Monday, Monday

I'm done. You're up. Final words:

* THINGS GO BETTER WITH KOCH: The Koch billionaires — press, tax, environment, public school, governemnt regulation haters — have begun a website to get their message out to journalists, even advertising on a couple of mainstream websites to do it. Arkansas Times operators are standing by.

* PAY FREEZE: No pay raise for elected officials — state, legislative, judges, prosecutors — in the appropriation bill that is first order of business in any legislative session. It came out of Joint Budget today. The bill does create 13 new district judgeships. Go figure that in tight times. Oh, almost forgot — the House staff will get a pay raise if other state employees wind up with a pay raise when all is done during the fiscal session. Still trying to nail down the percentage of the across-the-board so-called COLA. UPDATE: It's 2.38 percengt

* RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT: Michael Cook at Talk Business blasts Republican Rep. Jane English for continuing to represent a House district in which she no longer lives. She moved to run for Senate this year. The House is the arbiter of members' eligbility. Cook thinks they should vote her out. What about that Republican with a hot check conviction?

* THEY DO CALL THEM ONE-ARMED BANDITS DON'T THEY?: Reader nominates this one on Fox 16 for crime of year — Albert Lee Clark of Little Rock collared for shooting up a slot machine at a Greenville, Miss., casino. It took money from him.

* WOMEN ARE JUST ASKING FOR IT IF THEY GET NEAR MEN: Fox News idiot pundit Liz Trotta does it again — says women in military shouldn't be surprised if they get raped.

"I think they have actually discovered there is a difference between men and women. And the sexual abuse report says that there has been, since 2006, a 64% increase in violent sexual assaults. Now, what did they expect? These people are in close contact, the whole airing of this issue has never been done by Congress, it's strictly been a question of pressure from the feminists."

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Posted By Max Brantley | Permalink | Comments (30)

Taxes / Presidential politics

Republicans fold on payroll tax cut extension

Faced with going into November elections as advocates for a tax increase on the working class, House Republicans have folded and apparently will allow the payroll tax cut to continue through the end of the year. That will have direct stimulative effect. They won't insist on spending offsets to deliver it. They, of course, won't raise taxes on the rich to pay for it either. Still ....

And there are other battles to come — unemployment benefits, Medicare doctor reimbursements.

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Posted By Max Brantley | Permalink | Comments (6)

Education

Pulaski District to cut jobs, seek employee givebacks to balance budget

• PROPOSES CUTS: Superintendent Jerry Guess.

Jerry Guess, named to lead the district after the state took it over eight months ago, said, without changes, the district would finish in the red more than $13 million next school year. He's already identified $6.6 million in savings, the majority from a reduction in force of 77 employees, most of which he hopes to achieve by attrition, and by continuing to leave unfilled positions vacant. There are also scheduled savings in insurance, from a bell schedule change and a new copier contract, among others.

But, he said he'd begin negotiations tomorrow with the teacher and non-certified employee unions to produce $7 million more in savings. He'll ask them to reopen their contracts. The savings would come from givebacks in the some $16 million paid in benefits in excess of minimums required by state law. Potential changes include having an unpaid hour of lunch or break supervisory duty each week, loss of enhanced payment for in-district development courses and reductions in paid leave time.

Guess said his first objective will be to convince the unions the situation is "critical" and "fatal if not corrected." He said he'd move in a serious and non-combative way. But he added, "I do have a plan for unilateral implementation of the district's last, best and final offer."

He said past administrators had failed in oversight responsibility in granting more than the district could afford.

Guess said coaches would be among the areas cut, in response to a question from Dr. Ben Mays, a long-time critic of over-emphasis on athletics in Arkansas schools. Mays pressed on, wondering how as a philosophical matter the state could justify athletic spending, not required in the state funding formula, in a fiscally distressed district. District officials said local property tax, in excess of state funding, provides leeway for athletic and other spending. Mays wondered whether districts should go to voters for millages specifically devoted to athletics.

Others noted that the discussion didn't touch substantially on the city's significant facility needs.

Though the state board today put the district, without objection from its leaders, on a higher level of state fiscal distress, Guess said there was no cause for parents to be alarmed about quality of education, though he acknowledged it was "paradoxical" to talk of a crisis while saying there was nothing for parents to be worried about.

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Posted By Max Brantley | Permalink | Comments (20)

Film

Billy Bob's next film: a drive with Angelina?

Billy Bob Thornton, whose new film "Jayne Mansfield's Car" with Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon and John Hurt, is now on the festival circuit, has another promising project in the works: a road movie called "And Then We Drove."

Variety reports the film will be penned by Thornton and writing partner Tom Epperson, with filming in L.A., the American South and the desert southwest on a budget of under $20 million. It's a road movie about a man who picks up a female hitchhiker and their subsequent adventures. Producer Alexander Rodnyansky said that the film will be based at least in part on Thornton's relationship with Angelina Jolie.

Thornton is also currently seeking a distribution deal for his 2011 bio-documentary on Willie Nelson, "The King of Luck."

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Posted By David Koon | Permalink | Comments (0)

Coming soon / Heavy Metal

NPR streaming Pallbearer's 'Sorrow and Extinction'

• Pallbearer's album "Sorrow and Extinction" is out Feb. 21 on Profound Lore.

Hell yes! NPR is streaming Pallbearer's forthcoming "Sorrow and Extinction" right over here. The metal world is buzzing super hard right now about this album, and it's easy to hear why: timeless, crushing riffs, a killer rhythm section, complex and beautifully dark melodies and the best doom metal vocals this side of Ozzy.

The Little Rock band plays Juanita's Feb. 24 with Loss and Black Orchid.

After you've listened to "Sorrow and Extinction" 50 times or so, be sure to check out the band's demo.

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Posted By Robert Bell | Permalink | Comments (1)

Music

Levon Helm wins another Grammy, doing 'great' after medical procedure

• Levon Helm won a Grammy last night.

Levon Helm won a Grammy last night — his third in four years — and is now back at home in Woodstock, N.Y. after a successful medical procedure, according to the Times Herald-Record.

This was Helm's third Grammy. The Turkey Scratch native's "Ramble at the Ryman" won for best Americana album. He won that category for 2010's "Electric Dirt" and won for best traditional folk album for 2007's "Dirt Farmer."

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Posted By Robert Bell | Permalink | Comments (1)