It's that time of the every-other-week again: Huntsville City Council meets tonight.

Why it matters: The council's got a full agenda for its 5:30pm meeting, centered mostly around land use, development and infrastructure.

What's inside: The council will hold public hearings on rezoning around 200 acres in three motions, including 73.44 acres near the I-565/Greenbrier Road interchange set to be zoned for a commercial industrial park.

• Another 36.5 acres on Martin Road is up for a rezoning to a residential district and 90.5 acres from 18 separate areas in various single-family neighborhoods to Residence 1-A and Residence 2 districts.
• The city will also schedule a hearing on updating its ordinances to lump hemp products in with its rules around alcoholic beverages.

Zoom in: A $1.1 million contract with Volkert is on the agenda, for the firm to engineer and construct the Holmes Avenue Complete Street project, aiming to make multiple safety and pedestrian improvements to the street across about 3.25 miles from Spragins Avenue to Sparkman Drive.

• Contracts with UES Professional Solutions for geotechnical services are set to advance two of the city's biggest developments: one for $31,600 for Project Delaney (Eli Lilly) and a $59,380 contract for the North Village Town Center project.
• The city will also decide on an agreement with Front Row Huntsville, which just launched pre-leasing, for a $125,000 agreement for Huntsville to lease public parking space at the development.
• Also on the agenda is a $175,000 contract with Ivaldi Engineering to convert Merrimack Soccer Fields 1 and 2, near the intersection of Drake Avenue and Triana Blvd., to artificial turf.

Fewer pregnant Americans are getting prenatal care in the first weeks of pregnancy — or at all — reversing years of progress, new CDC data show.

Why it matters: Skipping first-trimester care raises the risk of preventable complications for moms and babies.

By the numbers: First-trimester prenatal care rose from 77.1% of U.S. births in 2016 to 78.3% in 2021 — but slid to 75.5% in 2024, per a CDC analysis of birth certificates.

• In Alabama, those receiving late or no prenatal care increased from 7.1% to 8.7% between 2021 and 2024, a 23% increase, per the CDC data.
• Late or no care increased in at least 36 states and D.C. in that same period — rising nationally from 6.3% to 7.3%.
• The shift spanned every age group and nearly all racial and ethnic groups.

What we're hearing: If caught early, conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure can often be managed to lower risks for mom and baby — sometimes with "easy interventions" like starting aspirin, says Alex Peahl, OB-GYN and ACOG Fellow.

• As more patients enter pregnancy with chronic conditions, early treatment becomes even more critical.
• These are therapies "we know make a big difference in patients' lives," she says, "but they're most effective if they're started in that first trimester."

Between the lines: The report doesn't identify causes, but growing maternity care deserts and insurance coverage gaps are a concern for patients and providers.

• Rural hospitals have closed, practices have scaled back obstetric services, and there are Medicaid patients who struggle to get appointments covered.
• In some cases, Peahl says, patients need proof of pregnancy to enroll in Medicaid but can't obtain that proof without an appointment, creating a Catch-22.

What we're watching: Whether health systems respond to access pressures by adopting any of ACOG's new tailored prenatal care guidance — coauthored by Peahl — such as streamlining prenatal care for low-risk patients into only eight to nine visits.

🚔 Senate Bill 298, which would require two police officers per 1,000 residents in Huntsville and Montgomery, made it out of committee Tuesday and is headed for a vote. (Alabama Daily News)

• Here's our story on the bill, the requirements of which local authorities say they already meet.

🏫 Huntsville, Madison and Madison County Schools say school choice via Alabama's Choose Act could cost them up to $250 million. (🔒AL.com)

📺 Love & Marriage: Huntsville is back at 8pm March 7 on OWN with 15 new episodes. (Warner Bros. Discovery)

🌕 SpaceX and BlueOrigin are shifting their priorities toward lunar development as the Department of Defense updates plans for Golden Dome. (DefenseNews)

Ikea Huntsville opened its doors to a flood of waiting customers Wednesday morning.

The big picture: Roughly 600 people were lined up outside the store, with the switchbacked line stretching all the way to 88 Buffet.

• First in line were Levi Moore and Alix Daly, who got in line just after 4am.
• Making the trip from Knoxville, Tennessee, they told Axios it was easier to just stay up all night rather than try to wake up early.

What they're saying: "Less than a year ago, we had a dream to open a new kind of IKEA store," Brad Ellis, store manager, said before cutting the ribbon, referring to this smaller-format Ikea. "We're here and proud to be in Huntsville."

• Ikea raffled thousands of dollars in gift cards before opening the doors, and Ellis presented a $10,000 check to Crisis Services of North Alabama.

Zoom in: Customers flooded the store and quickly spread out, with many grabbing up a stuffed orangutan toy that recently went viral thanks to a monkey in a Japanese zoo.

• The restaurant filled up straightaway, too, and folks were welcomed by cheering Ikea staff waving Alabama and Swedish flags.

Zoom out: Now that it's open, Ikea Huntsville's regular hours are 11am-7pm, seven days a week.

More from Axios: Inside Huntsville's new smaller-format Ikea