Chris Bahn at Arkansas Business has a report of a pledge of up to $20 million from the Walton Family Foundation to shore up the Jones Center in Springdale. The creation of the Harvey and Bernice Jones trucking fortune has weathered some difficult times in recent years in part by scaling back some operations such as a TV production arm and fees for the family facility that opened as a free venue.

• OLD MISSION: Union Rescue hopes to replace this building, which the city wants to use for homeless center.

Details here.

The city of Little Rock purchased the old mission a year ago for conversion to a long-promised day resource center for homeless. Union Rescue has been renting the space in the interim as it works on a new building. Last September, city officials said they hoped to have the day center open by last January. I've asked City Hall for an update on the delay.

UPDATE From Assistant City Manager Bryan Day:

We are hopefully about thirty to forty-five days away - work is progressing nicely and as of now there are no unforeseen "construction challenges".

• JEVON NEWMAN

Some quotes from Jevon’s family:

“His favored means of transportation and exercise was bicycle riding, with skateboarding being a close second. He was an environmentalist in the deepest sense: always using stairs instead of elevators, bikes instead of cars, reusing every possible thing that could be reused, reading books from the library.”

“Jev’s greatest burning desire was to give back to society and mankind through the practice of medicine. He graduated from Medical School at University College Dublin in Ireland in June of this year, less than a week before his thirtieth birthday and had just moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to start his residency in Emergency Medicine...In the last weeks of his life, he was happier than he had ever been, setting up housekeeping, planning to buy a home, meeting and really liking his new colleagues and mentors at UAMS Emergency Department residency training program and starting the work of a resident physician.”

“Arkansas ranked last in the League of American Bicyclist's ranking of all states. Shortly after Jevon had moved to Little Rock, less than a month ago, he talked about how little both cyclists and motorists seem to be prepared to interact in traffic together, and how little infrastructure the town provides for safe riding.

Jevon, trailblazer and environmentalist that he was, did not allow that to stop him from biking.”

Contributions have been received from around the world. BACA plans a memorial ride in October.

Sharon and John Hardin Bale Jr. will give $1 million to support the fetal heart program at Arkansas Children's Hospital and it will be named in their honor.

A for-profit outfit that arranges to auction time with celebrities to raise money for their favorite charities reports a Houston woman paid $255,000 to spend a day with former President Bill Clinton. That was Charitybuzz.com's biggest score in 2011, with the money going to the Clinton Foundation. A backstage meeting with Oprah Winfrey brought $105,000 for the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights and a private voice or guitar lesson from Paul Simon produced $75,000 for the Children’s Health Fund).

• REPLACEMENT SOUGHT: Union Rescue Mission, which has sold this facility to the city, hopes to raise $3 million for a replacement.

The Union Rescue Mission has received a $450,000 challenge grant from the Mabee Foundation toward a $3 million drive to build a new mission on Confederate Boulevard, close by the old mission that has been acquired by the city of Little Rock for its day center for the homeless. (An issue that has been somewhat in the news of late.) The money also would remodel the women's shelter on Park Street.

Union Rescue has been on a long quest since an earlier plan to refit the old Dillard's building on Capitol Avenue for the shelter fell through several years ago. That building has since been rehabilitated substantially for state use.

The details of the current drive and gift:

The Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation has given $1.5 million to build a clinical education center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Northwest Arkansas campus.

It brings to $48 million Walker gifts to UAMS.

• ozarkwaterprojects.org
• CLEAN WATER IN HAITI: A painting tells the story of the Ozark Water Projects in Haiti.

A change of pace on a so-far quiet holiday weekend.

Roger Armbrust, a former Arkansas Democrat reporter now retired back in Little Rock after a career in New York, contributes columns to Yahoo and today's is a feel-good story about Arkansans, particularly the Little Rock couple Beckham and Karla Allen. The short version is that they use proceeds from reselling donated used shoes to developing countries to bring clean water to places in Haiti and Kenya.

Here's the water project's website.

• PAYING IT FORWARD: Joe Johnson.

There's plenty of philanthropy out there at Christmas time, but I've always had a soft spot for those who labor each year to line up a Christmas for children in protective custody of the state Division of Child and Family Services.

The Joe Johnson Foundation has stepped up this year. It's providing support for food, games and a $100 shopping spree for 50 kids tonight at a local Walmart.

Merry Christmas to the NBA star by way of Little Rock Central and the University of Arkansas.

So I read in the Democrat-Gazette today that gun-happy state Rep. Randy Stewart of Kirby wants to institutionalize taxpayer subsidies to process wild game to give to the hungry. This is wild game that, in many cases, the hunters don't want to eat. Their consciences are mollified a bit by the thought that the meat might go to some good use. But only as long as they don't have to pay for the processing.

Here's an idea: How about putting a similar amount of state money into peanut butter, cheese, bean, rice and similar stores for cheap, nutritious and far more popular sources of food pantry stock for the hungry?

There is a reason deep freezers all over Arkansas are stuffed with gamey ducks and stringy deer time-stamped back to 1949 or so. (I know, I know. If you marinate it in sherry for 15 hours, tie it up in bacon, smother it in onions, slow cook it carefully, serve it with some cheese grits, pair it with a robust, fruit-forward red wine ..... )

The state doesn't need to pay cash subsidies to charity. Then it isn't charity. It's socialized hunting.

Artest's name change makes for some awesome press release moments.

Mr. World Peace’s charitable efforts encourage people to find the hope to seek wellness professionals and promote personal recovery. The UNITY program’s mission is to alter youth behavior by sharing collective prison experience and lessons, along with introducing positive constructive alternatives to negative behaviors, and offer youth coping skills by discussing and modeling responsibility and self-control.

“Words cannot adequately express the gratitude we feel toward Mr. World Peace. This has been a dream since 2005. The recent AETN documentary about UNITY started getting the message out. Now, we’ll be able to develop it further and take the program directly to youth.” states The Centers’ Prevention Services (UNITY) program manager Pam Plummer.

• REASON TO SMILE: $2.17 million to pay off Arts Center's 'Pharaohs' debt.

Warren Stephens, chairman of the Foundation, said he was not one of the anonymous donors of $1 million gifts. He announced the gifts at the Arts Center's annual meeting.

The slate is thus clean, with a fresh start for the Arts Center and its new leadership.

Leslie has a fuller report on Eye Candy. She also has on her blog another item on Mayor Mark Stodola promising money for the museum if the city sales tax increase passes.

NBA star Joe Johnson, who still calls Little Rock home, is inviting the press in Saturday for the "launch" of the Joe Johnson Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at helping low-income kids and their families. His stated mission: entrepreneurship, physical fitness and hunger relief.

The Willard and Pat Walker Foundation of Fayetteville has given $2 million to Arkansas Children's Hospital for construction of a new wing. A clinic in the new building will be named for the Walkers, long-time supporters of the hospital.