If you’re reading this over a breakfast of scrambled eggs, enjoy them. Because you certainly paid for them.

And they might get more expensive this year. More on that in today’s report.

Thanks for reading,

Ike

Pricey eggs

Look for the price of eggs to keep going up this year. We’ve seen higher prices over the past couple years, and some might have noticed empty shelves here and there.

The upward pressure on egg prices is not tied to across-the-board inflation, which peaked in 2022 and has settled back under 3% since the summer.

The issue now, reports The Associated Press, is bird flu, which has caused poultry farmers to put down millions of chickens a month.

The poultry industry in Alabama is huge. According to the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association, the industry employs 86,000 people in the state.

A bird-flu outbreak began in 2022, and egg prices have more than doubled to more than $4 a dozen at the end of last year.

Whenever the flu is detected on a poultry farm, all the birds are slaughtered. And that’s often more than a million chickens in today’s huge egg facilities.

Since the outbreak began, it’s estimated that more than 145 million chickens and other fowl have been killed.

On top of that dent in egg supply, cage-free laws have gone into effect in numerous states.

Complicating mitigation is that cattle have been getting sick from this strain. In cattle it’s rarely fatal, so the animals aren’t slaughtered when they get sick.

Health officials say that infected animals are kept out of the food supply. Raw milk is the only food product that’s so far been linked to illnesses.

Immigration enforcement

Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch spoke with news media on Monday as Immigration and Customs Enforcement tightens up its enforcement of laws against those who are in Alabama illegally.

AL.com’s Patrick Darrington reports that Sheriff Burch said his office is prepared to help in any way and that he had already met with ICE agents. He didn’t get specific about what was said, but the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office will provide transport vans, jail occupancy or personnel.

Burch said ICE already was “picking people up” in area counties. He said ICE is identifying “known criminals” who are here illegally, but “frequently as they will go looking for the individuals they’re looking for, there will be several other people with them that are illegal. And collaterally, they will more than likely be detained as well.”

Frigid fish

Fish kills have been cropping up along the Gulf Coast since last week’s snowfall and cold temperatures, reports AL.com’s Margaret Kates.

Sometimes it takes a few days of decomposition before the fish float to the top.

Marine Resources Division’s John Mareska said the fish kill was expected, given the weather. He said the dead fish are mostly mullet that were in shallow water during the freeze. They try to adapt by swimming to deeper water, but, like southern humans, the colder it gets the less mobile they are.

Neither the state nor this podcast would recommend eating the dead fish. But it’s not a bad idea to freeze some for this spring’s cut bait.

A new kind of ‘Bama boom’?

Authorities are investigating an explosive-type sound that folks in Centreville have been hearing for the past two weeks, reports AL.com’s Howard Koplowitz.

Centreville is in Bibb County, southeast of Tuscaloosa.

Centreville Mayor Mike Oakley said many people have heard and reported the sound. He said Police Chief Rodney Smith is investigating and that he’s asked city officials to hold off on commenting until the investigation is over.

And y’all know what happens when officials are tight-lipped: One resident commented “Stop lying. Y’all know what’s going on.”

By the Numbers

$1.3 billion

That’s how much Birmingham-based Diversified Energy announced it had agreed to pay to acquire Maverick Natural Resources, a Texas oil and natural-gas producer.

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