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Arkansas Blog
Sunday morning: IRS, Kochs and movies
Not much new to report this morning. If all goes well, I'm going to catch at least three movies today at the Little Rock Film Festival. But if anyone would like to forward details of the coming charges against state Treasurer Martha Shoffner, you know where to find me.
Someone asked about impeachment. Here's what the Arkansas Constitution says. There is a presumption of innocence under the law, of course. But the facts of the coming charge seem likely to add to the case that Shoffner would best serve the public by resigning. if that were to happen, the governor would appoint someone to serve the remainder of the term, which ends next year.
Otherwise:
* DON'T LET THE FACTS GET IN THE WAY OF A GOOD IRS STORY: The New York Times has dug into the operation of the Cincinnati office of the IRS where Tea Party tax-exempt organizations got singled out for attention. The story may be more muddled than the get-the-conservatives conspiracy that has been established. Maybe it's as much or more about agency incompetence rather than politics. Fat chance this will change the story arc now.
* TAR SAND PIPELINES AND THE KOCHS: A day late, but here's a story to read and ask U.S. Rep. Tiny Tim Griffin of Mayflower about. It's about a vast pile of Canadian oil waste rising in Detroit. It's owned by the lovable Koch billionaires and is a nasty byproduct of Canadian tar sand exploration, a venture that put nasty crude into the pipeline that ruptured in Mayflower and which would put still more in the Keystone XL pipeline that Tiny Tim is pushing so hard to get built. That pipeline will allow the Koch boys to move Canadian tar sand product across sensitive U.S. aquifers en route to refineries in Texas that will ship finished products overseas. All this to further encourage pumping more dangerous gases into the planet's warming air.
An initial refining process known as coking, which releases the oil from the tarlike bitumen in the oil sands, also leaves the petroleum coke, of which Canada has 79.8 million tons stockpiled. Some is dumped in open-pit oil sands mines and tailing ponds in Alberta. Much is just piled up there.Detroit’s pile will not be the only one. Canada’s efforts to sell more products derived from oil sands to the United States, which include transporting it through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, have pulled more coking south to American refineries, creating more waste product here.
Marathon Petroleum’s plant in Detroit processes 28,000 barrels a day of the oil sands bitumen.
Residents on both sides of the Detroit River are concerned that the coke mountain is both an environmental threat and an eyesore.
Arkansas Politics
UPDATE: FBI confirms State Treasurer Martha Shoffner's arrest, apparently for official misconduct
The shoe drops. This mug shot of Democratic state Treasurer Martha Shoffner appeared on the Pulaski County sheriff's office jail intake page late this afternoon. (She looked a little distracted when I saw her looking over the cottage cheese in a case at Kroger's earlier this week.) Sorry: I originally called her auditor incorrectly. I have many calls out for more information.
Shoffner has been under scrutiny for a variety of issues including charges of favoritism in handling of state investments with a securities firm and also in sloppy reporting and spending of state campaign finance money. She's been subject, too, of a tough legislative audit and Republicans have been calling for her to resign.
UPDATE: I"ve heard from Kimberly Brunell, agent in charge of the Little Rock office of the FBI. She's circumspect:
I can tell you that FBI agents today arrested Martha Shoffner on Hobbs Act charges.
Brunell said there'd be more information at a news conference Monday, probably following Shoffner's appearance in a U.S. magistrate's court. She'll remain jailed until then.
I tried to press Brunell, but she said she couldn't provide details. She did say, in response to my question of whether campaign finance or official conduct figured in the charges, that I should look to the portion of the Hobbs Act that refers to "extortion under color of official rights." Said Brunell: "That was the part she was charged under." Then she said no more.
Here's what you need to know about the Hobbs Act. Excerpt:
In order to show a violation of the Hobbs Act under this provision, the Supreme Court recently held that "the Government need only show that a public official has obtained a payment to which he was not entitled, knowing that the payment was made in return for official acts."
I guess you could still argue, knowing nothing of the facts underlying this arrest, that this still could pertain to campaign contributions in return for official acts, as well as payments of some sort for investment decisions. Monday should be interesting.
Republicans are popping champagne corks. Justifiably,
UPDATE II: a spokesman for Gov. Beebe says they have no comment. They know nothing beyond press reports.
See a movie open line
The line is open.
Nothing to say but to add to Lindsey's endorsement on our podcast this week of the Little Rock Film Festival. At age 7, this event has grown up into a wholly big-time entertainment (and education) plus for the city.
We watched "Bayou Maharaja" in the space on Main across from the Rep. Great film about the legendary New Orleans pianist James Booker. It's not in release yet, so this was a rare opportunity to see it. Then we checked out "Spies of Mississippi" in the comfortable auditorium at HAM. It's headed to TV and it's a must see on the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission and its complicity in spying on, and even murder of, civil rights workers in the bad old days of the 1960s.
A bonus at the second film was the filmmaker's account of her visit to the home of a courtly seg, not regretful of his involvement in the commission, but willing today to break bread in his farm home (complete with Confederate flag on the wall) with the vivacious black woman lawyer, Dawn Porter, from up East who made the movie. Wonderful story. The other movie to be made of this is, of course, how the segs really did win, if you look at the political state of Mississippi and the South today.
Lots of screen time in the movie for Jerry Mitchell, the Harding U. grad who busted open the sovereignty commission story as a Jackson, Miss., newspaper reporter.
We have at least three flicks on the agenda tomorrow. If you haven't checked in, here's lots of info in this week's Times.
Parking is easy. Great food truck court today at Sixth and Main, with everything from BBQ Frito pie to pad Thai.
Rock Candy
Arktube
Video blogger Joseph Birdsong teaches you about Arkansas
Arkansas is full of talented people, and we ran across yet another one of them last night: the thoroughly-hilarious writer and video blogger Joseph Birdsong. In the video seen above, Birdsong, who was born in Arkansas, schools out-of-staters on some skewed facts about the Natural State, including: "People in Arkansas are born with the ability to recognize 30 different kinds of roadkill based on scent alone," and "The first gay person to ever come to Arkansas was George Takei, and that was because he was forced here to live in an Arkansas Japanese internment camp during World War II." Just remember, he's laughing WITH us, not AT us. Okay, he's laughing AT us as well, but a great sense of humor covers a multitude of sins.
If you're looking for a good laugh, you can check out almost 200 of Birdsong's quirky videos on his Youtube site, cupofjoeshow.com. He's also got a site where he blogs, a very funny Twitter account. and a video blog for My Damn Channel's Answerly page where he talks about sex and relationships.
LRFF
'Short Term 12' folks are really good at Vine
If your first reaction to Vine, the new-ish Twitter app that allows users to post 6 second video clips, was, "This is worthless," you need to check out the Vines "Short Term 12" director Destin Cretton and actor Keith Stanfield did while they were in town for the Little Rock Film Festival. So good. They're on the jump. (Click the box on the top left of each one to un-mute the sound.)
If you missed 'Short Term 12,' the opening night film at the Little Rock Film Festival that's the heavy favorite to win the festival's Golden Rock Narrative Award, you blew it. Maybe it'll play here when it opens in August.
Saturday: Coolio, Thick Syrup anniversary show and more
"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" fans should be excited to catch a screening of the "Rodrick Rules" installment of the film at Arkansas Repertory Theatre, followed by a Q&A with actors Zachary Gordon and Robert Capron and producer Brad Simpson, 10 a.m., $10. The Little Rock Zoo hosts an autograph signing with Gordon, Capron and Simpson from 2-4 p.m.
Discovery hosts rapper Coolio, with DJ Feelgood and MC Cat Daddy, plus DJs Crawley, Sleepy, Platinumb and Brandon Peck, 9 p.m.-5 a.m., $10 before midnight, $15 afterward.
Thick Syrup Records celebrates its anniversary in Hot Springs, with Ginsu Wives, Ezra Lbs. and Burnt, Maxine's, 8 p.m., $5 adv., $7 door.
Texas bluesman Chris Duarte plays an all-ages show at Juanita's, with Steve Hester & Deja VooDoo, Davis Coen and Chris Milam, 9 p.m., $12 adv., $15 day of.
Weakness For Blondes brings the goodtime jams to White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m., $5.
Cover Story
A guide to the 2013 Little Rock Film Festival
Event Calendar
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Re: UPDATE: FBI confirms State Treasurer Martha Shoffner's arrest, apparently for official misconduct
Razorblunder is just stoopid. The ONLY people who care about this are in Arkansas, TehLightbringer…
- on May 19, 2013
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Re: UPDATE: FBI confirms State Treasurer Martha Shoffner's arrest, apparently for official misconduct
OK72076 has a valid point. Anything to detract attention away from the Obama Justice Department,…
- on May 19, 2013
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Re: Sunday morning: IRS, Kochs and movies
herr womack has a face for radio and a voice for silent movies.
- on May 19, 2013
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