• 'THE SHOFFNER MULE': A friend found this photo on the web of a "Pienot" shoe. He rechristened it the Shoffner mule, in honor of the state treasurer, the recipient of kickbacks delivered by pie.

Debbie Rogers, chief deputy state treasurer, said Treasurer Martha Shoffner will not be at work today, but otherwise it was "business as usual" at the treasurer's office. Shoffner was arrested Saturday and charged Monday with taking kickbacks from a securities salesman who handled state bond business.

Rogers said she didn't know about Shoffner's work plans beyond today. She said Shoffner had spoken briefly with her today and said that she'd been advised not to comment and to refer questions to her attorney, Chuck Banks.

There's been a bipartisan call for Shoffner's resignation. Republicans also have begun urging Gov. Mike Beebe to begin proceedings to remove Shoffner from office. The Constitution provides for impeachment by the House and trial in the Senate as one means of removing the state treasurer. Shoffner's term in the $53,000-a-year job runs through 2014. There's also a provision for removal by "address," a hazily written provision that hasn't been used since the Constitution was written in 1874. It might mean that the governor could remove Shoffner on a two-thirds vote of House and Senate.

Shoffner should resign for multiple reasons, beginning with the sworn affidavit that she'd admitted to FBI agents that she'd wrongly accepted money from the bond dealer. She may yet have a legal defense on the charge, but it's politically sufficient evidence that she should no longer be conducting state investment business.

I think Gov. Mike Beebe is right to give the decision a bit more time before putting removal machinery in play. Said his spokesman Matt DeCample about impeachment and address:

Those are always options, but before going to the extent and taxpayer expense of calling in the Legislature, he wants to give the resignation option some time. There is also continuing study of how exactly those proceeding would occur. We haven’t found record of the “by address” provision being used before.

I think the last Arkansas state officeholder to be removed from office was Sen. Guy "Mutt" Jones, expelled after a Senate trial in 1974 after a federal tax conviction.

At the announcement yesterday of the charge against Martha Shoffner, U.S. attorneys announced a public corruption task force for the state.

Do you think maybe an offer of $30,000 in campaign contributions to change a vote on pending legislaton would be worthy of an inquiry?

This post is by Brandi Womack, wife of Republican state Rep. Richard Womack of Arkadelphia, on Womack's Facebook page:

• 'MY REP'S BEEN LYING': Chief of St. Bernard Financial in Russellville concludes his employee is key in Shoffner probe.

I hinted earlier that evidence was mounting that the securities salesman who provided confidential information to the FBI was Steele Stephens, the broker who began enjoying a huge share of Treasurer Martha Shoffner's bond business in 2010.

Two highly placed sources have told me that they were certain Stephens was the wired informant who delivered cash to Shoffner in a pie at her Newport home Saturday.

Yesterday, he didn't take calls. But his boss at St. Bernard Financial Services in Russellville, Robert Keenan, had told me he'd talked to Stephens, who assured him he was not involved.

After hearing from my two sources, I was heading to work with plans to call Keenan back. I was greeted at my desk by this phone message from Keenan: "I think my rep's been lying to me."

I called Keenan, who gave the following account:

Keenan first looked again at the criminal charge and decided that the time line of Stephens' involvement with Shoffner dealing could fit Stephens after all, if you counted his time with both St. Bernard and an earlier employer.

"I asked him, 'Are you involved?'"

Stephens reportedly responded, "The FBI told me I can't say anything."

Keenan said he then asked when that counsel from the FBI occurred. In January 2012, Stephens reportedly responded. That's when the confidential source began talking with the FBI in the Shoffner case.

"So I said, OK, it's him" Keenan told me.

Stephens never officially confirmed that. But Keenan said "there are so many dots." He said Stephens continues to work at the firm today (he didn't respond to my request for a call), because he didn't want to move rashly. But he said he'd begun notifying all relevant regulatory authorities to "see what they say."

Keenan reiterated that anything Stephens had done was without his knowledge. "I'm crushed. He's a great guy."

He said Stephens is required to sign a lengthy questionaire every year about his business. Among them is whether he'd made any contributions to anyone without the firm's permission. He said he had not. "Obviously that's not true," Keenan said.

"It's like family when you're in a little firm. You believe in your people. It's like if somebody told you your son's got a drug problem. Your first reaction would be to say, 'No, I don't think so.'"

Keenan said, "It's a PR nightmare. We haven't done anything wrong as a firm. My dad taught me you can't do crap like this because it eventually comes out."

Steele Stephens' father, Steve Stephens of Little Rock, also has been employed as a registered securities rep at the firm, but retired this year on his 83rd birthday, Keenan said. (I had Keenan's name at the beginning of the sentence incorrectly in the original post.)

When I went back to Heath Abshure, the state securities commissioner, with my information that Stephens figured in the probe, he responded:

We are working on it. Although the Department’s enforcement actions are civil, the effect on a respondent’s reputation mirrors that of a criminal case. As soon as the Department files its complaint, the damage is done. Therefore, I tell my examiners and attorneys that they are not to file an action until they are absolutely sure they can prove each allegation in the complaint.

With regard to the identity of the confidential source, the Department is reaching out to the likely suspects in an effort to get them to talk to us. Cooperation is something the Department considers in its enforcement matters. Obviously, lack of cooperation is also considered.

• TOM COTTON

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma is holding firm. He wants disaster aid for Oklahoma, but he wants it paid for by cuts somewhere else. That's been Cotton's past stance on disaster money. Will he hold firm when it's a red state feeling the pain?

It's simple. The American way is to help the needy without condition, certainly not that somebody else must sacrifice first. Take no storm hostages, certainly not for ideology. There but for the grace of God go all of us.

Weird day. I've been consumed with Martha Shoffner's favorite pie. Line is open. Finishing up, it's still all Martha all the time:

* MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS: Will a single federal charge be enough for Martha Shoffner? With conviction, probably, for a 68-year-old woman and a long federal jolt. But what a mess left behind. For example:

1) FREE RENT: FBI recitation said Shoffner lived free in a Little Rock building until 2009 when it was sold (and she went looking for a sugar daddy in the bond business). Lived free? Reported as gift? Gift legal under ethics rule? Who provided the gift? Did they get something in return?

2) CAMPAIGN FINANCE: There's still Shoffner's claim that she spent $900 a month in campaign money on a beatup, aging Ford van rented from a Newport used car lot. Really? Or did it mask a way to tap campaign money?

3) EMPLOYEES: Multiple employees have told me tales today of being dispatched to purchase everything from items for her mother's house to a bacon biscuit for her dog (bacon had to be extra crispy) with office accounts. One employee said she was offered a public pay raise if she'd work outside the office on state time to raise campaign money. Another said she'd told the FBI about campaign contributions missing from reports. Another told me about staff shakedowns to buy gifts for Shoffner, such as a set of golf clubs. Another told of receiving cash payments for doing questionable chores for Shoffner as an employee.

4) THE CANCER: Is Shoffner really believable when she says she shook down ONLY ONE securities dealer for living expenses? Bribery is sort of like eating potato chips, isn't it? Can't live on just one.

5) THE FUTURE: Nobody — nobody — is urging Shoffner to stay and fight. If we can believe the FBI's sworn affidavit, she's admitted taking illegal kickbacks. She'd serve the public, her party and her legal fees by resigning and cutting the best deal possible as quickly as possible and hope her lawyer Chuck Banks can find a way to plead for mercy.

6) IN DEFENSE: Employees — including those sorely disaffected with Shoffner — ascribe some of her problems to mood swings and judgment bordering on delusional. A gambling addiction helped a previous client of Chuck Banks, Lu Hardin, avoid jail time for abuse of public office. Perhaps Shoffner can present a sympathy-inducing defense. Based on early reports, however, she might have a harder time turning out a file folder full of testimonials from friends and co-workers.

7) CO-CONSPIRATOR: Surely we'll know sooner rather than later who wired up to give feds the goods on his/her payments to Shoffner. Surely there'll be consequences for a dishonest securities salesman even if held harmless on federal charges through his immunity deal.

* ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD: Massive tornado smashed Oklahoma City. A track two miles wide. An elementary school took a direct hit, according to various reports.

David Koon reports from the news conference this afternoon by U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer of the Eastern District of Arkansas, who brought the charge against state Treasurer Martha Shoffner, and Western District U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge, who buttressed the message that the feds are looking for corruption statewide.

• Brian Chilson
• 'PUNISHMENT IS DUE': Chris Thyer.

Thyer said that the decision to extend immunity to the informant referred to as Confidential Human Source 1 (CHS1) in the criminal complaint against Shoffner was not an easy one, but it was made "out of necessity," due to how limited the alleged conspiracy between Shoffner and CHS1, an unnamed bond broker, was. "If both of those two people remain silent," he said, "we wouldn't be here today."

Asked by a reporter if CHS1 was Steele Stephens, Thyer said "no comment." He later cited Justice Department regulations that require him to only release information contained in public filings, but said the identities of those named in the criminal complaint will eventually come out incourt. He said the immunity extended to CHS1 will keep the informant from being prosecuted "by my office," but he added the immunity doesn't cover potential prosecution on state charges.

Thyer said that the timing of Shoffner's arrest on Saturday had to do with the fact that the Saturday meeting between CHS1 and Shoffner was the first time they had met to make a cash handoff since CHS1 was offered immunity. According to the criminal complaint, the meetings between Shoffner and CHS1 happened at intervals of up to six months. Shoffner wasn't indicted, he said, because a grand jury wasn't available Saturday to hear the evidence. Thyer said they decided to move forward without an indictment because a delay would have meant "we would have left $6,000 in government funds in her possession until the grand jury met." He said the case will be presented to a grand jury as soon as possible.

Asked whether Shoffner should resign, Thyer said he has a personal opinion on it, but declined to share it, saying it is "none of my business," and should be left up to Shoffner and the Arkansas legislature. She can be impeached at a special legislative session if she does not resign. A resignation would leave it to Gov. Mike Beebe to make an appointment.

Beebe called today for Shoffner to resign. He said he hadn't talked to her since she made a snarky remark about the governor being driven around by a "manservant" at a time when attention was focusing on use of state vehicles by statewide officeholders such as Shoffner. By law, the State Police provdes the governor with a security detail.

Shoffner's attorney, Chuck Banks, said he'd "probably" recommend that Shoffner should resign, given the interference with her work if she decides to proceed to trial. But he said that was her decision. He'll be meeting further with Shoffner tomorrow.

In addition to commenting about Shoffner, Thyer and officials from the FBI Little Rock field office, Pulaski County Sheriff's Department, Arkansas State Police, Little Rock Police Department and the U.S. Attorney for the Western District used the occasion of the press conference to announce the formation of the new ArkTrust Public Corruption Task Force. The multi-agency task force will accept and investigate confidential tips on public corruption at any level — local, state or federal — by any elected or appointed official in Arkansas. Tips can be submitted to the ArkTrust hotline at (501)221-8200 or visit tips.fbi.gov.

David Ramsey reports on the Mike Beebe news conference at which he said he had no immediate ideas about a replacement if she does leave office:

• FIRST DAY ON THE JOB: Chuck Banks just arrived on Shoffner's legal team.

Chuck Banks, who represented her in federal court today, answered my question on when he begin representing her:

When her family contacted me Saturday night and I visited with her yesterday morning. I didn't enter my appearance or file anything until this morning. I notified Jana Sunday afternoon, then I filed a motion this morning and entered my appearance at the hearing.

By then, the damage had been done, including taped outreach to a government informant for more financial help and alleged admission of wrongdoing to arresting agents.