Alabama
Maternal mortality, The Voice, drone arrest: Down in Alabama
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Saving moms
The folks at the Alabama Department of Health are looking for more insight into maternal mortality in the state, and they’re hoping that’s what they’ll get by taking an autopsy program statewide, reports AL.com’s Amy Yurkanin.
The program provides cost-free autopsies on women who died during pregnancy or within a year after giving birth. It’s been in place since December in Baldwin, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Mobile, Montgomery, Shelby and Walker counties.
Alabama has one of the nation’s highest maternal mortality rates. AL.com’s Anna Claire Vollers did reporting back in 2019 that showed there were issues with the state’s tracking of expectant or new mothers who had died. The state then put a half million dollars into investigating the high mortality rate.
Also, a maternal mortality review committee found that 15 of the 24 pregnancy-related deaths in Alabama in 2018 and 2019 were preventable. Infections, heart problems and hemorrhage accounted for the highest number of deaths.
However, the ADPH says that autopsies are performed on only about half the pregnant and new-mom deaths. Enter this free-autopsy program, which is now being rolled out statewide over the coming months. Complete autopsies will be done at UAB and the University of South Alabama.
An Alabama Voice
Alabamians are having a big week on reality television.
Yesterday we had the story of a 12-year-old who won Gordon Ramsey’s MasterChef Junior competition.
Then, last night, Asher HaVon became the first Alabama native to win a season on NBC’s The Voice, reports AL.com’s Mary Colurso.
His win in the finals wasn’t a shock. The soul singer, who’s originally from Selma, has been a frontrunner this season and was strongly championed by his team coach, Reba McEntire.
A recording contract comes along with the title.
Flying violations
You can’t say that the Hangout Festival environment isn’t keeping up with the latest trends in illegal activity.
Firing one up in the Port-a-Potty is archaic. AL.com’s Warren Kulo reports that a man was arrested at this year’s event after his drone buzzed a police drone, Gulf Shores Det. Carl Wittstruck said, “like in Top Gun.”
Police say the man launched on the first two days of Hangout. They figured out where it came from after the first day, so they were ready for it on the second day.
There are federal laws regulating drones, but local rules can be spotty. Gulf Shores prohibits them from being flown over public beaches without a permit from the city and the Federal Aviation Administration. If you break that one, you could face up to a $500 fine and six months in jail.
Katie Britt to talk child care, and you’re invited
If you’ve tried to put a kid in day care lately, you know how tough it can be to find a spot, then be able to afford it. It’s barely even a joke anymore when people say you really need to put a child on a waiting list before he or she is born.
Policy wrangling on the issue is something that you might see play out over the coming months. So I wanted to let y’all know about a virtual event co-hosted by AL.com’s Alabama Education Lab that’ll feature U.S. Senators Katie Britt of Alabama and Patty Murray of Washington. Our Trisha Powell Crain will be one of the moderators, and it’ll be at 2:30 p.m. Alabama time today. You can see it on AL.com’s Facebook page or YouTube Channel.
If you follow this Facebook event, you’ll get an alert when they go live.
Quoting
“The practice of filing lawsuits and requests for stay of execution at the last minute where the facts were known well in advance is ineffective, unworkable, and must stop.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Emily Marks of Montgomery, in a decision rejecting a request to stay Jamie Ray Mills’ scheduled May 30 execution.
By the Numbers
That’s how many days in jail you can get just for being a spectator for illegal exhibition driving or street racing in Birmingham, according to a new ordinance.
More Alabama News
Born on This Date
In 1914, the late jazz pianist Sun Ra of Birmingham.
In 1959, humorist, author and speaker Andy Andrews of Birmingham and Dothan.
The podcast
Veteran food reporter Bob Carlton is on the show to talk about food in Alabama.
You can find “Down in Alabama” wherever you get your podcasts, including these places:
An era came to an end on Saturday in Bryant-Denny Stadium, and it’s hard to say the next era is an improvement.
Hard, but not impossible.
Alabama football handled important business at home in beating LSU 20-9 as coach Kalen DeBoer ran his two-year home record to 12-0. Outside the stadium, it felt very much like the fiery rivalry it’s become; well-captured for posterity by intrepid beat reporter Colin Gay. Inside the stadium, only LSU’s broken season − the Tigers entered with three losses and an interim coach after Brian Kelly’s firing − made it seem anything less.
It was still the passion-filled, hard-hitting affair that it’s always been.
But it also marked the last year of the SEC’s commitment to pit these two programs annually. They’ll play only twice over the next four years, then the league will re-evaluate its new scheduling format that increased league games to nine per team. It’s just not going to be the same going forward, and no, it’s not really a rivalry anymore, because it can’t be circled on every calendar.
So it’s with a lump in the throat that this goodbye must be said, but the alternative would’ve been more like a lump on the head. The SEC assigned Auburn, Tennessee and Mississippi State to Alabama as its three annual opponents over the four-year schedule cycle from 2026-2029, and of course, Auburn and Tennessee were the right two rivalries to keep. They just mean more to the fan base, and for the SEC, they mean more for television ratings. As for the decision to include Mississippi State, that comports with the league’s effort to maintain some balance in the difficulty of each school’s three annual foes, as well as a parallel goal of geographical proximity.
Of course, the 2025 season by itself makes a poor argument that Tennessee, Auburn and LSU would’ve been too tough an annual trio to saddle Alabama or anyone else with. Tennessee’s not bad, Auburn’s not good, and LSU’s not anything special. But across time, those are three programs that have proven they’ll invest the resources necessary to be a dangerous foe in any given year, and that’s not something that can be said about Mississippi State.
Speaking of programs with resources, Alabama will catch Texas twice in the same four-year cycle, not coincidentally in the two years that it won’t face LSU. In other words, the TV monster will be well-fed regardless, and navigating an SEC schedule won’t be a picnic for anyone. That’s to be expected when the deepest league in the sport adds two helmets like Texas and Oklahoma.
The Alabama-LSU breakup was the right thing to do, but it be strange absence from the schedule. The 2027 season will mark the first year it won’t be played in my lifetime, and I’m 54. The last time it wasn’t played (1963), BeatleMania swept the UK and a gallon of gas set people back 30 cents.
And boy have there been some big ones.
LSU’s 9-6 overtime win in 2011 was truly epic. A defensive struggle for the ages with future NFL players all over the field. Rightly billed as the Game of the Century, it might’ve been the last truly great defensive game, at least played by a pair of national powers at the time, before RPO offenses changed everything. Celebrities from LeBron James to Shaq to dignitaries like Condoleezza Rice lined the sideline. The whole scene belongs in a museum.
There have been some marvelous finishes, too.
Just a year after the 9-6 game, AJ McCarron hit T.J. Yeldon with a screen pass for a 28-yard touchdown in the final minute for a 21-17 win.
Former Alabama LB Marvin Constant stuffed Josh Booty at the goal line on the final play of the 1999 game to preserve a 23-17 Alabama win, and it all but cost him his career. Constant blew out multiple knee ligaments on the play, and was never quite the same player again.
It’s been a long and memorable marriage.
But with the advent of the nine-game schedule, it’s a marriage that’s run its course.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
The No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (7-1) have completely turned things around since their Week 1 loss to the Florida State Seminoles, putting themselves in position to control their own destiny for a College Football Playoff berth — and potentially a spot in the SEC Championship Game.
However, the stakes continue to rise with each passing week. On Saturday night in Tuscaloosa, Alabama will host the LSU Tigers (5-3) in a primetime showdown — LSU’s first game since firing head coach Brian Kelly.
The Crimson Tide enter as 10.5-point favorites, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, but they’ll be facing a team with nothing to lose, while Alabama carries all the pressure to perform — a combination that can sometimes produce unpredictable results.
Just hours before kickoff, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer and his team received some major news regarding star wide receiver Ryan Williams. After missing several games due to a leg injury, Williams has reportedly progressed well and is expected to play against LSU, per On3’s Pete Nakos.
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So far in 2025, Williams has appeared in seven games for Alabama during his sophomore season, recording 33 receptions for 495 yards and three touchdowns while averaging 70.7 yards per game.
Although he’s remained a highly talented receiver, Williams hasn’t quite lived up to the lofty expectations set for him after his standout freshman season. Many anticipated he would take the next step and emerge as one of the nation’s premier wideouts — right alongside Ohio State’s Jeremiah Smith.
Nonetheless, Williams’ presence on the field alone forces LSU’s defense to account for him at all times due to his big-play ability. In his last appearance against South Carolina, he hauled in seven receptions for 72 yards.
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Woodrow Lowe, a three-time All-American linebacker at Alabama and an 11-year starter for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers, has died. He was 71.
Lowe died at his home in Collierville, Tennessee, on Thursday, according to the National Football Foundation.
Lowe was a 2009 National Football Foundation Hall of Fame inductee. He starred at Alabama (1972-75) and was the second player in program history to make the first-team All-America list three times. He helped the Crimson Tide make the Sugar Bowl in 1973, losing to eventual national champion Notre Dame, and was a consensus All-America selection the following year.
“Woodrow Lowe was one of the finest linebackers ever to play the game, and we are deeply saddened to learn of his passing,” NFF Chairman Archie Manning said. “A three-time All-American and one of the most decorated linebackers in college football history, he defined excellence at one of the top programs in the country.
“After his playing days, he dedicated himself to shaping young lives as a coach and mentor, carrying forward the lessons of excellence and dedication that defined his own career. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and the entire Alabama football community.”
Born June 9, 1954, in Columbus, Georgia, Lowe got his football start at Phenix City Central High in Alabama. He stayed in state for college and set a single-season record at Alabama with 134 tackles in 1973. The Tide went 43-5 during his four seasons in Tuscaloosa, and his 315 career tackles still rank fourth in school history.
A fifth-round draft pick by the Chargers in 1976, Lowe played in 164 of 165 possible games during his NFL career and tallied 21 interceptions, including four returned for touchdowns.
He coached at the high school, college, and professional levels before retiring in Tennessee. Lowe also was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the Sugar Bowl Hall of Fame and the Senior Bowl Hall of Fame.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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