MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Right now, gas prices are up by 3 cents since last month, but 20 cents less than what they were this time last year.

As for the rest of the year, Clay Ingram with AAA Alabama says it will continue to go down.

“When we get to the fall, that’s when we typically see our gas prices in a declining, downward trend because our demand is declining,” said Ingram.

Despite people traveling for the holidays, Ingram says less people travel when it gets colder outside, hence why prices are at their lowest in January and February.

If you see a price uptick during the holiday, find another gas station.

“Some stations try to bump their prices up a little higher than they need to to kind if make some extra money. We need to be sure we’re price-shopping during those times and not rewarding those stations for trying to take advantage of us,” said Ingram.

Ingram says prices can go up during the hurricane season if a refinery or pipeline is damaged in a storm. None were in the path of impact this season.

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This weekend, No. 14 LSU will take on No. 11 Alabama in a massive SEC matchup. LSU will reportedly have an unexpected presence on the sideline Saturday: a live tiger.

Per multiple media reports, the Tigers will have a live mascot for the first time in nearly a decade, with state Sen. Bill Wheat confirming the news to the Louisiana Illuminator. The school has not had a tiger in the stadium since 2015, following the death of mascot Mike VI from cancer in 2016.

The return of the tiger is seemingly in response to Gov. Jeff Landry, who said earlier this fall that he wanted to bring a live mascot back to LSU. Surgeon general Ralph Abraham, who is a veterinarian, has also been instrumental in the operation. Per the Illuminator, Landry set up an unofficial committee to lobby LSU on the issue, involving Wheat, who is also a veterinarian.

Wheat told the Illuminator that the live mascot will not be Mike VII, the 8-year-old tiger who became the school’s mascot in 2017. Mike VII lives in an enclosure across from the stadium, and has never attended an LSU football game.

Abraham had reportedly suggested bringing in a second tiger to address concerns about bringing Mike VII to a game. The origin of the second tiger and whether it will be taken care of by the school is currently unclear.

Mike VI, the previous mascot, was the final tiger to grace the sideline at Tigers games. As with previous Mikes, Mike VI was placed in a trailer cage and brought to the stadium, and was occasionally provoked to roar.

Mike VII, the current mascot, was donated from a sanctuary in Florida as a cub in 2017, according to a website run by the school, at which point the school decided to stop the gameday tradition. Per the school, LSU has not bought a tiger since Mike III, and has only adopted cubs from rescue facilities.

Alabama shifted about 3% toward President-Elect Donald Trump in Tuesday’s election. But if unofficial returns are correct, that may have less to do with new Republican votes than a shrinking pool of Democratic ones.

Trump got about 1.4 million votes (65%) in Alabama on Tuesday, according to numbers from the Alabama Secretary of State’s office, while Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, got about 766,680 (34%).  About 58.5% of registered voters in Alabama participated in the election, the lowest number since 1988.

But Trump’s support was relatively unchanged from his numbers in 2020. According to the Secretary of State’s figures, Trump only added 11,540 votes to his total. Harris’ total fell by almost 82,000 votes — a drop of about 9.6% — over President Joe Biden’s numbers in 2020. 

Experts say this shift points to declining Democratic engagement rather than a surge in Republican support.

Randy Kelley, chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, and several political science professors cited a lack of competitive races and stricter voting access rules as factors behind the lower Democratic turnout. John Wahl, chair of the Alabama Republican Party, pointed to sustained Republican outreach and demographic shifts as the GOP focuses on working-class and minority voters.

“They had many less Democrats on the ballot this time. They had few options to choose from,” Kelley said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Democratic turnout decreased across the state in both rural and urban areas with significant losses in traditionally Democratic strongholds. In Jefferson County, for example, Democratic votes dropped by 20,000, while Republican votes fell by 8,000. In rural counties, the decrease was even more notable; in Franklin County, Democratic turnout dropped by 25%, compared to smaller decreases among Republicans. Similar drops were seen in the Black Belt, where Lowndes County showed a 22% decrease in Democratic votes from 2020.

Kelley said the limited options available to voters, especially in Black candidates, discouraged turnout. Kelley noted that fewer Black candidates ran in 2024 and said that the party must improve its recruitment efforts​.

“Candidates bring out their constituents, and without representation, it’s hard to get people excited about voting,” Kelley said.

Spencer Goidel, a political science professor at Auburn University, said that Alabama’s election landscape in 2024 lacked competitive races to encourage Democratic voters. Unlike in 2020, when then-incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Doug Jones’s campaign drew some left-leaning voters, the current election cycle offered limited engagement.

“If you’re a Democratic voter in Alabama, people can tell you it’s important to go out and vote, practice your civic duty, but at the end of the day, there’s not much of a reason to vote, and I think that that just filters down. It discourages people,” Goidel said​.

In Alabama’s seven congressional districts, only District 2 had a Democratic candidate — Shomari Figures — in races considered somewhat competitive. Figures defeated Republican nominee Caroleene Dobson in the district on Tuesday. 

Wahl said he believes a Republican focus on economic and educational issues may have contributed to Democrats’ smaller margins in these areas.

“We love to have these new minority voters coming to the Republican Party, kind of seeking refuge from how far left the Democrat Party has gone, and we’re excited about that,” Wahl said​.

Enrijeta Shino, a political science professor at the University of Alabama, sees Alabama’s results as part of a national trend where Democratic turnout has dropped while Republican enthusiasm remained steady. Shino said the votes in Alabama mirrored a broader pattern nationwide.

“That shows that Republicans were more energized, probably did better in get-out-to-vote mobilization for their base, and the messaging that they were getting from Trump resonated with them better than the messages Democrats were getting from Harris with her base,” Shino said.”

Alabama’s restrictive absentee voting rules in 2024 also may have affected turnout. The state had effective no-excuse absentee voting in 2020 in response to the pandemic, but state officials ended that program after that election. The change especially affected low-income and hourly-wage workers who may face greater challenges voting in person.

“When you only have Election Day voting, the cost of voting for people is higher, and when the cost of voting for people is higher, you’re going to see people who can’t get off work or have to take care of their children, can’t afford child care, people like that are going to be less likely turn out to vote,” Goidel said.