The Monday line is open. Not much else to say, except:
* BUTTERFLIES: Thanks to John Barton (also proprietor of a cycling blog), who responded (above) to my call yesterday for a photo of the monarch butterflies making their annual migration southward. This is not the gulf fritillary, also fluttering southward. PS — And, if you’re really into monarchs …
* POST-WAR JOURNALISM: The Arkansas Press Women has set up a blog to take comments on the question of how journalism has evolved in Little Rock and Arkansas since the closure of the Arkansas Gazette in 1991. Here’s the place to go.
* EASTER SEALS UPDATE: Easter Seals, worthy an organization as it may be, has a history of secretive dealings on its property, particularly its former facility on Lee Avenue. It has tried repeatedly to work out deals to sell the decaying building there, which sits on nine acres of state land, without adequately notifying neighbors in hopes a political deal can be cut. Here it’s happened again. Told Friday that a potential buyer for the building, John Chandler, was out of the country, the head of the Hillcrest Residents Association said neighbors curious about the proposal need not worry that the deal would be completed at a meeting of the Schools for the Blind and Deaf Board tomorrow. Late this evening, he sent a new note saying Chandler had signed the deal with Easter Seals while he was in Hong Kong and his assumption of its 50-year land lease at $1 a year would be before the board tomorrow. The HRA will ask for a delay in the vote for time to gather more details. It’s the right thing to do, if not the Easter Seals way.
* HOUSING AUTHORITY RESIDENTS ORGANIZE: Several residents of the Little Rock Housing Authority, including officers of residents association, plan to appear before the Little Rock City Board Tuesday to protest its high-handed decision not to reappoint Robert Webb to a term on the Housing Authority Board, despite his nomination by other board members. Webb’s offense? He opposed the city’s sales tax increase (not the whole concept, but some specific larding inserted in the trojan horse of public safety and infrastructure expenses.) The beauty of a city government controlled by the business establishment through the at-large director seats in combination with the high-rent neighborhoods, is that the majority of the city board can and often does tell people from the poor wards to go to hell on issues such as this. Lessons must be taught. You do not talk back to the master in Little Rock and get away with it.