USA Health names new chair for the Department of Internal Medicine
USA Health has appointed Nasser Lakkis, M.Sc.- M.D., FACC, as the new chair for the Department of Internal Medicine. A respected researcher, educator and clinician, he will officially join the region’s only academic health system in November. As chair of internal medicine, Lakkis will have oversight of departments including cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, nephrology, infectious diseases, and others. “My vision for the department is to promote excellent patient care and quality education, and to elevate quality metrics,” he said. “These goals will require participation of every practitioner in our health system. I will encourage honesty, transparency, and constructive dialogue.” With more than 25 years of working in academic medicine, Lakkis said he is drawn to its innovative approach, which is also what interested him in the position at USA Health. “Although I have always been busy clinically, I had a natural gravitation to academic medicine since my early training years and, subsequently, as an attending physician,” he said. “Academic medicine ensures we stay up to date in practice, it helps maintain interaction with young students and trainees who bring new ideas and concepts into the practice of medicine, and it helps us to stay focused on the non-transactional aspect of patient care.” Lakkis will bring a well-rounded background in teaching, practice, research, and leadership to the internal medicine department. “USA Health’s continued goal is to be a premier academic health system providing unmatched medical care to the community as we train the next generation of physician leaders,” said John V. Marymont, M.D., M.B.A., vice president for medical affairs and dean of the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine. “Dr. Lakkis will add a wealth of experience in research, teaching and leadership to further guide us in that direction.” “Dr. Lakkis has an established reputation of excellence in research, education and service,” said Owen Bailey, M.S.H.A., FACHE, USA Health chief executive officer and senior associate vice president for medical affairs. “We are excited that he will bring this experience and leadership to USA Health as we continue to advance our academic health system.” Lakkis is currently a tenured professor at Wayne State University (WSU) School of Medicine, where he is also the chief of cardiology at Wayne Health and Detroit Medical Center (DMC) Adult Hospitals. At WSU, Lakkis has established multiple programs at DMC Cardiology, including the Structural Heart Program and PERT program for percutaneous treatment of pulmonary embolus, and has worked closely with the Wayne Health clinic leadership to establish the foundation for subspecialty clinic. He is a member of the Medical Staff Operations Committee, Wayne Health clinical advisory committee, and the DMC peer review committee, among others. Before joining WSU, Lakkis served as chief of cardiology at Ben Taub General Hospital at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, since 2002, and the Temple and Spencer Chair in Cardiology. Throughout his tenure, he has been extensively involved in education and research. He began his academic career at Baylor College of Medicine as an assistant professor in 1997 and rose through the ranks of academia to become professor in 2007. He served as the program director for Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology Fellowship programs at the Baylor College of Medicine for more than 15 years. He graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in medicine. Then he completed a residency in internal medicine, a fellowship in general cardiology, and advanced interventional cardiology, all at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. USA Health is the only academic health system along the upper Gulf Coast. With 30 care delivery locations, including University Hospital, Children’s & Women’s Hospital, the Mitchell Cancer Institute, and physician practice sites throughout the area, the health system melds clinical care, research, and healthcare education into the most advanced medical care in the region.
Saturn 1B rocket being removed from Alabama Welcome Center
The massive Saturn 1B rocket is an iconic reminder of Alabama’s role in the space race and bringing man to the Moon. The rocket at the Alabama Welcome Center has welcomed visitors from Tennessee and points north for 44 years, but no more. The rocket is now being taken down. Efforts by the State Legislature to keep the rocket ultimately failed, and NASA, which still owns the rocket, is taking it down because of its deteriorating condition. “The Saturn 1B rocket is an iconic symbol for the entire state,” State Senator Tom Butler (R-Madison) told WSFA News in Montgomery. “I think it makes for a very sad day to such a symbol taken down.” Butler had been the author of legislation to save the rocket. That legislation passed the Alabama Senate and was signed by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. However, the rocket is owned by the Space and Rocket Center, and they made the decision to take it down. The 224-foot-tall Saturn 1B Rocket was built in the 1960s to take the Apollo module into space. The Saturn 1B rocket is a more powerful 1967 upgrade of the original Saturn 1. Three astronauts were killed in a dress rehearsal of the Saturn 1B mission – later renamed as Apollo 1. All the moon missions were carried into space by Saturn rockets. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville designed, tested, and built the Saturn rockets. The Saturns were the most powerful rockets ever made until the Space Launch System (SLS) currently being prepped to take man back to the Moon after a decades-long absence. It will take 3 to 5 weeks to fully disassemble the rocket. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Federal Courthouse in Tuscaloosa to be renamed for Richard Shelby
The U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building in downtown Tuscaloosa will be renamed on Friday, September 15, for former U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama). A ceremony will be held at 2:00 p.m. on September 15 inside the courthouse at 2005 University Blvd. to officially rename it the Richard Shelby Federal Building and Courthouse. Shelby, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, and other officials and dignitaries are expected to attend. L. Scott Coogler is the Chief U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama. “Many years before construction began on the Tuscaloosa Federal Building and Courthouse in December 2009, Senator Shelby foresaw how important this building would be, not only to the federal court system but also to the citizens of Alabama,” said Judge Coogler. Shelby was honored by the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce during their annual awards banquet in February. “As he has done with so many other worthy causes that have benefitted the state of Alabama, Senator Shelby worked tirelessly to secure funding for this building,” Coogler added. “Without question, this building should bear his name.” President Joe Biden signed the legislation to rename the federal building in March 2022. The Courthouse houses the U.S. District and Bankruptcy courts, including courtrooms and support spaces, the U.S. Probation Office, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Senator Katie Britt’s Office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the General Services Administration, and the Social Security Administration. The Alabama Legislature and Gov. Ivey honored Shelby with a special joint meeting of the Legislature in the historic 1859 House Chamber, where he served as a state legislator. Ivey said, “We are here today, honoring a friend to all of Alabama. To Richard Shelby, I say welcome home. We are honored to have you back.” “He is the state’s longest-serving Senator at 36 years,” Ivey said. Ivey said that out of all the great senators the state of Alabama has had, they have been “eclipsed by Senator Shelby.” Ivey praised Shelby for having steered hundreds of millions of dollars in engineering and sciences funding to Alabama colleges and universities, as well as Redstone Arsenal, the Port of Mobile, and other projects across the state. “We wish you the best, and we proudly welcome you back to our sweet home Alabama,” Ivey concluded. Lieutenant Governor Will Ainsworth said Shelby “should be forever known as Alabama’s greatest builder.” “Perhaps the most important and lasting thing that Richard Shelby has built is his legacy,” Ainsworth said. “His legacy will be felt long after Richard Shelby and all who gather in this room have passed by generations of Alabamians not yet born.” Shelby was a city prosecutor for the City of Tuscaloosa. He then became a special assistant Alabama Attorney General. He represented Tuscaloosa in the Alabama State Senate District from 1970 to 1978. In 1978, he was elected to represent Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District. He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He served six terms in the Senate, ending his decades of public service in 2022. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Boeing gets $70.5 million contract to build a hypersonic interceptor
Nothing is more dangerous in the world now than a hypersonic missile. China, Russia, and the U.S. are all developing hypersonic missiles that can travel at five times the speed of sound, potentially bringing either a conventional or a nuclear warhead to either a military target (like an aircraft carrier, missile launcher, or an air force base) or in the worst-case scenario – a major population center. There is no time to evacuate, and hypersonics are highly maneuverable and will outrun the current generation of fighter jets and anti-missile systems. The Pentagon is aware of the growing threat that hypersonics pose and is determined to do something about it. To that end, Boeing was selected to receive a $70.5 million contract to develop and test technologies for an aerial weapon that would destroy enemy hypersonic missiles. 36% of the work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the award of the four-year competitive contract, which is expected to be completed in February 2027. Boeing Co. was awarded the $70,554,525 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, excluding one unexercised option, for the Glide Breaker Phase 2 program. The work on the project will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama (36%); Seal Beach, California (21%); St. Louis, Missouri (18%); Elkton, Maryland (14%); Buffalo, New York (4%); Gardner, Massachusetts (3%); College Station, Texas (2%); West Lafayette, Indiana (1%); and Minneapolis, Minnesota (1%). This is a high priority that $8,169,311 is in upfront 2023 fiscal year money (FY2023 ends on September 30) and is obligated at the time of award. This contract is a competitive acquisition in accordance with the original Broad Agency Announcement. Boeing said in a statement that their team will perform computational fluid dynamics analysis, wind tunnel testing, and evaluation of aerodynamic jet interaction effects during flight tests of the prototype. Gil Griffin is the executive director of Boeing Phantom Works Advanced Weapons. Griffin emphasized the importance of the team’s mission. “Hypersonic vehicles are among the most dangerous and rapidly evolving threats facing national security,” said Executive Director Griffin. “We’re focusing on the technological understanding needed to further develop our nation’s counter-hypersonic capabilities and defend from future threats.” Glide Breaker is intended to inform the design and development of future hypersonic interceptors, which could destroy a threat traveling at least five times the speed of sound in the upper atmosphere during what’s known as the “glide phase” of flight. The Boeing-led development and testing will provide the foundation for future operational glide-phase interceptors capable of defending the homeland against these sophisticated and evolving hypersonic threats. “This phase of the Glide Breaker program will determine how factors like hypersonic airflow and firing jet thrusters to guide the vehicle affect system performance at extreme speed and altitude in a representative digital environment,” Griffin explained. “We’re operating on the cutting edge of what’s possible in terms of intercepting an extremely fast object in an incredibly dynamic environment.” To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Border Patrol email: Plan to mass release illegal border crossers from crowded facilities
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Tuesday published an internal Border Patrol email her office obtained that provides guidelines to release foreign nationals being held at Customs and Border Patrol processing centers because they are at near full capacity, at full capacity or are already over capacity. President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “have become so brazen that they are now implementing mass-release quotas for immigrants surging into our country,” Moody said. “As a federal judge already recognized, these releases are unlawful, yet the Biden administration is ordering Border Patrol to release even more immigrants into the interior.” Moody is referring to a lawsuit Florida brought against the administration and won. Despite Mayorkas claiming that the border is closed and secure, a record number of people are being processed through ports of entry using the new CBP One App. As a result, processing centers, where individuals, some families, and unaccompanied minors are held within a certain timeframe, as they are processed to be released into or removed from the country by federal agents, are at capacity. With the majority of agents pulled from the field tasked with processing record numbers of people, officials have expressed concerns to The Center Square that an unknown number of criminals are illegally entering undetected between ports of entry. This also could be why significantly fewer gotaways are being reported than in previous months. With nearly 20,000 people currently in custody at CBP processing centers in the nine southwest sectors, Border Patrol agents were given a new directive on how to release even more people into the U.S., according to an email sent to agents obtained by Moody’s office. The redacted email states it is from the Acting Deputy Chief, Law Enforcement Operations Directorate, at U.S. Border Patrol Headquarters. The name on the letter is redacted, but the acting deputy director of this office is Ricardo Moreno, according to official records. The email was sent on Aug. 8, 2023, to all Border Patrol field chiefs and field deputies as a follow-up to a call to discuss how to “bring in-custody numbers to manageable levels.” “Unfortunately, after leveraging all consequences to include referrals to ERO [Enforcement and Removal Operations], the rate of daily encounters continues to surpass the daily permanent bookouts and the in-custody numbers continue to rise creating significant risks to agents and detainees. This level of detention numbers has also resulted in increased manpower requirements impacting border security efforts,” the email states. In addition to this, as of Sept. 11, “BP agents were instructed to reward and release over 6,500 illegal aliens who had committed a crime and crashed our lawless border. 6,500 in one day. Do the math. Joe Biden is destroying this country,” the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing Border Patrol agents, said on X. This is also in addition to CBP ERO agents continuing to apprehend and process for removal violent criminals, including murderers, rapists, child sex offenders, and others. According to preliminary data The Center Square obtained from a Border Patrol agent, over 215,000 illegal foreign nationals were apprehended or reported evading capture at the southwest border alone last month. The data only includes what is reported by Border Patrol agents. It excludes Office of Field Operations data. So far this month, according to preliminary data, Border Patrol agents have apprehended nearly 76,000 illegal border crossers and reported over 12,300 gotaways. The station with the heaviest traffic is in Eagle Pass, Texas, with nearly 10,000 people apprehended so far this month. Ajo, Arizona, is not far behind with over 7,700 people apprehended. Brownsville, Texas, Tucson, Arizona, and Santa Teresa, New Mexico, are also among the busiest stations this month. Santa Teresa’s station, located roughly 30 miles west of El Paso, Texas, reported more gotaways than apprehensions, nearly 4,300 compared to over 3,700, respectively. The Border Patrol email “is further proof of the disastrous cycle created by [President] Biden’s intentional destruction of our border with Mexico,” Moody said. “Biden cuts resources, opens the border, and then releases detainees while claiming there is not enough detention capacity to prevent the unprecedented flood of migrants entering the country because of his terrible policies. With every passing day it is becoming more obvious that the border crisis is being intentionally orchestrated by the Biden administration. We will continue to do everything in our power to push back and let the American people know what Biden is doing.” The email Moody obtained from CBP redacted the actual release quotas “for unexplained reasons.” Republished with the permission of The Center Square.
Tommy Tuberville says Joe Biden impeachment “needs to happen”
On Wednesday, U.S Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) said that although he does not like impeachment, “it needs to happen” after a meeting with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) with Jordan and Congressman James Comer (R) presented some of the evidence that they have collected against President Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-California) ordered the House to open up an impeachment inquiry. Tuberville said he was “shocked” by the evidence against President Biden and his son – Hunter Biden. “I just came from a meeting with Congressman Jim Jordan and Congressman James Comer. For the first time here in the Senate, most of us just sat down and listened as they laid out the case against President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden,” said Sen. Tuberville. “You know, I am absolutely shocked by the scale of the allegations and the strength of the evidence. We ought to be ashamed. Our media ought to be ashamed. Our institutions should be ashamed of what has gone on for the last four years without being investigated. I commend Speaker McCarthy for moving forward with an impeachment inquiry. You know, I don’t like impeachments – it holds back our country. But in this case, it needs to happen. The American people deserve the truth.” McCarthy directed the committees to open the impeachment inquiry into President Biden on Tuesday. The inquiry will center on whether Biden benefited from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings and other issues. “These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption, and warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives,” Speaker McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday. “That’s why today, I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. We will go wherever the evidence takes us.” During Donald Trump’s presidency, House Democrats impeached President Trump twice, including once in the waning days of Trump’s administration. President Trump’s efforts to launch an investigation into Hunter Biden’s ethically questionable business dealings – particularly his drawing a check from Ukrainian gas giant Burisma were largely ignored, even by the FBI. When Trump asked the President of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens, then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) rushed through an impeachment process against not Biden, but President Trump. Both times that Trump was impeached, the Senate didn’t have the votes to remove him. Three Presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives, but none were ever removed from office. If the Republican-controlled House impeaches Biden, it is hard to imagine a scenario where a Democrat-controlled Senate would vote to remove Biden in the midst of an election year. Earlier in the day, Tuberville told reporters that the American people “were tired of impeachments” and that the impeachment “isn’t going anywhere in the Senate.” Alabama Today, and to our knowledge – the rest of the media – have not seen the evidence that Republicans claim they have gathered against Joe Biden. That said, it is hard to imagine impeachment being seriously considered by Senate Democrats. Given that they hold a 51 to 49 edge in the Senate, it is hard to imagine any realistic scenario where the President is convicted by the Senate – particularly with the election less than 14 months away. Tuberville was elected to the Senate in 2020. To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
