Arkansas Times

Arkansas A+ puts art in academics

Thea Foundation's teaching model puts kids in the mood to learn.

• by Leslie Newell Peacock
• Tags: Cover Stories, Arkansas A+, Thea Foundation, Paul Leopoulos, Laura Bednar, Tom Kimbrell, Phillip Lansdell, Tobie Sprawls

High phone charges for Arkansas prisoners, their families

Inmate calls are profitable for the ADC, but FCC beginning to budge.

• by David Koon
• Tags: Arkansas Reporter, Arkansas Department of Correction, Steven Renderos, Peggy Borel, Mignon L. Clyburn

Hair! and a mystery no more

The Observer posed a puzzler in our pre-Christmas column, opening the floor to any old Central High alums who might know the purpose of the round, domed objects — which we called "bells," due to their resemblance to the old fire-bells in our own rinky-dink high school — which are under nearly every seat we saw during a recent visit to the big auditorium at Central. As we figured, some among our smart readers knew the answer.

• Tags: The Observer, Terry Rasco

AG: Not influenced by text messages

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel insisted Tuesday in a field-all-questions news conference that the potential release of personal text messages in a Garland County homicide case didn't prompt his decision to admit to a past affair with Hot Springs lawyer Andi Davis.

Follow your legislator

Nearly half of the state legislators who will convene at the State Capitol on Jan. 14 for the start of the 89th General Assembly maintain Twitter accounts. By our count, that includes 53 state representatives and 19 state senators.

It was a good week for Arkansas State football

It was also a good week for a mea culpa, the case for Medicaid expansion and Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson. It was a bad week for Rep. Tom Cotton.

Bent out of shape

Although I am grateful to be included in the yoga community with being so new, I really did not appreciate this comment in the "Yoga yoga yoga" article (Jan. 2): "The only thing about yin, or at least Stacey's yin class, is that it practically ignores the upper body. After class, you're floating from the waist down, and from the waist up, you're still tight as a fiddle."

He's sorry now

Dustin McDaniel seeks forgiveness at news conference.

• by Brian Chilson

Stubbornly wrong

Misguided and obstinate, proponents of school vouchers have promised that voucher legislation will be offered in the 2013 session. And with the new Republican majority, the chance of passage is good. Friends of the public schools, and believers in the separation of church and state, should be building their defenses. With bricks.

• Tags: Editorials, school vouchers

Canvasback

Asa Hutchinson's announcement that he'll run for governor again next year inevitably brought Harold Stassen to mind. Like Hutchinson, Stassen was a frequently unsuccessful political candidate, running for president nine times.

• Tags: Editorials, Asa Hutchinson

Could we agree on ethics?

Two separate Arkansas legislators have spoken to me in recent days about their interest in pushing public ethics legislation.

• by Max Brantley
• Tags: Max Brantley, Bruce Maloch, Thomas Schueck, Gene Fortson, Jim Lindsey, Dean Kumpuris, Joan Adcock

Gun nut club loses Jay Dickey and Mike Ross

When gun-industry vassals like Jay Dickey and Mike Ross throw in the towel, you start to think that Congress may finally be ready to try to stop the carnage in schools, churches and public spaces by passing effective controls on mass-murder weaponry.

• by Ernest Dumas
• Tags: Ernest Dumas, Jay Dickey, Mike Ross, NRA

Getting serious

One of my resolutions for the new year is to fill this space only with serious commentary. No more frivolity here. There's been entirely too much of that for 20 years now.

• by Bob Lancaster
• Tags: Bob Lancaster, Billy Graham

Lyons: The Old South fades

Politically speaking, we live by caricature. Particularly in the age of satellite TV news and Internet fulmination, the temptation is to melodrama. So I wasn't terribly surprised to read a recent article in the online magazine Salon arguing that "even though it's a truism of American public discourse that the Civil War never ended, it's also literally true."

• by Gene Lyons
• Tags: Gene Lyons, Andrew O'Hehir, Jon Hubbard, Charlie Fuqua

He did, she did

"This question may be due to the difference in generations. My 31-year-old friend Cheree says she learned in college that 'she' is now the standard generic pronoun to use."

• by Doug Smith

Mel White's 'Angry Birds' lays out feathered facts

Angry Birds, as everyone with an electronic device and time on his hands knows, despise those blinking pigs. They'll hurl themselves at those swine to keep them away from their eggs.

• by Leslie Newell Peacock
• Tags: A&E Feature, Angry Birds, 50 True Stories of the Fed Up, Feathered, and Furious, Mel White

David Olney and Sergio Webb at White Water Tavern

Also J.R. Martinez at Philander Smith, Justin Bieber at Verizon, "Tchoupitoulas," Opening Day at Oaklawn, Bushy Luv at Revolution and Butcher and Public Whole Hog Roast.

• by Robert Bell, David Ramsey and Lindsey Millar

Shawn James at Maxine's

Also, "The Metal Children" at the Weekend Theater.

A fracking feature

Damon's 'Promised Land' avoids polemic.

• by Sam Eifling

Competing in the SEC

The closure of another college football season came this week, and again an SEC team (more specifically, those ever-lovable, filthy rogues from Tuscaloosa) claimed the kingdom by way of a 28-point thrashing of Notre Dame that was in no way actually that close. You will read much about the conference's string of seven straight national championships, but this heretofore-unseen dominance is truly a buzzkill like no other. Who wants to sit down on a sleepy Monday night and watch these kinds of slaughters year after year?

• by Beau Wilcox
• Tags: Pearls About Swine, Jeff Long, Brett Bielema

Cafe Prego still delivers

In a neighborhood that's seen an explosion of sleek, modern restaurants and opulent housing, Cafe Prego is a welcome throwback to a simpler time.

• Tags: Dining Review, Cafe Prego

Government by crisis (always crashing in the same car)

• by Tom Tomorrow

Feeling safe

• by Tommy Durham