We've arrived at Wednesday

⛅️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny then slight chance of storms, with a high of 93.

🗳️ Situational awareness: David Little and Bill Kling held on to their Huntsville City Council seats in yesterday's election, while Jennie Robinson and Liliana Peinder are headed to a Sept. 22 runoff in District 3.

• Holly McCarty was reelected to the Board of Education in District 2, and Payten Redfearn elected in District 3.

Today's newsletter is 995 words, a 3.5-minute read.

College football is right around the corner y'all.

The latest: The first college football games are this Saturday, but the first SEC game isn't until next Thursday, when 25th-ranked Missouri takes on Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

• Outside the SEC, Jacksonville State plays at North Dakota State, and Alabama A&M takes on Howard on Saturday as well.

State of play: There are nine SEC teams on the AP Top 25. Five of those are in the Top 10.

• Georgia's the highest-ranked of the lot, at No. 3. Texas is No. 5, Texas A&M is No. 8, Ole Miss No. 9 and Oklahoma No. 10. Alabama is at No. 13.

🐅 Auburn takes on Baylor Saturday, Sept. 5 to kick off the season, which is the first for head coach Alex Golesh, hired by Auburn in November to replace Hugh Freeze.

• He's coming off three years at South Florida, a program he took from four wins in three seasons to a 9-3 run in 2025.
• At Auburn, though, Golesh says he's "light-years ahead of where we were in Year 1," at USF, per Saturday Down South.

Zoom in: Dual-threat senior quarterback Byrum Brown will be at the helm, having spent the last few seasons at USF with Golesh, where he set 15 program records.

🐘 Alabama is starting year three under head coach Kalen DeBoer, and gearing up for the season opener against East Carolina Sept. 5.

Catch up quick: Alabama has landed on redshirt freshman Keelon Russell after a competitive battle for the QB1 spot.

• DeBoer said Russell won the position through sheer playmaking ability and command of the offense.
• The focus is now on the rest of the offense as The Crimson Tide look to improve on last year's 11-4.

The bottom line: It can't get here fast enough. I can already smell the barbecue.

Dolly Parton, the incomparable icon whose heavenly voice, stellar songwriting, sparkling style and life-changing philanthropy lifted her out of the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and made her one of the most recognizable people in the world, has died at 80 years old.

• Her family confirmed the news in a video message Tuesday.

What they're saying: "Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by Carl, her parents, and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens," Parton's nephew and head of security Bryan Seaver said in the statement.

• Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday ordered flags across the state to be flown at half-staff through Sept. 1.

The big picture: She was a boundary-breaking businesswoman, with a tourism empire anchored by her theme park Dollywood.

• She was a tastemaker and a fierce advocate for literacy, whose Imagination Library has sent more than 304 million free books to children all over the world.

Read more in Axios Nashville

📝 Alabama students scored better on the ACT test than they have in years, reversing several years of decline. (Alabama Daily News)

🎓 Oakwood University in Huntsville is one of 12 HBCUs receiving $1 million endowments from the Dimon Foundation and the United Negro College Fund. (WAFF)

Huntsville dedicated a mile of U.S. 72 East as the Billy Clardy III Memorial Mile. Clardy was an officer killed in the line of duty in 2019. (City of Huntsville)

🏫 The Honors College at the University of Alabama received a $100,000 gift from Amit and Aruna Arora, who are both physicians, to fund a student-led conference. (UAH)

Rural hospitals across Alabama are getting an influx of cash from the Alabama Rural Health Transformation Program.

Why it matters: The total $144 million influx is going to a wide range of facilities – at least one in every county – covering everything from cybersecurity and emergency room equipment to vehicles.

Zoom in: The funds are part of a $203.4-million financial assistance award from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of the U.S. Health and Human Services, per the release.

• CMS says the key investments are in modernizing tech and cybersecurity, expanding access to care, building the health care workforce, bolstering community-based care and improving mental and behavioral health services.

By the numbers: The Huntsville Hospital Health System is set to receive $2.8 million to establish the North Alabama Rural Specialty Access Network to expand services in DeKalb, Jackson, Limestone, Madison and Marshall counties.

• Athens Limestone Hospital will get $886,464 to expand its shared electronic health record system, and Scottsboro's Highlands Medical Center will receive $1.89 million to expand its system and related infrastructure.
• Marshall Medical Center is earmarked for $935,000 for a new rural family medicine residency program.
• All three are Huntsville Hospital Health System facilities.

The Arc of Madison County will see $1.34 million to expand its Physician-Assisted Diagnostic Pathways program.

• See the full list here.

This hawk, a Cooper's Hawk I think, was hanging out at the Chick-fil-A drive-thru in South Huntsville when my wife ran to pick up lunch yesterday.

Zoom in: I live not far from here, and see hawks fairly regularly, but never loitering around CFA.

• She said it didn't fly away, even as she waited in line and left.

The bottom line: Consider this a formal invitation to send me all the cool photos of birds of prey. I'm a big fan.

🏈 Derek really misses talking college football with his late grandfather around this time of year.

Thanks to Crystal Hill for editing this newsletter.