Sam Fulwood III: America graduates record level of high school students

  For a change of pace, how would you like to hear some good news, followed by some promising news?

  The good news: Contrary to the dire accounts of how poorly American schoolchildren are doing in their class work, the nation’s high school graduation rate is rising at an astonishingly rapid pace. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the national high school graduation rate topped 80 percent for the first time in history and is expected to exceed 90 percent by 2020.

Michael Josephson: Do I have to tell everything?

  Should a job applicant properly withhold information about a criminal record or termination from a previous job? Should a woman starting a new relationship say nothing about a previous marriage or abortion? These are problems of candor: When does an ethical person have a duty to reveal negative information about his or her past?

Public schools in the crosshairs: Far-right propaganda and the Common Core state standards

  Across the United States, a fierce wave of resistance is engulfing the Common Core State Standards, threatening to derail this ambitious effort to lift student achievement and, more fundamentally, to undermine the very idea of public education.

  Developed by the National Governors Association and an association of state school superintendents, the standards were conceived as a way to promote U.S. competitiveness, increase educational equity, and resolve problems created by the No Child Left Behind Act.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The race to replace Spencer Bachus

  My early and continuous prognostication that this would be a lackluster political season has been justified. It may very well be the least interesting gubernatorial politicking year in memory.

  The fact that Gov. Robert Bentley is waltzing to reelection with essentially no opposition is the primary reason for the lack of activity. In addition, the offices of Agriculture Commissioner, Attorney General and Treasurer are held by popular incumbent Republicans who have no significant opposition.

Jacob G. Hornberger: Conservatives are doomed

  If you attend any conservative conference, I will guarantee you that you will encounter the following mantra countless times: "free enterprise, private property, and limited government." You will hear it in speeches, read it in brochures, hear it in casual conversations, and see it prominently displayed at exhibit booths. It is the guiding mantra of the conservative movement.

Harry Stein: Pfizer’s tax-dodging bid for AstraZeneca shows need to tighten U.S. tax rules

  American drug maker Pfizer is attempting to acquire AstraZeneca, the United Kingdom’s second-largest pharmaceutical company. If successful, Pfizer would avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes by becoming a U.K.-based corporation, and Pfizer executives have made these tax benefits a central element of their pitch to AstraZeneca. This corporate maneuver, in which a U.S. corporation becomes a foreign corporation for tax purposes, is called a corporate inversion. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have fought back against corporate inversions for years, and they could be stopped if Congress were to strengthen laws passed 10 years ago.

Sheldon Richman: The neoconservative obsession with Iran

  Americans could be enjoying cultural and commercial relations with Iranians were it not for U.S. "leaders," who are more aptly described as misleaders. Because of institutional, geopolitical, and economic reasons, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton were not about to let that happen. They thought America needed an enemy, and Iran filled the bill.

Brandon Demyan: One photo, one vote: Alabama’s voter ID law

  The primary elections of June 3, 2014 could bring change for many of Alabama’s elected office holders. It will definitely bring a change in voter identification requirements. In previous elections, voters could simply provide a utility bill or a fishing license to vote. Alabama’s voter ID law, passed in 2011 and implemented for the first time with the upcoming primaries, will now require every voter to present a valid photo ID at the polls.

Sally Steenland: Conquering the religious-secular divide

  A few weeks ago, I participated in a private convening with multifaith leaders who are working for justice. We were Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Sikh; sprinkled among the participants and facilitators were a few secular humanists, agnostics, and atheists. The passion for justice among all of us was fierce. Leaders in the group are fighting anti-Muslim bigotry; striving for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, or LGBT, equality; working to reduce poverty; and more. We are allies in the struggle for justice.

  And yet, during one of the small discussion groups, a man who isn’t religious confessed that he often feels judged by his religious colleagues. It is never overt, he said, but rather a subtle hinting that his moral code—coming as it does from nonreligious sources—is somehow inferior to theirs.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Is Bentley shifting to the left on Alabama's prison system and general fund?

  In 1967 when Lurleen Wallace became governor, one of her first missions included a trip to Bryce Mental Hospital in her native Tuscaloosa. The conditions she saw at Alabama’s primary mental health facility were beyond deplorable. It was a heart wrenching, Damascus road experience for the demure and soft-spoken lady. However, she roared like a lion with determination to remedy this blight on the state. She implored her husband’s legislature to appropriate significant increases in the mental health budget and she passed bond issues to relieve overcrowding.