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Slide into Slim Chickens
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Stickyz Stage moves to the east side
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Mary Gauthier at White Water Tavern
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Little Rock Film Festival's downtown debut a success
Arkansas Blog
Guns
UPDATE: University of Arkansas Board votes to keep guns off campuses
Flash from David Goins at Fox 16:
The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees voted to opt out of Republican Rep. Charlie Collins' new law to allow college and university staff to carry concealed weapons on campus. The vote was unanimous and applies to all 11 UA campuses. Evie Blad of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette tweeted that campus leaders at the meeting applauded the vote.
Awaiting word on Arkansas State University Board today on same issue.
UPDATE: The ASU Board also voted unanimously against guns on its four campuses.
Crime
Supreme Court says 1979 Cornish hen theft makes sheriff ineligible to serve
The state's petition to remove Cassell will go back to the lower court for granting of the order, if he doesn't resign before then. So far, he hasn't commented.
The Supreme Court has now made it clear several times that a misdemeanor meets the 1874 Constitution's definition of an infamous crime that makes someone ineligible for Arkansas office.
Circuit Judge David Clinger had decided that the state had to show not only that there was a crime of dishonesty but that the conviction "impugned the integrity of the office or directly impacted Cassell’s ability to serve" to justify removal.
Justice Cliff Hoofman, writing for a unanimous court (with Justices Hart and Baker not participating, but replaced by special justices), said there was no two-part test. Past cases hold, he said, that "...a crime that involves dishonesty or deceit constitutes an “infamous crime” under the Arkansas Constitution, which bars the offender from holding public office. ... An “infamous crime” by its nature impugns the integrity of the office and directly impacts the person’s ability to serve as an elected official."
You can chalk this up as, effectively, a putdown of 2013 legislation by the Arkansas General Assembly. In Act 724, the legislature endeavored to interpret what the Constitution meant by infamous crimes in the law on qualifications to run for office. It retained misdemeanor theft as an enumerated infamous crime, among others. But an uncodified portion of the measure said a court should also "measure certain variables, such as the attendant mental state of the offense, the particular circumstances surrounding the charged offense, the age and education of the person committing the offense, and, if the offense occurred before the person has assumed public office, the age of the person at the time of the conviction itself."
Hoofman rejected such thinking. “Under the plain language of the Constitution it is the fact of conviction that disqualifies a person from holding public office.”
Environment
Whirlpool sued over groundwater pollution near Fort Smith plant
- City Wire
- CHEMICAL PLUME: Document shows location in neighborhood.
Here's some good background from The City Wire, a Northwest Arkansas digital news site. It recently reported:
Documents reviewed by The City Wire show Fort Smith city officials knew about Whirlpool's plan to request a groundwater well ban as early as June of last year and that Whirlpool may not have been forthcoming with the city or the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality about its request.
Whirlpool finally disclosed the situation because it wanted the ordinance, since pulled down, as an aid to selling the site.
Details on the lawsuit follow:
Rock Candy
Music / Coming soon
ZZ Top to Fayetteville
Get out your cheap sunglasses, 'cause "that little ol' band from Texas" is headed to Fayetteville's Arkansas Music Pavilion for an Oct. 4 concert. Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. Thursday, May 30 and they're gonna run you $37-$102. Here's where to go to get 'em. Or you could call 479-443-5600.
The 'Top recently got the Rick Rubin treatment with last year's "La Futura," a gettin'-back-to-their-roots collection with real drums and a gritty, mean guitar tone.
After the jump, one of my favorite ZZ Top tunes, from 1973's "Tres Hombres." No, not "La Grange" (though that one is totally the jam).
What's going on
Friday: American Guild of Organists benefit recital, Wes Jeans at Denton's and more
If you're looking for something not quite so Riverest-y to do Friday night, The American Guild of Organists presents a recital to benefit the Pediatric Injury Prevention Program at Arkansas Children's Hospital, Christ Episcopal Church, 8 p.m., free, donations accepted.
Texas-based blues-blaster Wes Jeans brings the 12-bar tube-amp jams to Denton's Trotline, 9 p.m., $10.
The Sideshow Tragedy and Damn Arkansan offer an evening of Americana/roots rock at Maxine's, 8 p.m., $5 adv., $7 door.
Up in Fayetteville, A Concert for Campers has performances by John Henry & Friends, Brick Fields, Houston Hughes, Dividend and Joey Largent, with proceeds helping to send children to Camp Quest Oklahoma, Nightbird Books, 7 p.m., donations accepted.
If you want to keep the good times going after things wind down at Riverfest, check out Lawler and Ewell's 5th Annual Bday Bash with Raydar and Shaolin, Joe C, Noodles and JDawg, Revolution, 9 p.m., $5 adv., $10 day of.
The Center for Artistic Revolution's Rainbow Camp is a sure bet for LGBTQ and ally youth, Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center, Friday-Monday. More info here.
What's going on / Music
Friday To-Do: Mad Nomad
MAD NOMAD
9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern.
Mad Nomad is one of the newer entries on the Little Rock musicscape, having formed in September. But they're not exactly taking the leisurely route, having already finished up their first full-length, the nine-song "Black Out," available at this album-release show.
The group plays an amped-up sort of indie rock that's informed by the classics (Replacements, Built to Spill, Dinosaur Jr.) and unabashedly guitar-centric. They remind me a bit of the Springsteen-gone-punk sounds of Against Me! circa "New Wave." Most of the tunes are of the fist-pumping, triumphant sort, but they slow down the pace a bit on the Southern-rock-riffing "Me Tarzan, You Jane" and they break out the acoustic guitars on the wistful "When You Were Here."
The band includes Joe Holland, Jacob Mahan, Jesse Bell, Adam Hogg and Chris Honea. Hogg's piano playing adds some nice texture to the guitar squall. The album, good on its own merits for sure, is also a promising indicator of things to come. Good-time party-rockers Booyah! Dad and The Bootheel of Springfield, Mo., will open the show.
Event Calendar
-
Re: Supreme Court says 1979 Cornish hen theft makes sheriff ineligible to serve
Under the catagory "It Takes One to Know One", Justice Cliff Hoofman wrote the court's…
- on May 23, 2013
-
Re: Democrats go after Cotton for trying to criminalize family relationship
Harvard should make an official request that Cotton quit referring to himself as a Harvard…
- on May 23, 2013
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Re: Chew on this: Cuban burrito from Baja Grill
A wise man once told me, this place can hold its own against any other…
- on May 23, 2013
Arkansas Reporter
Clinton School partners with school to heal Uganda's wounds
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Fox16 Local News and Weather
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Deputies: NLR Man Admits to String of Business Robberies
May 23, 2013Investigators also tie Taz Marteny, 18, to assault case. fox16.com /more/ -
Police: Homeowner Shoots Armed Burglar in Russellville
May 23, 2013The suspect is hospitalized in critical condition in Little Rock. fox16.com /more/
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