Darrio Melton: Paving the Black Belt's road to success

  It’s no secret that the Black Belt is behind the times. Just take a drive south of Montgomery and you’ll experience a time and place very different than the rest of Alabama. Families find ways to get by with little means, businesses struggle to provide sustainability for the community, the roads and bridges are dilapidated, and many of the communities look as if they’re stuck in time.

  Many people have wondered for a long time what we can do to help the Black Belt, including myself. Requests to the governor to bring more industry into the area have fallen on deaf ears. Pleas with the legislature to fully fund education for every child have been repeatedly voted down, and attempts to expand I-85 all the way across to Jackson have been fruitless.

Darrio Melton: Victim bashing is not a solution to Alabama's budget woes

  While national and local leaders have condemned Gov. Robert Bentley's decision to close DMV offices around the state, Rep. Mike Ball has taken this opportunity to throw a punch at my community this week, claiming that we've "got some people who just wallow in being a victim," and that those people "enjoy being a victim" and "want everyone else to do everything for them."

  Now Representative Ball did say that he's met plenty of "innocent victims" in his law enforcement career and throughout his work in the legislature - people who are looking for solutions and just need a little guidance. But those of us in the Black Belt? We're just being difficult... or at least that's the story they want to tell.

David G. Bronner: Eight insights on Medicaid expansion in Alabama

1. Georgia is projected to create 70,000 new jobs from Medicaid expansion. Since Alabama has half the population of Georgia, Medicaid expansion could possibly generate 35,000 new jobs for Alabama. Even if expansion of Medicaid only created 17,500 jobs, that would still be the largest influx of new jobs in Alabama’s history.

2. Adding $15-17 billion per year, about $1.5 billion per year, to Alabama’s economy is a big deal that helps all 67 counties with the federal government paying 90% of it.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Are regressive taxes something to brag about?

  A recent survey rated Alabama as the most conservative state in the Union. More than half of our residents describe themselves as politically conservative. The poll was done by the vaunted Princeton, New Jersey Gallup polling firm.

  Four of our sister states, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas, also ranked in the top 10 of the 50 states in conservatism, according to Gallup. All five of us are predictably, reliably Republican. The states of North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma and Nebraska rounded out the top ten. All these states are rural and also very Republican. Therefore, all ten of the most conservative states are Republican states.