Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday night line
The comments line is open. My close-out:
* LR SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE: Melanie Fox has already said she won't be seeking another term on the Little Rock School Board next year, a great loss. (Yes, I know. I supported her opponent in her first campaign. I was wrong about Fox.) I hear a promising candidate may be in the offing for that seat (and redistricting remains a complicating issue on school elections). She's Leslie Plowman Fisken, 41, a lawyer not currently practicing, mother of three at Forest Park Elementary and graduate of Central High.
* JASON BALDWIN WELCOMED IN HOLLAND: Add the Netherlands to the list of countries that have welcomed visits by a member of the West Memphis Three. If your browser will translate, you'll note this Dutch account says Baldwin was allowed to visit — his first foreign country — despite a guilty plea to "triple satanic infanticide." He's not viewed as a risk, in other words.
* NEED A GOOD IDEA? Here's one. Read this week's fascinating Arkansas Times cover story, Big Ideas for Arkansas. What a range of concepts, both big and small: A performing arts center; legal nudism; end of public employee buyouts. For me the standout was new UA President Donald Bobbitt's break-the-pattern ideas on what higher education can and needs to be. He's a thinker. Good stuff.
* LITTLE ROCK AIRPORT HIRE: I'm hearing Ron Mathieu, director of the Little Rock National Airport, may be close to a choice in picking a new government affairs and public relations spokesman for the airport. I wrote earlier about his choice of four finalists who were to be interviewed this week. No announcement today, I'm told. A cautious investor might wager a dollar on Shane Carter of Paragould, a former TV reporter who heads PR for the Arkansas Methodist Medical Center.
* GO, NEWT, GO: Republican primary voters are certifiably bat**** crazy. In Florida, Newt's numbers are taking off and Mitt's are cratering.
* THE MAIL MUST GO THROUGH: The Postal Service has scheduled a hearing later this month on closing its Fayetteville mail processing facility,and maybe Fort Smith, too, and moving their work to Little Rock. Republican Rep. Steve Womack has been insisting on spending cuts for the Postal Service. What do you bet he doesn't like this idea, which could cost his district 250 jobs? Mail road time could delay deliveries, but inevitably cost-cutting is going to mean later mail and perhaps an end to Saturday delivery, as well as fewer postoffices. Republicans like Womack prefer something for nothing and to bitch when they don't get it.
* YOU SAY YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO SEE ALOTIAN? Alotian, Warren Stephens' swank private Augusta National-style golf course overlooking Lake Maumelle, will be open to the general public for the first time in 2013 when the prestigious Western Amateur golf tournament is held there in July. The public will be able to watch the play. Jim Harris at Arkansas Sports 360 tells you all about it. (I'm guessing tickets won't include access to the clubhouse.)
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Arkansas Politics Beebe: Financial outlook 'flat'
The 2012 legislature might be able to add a tiny amount of money to education spending for the next fiscal year, Beebe also said. But there'll be no further cut of the grocery tax, Beebe said. I'm guessing that state employees, many of them frozen in pay the last two years, might be looking at a third year of running in place. If they don't like it, they can get a job in Pulaski County government or run for the Pulaski Quorum Court, where the bonuses and raises just keep on coming thanks to the bounty of a countywide sales tax produced primarily in the cities in amounts disproportionate to the per capita distribution.
Let me add that the state revenue report has become one of the most tedious, over-analyzed reports in government, though new car registrations are right up there. Money's up or down. It's enough to meet budget or it's not. Not much else to say. Internet poaching of commerce makes the sales tax figure a less reliable economic indicator than it once was. Corporate accounting tricks make the corporate income tax figures mean less than nothing. The bottom line is the news. Roby Brock quotes Beebe as saying our economy remains "fragile," despite some promising reports today nationally on jobs, home sales and manufacturing, not to mention a jump in stock prices thanks to steps to shore up world banks.
What? Didn't hear about the stock market? Dow up 490 points today. Everything up roughly 4 percent.
CLARIFICATION: Matt DeCample, who apparently watches the Arkansas Blog almost as closely as Sam Brownback's office monitors high school Twitter accounts, informs me that Beebe misunderstood a question today and gave some predictions on BOTH this week's revenue report, coming Friday, and the 2013 revenue forecast coming tomorrow. Same tepid outlook, but DeCample advises me the governor doesn't plan a trend of giving advance guidance on revenue reports. We can be thankful for that. More here from Roby Brock, who also reports that Beebe mentions an end to Pulaski County desegregation funding by the state could provide leeway for grocery tax cut in 2013.
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Little Rock streets unsafe for pedestrians
Two people have been hit by cars downtown recently and one by a bus. One was hit just yesterday at the corner of 2nd & Broadway.I park in a deck, but several of my coworkers do not and they have had multiple close calls recently. Just this morning, one attempted to cross at Capitol and Broadway. By avoiding the car that was barreling down Capitol, he fell into a car that was illegally parked in a crosswalk. While he was approaching the intersection, he watched two cars run a red light. What shocked him even more was the motorcycle cop sitting under the tree on the Regions Building side of Capitol, PLAYING WITH HIS IPHONE, not watching traffic or for pedestrian safety. My coworkers complain the worst intersections for them are the corners of 6th and Spring and Capitol and Broadway.
I would really appreciate the city of Little Rock Board of Directors, mayor and Little Rock police to take this matter seriously. It is becoming more obvious that LR is not pedestrian friendly.
The correspondent suggests a public awareness campaign, such as done in Florida in the video shown above. WARNING: it's graphic.
The subject is close to my heart. We've reported before that vehicles take such primary importance here that the Broadway crosswalk AT CITY HALL is closed to pedestrians during the day. The Markham and Cumberland crossing into the River Market neighborhood is notorious for high-speed cars whose drivers exhibit no respect for people on foot. It 's the same at any light or stopsign in town or most of Arkansas. The dominant Arkansas driver's ethos is simple: SCREW PEDESTRIANS. If God wanted people to walk, he wouldn't have invented cars, suburbs, freeways, parking lots, big box stores and subdivisions without sidewalks.
This issue also ties tangentially into my column this week. It's a little about the idea of coming up with a fancy design for a replacement Broadway bridge. The column is more about the traffic disaster that's going to ensue downtown if that bridge is closed for replacement without first building another crossing somewhere else. If you think pedestrians are in danger now, wait until they try to cross gridlocked Scott Street or its side-street feeders jammed with cars heading to the Main Street bridge. If you think those crazed drivers will stop for a pedestrian, you've never been in those crosswalks.
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Business Yarnell's on the auction block
Speaking of ice cream: I'm happy to report that Edy's peppermint ice cream is a more than acceptable alternative to Yarnell's great seasonal peppermint. I could do without the shocking pink coloring (Yarnell's swirled a tasteful bit of red and green through its peppermint) and I think Edy's might have a touch too much candy crunch, but the silky texture and bright minty taste are great. I went through a half-gallon last week (or whatever is in what we used to call a half-gallon container) just to be sure. I got my Edy's at Hestand's in the Heights.
Still searching for a suitable replacement for Yarnell's Angel Food vanilla. No, the answer is NOT Bluebell. Not even close.
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Arkansas Politics Maylon Rice announces for state House
Maylon Rice, a former newspaperman who's now director of the Boston Mountain Solid Waste District, has announced he'll run for the legislature as a Democrat for House District 85. That's Uvalde Lindsey's district, but he's running for Senate. The shape of the district was changed by reapportionment to cover eastern Fayetteville, Farmington and rural areas near Prairie Grove. David Whitaker, a lawyer, announced earlier as a Democratic candidate.
I'm keeping up with the 135 legislative races only intermittently. But I've known Maylon a long time. I think first of him as a Northwest Arkansas Times reporter giving the kind of attention to then-UA Chancellor John White that Debra Hale-Shelton famously gives to UCA. White, who was secretive, autocratic and not always a straight shooter, deserved the attention. In the process, Maylon caught hell from the usual UA apologists. It's no knock on Hale-Shelton, but it's a bit easier to pick on UCA than it is to pick on UA-F (football branch).
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Police beat Knifing death in SW Little Rock
Police say Virgil Brown, 56, died of knife wounds in a residence at 9200 Tedburn Circle, near the Cloverdale shopping center, shortly before 4 a.m. today. Police quote witnesses as saying the man had been fighting with another resident of the house who'd left the scene. Brown was stabbed in the head, chest, stomach, arms and back. Police have arrested Kenneth Ray McFadden, 34, in the slaying.
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Arkansas Sports Arkansas athletes sue NCAA over concusssions
- UCA
- DEREK OWENS: In the open field.
Plaintiffs include two Arkansas athletes, but the article focuses almost exclusively on Derek Owens of Russellville, injured fielding a punt for the University of Central Arkansas in a tackle so fierce it was heralded in a Tulsa newspaper, which called the tackler "headhunter." It wasn't his first concussion, but his life hasn't been the same since, his mother said, though he played the rest of that season. Owens troubles are the focus of a story relating to growing concern about long-term effect of athletic head injuries and details his experience both at UCA and in joining the lawsuit.
Another plaintiff is Angela Palacios, 19, who played soccer at Ouachita Baptist University.
The lawsuit provides details of her complaint. She suffered concussions in high school. Though OBU was aware of this and though she wore protective headgear, she says the school trainer failed to send her to an emergency room after a practice head injury and the coach insisted for a time on her participation in running drills though she complained of injury symptoms. She finally sought medical attention herself and was told she had a concussion and should sit out of sports for two weeks. She said the NCAA was negligent in not having "return to play" rules to cover situations such as hers.
The NCAA says the suit, which doesn't name universities as defendants, is without merit. UCA would not comment for the Times article about Owens' extensive remarks.
The 2011-12 N.C.A.A. Sports Medicine Handbook devotes four pages (pp. 53-56) to brain concussions, including symptoms, and it lists a revised 2010 “management plan” for all athletes showing signs of concussion. But the Owens suit insists the N.C.A.A. guidelines of the time did not prepare him for how he would feel after repeated concussions.“I consider myself lucky,” Owens said. “I’m not drooling. I can perform daily tasks.” As he gears up to return to classes next semester, he said he could feel a “night-and-day difference.” He said his headaches, depression and anxiety had gone down in recent weeks, but his mother and his girlfriend, Shelby Twedt, said he still had his down moments.
Owens loves his sport and his college. But he said he would be happier if people could pursue football and other contact sports — even field punts — and be better prepared, and treated for whatever comes crashing down on them.
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Education Abstinence-only sex education is a flop
This is by no means the first report with similar findings, but it never hurts to attempt to penetrate Arkansas legislative skulls with facts that challenge their wishful thinking:
From researchers at the University of Georgia:
States that prescribe abstinence-only sex education programs in public schools have significantly higher teenage pregnancy and birth rates than states with more comprehensive sex education programs, researchers from the University of Georgia have determined.... "This clearly shows that prescribed abstinence-only education in public schools does not lead to abstinent behavior," said David Hall, second author and assistant professor of genetics in the Franklin College. "It may even contribute to the high teen pregnancy rates in the U.S. compared to other industrialized countries."
The full article here.
Arkansas law emphasizes abstinence education, but not to the extent some states do. It is possible to teach comprehensive sex education — abstinence first but also birth control — but I don't know if anyone has ever studied how rigorously that is observed in public schools. We know, for example, that while evolution is supposed to be part of science teaching in Arkansas, it is frequently omitted.
COINCIDENTALLY: I heard today of a Saline County blogger's post about one of the abstinence-only programs that have insinuated themselves into Arkansas public schools. They are typicallly church-based products, though minimally cleansed of overt religious orientation to sneak them into the classrooms. Where, as the research shows, they don't work. Conway is a hotbed of this claptrap. Another complaint about the Real Deal abstinence program in Arkansas on this blog.
Full news release on jump:
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Presidential politics Go, Newt, go
But really. Could Gingrich survive presidential campaign inspection?
I'm not talking about serial philandering, dumping a cancer-stricken wife and other personal baggage. His non-lobbying, get-rich-quick work — more details today in New York Times — is a rich vein to mine.
Plus, his likability quotient, the record indicates, is low, including among his own party. However, 'baggers apparently love him. Which tells you plenty.
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Protest Police roust Occupy protestors; poor get poorer
- Occupy LA
- POLICE MOVE IN: In Los Angelese
Twitter headlines report that cops are rousting Occupy demonstrations in both Los Angeles and Philadelphia this morning.
Occupy Little Rock quietly camps on. So far.
INEQUALITY NEWSBAG
* TAX THE POOR: Remember when Republicans wanted to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for millionaires without paying for them? Now they oppose extending the payroll tax holiday for working people without paying for it. All working people do is put their savings back into the economy. The coupon-clippers amass still greater wealth as we move toward a feudal society.
* SUFFER THE CHILDREN: The New York Times reports today on the rising number of school children qualifying for free and reduced-price school lunches. That means their families are getting poorer.
Arkansas figures: Participation in subsidized lunches among fourth graders rose 7.4 percent in Arkansas from 2007 to 2011. That means more than 64 percent of children that age now qualify. Imagine what could trickle down on us if only we'd give the "job creating" millionaires still lower taxes?
- Gourmet
- SCHOOL LUNCH: Many more kids in Arkansas qualifying for government help.
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Law Judge Gunn aims at schools
Interesting points:
* She admits merit on "both sides" in the Judicial Discipline Commission case she settled by agreeing never to be a judge in Arkansas again. The details have not been revealed, but evidence indicates the case included use of her publicly financed office — including staff and equipment — to prepare for her entry into commercial television. Questions have also been raised about her handling of public documents, some of them supposed to be kept confidential because they pertained to medical records of people in court.
* INSERT DRUDGE-STYLE POLICE FLASHER: Article says she is "working on" involvement of local schools in the program. School children do NOT need to be enlisted as auxiliary cast in a cheesy syndicated TV show, nor do public resources need to be devoted to accommodating a TV production company You'd hope local school officials would have better sense. You'd hope.
A lawsuit by former drug court participants pends seeking to seal filming of past drug courts and other protection of private records.
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Animals Honk if you want to save the Burns Park geese
Better still, the geese are Twittering:
PLEASE sign our petition asking the city not to rustle our feathers so much when kicking us out of the park
And about that on-line petition: Here it is, attention to Gunnery Officer Pat Hays, commodore of the Dogtown fleet and mayor of Argenta.
I heard on TV last night that "hunters" are beating down the doors to apply to take part in the "hunt" of this resident bird population to reduce it from 200 to 50.
Get a border collie.
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Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Tuesday night topics
The line is open. Final notes:
* FAREWELL TO PREACHER DICK: Richard B. Hardie Jr., the retired pastor of Westover Hills Presbyterian Church, died today and I owe him a mention. He officiated at my wedding, for one thing, more than 35 years ago. For another, after hearing him thunder one morning against the social ills of the Republican administration, I threw over my Wesleyan upbringing and joined his church. It was where my wife had grown up and where our own kids would be baptized. Preacher Dick was a liberal lion. He joined marchers in Selma when most Southern clergy tended toward timidity, if not outright collusion, in the face of the civil wrongs of the 1960s. He possessed a huge laugh, great passion and great compassion. Now, as the hymn says, "...to faithful warriors comes their rest."
* TEA PARTY TANKING: Polling shows Tea Party favorable ratings dropping, notably in districts that elected 'baggers to Congress. Wonder if this explains why Tea Party U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin was talking so much (dishonestly) about his bipartisan spirit in a recent talk to local Rotarians. He flunked the very first question of the four-way test that day, for sure — Is it the truth? Bipartisan he ain't.
* OPEN LRPD RECORDS: Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen amended and extended his order that the Little Rock police must release documents prepared by Lt. David Hudson, as required by the department, when he used force against people. Griffen says they are clearly records the public is entitled to see, not personnel records and shielded from release except in cases of termination or suspension. The city has said it will appeal Griffen's order.
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Higher education Pulaski Tech downtown move could $6 million more UPDATE
I got a brief telephone report from Pulaski Tech trustee Mary Jane Rebick on a board meeting today to discuss a proposal from Little Rock officials that the two-year college build its new culinary and hotel management school on a vacant lot at Sixth and Main rather than, as planned, on property at the south campus on Interstate 30.
City officials think the school could be part of a dream to revive Main Street as a place for artists, young residents and dining and entertainment venues. Pulaski Tech has $15 million in the bank for a new school and solid estimates it can build the facility for that amount in Southwest Little Rock.
Rebick said one concern was addressed today. If Pulaski Tech built the school downtown, it would be fully self-contained. Students wouldn't have to go to other campuses for required classes. That, in turn, means more square footage and more cost, she said.
But the bigger concern is cost — perhaps $6 million more to build downtown, by one estimate.
Rebick said there was now a general understanding on both sides that the downtown location, with multiple stories and elevators on a smaller lot, would be more expensive, particularly with added classroom space. It could be as much as $3 to $4 million more, she told me. She said the city will study further on that, including possible sources of additional money. But the difference could be much greater. An estimate produced by independent consultants for the school estimated the Arkansas Culinary Institute would cost $15.4 million fully equipped on the South Campus, but $21.2 million downtown.
UPDATE: More details on the discussion from the Times' Cheree Franco, who was there:
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Arkansas Politics Secrecy in campaign spending
As you may know, the Arkansas Ethics Commission is weighing my complaint that the backers of the Little Rock sales tax campaign did not comply with campaign disclsoure law in reporting of campaign expenditures. Essentially, the committee reported only payments to the company, the Markham Group, that managed the campaign. Street money? TV? Radio? Printing? Mailing? No specific checks for these payments were listed, though this is precisely the sort of reporting required of political candidates and precisely the sort of reporting necessary for full accountability in the conduct of election campaigns.
The same secretive tactics were used in the campaign to win voter approval of highway bonds.
The most recent report is a good example. In a Nov. 4 report, the Move Arkansas Forward committee reported raising and spending almost $300,000 on the successful campaign. Most of the money came from highway contractors and major businesses.
How was the money spent in "itemized expenditures of $100 or more"? The latest report listed a grand total of five expenditures:
* $235,746 to Craig Douglass Communications, in three checks, for "broadcast production, news conf., media buys, printing, TV spot buys, lodging, mileage, shipping charges, professional services, web hosting, dubs, broadcast producting, public relations."
* $20,000 to the Markham Group, in two checks, for a "management fee."
This is, in short, ludicrous. If the law hasn't been written carefully enough that people like Douglass and the Markham Group (also the money laundry for the Little Rock sales tax campaign) aren't required to report specific payments in behalf of a campaign committee, the law needs to be tightened. I think and hope the Ethics Commission will say the law requires this now. If not, surely the Arkansas Republican Chairman, who marks the sparrow's fall on campaign reports (at least those by Democrats), will join me in a good government initiative on this.
By way of history, a former Arkansas political candidate, known to many as the Huckster, tried this scheme once. He tried to say disclosure of payments to his credit card company was sufficient specific disclosure. He thought he need not disclose the expenditures covered by those credit card payments. The Ethics Commission, in a brighter, more ethical day, didn't buy it. He had to disclose the underlying expenses. The rules should remain the same for ballot question committees. Don't we all — people, corporations, committees — now have personhood?
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Event Calendar
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Re: Yarnell's scooping again; reveals flavor list
I couldn't agree more! But the flavor I love the most is Death by Chocolate!…
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Re: Riverfest eve open line UPDATE
I think about this print stuff a lot and believe I see the future though…
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Re: Riverfest eve open line UPDATE
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