Alabama
What Oats said about Alabama’s NCAA Tournament matchup with Charleston
![What Oats said about Alabama’s NCAA Tournament matchup with Charleston What Oats said about Alabama’s NCAA Tournament matchup with Charleston](https://www.al.com/resizer/v2/3Z3MVCIEANGP5EWNERDRHKX74I.jpg?auth=f38581963d3ce0969e346e3f760ce0f40fcc50bc7489c1b5ef99082d10ada148&width=1280&quality=90)
Alabama basketball head coach Nate Oats was itching to get out of his post-selection show virtual press conference. His Crimson Tide was matched up with Charleston in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, and Oats had things to do.
“Gotta get done with this Zoom so I can get to work figuring out how to beat Charleston,” Oats said.
Oats admitted that he hadn’t been especially familiar with the Cougars before the matchup was announced Sunday. However, from what he did know about the team, which earned its NCAA Tournament bid by winning the Coastal Athletic Association, he saw similarities to a group he knows well.
“Pretty similar to us, to be honest with you,” Oats said. “I mean, their offense is top 60 in the country. Their pace of play is top 50. Their 3-point rate is top 20. They’re playing fast, spreading it out, taking a lot of threes. We’re gonna have to see exactly how they get it, but I’m about to see. My staff’s already working on Charleston.”
Oats and the Crimson Tide are limping into the big dance. UA earned a double-bye in the SEC Tournament, but fell in its first game in Nashville against Florida and is struggling on both ends of the court.
The coach acknowledged things will need to change if Alabama is to make any sort of run to end the season. Meanwhile, Charleston is on a 12-game winning streak and will be looking to start a cinderella story.
“We’re treating it like it’s a whole new season and we’re playing a really good team,” Oats said. “I’ve been on the other side of this. I’ve been a 13-seed playing a four at Buffalo and came in and beat Arizona, so I’ve got a pretty good idea of the mindset of that group. And they’re hungry. I’m sure they can’t wait to play us. They’re excited.”
The game is scheduled for Friday at 6:35 p.m. CT in Spokane. Oats said he was happy with the time and date, noting that playing on Friday helpful for the team to be rested and healthy.
Alabama will have assistant coach Austin Claunch with the team through the postseason, before he heads to UTSA as the head coach of the Roadrunners.
“So happy for Austin,” Oats said. He’s a great culture guy. He’s a great mind as a head coach, brought a lot to the program. We both learned from each other in the year he was here. I think he’ll do a great job there.”
Alabama’s Friday game will be aired on TruTV.
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Alabama
These Alabama airports are sharing $22 million in federal grants
![These Alabama airports are sharing million in federal grants These Alabama airports are sharing million in federal grants](https://www.al.com/resizer/v2/FV7CT2NVUBB2RJOEIGA46LGBAU.jpg?auth=8d51a6be18690225bf741824acad92ccd8f99dd886a6b62384fcd5ba0bfbf155&width=1280&quality=90)
Alabama airports are splitting $22 million in the latest round of federal grants to improve infrastructure like runways, lighting and taxiways.
Huntsville International Airport and Birmingham- Shuttlesworth International Airport are in line for the largest slices of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Grants, which are based both on passenger volume and capital improvement needs.
HSV will be getting $12.8 million to help shift a taxiway 200 feet and rehabilitate pavement and lighting on Runway 18/36, according to the FAA. In Birmingham, $6.9 million is earmarked for rehabilitation and construction of additional taxiways.
“The funding we’re announcing today will allow hundreds of airports to make critical improvements that will benefit passengers for years to come,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a news release announcing the grants.
The remaining funds are going to 10 other airports in the state, including:
- $667,080 to Weedon Field in Eufaula for taxiway construction
- $524,323 to Troy Municipal Airport for taxiway rehabilitation
- $332, 786 to MacCrenshaw Memorial in Greenville for apron rehabilitation
- $309,747 to Franklin Field in Union Springs for hangar construction
- $164,270 to Tuscaloosa National for lighting vault equipment reconstruction
- $46,674 to Gulf Shores International for temporary runway closure lighting
Alabama
Alabama kids celebrate their hometowns in statewide art contest highlighting value of homeownership
![Alabama kids celebrate their hometowns in statewide art contest highlighting value of homeownership Alabama kids celebrate their hometowns in statewide art contest highlighting value of homeownership](https://alabamanewscenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Art-contest-feature.jpg)
Alabama
Death Row inmate Alan Eugene Miller: Prison too ‘incompetent’ to fit his gas mask
![Death Row inmate Alan Eugene Miller: Prison too ‘incompetent’ to fit his gas mask Death Row inmate Alan Eugene Miller: Prison too ‘incompetent’ to fit his gas mask](https://www.al.com/resizer/v2/BUOWEULXHVGUTGVITFAJB375CI.jpg?auth=da7447ec208774e0d966b234b2ea20e291c0d646b0ec252ccc66eb3e558dc2b8&width=1280&quality=90)
Alabama Death Row inmate Alan Eugene Miller said he has no intention of holding his breath or resisting his execution from nitrogen gas suffocation, but he’s worried the state will fail at securing his gas mask because they’re “incompetent.”
“I don’t think ya’ll know what you’re doing,” Miller, who would be only the second inmate in America to die by suffocating on nitrogen gas, told a state attorney during a deposition. “And these guys can’t even open a cell door sometimes. They’re keystone cops is basically what they are.”
The deposition was filed as part of an argument Miller’s lawyers made earlier this week. That filing also said the only training execution team members have for preparing an inmate for the procedure is from an Alabama Attorney General’s Office prosecutor.
Miller, 59, is set to die on Sept. 26 at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore. The prison is the only facility in the state with an execution chamber and is where most death row inmates are housed.
In a Monday filing in federal court, Miller’s attorneys said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office and its deputy, James Houts, are “responsible for training the execution team on how to carry out a nitrogen hypoxia execution.”
Miller said he’s open to having the gas mask fitted to his face prior to his September execution, but only if a doctor, medical professional or third party appointed by a federal judge does the fitting. That’s because he believes the prison workers are “incompetent” at mask fitting.
The execution, if carried out, will be the second using nitrogen in the country. The first was also in Alabama, when the state executed Kenneth Eugene Smith in January. That execution was widely criticized, after Smith convulsed for several minutes on the gurney.
State officials have argued that Smith held his breath at the beginning of his execution, delaying the nitrogen entering his body.
“The best explanation of the testimony is that Smith held his breath and lost consciousness when he breathed nitrogen gas—not that the mask did not fit or that the nitrogen was impure,” the Alabama Attorney General’s Office said in a filing earlier this month.
Miller “has no physiological explanation for how Smith could have suffered due to the State’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol,” it said.
But on Monday, Miller’s lawyers said the state doesn’t offer any proof for their claims. The state “hang(s) their hat exclusively on the self-serving testimony of a witness who claims to have remembered Mr. Smith’s oxygen levels nearly seven months after the execution.”
The execution team captain didn’t write down those oxygen levels, according to Miller’s lawyers, nor tell anyone about them on the night of the execution.
“In fact, evidence in the record suggest that the witness could not even see the levels from his position in the execution chamber, and the execution log from Mr. Smith’s execution… undercuts (the state’s) entire argument,” said the filing.
The captain’s deposition was also submitted in public court records.
That man said his responsibility was fitting Smith with his respirator mask for the execution. “I have not encountered any person for whom the mask did not fit securely and effectively,” he said.
During Smith’s execution, the captain said he watched the “readout for one of the pulse oximeters attached to Smith’s earlobe.”
“For a period of time that was longer than I had expected, I noticed that the pulse oximeter continued to read at a steady rate of 97%-98%. I did not notice whether Smith was breathing or holding his breath during this time.”
The captain said that Smith eventually released a deep breath, and then the pulse oximeter dropped “to the low 40s in a matter of seconds.” After 40 more seconds, he said, the reading dropped to 17%.
“This rapid drop in Smith’s pulse oximeter readings was what I had expected would happen when Smith began breathing nitrogen. After those breaths, Smith’s body did not move again,” he said.
Miller’s lawyers wrote that the captain has no medical or scientific training, and had received no training for fitting gas masks. In the heavily redacted filing, the lawyers wrote that he “has never read the (REDACTED) which provides instructions on the proper fit.”
Instead, the filing said, the captain learned how to prepare inmates from state Deputy Attorney General James Houts.
“Mr. Houts has admitted he is not an expert in nitrogen hypoxia protocols, but nevertheless believes he is qualified to (REDACTED) the State’s nitrogen hypoxia system because he is a ‘private pilot, a master scuba diver,’ and served in the military.”
The filing said Houts, too, has no medical or scientific training.
All notes from the state’s execution log that were included in the filing are redacted.
Miller believes, according to his deposition earlier this month, that the state’s gas mask won’t fit him. Various masks haven’t worked on his face before, Miller said, because he has a large head and face. He’s also unable to wear hats sold to prisoners because “they are too small for his head.”
“I’ve a big old head,” he said in the deposition.
According to his Alabama Department of Corrections inmate summary, Miller weighs 351 pounds.
Miller’s team also argued the state won’t use a mask with an inherent airtight seal or perform a negative pressure test on the mask. They also said the prison system should provide Miller, or anyone about to face a nitrogen execution, a sedative to “reduce the needless suffering that occurs during asphyxiation.”
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