
Cleburne County Sheriff's Office launches initiative to address mental health
The initiative, which began on April 1, is a partnership with Highland Health Systems, and is among the first of its kind in Alabama.
'Mental health matters, and together, we are taking a proactive step toward a stronger, healthier county,' Sheriff Jon Daniel said. 'Now we have the capabilities available around the clock to ensure a person who may be having a mental health crisis can get the help they need through this initiative.'
The program will equip four deputies with specialized training and technology to respond to mental health emergencies. Daniel and Chief Deputy Patrick Nolen have also undergone training to step in when necessary.
Cleburne County is one of only three agencies in the state to implement this initiative. The goal is to provide immediate and compassionate assistance to individuals and families struggling with mental health challenges.
'This collaboration will improve access to care and provide crisis intervention when it's needed most,' Daniel said.
March 2025 sheriff's office report
In addition to launching the My Care Initiative, the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office reported a busy month of law enforcement activities in March.
Jail Operations:
— Current inmate population: 61
— Releases due to bond, sentence completion, or court order: 57
— Inmate work detail hours: 768
— Trash bags collected from roadways: 211
— Tires collected: 649
— Large furniture and other bulky items collected: 26
— Assisted Cleburne County Commission Maintenance with multiple projects
Courthouse Activity:
— Walkthrough counter: 4,906 people
Patrol & Investigations:
— Warrants served: 10 felony, 13 misdemeanor/violations
— Civil papers served: 57
— On-view arrests: 18 felony, 19 misdemeanor/violations
— Incident/offense reports completed: 132
— Patrol mileage logged: 20,099 miles
— Business checks: 2,249
— Logging permit compliance checks: 13
— Seized various amounts of narcotics and recovered stolen property
— Assisted multiple agencies
Department news and community engagement
The sheriff's office welcomed a new deputy, Micaiah Ross, and announced an open position for a corrections officer.
Daniel, Nolen and Jail Administrator Clay Smith participated in several community events, including hosting Leadership Cleburne and Youth Leadership Cleburne at the jail, attending the Careers for Cleburne event and conducting a tire-changing class at Ranburne High School and Cleburne County High School.
Additionally, the sheriff participated in the county Chamber of Commerce's 'Biscuits and Business' event for 'Coffee with the Sheriff.'
Meanwhile, corrections officers Cadon Strain and Howard Crumpton attended jail training, ensuring continued professional development within the department.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Medscape
11 hours ago
- Medscape
Fish Bone or Cancer? 80-Year-Old's Perforation Case
Key Takeaways An 80-year-old man presented with progressive lower left-quadrant abdominal pain. Imaging studies identified a mass adjacent to the sigmoid colon, with features suggestive of an abscess, although no definitive foreign body was detected preoperatively. Surgical exploration revealed a sigmoid colon perforation associated with a sharp foreign object, which was later confirmed to be a fish bone. Histopathological examination revealed an inflammatory response without evidence of malignancy. The case reported by Daniel Herrera Hernández, MD, and colleagues from the Hospital General Regional No. 1 Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Tijuana, Mexico, highlighted a rare cause of intestinal perforation. The Patient and His History The patient had a medical history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension. There was no prior surgical history or screening colonoscopy. He reported a 12-day history of lower left-quadrant abdominal pain, progressively worsening to become intolerable, prompting emergency admission. Findings and Diagnosis On presentation, the patient was stable but exhibited abdominal distension and tenderness on palpation of the left hemiabdomen, without signs of peritoneal irritation. Laboratory tests showed leucocytosis of 20,800/μL (4000-11,000), neutrophils at 65.1% (40%-70%) of total leukocytes, and a serum creatinine of 1.0 mg/dL (0.6-1.2). Abdominal and pelvic CT scans revealed a mass adjacent to the descending colon with peripheral enhancement dependent on the colonic wall, extending into the muscular layer, suggestive of an abscess, as well as a small radio-opaque object in the middle of the phlegmon, supportive of a foreign body. Adjacent fat stranding and free fluid were observed in the left iliac fossa. The patient underwent exploratory laparotomy, revealing a colonic perforation at the sigmoid colon with firm adhesions to the abdominal wall. A sharpened foreign body, approximately 2 cm in length, was found at the adhesion site, which was the cause of the perforation. No diverticula were identified in the colon. Left hemicolectomy with transverse colon terminal colostomy was performed. Postoperative recovery was uneventful under antibiotic therapy with meropenem and metabolic management. The patient was discharged on postoperative day 5 with clinical improvement. The histopathology report indicated chronic inflammation with no evidence of malignancy. Discussion 'Intestinal perforation by a fish bone in the colon is a rare complication that poses diagnostic challenges. It requires a high index of suspicion from surgeons or emergency physicians. In patients with risk factors, such perforations can resemble tumours with abscess formation or perforation secondary to malignancy,' the authors wrote. This story was translated from Univadis Germany.


Fox News
01-08-2025
- Fox News
Democrats escalate anti-Trump lawfare by targeting Congress in Planned Parenthood funding fight
Abortion providers and Democrat-led states are bringing lawsuits over the Trump administration's decision to defund Planned Parenthood, a legal fight that raises the stakes by challenging the will of both Congress and the president. Planned Parenthood and several blue states have sued over the provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that strips Medicaid funding from certain abortion providers for one year. The bill was passed by Congress and signed by the president in July. The legislation advances the pro-life movement's longtime goal of defunding Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider, but a federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily blocked the Trump Health and Human Services Department from carrying it out. Derek Muller, a professor at Notre Dame Law School, told Fox News Digital that taking on two branches of government sets this litigation apart from many of the hundreds of other lawsuits targeting the Trump administration. "Congress has the power of the purse," Muller said. "Congress has a lot of discretion [over] how it wants to spend its money, and this is not an instance where the executive has been engaged in overreach or doubtful conduct. … This is ordinary legislation, and when it comes to ordinary legislation, there's more deference given to Congress, and certainly more in how it chooses to subsidize things, where it wants to give money or where it doesn't want to give money." The judge's decision to temporarily block the funding cuts stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit with hundreds of facilities across the country that provide abortions and other reproductive health services. Planned Parenthood's attorneys alleged in court papers that the provision was unconstitutional, arguing it would deprive the nonprofit of millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements, causing it to lose half of its patients and forcing it to shutter up to one-third of its facilities. Katie Daniel, counsel at SBA Pro-Life America, told Fox News Digital Planned Parenthood was making a "desperate argument" that "totally undermines Congress' ability to determine how taxpayer dollars are spent." It also signals that Planned Parenthood was not a solvent business, she said. "It's a business that really can't keep itself afloat without getting hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars," Daniel said. Planned Parenthood's attorneys noted that Medicaid does not typically cover abortions and that the funding cuts would affect other services. Cancer and sexually transmitted infections would go undetected, especially for low-income people, and more unplanned pregnancies would occur because of a lack of contraception access, the attorneys said. "The adverse public health consequences of the Defund Provision will be grave," the attorneys wrote. Daniel said the Medicaid marketplace includes other options for clinics and that those options "outnumber Planned Parenthood nationally 15 to one." Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, said she was inclined to agree with Planned Parenthood that the legislation violated several provisions in the Constitution and granted a preliminary injunction, which the Department of Justice is now appealing. That lawsuit has been joined by two others challenging the bill. A coalition of 21 states with Democratic attorneys general, along with the District of Columbia and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, brought one of them on Monday. Maine Family Planning, which operates 18 health facilities in the Pine Tree State, has also sued over the legislation. While lawmakers have touted that the bill defunds Planned Parenthood, it was written to include other entities, including Maine Family Planning, as a way to pass parliamentarian scrutiny. Daniel told Fox News Digital she anticipates the higher courts will rule in favor of the Trump administration but that the bill's one-year limit on the funding cuts works in Planned Parenthood's favor. "At this point for Planned Parenthood, it's really about running out the clock," Daniel said. "The defund provision is for one year, so every single day that they can keep getting money. … That's existential to them." If the Trump administration ultimately wins the court fight, it could attempt to claw back the Medicaid funds it lost while Talwani's injunction was in place. Daniel noted, however, that "it's incredibly difficult, it's time-consuming, it's costly, and Planned Parenthood is relying on all of that." Among Planned Parenthood's allegations was a longshot claim that Congress's bill violates the Constitution's bill of attainder clause because it singles out and punishes Planned Parenthood without a trial. Bills of attainder are pieces of legislation that serve to bypass the role of judges and punish people or entities. The Constitution prohibits bills of attainder because they infringe on the function of the courts. Muller told Fox News Digital he believed the bill of attainder argument was a "nonstarter." "People have tried to argue that certain things that Congress does, singling out or targeting individuals, could rise to a bill of attainder," Muller said. "This has gotten some traction in lower courts. It has never really gotten traction in the courts of appeal because it is far afield from the original meaning of the Constitution on this topic."
Yahoo
29-07-2025
- Yahoo
'How do you function': Parents talk of the death of their son in Green Memorial Day parade
At a memorial garden dedicated to children who died, Daniel and Jennifer Schultz of North Canton talked July 29 about the loss of their 13-year-old son, Matthew Schultz. Matthew died May 26 after falling off a parade trailer during the Green Memorial Day parade. The memorial stone for Matthew at Queen of Heaven Catholic Church in Green won't tell you the tragic details of the accident, or the painful details of his family's recovery. It's a story of grief and faith, family and community, whispered by every stone engraved for a child who died far too young. In the background, the sounds of children playing on a nearby field filtered through as they spoke. Two months after Matthew fell, his parents said they are still processing, still looking for a return to a routine although things will never be the same again. "How do you survive? How do you function?" Jennifer said. One way to begin is to accept that Matthew, they said, is in a better place. "He wanted to be famous, but he also wanted to get to heaven and be with God," Daniel said. Star Wars, Legos and a smile for a friend Jennifer said Matthew was born with a condition called tetralogy of Fallot, comprised of four issues in the structure of the heart. 'He had four procedures throughout his life at the Cleveland Clinic," Daniel said. His last was Christmas Eve, five months before the parade. Prior to the procedure in December, Matthew was characteristically mischievous. "He liked to pull pranks," Daniel said. "(He was) joking around with us and his grandparents." Jennifer said Matthew loved martial arts, but was constrained in sports by his condition. Overexertion or contact sports like football were off the table. His mother said Matthew's condition also limited his stamina and he was affected by weather extremes. Still, he was a positive child who loved to play Star Wars and Legos, his father said. "If he knew a friend was having a hard day, he would reach out to his friend with a smile," he said. Matthew and his 9-year-old sister Sophia were close, and their relationship was a classic brother-sister one, Jennifer said. "They drove each other crazy, but were each other's best friends," she said. "He was a better person than me," his father said. 'I still ask God every day, "What is your will for us?" ' Daniel and Jennifer Schultz said nothing could prepare them for the event on May 26. They've had to take it step by step, relying on family, friends, their North Canton parish and the wider community for support. The Rev. David R. Durkee, pastor at Queen of Heaven, approached them early, and an anonymous donor provided for the memorial stone in the memory garden. At North Canton Middle School, Matthew's schoolmates plastered hundreds of Post-it notes, pictures and handwritten notes on his locker. A Gofundme raised more than $100,000 for the Schultz family. "It truly takes a village to raise a child, and we're fortunate to have that," Jennifer said. But the questions still come, the grief lingers. "It solidified my faith, but I still ask God every day, 'What is your will for us?' " Jennifer said. A passage from the Catholic Bible in Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 4:12, provided some solace, Daniel said. It was read at Matthew's funeral. "But the righteous, even if they die early, will be at rest," the passage begins. 'His story is not over, yet' Two months after their world changed forever, Matthew's parents say they hope that time, counseling and memories of their son will help lay the path for a sense of normalcy. It helps that school for Matthew's sister starts in August, they said. "The new routine will start to come," Daniel said. They've been blessed with employers who permitted a leave of absence, they said. "Neither of us has been back to work yet," Daniel said. That will come with the new routine they're building day by day. That, and a sense that Matthew's presence is still with them. "His story is not over, yet," said his father. Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@ Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj or Facebook at This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Parents reflect on son, 13, who died in Green Memorial Day parade