF2 Ablation Stimulates Sturdy NK-CD4+ T Cell-Dependent Anti-Tumor Immunity
Chao Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Continual Stress-Regulated Tumor-Neuroimmune Community in Triple-Damaging Breast Most cancers
College of South Alabama Mitchell Most cancers Institute (Cellular, AL)
Debanjan Chakroborty, Ph.D., WNK1, A Novel Regulator of Metastatic Breast Most cancers
Luis del Pozo-Yauner, M.D., Ph.D., Contribution of PERK+ Polyploid Large Most cancers Cells within the Ethnic Disparity of Triple Damaging Breast Most cancers
Seema Singh, Ph.D., Affect of Stress on Immune Panorama and Spatial Heterogeneity of Breast Most cancers
![](https://newspub.live/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/np-logo.png)
Alabama
Weather service warns of high risk for ‘life-threatening’ rip currents on Alabama beaches
![Weather service warns of high risk for ‘life-threatening’ rip currents on Alabama beaches](https://www.al.com/resizer/v2/4URC6JR44FBZDBAJSDRFOPQDXA.png?auth=ebbd0d5e530fe64342ab87936543c2b9293a71bc4ea898733a423a60dee9c422&width=1280&quality=90)
The National Weather Service in Mobile is warning of the potential for “life-threatening” rip currents along Alabama’s beaches through the weekend and for much of next week, fueled by Tropical Storm Beryl’s churn through the central Gulf of Mexico.
Visitors to beaches from Dauphin Island through the Florida Panhandle are advised to heed the beach flag warning system and follow lifeguard instructions. In Florida, beaches remain closed in Panama City Beach after double red flags were hoisted Friday.
A rip current is a powerful channel of water flowing away from shore. A high-risk warning means the surf zone is dangerous for all levels of swimmers, and the weather service advises swimmers to stay out of the water.
The warning echoes advice Friday from Stephen Leatherman, a professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at Florida International University in Miami and researcher into rip currents, who told Al.com, “I think everyone should stay out of the water, go to the pool or watch (the Gulf) from ashore. When the storms are far away, and people think, ‘What’s the problem?’ that is the formula for a disaster.”
Swimmers caught in a rip current, the weather service says, should stay calm, call for help, and float rather than struggle against the flow.
The high risk of rip currents on Alabama beaches is expected to last through Sunday night, then drop to moderate Monday before returning to high Tuesday and Wednesday, according to the weather service.
A coastal flood advisory also remains in effect from Destin, Fla., west through Alabama until 1 a.m. Sunday.
As of Saturday afternoon, Beryl was 415 miles southeast of Corpus Christi, Texas, moving west-northwest at 12 mph. The storm, which has already caused extensive damage in Mexico and parts of the Caribbean, had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph. It was expected to gain strength Saturday and Sunday, and hurricane warnings are likely for parts of the Texas coast this weekend.
Alabama
Alabama Lawmakers Consider New School Funding Model
![Alabama Lawmakers Consider New School Funding Model](https://www.the74million.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Alabama-school-funding-825x495.jpg?cb=729214)
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With one legislative session finished and the next about eight months away, Alabama legislators will spend the time in-between deciding whether to develop an entirely new school funding formula.
The House and Senate committees that oversee the Education Trust Fund (ETF), the state’s education budget, held a joint meeting Tuesday to begin discussions about potential changes to the current public K-12 education funding formula.
“It has been 30 years since we changed our funding formula for education, and a lot has changed in the past 30 years,” said Rep. Danny Garrett, R-Trussville, the chair of the House Ways and Means Education Committee, in an interview after the meeting. “We are one of six states out of 50 that continues to fund the way we are funding, on a resource-model basis, so we are looking at what other options we have that would be better suited to that.”
It is the first in a series of meetings aimed at providing members an education on the workings of Alabama’s Foundation Program, the $4.6 billion program in the ETF which provides funding for schools around the state.
Many states fund their schools using a student-based model, one that takes into greater account not only the number of students within a given school system, but also the students’ composition, such as whether they are English Language learners or someone with special needs.
Under Alabama’s current formula, in place since 1995, the number of students creates a certain number of teacher units. That number of teacher units then becomes the basis of much of the funding.
At a recent State Board of Education work session, State Superintendent Eric Mackey had defined the school as a “hybrid program” rather than a true foundation program because those units are the basis of funding.
“You get what you get based on the number of units,” he said.
According to Allovue, Connecticut, Kansas, California, Tennessee, Maryland and Texas have all moved to a weighted student funding formula in the last decade.
Members discussed not only the funding formula, but also underfunding of schools in lower-income communities with significant minority populations; the role of economic development incentives and their effect on school funding, and the lack of funding for special needs students.
Kirk Fulford, deputy director of the Legislative Services Agency, provided lawmakers with an overview of the Foundation Program.
The amount that schools receive is based on a unit count. The state takes the average number of students enrolled in the school or school system for the 20 days following Labor Day. The number is then divided by the divisor, set by the Legislature for the number of students within a set of grade levels.
If a school has 100 students, and the divisor for K-3 grades is 14.25, the school or school district has a unit count for K-3 grade teachers of 7.01. That is then converted to dollars based on the salary schedule that is set.
The number of principals, assistant principals and counselors for a school is also calculated based on units, and the amount of Foundation Program funding for the school is converted by multiplying that unit count by the money per unit decided by legislators.
Other types of funding are added to the Foundation Program allocation for schools, from transportation expenses to additional money specifically for math and science teachers along with special education.
Money to fund the cost determined for each district is shared between municipalities and the state. The formula is designed so that more affluent locations pay a greater share of the cost than those whose residents are lower income.
Local governments must set property taxes at a minimum of 10 mills in order to receive money from the Foundation Program.
For the coming year, the state portion of the ETF for K-12 schools, including the Foundation Program; transportation, and programs run through the Alabama State Department of Education, is about $5.5 billion. The local fund portion is about $831.5 million.
The amount in local property taxes collected for the school system will vary by the assessed value of the properties within the school system’s boundaries. Poorer areas will generate less tax revenues than more prosperous ones.
Lowndes County, for example, an area with a significantly lower-income population, paid roughly $1.3 million into the Foundation program. Mountain Brook, a wealthy suburb of Birmingham, paid about $7.3 million to the Foundation Program.
School districts with wealthier populations tend to record higher scores on standardized tests, according to an analysis based on FY21-22 spending and School Year 2022-23 scores from the Edunomics Lab based at Georgetown.
The local allocation has irritated some lawmakers who work to increase their economic development to increase school funding, only to have their state allocation reduced, leaving them net neutral.
“We always were under the impression that, ‘Wow, we bring in industry, and they pay $200,000 of property taxes to our schools,’” said Rep. Troy Stubbs, R-Wetumpka, who used to be on the Elmore County Commission. “We felt like we were improving our local schools because we were bringing in more money. However, Elmore County is only a participant in our Foundation Program with our 10 mills. We do not have any local funding. Because of that, all we were really doing was lowering the amount that the state contributed to Elmore County.”
In Tennessee, which moved to a weighted student funding formula in recent years, school districts were required to keep funding at previous levels, according to the Commercial Appeal. The state provided overall more funding to the education budget so that districts received more money by numbers, even if the share they received from the state lowered.
Garrett previously told the Reflector that the Educational Opportunities Reserve Fund, created in the 2022 regular legislative session, could be used in shifting the funding formula.
Schools receive additional funding for specific students, such as those with special needs, from the Foundation Program. The formula automatically factors in the number of students who have special needs at 5%. The unit count is then weighted up to 2.5 for those students to give schools additional dollars for more resources.
Currently, the sole adaptation in the formula is headcount, and doesn’t incorporate the specific needs of some in schools, one that is based on each student, might.
“We know the cost to educate a special needs child is, far and away, more than the average child,” said Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, the chair of the Senate’s education budget committee. “The cost to educate an English Language Learner is much more than an average Alabama child. Following the trend, or at least looking at the other states who have gone down this road, seeing if we want to consider changing our funding model, how we fund based on a type of student instead of just a student.”
The committees plan to resume the discussions at an August meeting.
Reporter Jemma Stephenson contributed to this story.
Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com. Follow Alabama Reflector on Facebook and X.
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Alabama
Grocery stores in Alabama selling ammo with AI-driven vending machines – Washington Examiner
![Grocery stores in Alabama selling ammo with AI-driven vending machines – Washington Examiner](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Guns-scaled.webp)
A pair of grocery stores in Alabama are selling firearm ammunition via artificial intelligence-powered vending machines.
The machines, located in Fresh Value stores in Tuscaloosa and Pell City, use facial recognition to verify a customer’s age and ID to make it easier to get firearm ammo. The company, American Rounds, created the machine.
CEO Grant Magers described how the machine works in the video.
“We have a very secure automated retail machine. We’re able to age verify, we scan a driver’s license, and then we take a 360 scan for facial recognition for the purchase and matches to the ID. So, the machines really provide an opportunity for safe, affordable, and available ammunition sales,” he said.
“[Customers] are so excited about us having the ammo kiosk,” a Fresh Value representative said in the video.
However, the Tuscaloosa location’s machine has since been taken down after its legality was questioned during a city council meeting.
Tuscaloosa City Council President Kip Tyner thought the machines were a joke after he received calls about them.
“I got some calls about ammunition being sold in grocery stores, vending machines, the vending machines. Is that? I mean, I thought it was a lie. I thought it was a joke — but it’s not,” he said.
The vending machines are legal and approved by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Tuscaloosa Police Chief Brent Blankley told the Tuscaloosa Thread.
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The company states that machines are located in four other locations in Oklahoma, and the company is slated to expand further.
“We’re really excited about where we’re going,” Magers said. “We are going to continue to expand here in Alabama. We have machines slated to go into Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas.”
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