Well. A day back at work and the week is already over. Finishing up:
* COLORADO SCHOOL SHOOTING: A youth who went to a Colorado high school with a gun looking for a teacher wounded a student who tried to intervene and then shot himself, according to early reports from Littleton. As timing has it, the episode coincides with a fund-raising campaign by an aggressive gun lobby seeking donations to mark victories against gun regulation in the year since the Connecticut school gun slaughter. It also coincides with the publication yesterday of a story in the Daily Beast that says there have been shootings in schools on an average of one every two weeks since the children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.
* THE HUCKABEE BOOMLET: Jim Newell has plenty to say in Salon about Mike Huckabee’s naked grab for attention to a 2016 presidential candidacy — none of it good. Closer:
Maybe 2012 would have been doable for Huckabee. Hell, he just would’ve had to beat Mitt Romney. But in 2016, squaring off against Bush, Rubio, Paul, Christie, Ryan, Cruz and a handful of other governors whom people haven’t completely forgotten about? Maybe it’d be easier to just watch the race play out from the comforts of that sweet $3 million pad.
* IN LIGHTS: Former President Bill Clinton will attend the ceremonial beginning of the River Lights project at 5 p.m. Thursday. The $2.4 million project backed by Entergy, local governments and others will illuminate downtown bridges (Junction, Clinton Park and Main Street).
PS — An answer to a reader’s question follows from Julie Munsell at Entergy about ongoing maintenance and the light bill.
Maintenance will be shared by city of LR, NLR, and County. For usage, it’s the same arrangement as before, each entity pays their provider. Just a footnote, because of the LED lights usage is expected to be less than it was before.
* BUT WHAT ABOUT THE HUCKABEE INSTITUTE? That fancy political institute that Mike Huckabee announced would house his political papers at his alma mater, Ouachita Baptist University, hasn’t ever gotten off the ground. But that doesn’t mean money can’t get raised for important stuff at OBU.
a drive to raise money for essentially a new football stadium at OBU, to be named for Cliff Harris, the NFL great who played at OBU. President Rex Horne talks about the project here. The hope is to raise about $2 million.