Below is the podcast player followed by the newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each day here.

Temporary IVF fix?

Both chambers of the Alabama Legislature Thursday passed bills that would shield in vitro fertilization clinics from legal actions, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason.

The bills are nearly identical, so it’s possible that early next week they’ll be able to give final passage to one for the governor to sign. The House of Representatives passed its bill 94-6, with four Democrats and two Republicans voting against it. The Senate passed its bill 34-0.

This almost certainly isn’t a permenent fix as lawmakers try to get IVF clinics reopened and operating after the state Supreme Court ruled that human embryos had the same rights as children according to the state Constitution. As a matter of fact, an early version of the bill on Thursday would have automatically repealed itself in June 2025.

That part was removed, but we can consider this a band-aid fix to keep and reopen the clinics.

One of the House sponsors, Decatur Republican Terri Collins, said she expects something more permanent to be carved out in the next year.

The debate we might expect includes the personhood issue (what point a fertilized egg becomes a person), whether the next step will be a state Constitutional amendment (the state high court ruling cited constitutional law), and how narrow or broad the clinics’ immunity should be.

That is, will the immunity take away legal recourse from patients who suffer legitimate medical problems caused by IVF services?

Then again, maybe it wouldn’t be a government law without unintended negative consequences.

But can she rebut all that SOTU applause?

If, in this presidential election year, the Republicans were looking for a contrast to President Biden to give the GOP response to the State of the Union address, they sure found it in U.S. Sen. Katie Britt.

Obviously Biden’s a man and Britt’s a woman. Biden’s from Pennsylvania and later Delaware; Britt’s from Enterprise.

And while Britt’s a freshman senator, Biden won a Senate seat during the same election that Nixon beat McGovern. Now 81, Biden had already been in Washington nine years when Britt was born.

AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz reports that House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday that Britt would handle the GOP response that’ll be aired immediately after Biden’s speech on March 7.

Whether any of those differences I mentioned means a hill of beans will be up to the viewer. But one advantage Britt has is that she can say what she wants to say without being interrupted by insincere applause every 12 words — a staple of modern SOTU speeches.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey pointed out in a statement that Britt will be the first Alabamian to give the rebuttal.

“Sometimes the best man for the job is a woman,” the governor said.

Perfecto

Right-handed pitcher Maddie Penta recorded the third perfect game in Auburn University softball history Thursday night at Jane B. Moore Field.

Now, for those not highly versed in softball or baseball, pitching a perfect game means nobody on the other team reached base at all. You don’t have to strike them all out, but you can’t allow any baserunners, even by a fielder’s error. So during in the last inning of a perfect game, behind the pitcher are seven fielders, all thinking “please don’t hit it to me.”

So on Thursday the Tigers beat Georgia State 8-0 in six innings. Penta, who threw a no-hitter just Sunday, topped that with her first perfect game. She struck out 13 of the 18 batters she faced.

Seen on Jeopardy!

• Clue: Auburn QB Bo Nix made an NIL deal with Milo’s, maker of this 2-word sugary drink – then transferred out of the South to Oregon.
• Correct response: Sweet tea.
• Clue: It’s the nickname of Alabama CB Ga’Quincy McKinstry, whose smile resembled this pitch “Man;” Now he has an NIL deal with the drink, oh yeah.
• Correct response: Kool-Aid.

(These were easier than even our weekly Monday quiz.)

Quoting

“I never liked being punched in the face when I was younger. I was quickly reminded again of why I was never too fond of it.”

Florence Police Chief Ron Tyler, who was punched in the face while trying to arrest a man wanted in connection with a stolen vehicle.

By the Numbers

700

Only six high school baseball coach in Alabama have reached 700 career wins. The latest? Hewitt-Trussville’s Jeff Mauldin this week.

More Alabama News

On This Date

In 2007, A tornado outbreak across the South included one twister that killed nine people in Enterprise, eight of them students at Enterprise High School.

The podcast