Mar. 18, 2025

Today Carrie Underwood makes her Down in Alabama debut in the Quoting section below.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

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According to new population estimates from the Census Bureau, much of Alabama grew in population between July 2023 and July 2024, reports AL.com's Ramsey Archibald.

The exceptions to that were mostly found in the Black Belt counties that have been losing population for years. Greene County lost 2.4% of its population over that 12-month period. That's the highest percentage of population loss in the state, and it translates to a minus-172 population change. Dallas County lost the most people with a minus-749 change.

The biggest-growing counties are the usual suspects: Limestone County has been the fastest-growing county, as a percentage of population, since 2020. And that didn't stop last year, when the county saw a net gain of 4,139 folks, raising the population 3.6%. Limestone was followed by Baldwin, Madison and Lee counties.

Madison had the highest net gain with 9,464.

Limestone and Madison, of course, are both home to Huntsville and the Huntsville metro area. If you're following growth in the Rocket City, one blip that's been reported is that February's home sales did not grow, year-over-year, according to reporting from AL.com's Scott Turner.

Some real-estate agents and analysts think the cooling of that market is due to federal job cuts. Huntsville has a strong federal presence and has expected it to grow.

Even so, Ben Wales of Gateway Alabama Realty Group, one of the agents who's expressed concerns over the government cuts, said things have picked up so far in March.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, a Republican from Enterprise, is lending her voice of support to NOAA and its National Weather Service while also calling for efficiency as layoffs come down at the recommendation of the Department of Government Efficiency, reports AL.com's Heather Gann.

There's a political balance here for Republican lawmakers as they become part of a federal downsizing many have called for while also watching some federal services -- and federal dollars -- shrink or go away.

Part of a statement from Britt reads: “Just this week families across the state received advanced notice about the incoming storms so they can plan. I support robust funding for NOAA and remain committed to ensuring every cent of hard-earned taxpayer money is spent efficiently, judiciously, and accountably.”

So far, it's apparently Elon Musk's DOGE that has been determining the effective-efficient balance. NOAA officials have said that 170 National Weather Service positions are being cut. That includes meteorologists and others who are part of the weather-information and warning pipeline. The weather service has not shared the effects on its Alabama offices.

Britt partly credits the weather service with guidance her family used during the infamous April 27, 2011 tornado outbreak. The Britts lived in hard-hit Tuscaloosa at the time.

Some late maneuvering in the men's National Invitation Tournament field has basketball officials in an awkward spot and the South Alabama Jaguars feeling jilted.

The NIT fills its field with teams that didn't make the NCAA Tournament.

AL.com's Creg Stephenson reports that South Alabama coach Richie Riley said he received a tournament invitation late Sunday evening, then had it taken away an hour or so later.

Here's why: UC Riverside had been extended an invitation but had already agreed to play in the less-prestigious College Basketball Invitational. College basketball officials contacted South Alabama's Riley around 9:30 p.m. Sunday about the opening. A short time later, UC Riverside managed to escape its obligation to the lesser tournament and accept its NIT invite after all.

That left the NIT with 33 teams on a 32-team bracket.

In the meantime, Riley said he had already told his players they were in.

Riley said he had asked Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Keith Gill if their spot in the NIT was a sure thing and that Gill indicated it was. In a statement Gill expressed regrets and cast the original contact with South Alabama as being over "a potential replacement team" in the tournament, an opportunity that "did not materialize."

NCAA Senior Vice President of Basketball Dan Gavitt, who was also on the calls, released a statement apologizing to Riley, South Alabama and the players.

The four Alabama teams that are in the NIT -- at least for now -- are Jacksonville State, North Alabama, Samford and UAB.

As we mentioned here yesterday, Alabama, Auburn, Troy and Alabama State are in the men's NCAA Tournament.

“What is that, Alabama? Is it On-eonta or One-onta?”

American Idol judge Carrie Underwood, struggling with the pronunciation of the Blount County town before Oneonta's Isaiah Moore appeared on this show.

In 1922, civil-rights leader Fred Shuttlesworth of Mount Meigs.

In 1941, R&B artist Wilson Pickett of Prattville.

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