Alabama blogger havealittletalk has uncovered a news story from January 14 of this year that reports State Treasurer Kay Ivey encouraging people to invest in the Alabama college saving program. Stupid or evil? I am not qualified to say.

Havealittletalk has also noticed the program's investments in the Cayman Islands increased by more than $9 million between 2006 and 2007. I am not sure what that means, but I think these are the sorts of details worth noticing.

The statement delivered at Thursday's public hearing by countrycat, the blogger who covered the event for Left in Alabama, is here along with a few personal impressions from the meeting.

Some questions, and an observation, from countrycat's statement:

• "And I'm curious...
• Who was "managing" our money?
• How much did you pay for that "service?" Obviously, whatever the number, it was too much.
• And a question for Treasurer Ivey: In your 2006 campaign, your opponent warned that this program wasn't financially sound. You brushed off his concerns and said it was fine. But here we are today. WHY? (At no point during this did Kay Ivey make eye contact with me.)

A contract to guarantee four years of fully paid undergraduate tuition at any public junior college, college, or university in Alabama;

(Just in case you missed my post on Friday evening, here's a video of some Alabamians giving decisionmakers hell over the way they've handled the college saving fund and full story from the meeting.)

There's been a considerable amount of discussion about this over the weekend. I have lots more to say about it. I'm trying to stay on top of this story and cover it at least through the March 24, when the board that oversees the program will meet and, presumably, announce a decision.