Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Legislative races are heating up

  The Alabama Legislature usually gets very little done during an election year aside from passing the budgets.

  However, the legislature may have to address issues pertaining to prison health care. A federal judge has ruled that our prison mental health care system is “horrendously inadequate.” This year the solution will probably be to simply add $30 to 50 million to the prison budget and kick the can down the road to the next quadrennium.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1495: Wrestling with fear and facts

  Facts don’t stand a chance in the face of fear. Fear just bowls over facts like a bulldozer over outhouses. Facts don’t stand a chance when facing fear.

  I have fought fear many times. In the last two weeks I fought against fear on two occasions.

  I was called by a reporter in Mobile, Ala. He asked if Perry County was in my senate district. I said that Perry County is indeed in Senate District 23 which I represent. He explained tuberculosis cases had been reported in Perry County and some schools had refused to go there to play basketball games. This was the first I had heard of this situation. I told the reporter that I would get back to him. I wanted to get the facts even though I knew facts don’t stand a chance in the face of fear.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Siegelman's case revisited

  The two prominent political trials in Alabama in the past few years have boiled down to one paramount issue, “Is it bribery or is it politics?” In the most recent bingo gambling trial the pivotal issue revolved around whether a campaign contribution is a bribe. The jury answered with a resounding no.

  In the first trial there were nine defendants. None of the nine were convicted. The jury found that there was no validity to 99 of the 138 original charges. In the second trial there were six remaining defendants, VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor, lobbyist Tom Coker, State Senator Harri Anne Smith, former casino spokesman Jay Walker, former State Senator Larry Means and former State Senator Jim Preuitt.