Jun. 11, 2025

Today we'll introduce a new recurring feature: Word of the Day. The first one has come to us from the split of the United Methodist Church.

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Ike

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The state executed convicted killer Gregory Hunt on Tuesday via the nitrogen-gas method, reports AL.com's Ivana Hrynkiw and Savannah Tryens-Fernandes.

Like all Alabama executions, it took place at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

It was Alabama's fifth execution by nitrogen. It was the state's third execution this year, and second by nitrogen. Since Alabama became the first to use the method last year, Louisiana first used nitrogen in an execution earlier this year.

Hunt was executed for killing Karen Sanders Lane of Walker County in 1988. Lane's injuries included 20 head injuries, 24 fractured ribs, a fractured breast bone, bruises to her lungs and heart, tears to her liver, aorta and pancreas and bleeding in her neck muscles.

In a recent appeal attempt Hunt tried to argue that the charge shouldn't have been capital murder because, he claimed, a sexual assault charge should've been an abuse-of-corpse charge.

Hunt spent 35 years on Death Row. When she died, Karen Lane was 32 years old.

Yesterday we mentioned that it was the birthday of the late biologist and premier ant expert E.O. Wilson.

The Nature Conservancy in Alabama and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation also announced on Tuesday that the 8,000-acre nature preserve in the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta known as the "land between the rivers" will be officially named for Wilson, reports AL.com's Margaret Kates.

Wilson was born in Birmingham and spent parts of his youth in Mobile and Decatur.

The tract that will be known as the “E.O. Wilson Land Between the Rivers Preserve” was purchased last year by the Nature Conservancy, Patagonia and a donor. It's part of the area considered one of the most biodiverse places on Earth.

Fan voting has started for next month's Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and three players from Alabama are on the ballot, reports AL.com's Mark Inabinett.

Fans vote on position players (non-pitchers) through 11 a.m. June 6. You can vote up to five times per 24-hour period. At that point, the top overall vote-getter in each league automatically makes the lineup. For the other positions, it's like a political runoff with another round of fans selecting between the top two players at each position.

Reserves and pitchers are selected by player voting and the Commissioner's Office.

Got all that?

The players from Alabama are Colorado Rockies left fielder Jordan Beck of Hazel Green, St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Brendan Donovan of Enterprise and Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson of Selma's Morgan Academy.

Henderson was the American League rookie of the year in 2023 and started last year's All-Star Game.

Brendan Donovan's currently hitting .310, although he left last night's game and is day-to-day with a hurt toe.

And Jordan Beck -- or Mike Honcho, if you prefer -- has an OPS over .800 and has earned a starting spot in Denver in his second season in The Show.

The All-Star Game will be July 15 at Truist Park in Atlanta. You can vote online at MLB.com.

Steeple-jacking

That's what an attorney for the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church accused some breakaway churches of doing. “They have changed their corporate documents, deeded conference property to a non-United Methodist entity, and left us with no other recourse than to ask the courts to return our property,” Elizabeth Couey Smithart said.

43rd

That's where the Kids Count Data Book ranked Alabama in child wellbeing. The group said it used indicators such as poverty, infant mortality rates and education.

In 1904, jazz vocalist and pianist Clarence "Pinetop" Smith of Troy and Birmingham.

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