Author: Associated Press

Republican Sen. Del Marsh of Anniston said he expects his bill will come to the Senate floor Tuesday in what will be the first major test of the proposal to start a lottery and have as many as 10 casinos in the state.

Breaking with other Southern GOP governors, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey extended her state's mask order for another month Thursday but said the requirement will end for good in April.

Sunday marks the 56th anniversary of those marches and "Bloody Sunday," when more than 500 demonstrators gathered on March 7, 1965, to demand the right to vote and cross Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge. They were met by dozens of state troopers and many were severely beaten.

The Senate's 51-50 vote to start debating the package, with Harris pushing Democrats over the top, underscored how they were navigating the package through Congress with virtually no margin for error. In the House their majority is a scrawny 10 votes.

President Joe Biden and Democrats agreed to tighten eligibility limits for stimulus checks, bowing to party moderates as leaders prepared to move their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill through the Senate.

Liza Scott, 7, started a lemonade stand at her mom's bakery last summer so she could buy some frills like toys and sequined high-heel shoes. The bouncy little girl is still in business months later, yet the money is going toward something entirely different: surgery on her brain.

The 13 people killed in one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants sneaking into the U.S. had entered California through a section of border fence with Mexico that was cut away, apparently by smugglers, immigration officials said Wednesday.

Transgender youth in Alabama would not be able to be treated with puberty-blockers, hormone treatment or surgery under a bill approved Tuesday by the Alabama Senate, as parents and trans youth rallied outside the Statehouse in opposition.

Texas on Tuesday became the biggest state to lift its mask rule, joining a rapidly growing movement by governors and other leaders across the U.S. to loosen COVID-19 restrictions despite pleas from health officials not to let their guard down yet.

President Joe Biden said the U.S. expects to take delivery of enough coronavirus vaccine for all adults by the end of May — two months earlier than anticipated — and he pushed states to get at least one shot into the arms of teachers by the end of March to hasten school reopenings.

President Joe Biden urged Senate Democrats to rally behind a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill and stood by his proposed $1,400 payments to individuals, even as some party moderates sought to dial back parts of the package.

Alabama had secured its first SEC title in 19 years at Mississippi State over the weekend and followed that by completing its first season sweep of Auburn since 2014-15. The Tide cut down the Coleman Coliseum nets to celebrate their championship after the game.

Gov. Kay Ivey is expected to announce this week whether she will extend the face covering mandate and other health orders that are set to expire Friday. The mandate has been in place since July and has been extended several times.

Students across the three-campus University of Alabama System will return to in-person instruction for the fall semester with no limits on class size in Birmingham, Huntsville or Tuscaloosa to guard against COVID-19, officials said Monday.

Democrats' hopes of including a minimum wage increase in their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill seemed all but dead Monday as the Senate prepared to debate its own version of the House-passed aid package.