Gene Policinski: How much violence do we need to see – or report?

  A tangle of violence and protest has engulfed parts of Baltimore and cannot be ignored by the news media. But how much reporting should be done, and when should it be done, and reports of what?

  Those questions and more swirl, even as smoke still billows over Baltimore amid appeals for calm from the family of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man who suffered a spinal cord injury after being arrested by city police.

Borrower voices explain the need for affordable student-loan repayment

  Student-loan debt continues to be an issue of grave concern for American student borrowers. In 2014, there were approximately 41 million Americans with federal student-loan debt, up from 28 million in 2007. Outstanding debt has reached $1.1 trillion in federal student loans and $200 billion in private student loans. Last year, in an effort to make repaying student-loan debt more affordable, President Barack Obama announced his intention to expand Pay As You Earn, or PAYE, a repayment plan that allows certain student-loan borrowers to repay their debt based on their income. President Obama said that PAYE gives “graduates the opportunity to pursue the dreams that inspired them to go to school in the first place.”

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Recent Alabama governors haven't left much of a mark

  Recently, at a forum I was asked the question, “Which governor made a difference in Alabama politics?” The question caught me off guard because I really had not thought about that obvious inquiry. My knee-jerk reaction and answer to the insightful questioner was George Wallace and I gave a litany of reasons for my response. Later, after contemplation, I felt that my answer was probably correct. Wallace would be the appropriate choice, simply because he was governor so long. I prefaced my reply to the inquisitor with the caveat, “You know, I’m not as old as you might think.” Therefore, I qualified my answer with, “Let’s talk about the governors since 1954.”

Gene Policinski: A new world of ‘real video’ holds all of us accountable

  “Seeing is believing,” or so the saying goes.

  We certainly can “see” more than ever in this era of 24/7 news, omnipresent street surveillance, police “body cams” and cell phone video – and that fits nicely into the First Amendment’s role in providing for both press and citizen “watchdogs on government.”

Michael Josephson: Who am I to judge?

  Almost every week someone indignantly attacks my integrity because I offended them with a real or perceived opinion they didn’t like. The underlying assumption is that stating an opinion on any controversial matter violates the sacred duty of neutrality.

  First, I’m a teacher and a commentator, not a judge or journalist. Although I strive mightily to be objective, I don’t feel obligated to be neutral. Objectivity implies impartiality, detachment, and independence in evaluating evidence; it doesn’t preclude expressing judgment.

Jacob G. Hornberger: Cubans love America but hate the U.S. government

  The New York Times recently carried an interesting article about Cuban citizens who are wearing clothes depicting the American flag. The fashion statement reflects the excitement among the Cuban people for renewed relations between the United States and Cuba and a hope that the decades-old U.S. economic embargo against Cuba will finally be lifted.

  The downside to this phenomenon is that it might encourage U.S. national-security state officials, especially those in the CIA, to believe that Cubans are finally willing to embrace a U.S. regime-change operation that ousts the communist regime from power and installs a pro-U.S. dictatorship in its stead.

Mayor: Confederate Flag at rural county courthouse ‘must come down’

  A large Confederate battle flag snapping in the wind at the top of a pole in front of the county courthouse in the small rural Georgia town of Summerville must come down and “it shouldn’t have been put up there in the first place,” the city’s first black mayor told the Southern Poverty Law Center today.

  “It certainly sheds a negative light on the city and the county,” Mayor Harry Harvey said. “We have a lot of positive things going on in the area, a lot of progress, and this distracts from it. It’s not something we want to be known for.”

Strengthening the foundations of U.S.-Israel ties at a time of change in the Middle East

  Tensions between the United States and Israel soared earlier this month in the aftermath of the announcement of the framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. President Barack Obama declared that “a historic understanding with Iran” had been reached, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in stark contrast, stated that the understandings reached in Lausanne “threaten the survival of Israel.” Media outlets rushed to report on a tense telephone conversation between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu and the wide gaps that exist between the leaders’ positions on the Iran issue. This divide on Iran is just the latest in a series of tumultuous episodes between the two countries.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Looking ahead to 2018

  On a picture perfect sunny January day Governor Robert Bentley was sworn in for his second term as governor along with all of the other constitutional state officeholders. Taking their oath of office on the same day were Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey, Attorney General Luther Strange, State Treasurer Young Boozer, and State Agriculture Commissioner John McMillan. They were all sworn in for a second four year term. Newcomers Secretary of State John Merrill and State Auditor Jim Ziegler also took office on January 19.

  Speculation has already begun as to which of these folks are eyeing Dr. Bentley’s office four years from now. It is shaping up as quite a governor’s race in 2018. Unlike Bentley’s 2014 coronation victory trot, this one will be quite a horse race. Beginning in September, I will handicap the potential horses for the 2018 derby for the brass ring of Alabama politics. I have a list of 18 potential horses that I will discuss as we handicap the derby.

Charles C. Haynes: Remembering the Holocaust, speaking the truth

  In another of his patented truth-to-power moments, Pope Francis triggered international debate last week by having the temerity to call genocide “genocide.”

  Speaking at Sunday Mass on April 12, the pontiff described the killing of 1.5 million Armenians by Turks 100 years ago as “the first genocide of the 20th century” – a characterization of that horrific episode strongly supported by the evidence of history.