7. Alabama basketball earned a spot in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament, facing 13th-seeded Hofstra, while Auburn basketball was excluded from the field entirely despite former head coach Bruce Pearl’s continued efforts and public fight to secure a bid for the Tigers.

6. Alabama’s Gulf Coast tourism set a new record with $923 million in lodging spending in 2025, highlighting strong visitor numbers, economic impact from beach destinations, with increasing retail spending as well as adding to the tax base.

5. Governor Kay Ivey highlighted a DeKalb County family benefiting from the CHOOSE Act school choice program, showing how education savings accounts are allowing parents to select better schools for their kids and improve student outcomes.

4. The Oscar-nominated documentary “The Alabama Solution” DID NOT win an Academy Award, but continues fueling ongoing discussions and pushes for prison reform in the state, with critics, including Attorney General Steve Marshall, emphasizing the need to maintain tough-on-crime values over Hollywood narratives and publicity stunts.

3. Three Alabama airmen from a Birmingham-based National Guard unit were killed in a plane crash in Iraq supporting Operation Epic Fury, with many mourning the loss of the service members amid ongoing operations in the region.

2. The Trump administration plans to announce a coalition to escort ships through the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating Iran threats, with allies including Gulf nations and others potentially joining to protect commercial traffic and counter Tehran’s attempts to disrupt global energy flows.

1. President Donald Trump declared Iran’s military decimated, with air defenses and forces severely weakened by U.S.-Israel strikes in Operation Epic Fury, refusing to declare victory yet but asserting it would take Tehran a decade or more to rebuild, meanwhile, the Trump administration is warning media outlets to stop rooting for the enemy.

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Dale Jackson is a thought leader for Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 5-9 a.m. weekdays on WVNN.