Mar 05, 2024

It's Super Tuesday, Alabama. See you at the polls.

First, here's some news -- and the answers/results of yesterday's quiz.

Ike Morgan

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Alabama's primary election is today, and there's already been some side-eye going around, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz.

This is the first election since Alabama's Second Congressional District was redrawn, per court order, to favor a Democratic candidate once the general election rolls around. Some of the Montgomery County voters in that district apparently received postcards recently that identified them as living in the Seventh Congressional District.

The Southern Poverty Law Center's Alabama office blamed the Secretary of State's Office and called on Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen to own up to having made a mistake. His office, however, said the information in question is input by the counties.

Aside from voting for presidential and other nominees, Alabama voters will be voting on one statewide constitutional amendment, reports AL.com's Mike Cason. The amendment would remove a step the Legislature takes to pass local bills that affect only one city or county before it passes the state's budgets. Currently, lawmakers have to approve a budget isolation resolution before they can vote on the bills.

Make sure you get out and vote, especially if you're good at it.

A Mobile Faith Academy grad has ended a Major League Baseball career that produced 279 home runs and a Most Valuable Player award.

AL.com's Mark Inabinett reports that "The Bringer of Rain" Josh Donaldson announced his retirement Monday.

Donaldson, 38, was All-State in baseball and football at Faith, played at Auburn and was selected 48th in the 2007 Draft. He was the American League's MVP in 2015 for the Toronto Blue Jays. He hit 41 home runs that season.

Baseball fans in the South remember he had another big year during a one-year stint with his childhood-favorite Atlanta Braves in 2019. He hit 37 home runs and was named Comeback Player of the Year.

As the Legislature works to reach agreement on a bill to protect in vitro fertilization in light of the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that could make clinics liable for their handling of human embryos, it raises questions as to how exactly we got to the point where IVF clinics were shutting down.

National scorn came down on the state's Supreme Court for its ruling. Did the justices overstep? Or did they merely interpret the law as they're supposed to?

Former state Sen. Cam Ward gave an interview late last week to bring his perspective. I thought it was a valuable one: Ward and his wife, Lindsay, have experience with IVF services. But just as important to this debate: Ward voted for the bill that became a constitutional amendment that led the the court's ruling.

Does he have blame the court? Or does he regret the bill he helped pass? Check out the interview here.

Here are the answers and how readers did on yesterday's Week in Review Quiz:

Thomas Tartt passed away recently after serving as mayor of this city for 43 years -- the second-longest mayoral tenure in Alabama history.

Livingston (CORRECT) 57.0%

Fairhope 17.2%

Fort Payne 13.2%

Phenix City 12.6%

Willie J. Perry, who drove his Thunderbird around Birmingham during the 1980s to help stranded motorists, took on a nickname borrowed from this famous super hero.

Superman 12.5%

Batman (CORRECT) 55.3%

Captain America 29.6%

Bo Jackson 2.6%

Kevin Costner's new multi-part epic Western "Horizon: An American Saga" has a part played by this veteran actor who was born in Alabama.

Michael Rooker (CORRECT) 38.2%

Octavia Spencer 31.6%

Walt Goggins 4.6%

Lucas Black 25.7%

Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl recently made his voice heard on the issue of:

School choice 6.6%

Diversity, equity and inclusion 18.4%

In vitro fertilization (CORRECT) 72.4%

People who put sugar in their grits 2.6%

This state's legislature appears to be on the verge of passing Medicaid expansion, which would leave Alabama as one of nine holdouts.

Mississippi (CORRECT) 78.3%

Georgia 12.5%

Florida 6.6%

Wyoming 2.6%

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