Jun. 30, 2025

If you're into the music scenes in Alabama, you want to check out today's "Down in Alabama" podcast episode. There's a discussion that addresses the new Coca-Cola Amphitheater in Birmingham, the still-newish Orion Amphitheater in Huntsville, and how the two might affect one another and reflect their own city's culture scenes.

The rest of the report follows below. Thanks for reading,

Ike Morgan

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The new Alabama area code won't get here until February, but people in the 334 can start working on changing their habits right now.

The new area code will overlay with the current 334 area. It's the same thing that happened when the 659 area code was introduced in the 205 area in 2019 and when 938 joined 256 in 2010.

AL.com's William Thornton reports that 334 phone customers are encouraged to start including the area code when you're dialing a number or programming numbers that you auto-dial. Dialing all 10 digits will become mandatory Jan. 23. Then beginning Feb. 23, some new lines will be assigned the area code 483.

Area codes are added when the current area code begins to run out of available numbers. And, yes, there are far more 7-digit permutations than there are people. But consider all the devices and modems that use phone numbers and businesses that use so many phone lines, temporary lines, company cell phones and the fax machine that might still be plugged in.

Any more questions about the future of area codes? Just give me a call at BR-549.

Emma Terry won the Miss Alabama crown over the weekend, reports AL.com's Mary Colurso.

Terry is from Leeds and was competing as Miss Hoover. She has a master's in accounting from UAB. She also did not come out of nowhere: She served a stint as Miss Alabama's Teen in 2021 and was the Miss Alabama runner-up the past two years.

Her talent was a ballet en pointe performance to "Flashdance." Contestants were also judged in evening gown, on-stage interview and health and fitness.

With the title Terry also receives a $15,000 scholarship.

She's replacing the reigning Miss America, Abbie Stockard, as Miss Alabama. Terry now has her chance to represent Alabama in the Miss America competition in September.

Emma Terry won the Miss Alabama competition Saturday night at Samford University. (Photo by Will McLelland/AL.com)

Four businesses have asked a court to block part of Alabama's new hemp law, reports AL.com's Mike Cason.

The four companies are: Mellow Fellow Fun LLC, Tasty Haze LLC, The Humble Hemp Shack LLC, and Seedless Green LLC. Mellow Fellow is the only one not based in Alabama.

The part of the law in question is the banning of any form of smokable hemp as well as products (such as gummies or drinks) that contain forms of THC made by a chemical synthesis process.

Those bans are supposed to go into effect Tuesday, and the companies claim it is not clear what exactly is banned, and that it will lead to confusion among business owners and law enforcement.

The plaintiffs also claim the law is in conflict with the 2018 federal farm bill, which categorizes cannabis with a THC content of no more than 0.3% as hemp, and that with more than 0.3% as marijuana.

Alabama's law also puts the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board in charge of regulating hemp-derived products and retailers. It also includes a 10% tax and sets up requirements for labeling and testing.

U.S. Sens. Tommy Tuberville and Katie Britt both voted to advance the budget -- dubbed the "big, beautiful bill" by President Trump -- to a Senate vote. Tuberville has expressed concern that Alabama would not be able to afford paying for SNAP benefits that the budget moves from the federal government to states. Over the weekend, Britt guaranteed CNN's Jake Tapper the changes to SNAP and Medicare will not hurt recipients in Alabama.

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We're talking about the Coca-Cola and Orion amphitheaters and their effects on each other and their respective cities (Birmingham and Huntsville).

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