Craig Ford: Debt is the real reason for the special legislative session

  The Alabama Legislature returned to Montgomery this week for what may end up being only the first of more special legislative sessions.

  Gov. Robert Bentley said the purpose for this legislative session was to vote on a lottery to fund Medicaid and other general fund proposals.

  While the lottery is being debated in the Senate, the Alabama House of Representatives is debating how to spend $850 million from the BP oil spill settlement.

  But the devil is always in the details, and what these bills are really about is debt.

Michael Josephson: Rebuilding your life and reputation

  Larry wrote me the following letter: “I’ve been a small businessman for almost 23 years in a business where people lie, cheat, and steal. I’m sorry to say I became one of them. In the short term it may have helped, but long term it came back to haunt me. There’s no amount of success that’s worth it. I am now 48 years old. I have lost my good name; my values and my ethics have been destroyed. Is there any way I will ever be able to restore my reputation and lead a life of integrity?”

Rhetoric vs. Reality: Paid family and medical leave

  Access to comprehensive paid family and medical leave strengthens all American families because everyone potentially needs to take off from work at some point to recover from an illness, care for a family member, or welcome a new child. But the United States is the world’s only advanced economy that does not guarantee some form of paid leave for workers. The result is that only 12 percent of private-sector workers in the United States have paid family and medical leave. In most American families, all the parents in the home are employed, meaning there is no full-time stay-at-home caregiver, and the majority of American families rely on a female breadwinner or co-breadwinner. Paid family and medical leave policies are already working across the United States, as cities, states, and individual employers embrace them. But without a national solution, millions of workers and their families are left out.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Will the running mates matter?

  Political experts and historians have consistently chronicled the fact that vice presidential choices have no significant effect on the outcome of the presidential race.

  However, this has been a very unconventional presidential political year. My assessment is that the selection of Mike Pence by Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s choosing Tim Kaine were extremely wise and helpful decisions. If for nothing else, I believe that Pence insures Indiana for the GOP and Kaine sews up the pivotal swing state of Virginia for Hillary. They are both very popular in their home states and are capable and stable choices.

Jacob G. Hornberger: The military base dole

  During my recent visit to my hometown of Laredo, Texas, as I was heading out of town toward Corpus Christi, I passed by the former site of Laredo Air Force Base. Serving as a training base for new pilots, the base was a prominent part of Laredo life when I was growing up.

  During that time, public officials and much of the citizenry were scared to death that the base might close. Like many people on the dole and like many other American communities with military bases, Laredoans were convinced that without LAFB, the city would die.

Ending the pass-through tax loophole for Big Business

  In 2012, more than 100,000 big U.S. businesses managed to shelter billions of dollars of income in a single tax haven and pay no corporate income tax on it.

  This tax haven is not Panama, Switzerland, or the Cayman Islands. In fact, it cannot even be found on a map—rather, it exists in the pages of the U.S. tax code. These businesses—with revenue of more than $10 million each—managed to pay no U.S. corporate income tax by pretending to be small businesses and thus saved their wealthy owners billions of dollars.

Laurence M. Vance: Prohibition is alive and well

  The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution that instituted Prohibition was proposed by Congress in December 1917, ratified by the requisite number of states in January 1919, and took effect in January 1920.

  The first and relevant section of the Amendment reads:

       After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Craig Ford: The state giveth and the state taketh away

  When it comes to pay raises for our educators, the state giveth and the state taketh away.

  This year was supposed to be the first time our public educators received a true raise since 2008. Before that, the Alabama Legislature cut educators’ and state employees’ pay by 2.5 percent (by making them pay more for their benefits), and tried to make up for it a couple of years later by giving 2 percent back.

  They called it a raise, but educators were still bringing home a half-percent less than they were before the changes to their benefits.

Hank Sanders: Senate Sketches #1522: What’s at stake in the Special Session?

  What will this looming special legislative session bring? Will it bring fiscal solutions for Medicaid? Will it bring solutions for the hemorrhaging General Fund? Will it bring an expansion of Medicaid? Will it bring long-lurking gambling efforts to a head? Will it bring better or worse public education? What will this looming special session bring?

  Medicaid was underfunded by $85 million in the 2016-2017 General Fund. This morphs into a billion dollar loss when we factor in matching federal funds and grants. Payments for services by doctors have already been cut by 50 percent. Doctors with large Medicaid practices will be crushed. Rural hospitals teetering on the brink will tumble over. Something must be done. What will this looming special legislative session bring?

Black families work more, earn less, and face difficult child care choices

  Families across the United States are facing a child care crisis, but African American families are especially hard hit by the rising cost of child care and limited options for working families. Today, three in four African American children under age 6 have all residential parents in the workforce. By comparison, the rate is only 63 percent for non-African American children. For decades, African American women have worked at higher rates than other women, meaning that child care has long been a necessity for these families.