Deadline rolls around and it's hard to know which provocation should demand the most attention.
• WAR ON WOMEN: The Arkansas legislature is in a headlong rush to federal court. Rep. Andy Mayberry's bill, awaiting Senate approval, would prevent abortions at 20 weeks or later except to save the life of a mother or prevent near-death physical damage. Similar laws have been passed in other states and are under court challenge. They represent roughly a four-week advancement in the limits of Roe v. Wade and an enormous erosion in women's medical autonomy, once a bedrock in the law.
• WAR ON WOMEN II: Mayberry's bill would be but a historical footnote if Sen. Jason Rapert's bill becomes law. It would make a crime of an abortion performed after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, something that can occur when the fetus is not even six weeks old, the size of a bean. The mortal assault on women's rights would carry the additional insult of forced submission to the insertion of a nine-inch wand in a woman's vagina. It is the only way to detect a fetal heartbeat in the earliest stage of pregnancy, the time when most women seek abortions. Twenty years after Roe v. Wade established an absolute right to pregnancy up to the point of viability of the fetus, another Supreme Court ruling reiterated a woman's right to choose abortion. The opinion said the state's "previability interests are not strong enough to support an abortion prohibition or the imposition of substantial obstacles to the woman's effective right to elect the procedure."
Rapert's bill would prohibit abortion well before viability and present substantial obstacles to a woman seeking an abortion earlier. The legislators who support this bill are re-enacting another civil rights resistance in the 1950s and 1960s when Southern legislators flouted the rule of law with expensive consequences. They'll be expensive now, too, not to mention send an unmistakable message to women about their diminished value.
• GUNS: As a constitutional matter, you could argue that the existing state ban on guns in church verged into a constitutional gray area. That's not why it was repealed this week in favor of a law allowing churches to decide whether guns should be allowed on premises. The bill is sloppily written. Backers contend that, though the same law requires businesses to post a sign that guns are not allowed, churches may set rules and post no notice. The unwitting public must guess whether they're entering a packing or non-packing congregation. I'd prefer to know clearly which churches don't feel safe without guns on premises. I feel safer in the others.
• CLOSER TO HOME: Lobbyists for clean water paid a call to urge a kind word for the pending land use and zoning ordinances before the Pulaski Quorum Court Feb. 26. The process of devising rules to protect Lake Maumelle, the main water supply for Central Arkansas, has been fought for eight years. It began with developer Deltic's attempt to pre-empt protective rules through state legislation. Deltic battles on, aided now by the Koch Bros. lobbying team. Deltic could have subdivided its property long ago to be grandfathered outside subdivision rules, but didn't want to do it because then it would have had to pay taxes on its vast holdings as real estate property, rather than as cheap timberland. The land use ordinances are less stringent than environmentalists would like and friendly to existing landowners, who could build additions on their property with little cost or hassle. Lobbyists are working mightily, including some employed to target minority members of the 15-member Quorum Court. Central Arkansas Water will bear the cost of the new regulation. Tougher zoning will come eventually as the city grows. In the meanwhile, without rules, environmental disasters will occur. Ask your justice of the peace to vote for clean water. The alternative is hazardous to your pocketbook and health.
Speaking of...
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ExxonMobil has a plan for Lake Maumelle watershed
May 22, 2013The line is open. Leslie Newell Peacock hopes to follow directly with a little something about a meeting today of Little Rock, Central Arkansas Water, ExxonMobil and other people over the Pegasus pipeline that runs through 18 miles of CAW's watershed, including along the shore of Lake Maumelle, the region's water supply. /more/
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Practicing law with Bro. Rapert
May 18, 2013Sen. Jason Rapert, author of the patently unconstitutional bill to ban most abortions in Arkansas at the 12th week of pregnancy, took heart yesterday at Judge Susan Webber Wright's indication that she was inclined to uphold the part of the law that requires women seeking an abortion in the 12th week of pregnancy or later to have an ultrasound and to be shown the results of that test. /more/
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Judge Wright issues injunction against abortion law
May 17, 2013The word from the federal courthouse is that federal Judge Susan Webber Wright has issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the new Arkansas law that was meant to bar most abortions at the 12th week of pregnancy. /more/
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Women's rights in court this morning
May 17, 2013Leslie Newell Peacock will be in federal court for us this morning for the preliminary injunction hearing on the lawsuit challenging the new state law prohibiting most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. /more/
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The death and taxes open line
May 16, 2013The line is open. Closing out: * THERE THE GOP GOES AGAIN: The Arkansas Republican Party is in all-out assault mode on U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, today pounding him for saying seven years ago that he supported permanent repeal of the estate tax (dishonestly called a "death tax" by the Republicans) but joining in recent bipartisan approval of what is now a dramatically lower estate tax. /more/
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The terrible 10 of the 89th Arkansas General Assembly
May 9, 2013They're the worst of the worst. /more/
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How the Arkansas legislature has changed your life
May 9, 2013For better or for worse. /more/
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Exxon pipeline in watershed prompts meeting — Exxon a no-show
May 2, 2013Government officials and others came together today in Little Rock to discuss the ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline, currently shut down on account of the Mayflower rupture, which runs through 13 miles of the Lake Maumelle watershed. /more/
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Morning notes: Clinton library, protection for Lake Maumelle
April 24, 2013Some morning odds and ends: * BIPARTISANSHIP IN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES: The Dallas Morning News includes an op-ed from Skip Rutherford on the cooperative nature of presidential library planning. /more/
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The post-crash morning report
April 11, 2013Another day and the Arkansas Blog is back in business after an extended crash last night. /more/
- More »
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Little Rock records sixth homicide
The Little Rock Police Department says Abe Hall, 58, of 3608 Asher, has died as a result of gunshot wounds suffered at his home early this morning.
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Saturday mail service will continue
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Latest in Max Brantley
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Event Calendar
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Re: The crash of Martha Shoffner
I don't see sadness either. Every day the Lord sends the criminal justice incarcerates a…
- on May 23, 2013
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Re: The crash of Martha Shoffner
Who could have predicted that when she got her just desserts it would actually come…
- on May 23, 2013
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Re: The crash of Martha Shoffner
I don't see sadness in this case. What I do see is a person who…
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