EXCERPT FROM: CBS 42
By Shanisty Myers
If you have a child in day care, you know how expensive it can be. Childcare Resources is a nonprofit agency that helps cut those costs. But, now they're taking a cut of their own.

COLONY — The town of Colony’s Krayola Kids Daycare may be nearing its final days. Employees have not received a pay check for two weeks and according to Mayor Morris Fitts, the town has no money to pay the daycare’s seven employees.

Krayola Kids Daycare, one of Colony’s only sources of revenue, is in jeopardy of shutting down.

Working parents are having a hard time affording quality child care because of the economic downturn, according to a report from a national child-care advocacy organization.

All public schools in Madison County, including Huntsville and Madison city schools, will be closed today due to the two cases of probable swine flu found at Heritage Elementary School in Madison.  Also, all school athletic events in the state of Alabama have been postponed for the rest of the week.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A new national report shows that Alabama is 1 of 14 states that allows some child day care centers to operate without being licensed and with few restrictions.

Officials with the Alabama Department of Human Resources say they will not make reductions to a program that subsidizes day care costs for low income parents.

TUSCALOOSA | Stephen Black, head of the University of Alabama's Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, has won $125,000 to further his mission to screen preschool children for vision problems.

As a district judge, I see every day the problems and concerns about crime in our community. But as a board member of the Alabama Partnership for Children, I have also learned ways we can begin to reduce the number of young people who drop out of school and all too often enter the criminal justice system.

A national organization recognized Alabama's pre-K program in Washington on Wednesday by presenting the Pre-K Champion Award to representatives from the Alabama School Readiness Alliance and the Alabama Office of School Readiness.