Doesn’t Shelby County have actual problems to address?

  If someone handed you sheets of Census data on Shelby County, it wouldn’t take long to see how fast it’s growing.

  The population jumped 14% between 2010 and 2020. That’s a number most governments would throw an Animal House-type celebration over. But in Shelby, it represented a fall from the 36% growth of the decade before.

  I doubt anyone in Columbiana will complain, though. Growth means a healthy economy; a health economy means an expanding tax base. The median household income in Shelby is $98,000 a year, way higher than the state level of $60,000. Educational attainment is more than double Alabama’s overall rate. Unemployment and poverty are both low.

Democrats aren’t going to repeal Alabama’s abortion ban this year. They should still try

  In 2012, Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old dentist in western Ireland, became pregnant. That October, she checked into a hospital suffering acute back pains.   

  Doctors determined she was suffering a miscarriage. It was terribly painful. Early in their hospital stay, Halappanavar and her husband asked for medication to induce an abortion, which seemed inevitable.

  But doctors refused. At the time, Irish law banned abortion upon detection of a fetal heartbeat. And even as Halappanavar bled, even as she suffered nausea and vomiting and chest pains and breathing problems, the doctors did not — or could not — provide her the treatment she needed.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Alabama has some outstanding political leaders under 45

  Many of you have lamented to me that it appears all or most of our state political leaders are older folks. At first glance, that appears to be true. But we do, however, have some extremely talented younger stars on the horizon. In fact, they are already in the ring and making a difference.

  There are a few personalities who are worth watching. Allow me to share with you a select group of Alabama’s under-45 outstanding leaders. There are two superstars already on the scene and leading the state: Alabama state Representative Bill Poole of Tuscaloosa, and Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1559: Bending the arc of the moral universe

  The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. This concept was initiated by Theodore Parker in the 1850s, enlarged by others in subsequent years, and made famous by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1960s. I want to share a recent example of the long arc of the moral universe bending toward justice.

  Last week, Alabama’s newly-ascended Governor Kay Ivey signed a law that ended judicial override in Alabama. I will tell you what judicial override is in a moment. But first I want to share with you how we arrived at this bending toward justice moment.