Alabama News

Miss Kay is setting the record straight.

She isn’t dead.

Kay Robertson, the star of “Duck Dynasty,” made an appearance on a recent episode of the “Duck Call Room” podcast.

“I’m tired of being dead,” the matriarch of “Duck Dynasty” joked.

Kay Robertson has suffered from her own health struggles. Last month, Willie Robertson said, “Kay is not in the best of health. We’re trying to help her out as much as we can.”

The “Duck Dynasty” matriarch, 77, was not in attendance for the premiere party of “Duck Dynasty: The Revival” on June 1 in Monroe, Louisiana.

“Yeah, I’m not the only one that died,” Kay Robertson said in reference to an AI photo of herself. “That woman did, too.”

Al Robertson joined Kay Robertson on the podcast.

“Tales of your demise have been greatly exaggerated, ‘cause you’re here today. So this is the proof-of-life video,” Al Robertson said.

The Robertsons revealed just how much they have adjusted to life without the late Phil Robertson.

“Obviously this was an hard deal for all of us, but it was especially hard for Mom,” Al Robertson said.

“She said, ‘I’m tired of people saying how good I look. My husband just died. It’s not like I’m back on the market.’

“I was like, Mom, they’re not saying … ‘Do you wanna date?’ they’re saying, ‘You look amazing.’”

“Well, I thought I should look sad,” Kay Robertson replied.

Phil Robertson died May 25 after suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Kay Robertson’s health issues popped up in April when son Jase Robertson said he feared for his mother after an infection as a result of a fall.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter@Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.

Dylan Watts has a 7.25 earned-run average after two seasons with the Auburn baseball team. But that inflated number didn’t scare Major League Baseball scouts, who like his 6-foot-4 frame and approaching 100-mph fastball.

On Monday, the Toronto Blue Jays selected the right-handed pitcher with the 202nd selection in the MLB First-Year Player Draft.

Watts made 17 relief appearances in his second season at Auburn in 2025. He had a 2-1 record, 7.39 ERA and two saves for the Tigers. In 28 innings, Watts struck out 28 while yielding 32 hits and 11 walks.

A native of Enumclaw, Washington, Watts came to Auburn from Tacoma Community College. In 2023 for Tacoma, Watts had a 3-0 record with an 0.23 ERA in 14 games.

Watts chose the Tigers over the Milwaukee Brewers, who picked the pitcher in the 18th round of the 2023 MLB draft.

Watts was the second straight pick from Auburn by the Blue Jays. Toronto took Tigers infielder Eric Snow at No. 172 in the sixth round before taking Watts in the seventh round.

Those Monday picks came after the Baltimore Orioles chose catcher/outfielder Ike Irish at No. 19 on Sunday night.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.

A Tennessee woman was killed in a Covington County crash that injured seven others, including three teens.

The wreck happened at 12:50 p.m. Sunday on Alabama 55 near the 42-mile marker, about four miles northwest of Red Level.

Alabama Law Enforcement Capt. Jeremy Burkett said Dessie S. Medley, 75, of Speedwell, Tenn., was a passenger in a Honda CRV that was struck by a Mercedes-Benz GLC300 driven by 39-year-old Joseph R. O’Bryantof Moundville.

Medley was pronounced dead on the scene.

The driver of the Honda, 53-year-old Dana K. Rose, passenger Riley S. Collett, 23, and an 18-year-old passenger were also injured and taken Andalusia Health.

Mercedes driver Bryant and passenger Lindsay A. O’Bryant, 42, were both injured and taken to Andalusia Health for their injuries.

A 13-year-old and 16-year-old, who were also both passengers in Bryant’s vehicle, were also injured and transported to a local area hospital for medical treatment.

The crash remains under investigation by state troopers.

Dear Eric: In a recent column you wrote, “Sometimes, when our opinions about people change, any little thing they do can become a point of annoyance.” OK, I get it. And yes, it has happened to me. So, how do we deal with that emotional response? Is it maturity? Is it to expand our nature to tolerate?

– Feeling Guilty

Dear Feeling Guilty: Acceptance – of ourselves and others – is a good first step. Accept that you feel annoyed by a person. You have feelings and you’re allowed to feel them. And accept that they are who they are and they’re under no obligation to change to fit your mood. I find that empathy often follows. When we stop seeing other people as obstacles to our own happiness and start to see them as fellow travelers, we open the door to a deeper understanding of why they’re acting the way they act or how they see the world and we can experience empathy instead of annoyance. Does this mean that you’re going to like it? No indeedy-do. But this thought process can help put others’ behavior in context.

Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.

Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at [email protected] or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.

PRAIRIE ISLAND INDIAN COMMUNITY, Minn. (AP) — Some Native Americans traditionally bestow bald eagle feathers at ceremonies to mark achievements, such as graduations, and as a form of reverence for the bird they hold sacred as a messenger to the Creator.

This year, many are doing so with elevated pride and hope. The bald eagle is now the official bird of the United States, nearly 250 years after it was first used as a symbol of the newly founded nation that’s deeply polarized politically today.

“The eagle is finally getting the respect it deserves. Maybe when the nation looks at the eagle that way, maybe there will be less division,” said Jim Thunder Hawk. He’s the Dakota culture and language manager for the Prairie Island Indian Community, a small Mdewakanton Sioux band on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.

This wide, unruffled stretch of water framed by wooded bluffs is prime bald eagle territory. The size of Minnesota’s population of the majestic, white-head-and-tail birds that are exclusive to North America is second only to that of Alaska.

The legislation that made the eagle official came from members of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation. The federal act recognizes the eagles’ centrality in most Indigenous peoples’ “spiritual lives and sacred belief systems,” and a replica of it is on display at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota, 40 miles (65 kilometers) downriver from the Prairie Island community, which partners with the center in eagle care.

“If you grew up in the United States, eagles were a part of your everyday life,” said Tiffany Ploehn, who as the center’s avian care director supervises its four resident bald eagles. “Everyone has some sort of connection.”

Fierce symbols of strength and spiritual uplift

A bald eagle, its wings and talons spread wide, has graced the Great Seal of the United States since 1782, and appears on passport covers, the $1 bill, military insignia, and myriad different images in pop culture.

But a prolific collector of eagle memorabilia based in Wabasha realized recently that, while the United States had an official animal (the bison) and flower (the rose), the eagle was getting no formal credit. Several Minnesota legislators sponsored a bill to remedy that and then-President Joe Biden’s signature made it official in December.

With their massive wingspan and stern curved beak, bald eagles are widely used as symbols of strength and power. In reality, they spend 95% of their day perched high in trees, though when they hunt they can spot a rabbit 3 miles (5 kilometers) away, Ploehn said.

For many Native Americans, the soaring eagle represents far more; it delivers their prayers to the Creator and even intercedes on their behalf.

“My grandma told me that we honor eagles because they saved the Ojibwe people when the Creator wanted to turn on them. The eagle, he can fly high, so he went to speak with the Creator to make things right,” said Sadie Erickson, who is Ojibwe and Mdewakanton Sioux.

Marking life milestones with eagle feathers

Erickson and a dozen other high school graduates received a bald eagle feather at an early July celebration by the riverbank at Prairie Island.

Thunder Hawk said a prayer in the Dakota language urging the high school graduates and graduates receiving higher education degrees to “always remember who you are and where you come from.”

Then they lined up and a relative tied a feather — traditionally on the left side, the heart’s side — as tribal members sang and drummed to celebrate them.

“It just feels like I went through a new step of life,” said Jayvionna Buck.

Growing up on Prairie Island, she recalled her mother excitedly pointing out every eagle.

“She would genuinely just yell at me, ‘Eagle!’ But it’s just a special occurrence for us to see,” Buck said. “We love seeing it, and normally when we do, we just offer tobacco to show our respects.”

Some Native Americans honor the eagle by taking it as their ceremonial name. Derek Walking Eagle, whose Lakota name is “Eagle Thunder,” celebrated the graduates wearing a woven medallion representing the bird.

To him, eagles are like relatives that connect him to his future and afterlife.

“Being able to carry on to the spirit world … that’s who guides you. It’s the eagle,” Walking Eagle said.

That deep respect attaches to the feathers, too.

“It’s the highest respect you can bestow on a person, from your family and from your people, from your tribe,” Thunder Hawk said. “We teach the person receiving the feather that they have to honor and respect the eagle. And we tell them why.”

Persistent troubles, but new hope

In many Native cultures, killing an eagle is “blasphemous,” he said. It is also a federal offense.

Historically, Sioux warriors would lure an eagle with rabbit or other food, pluck a few feathers and release it, said Thunder Hawk, who grew up in South Dakota.

Today, there’s a nationwide program that legally distributes eagle feathers and parts exclusively to tribal members, though it’s very backlogged. U.S. wildlife and tribal officials worry that killings and illegal trafficking of eagles for their feathers is on the rise, especially in the West.

In Minnesota, eagles are most often harmed by road accidents and eating poison – results of shrinking wildlife habitat that brings them in closer contact with humans, said Lori Arent, interim director of the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center.

The center treats about 200 injured bald eagles each year. Of those they can save, most are eventually released back into the wild. Permanently disabled birds that lose an eye or whose wings are too badly fractured to fly are cared for there or at other educational institutions like the Wabasha eagle center.

The official designation could help more Americans understand how their behaviors inadvertently harm eagles, Arent said. Littering by a highway, for instance, attracts rodents that lure eagles, which then can be struck by vehicles. Fishing or hunting with tackles and ammunition containing lead exposes the eagles eating those fish or deer remains to fatal metal poisoning.

Humans have lost the ability to coexist in harmony with the natural world, Thunder Hawk said, voicing a concern shared by Indigenous people from the Chilean Andes to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

He hopes more people might now approach the eagle with the same reverence he was taught. It’s what leads him to offer sage or dried red willow bark every time he spots one as a “thank you for allowing me to see you and for you to hear my prayers and my thoughts.”

Erickson, the new graduate, shares that optimism.

“I feel like that kind of shows that we’re strong and united as a country,” she said by the Mississippi, her new feather nestled in her hair.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

The SEC will have a new sound in 2025, thanks to Bailey Zimmerman and Luke Combs.

The two country music stars lend their vocals to the SEC on ANC anthem, ‘Backup Plan’, a song they released in May.

On Monday, during the first day of SEC Media Days, ESPN shared the song on social media.

Combs, of course, is no stranger to SEC football. In 2021, “South On Ya” served as the SEC Network’s song of choice.

Mark Heim is a reporter for The Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Mark_Heim. He can be heard on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5 FM in Mobile or on the free Sound of Mobile App from 6 to 9 a.m. daily.

Dear Eric: On a recent crowded cross-country flight with no empty seats, I was between my girlfriend to my right and, at the window, a very large man (300 pounds, I’d guess) whose arms and legs took up at least a quarter of my tight space. He said nothing by way of acknowledging his size or apologizing if he was spreading into my assigned area. I didn’t say anything either – and what could I have said?

What’s the etiquette here? Should I have asked the flight attendant for help? Requested a partial refund? I truly felt like there are some people who are simply occupying too much space in the world, but of course it’s rude to say so. Is this something one just has to tolerate if one expects that sooner or later someone for some reason may find me equally annoying? I was inwardly fuming the whole five-hour trip.

– Flying and Fuming

Dear Flying: You should have called over the flight attendant and said, “I seem to think I’m the only person in the world. Could you help disabuse me of this notion?” It is perfectly acceptable to ask someone – regardless of their size – to mind the divisions in airline seats, especially if you’re in the middle. But, when you start policing other people’s bodies, which is what’s going on in your letter, you make having “the wrong body” a crime. Those quotation marks are locked in place because the definition of “the wrong body” is a slippery slope.

The other passenger didn’t owe you an apology for being. If he was spreading into your area, a simple conversation could have diffused your fuming and reaffirmed your shared humanity. You don’t exist in a vacuum, even when sealed in a metal tube that’s hurtling through the air.

Moreover, no one is “occupying too much space in the world.” If you don’t want to be bothered by the burden of existing with other humans, next time buy a second seat, or the whole row.

Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.

Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at [email protected] or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.

This is an opinion column.

Mom and Dad were fighting and the kids were yelling in the backseat.

A summer vacation tale as old as vehicular travel.

Also true with the dynamic around the sausage-making process of the College Football Playoff future. Greg Sankey used his pulpit Monday morning to explain it from his perspective in the driver’s seat.

The SEC commissioner is both blunt and subtle.

Sometimes snarky.

Occasionally with a bite of a monotone prison shank.

And as he kicked off SEC Media Days in Atlanta, Sankey explained the power dynamics in the most Sankey ways possible.

He made it clear the SEC and Big Ten were up front, steering the ship. They’ve been closely aligned previously but are disagreeing on how to progress.

There’s a nagging voice coming from the back but Sankey essentially rolled up a newspaper and glared in the rearview mirror.

The Big 12 apparently stepped out of line at its media days and Sankey was happy to do some parenting. Brett Yormark, commissioner of the Big 12, had a lot to say about the decisions to be made on the CFP future that need to be done by December 2025.

Sankey essentially said the Big 12 doesn’t really have much to say about that. He cited the memorandum of understanding signed last year that grants the SEC and Big Ten the power to make that call.

“Unless you’re going to go tear up the MOU,” Sankey said Monday, “which maybe some other people want to do because of their concerns about the decision-making authority, but very clearly in that memorandum of understanding is granted to the combination of the SEC and Big Ten.”

Then he took a direct swipe.

Yormark in his comments said the Big 12 was “doubling down” on a 16-team format that includes five automatic qualifiers from conference champions and 11 at-large teams.

“As I understand doubling down — that was one of the phrases last week,” Sankey said. “That’s part of the gambling experience, as I understand — you always want to have a really good set of cards. You want to have a good hand to play, right? I think we have the best hand to play.”

Yormark also claimed the Big 12 was the “deepest football conference in America” after sending one team to last year’s 12-team playoff. Hey, it’s his job to sell his conference and Yormark is a known showman in these settings.

Sankey isn’t quite as dynamic, but he’s got more juice.

That brings us to the front-seat argument.

The SEC and Big Ten were moving in alignment on how to take the CFP forward with the streamlined decision-making authority. That efficiency was lost when they took very different views on formatting.

Mom and Dad were fighting.

The Big Ten wanted a predetermined number of automatic qualifiers assigned to each conference. The SEC and Big Ten would get four apiece. The Big 12 and ACC would get two apiece.

That didn’t get any support at the SEC spring meetings as the league wanted to keep five conference champion auto qualifiers with everyone else competing for 11 at-large spots (if they expand from 12 to 16).

The Big Ten wanted the SEC to adopt the same 9-game conference schedule they use. The SEC was hesitant to add another loss while arguing its depth was already the most challenging in the nation.

Sankey on Monday said he spoke with Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti four of the five days last week.

No resolution, apparently.

“We had a different view coming out of Destin around the notion of allocations, if you will, and I think you’ll probably hear that again from our coaches,” Sankey said. “The Big Ten has a different view. That’s fine. We have a 12-team playoff, five conference champions. That could stay if we can’t agree.”

That’s the rub.

For all the talk about expanding the playoff and tweaking or completely overhauling the selection process, it could always just … stay the same.

If there’s anything college commissioners and administrators do well, it’s deferring a big decision for another day.

That might never come. The CFP already corrected the biggest issue from Year 1 of the expanded field when moving to straight seeding as opposed to giving byes to four conference champions regardless of ranking. So that already carries over to the new deal that runs from 2026 through the 2031 season.

Getting an adjustment in how the strength of schedules is viewed by the committee would accomplish another SEC objective without an expansion.

So it might not matter so much if Mom and Dad never don’t make up. The CFP won’t collapse if this standoff continues.

It would reinforce the idea even the highest-paid, most influential college football voices are capable of digging in their heels and doing nothing when pressed by a deadline.

Even parents can act like their children, sometimes.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.

Now less than six weeks away from the official start of the 2025 high school football season, our All-Star prediction panel is gearing up to pick all the winners (and the scores) again this season.

All six members of our panel return from 2024 with one new addition – former Homewood High star and current WKRG sports anchor and reporter Gerhard (G Money) Mathangani.

RELATED: 2025 By the Numbers

With high school media days kicking off in some parts of the state next week, our fearless prognosticators will give their thoughts this week on six key questions entering the new season.

The first question: Who will be the surprise team in 2025?

Here are the answers:

Thomas Ashworth, AL.com

St. Clair County. Had very impressive summer in 7-on-7 camps and brings back plenty of players on offense to make some noise. The trajectory under third-year coach Tyler Robinson has been nothing but positive, but the Saints will have their work cut out for them in a loaded Class 5A, Region 6 that also includes Moody, Leeds, Center Point, Jacksonville, Springville and Lincoln.

Simone Eli, WKRG-TV sports director

Spanish Fort. The Toros wouldn’t normally fall in this category due to their history of past success, but Spanish Fort hasn’t made it through the first two rounds of the playoffs since playing for the 6A title in back-to-back years in 2019 and 2020. This year, Chase Smith has added a pair of former head coaches to his staff to go along with returning QB and South Alabama commit Aaden Shamburger.

Randy Kennedy, AL.com and IHeart Radio

Booker T. Washington. Led by two of the 15 players on the A-List (DB Dylan Purter and WR Marquez Daniel), the Golden Eagles hope to build on last year’s 5-4 season. Deandre Austin’s first team started strong, winning its first four games, but struggled to a 1-4 finish and missed the playoffs.

Gerhard Mathangani, WKRG-TV sports anchor and reporter

James Clemens. After one successful year as head coach at Baker High in Mobile, Johnson moves north to take over the Jets. James Clemens went 6-5 a year ago and gave up 70 points in a first round playoff loss to eventual 7A runner-up Central-Phenix City. The Jets’ last playoff win came against Vestavia Hills in 2019.

Ben Thomas, AL.com

Benjamin Russell. Look for the Wildcats to make big noise in Class 6A. The team finished just 5-6 a year ago, losing at Spanish Fort in the first round of the playoffs. However, new coach Kirk Johnson is coming off a pair of state championships at Montgomery Catholic. Alabama receiver commit C.D. Morgan is the No. 1 recruit in the state and Johnson’s QB last year at Catholic, Kingston Preyear, transferred in as did wide receiver BJ Bedgood. It should be a good year for the Wildcats. Also watching: Russell County, Theodore and Pell City.

John Vella, AL.com

Gulf Shores. The Dolphins dropped to 4-6 in 2024 in Class 6A after winning the state championship in Class 5A in 2023. Gulf Shores looks to overcome injuries and distractions in coach Mark Hudspeth’s fifth season. The Dolphins again open with a tough stretch of games, including Saraland and Mary G. Montgomery. Jud Harris returns as starting quarterback with 20 games started under his belt leading the offense. Landon Everett (178 tackles in 2024) will anchor the defense.

Dennis Victory, AL.com

Hoover. Coach Chip English settled in nicely after the chaos of last year’s preseason boondoggle. New OC Darrell LeBeaux brings a different mindset to the offense.

COMING TUESDAY: The team most likely to win a state title in 2025.

Dear Eric: Six months ago, new neighbors moved onto our street. They fenced in the front and side of their corner lot and keep their large dog outside all hours of the day and evening. The dog barks constantly and all of us adjacent neighbors are extremely annoyed.

No one wants to say anything to them as otherwise they seem like nice people and were friends with some prior to their move. None of us understands how they can be so clueless, but the barking is becoming intolerable. What might we do?

– Want My Peaceable Street Back

Dear Peaceable: I know it can seem like bringing up an issue like this with otherwise good neighbors can risk disturbing the peace, but, as you’re experiencing, the peace is already disturbed. So, now the good neighborly relationship is marked by resentment.

In the interest of resetting the balance, I’d encourage you to talk to the new neighbors, one on one. You can be clear about what things are like on our end, and what you need while still being kind.

It’s possible that they’ve grown so accustomed to the sound of the dog barking that they tune it out. By sharing your experience with them, you’re giving them a chance to be better neighbors to you and better dog owners to their pet, to boot.

There are plenty of solutions. Maybe the dog needs more stimulation to keep it occupied in the yard, maybe they can arrange for more indoor hours for the dog. If they are, as you say, nice people and have friends in the neighborhood, they’ll want to know that something they’re doing is creating such a problem.

Read more Asking Eric and other advice columns.

Send questions to R. Eric Thomas at [email protected] or P.O. Box 22474, Philadelphia, PA 19110. Follow him on Instagram and sign up for his weekly newsletter at rericthomas.com.