Alabama top stories in brief

• The Southern Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, will vote on a resolution condemning IVF treatments at the Southern Baptist Convention on June 9-12. Members have claimed that IVF destroys human lives and that IVF creates more embryos to be frozen than are implanted. The vote for condemning IVF comes after the Alabama State Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos have the same legal rights and status as born children. 

• The Alabama Crime Victims Compensation Commission (ACVCC) has received funding from the state General Fund for a second year in a row. Primarily funded by court fines and fees, the state agency’s main responsibility is to contribute and pay for expenses accrued by violent crime victims. This ranges from anything like funeral expenses to sexual assault testing kits. Since COVID-19, the agency however has maintained a backlog of cases and experienced underfunding and employment due to lower amounts of fines and fees. Legislators allocated $1.5 million to the agency and will consider additional funds depending on how much money the agency receives the upcoming year from fines and fees. 

• Hyundai has been sued by the U.S. Department of Labor over its use of child labor at a plant in Montgomery. The complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court in Montgomery on May 30, names three defendants for employing a 13-year-old: the Hyundai plant itself, auto parts manufacturer SMART Alabama LLC and staffing firm Practice Service LLC. The Department of Labor reported that the child had worked up to 60 hours a week on a SMART assembly line. The lawsuit aims to require the companies to relinquish any profits made through the use of child labor. 

• New data released by the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles shows that incarcerated Alabamians were granted parole at a higher rate in February than in previous months—marking three consecutive months of increasing parole rates. Eligible inmates were granted parole at a rate of 24% in February. Parole grant rates have dramatically shrunk over the past several year, decreasing from a parole grant rate of 55% in 2017 to 8% in 2023. February’s data also shows that white inmates were more likely to be granted parole than Black inmates, while medium-risk inmates were granted parole more often than high- and low-risk inmates.

• The Alabama Alzheimer’s Task Force is developing a five-year plan to address Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases in the state. The task force, which was created during last year’s legislative session, is made up of five subcommittees that will focus on caregiver support and education, Alzheimer’s stigma, health care provider education, research and policy and advocacy. The task force will develop a five-year strategy which will be presented to Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama lawmakers during the 2025 legislative session. The CDC reported that Alabama had the second highest mortality rate from Alzheimer’s in 2021, behind Mississippi. Additionally, the number of people aged 65 and older with Alzheimer’s in Alabama is expected to increase to 110,000 by 2025. 

Our articles you might have missed

In the latest edition of The Longleaf Hiker, Xander Swain travels to Moss Rock Preserve, where he explores the beauty of its rare sandstone glades and completes his first outdoor bouldering climb.