This is how you solve a major Alabama problem. This is why Alabama won’t do it.

  Our governor likes to say Alabama is “open for business.” Our leaders insist we are the most “pro-business” state in the nation.

  This is, of course, situational. Private solar panel companies are effectively shut out of Alabama, thanks to a rooftop solar tax supported by Alabama Power and maintained by the Public Service Commission.

  And the love of free markets and enterprise doesn’t extend to workers who take the initiative and try to get the best deal for their labor. That’s when celebrations of entrepreneurship turn into demands for obedience. (Nothing seems to enrage an Alabama politician more than the thought of an employee talking back.)

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - The races are on

  Those of us who follow Alabama politics had been awaiting late May like kids waiting for Santa Claus at Christmas.

  We knew May 19 would be the golden opening date for candidates to begin making their announcements for governor and other statewide constitutional offices. Why? Because the law stipulates that candidates can begin raising campaign dollars exactly one year prior to the primary elections, which are set for May 19, 2026.

Public safety and parole aren’t mutually exclusive

  There are two elements critical to a functioning prison system. Security and hope.

  Alabama doesn’t do well on either.

  Start with security. At the most basic level, a prison needs doors that lock. This was a problem in at least one state correctional facility in recent memory. But security also means that staff and inmates don’t have to live under a constant threat of physical harm.

Don’t cheer, Gov. Ivey: Killing the Department of Education will hurt Alabama students

  Gov. Kay Ivey is a sure-footed politician.

  She’s walked the narrow and dangerous path of Alabama politics all the way to summit. It requires focus, dedication, and balancing performative apathy and winking cruelty. And constant, emphatic declarations that you care more about your party than the people who live here.

  That may explain why Ivey said last week that she supports the efforts of President Donald Trump and effective President Elon Musk to destroy the U.S. Department of Education.

The Alabama Legislature’s late Gothic period

  I can’t go to Goat Hill lately without feeling déjà vu.

  It started with Gov. Kay Ivey’s State of the State address on Feb. 6. There was the trite invocation of the “Gulf of America.” The vicious attacks on transgender Alabamians. And the constant talk about job creation and business investment that never seems to dent Alabama’s high rates of poverty or low rates of workforce participation.

  Go after immigrants. Back The Blue. Make vague commitments to broaden a potentially catastrophic voucher program in the Education Trust Fund.

  It’s all been done.

That anti-transgender law is even worse than you think

  The Alabama Legislature rushed a bill to Gov. Kay Ivey last week. It was so important that House Republicans limited debate on the measure to 10 minutes on Wednesday. It was so urgent that Ivey signed it on Thursday.

  You would hope legislation passed so swiftly would address a major problem in the state. Like gun violence. The rural health crisis. Or the ongoing inequities in Alabama’s public schools.

The mask comes off Alabama’s immigration bills

  Pity the poor state lawmaker.

  They work hard on a law to punish Alabamians showing kindness to the vulnerable — normal, everyday stuff in the Alabama Legislature — and inadvertently revive the Fugitive Slave Act.

  Wednesdays, am I right?

  Republican Sen. Wes Kitchens of Arab said he didn’t intend SB 53 to reflect the language of that infamous antebellum law, which authorized kidnapping and threatened fines and imprisonment to those who helped enslaved people flee to freedom.

Alabama as a rage room

  You probably know what a rage room is. People fork over cash and spend time destroying household items like dishes and furniture cabinets.

  They’re marketed as stress relief. But getting violent isn’t a path toward tranquility. It just encourages you to be violent.

  Smash a plate or a teacup or a TV as much as you want. It might feel like you’ve released something. But that’s not calm. It’s a fleeting sense of power, easily confused with catharsis.

How did Alabama’s transgender medication ban survive? The Dobbs decision.

  The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down federal abortion rights affects much more than reproductive health.

  Exhibit A: the battle over Alabama’s ban on gender-affirming medical care.

  Here’s some background. Gov. Kay Ivey signed the law, which prohibits the prescription of puberty blockers and hormones to transgender youth under the age of 19, in April 2022. U.S. District Judge Liles C. Burke blocked it the following month. The judge wrote that the statute burdened parents’ ability to make decisions for their children.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - Legislative session fails to let Alabamians vote on a lottery

  The regular legislative session of the Alabama Legislature ended on May 9, with the final passage of both budgets, which is the only constitutionally mandated requirement of the legislature during its annual legislative session.

  However, there was another constitutional question that dominated the session – the perennial issue of whether Alabamians will ever be allowed to purchase lottery tickets in Alabama and keep Alabamians' money within our state. This money could help educate Alabama children, pave Alabama roads, and remedy the closing of our rural hospitals. However, these Alabama dollars currently are going to our four surrounding states of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, and Mississippi, states that all allow the purchase of lottery tickets. 

The good news that Gov. Kay Ivey didn’t share

  Gov. Kay Ivey did something good last year. And as far as I can tell, she never told anyone about it.

  As Alander Rocha recently reported, the governor’s office used a plan submitted to the federal government to increase the monthly benefit paid to recipients of Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) in Alabama from $215 a month to $344.

Why did Alabama ban ranked choice voting?

  Republican lawmakers this spring approved SB 186, sponsored by Arthur Orr (R-Decatur), prohibiting ranked choice voting in the state. Gov. Kay Ivey signed it a few weeks ago.

  But outside civilians and military residents living overseas, no local government in Alabama uses ranked choice voting.

  No county uses ranked choice voting, according to the Association of County Commissions of Alabama. No city does, either, said the Alabama League of Municipalities. The Secretary of State’s office said last week that it does not know of any area in the state that employs ranked choice voting.

‘Economic development’ is another way to say ‘cheap labor’

  There’s a lot that can get an Alabama politician mad.

  Black history lessons. Voting assistance. Acknowledging the danger of firearms.

  But nothing, and I mean nothing, sets officials off like a worker who lacks an attitude of gratitude.

Katie Britt and the unreality of Alabama immigration rhetoric

  Imagine if Alabama politicians started treating geothermal energy as a crisis.

  And not just criticizing particular practices or businesses. We’re talking about a heat pump apocalypse.

  Introducing legislation to criminalize steam. Storming library board meetings and demanding the removal of any book with the phrase “hot springs.” Using Hot Springs, Arkansas as a snickering shorthand for everything wrong with the country. Putting on flak jackets and filming television ads outside Iceland’s geysers, vowing that Alabama will not become Reykjavík.

Why Mercedes-Benz workers are considering a union

  Here are two reminders of how our state leaders feel about unions.

  “These are out-of-state special interest groups, and their special interests do not include Alabama or the men and women earning a career in Alabama’s automotive industry,” Gov. Kay Ivey wrote after Mercedes-Benz workers announced an organization drive last month.

This isn’t how you improve Alabama schools

  My sister and I attended Catholic schools for 12 years.

  These were not elite institutions. None of my classmates, as far as I know, went to Ivy League universities. On balance, the education we got was on par with what the local public schools offered.

  But it was important to our parents that we pray in class and get Catholic religious instruction. Public schools couldn’t deliver that, and our non-Catholic neighbors wouldn’t want them to.

Toforest Johnson shows who Alabama’s death penalty serves

  Toforest Johnson should not be on death row.

  I’m not the first person to think that. I doubt I’ll be the last.

  A jury convicted Johnson in 1998 of the murder of William Hardy, an off-duty Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed in a parking lot on the morning of July 19, 1995. Police arrested Johnson a few hours later.

Alabama’s low workforce participation rate is real. Legislators may not like the solutions.

  Alabama politicians chase so many imaginary problems that it’s worth noting when they dialogue with reality.

  For example, the recent creation by Gov. Kay Ivey and state legislators of a commission to study the state’s chronically low workforce participation rate.

  It’s a real problem.

The most dangerous idea in a library? Empathy

  My 9-year-old daughter recently asked me if reading really makes you smarter.

  Put on the spot, I garbled my answer. I was driving, and we had to get to a softball practice on time.

  But here’s what I wanted to say: Reading teaches you new things. But more importantly, it makes you a more empathetic person. So, yeah.

That redistricting argument sounds familiar

  Three federal judges order the Alabama Legislature to draw fair districts for Black voters. 

  Lawmakers drag their feet. They submit a plan. Judges reject it for limiting the ability of Black Alabamians to choose their leaders. 

  September 2023? 

  Nope. September 1965.