The national ribbing continues: Reuters cites a Chronicle of Higher Education study that the Arkansas has the highest percentage of state legislators with zero college education.

There are 135 legislators in Little Rock, 25 percent of whom do not have any college experience, according to the study. Comparatively, 8.7 percent of all state lawmakers nationwide have not attended college. ... The Arkansas legislature mirrors its state's population, said Hal Bass, a political science professor at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. ... "Our rural, frontier political culture has not traditionally placed an especially high value on academic credentials for positions of leadership in society," Bass said.

UPDATE: This was correct in 2011, when it was written. It's been pointed out to us by a reader that it's not news, though for obvious reasons various news outlets are recirculating it. Who knows what the figures are now.

UPDATE: The D-G found (paywall)that the numbers were incorrect at the time. "At least 106 of Arkansas’ 134 state lawmakers say they have a bachelor’s degree, a number that significantly exceeds what was in a national report that said Arkansas had the least-educated legislature in the county," the D-G reported.

Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, who wants to arm everyone all the time, including at the altar rail, has thought of a way to provide for target practice time for elementary school children: Cut their art education in half.

His SB 826, which of course is named "An act to provide public school students with additional opportunities to pursue a more rigorous study of visual art or the performing arts," would change Arkansas law to let elementary schools offer 40 minutes of visual arts or performing arts, rather than 40 minutes of both. It doesn't exactly specify that their time could be better spent at target practice; perhaps he's saving that for the next legislative session.

The bill's "more rigorous study" provision is that in either seventh or eighth grade, students will have to "participate" in visual arts or performing arts. What does that mean? Would performing in a school production of "Annie Get Your Gun" meet that requirement?

Waiting for comment from the state Department of Education.

The state department's spokesman, Phyllis Stewart, says the bill's requirement for middle school is less rigorous than what is now required in seventh and eighth grades. Frameworks for those grades require instruction in both visual art and music.

In the year that we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's decision that saved countless lives by removing legal blocks to abortion prior to viability, Arkansas has decided to turn back the clock and make its women 2nd class citizens and revive the business of back alley abortion.

"The whole thing has not only been a slap in the face of Arkansas women but a serious bruising for the state of Arkansas and any efforts it has tried to make to present itself as progressive, forward-thinking state where people might want to live and work," Sklar said. "It's a giant leap back in time."

The Arkansas legislature has said to the women of Arkansas "we don't trust you to make your own decisions, whether by yourselves or with your family or doctor. We're going to decide for you," Sklar said.

Thus, the 12-week-embryo is calling the shots for a woman's life. A man's life is never thus encumbered.

• Brian Chilson
• Beebe

From the governor's news release:

"... because it would impose a ban on a woman’s right to choose an elective, nontherapeutic abortion before viability, House Bill 1037, if it became law, would squarely contradict Supreme Court precedent. When I was sworn in as Governor I took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend both the Arkansas Constitution and the Constitution of the United States. I take that oath seriously.

Second, the adoption of unconstitutional laws can be very costly to the taxpayers of our State. It has been suggested that outside groups or others might represent the State for free in any litigation challenging the constitutionality of House Bill 1037, but even if that were to happen, that would only lessen the State’s own litigation costs. Lawsuits challenging unconstitutional laws also result in the losing party - in this case, the State - having to pay the costs and attorneys’ fees incurred by the litigants who successfully challenge the law. Those costs and fees can be significant. In the last case in which the constitutionality of an Arkansas abortion statute was challenged, Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Jegley, the State was ordered to pay the prevailing plaintiffs and their attorneys nearly $119,000 for work in the trial court, and an additional $28,900 for work on the State’s unsuccessful appeal. Those fee awards were entered in 1999, and litigation fees and costs have increased extensively since then. The taxpayers’ exposure, should HB 1037 become law, will be significantly greater.

While I must therefore veto HB 1037, I wish to express my appreciation to its principal sponsor, Representative Mayberry, for his candor and for his respect for the Governor’s role in the legislative process.

The last sentence refers to Mayberry's discouraging Lt. Gov. Mark Darr to sign the legislation while Beebe was out of town last Friday.

• David Ramsey
• Annie Norman and Christina Mullinax from Planned Parenthood

Ramsey reports that a cheer went up from the close to 100 women, who were at the Capitol as part of Planned Parenthood Day.

Mayberry's bill, one of two abortion measures that have taken up an enormous amount of time and energy in this year's General Assembly, while debate on measures like Medicaid expansion are suspended, is constitutionally suspect, banning abortions a month before viability, which is the Supreme Court's standard. It does not allow for pre-term delivery of fetuses with fatal anomalies, requiring women to carry fetuses with no hope of survival outside the womb. But, as astonishingly paternalistic gynecologist Richard Wyatt told the House committee on public health, "ladies" just need gentle counseling to understand that they should carry their fetuses to whatever comes first, the mother's endangered health or the delivery of the doomed babe.

Sen. Jason Rapert's bill, SB 134, even more restrictive, banning abortion after the detection of a fetal heartbeat at 14 weeks (when heart cells begin to move, prior to developing into a heart), should hit the governor's desk later in the week. Beebe should veto it, too, despite the reality that vetoes on both these anti-woman bills will be overriden and the state will end up spending money defending the legislation in court.

UPDATE: Ramsey caught up with Rep. Andy Mayberry. "Certainly I was disappointed," he said. "I'd hoped that the governor would either sign it or allow it to become law without his signature.

"I do plan to seek a override of the veto. I don't know what the timeline is. I will certainly be taking a leadership role."

Regarding the governor's statement:
"According to his statement, it all centers around his constitutional concerns. Again, I thought we did a pretty good job of laying out why this bill is constitutional but he and I obviously have differing opinions about that."

Regarding concerns about the cost of litigation:
"A couple of different thoughts on that. First of all I don't think you place a price tag on protecting life. You remember the old credit card commercial, certain things are priceless. Secondly, with this particular bill, this is based on almost identical legislation in some other states, where, in two of those states it's being challenged right now. I don't know if the opposition is really going to want to challenge here when those other cases are already moving through the process and whatever takes place with those is going to apply to whatever we do in Arkansas. You'd have to talk to them about it, but I don't know if there's actually going to be a challenge in Arkansas."

Lt. Gov. Mark Darr, who Friday took advantage of the governor's absence to go to D.C. and signed a bill that would have been law anyway on Monday, saying he felt legislators "deserved that respect to have the signature on it and for it to go into effect immediately,” [subscription required] said his move was not political, though he made sure to have his picture made with the sponsors. How could it have been anything else?

Darr was raring to sign Rep. Andy Mayberry's bill to prohibit abortion after 20 weeks (when many fetal anomalies are detected) as well — there's nothing like those few days of power when the governor is abroad, actually doing work for good of Arkansas — but his hand was stayed by Mayberry himself. Mayberry thought it was more important for the governor — the real one — to weigh in on the bill than for Darr to feed his ego.

Gov. Beebe has more than the law on his side, though that's all he needs — the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that abortion before viability is legal; both Arkansas bills would deny women the right to end unwanted pregnancies before viability as well as wanted, but doomed, pregnancies. The public also agrees with him, if the emails and letters to his office during the legislative session are any indication. Gov. Beebe's spokesman, Matt DeCample, said in e-mail to the Times the "heaviest traffic" is asking the governor to veto Mayberry's bill and Sen. Jason Rapert's bill to prohibit abortion after 12 weeks gestation.

DeCample also said support for the bill Darr signed, to make secret the names of concealed weapons holders, ran high. Beebe did not sign it because he believes it weakens the state's excellent Freedom of Information law, but would let it become law because of support for it. Not unconstitutional, either.

New mail to the governor: Don't leave Arkansas until the legislature has gone home.

Regnat Populus' amended ballot title and proposal to amend campaign finance laws was rejected by the state attorney general Wednesday because of ambiguities in the wording of the penalty portion of the initiated act. The reform group will have to clarify subsection (c) of Section 3 before AG Dustin McDaniel will give an opinion on the ballot title.

In November, McDaniel rejected an earlier version of Regnat Populus' initiated act for ambiguity in a portion of the act regarding exceptions in gift-giving.

Regnat Populus' ballot proposal is only slightly different from the one it sought to get on the November ballot (its petition drive failed after a hired canvassing group dropped the ball). The ballot measure would ban corporate and union contributions to political campaigns of the governor, cabinet and legislature; end gifts by lobbyists to these public officials (the so-called Walmart rule, in honor of that company's ban on its employees taking gifts from vendors) and impose a two-year waiting period before covered politicians can become a lobbyist after leaving office.

This impressively researched interactive map from the New York Times examines the $90 billion in business incentives provided by cities, counties and states across the country. Arkansas spends $431 million per year on business incentives, which amounts to nine cents per dollar of the state budget. Arkansas spends considerably less than most of its neighbors.

The map allows you to see which companies benefit the most and how much they're getting, as well as the state incentives programs that dole out the most money.

• 'WE SCREWED UP': Richard Weiss.

Over 15 years, DFA sent a total of $2.45 million to the state Game and Fish Commission that was supposed to go to the state Highway and Transportation Department (on average not much more than $150,000 annually to one multi-million-dollar agency rather than another.)

The error was discovered this spring when DFA installed a new computer accounting system for the sales and use tax portion of the accounting operation that collects and disburses billions annual in state money. Fifteen years ago, said Weiss, a coding error that guided the "roomful" of clerks who handled sales tax income resulted in money for highways being coded in three cases for Game and Fish: 1) money collected for "title purposes only," a mistake that amounted to $2.3 million over 15 years; 2) taxicab registration, which amounted to $142,000, and 3) a registration fee for boat dealers, which amounted to $10,200.

When the error was discovered, Weiss said, "We tried to figure out how to correct it without putting a squeeze on the agencies."

After discussion with both agencies, all agreed to a plan to repay the money to the Highway Department in monthly payments beginning in July. Weiss, who I reached after hours Friday evening, said he didn't know the precise amount of the monthly payments or time period, but said the payback would likely take as long, 15 years, as the error existed.

He said state law gave DFA "broad authority" to make transfers to correct errors, but he also added that the change would be subject to review in the auditing process by the legislature.

Said Weiss: "We screwed up. We got a good fix worked out with both parties and we'll just keep on going."

From Palast's article: "The RNC sent letters by the thousands to soldiers, first class, marked, 'DO NOT FORWARD.' When the letters were returned undelivered, the Republicans planned to use these 'caged' envelopes as evidence the voters were "fraudulent"—then challenge their ballot. A soldier mailing in his or her vote from Iraq would have that ballot disqualified — and the soldier wouldn't even know it."

RFK, Jr.'s conclusion after his review of the e-mails: Griffin should be in the Ironbar Hotel, not Congress.