Michael Josephson: Are cynics right? Is lying really necessary?

  What do you think? In today’s society, does a person have to lie or cheat at least occasionally to succeed?

  The question isn’t whether occasional liars and cheats sometimes get away with dishonesty; we all have to agree with this. The question is whether you believe people can succeed if they are not willing to lie or cheat.

Jacob G. Hornberger: The times just might be a’changin’

  The New York Times is reporting that most Americans, including a majority in Florida, favor normalizing relations with Cuba, which would mean a lifting of cruel and brutal economic embargo that the U.S. government has been enforcing against the Cuban people for more than 50 years.

  It’s about time.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Alabama's House delegation

  Last week’s column expounded on the two different styles that members of congress perceive their roles to be in Washington. Our two senators are classic but different examples. Jeff Sessions is the quintessential ideologue and Richard Shelby is the classic caretaker.

  What about our seven members of congress? We have seven congress people, six Republicans and one Democrat. All seven pretty much toe the party line. All six Republicans vote straight down the party line and our lone Democrat votes with the Democratic leadership. Therefore, you would have to classify them all as ideologues.

Sally Steenland: Family values versus the corporate bottom line

  Two recent stories in the news have put a spotlight on the ways in which blind corporate allegiance to the bottom line can harm working families. The first story concerns the multibillion-dollar supermarket chain Whole Foods, which fired a female worker for taking a day off to care for her special-needs child during a snowstorm that closed Chicago schools. Forced to choose between going to work and leaving her child alone, Rhiannon Broschat did what any good parent would do—and lost her job.

Katherine Green Robertson: The debt bomb and other election year problems

  "If you want to tackle a tough issue, wait until after the election."

  This is one of the most understood ‘rules’ in politics. Unfortunately, elections never stop and oftentimes, the "tough issues" just get set aside in hopes that the problem will go away—at least until after the next election.

Jacob G. Hornberger: Embracing nonintervention and open immigration

  One of the libertarian positions that scare some Americans is open immigration. The thought that millions of people from around the world would be free to come to the United States to tour, work, invest, open businesses, or visit people frightens them to death.

  Actually, however, it’s an irrational fear.

  Today, there are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. As a practical matter, what difference does it make, since nobody knows who is legal and illegal?

Michael Josephson: Testing your integrity

  In the past year, did you keep the money if a cashier gave you too much change? Did you lie to your boss, a customer, or a significant other? Did you use the Internet for personal reasons at work? Did you distort or conceal facts on a resumé or in a job interview? Did you inflate an expense or insurance claim? Did you make unauthorized copies of software or music?

  Have you ever lied about your child’s age to save money or provided your youngster with a false excuse for missing school? If it was the only way to get your child into a better school, would you lie about your address?

Carl Chancellor: Of Beatles, boomers, and black history

  It was 50 years ago this week that the Beatles taught us how to play. In case you missed it—as if that were possible with the wall-to-wall media hoopla—four mop-top lads from Liverpool made their audacious U.S. debut in February 1964.

  Just as Cassius Clay, soon to be Muhammad Ali, would do two weeks later in Miami, the Beatles "shook up the world"—particularly the world of this then-11-year-old black boy—when they appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on February 9, 1964.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: A tale of two senators

  There are two schools of thought as to what role a U.S Senator should play on the stage in Washington. One model is called the caretaker. This senator believes that he or she should bring home the bacon. If there are any pork projects for roads, schools, bridges, universities, parks or any grant money in the annual federal budget then that senator’s state should receive its share or more.

The Crushing cost of climate change: Why we must rethink America’s infrastructure investments

  The mega-drought squeezing Californians’ water supply and the state’s $45 billion-per-year agriculture industry is just the latest example of how climate change is threatening to drain state and local government budgets and hurt consumers’ pocketbooks and businesses’ bottom lines. Lasr week, President Barack Obama’s State, Local and Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience met in Los Angeles to tackle a big question: How can the federal government help communities upgrade the United States’ infrastructure to withstand more frequent and severe heat waves, storms, floods, and other climate-change-driven events? On Capital Hill, lawmakers were seeking answers to similar questions last week at the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s hearing on "Extreme Weather: the Costs of Not Being Prepared."