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.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: A losing bet

  Last month’s bingo gambling trial ended as expected. All six of the defendants were found not guilty by a Montgomery federal jury. The first trial lasted almost the entire summer of 2011. Federal prosecutors put on elaborate testimony and tapes and brought 138 charges. The jury in that case found no validity in 99 of those counts against nine original defendants. Even in the face of this humiliating defeat, where they spent over $30 million and got no convictions, they astonishingly sought a second trial. The second jury, which mirrored the first one demographically found the remaining six defendants not guilty on the 27 remaining counts.

Julien Guerard : Embracing true American equality

  One of the fundamental pillars of American society has come to be the unwavering desire to promote and achieve equality. Unfortunately, we as Americans have strayed from this founding principle and have tried to make equality a man made endeavor. Through unorthodox practices such as affirmative action in education and the workplace and the progressive tax system, America has abandoned equality as an entire entity. In order to get back on the right track we as Americans must insist that our elected representatives promote the undying and righteous principle of equality of opportunity.

Ken Paulson: Legislators: Think of liberties first, then draft bills

  When I was a young reporter covering the Florida Legislature in 1980, I was amazed at the number of proposed bills that would be unlikely to pass constitutional muster. They were so obviously flawed that, if passed, they would quickly be struck down.

  I wrote a story about the process, quoting legislators who supported bills built on shaky ground. I can still recall their collective response: They didn’t care.

  As I learned then, legislators at all levels work to serve the public and to get re-elected, in varying proportions. Lawmakers who introduce bills that please their constituents may not be overly concerned whether a judge will be as pleased somewhere down the road.

Daniel J. Weiss, Jackie Weidman: Is Big Oil rigging gasoline prices?

  Cable news may be distracted by the latest presidential candidate gaffe or celebrity gossip, but gasoline prices are at the top of many Americans’ minds. To better understand their concerns, the Center for American Progress Action Fund commissioned a poll by Hart Research Associates in March 2012. It found that 59 percent of Americans experience financial hardship because of high gas prices, with large majorities of the public assigning a significant share of the blame to the major oil companies and Wall Street speculators.

  Gasoline prices have increased by 63 cents per gallon—or 19 percent—since the beginning of the year, hitting the highest price ever recorded in any March. The factors driving prices, however, are much less clear. The fact is that domestic production is at an eight-year high, domestic demand for oil and oil products is down, and yet gas prices continue to rise.