School choice, HIV rates, nitrogen hypoxia: Down in Alabama

School choice, HIV rates, nitrogen hypoxia: Down in Alabama

Welcome back. First thing, we have to point out that it’s National Pie Day.

Not Pi Day, which is 3-14, but P-I-E Day, as in pecan, buttermilk or sweet potato. (You know what to do.)

Let’s get to some news. Results of yesterday’s quiz are near the bottom. Sign up for the “Down in Alabama” or other newsletters here.

The Guv’s priority

With the State of the State Address still a couple weeks out, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has already indicated that an education savings account bill will be her priority for the upcoming legislative session, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason.

The education savings accounts would allow students to take some state funding with them for education purposes should they home-school for attend a private school.

She didn’t lay out specifics of the legislation she will back, but speaking with Ivey at a National School Choice Week event at the Capitol was State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough, a Trinity Republican, who said he’d introduce a bill in the House. He sponsored a failed bill last year that would’ve placed $6,900 per year into an ESA for students who sign up. That amount was supposed to be around the annual cost of a student attending public school.

HIV hotspots

You had to figure that, like everything else, HIV rates would be higher in some parts of the state than others.

But a study out of the University of Alabama revealed that some counties actually doubled up the state’s average, reports AL.com’s Sarah Whites-Koditschek.

The study didn’t reveal causation, and although the state’s hotspots are in the Black Belt, the rates don’t appear to be strictly proportional to the poorest or least educated.

Here’s what the numbers look like:

  • The national HIV Medicaid claims rate is 11.5 per 100,000 residents.
  • In Alabama, it’s a lot higher at 67.9 per 100,000.
  • Three Alabama counties have a rate of more than 100 per 100,000 — Dallas, Perry and Lowndes Counties, with Perry reporting a whopping 224.72 per 100,000.

These hotspots point to rural and heavily Black populations. Study author Dr. Karen Johnson believes that access to preventative HIV drugs — in some cases the awareness that they exist — is affecting the local HIV rates.

Faith and capital punishment

What would be the nation’s first execution by nitrogen hypoxia is scheduled for Thursday at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore.

AL.com’s Mike Cason reports that on Monday a letter was delivered to Gov. Kay Ivey, endorsed by more than 130 clergy and faith leaders, asking her to stop the execution.

The leaders represented more than a dozen Christian denominations as well as Jewish and Muslim places of worship.

The letter read, in part, “As you know, nitrogen hypoxia is an untested and experimental procedure that poses potential undue risks to spiritual advisors who wish to accompany the condemned individual in the execution chamber, and other prison personnel and witnesses.”

State officials such as Solicitor General Edmund LaCour have said they believe the punishment is humane. LaCour cited an expert witness who’s assisted suicides by nitrogen hypoxia.

Quoting

“I smell a rat.”

Alabama Democratic Conference leader Joe Reed, accusing the Biden campaign of hand-picking delegates for the Democratic Convention and “reducing Black voter influence on Election Day.”

More Alabama news

Quiz results

Here’s how readers did on our Week in Review Quiz yesterday:

What oyster-eating creature is believed to be partly to blame for this past season’s reduced oyster harvest?

  • A snail called the oyster drill. (CORRECT) 75%
  • The alligator snapping turtle. 19%
  • A salamander called the amphiuma. 5%
  • A barfly called Norm. 1%

A rooftop AC unit broke last Monday night at Decatur Middle School. The repairs to the pipe and damaged caused by flooding will cost how much, according to school officials?

  • More than a million dollars. (CORRECT) 67%
  • More than a hundred thousand dollars. 27%
  • More than ten thousand dollars. 6%
  • Ten points on next year’s state schools report card. 0%

New Alabama head football coach Kalen DeBoer hired Kane Wommack as his new defensive coordinator. Wommack coached previously at …

  • South Alabama (CORRECT) 77%
  • Troy 12%
  • Jacksonville State 6%
  • Thompson High School 5%

Which grocery store chain with locations in Alabama announced it would end its use of plastic shopping bags?

  • Aldi (CORRECT) 82%
  • Kroger 8%
  • Publix 7%
  • Piggly Wiggly 3%

In 2023, the Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles granted parole to about what percentage of inmates that came before the board?

  • 8 percent (CORRECT) 85%
  • 22 percent 10%
  • 54 percent 4%
  • 82 percent 1%

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