Ken Paulson: School handled ‘Jesus costume’ incident well

  A couple of unexpected things happened at Summit High School in Spring Hill, Tenn., earlier this year.

  The first was that sophomore Jeff Shott showed up at the public high school to participate in “fictional character day” dressed as Jesus.

  The second was that he was not expelled.

Larry M. Elkin: An Immigrant-friendly Republican dares to dream

  Successful politicians, by definition, look for opportunities to advance themselves and their parties. Occasionally, the right thing to do and the politically expedient thing to do are one and the same.

  Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., last week proposed a compromise on the Dream Act that promises to serve both as a means of partially repairing the relationship between the Republican Party and Hispanic voters and as a way for young people who are American by experience, if not by birth, to legally stay in the country they know as home.

Sheldon Richman: An Echo, not a choice

  With Mitt Romney’s sweep of Tuesday’s primaries, he will almost certainly be President Barack Obama’s Republican opponent in November. Romney has vowed to make the economy the chief issue against Obama, and he is sure to portray the president as an enemy of free enterprise in order to draw a contrast with himself. How fit is Romney’s claim to be a champion of economic freedom?

  The former Massachusetts governor and private-equity capitalist speaks often about free enterprise and the need for government to let entrepreneurship pull the economy out of its current doldrums. This sort of rhetoric is common for Republicans, who then proceed to violate economic freedom.

Gary Palmer and Cameron Smith: Coal-fired Alabama on EPA's "most wanted" list

  As if an economy struggling to recover were not enough, Alabamians are truly starting to feel the financial pinch of trips to the gas pump and higher monthly electric bills. The cost increases impact more than just travel and utility bills; they are built into virtually every item made or transported in the United States. From groceries to clothes, kitchen table discussions about budgets are becoming more difficult for families across Alabama.

  To make matters worse, the federal government is adding to the mounting fiscal burden. Taxpayers face an army of federal bureaucrats tasked with regulatory development and oversight – more than 270,000 of them at the end of 2010.  Each regulatory employee enforces specific regulations published in the Federal Register. The register has grown by more than 3,000% since 1936, from 2,620 pages of regulations to more than 80,000 at the end of 2011.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Tornadoes and tough economic times

  This week marks the one year anniversary of the devastating tornados that struck the state on April 27th of last year.

  The tornados that ravaged the state that day are considered the worst natural disaster in Alabama history. There were a total of 62 tornadoes that pummeled Alabama. The storms left 250 people dead, over 2,800 injured and 23,500 homes damaged or destroyed. These figures could have actually been worse. Some of the funnel clouds were over a mile wide with record breaking high winds. Some of the worst damage was done in Tuscaloosa.

Gene Policinski: In the military, speech can be punishable conduct

  When it comes to freedom of speech and members of the U.S. armed forces, there’s always been an obvious irony: The very people who risk their lives in defense of the First Amendment live under regulations banning their full use of it.

  The global reach of the web, combined with the explosion of social-media tools such as Facebook and Twitter, challenges how military rules rooted in the Civil War apply in the Internet age.

  Such is the background for the continuing saga of U.S. Marine Sgt. Gary Stein, an active-duty Iraqi War veteran whose online diatribe some weeks ago about President Barack Obama may well lead to an other-than-honorable discharge and loss of veterans’ benefits.

Michael Josephson: The Application of religion to work, home and your daily life

  Most Americans say they’re religious and their beliefs are important to their lives, yet I’m astonished at how many blatantly ignore the moral expectations intrinsic to their religion.

  Religion isn’t about only worship and ritual; it teaches believers how to live. Thus, the holy books of every major religion are filled with precepts and principles about honesty, justice, fidelity, compassion, and charity that leave no doubt about the role ethics and personal virtue should play in our daily lives at home and at work.

Chet E. Green: Knighthoods from cardboard swords - Why the nation exaggerates its praise for the military

  The evidence is in just two words, "hero" and "warrior." Overused, and inaccurately overused, they've been redefined. Once people had to voluntarily risk their physical safety to be heroes.

  Last March at a lecture he gave in Petoskey, Michigan, recent Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer referred several times to four names on his wrist. The men were slain fellow Marines and a Corpsman. "They're the heroes," he said. But today simply enlisting is called a brave act. As for the term "warrior," modern arms include night-vision gear, direct-fire rockets and computerized smart guns that hit people hiding behind rocks, but "warrior" conjures images like samurai and Prince Valiant. Chain mail can almost be heard clicking and chinging.

Charles C. Haynes: Tennessee’s science law: Academic freedom or monkey business?

  Depending on whose press release you believe, Tennessee’s new science law either promotes “academic freedom” or “allows creationism to be taught in public schools.”

  Enacted on April 10, the legislation instructs school officials not to prohibit teachers from informing students about the “scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses” of “scientific controversies” such as biological evolution.

  Science education groups are outraged, arguing that the law has nothing to do with academic freedom — and everything to do with finding new ways to undermine the teaching of evolution with trumped-up “controversies” and unscientific “weaknesses” disguised as science.

Kiley Kroh, Michael Conathan: The Lasting impact of Deepwater Horizon

  Two years ago an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico took the lives of 11 men and spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. It took 9,700 vessels, 127 aircraft, 47,829 people, nearly 2 million gallons of toxic dispersants, and 89 days to stop the gush of oil. But the work to restore the ecosystem and Gulf economy has only just begun.

  The regional oil and gas industry hasn’t skipped a beat despite claims from Big Oil and drilling advocates in Congress that the moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed in the wake of the spill devastated the Gulf economy. The New Orleans Times-Picayune found that oil-fueled economies in the Houma area are humming along just fine. And according to a recent Reuters analysis, Gulf drillers will be busier this year than at any point since the spill, adding eight new deepwater rigs and bringing the total count to 29, just shy of pre-spill levels.