As the story goes, for more than 100 years, the two statues chosen by the Virginia Legislature to represent the state in the Capitol were prominent citizens George Washington, and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. With all the controversy over glorifying Civll War figures, I wondered why Lee was still there. He is no more.
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – The ghosts of Jefferson Davis and George Wallace must live in the old capitol building in Montgomery. How else to explain why the fundamentalist Christian Republicans who somehow control all three branches of the state government still in the most retrograde state in the Union managed to…
Guest Column – By Deanna Kell – In case you’ve been living in a news bubble and didn’t hear about it already, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law the most restrictive abortion bill in the country on Wednesday, a near-total ban on all abortions, after the so-called the State of the Human Life Protection…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Maybe it once made sense to allow the police to put bad dudes out of business by seizing their stuff. “Civil forfeiture” gave cops an OK to snatch dope dealers’ cash, vehicles and other assets without having to wait for trials and convictions. But these seizures became so…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Republican legislators in Montgomery are monkeying around again and turning more public education funding over to private schools. They claim 5,793 scholarships have been awarded under the Alabama Accountability Act, but numbers from the Department of Revenue show that only 127 people have asked for the tax credit allowed when a child is…
By Glynn Wilson – The gerrymandering plan rammed through the state legislature by Alabama Republicans after they took control in 2010 has now been thrown out by a three-judge panel of federal judges in Montgomery as an unconstitutionaly overtly race-based map. A three-judge panel of the Federal District Court in Montgomery unanimously agreed that in…
By Glynn Wilson – The poor people of Alabama are being hoodwinked by their government, again. And it seems every conservation and environmental group in the state and a few decent newspapers are being taken in too. The issue is Amendment 2 up for a vote to change the Alabama Constitution, again, on the Nov.…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – A prayer for the Alabama legislature as it reconvenes in a special session, following another special session that failed to find funding enough to allow the state’s Medicaid services to function at a level keeping the needy alive. Schemes to finance the services with a lottery, or with…
By Glynn Wilson – The fools y’all elected to represent us in Montgomery have gone back home now on a paid vacation for a holiday they don’t even believe in, Labor Day. The fool of a governor y’all elected to represent us in the state capital is making excuses like the bad kid on the…
By Glynn Wilson – In a state where gambling is so loved yet feared, it must be torture for lawmakers stuck in Montgomery in the August heat to spend hours late into the night debating what Governor Robert Bentley says he wants, a state lottery to save Medicaid. With all of the big talk about…
By Glynn Wilson – It just goes to show that just about anything can happen in a place where nobody really knows what they’re doing. After just about every news corporation in Alabama had reported in print and on television that Governor Robert Bentley’s plan to bring the legislature back to Montgomery to pass a…
Glynn Wilson – I hate to say I told you so, especially on such an important matter of life and death for thousands each year. But as I already indicated, embattled Governor Robert Bentley’s proposal to get the Alabama Legislature to pass a bill allowing a vote on a lottery to shore up the general…
By Glynn Wilson – Two very different lottery bills won approval in the Alabama Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee on Tuesday, the second day of a special session prompted by a Medicaid funding shortfall, according to Arise policy analyst Carol Gundlach. Both are sponsored by Senator Jim McClendon, a Republican from Springville, and the Senate…
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s embattled Governor Robert Bentley released details of his call for the Special Session of the State Legislature on Monday, although the chance of a successful conclusion is in doubt due to controversy. “This call is designed for the Alabama Legislature to address adequate support of essential state services including children, the…
By Hank Sanders – MONTGOMERY, Ala. — 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 expansion of Medicaid? Will it bring long lurking gambling efforts to a head? Will it bring better or worse public education?…
By Glynn Wilson – MOBILE, Ala. — While the greatest political show on earth was going on live from Philedelphia on the Internet and most television news channels, with one of the greatest orators to ever occupy the Oval Office addressing the Democratic National Convention and calling on the election of Hillary Clinton to be…
Back bone connected to the shoulder bone, 
Shoulder bone connected to the neck bone, 
Neck bone connected to the head bone
, And that’s the way it goes — Dem Bones – By Pippa Abston, MD – You probably recognize that verse — you may have sung this more recent secular version or the original by…
Watch this short video with an exchange between watchdog reporter Glynn Wilson and state Senator Trip Pittman – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. — This is an open letter to Alabama’s Republican Governor Robert Bentley asking him to please fully fund Medicaid. Dear Governor Bentley: I know times are tough.…
Critics Say More People Are Going to Die Needlessly Due to Legislative Inaction – Watch this shocking video to see what legislators are saying about the inevitability of many people dying due to the budget shortfall. – By Glynn Wilson – MONTGOMERY, Ala. — More sick babies, old folks and poor people are just going…
By Glynn Wilson – A number of people from across Alabama have indicated they will converge on Montgomery Wednesday, April 20, when a joint committee of the House and Senate will hold a hearing on the problems of funding Medicaid in the state. After Governor Robert Bentley refused for the past three years to accept…
