In his 2012 State of the City Address, Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola claimed that his city has the potential to be "the next great American city in the South." While the mayor's phrasing was awkward, I thoroughly share the sentiment that Little Rock has potential to be a truly great city.
I've written before this week about the notion by Sen. David Sanders and Rep. John Burris and others that the bare majority of Arkansas Republican legislators is sufficient to override constitutional governance and allow them to tell executive agencies not to do business with people they don't like.
Damien Echols, freed from Death Row in today's West Memphis Three plea bargain, released the following statement today:
To all my friends and family, my attorneys and advocates, and to those of you from every corner of this earth who have stood beside us these long years, please know that I will forever be indebted to all of you for helping me to become a free man. Each and every day I was the beneficiary of acts of kindness and humanity from people of all walks of life, of all ages, nationalities, religions and political persuasions.
Mike Huckabee, who left Arkansas, where he built the platform for his media success and which, incidentally, has an income tax, is putting down expensive roots in a beach development in Walton County, Fla., east of Destin — a $3 million home.
Over the past three years, his Rogers Photo Archive in North Little Rock has been on a buying spree, purchasing the vast photo morgues of 11 great (and greatly cash-strapped) American newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, The Denver Post, the Boston Herald and The Detroit News.