Thursday, June 30, 2011
Arkansas Politics Beebe's boy wins a round
A political backer of Gov. Mike Beebe, Highway Commissioner John Burkhalter, won a round at the Capitol Zoning District Commission this evening when the commission voted unanimously to put out for public hearing a proposal to change rules governing land use around the Capitol to lift a three-story height limit so Burkhalter can build a five-story building at Sixth and Woodlane.
Huge opposition to the idea came from the Quapaw Quarter Association and the Downtown Neighborhood Association. If there are to be rules to protect the integrity of Capitol and Governor's Mansion neighborhoods, what worth are those rules if they can be changed any time a fat cat pal of the governor comes along and says he needs special treatment?
Here's a ton of background on the fight, which was beaten in a court case by a preservationist.
If I understand this correctly, the vote tonight only opens the door to a public hearing process — more opposition sure to be heard — and then a rulemaking process that ultimately will require an OK from a legislative committee.
In the end, it's simple: Can a Beebe fat cat beat the wishes of the neighborhood?
I know. Silly question. Preservationist Dan Cook, whose legal action forced the rules change procedure, commented:
Mr. Heiple's remark that the proposed 5 story building will not obstruct the view of the Capitol dome is completely erroneous. Either he does not understand what is considered to be the dome or he has not studied the topography maps in detail. We are prepare to present evidence that will prove him to be wrong.There is absolutely nothing in any part of the Ordinance that would justify allowing a 5 story building situated in a dedicated view corridor to obstruct the view of the Capitol dome. No matter what they attempt, that fact will not change.
Allowing what they are proposing will require a complete rewrite of the Capitol Area Master Plan, Goals, General Standards as well as the Capitol Area Design Standards. If they decide that this is what they want to do, then they are only repeating action of the City of Little Rock during the 1960s and early 70s.
UPDATE: A detailed report from the Downtown Neighborhood's Kathy Wells and more from Cook:
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Arkansas Lottery Lottery falls short of scholarship goal
Near the end of what turned out to be a rather contentious meeting of the Arkansas Lottery Commission's legal and audit committee, lottery director Ernie Passailaigue told commissioners that the $98 million the lottery will transfer to the academic scholarship fund will be short of his original goal. Passailaigue said that lottery sales had come in as projected and that prize payments accounted for the nearly $7 million shortfall. Commissioners Bruce Engstrom and Steve Faris continued their practice of asking Passailaigue tough questions and demanding answers. It's a welcomed change on a commission that, for the most part, deferred to Passailaigue's judgment on big issues. Engstrom suggested the lottery was paying too much in administrative costs, a charge that was denied by the director. He also suggested funds from unclaimed prizes, which Passailaigue says most lotteries use to boost advertising and promotions, should be accounted for in the lottery's budget. The rest, he said, should go to scholarships.
Commissioners covered a lot of ground in today's meeting. Engstrom and Faris hammered Passailaigue on a number of issues including the lottery's escrow account, where the lottery's data should be stored and whether the lottery commission should hire legal assistance to assist staff attorney Bishop Woosley and serve as a contact for commission members regarding legal issues. Get the whole story on the jump.
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The Thursday line
It's open. Close-outs:
* MICHELE BACHMANN: Nice roundup of five top gaffes. The list will grow.
* REPUBLICAN WITCH HUNT: KUAR followed up on our report yesterday about Republicans' enormous FOI request to the UALR Law School that the GOP hadn't even bothered to pick up. It was a fishing expedition to see if librarian Jeff Woodmansee had done any political blogging on state time.
The school's dean, John DiPippa, says there was no evidence of political activity during work."We produced about 6600 pages for this," DiPippa said. "I didn't see any evidence of any wrongdoing by Jeff Woodmansee, our employee."
* DICK HALPERIN: Oh, sorry, his name is Mark Halperin. HE called President Obama by former VP Cheney's first name on national TV. Useful memory from Eschaton, who thinks Halperin should be known as 'fucktard.'
* LATE NIGHT IN THE RIVER MARKET: Juanita's, freshly moved from its original home on Main Street to a River Market space, is seeking approval to operate as an after-hours club. Rock Candy has the news. I'm thinking this will stir some conversation from many people, not all of it positive.
* SICK F***: Tea Party leader says anti-gay bullying is just "healthy peer pressure." Says reports of disproportionate bullying of gay kids and high suicide rates just a way to promote "gay agenda."
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Education Beebe fills Board of Education slot
- MIREYA REITH
She replaces Naccaman Williams of Springdale, an employee of the Walton Family Foundation, who mirrored his employer's advocacy for charter schools over his tenure on the board.
Reith has an interesting resume, here on her Facebook page. Fayetteville High, Williams College, Columbia University. She's bilingual, a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme and worked in Hispanic outreach for Democrats in the 2010 election. She's also been involved in discussions about whether a Hispanic majority legislative district could be created in Northwest Arkansas and will be a leader of a new group now forming to work on immigrants' rights.
The Board of Education has been increasingly vigilant on accountability for both charter schools and conventional school districts. Reith's development in her new appointment will be interesting. A replacement also is to come for the expired term of Sherry Burrow of Jonesboro.
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Health / Environment / Gas drilling NJ votes to ban fracking
Bloomberg reports that lawmakers in both houses of the New Jersey state legislature have passed an outright ban on the gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing. We've reported on the possible dangers associated with the practice. There has been no official effort to stop hydraulic fracturing in Arkansas. New Jersey lawmakers have apparently decided fracking isn't worth the risks posed to state water supplies and public health. The move is somewhat of a preemptive strike. There are currently no ongoing hydraulic fracturing operations, but the northwest part of the state sits right on top of the Utica shale formation.
“We want to get this in place so that New Jersey will be off-limits,” Assemblywoman Connie Wagner, a Democrat from Paramus and a sponsor of the measure, said in an interview. “There are regulations in place and it’s not working. We are seeing one accident after another.”U.S. gas output expanded 20 percent in the past five years as the process let drillers extract the fuel from shale formations in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania once considered impenetrable. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is studying fracking, in which millions of gallons of chemicals are injected underground, for possible impacts on drinking water. The EPA said results are expected in 2014.
Meanwhile, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is apparently moving to lift a temporary ban on fracking in that state.
PS — As promised, Sheffield Nelson today said he'd given the attorney general a revised version of a proposed ballot measure to impose a 7 percent severance tax, stripped of current exemptions, on natural gas and to direct some of the money to city street repair.
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Business Republicans look to government UPDATE
It's been interesting to listen to Republicans yowl on Twitter and elsewhere about the closure of the Yarnell's ice cream business. A local Republican blogger wondered whether government had stepped in to try to save the company. The Koch mouthpieces at Americans For (billionaires') Prosperity, too, seemed to blame the closure on failure of government economic policies. U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin chimed in by saying the government needs policies to encourage private job growth. A Republican legislator, David Sanders, cited job losses at Rheem in Fort Smith, Sinmmons in Siloam Springs and Yarnell as somehow the fault of government — state and national.
Whatever happened to free enterprise and the free market, guys? You make a good product at the lowest possible cost, price it to make a profit and then if you can't sell sufficient quantities, you go out of business. (Yarnell's itself didn't blame the government, but falling ice cream sales and stiff price competition from bigger competitors, along with rising price of raw materials.)
Rheem took jobs out of Fort Smith to take them to Mexico. Perhaps we could suspend minimum wage laws here and then require workers to take below-subsistence wage jobs. Simmons was squeezed by the high price of corn — run up by corporate welfare to encourage ethanol production, government interference that has thrown food prices worldwide for a loop. Yarnell's? Independent dairies everywhere have a hard time against giant producers, particularly second- and third-generation family members with more people to share the profits but perhaps fewer to actually work in the business. (Yarnell heirs did some legal squabbling, too.) Corn figures in the Yarnell equation as well. Remember Borden's? Who'd have ever thought Elsie the Cow would ever leave the American scene? Remember when you actually got a half-gallon of ice cream in a so-called half-gallon container? Remember when Coleman's was a family-run independent? Yarnell's biggest problem wasn't government policy but a Texas invader named Blue Bell. Blue Bell has famously cultivated a down-home friendly public profile, something Yarnell's wasn't so successful at.
Tax rates already are lower than they've been in decades. Short of direct government payments to select businesses — and I hate to give Tim Griffin and David Sanders the idea — it sure seems a stretch to blame the failure of a private business on the government, particularly when the blame comes from a group notorious for sticking their hands out for special tax favors and anti-worker legislation. You darn sure can't blame Yarnell's on the unions. (PS — They way they handled this shutdown was pretty cold to employees, who undoubtedly have somewhat smaller reserves than the Yarnell family members.)
UPDATE: At last, the Republican Party has no shame. They ACTUALLY DID put out a news release blaming Arkansas job losses on the Democrats. Not the people who sent them to Mexico. Not the people who planned poorly in Northwest Arkansas. Not the Republican-friendly ice cream makers in Searcy who fell to the marketing might of a Republican-friendly Texas competitor, tough market conditions, declining ice cream demand and internal family issuess. Shameless. Perhaps the GOP wants price controls on cream and sugar. And to force feed children ice cream.
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Law Swindoll DWI case resolved with sobriety court
A fair amount of attention has been given to handling of a negligent homicide charge against Benjamin Swindoll, 21, in a 2009 traffic death and subsequent alcohol-related offenses. Last December, Judge Marion Humphrey declined, for procedural reasons, to revoke a suspended sentence in the traffic death case though Swindoll had subsequently been arrested on another DWI charge in Sherwood.
The news is that Swindoll pleaded no contest Wednesday to the new charge in Sherwood and was fined, ordered to complete community service and sentenced to a year in jail. But the sentence was suspended conditioned on completion of the Sherwood sobriety court program. It includes freqent AA meetings, therapy and frequent testing for drug and alcohol use. It is one of three federally funded sobriety programs in the state.
I asked Teresa Belew, spokeswoman for MADD, about the outcome. She said the family of the young woman killed in the accident, Nikki Powell, had wanted treatment for Swindoll and had been disappointed that there'd been no consequences for an earlier lapse, only 23 days after the end of supervision by community corrections in the death case.
"The Sherwood sobriety court holds offenders accountable," Belew said. "It is another opportunity for a young man to make meaningful change and it has swift and sure consequences. Everyone is prayerful that Swindoll succeeds while in the program as well as moving forward. He has yet another chance to get his life back...something his friend Nikki Powell didn't get."
Here's MADD's full report on the case, including court disposition records.
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No July 4 holiday for the U.S. Senate
Senate leader Harry Reid has cancelled the July 4 recess so the Senate can deal with the debt ceiling.
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Arkansas Culture and Characters Yarnell's ice cream closes after 78 years
It's official, an Arkansas institution, Yarnell's Ice Cream in Searcy, abruptly went out of business with notice to employees beginning at 2 a.m. this morning. That puts 200 people out of work and means the end of an iconic brand popular at every crossroads of Arkansas. It means jobs losses in Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, but most in Searcy. The company history begins with Yarnell family purchase of a small ice cream maker, Dairyland, in 1932.
SEARCY, ARK. (June 30, 2011) — Yarnell’s Premium Ice Cream ceased operations today after the Board of Directors voted yesterday to end production indefinitely. The privately owned company, headquartered in Searcy, Ark., told its approximately 200 employees today that they would be paid through every day worked but not beyond that.“This has been an extremely tough year for the ice cream industry in general, and particularly to regional, independent manufacturers like ourselves,” said Christina Yarnell, chief executive officer of Yarnell’s. “We have examined many possible avenues to keep the company afloat — actively marketing the company to investors and strategic buyers — the majority of whom are undergoing the same financial distress we are. However, we’ve been unable to obtain additional financing from our lenders or locate a buyer, and have come to the difficult decision that the appropriate course of action is to shut our doors.”
Approximately 75 percent of Yarnell’s employees work at the Searcy headquarters, with the rest of the employee base located throughout the state and in Tennessee and Mississippi. A small team will remain working for the company to finalize operations, with completion expected by Aug. 27.
“Yarnell’s has been an Arkansas staple for more than 75 years, and it’s been a family business that started with my great-grandfather, Ray, and has involved four generations of the Yarnell family. Ceasing operations is heartbreaking because we have prided ourselves on keeping our roots in Arkansas, particularly Searcy.
“We are truly thankful for our amazing employees and the heart and soul that they have put into the past successes of this company. They are great people. And I can’t say enough about our customers and their loyalty to Yarnell’s. It’s been a pleasure creating the highest quality ice cream that they can be proud to serve to their families and friends. I, personally, will miss hearing their wonderful feedback and encouraging comments.”
Sales of ice cream and related products have steadily declined over the past five years across the United States. In order to compensate for declining sales, the larger manufacturers continue to jockey for retailers’ shelf space through price competition. This, along with steadily increasing commodity prices (cream, sugar, fuel, etc.), has resulted in significant financial damage to regional ice cream manufacturers such as Yarnell’s.
UPDATE: Here's the federally required notice to workers of the mass layoff notice that went to 149 employees at Yarnell's in Searcy. The notice indicates that many lost jobs without 60 days notice (those won't be staying on for shutdown tasks) and the federal law can provide for 60 days of pay in such cases. I inquired whether my understanding about WARN notices was correct on potential penalties and also about rumors in the Searcy area that Blue Bell might be circling for an asset purchase of some sort. The company said through a spokesman that it wouldn't be commenting beyond official releases.
Here's a more personal farewell on the company's Facebook page.
Note that Yarnell's said in a 2007 Times article that 50 percent of their work was contract work for other labels. It's unclear how well that work had held up in recent times.
This is terrible news. Angel Food Vanilla was the best ever. The seasonal peppermint was nonpareil. Its history was rich.
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Arkansas Politics Is there an election next year?
I can't shake the feeling that Republicans are again ahead of the curve on planning for 2012 elections in Arkansas. It's too early for direct public campaigning, but it's only 11 months until primary elections. People who are going to be running for legislature best be getting ready, even if the shapes of the legislative districts won't be known until at least the end of July.
But that's the state legislature, where a bloody battle will determine if Democrats remain in the majority, a tall order with the massively unpopular (in Arkansas) Barack Obama at the top of the Democratic ticket. The generic preference for Republicans has reportedly dropped in Arkansas, but polling still shows a healthy gap in favor of Republicans. Middle-ground white voters are seen as particularly problematic.
Which brings us to Congress. Rep. Mike Ross will be challenged and no Republiican however nutty can be taken lightly, but he should prevail again. Republican Rep. Steve Womack could be caught, in Edwin Edwards' immortal words, with a dead woman or live child and probably still win the 3rd, so reflexive is the Republican vote there.
But what of the 1st District, Republican Rep. Rick Crawford, prop., and the 2nd, where Karl Rove hatchetman Tim Griffin is completing his first term? They've given Democrats a perfect campaign platform. They've voted for a plan to end Medicare as a single-payer universal safety net for the elderly in favor of an eventual voucher plan that many won't be able to afford. They've favored huge tax cuts for the wealthy, cuts that have already driven us into enormous deficits with no economic expansion to show for them They've backed cuts in a number of popular government programs (no, not just welfare.)
Will anybody run against them?
Good question. I can offer first-hand testimony, from a chance encounter, that Chad Causey is at least evaluating another run against Crawford in the 1st. The 2nd? Nothing to report so far, though I did hear second-hand that David Boling, former U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder's chief of staff, might make another run for the seat. He trailed in the Democratic primary in 2010 behind Robbie Wills and eventual winner Joyce Elliott.
Time is flying. It's not too early to be raising money and making campaign moves. The incumbents are doing both.
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Education How Waltons target school spending
Diane Ravitch's essential education Twitter feed leads me to a Washington Post article that details highlights of the $157 million the Walton Family Foundation spent on education in 2010.
Washington, D.C., receives the most in direct grants, almost $17 million.
Note: the foundation spent $52.4 million on "shaping public policy." The foundation is not the only spigot of Walton money to groups working on public policy. Walton money turns up, too, in such organizations as Arkansans for Education Reform, which pushes the charter school expansion agenda and beats down on Little Rock public schools.
The report includes the $680,000 the foundation directed for "research and evaluation" to the University of Arkansas, where Walton money has long supported an education"reform" unit aimed at pushing the Waltons' school philosoophy — charter schools, merit pay, anti-union, etc.
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Politics Obama goes on the attack
President Obamatoday took a page out of Harry Truman's book, blaming Republicans for a major role in creating today's budget problems and the predominant role in blocking solutions.
He accused the Republicans, who last week dropped out of negotiations on the budget, of avoiding tough decisions and said they were playing a dangerous game that could significantly affect the nation’s struggling economy and capital markets and slow down private efforts to create jobs.Mr. Obama repeatedly mocked tax breaks that he said were for “millionaires and billionaires, oil companies and corporate jet owners,” saying that voters would not look kindly on Republican lawmakers who defended such breaks at the cost of cuts in popular programs like health care, education and food safety.
Will it work?
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The line is open
Hump day comments welcome. Final notes:
* OBIT PROTEST: A demonstration is planned Thursday in Batesville by a gay rights group to object to the local newspaper's policy of not including the name of unmarried partners — gay or straight — in free obituaries. The paper will carry partners' names in paid obituaries.
* HOSPICE FOUNDER DIES: Here's an obituary notice for Michael Aureli, founder of the Arkansas Hospice, who died at 61 of cancer under care of the organization he started.
* LOVE THOSE BRITISH TABLOIDS: For stories like this one:
He's made his name with a controversial show that catches would-be internet sex perverts in televised stings. But now Chris Hansen has found himself on the receiving end of his own hidden camera tactics, after the married NBC anchor was secretly filmed on an illicit date with a blonde television reporter 20 years his junior.
* NEWS UPDATE: Andrew Bagley's Inside Scoop blog in Helena-West Helena has news about the reconstruction of the local school district, now under state control. The trustees have rescinded a bunch of RIF orders. Looks like the ousted superintendent didn't pay much attention to the law. (This is the superintendent whose prior friendship with federal Judge Brian Miller apparently contributed to his decision to jump off the Pulaski deseg case, not a moment too soon.) Key graphs from letter to school employees:
Arkansas Department of Education employees have spent the last week closely examining the RIF process. They have determined the RIF actions taken by the former superintendent and Board were not consistent with law nor with the District's policies. It is not fair to the students and employees of the District to leave the prior RIF decisions in place.Therefore, effective immediately, we are rescinding all prior RIF actions taken by the District. No later than July 15, the District will implement a targeted Reduction in Force (RIF) that is fully consistent with state law and with the District's policies. Because of resignations and retirements that have already been finalized, it is our hope this targeted RIF will be less severe and less widespread than the prior RIF.
Maybe Helena could make some money by making the Walton-backed KIPP school pay for use of Helena-West Helena athletic facilities instead of letting them use them for free, as the ousted superintendent and school board (including Judge Miller's brother) let them do.
Do you ever get the feeling in Arkansas that the fix is just about always in?
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Law Ex-school board member gets 65 months for child porn
Malcolm Trent Cox, 48, a former North Little Rock School Board member, has been sentenced to 65 months in federal prison and five years of supervised release for possession of child pornography.
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Higher education Republicans blast Beebe's push for Broadway
The Arkansas Republican Party unloads on Gov. Mike Beebe for pushing to have his "crony" Shane Broadway elevated to director of the state Higher Education Department when he lacks qualifications specified by state law for the job. The GOP nicks Beebe, too, because at least one member of the appointed board that will fill the job seems prepared to dispense with a prescribed search process.
The GOP engages in some silly, petty stuff sometimes. Make that often. But this is fair political commentary. (I do think it's somewhat silly to fault a politician for appointing or promoting a political friend to a job under his control or influence. He's going to appoint an enemy? But the law is another matter altogether.)
I'm reminded of the comment by a reader this morning that the governor and his Senate-days Bobbsey twin, chief of staff Morril Harriman, run the state like it was their private club. The governor also thinks the definition of tolerance is to silently tolerate whatever Mike Beebe says or does, no matter how off-key.
UPDATE: It's the governor's office contention — as I figured — that Broadway's time as interim director gave him the statutory job experience, including on college campuses, by virtue of his interim work managing the agency and his visits to most of the campuses in Arkansas. Spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor was also somewhat surprised at GOP criticism because Broadway had a proven record of ability to work in a bipartisan fashion in the legislature. He further said that while the statute may specify a "search," it doesn't specify the size or scope of such a search and the governor's office believes that determination is up to the Higher Ed board.
As a practical and probably legal matter, the governor's view is defensible. As a political matter, the Republicans are closer to "truth" on this one. It's a political deal where friendship counted more than qualifications.
BUT .... I had held off on this earlier, because the turncoat in question at least had some college teaching credentials and a law degree (and, turns out, a yen for law-breaking and gambling), but, a commenter notes:
I'm a little nonplussed that in all the hullabaloo over Beebe making them name Broadway as higher ed director no one calls attention to Mike Huckabee forcing the state Board of Education to name Lu Hardin as director of higher education and then as president of UCA. Lu with Mike's help used his position to undermine Win Thompson at UCA and set himself up for that job. Lu and Shane are both examples of political cronyism, Republican and Democratic.
Read on for GOP statement:
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Event Calendar
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Re: Hurst fined again by bar committee for late filing
Jeffress is going to win the runoff...he would have won absent this latest news concerning…
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Re: Two LR cops busted in federal marijuana sting
Do these two officers reside within the LR city limits or are they affiliated with…
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Re: Little Rock can do better than ditches
simply embarrassing.
- on May 24, 2012
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