Allow me to deviate from politics to discuss an important event for our state. The World Games 2022 will place Birmingham and the entire state of Alabama squarely in the global spotlight.

Believe it or not, this once-in-a-lifetime event is only a few months away with approximately 3,600 athletes from more than 100 countries and up to 500,000 visitors expected to flood Birmingham for one of the world’s largest athletic competitions.

Folks, there are many questions about the World Games 2022. Is it the biggest sports party in state history? Is it a way to reconnect humanity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic? Is it a chance for sports fans to witness history? Is it a showcase for Birmingham that can elevate and enhance the city’s and state’s image?

This is Birmingham’s gold medal moment. It is a moment to show the world that the story of Birmingham and the entire State of Alabama is the story of perseverance and triumph. It is a moment we will remember with pride for the rest of our lives.

So, what is The World Games which is happening July 7-17 in Birmingham? The easy answer is it is “the new generation of global sport competition,” organized with the support of the International Olympic Committee. These are the fastest growing sports in the world and several of them compete on the Summer Olympic platform, also. So, we will have a lot of the Olympians that competed in Tokyo last summer competing again here.

Elite athletes from all over the world will converge in Birmingham to participate in 34 sporting competitions at over 25 venues around the metro area.

It is also so much more. The schedule includes mainstream sports that many Alabamians have heard of, like flag football presented by the NFL, softball, lacrosse, bowling, waterski jumping and wakeboarding and sumo wrestling. Fans will also enjoy emerging sports like parkour, sport climbing, drone racing and canopy piloting.

There are multiple disciplines of dance sports, as well as many different types of martial arts, including Muay Thai and Jiu-jitsu.

Don’t forget about sports that most Alabamians have never encountered, such as floorball, korfball, beach handball and tug of war.

The sports program also includes wheelchair rugby, making The World Games 2022 making the first multi-sport international competition to include an adaptive sport as part of the regular sports program.

Alabama is filled with sports fans, and The World Games truly has something for anyone and everyone to enjoy.

As more and more people in Alabama and beyond learn about The World Games, organizers face another question: What impact will The World Games have on Birmingham and the State of Alabama? Alabama will welcome the world to the biggest athletic event in the Southeastern United States since the Atlanta Olympics in 1986.

Our renowned southern hospitality will be on full display. Visitors from around the world will be exposed to Birmingham’s vibrant food scene. They will see a city and state no longer defined by the brutal black-and-white images from the 1960s, but a place that has grown and matured.

The Opening Ceremonies promise to showcase Birmingham on the global stage. That is why local, state and national leaders have come together to support the World Games 2022. The business community in Alabama, especially Birmingham, are fully engaged.

Folks, remember, this is the first time the event has been held in the United States in more than 40 years, and Birmingham is the perfect place to bring the world back to America. Birmingham’s story is America’s story – built on hard work, perseverance, and teamwork. “I believe Birmingham and the entire State of Alabama is going to show up in a big way on the global stage,” says Nick Sellers, Chairman of the World Games 2022.

The World Games 2022 gives Birmingham and Alabama a true chance to shine.

Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at: www.steveflowers.us.

On Feb. 4, President Biden issued an executive order mandating project labor agreements “to improve timeliness, lower costs and increase quality on federal construction projects” greater than $35 million. How ironic. The truth is that PLA schemes increase costs to taxpayers, reduce opportunities for qualified Alabama contractors and skilled tradespeople and exacerbate the construction industry’s worker shortage.

Government-mandated PLAs steer taxpayer-funded public works contracts to union-signatory contractors, granting unions a monopoly to build these projects. Studies show that PLAs can increase the cost of public works projects by 12% to 20%, in part because of reduced competition. Discriminatory PLAs effectively exclude 87.4% of the construction workforce from working on these jobs because they are not unionized.

Taxpayers would be best served by the administration adopting inclusive, win-win policies that welcome all of America’s construction industry to realize the potential of the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. We cannot effectively rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, increase accountability and reduce waste with anti-competitive and costly union-only PLAs. Come election time, voters will remember.

Learn why government-mandated PLAs are not the answer to building long-lasting federal construction projects safely, on time and on budget by visiting buildamericalocal.com.

Deepa Bhate, the CEO of Birmingham-based Building & Earth Sciences, currently serves as the chair of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama.

One of the basic duties of the House of Representatives is to keep the federal government properly funded. Keeping the federal government funded and running is important for so many reasons, but it is especially critical for keeping our nation safe and secure from threats across the globe.

Unfortunately, this Democrat-led House continues to kick the can down the road by not passing a proper budget for the fiscal year. Instead of completing this basic task, Democrats have made tax increases and social spending their top priorities, while putting their basic duties on the back burner.

This week, we are finding ourselves in the same spot we got stuck in twice last year where the House is scrambling to pass a stop-gap funding bill to keep the federal government from shutting down. Last fall, Democrats had to scramble to keep the federal government funded because they had spent the entire year arguing over how many trillions of dollars to spend on things like Green New Deal projects and mass amnesty for illegal immigrants.

We’ve been operating under last year’s stop-gap funding bill for the last few months, and the House has had plenty of time to put together a legitimate budget. Instead, Democrats have spent all their time on ridiculous things like ramming through a bill to strengthen China and weaken America. Last week, they passed their so-called tough on China bill which gives $8 billion to a U.N. slush fund that has already funneled $100 million to the Chinese Communist Party in an effort to work WITH China to combat climate change. It’s clear this was a bigger priority for the Democrats than doing the work the American people elected us to do.

Democrats have celebrated each stop-gap funding bill they’ve passed and have pretended each one is a victory. This is far from the truth because without a legitimate budget, the Department of Defense is severely handicapped in its ability to properly fund our nation’s defense programs. This causes our military to fall behind in its readiness to ensure our forces are maintained and equipped to meet the security challenges we are facing on the global stage. With so much unrest in the world, this isn’t the time to fall behind while bad actors such as Russia and China continue moving forward.

The American people elected us to do our basic duty to keep the federal government running and ensure the interests of America are protected. Unfortunately, this Democrat-led House is showing yet again that it is unable to fulfill its basic duties. Our constituents deserve better than this.

Jerry Carl represents Alabama’s First Congressional District. He lives in Mobile with his wife Tina.

While the spike in violent crime nationwide last year has rightfully grabbed headlines, one heinous crime wave continues to go relatively under the radar.

Human trafficking, already the second-largest criminal industry in the world at $32 billion annually, is also the fastest-growing. While this might seem like a distant problem to our state, the reality is that human trafficking is hitting Alabama communities and some of the most vulnerable among us every day.

Human trafficking cases have been reported all across our state, from Montgomery and Birmingham to Fort Payne, Huntsville, Albertville and Guntersville to Dothan and Mobile.
The Alabama Human Trafficking Task Force, which brings together public and private sector stakeholders to address the critical issue in the Yellowhammer State, hosted its 8th annual Human Trafficking Summit this past Friday. This is a prime example of the type of awareness and education initiatives that are needed to bring attention, resources and solutions to the professionals that have the greatest opportunity to help end human trafficking in Alabama, as well as the general public – who can also play a significant role in spotting and reporting signs of human trafficking.

As defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, human trafficking – referred to as Modern Day Slavery – can take the form of both labor trafficking and sex trafficking. Traffickers gain complete control of their victims through coercion, force, or fraud.
The statistics behind this barbaric criminal enterprise are difficult to think about, yet important to understand. While 80% of human trafficking victims are female, males can certainly be victims, too. Additionally, members of the LGBTQ community are specifically targeted by traffickers. While many adults are victims of trafficking, the average age of entry into sex trafficking is 11-14 years for victims. Of the estimated 27 million slaves in the world, approximately half are children. And two children are trafficked into sexual exploitation every single minute.

Yes, you read that right.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services details that the top sex trafficking venues include hotels, motels, truck stops, escort services, and online advertising-based platforms. For labor trafficking, the top venues reportedly include traveling sales crews, restaurant and hospitality services, domestic work, begging rings, and health and beauty services.

This is a worldwide scourge, and it’s spreading across Alabama, as well.

In fact, the I-20 corridor between Birmingham and Atlanta as the unenviable title of being the “Sex Trafficking Superhighway” and “America’s number one road for human sex trafficking.”

While a project by the University of Alabama’s College of Social Work put the number of reported Alabama human trafficking cases to law enforcement and social workers at about 1,200 for 2017, estimates project that the annual number of victims was probably 10 times that across the state. As of 2019, the Global Slavery Index estimated that there are over 6,000 victims of human trafficking on any given day in Alabama.

The brazenness and number of online ads by human traffickers in Alabama is even more startling. The College of Social Work at UA reportedly put the number of digital human trafficking ads at 641,000 in 2017 alone in Alabama.

A large part of the problem with this growing crisis in the modern age is Big Tech’s unwillingness or inability to crack down on the advertisements. Meta, parent company of Facebook, just last week announced that it has reaffirmed its existing policy of allowing solicitation for human smuggling on its platforms. This effectively allows human traffickers to identify and lure especially susceptible victims.

As Alabama’s next senator, I’ll fight to end human trafficking across Alabama and our nation, and I will always support the victims of this inhumane cruelty. In the Senate, I’ll work tirelessly to ensure our incredible law enforcement and other first responders have the resources and training needed to spot trafficking and address it in their local communities.

In addition to awareness and education initiatives, one major step we can and must make on the federal level is to secure our porous southern border, which is enabling and encouraging human traffickers right now. I will also push to strengthen efforts to identify, prevent, and address human trafficking in our supply chains, as well as build capacity to prevent the importation of goods produced with forced labor from places like China.
We are grateful for the law enforcement officers, truckers, educators, medical personnel and other professionals combatting trafficking in our state. And we certainly appreciate the nonprofit workers and volunteers who dedicate their time to fighting this battle.

There is a long road to go to ending this conscience-shocking criminal industry. Together, we will protect the most vulnerable Alabamians and make our communities safer and stronger for our children and our children’s children.

Katie Britt is a Christian conservative Republican candidate to serve as the next U.S. Senator for Alabama. An Enterprise native, Katie resides in Montgomery with her husband, Wesley, and their two children, Bennett and Ridgeway.

Incumbents always have an advantage. They have a track record in office (which should be an advantage), and they have stronger name identification (whether good or bad) it’s still name recognition.

Once an elected official gets in office, it’s hard to get them out. In some cases, this is good, and in other cases, it is not. But there is a reason that 64 members of the Legislature, three of seven Constitutional Officers, four State School Board members and one Supreme Court Justice are running without opposition.

The power of incumbency is a mighty sword. Just how deep it cuts into this year’s election is yet to be seen. Either way, many office holders have drawn opposition, so the battle is on. Who wins the war won’t be known until Election Day.

Qualifying for both parties is over, so we now know who is running. There are eight Republicans challenging Gov. Kay Ivey and six Democrats will duke it out to represent their party. All the gubernatorial candidates have an uphill battle against a governor who has been solid.

Fortunately for Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, he held off opposition for his race. This will save him and the business community tons of campaign funds. Plus, he has done an excellent job and deserves a campaign off before he runs for governor in 2026.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall wasn’t as fortunate. While he’s done an excellent job, too, he has drawn both Republican and Democratic opposition.

State Treasurer Young Boozer and Agriculture Commissioner Rick Pate will both remain in office as they are unopposed and have performed outstanding work. Obviously, their constituents are pleased with them.

There are four Republicans and one Democrat running for Secretary of State. Three Republicans are running for State Auditor. Both these constitutional offices are open because term limits prevent the current office holders from seeking reelection.

In the judicial races, Justice Kelli Wise did not draw opposition. The other seat on the high court on this year’s ballot is an open seat that has attracted two Republicans and one Democrat.

On the Alabama Public Service Commission, incumbents Chip Beeker and Jeremy Oden both have opposition.

On the State Board of Education incumbents Jackie Zeigler, Stephanie Bell and Yvette Richardson have no opposition, unlike their counterparts Tracie West and Wayne Reynolds. Two Republicans are running for Place 6, an open seat.

In the Senate, the 10 incumbents with opposition are: Republican Sens. Tim Melson; Tom Butler; Sam Givhan; Andrew Jones; Randy Price; Dan Roberts; Shay Shelnutt; Gerald Allen; Greg Albritton and the lone Democrat, Linda Coleman-Madison.

The 38 House incumbents receiving opposition are: Republican Reps. Phillip Pettus; Parker Moore; Proncey Robertson; Corey Harbison; Tim Wadsworth; Tommy Hanes; Nathaniel Ledbetter; Wes Kitchens; Gil Isbell; Ben Robbins; Debbie Wood; Ginny Shaver; Corley Ellis; Arnold Mooney; Dickie Drake; David Wheeler; Jim Carns; Russell Bedsole; Cynthia Almond; Brett Easterbrook; Charlotte Meadows; Jeff Sorrells; Will Dismukes; Rhett Marques; Joe Faust and Matt Simpson. The incumbent Democrat House members being challenged are: Barbara Boyd; John Rogers; Neil Rafferty; Rod Scott; Juandalynn Givan; Prince Chestnut; Thomas Jackson; Kelvin Lawrence; Ralph Howard; Pebblin Warren; Dexter Grimsley and Sam Jones.

In case I have missed someone, find more information on qualified candidates for every office at www.algop.org or www.aldemocrats.org.

Beth Chapman is Alabama’s former State Auditor and 51st Secretary of State. She now owns and operates Beth Chapman & Associates, LLC. This is her weekly column, “Around the Capitol” published in newspapers and blogs across the state. She can be reached at Beth@bethchapman.com.

In Alabama, we like our rivalries. One that goes back a hundred years or so is the neighborly competition between Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Dr Pepper. Alabamians have been enjoying beverages offered by our companies for decades. Our companies and employees who provide the soft drinks, waters, juices, sports drinks, teas and coffees created by these iconic brands take great pride in vying for consumer tastes.

But sometimes we have to put aside competition and work together for the good of everyone, and to support Alabama families, we are making it easier for them to balance the sugar they get from our beverages.

America’s beverage companies have made a public commitment to reduce the sugar people get from their beverages through product innovation and marketing of low- and zero-sugar options. The “Balance Calories Initiative” is spearheaded by the American Beverage Association, which is tracking the industry’s progress to reduce beverage calories by 20% per person nationally and in select communities with high obesity rates.

In 2016, we selected a pilot market in Lowndes and Montgomery counties in Alabama, where obesity is above the national average, to measure calorie reduction progress. Today, grocery stores and restaurants in these counties have more choices with less sugar, and smaller size packaging, than ever before – an array of innovations like zero-sugar sports drinks, reduced calorie juices and flavored sparkling waters.

And we are marketing these choices so people are aware of the low-sugar options available and can make them a greater part of their beverage mix. In addition to more innovation in our product offering, we are getting the word out with advertising and in-store displays, working with retailers in our communities who know their customers best so we can achieve positive results.

We are placing calorie awareness messages on coolers and fountains, and our company-owned vending machines allow you to check the calorie count of your selection before choosing. Prominent calorie count labels appear on the front of every bottle, can and pack we sell.

You can see these changes in the beverage aisle shelves and at fountains, and the results are promising.

In Lowndes and Montgomery Counties, beverage calories per person have gone down every year for four straight years (2017-2020). Calories from beverages in these counties are down 8.8%. If the trend holds, we are on our way to significantly reducing beverage calories by 20%.

Importantly, volume sales of beverages have increased since 2015. This means Alabama families are buying more beverages, but they are getting fewer calories from them. The calorie balance is shifting, the exact result we are driving toward. Today, nearly 60% of all beverages sold nationally are zero sugar.

As we all know, the COVID pandemic caused major disruptions to the way people bought food and beverages in 2020. But it did not disrupt the positive trend of calorie reductions in Alabama. Consumers in 2020 continued their shift toward more lower-calorie beverages.

Buffalo Rock Company and Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED are always going to compete for sales. Our beverage brands are known the world over and have been part of Alabamians’ lives for well over a century. While we will continue to go at it in the marketplace, we will keep on working together to offer the choices that allow families to balance their lives. It is important to our consumers, our customers, and our communities. It is the right thing to do!

Matthew Dent is President and Chief Executive Officer of Buffalo Rock Company and Board Chair of American Beverage Association. John Sherman is President and Chief Executive Officer of Coca-Cola Bottling Company UNITED

From the southern border to our backyards, fentanyl and methamphetamine are pouring into the United States in record amounts. These lethal drugs will eventually end up in the hands of American citizens, ruining lives, and shattering families. Fake prescription pills commonly bought and sold illegally are the primary carriers for lethal doses of fentanyl crossing the border. Teens and young adults are participating in this market at increasingly alarming rates.

In 2021, we saw 1.7 million illegal immigrants apprehended at the southern border. Among those entering illegally are smugglers who bring with them the deadly drugs. In 2021, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) seized 9.5 million fake prescription pills, a 430% increase from 2019. Two out of every five of these pills contained a deadly dose of fentanyl, causing the DEA to release its first public safety alert in six years warning Americans about fake pills laced with the drug.

The increase comes as new strains of the drug that are more potent and less detectable, such as furanyl fentanyl, flood into the U.S. and inevitably make their way into our communities. Recently, 1,100 fentanyl pills were confiscated in Alabama’s fouth congressional district around Colbert County, along with prescription medications and methamphetamine.

According to the DEA, fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is far easier to produce and the drug’s potency allows for such small dosage that vast amounts can be moved for huge profits. With just two milligrams being considered a deadly dose, law enforcement seized enough fentanyl at the border in the last year to kill every American.

“They [patients] are not responding to our normal protocol when we try to get someone off of these powerful drugs like in our detox unit,” said Dr. Craig Allen of the Rushford Center in Connecticut. There is no question that drug trafficking across our southern border is a crisis that is leading to overdoses and contributing to the opioid epidemic our country has already been facing for several years.

Securing the border is not just to stop illegal immigration -which is essential- but it’s also critical to stop the smuggling of dangerous drugs that are killing thousands of Americans every year. It’s an issue that demands accountability and strategic action. It’s an issue that should be a priority for both Republicans and Democrats, as the scope of deadly illegal drugs affects us all.

On February 18, 2022, the emergency class-wide temporary order for fentanyl-related substances is set to expire. If the expiration occurs without extending or making permanent the order, then the door is open for new fentanyl-related substances to be developed and smuggled across the border. It is our job in Congress to ensure that this order is extended, and that we continue to do everything we can to help keep these drugs out of our communities.

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt (AL-04) is a Republican from Haleyville.

Eighty years ago this month, with the stroke of a pen, President Franklin Roosevelt in Executive Order 9066 effectively relegated 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. Many of these American citizens were afforded no rights to object to their removal, and there was no procedure to prove loyalty to the United States. These citizens were interned solely because of their ancestry, nothing else.

In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, there was widespread fear that the Empire of Japan might invade the West Coast. No doubt people were scared and on high alert, and, certainly, there was anxiety that turned rational people into frenzied xenophobes. But rather than deal with the reality of the situation, political leaders galvanized the country into transferring all these concerns into a government campaign to round up almost the entire population of Japanese Americans and relocate them.

Granted, they were not sent to concentration camps organized along the German or Soviet models. There was no plan to cleanse America of Japanese influence by premeditated death through forced labor. Nevertheless, these citizens were forced to leave their homes, abandon their businesses, and take their entire families to detention centers surrounded by barbed wire, guards and dogs.

And all of this was accomplished through legal and judicial means. Congress had passed an act giving the president broad and sweeping emergency powers to organize the country for total war. These wartime powers had precedent as Abraham Lincoln also used similar powers to suspend the writ of habeas corpus and incarcerate pro-secessionists. Ironically enough, Chief Justice Roger Taney, who authored the Dred Scott decision, warned Lincoln that such actions potentially violated his oath of office and could mean that citizens were no longer living under a government respecting the rule of law.

War, like other national emergencies, set in motion a series of restrictions subjugating the rights of individuals to the needs of the state. Fighting a war and making the decisions necessary to win cannot be done by consensus, but must be determined by leaders who have both national support and critical judgment to implement a plan for victory. Roosevelt’s almost dictatorial power was derived from legislative mandate, not usurpation. The hindsight of history clearly shows that he, like Churchill, was the man for the times.

But the internment of loyal Americans was perhaps an excessive use of presidential authority and a blot on American values. The need to systematically detain these citizens was no doubt a knee-jerk reaction to Pearl Harbor. But leadership is more than succumbing to situational whims and should be based on evidence or some proof that a threat existed. In fact, the exact opposite was true.

Military intelligence and the FBI found no disloyalty among the Japanese Americans. They uncovered no organized network of spies or saboteurs ready to support an invasion. The only reason for the detention was a suspicion based upon fear and a complete misunderstanding of Japanese-American culture.

With no basis in fact, an assumption was made that anyone of Japanese ancestry would remain loyal to the Emperor. Like all foundations of racism, there is an assumption that people of similar backgrounds and appearance must share other, monolithic traits attributed to them by imaginary, irrational views. Political and military leaders simply agreed that these citizens would be disloyal, were probably spies, and posed a threat even though no evidence existed to support these assumptions. Thus, the president who told his country that “all we had to fear is fear itself” incorporated a racist fear into his policies that detained 120,000 Americans.

Despite the fact that this incident was humiliating and demeaning, almost 35,000 Japanese American men and women demonstrated their loyalty as United States citizens by serving in the military during World War II. In some cases, sons and daughters fighting for Roosevelt’s four freedoms had relatives detained by the same Uncle Sam. Units comprising these Japanese American troops were sent to the European Theater and distinguished themselves in battle. If there can be any humor to both the internment and the war, there was a story that Germans fighting in Italy were captured by one of these units and thought that the Japanese had changed sides and joined with the Americans to defeat the Third Reich.

Perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of deporting people based on race was the number of prominent liberals who blindly went along with the procedure. It is easy to see that military commanders on the West Coast truly believing that an invasion was imminent would want to evacuate civilians from a potential war zone. But it is difficult to understand how leaders normally inclined to support the rights of minorities, expand civil liberties and limit the powers of government would so easily embrace wholesale deportation without a hint of due process.

California Attorney General Earl Warren supported and encouraged this action. In the Korematsu case, Alabama’s own Justice Hugo Black wrote that “the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast.” Justice Felix Frankfurter provided cover to the administration by writing that the possibility of espionage and sabotage, not race, supported the government’s actions. Justice Robert Jackson disagreed, and in a vehement dissent argued that the government’s actions legalized racism in a manner no different than the “abhorrent and despicable treatment of minority groups by the dictatorial tyrannies which this nation is now pledged to destroy.”

Executive power is potent and requires conscientious leadership to assess and organize the needs of a nation to prepare a unified response to an existential threat. But even good leaders can succumb to fear and misunderstanding and attribute suspicions without substantial foundations.

In America, executive power is not absolute, and our rule of law requires that even emergency actions be reviewed and, if necessary, checked so that a looming or perceived threat is not used as a cover to suspend or deny rights based on political misperceptions.

Will Sellers was appointed by Gov. Kay Ivey to the Supreme Court of Alabama in 2017. He is best reached at jws@willsellers.com

Inflation topped 7% in December, the highest level in forty years. The Biden administration has tried blaming rising prices on corporate greed with antitrust enforcement as a remedy. Does this make economic sense?

We must first consider what is inflation. Measured by the rate of change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), economists define inflation as an increase in the general price level. Increases in the prices of some goods with others remaining unchanged raises the CPI but are changes in relative prices. Relative price changes result from changed economic conditions like with lumber in 2020.

A “pure” inflation is an equal percentage increase in all prices, including wages and salaries. Inflation also involves an expectation of continued price increases. Pandemic-related production disruptions might cause price increases but not continued increases; prices should stabilize once production resumes and back orders are filled.

Is the last year’s CPI increase due to relative price changes or true inflation? We clearly have had some relative price increases, for things like lumber and new and used cars (37% price increase over the past 12 months). But many CPI components have increased by 5% or 6%. Most prices are rising.

Interest rates provide the best gauge of future inflation. They are based on the decisions of thousands of persons, each investing her own money, and superior to any expert’s forecast. Florida Atlantic University economist Will Luther calculates that the bond market currently forecasts 2.6 (2.2) percent annual inflation over the next five (10) years. Markets expect inflation to moderate but not disappear.

Now we can turn to greed and antitrust. I will not distinguish between greed and self-interest here. Economists assume everyone acts in their self-interest; for businesses this means selling for the highest prices possible. But consumers must voluntarily purchase what businesses want to sell and competition between sellers limits prices.

Greed only explains rising prices if competition has been reduced. State business closure orders during COVID helped bankrupt thousands of small businesses. Yet the impact of these failures on the overall level of competition is likely modest.

Furthermore, reduced competition would likely generate a one-time price increase; with less competitive pressure, a business might raise prices by 5%. Since greed is not causing inflation, more aggressive antitrust enforcement will not stop inflation.

Economists across the political spectrum recognize this. Larry Summers, formerly secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton, said on Twitter: “The emerging claim that antitrust can combat inflation represents ‘science denial.’”

Precedent exists for using inflation fears to justify unrelated policies. Until the 1970s, Washington regulated railroads, trucking and airlines. This was not just safety regulation but control of the number of firms, routes of operation, and prices. Economic research documented the harms of this regulation: higher prices, reduced productivity, and poorer transportation options.

The principle of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs from public choice economics explained the persistence of such regulations. The companies and their unions, including the powerful Teamsters, benefited from regulation. Consumers faced an enormous total cost but small individual costs. Regulation was crucial to the industry but a minor issue for consumers.

Then something amazing happened. America faced high inflation and Senator Edward Kennedy sought an issue to boost his presidential hopes. Future Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was on the senator’s staff and knew about the economic research. Senator Kennedy held widely publicized hearings touting deregulation to offset the pain of inflation. President Carter got on board and by 1980, all these industries were deregulated.

Attributing causality is virtually impossible in public policy. But most histories of deregulation cite Senator Kennedy’s hearings as highly important in the process. Deregulation as a cure for inflation is economic silliness. Yet confusion over inflation may have enabled beneficial policy change.

Policy makers I suspect remember this lesson. Expect politicians to try selling their pet projects as fighting inflation. But as economist Milton Friedman famously said, “Inflation is everywhere and always a monetary phenomenon.” Alleged inflation remedies should be evaluated on their own merits.

Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University and host of Econversations on TrojanVision. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University.

America needs a change in leadership. The Republican Party has a golden opportunity to take back Congress in 2022 and the White House in 2024. I am thrilled about the incoming red wave, but we cannot merely be satisfied with winning back control. We must be prepared to lead day one with an agenda that addresses the new national challenges we face. As the next congressman for Alabama’s fifth district, here is the agenda I will be fighting for in Washington, D.C.

1. Restore Our Economy: With inflation at a 40-year-high, constant supply chain disruptions, and a labor participation rate that is causing a worker shortage nationwide, we have to restore our economy. I will fight for policies that get out-of-control spending in order, stifle Democrat-designed incentive programs that have contributed to the labor shortage, and restart domestic natural gas production to once again reach energy independence as we had under President Trump.

In addition, I will work tirelessly to bring home our production of critical supplies whether that be personal protective equipment, pharmaceutical drugs, or semiconductors. We can never again be dependent on other nations for supplies critical to this country. Made in America, not made in China. By reshoring industry, we can provide much-needed economic opportunities and good-paying jobs right here in Alabama.

2. Fight for Our Freedoms: America’s founding is steeped in freedom and liberty, expressed via the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. The government exists to protect, not infringe, our freedoms. I am committed to upholding the core foundational principle of individual freedom by empowering people, not the government. That begins with fighting against the federal government vaccine mandates and supporting and protecting each of our constitutional rights. You have the right to decide what is best for you and your family; not the government. We will put Americans back in control of their own lives.

3. Strengthen America’s Security: We must have a national security strategy for a new era. That starts at the border. If you have open borders, you do not have a sovereign nation. I am committed to a holistic approach to border security, including completing the wall, providing resources for drones and sensors, and improving the legal immigration process.

In addition to the border, I will always support our brave law enforcement officers and first responders. Failed leadership and dangerous policies have left many parts of the country less secure. Creating safe communities is essential to our quality of life. I will advocate to fully fund law enforcement, remove opioids from the streets, and address our mental health crisis.

Next on security, the defense and aerospace industry of North Alabama is critical in protecting our nation, and they contribute billions of dollars and thousands of jobs to our economy. I will fight every day to keep these dollars and jobs in North Alabama. As the threat from China and Russia grows, we have to strengthen our capabilities across numerous domains – space, cyber, missile defense – and renew capabilities that have been neglected. One of my main priorities is to ensure North Alabama remains a leader in America’s security.

4. Revitalize the American Dream: One of my central goals is to protect and bolster the American Dream. There is nothing more American than ensuring every American citizen, no matter their starting situation, has the chance to achieve their dream if they are willing to work for it. I will support policies and programs that help provide the resources, networks, and opportunities for every individual to have a fair shot. I firmly believe in the old proverb, “If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”As a member of Congress, I do not want to guarantee outcomes, but rather safeguard opportunity. If our party will build a positive governing agenda around revitalizing the American Dream and the American worker, we will be the party best positioned to lead in the emerging new America.

Benjamin Franklin had a quote stating, “If you do tomorrow what you did today, you will get tomorrow what you got today.” If we are going to meet the generational-defining challenges of the twenty-first century we cannot afford more of the same. We have to provide solutions for 2022, not 2002. If we address the issues that keep Americans up at night and deliver on an agenda that preserves America’s strength and prosperity, then winning will take care of itself.

John Roberts is a Republican candidate for Congress in Alabama’s fifth congressional district

It is often a difficult and heartbreaking decision. Someone in your life – usually an aging parent or other loved one – is at the point where they need some help in making vital decisions about matters such as where to live, how to manage their finances, or get the right medical care. While our most vulnerable seniors may need a legal guardian or conservator appointed by the courts, others may only need a more limited approach – one that allows them other less restrictive alternatives to still meet their individual needs.

Unfortunately, Alabama’s current guardianship laws are outdated, relying on a one size fits all, cookie-cutter approach that often robs seniors and people with disabilities of their rights, independence, and dignity. Recent news headlines about guardianship arrangements gone wrong have brought more public attention to this mostly hidden topic.

Alabama’s guardianship laws have not undergone a major revision since the 1980s. Stories of overly restrictive and even abusive use of current guardianship laws are among the many reasons why AARP strongly supports passage of the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship and Other Protective Arrangements Act (UGCOPAA) in Alabama. The UGCOPAA would modernize Alabama’s current guardianship laws by addressing several critically needed reforms, including:

• Prohibiting a court from issuing a full guardianship order when a less restrictive alternative is available and appropriate for the individual, such as a supported decision-making arrangement or technological assistance;
• Requiring that each person under guardianship have an individualized plan that considers the person’s preferences and values;
• Clarifying the legal duties of the guardian, including that the guardian must make the best decision for the individual under their care that they reasonably believe the person would make on their own unless doing so would cause harm;
• Clarifying that the guardian must promote self-determination to the extent possible and encourage the individual’s participation in decisions;
• Combating abuse and exploitation by, among other things, forbidding a guardian to restrict communication or visits from family and friends unless the court orders otherwise.

Adopting the UGCOPAA would not only help protect seniors and their rights, it would also support Alabama’s 760,000 family caregivers who make it possible for older parents, spouses, and other loved ones to live independently at home – where they want to be. These family caregivers help with everything from bathing and dressing to meals and transportation. Many also are empowered to make certain legal decisions in various roles such as holding power of attorney, health care proxy, and even serve as guardian or conservator. They deserve an effective, efficient and accountable guardianship system that provides them with the tools they need to make important decisions for their loved ones.

The absence of an effective guardianship system hurts vulnerable adults and their families, and wastes taxpayer money and time for state courts. The UGCOPAA would modernize current state law; provide for stronger, more effective forms of court oversight and enforcement; require exploration of less restrictive options before the appointment of a guardian; and, would promote autonomy, basic rights and dignity of the individual under guardianship.

Guardianship should be an option of last resort. But if it’s the necessary decision, let’s make sure seniors have options that best meet their needs, and without having to give up all of their rights. AARP urges the Alabama Legislature to enact the Uniform Guardianship, Conservatorship and Other Protective Arrangements Act now to bring our guardianship system into the 21st century.

Candi Williams is the AARP Alabama state director

Happy Groundhog Day. It is an ironic juxtaposition that the State of the Union address by the president and Groundhog Day occur on the same day. One involves a meaningless ritual in which a doddering octogenarian who is as outdated as the State of the Union event stumbles through some scripted predictions. The other involves an outdated mythical tradition celebrating a prediction by a rodent. Both prognostications by Biden and the Groundhog are insignificant and irrelevant.

Our marquee race for 2022 in the state of Alabama is the race to replace our retiring U.S. Senator, Richard Shelby. Before I delve into the rivalry to follow Shelby and sit in his seat, allow me to say that his junior counterpart in our current Senate tandem, Coach Tommy Tuberville, is doing a good job after his first year as our junior U. S. Senator. There was some speculation regarding his effectiveness given his lack of governmental experience. 

Tuberville has put together an excellent staff.  He did a good day’s work when he secured Stephen Boyd as his Chief of Staff. Tuberville and his staff are doing an excellent job with constituent service, which is an integral part of a senator’s job when you want to be an effective senator for your state.  

Tuberville’s staff is especially interested in helping veterans in Alabama.  He has a full-time staff member, who is assigned to helping Alabama veterans get their deserved benefits for their service to our country.  You could tell Tuberville was driven to make sure that military veterans and current servicemen and women were taken care of when he was running. His father was a career military man and Tuberville revered him. Coach Tuberville has not sought the spotlight and tried to become a Fox News darling and be a right-wing ideologue. 

He has taken on a workhorse mentality and has voted consistently conservative and been a team player within the GOP Senate caucus.  Tuberville realizes that he will never be a Richard Shelby because he got there later in life after his career as a college football coach.  He has learned that seniority counts.  Arriving in the U. S. Senate at age 66 is not conducive to being a senate giant.  Seniority is king in Washington. Tuberville also understands the importance that defense spending and agriculture are to Alabama. He is applying himself to protecting these two vital concerns as any senator from Alabama should strive to accomplish.

It is all about seniority in the U.S. Senate. It will be at least 15 years before anybody we elect to this senate seat has any real power to bring home the bacon. Katie Britt is 40 and Mo Brooks is 68. You can do the math as to which one has the potential to be effective for Alabama and build seniority and power. Katie Britt not only has the youthfulness to gain seniority, but she also possesses the ability, acumen and more importantly, she wants to be an effective senator for Alabama and protect our military bases and jobs.

Mo Brooks has shown over his 40-year political career and more recently his 10-year congressional tenure that he does not want to be effective for Alabama. He is more interested in bomb throwing than doing anything for his district or Alabama. Brooks could not be effective, even if he wanted to. He will be 69 and the Republican leadership would dismiss him as a rightwing gadfly and an old one at that.

The wildcard in the Senate race is one Mike Durant. He came out of the blue three months ago and has bombarded the airwaves with a constant saturation of television ads. He has run a total media campaign with no one-on-one campaigning. Few people have ever met him. He is like a stealth candidate, who only appears on your television as a POW war hero. Durant, who hails from New Hampshire, is primarily self-funding his campaign. However, he is also being financed by a PAC headed by a wealthy donor Harriman, who wants to elect five independent non-partisan senators in the mold of Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine, which would put Durant in a small group of liberal Democrats and Republicans. Durant may also be torpedoed by a family situation that has come to light recently.

The U.S. Senate race is fluid at this time with most people undecided on their choice. It will be interesting to watch.

Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist.  His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers.  He served 16 years in the state legislature.  Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.

Gun-control advocates keep making the same predictions of doom and bloodshed from law-abiding citizens having guns for protection. They warn us of pending disaster if Alabama becomes the 22nd state to adopt so-called constitutional carry rules that would allow law-abiding adults who legally own a handgun to conceal-carry it without a permit. Thirty-four states already allow open carry without a permit.

Alabama and other states faced the same predictions of disaster when they first adopted right-to-carry laws, which now exist in 43 states. None of the dire predictions came true. These predictions are occurring again when states adopted constitutional carry. But not a single one of these states has seen the need to reverse the laws. Indeed, none have even held a legislative hearing on undoing these laws, let alone a vote.

Much will remain unchanged with constitutional carry. Businesses and private property owners still have the right to exclude guns from their premises. Prohibitions remain in sensitive places, and laws about gun misuse are unchanged. Alabamians must still be able to legally own a gun to carry it.

The most significant change from constitutional carry is how quickly people can carry a gun if needed. Right now, it takes about a month for Alabama to issue a concealed handgun permit after someone has met the requirements. If a woman is being stalked or threatened, the harm from that threat may have already occurred well before a month is up. To make matters worse, during the coronavirus outbreak getting permits was delayed up to three months.

Under constitutional carry, that woman won’t have to wait for a license.

And constitutional carry will save Alabamians the cost of obtaining a license, which runs $100 for five years. These costs matter; just compare the numbers in neighboring states, Illinois and Indiana. In Illinois, the total cost of getting a five-year permit is $450; there is no license fee in Indiana. While only 4% of Illinoisans have a concealed handgun permit, 22% of adults in Indiana already have one, the second-highest number of permits per capita.

More importantly, the people who benefit the most from carrying are the most likely victims of violent crime, overwhelmingly poor blacks who live in high-crime urban areas. They are also the most sensitive to the fees required to get a permit. In Illinois, wealthy white males who live in the suburbs are overwhelmingly the ones who get permits. In Indiana, people living in urban, heavily minority zip codes get many more permits.

Some opposition to constitutional carry is ironic. While some of the same people oppose even free voter IDs as imposing too much of a burden, they have no problem with people paying over $100 to have the right to defend themselves and their families. They demand same-day registration for voting, saying people can’t plan ahead, but they have no problem making people wait weeks to get a carry permit.

One concern involves the bill’s potential financial impact; Alabama could lose the money it collects through permit fees. But in practice, states that adopt constitutional carry have seen very little change in the number of permits. People still get permits to travel with their guns to states without constitutional carry.

Gun control advocates claimed there would be blood in the streets when then-Gov. Guy Hunt signed Alabama’s concealed carry law in 1990. That didn’t happen. The fact that several dozen peer-reviewed academic studies show there’s no evidence of any uptick in gun crimes linked to concealed carry laws, and most show violent crime declines. Research also shows that murder rates fall even more when states move to constitutional carry laws.

When PoliceOne asked its 450,000 law enforcement members about the effects of private gun ownership, 76% of officers answered that legally armed citizens are either very or extremely important in reducing crime.

Today, there are over 21.5 million concealed handgun permit holders nationwide. Permit holders nationwide are incredibly law-abiding. Police officers are extremely rarely convicted of firearms-related violations, but it still happens at a rate 12 times more often than for permit holders. In the 19 states with comprehensive permit revocation data, the average revocation rate is one-tenth of one percent. Usually, permit revocations occur because someone moved or died or forgot to bring their permit while carrying.

Gun control advocates keep trying to take advantage of people’s fears of the unknown and claim that bad things will happen when people are allowed to defend themselves and their families. But Alabamians don’t have to guess what will happen with constitutional carry. Twenty-one states are proof that constitutional carry is common sense.

Stringer is a state representative for District 102 and is the sponsor of the state’s Concealed Carry bill.

Lott is the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center.

Whether it’s Austal Shipyard in Mobile, Fort Rucker in the Wiregrass, Maxwell-Gunter Airforce Base in Montgomery, or Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama’s contributions to our nation’s military strength and defense programs are critical to national security. South Alabama has been a hub of the aerospace industry for many years, and now – thanks to a partnership between Airbus and Lockheed Martin – we have the opportunity to expand Alabama’s impact not only on the aerospace industry but also on our nation’s defense needs.

Between Russia’s aggression in Eastern Europe, China’s aggression in Taiwan, or the instability in the Middle East, our armed forces have to stand ready to protect America’s defense interests and support our allies across the globe. Delivering on these goals means our men and women in the armed forces need top-notch equipment so they can do their job well. I’m proud that Alabama will be able to play an even bigger role in meeting these needs thanks to this new partnership between Airbus and Lockheed Martin.

Currently, Airbus in Mobile has two different lines to build commercial aircraft. With their new partnership with Lockheed Martin, Airbus stands ready to build A330s right here in Mobile before sending them to Lockheed Martin’s facility in Georgia to convert them into tankers for the Air Force. These tankers are basically gas stations in the sky and will be used to refuel planes across the globe and ensure our military stays force-ready at all times.

I applaud Airbus and Lockheed Martin for choosing Mobile for this project, and I have full confidence our highly skilled local workforce has the capability to build the world’s best tanker for the best Air Force in the world right here in south Alabama. This A330 aircraft is already known to be a proven solution for the Air Force, and I’m proud my colleagues in the Alabama delegation and I were able to work together and get this project moving.

This new partnership between Airbus and Lockheed Martin means so much to our district, our state, and our nation, and I couldn’t be more excited that these planes will be built in Alabama by Alabamians for all Americans.

Jerry Carl represents Alabama’s First Congressional District. He lives in Mobile with his wife Tina.

Socrates is believed to have once said, “The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms.”

Most people, including the editors of the Merriam-Webster, Oxford, and American Heritage dictionaries, would generally define racism as the belief that one race is superior to another, and anything that oppresses or elevates people based on their race.

But not the organization that has provided diversity training and programs to teachers and students in the Huntsville City Schools system.

The Anti-Defamation League, a once noble organization that has since fallen into partisan decay, had a contract with Huntsville City Schools to deliver anti-bias training to its teachers last year after having already provided its “No Place for Hate” program to the system’s students for more than a decade, according to records.

Visit adl.org/racism and you’ll see the extreme way the organization defines the term: “Racism: The marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.”

Ironically, that definition is itself a good example of racism — assigning to one group of people exclusive ownership of a vile trait based solely on the color of their skin.

But if that’s too complicated for your second grader to understand, the Anti-Defamation League has an “elementary school version” of the definition: “The disrespect, harm and mistreatment of people of color based on made up ideas that white people deserve to be in charge and treated better.”

Records of the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education meeting on December 17, 2020 show a contract with the Anti-Defamation League to provide three training sessions in early 2021 from its “World of Difference Institute” program, as part of the system’s overall cultural diversity training effort.

“We do have a long-standing relationship with the Anti-Defamation League. This is the organization that sponsors our ‘No Place for Hate’ activities,” a system official said when describing the organization to the board. She added that it’s “a very important partnership that we want to maintain.”

Officials later told me that the system has been using the “No Place For Hate” program free-of-charge for more than a decade, though it “is not a curriculum.”

“Schools use it as a way to promote a bullying-free environment in the school,” the official explained.

Diversity training is a good thing, in principle. We could all learn to treat one another better, with dignity and courtesy, regardless of how we may look or speak or where we came from or how we worship.

But how can an organization that defines racism as a characteristic exclusively held by one group of people be the right provider of that training, or programs and content of any kind covering diversity, cultural awareness, or anti-bias to teachers and students?

Clearly, they cannot. 

The specific problem here remains quite clear to me: schools feel a need to provide diversity training to teachers and students, yet the groups who have affordable, off-the-shelf solutions tend to be very political in nature, deeply invested in identity politics, and locked into a far left view of the issue. It’s reasonable to suspect that their personal political perspectives will seep into whatever training and programs they provide.

Part of the lasting solution should clearly be to avoid partnering with organizations that have overt political agendas. School systems, especially those the size of Huntsville City Schools, should create and implement their own, home-grown diversity training programs, created by the experienced educators they have in-house, and reflective of the community in which they serve.

History needs to be taught, unvarnished.

Current events should be discussed, openly.

People should learn to treat one another with the courtesy and dignity everyone deserves.

But starting from the definition that one group of Americans, today, is in the right, and the other in the wrong, is remarkably counterproductive.

And it should stop.

(J. Pepper Bryars is a conservative opinion writer from Mobile who lives in Hunstville. Readers can find him at https://jpepper.substack.com)

The special session of the Legislature ended with $772 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds going to expand high-speed internet, water and sewer projects and health care needs. But it could have just as easily ended with the Legislature holding hands and singing “Kumbaya.”

The five-day session’s grand finale came when both chambers (almost) unanimously passed identical bills, something that rarely happens. Yes, Hades froze over – everyone of both parties in both chambers agreed on something. Well, all right, one representative didn’t, but she’s just one of the 126 that voted. There were three abstentions.

The bipartisan plan approved in the special session allocates the following: $276 million (36%) for broadband expansion in underserved areas of the state; $225 million (29.2%) for water and sewer infrastructure; $80 million for hospitals and nursing homes; $79.5 million (10%) for our state’s unemployment compensation trust fund; $37 million for health care services for such entities as mental health, rehabilitative services and assisted living homes; $30 million for rural hospitals; $20 million for emergency medical responders, including $10 million for volunteer fire departments across the state; $11 million for county jails; $7.8 million for administrative costs for the funding (as nothing is free and accountability is everything); and $5 million for telemedicine.

If this seems overwhelming to us commoners who can’t even imagine that kind of money, there is a future round of $1.06 billion coming to our state in the form of American Rescue Plan Act funds as well.

The legislation passed in the special session is now in the hands of Gov. Kay Ivey to sign into law – a non-controversial bill and it’s an election year at the same time. (A true political win-win situation.)

Enjoy the non-controversial ambiance of the special session last week because this week the Legislature goes back into regular session and there probably won’t be any hand-holding or singing “Kumbaya” going on. With gambling lying in wait and school choice and permitless carry on the agenda, it is not likely there will be many non-controversial issues in the Legislature.

Stay tuned for more. There are “many more miles to go” before our legislative journey ends. Until then, enjoy the afterglow of a successful special session – a non-controversial special session at that.

Beth Chapman is Alabama’s former State Auditor and 51st Secretary of State. Her statewide column, Around the Capitol can be read in newspapers and blogs across the state. She now owns and operates Beth Chapman & Associates, LLC. She can be reached at Beth@bethchapman.com.

Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were recently not elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in their final year of eligibility, reportedly over their use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). The case illustrates some of the economics of rules and the nature of “positional goods.”

The case for both Bonds and Clemens based on performance is overwhelming. Bonds is the career and single-season leader in home runs and won seven Most Valuable Player Awards. Clemens won 354 games, ninth all-time, and seven Cy Young Awards. Each was compiling Hall of Fame (HOF) careers before ever using PEDs.

Baseball’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, is also not in the HOF, banned for life by Commissioner Bart Giamatti for betting on games while managing the Cincinnati Reds, making him ineligible for the Hall. Precedent exists to exclude greats from Cooperstown. But Pete Rose knowingly broke a rule for which a lifetime ban was a plausible penalty. By contrast, MLB never punished Bonds or Clemens for PED use. Indeed, MLB promoted the steroid-fueled home run chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998.

PEDs are one of many ways players can improve their performance. We celebrate players doing everything they can to get better and gain advantage. We find the contests compelling because the players take them so seriously and perform at such a high level. Why ban some efforts to improve performance?

Adverse health consequences provide an immediate answer. But on closer examination, other ways to gain competitive advantage harm health and are not banned. Most NFL offensive linemen weigh over 300 pounds. Every extra pound increases stress on the heart and many players never lose this weight when finished playing. Many others adversely impact work-life balance. Aspiring tennis stars, for example, have long sacrificed any semblance of normal teen years.

Why do leagues need rules to keep players from potentially damaging their health? Economics provides insight. Individually players achieve an advantage by taking PEDs. Yet only the top 750 players make the big leagues and only stars sign $100 million-plus contracts. 2,000 aspiring big leaguers could take PEDs and be able to hit baseballs farther, but the number of available roster spots will not increase.

If most players take PEDs or if all football linemen bulk up, the competitive advantage cancels out. Roster spots are what economist Robert Frank labeled “positional goods,” cases where position versus others matters. With widespread steroid use, players incur health risks without gaining competitive advantage and not stop and risk their roster spot.

League-wide rules are necessary to regulate PEDs and other undesirable efforts to achieve an edge in the quest for positional goods. And with a rule in place, penalties are justified because everybody knows the rules.

What types of efforts at improvement should be banned? Given the numerous ways to improve performance, no alternative exists to letting leagues decide. Owners, management and players have their interests (both physical and financial) at stake and can best balance benefits and costs. When steroid use began to diminish fan interest, MLB implemented penalties for positive tests.

Because MLB did not implement penalties for steroid use until 2004, Mr. Bonds and Mr. Clemens were arguably not breaking the rules. Yet steroids were already technically banned in baseball in the 1990s. I say technically because Congress banned anabolic steroids in 1990, bringing them under MLB’s rules against possession and use of illegal drugs.

PEDs in baseball as demonstrating the futility of externally imposed prohibitions. Prohibitions can always be evaded. Psychologists know that behavior problems go unchecked until a person recognizes that they have a problem and need to change. Only a commitment from players and owners will result in prohibitions with teeth.

I frequently extol freedom, but individuals will sometimes want to sacrifice some freedom to regulate competition for positional goods. Only clear rules demarcate vigorous competition from impermissible advantage. Baseball never punished Mr. Bonds or Mr. Clemens for PED use, so I disagree with HOF voters doing so.

Daniel Sutter is the Charles G. Koch Professor of Economics with the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy at Troy University and host of Econversations on TrojanVision. The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the views of Troy University.

As the final regular legislative session of the quadrennium evolves, it is apparent that the legislature will not touch any substantive or controversial issues, but simply pass the budgets and go home to campaign. It is election year in the Heart of Dixie.

If legislators are listening to their constituents, they are hearing one thing – Alabamians want their legislators to allow them the right to vote on receiving their fair share of the money from gambling in Alabama. They are simply sick and tired of their money going to Georgia, Mississippi, Florida and Tennessee while Alabamians are paying for those states’ schools, roads and bridges.

You can bet your bottom dollar that if a clean lottery/sports betting referendum were to be placed on this November’s ballot, it would pass in a New York minute. Even the most conservative folks in our state would vote for it, if for only one reason – they want their money to stay in state. Every time there is one of these high dollar powerball national drawings, every convenience store on our border in the aforementioned bordering sister states’ parking lots are jammed with Alabamians clamoring to buy a lottery ticket.

Governor Kay Ivey has had a very accomplished five-year reign as Governor. The Rebuild Alabama road, bridge and infrastructure program was big and much needed. Most of her successes have been housekeeping chores that required a governor, who was willing to put the state first and get these necessary projects accomplished instead of kicking the can down the road like some of her predecessors. However, these accomplishments will not give her a legacy issue that 50 to 100 years from now folks can point to and say Kay Ivey has a legacy.

The legacy awaiting Governor Ivey is the creation of a constitutional amendment that garners the tremendous amount of money spent on gambling in Alabama and also a Gambling Regulatory Commission to monitor and police gaming. You are talking about some real money for Alabama. Conservative estimates are $700 million a year to the state. In addition, there would be 12,000 new jobs.

The legislature and governor by themselves cannot achieve this reaping of the gambling gold mine. It would have to be approved by you – the voters of Alabama – in a Constitutional Amendment. If polling is correct, it would pass 65-35. With it being a constitutional amendment, it needs a three-fifths vote in the legislature to place the initiative on the ballot. The issue was discussed, extensively, and voted on in the 2021 session. It passed in the Senate but never was never put to a vote in the House.

The Senate would pass it again. There were 23 votes for the constitutional amendment and only 21 were needed for passage. There needs to be 63 votes in the 105 member House to place the amendment on the ballot in this year’s November general election.

Therefore, the question is will it be placed on the ballot this year for Alabamians to vote to reap this financial bonanza? In order to pass the constitutional amendment to allow Alabamians to vote on a lottery and expanded gambling, Governor Ivey probably will need to weigh in with both feet and promote the issue in a special session.

Because it is an election year, the legislature probably will not want to deal with the issue until after the elections. The primary election is May 24. The current regular session will end in April, so gambling probably will not be dealt with in this regular session. Therefore, the best way to get the amendment on the ballot is a special session during the month of June because it has to be done by the first of July to get on the November ballot. However, with most legislators being unopposed they may take the bull by the horns and pass the constitutional amendment for you to vote on in November without the need for a special session.

In observing the legislature, it is bittersweet seeing Speaker of the House Mac McCutcheon presiding over probably his last session as Speaker. He has done an excellent job as speaker. He is a kind, even tempered gentleman, who exudes integrity. He is decisive and fair, and you can tell he is a man of faith who truly cares about the House members, both Republicans and Democrats.

Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His weekly column appears in over 60 Alabama newspapers. He served 16 years in the state legislature. Steve may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.

This week is National School Choice Week and with that an opportunity to highlight the fact that parents have a choice between public schools, private schools or homeschooling when it comes to educating their children. Education is not one size fits all. I am a proud graduate of Sparkman High which is part of the Madison County public school system.

However, Laura and I made the choice to send Whitney and Harrison to a private faith-based Christian school, after they spent several years in public school. That was our decision based on the needs of our children and the options available to us. What we need to do in Congress and in Montgomery is make those options more available to many more families. It is critical that we continue to fund public education – but fairness says we also need to provide real School Choice for parents along with the tax dollars to help pay for those choices. Supporting public education and our teachers shouldn’t come at the cost of limiting student’s choices.

In 2013, the Alabama Legislature took a step in the right direction with the Alabama Accountability Act. This legislation did several things. First, it ended the Obama Common Core curriculum that was a complete disaster for parents, teachers and students. Second, it allowed for Charter Schools in Alabama which had been opposed by the teacher’s unions for years. Third, the act took a huge first step toward school choice by creating tax credits for parents of children in failing schools that wanted to pursue a private school alternative. The law also set up an opportunity for low-income students to apply for a tax credit scholarship, funded by individual and corporate taxpayers, to help defray some of the costs of attending private school.

Now it is time to take this a step further and truly tie education dollars to the student and not the schools. Every family pays school taxes but today all those taxes are used primarily to fund public education. This is totally unfair for those families choosing private or home-schooling alternatives. This must change and some of these tax dollars need to be refunded to these parents through tax credits to help cover the expenses of private or homeschool choices. And these credits need to apply for faith-based schools and home school programs as well.

The need for this is at an all-time high. At the start of COVID-19, about 25,000 students were homeschooled in Alabama, making up about 4% of all students. This percentage has tripled and today about 12% of Alabama students are homeschooled.

I’ve spoken with many parents that removed their children from public schools during the pandemic shutdown and plan to keep homeschooling their children from now on. It’s important to help these parents continue an education path that works for their children so we must do more to support this home school choice. It is unfortunate that government overreach in our schools such as mandating Common Core and teaching Critical Race Theory are driving more and more families to pursue homeschooling, but I can’t say I blame them one bit. We need conservatives at all levels of government – from our local school boards to our legislature and Congress to support their decision as well. This week we celebrate School Choice Week but until we start tying education dollars to the student and not the school it is a choice many families won’t be able to afford.

Madison County Commission Chairman Dale Strong is a Republican candidate for Alabama’s fifth congressional district

COVID-19 has changed the way all of us conduct our daily lives and affects everyone, regardless of our neighborhoods, our political affiliations, our race or our ethnicity. While many people have recovered from COVID-19, the disease can have serious, life-threatening complications, and its long-term effects are not known. Latest data show the number of Alabamians who have succumbed to COVID-19 is approaching 17,000, and numbers of deaths have exceeded births in the state for each of the past two years.

COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective in reducing severity of disease, hospitalizations and deaths, and available to the public free of charge. Even so, the relatively low percentage of Alabama’s population vaccinated underscores the need for action. All Alabamians should do their part by getting vaccinated and getting boosters when eligible, especially since more infectious COVID-19 variants may someday emerge. Each person who is vaccinated helps assure a healthier community and state. When symptoms occur, testing and isolation protect others who might become exposed to the virus.

The Alabama Department of Public Health has introduced a new multimedia communications campaign, “Alabama Unites Against COVID.” The campaign, which stresses the importance of COVID-19 vaccine as well as testing, speaks to all Alabamians from rural regions to urban areas and aims to direct them to a new website, www.alabamaunites.com.

The website is easy to navigate with buttons for locating vaccination and testing sites, updated guidance, frequently asked questions, vaccine information and what to expect when testing for COVID-19.

The campaign theme highlights messages about how people from all walks of life are joining each other in their communities in the fight against the virus. In addition to advertisements in print publications, four television commercials are airing on stations statewide and on social media. The ads highlight the following: community leaders who love Alabama and Alabamians and are united in the fight against COVID-19, expressing the regrets of a COVID-19 sufferer about not being vaccinated, safeguarding young children from “monsters,” namely COVID-19, and people in a variety of pursuits and occupations protecting themselves by getting vaccinated. The ads feature state residents of different races, ethnicities, and ages and include elected leaders.

Regrettably, some Alabamians live in “information bubbles” that promote and sustain vaccine hesitancy. The Alabama Unites website sends the visitor to links which disseminate clear, complete and accurate messages about COVID-19 vaccines and encourage them to get tested when they experience symptoms. Resources provide answers to frequently asked questions on vaccine benefits, effectiveness, safety, possible side effects and availability. Information about what is known and what is unknown is provided.

This campaign demonstrates in an emotionally powerful way how important it is that we stand together. When more people get vaccinated and tested, we are encouraged, because the fight is not over yet. It is still critical that Alabamians protect themselves and others by receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Anyone who has symptoms of the virus should get tested as soon as possible. By doing these things, we can greatly reduce the effects of COVID-19.

Dr. Scott Harris is the State Health Officer for Alabama

Thanks to billions of federal dollars to assist in the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Alabama has an unprecedented opportunity to address longstanding and, in some cases, dire problems plaguing water and sewer systems across the state. It is imperative we take advantage of this opportunity to provide the help these systems, and our fellow residents who depend on them, desperately need.

Many of the approximately 1,200 water and sewer systems in Alabama – large and small; rural, urban and suburban – have significant repair and upgrade needs. In addition, there are a number of state residents who lack adequate water or sewer service, adversely affecting their living conditions and putting their health at risk.

That is especially true in Alabama’s Black Belt. For too many homes, traditional septic systems to handle sewerage needs either won’t work or are too costly due to the dense, chalk-like soil that prevents wastewater from being absorbed into the ground.

As recent high-profiled stories showed, the result for many of these residents is sewage pooling around their homes from illegal “straight pipes.” These straight pipes may take sewage away from the homes, but they can also produce a stomach-turning stench and open the door to all manner of health problems.

Low-income communities often lack the financial resources and tax base to remedy these problems on their own.

Help, though, is on the way – from the COVID relief funds whose use is being determined in the current special session of the Legislature called by Gov. Kay Ivey.

Working with the governor, legislative leadership introduced legislation that has received broad, bipartisan support and is poised for final approval on Thursday. It appropriates $225 million for the most critical water and sewer needs. A portion will go to high-priority or emergency projects previously identified, in part, from ADEM’s longstanding work with its Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs. These projects would provide or improve access to water or sewer services in communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and the lack of local resources.

Included are grants for demonstration projects in the Black Belt to address special sewage problems related to poor, sparsely populated areas and where soils may not perc.

ADEM was chosen by the governor and the Legislature to oversee this spending because of its decades of work in environmental regulatory activities and overseeing low-interest loans to water and sewer systems through the SRF programs. Those programs loan $100 million each year to repair and upgrade water and sewer systems, with the money being replenished by repayment of prior loans. However, many systems are too poor to even qualify for SRF loans because they don’t have the tax or user fee base to repay loans or meet other requirements.

The good news is ARPA funds will have little or no match requirements for the most disadvantaged communities.

More good news: Additional money is coming to states from the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) signed in November. Alabama expects $765 million over the next five years that can be used for water and wastewater infrastructure.

These totals seem like a lot of money, and they are. The money will do a lot of good work. Unfortunately, it still will not cover all of Alabama’s water and sewer infrastructure needs.

As is the case throughout the nation, much of that infrastructure was built in the 1970s following the passage of the Clean Water Act. That means 50 years of decay and deterioration, plus the lack of adequate maintenance in some cases. Obviously, these systems were not created, or able to be maintained, equally, and so their needs vary.

That’s why it’s critical that the state prioritize the spending of the ARPA and BIL funding based on need and the ability of each individual community to help pay for the infrastructure work – with the priority going to the neediest and poorest communities.
The first step is continuing to gather data to assess needs and capabilities— engineering analyses, project costs, operating costs, system financial resources, rate structure, etc. The goal is to address the greatest needs first.

Also paramount in this process is sustainability. It is not enough just to build or upgrade a system. The systems need to become self-sustaining as well.

Of course, ADEM will not do this alone, or in a vacuum. Programs of this magnitude necessitate cooperation among various agencies and organizations, and there are many that will be involved in this endeavor. ADEM will be working with the Governor’s Office, state and local Health Departments, the Alabama Rural Water Association, the Alabama League of Municipalities, the Consortium for Alabama Rural Water and Wastewater Management and its members (which have done much-needed research into solving the unique problems of the Black Belt) and others on the state and local level. We will also be partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the federal level.

The process and criteria used to determine what projects are funded will be open and accessible to the public through regular website updates.

Certainly, managing the allotment of hundreds of millions of dollars for hundreds of water and sewer projects across the state is a major undertaking and an additional challenge for the ADEM’s dedicated professionals.

It is a challenge the department welcomes, because we recognize the benefits can literally be life-changing. This is a historic opportunity to improve the health and quality of life for thousands of Alabamians, and ADEM is dedicated to working to ensure the money gets where it is needed the most.

The International Olympic Committee has granted China the 2022 Winter Olympic games, which are soon to be underway. The same IOC espouses on its website the values of excellence, friendship, and respect as being the three values of Olympism. Collectively, these values denote independence and freedom. The IOC concluded, by allowing China to host the games, that communist China is endowed by all the virtues of Olympism and is best suited to showcase them in Beijing.

But for all the evidence.

Everything from genocide to COVID cover-ups to economic espionage, China is truly what the world does not want in a preferred host of the Winter Games.

Perhaps the most obvious of China’s transgressions is China’s deliberate, systematic and concerted policy to reduce the Uyghur population, doing so through genocide, sterilization, forced abortion, detention and other putrid human rights abuses. When captured, Uyghurs are put into “re-education” camps and often put on trial for their crimes of not assimilating to mainstream Chinese culture (aka, having their own). The guilty verdicts are shocking! It is important to understand that the Uyghur is religious, speaks their own language and even have the audacity to have their own culture. They make up less than 2% of the Chinese population and live primarily in an isolated region of the country. The respect China shows such independence is what current U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described as “genocide and crimes against humanity.” China denies all of this, of course. The Communist Chinese Party is, after all, endowed with the virtues of Olympism.

Not convinced? Well, what about COVID?

The world has shut down for two years now due to COVID-19. Was it bat soup? Was it the lab in Wuhan? Was it just a convolution of horrible luck for the entire planet that somehow inexplicably benefited the origin nation financially and politically? Was it just a regrettable misstep that China failed to inform the world for costly, critical weeks and months about the coronavirus? President Biden recently stated that China “was not being transparent” about the origins of COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci says he’s now more open to the lab-leak theory and, despite several previous statements to the contrary, that he is “not convinced” COVID-19 came about naturally. The World Health Organization, to whom China gives tens of millions of dollars annually, is unable to draw conclusions as to the origin of COVID-19 because they are waiting on China to “provide more information and access.” And wait they shall. Communist China is focused on the ice dancing event.

Still think China and Olympics go together like peas and carrots? Chinese spies do, too.

FBI Director Christopher Wray recently testified before the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the Bureau is opening counterintelligence investigations into China every 12 hours. He continued by stating emphatically that “the greatest long-term threat to our nation’s information and intellectual property, and to our economic vitality, is the counterintelligence and economic espionage threat from China. It’s a threat to our…national security.” Over $540 billion in losses of intellectual property and trade secrets is attributed to China annually, which is a conservative number. Around 80% of all economic espionage cases allege conduct that benefitted China and 60% have a direct nexus to China. The previous and current administrations have imposed harsh sanctions on China for their unfair trade practices and economic espionage activities that span our entire economy, not just defense.

Having heard all this before, and caring less and less each time, China’s warm embrace of Olympism demands that every Olympic athlete download an application to their phones which has already been proven to pose significant cybersecurity and surveillance risks. As a result of this big red welcome mat, Team USA has been told to leave all their devices home and take “burner phones” to Beijing. Respect for our competitive friends preserved!

OK, maybe not peas and carrots. There aren’t any on the shelves anyway.

During COVID, the world noticed that the goods and products we were able to buy quickly for pennies were now ten times the price and unavailable. Price gouging was so prevalent for needed personal protection equipment in the early stages of the pandemic that President Trump had to use the Defense Production Act and other federal tools to ward off the price gouging that was coming from our economic partners in Shenzhen. But that is just a front-of-mind example of China’s disruptive control of global supply chains.

The Department of Defense assesses that there are 35 strategic materials necessary to produce armaments for our national defense. China leads the world in 16 of those 35 strategic materials. The U.S. has virtually no production, or is import reliant, on 32 of the 35 materials needed by the defense industrial base. Gallium (think microchips), graphite (think drone batteries), and aluminum (think everything else) are almost entirely sourced from China. And China has used its Belt and Road Initiative to buy up ports and mineral rights all over the world so they can further control and abuse global supply chains. Vulnerabilities to our supply chains, especially as they regard strategic materials, is a gap in national security…a gap in which China intends to exploit. But can’t you just feel the independence and freedom oozing out of the bottom of the Amazon box just delivered?

In communist China, nothing says freedom or respect like the provocation of war.

Tensions between Taipei and Beijing span decades, but they are currently at their highest point. China continues their constant naval and air presence around Taiwan. Recently, 39 Chinese military warplanes flew dangerously close to where the U.S. Navy was conducting exercises in the Philippine Sea. China’s Navy is constantly engaged in military exercises that the intelligence community concludes unveils China’s strategy to cut off allies from Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack on the island of 23 million people (roughly the population of Florida). This sort of prelude to war by a nation of 1.5 billion people is exactly what we would expect out of the host of the 24th Winter Olympiad. Charm the world with beautiful pageantry…and then attack!

China is the enemy of freedom, devoid of the virtues that endow the Olympic games. Of course, we need to stand up for the oppressed. Yes, we need to reshore and diversify our supply chains. Sanctions must remain in place. Our cyber hygiene must improve. Investigations need to persist into those engaged in economic espionage and the theft of trade secrets.

But by all means, tune in to watch the curling and luge events. After all, the Olympic virtues of excellence, friendship, and respect will be on full display…by their absence.

Jay Town is the former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, served in the Marine Corps for 12 years, and is currently the Vice President & General Counsel at Gray Analytics.

No, this is not a column about “a few of my favorite things,” but about Alabama’s incredible tourism industry. Tourism is a key component to Alabama’s economy.

In 2020, more than 22.5 million visitors in Alabama spent $13.3 billion for food, accommodations, travel, shopping and incidentals, according to the state tourism department. Tourism also employs over 200,000 people both full and part time. If that’s not impressive enough, tourism represents 7% of Alabama’s private sector employment. Leisure and hospitality also generate over $1 billion dollars of Alabama’s state tax revenues.

Congratulations to Lee Sentell, long-time Alabama Tourism Department director. He has done so many things to improve tourism in our state, including managing tourism expenditures in a time when they grew from $6 billion in 2003 to $17 billion in 2019. The department’s annual report is due any time now, and there is no telling what other enormous numbers will be revealed.

The Alabama Department of Tourism’s newest attraction is an “All-in-One Ticket,” which allows travelers to visit multiple attractions at a more affordable price. The “All-in-One Ticket” creates a chance for tour operators and tourists to plan state trips with an itinerary designed for flexibility and exploration.

With the “All-in-One Ticket,” travelers can pay one flat rate for multiple attractions. The tickets include 39 Alabama tourist spots. They reach across north and central Alabama down to Montgomery and Selma.

Each ticket will allow admission to all attractions listed within the package. Each “All-in-One” ticket has a special grouping within regional areas of the state, most offering one-, two- or five-day options at one low price. The “All-in-One Ticket” grants one-time admission to all tourism attractions listed on that ticket, for the timespan purchased at a savings versus buying singly at each admission rate.

There are six Alabama ticket packages: The Huntsville and North Alabama Attraction Ticket, The Florence/Muscle Shoals Attraction Ticket, The Birmingham Attraction Ticket, The Birmingham Area Family Fun Ticket, The Montgomery Attraction Ticket and The Montgomery, Selma & Tuskegee Attraction Ticket.

These packages are now available and can be purchased through a web-based platform at alabama.travel. Once purchased, tickets will reside on your mobile device. You do not need an ap to purchase tickets.

Congratulations again to Lee Sentell, his staff and all the tourism professionals in our state for catapulting Alabama’s tourism industry during challenging times. Thank God for beaches, golf, mountains, rockets and so much more. Alabama has it all. Get out and explore something new today.

Beth Chapman is Alabama’s former State Auditor and 51st Secretary of State. Her statewide column, Around the Capitol can be read in newspapers and blogs across the state. She now owns and operates Beth Chapman & Associates, LLC. She can be reached at Beth@bethchapman.com.

Serving as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, I’ve seen firsthand how President Biden’s lack of a clear and coherent foreign policy and his weak leadership on the global stage is putting the United States and our allies at risk. Following on the heels of the horrible withdrawal from Afghanistan, it is clear the President is willing to let bad actors and terrorists take the lead on actions harmful to the security of the United States and our interests. Russia is now massing troops and tanks along the Ukrainian border ready to re-invade a sovereign nation, China is conducting dangerous military actions toward Taiwan, and the crisis at our southern border continues to be ignored by this administration. This is what happens when we lead from the rear.

Ukraine is turning into Afghanistan 2.0, demonstrating again a lack of any planning or foresight in our President’s foreign policy decisions. On the House Armed Services Committee, we were fully aware for months of the growing problems between Ukraine and Russia, but the Biden administration did nothing. Now over the weekend, we see the President flailing with knee-jerk solutions, like sending troops to the region. This is the last thing we should be doing, and it was all completely preventable. The Ukraine situation is unfolding almost exactly like Afghanistan.

The President and his administration were fully aware of reports of the growing threat of Russia in Ukraine, just like the reports of a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, but he’s simply ignored the problem and done nothing to prevent it. The equipment and resources paid for by taxpayers and abandoned in Afghanistan could have been used to support our allies and partners in Europe, but now we have given these over to the Taliban. Providing no coherent strategy to the threats facing the United States and our Allies is foreign policy negligence, and it is making the world a more dangerous place.

When Joe Biden ran for president in 2020, he tweeted out, “Vladimir Putin doesn’t want me to be president. He doesn’t want me to be our nominee. If you’re wondering why, it’s because I’m the only person in this field who has ever gone toe-to-toe with him.” Well, here we are today and now President Joe Biden is demonstrating zero ability to push back on Russia’s threat to sovereign nations. His tweet must have been talking about dancing toe-to-toe with Putin because it certainly has nothing to do with pushing back or applying military pressure.

The job of the President is simple – protect the people of the United States by securing our borders and protecting our interests abroad. As I’ve stated before, the American people deserve leadership from President Biden, but so far we have seen none. The President must take action to protect our borders and show strength and leadership on the global stage before it’s too late.

Jerry Carl represents Alabama’s First Congressional District. He lives in Mobile with his wife Tina.