Thirty-two percent of Annistonians live in poverty. Ponder that for a bit. Nearly 7,000 Annistonians in a city with a population barely over 21,000 reside below the federal poverty threshold.

If a majority of Alabamians support a statewide education lottery, and if the legislative tide is shifting in that direction, and if the governor is comfortable with voters finally having their say on the matter, we ask: why is this so problematic?

The changing face of America doesn’t resemble the version sold by President Trump and the right-wing fear mongers who view most forms of immigration as cultural and economic dangers to the nation’s future.

Alabama’s governor is female. Two of Alabama’s congressional delegation members are female. Fifteen percent of the seats in the Alabama Legislature are held by women — four in the state Senate, 17 in the state House of Representatives.

Since its creation, the Alabama Accountability Act has neither revolutionized educational opportunities in our state nor silenced its thunderous critics. There’s little doubt either of those outcomes will soon change.

Republicans in the U.S. House, including U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, are playing a dangerous political game with the lives of low-income Americans. Don’t believe the story they’re selling, because it is wrong.

Hurricane Florence, President Trump says, is “tremendously big and tremendously wet.” Though our president is quite the wordsmith, we’re going to offer him a family friendly list of other tremendously big and tremendously wet things he hasn’t mentioned but should if the occasion arises:

Any notion that the Republican Party is a legitimate home for an expanding bloc of black voters is detonated by the party’s actions and the image it sees in the mirror each morning. In either Washington or Montgomery, the story is the same.

Year by year, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States move closer to becoming historical events whose stories have been completely told. The Twin Towers fell. A U.S. Navy SEAL ended Osama bin Laden’s life. Documentaries about 9/11 flood our television sets every fall.

Information reported during a budget hearing last week reveals finances for Anniston City Schools are moving in the right direction. But it also revealed there’s a long way to go before the bottom line can be considered healthy.

Nothing about the concern swirling around the Calhoun County Jail is new. Not the overcrowding. Not the escape attempts. Not the potential inmate violence related to cramped spaces.

Editor’s note: Thousands of Alabamians will be affected by President Trump’s cancellation of raises for federal civilian workers. This is The Star editorial board’s suggested letter from those workers to U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.

In blood and soul, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is as Southern as the day is long: born in Alabama, descended from Confederate veterans, educated in Alabama, married to an Alabamian, schooled in Southern politics at the Alabama Statehouse and sent by Alabamians to Washington as a U.S. senat…

What was sold as a stopgap solution to the Calhoun County Jail crowding problem is turning out to be more of a slick sales job than a tangible breakthrough.

Your turn, Alabama.

In this era of automatic outrage about everything — Thanks a lot, Twitter — it’s no surprise that an outdated list of physical-education guidelines released from the Alabama State Department of Education has caused widespread angst. Our advice: Calm down. The world isn’t ending.

Through interminable bluster and ignorance, President Trump has shown his indifference over the harm American journalists face from his verbal attacks. He’s now provided another example.

In a despicable example of support for bigotry, 16 states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appellate court decision that protects transgender employees from workplace discrimination.

If you believe Alabama’s two highest-profile Republicans — President Trump, who commands most voters of this state, and Gov. Kay Ivey, who occupies its biggest chair — then you agree that the nation’s roaring economy and enviable unemployment rates prove a majority of Americans are floating …

The U.S. Army has a decision to make that will impact Anniston Army Depot’s future one way or another.

If a magic potion existed for the recurring malaise that infects Anniston’s downtown, we’d buy it by the gallon and happily share it with City Hall and its economic developers.

For a reminder of how public education is intertwined with Calhoun County’s future, let’s head south to Montgomery and meet Lt. Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base.

Republicans in the Alabama Legislature who three years ago road-blocked Birmingham’s attempt to raise the minimum wage in that city should be forced to live for a year on the federal guideline of $7.25 an hour.

Alabama’s state climatologist is either a groundbreaking scientist or an academic outlier whose beliefs about man-made climate change are not only against scientific consensus, but also potentially dangerous for the future of the planet.