Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Inherit the destruction

  The much anticipated BP trial began February 25th in New Orleans. British Petroleum faces billions of dollars in civil claims resulting from the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

  Alabama will reap a bonanza, which will go primarily to our beleaguered General Fund. To his credit, Attorney General Luther Strange has taken the helm of the legal battle rather than farming it out to expensive trial lawyers or political cronies as has been done by past AGs.

James Jay Carafano: Uncivil military relations

  Chuck Hagel survived the nomination process, but many problems still lie ahead.

  Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense was not well received by most Republicans. And his performance during the confirmation hearings did nothing to help his cause. In the end, the nomination narrowly squeezed past a cloture vote. More than a few in Hagel’s old party gave him a thumbs-down in the final vote.

Sheldon Richman: Cutting government would boost economy

  Budget sequestration is as modest a step toward cutting Leviathan as one can imagine. Further progress will be difficult as long as people believe that slashing the size of government conflicts with reviving the economy. Nothing could be further from the truth.

  In his recent debate on Charlie Rose, Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman said that even wasteful government spending should not be cut, because it would undermine job creation and economic recovery. This view isn’t quite as popular as it once was, but it is still influential.

Alex D. Newton: Government infighting mirrors citizenry

  Every day I see posts from conservatives and liberals alike claiming that one side or the other is unwilling to work across aisles, clogging up legislation, playing games of brinksmanship, lying and any other number of things we don't want our government to spend it's time doing. There are rampant complaints that those at the highest levels are really not earning their pay and they couldn't find "the truth" with a map and compass. I have also made many of these same complaints.

Charles C. Haynes: Battling over yoga in public schools

  That’s the conundrum at the heart of a new legal battle in Encinitas, California over the teaching of yoga in public schools.

  In a lawsuit filed last month, a couple with two children in the Encinitas schools charge that the district is unconstitutionally promoting religion by giving yoga classes twice a week to students during the school day.

Sam Fulwood III: The Media’s stereotypical portrayals of race

  I’m no longer sure that seeing is believing.

  As a former newspaper journalist, I’m disheartened to say that what you now see in the media isn’t always an objective reality. Even when an article or broadcast reports the truth, the accompanying pictures and images can sometimes impress upon readers or viewers another set of facts that may be at odds with the story.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Budgeting... Alabama style

  Alabama is one of only a handful of states that does not work off of one unified budget. We have two budgets. We have a General Fund Budget like all states. Then we have an Education Trust Fund Budget that obviously funds education in the Heart of Dixie. This includes K-12 and higher education.

  Allow me to go back in history and share with you the reason we have a separate education budget. During the Great Depression, education was woefully under-funded. Both black and white children were going to dilapidated one-room schools and were sharing threadbare textbooks. Teachers were not even being paid. They were being given script or promissory notes for which they might eventually be paid. The education system in Alabama was abysmal to say the least.

Joseph O. Patton: Loaves and fishes… or bullets?

  Alabama should certainly be ashamed. We operate under one of the most regressive, unfair and debilitating tax systems in this nation. Yet invariably our fellow citizens of the conservative persuasion inexplicably brag about it… often in the face of those who suffer most from this codified curse.

  Repeatedly Rep. John Knight (D-Montgomery) has led the charge to make a dent in the suffering by introducing legislation to repeal our state’s oppressive sales tax on groceries, yet it has always failed, often at the hands of lawmakers who always crow about what “righteous and God-fearing” people they are and how the Bible guides their actions.

Cameron Smith: Better options for Medicaid?

  Many Alabamians may be unaware that Medicaid is the second largest budget item for Alabama’s state government at $5.23 billion in combined state and federal spending. For being such a significant expenditure, the average Alabamian might believe the state’s Medicaid beneficiaries receive some of the most generous health care around.

  Unfortunately, that is not the case with Alabama Medicaid. The state’s Medicaid program provides few services not mandated by the federal government and has some of the strictest eligibility requirements in the country.

Our Stand: Conned by the Alabama Legislature

  After the antics that unfolded Thursday in the Alabama Legislature, no citizen of this state should trust their lawmakers again… and we certainly shouldn’t trust our representatives with our tax dollars.

  For months Republicans in the “super majority” assured us that a bill they were pushing, specifically called “school flexibility,” was not to open a back door to private school vouchers or charter schools. They insisted that we trust them, though their Democratic counterparts voiced honest concerns… then they effectively pulled a cheap, dishonest hoax on every citizen in our state.