• More resources in Alabama and nationally are being put into contact tracing as a tool for slowing the coronavirus’ spread.
• Contract tracing is done to find people who may have been exposed to COVID-19 and provide them with information, including home orders to quarantine, if applicable, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health. Health departments have used contact tracing for decades, but COVID-19 is expanding its utilization.
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield last week told Congress the country needs between 30,000 and 100,000 people working on contact tracing in order to help contain the next wave of the coronavirus.
• Here in the state, about 150 people are working with ADPH to do contact tracing during the pandemic. Last month, the Alabama Department of Public Health said it was partnering with the University of Alabama Birmingham to launch a Google and Apple smart phone application for proximity tracking.
• One Alabama lawmaker says he’d like to see parameters put into law regarding information collection, privacy and individuals’ liberties.
• “My No. 1 concern is the possibility of limiting the movements and freedoms of one person because of the diagnosis of another person,” Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said on Monday. 
• If Gov. Kay Ivey calls lawmakers back to Montgomery for a special session this year, Orr said he will file legislation on contract tracing.
• Full story from ADN's Mary Sell HERE.

• An armed black business owner who called to report a robbery in his store in Alabama was punched in the face by a responding police officer who mistook him for a suspect, police said.
• Surveillance video of the interaction started circulating on social media over the weekend. Decatur Police Chief Nate Allen held a news conference Monday to show footage of the altercation and to be “transparent” with the public, news outlets reported.
• The body camera video shows responding officers coming into the store and the suspect, later identified to be a person involved in an alleged shoplifting at Penn’s store, lying on the ground.
• An officer walks past the suspect and tells Penn to put down his weapon. Penn refuses saying, “I have a right to have my gun." Allen said that’s when Penn moved his hand over a gun lying on a counter next to him. 
• “We do know there was a gun there, we do know that the magazines were there, we do know that he was reloading the magazine,” Allen said at the news conference.
• Read more HERE.

• Greg Barker has been named president of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.
• EDPA is a private, nonprofit group that supports business recruitment and expansion efforts throughout the state.
• Barker succeeds Steve Spencer, who recently retired as EDPA president.
• Barker comes from Alabama Power Company, where he worked as vice president for customer services. Alabama Power Company CEO and EDPA chairman Mark Crosswhite said Barker has extensive experience in community and economic development going back almost 20 years.
• "Greg is a proven leader in economic and community development," Crosswhite said. "His vast experience and expertise will be invaluable as we work to support new and existing Alabama businesses, drive business growth and attract new industry to our state."
• Read more HERE.

• College football is scheduled to kick off in less than three months and there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful that games will be played Labor Day weekend.
• Universities across the country are taking the first cautious, detailed steps toward playing football in a pandemic, attempting to build COVID-19-free bubbles around their teams as players begin voluntary workouts.
• Thousands of athletes will be tested for COVID-19, though not all. Masks will need to be worn — most of the time. Some schools will have players pumping iron this week. Others are waiting a few more weeks.
• Both Auburn University and the University of Alabama recently reported that several players on their rosters tested positive for COVID-19.
• Having players return to campus infected is worrisome but inevitable. The protocols being put in place are designed to catch and address that. The real challenge is keeping the players from getting infected after they return.
• Southeastern Conference schools agreed to allow voluntary workouts starting Monday. The Big 12 and Pac-12 have set June 15 as their opening date. Other conferences, such as the Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference, are letting schools figure out what’s best for themselves. Ohio State and Iowa in the Big Ten started voluntary workouts Monday, along with Louisville in the ACC.
• Schools hope to transition to required team activities in mid-July. A copy of the the NCAA Football Oversight Committee’s six-week plan includes a typical four-week preseason practice schedule preceded by two weeks during which teams can do up to 20 hours per week of weight training, conditioning, film study, meetings and walk-throughs with coaches.
• Read more HERE.