Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 17:29:13
The long-bubbling federal review of the Conway Human Development Center seems to have come to a full boil today.
The Justice Department today filed a motion in federal court to enjoin the admission of developmentally disabled children to the center to prevent their placement in "dangerous conditions" and to allow continued investigation of accusations of "imminent and serious threats to the safety of the facility's more than 500 residents."
Here's a copy of the motion for an injunction.
Justice filed a complaint against the state in January 2009. It said it had concluded that residents face "increasing and grave risk of harm each day that deficiencies are ignored." It cites, among others, the state's failure to move residents into community-based programs. Also:
The United States has concluded that children at the facility are particularly vulnerable given allegations that CHDC residents are subjected to dangerous medication mismanagement and harmful, unnecessary restraints. In recent years, at least three CHDC residents have died, suffered possible permanent organ damage or been at risk of hemorrhaging to death because of psychotropic medication mismanagement. CHDC also continues to utilize 41 different forms of mechanical restraints on both children and adults, including straitjackets, restraint chairs and papoose boards - practices that have been largely barred from other facilities for years.
I've sought comments from the state on today's development.
UPDATE: Said Matt DeCample in the governor's office:
As you know, Arkansas has been working with DOJ officials for many years to address their concerns at CHDC. Nothing in that working relationship had changed to our knowledge, and we had no warning or indication that they were going to pursue this course of action.
This is an old story. Here, for example, is a five-year-old Justice Department investigation report sent to Gov. Mike Huckabee with similar allegations. The state has always exhibited a certain blindness about operations at Conway, as evidenced when this suit was filed more than a year ago and a state spokesman described Conway services as "wonderful." More than 500 people live there, most with profound or severe retardation. Some are in fragile health. In 2005, according to the Disability Rights Center, about three dozen were school-aged children. This link carries multiple links to the progress of this ongoing probe.
It is an unrelated divison of the state Human Services Department, but this news happens to come on a day I've received continuing tips about shortcomings in the state's child protective services, an agency whose work was highlighted in this week's cover story by David Koon. There is more to come from a former official about personnel qualifications and responsiveness at the agency. How many children fall through the cracks in Arkansas? And how long will legislators tolerate the lack of accountability from the agency, which won't discuss specifics of their cases and won't reveal what, if any consequences, were meted out to workers involved? The governor continues to disappoint in this field. Children pay the price. The Justice Department has the power to pull the covers off.
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Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 17:03:35
It's open.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 16:51:43
The debate challenges have begun. In the 1st Congressional District, Democratic candidate Chad Causey calls for one. Tim Wooldridge and Steve Bryles promptly second the motion and Bryles adds to the stew by labeling Causey, a former top hand for U.S. Rep. Marion (Thank God He's Retiring) Berry, a Washington insider.
Welcome home, Chad.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 14:52:33
First Lady Michelle Obama will speak at UAPB's commencement May 8, one of several graduation appearances she has planned this year.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 14:18:17
Sen. Blanche Lincoln's day was disrupted by confusion over where she stands on a health care reconciliation vote. (At a minimum, her confusing reply to a question seems to have given rise to the issue.)
Opponent Bill Halter, meanwhile, staked out four simple objectives: 1) a promise to reject automatic congressional pay raises; 2) a vow to post his schedule on-line; 3) a vow to hold a town hall in all 75 counties every year; 4) a promise never to become a lobbyist. You can watch the entire announcement here.
At a news conference on those promises, he said in response to a question that he's in favor of the reconciliation process, though he'd have to see the final bill before he made a firm commitment on health care. Asked about some criticism of his candidacy by Democratic establishment figures like Rep. Marion Berry, Halter responded that insiders have no more votes than anyone else and those distinctions lose meaning in the voting booth.
-- Gerard Matthews
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Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 13:26:02
Add former
Little Rock City Director Larry Lichty to
the blogging community. First up, he laments the city's growing infrastructure needs and hopes they won't be forgotten in the current talk about a sales tax for parks.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 11:09:41
Lost in the shuffle of the filing deadline was the Green Party's continued effort to get the recognition it deserves from the state of Arkansas. Its lawsuit challenging its failure to get automatic ballot status because it fell below the required 3 percent vote in the presidential race in 2008 (though state candidates easily exceeded that threshold) won't be tried in time to help ballot access this year.
The party will begin March 20 gathering 10,000 signatures on petitions to certify the party for the ballot, said Green Party state treasurer Mark Jenkins of Little Rock. It has 90 days to obtain the petitions. It has succeeded twice before. Once certified, the party will hold a nominating convention, probably the last weekend in June.
Two Green candidates have announced -- John Gray for U.S. Senate and Ken Adler for 1st District Congress. Jenkins said the party would field a number of other candidates, including a challenger to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who is currently unopposed for re-election.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 10:53:29
... it's not likely to be a pretty picture. See Florida, as richly described by the Tampa Tribune, where after 22 years all the familiar lottery themes are evident -- the preying on the poor, the need for new games to keep revenues up, the loss of legislative fervor for programs financed by the lottery, the disproportionate tendency of lottery scholarships to go to middle income families.
Arkansas is in its lottery honeymoon. Players are happy. Current college students with sufficient grades are anticipating a windfall. Check back in 20 years. If I'm still around, I expect I still be glad I voted against it.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 09:47:15
Big news this morning when a news article reported that Sen. Blanche Lincoln might after all vote for health legislation under a simple majority procedure, depending on the contents of companion legislation.
Her earlier announced intention to oppose a so-called reconciliation vote was, at a minimum, pointless, it seemed to me. A lot of political people I talked with last night used rougher terms. Like stupid.
Lincoln was the critical 60th vote in ending the Senate filibuster on health legislation and gave the bill her vote. It was her finest hour. If some health legislation passes, supporters can thank Blanche Lincoln. She was hung with that no matter what she did on subsequent votes.
OH NEVER MIND: After news of the senator's moderation flew around the web for several hours, Senator Lincoln issued a statement saying that the reporter who wrote the story on which her supposed rethinking was premised "mischaracterized" her remark. Here's the reporter's followup account. Whatever the confusion, Lincoln is reiterating now what she has said for sometime, she's a "no" on reconciliation.
Washington – U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln today reiterated her opposition to altering the health insurance reform bill using budget reconciliation.
“Sen. Olympia Snowe and I have proposed a bipartisan way forward on health care and I still hope that my colleagues will consider it,” Lincoln said. “I have promised my constituents that I will not support income tax increases to pay for health care and I will seek bipartisan solutions. This takes budget reconciliation as an alternative means to pass health care reform off the table for me. I have fought for and ensured transparency throughout this process, and I believe we must get over this final hurdle using the regular rules of the Senate."
Lincoln released the following [sic] statement after remarks made to a reporter earlier today were mischaracterized.
So back to pointless and stupid.
PS: Bill Halter says he supports passing health care reform with a simple majority vote.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 09:16:11
Roby Brock provides some info on
D.C. Morrison, the mystery third candidate for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary. With past votes for Ronald Reagan, Ron Paul and Asa Hutchinson I don't think he's a contender to even be a spoiler in the Arkansas Democratic primary.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 09:09:36
Good quality surveillance photos from yesterday's robbery of the Summit Bank branch in the Heights. The summary from LRPD:
About 5 p.m. Monday, officers responded to a bank robbery at 1800 Taylor, Summit Bank. Upon arrival, officers made contact with employees of the bank. They advised that a white male entered the bank just before closing and approached a teller. The white male reached in his right front pocket and gave him a note stating, “He had a gun and to give him the money." The teller gave the suspect an undetermined amount of money. The suspect then ran southbound on Taylor from the bank, crossing Cantrell during heavy traffic. The suspect was described as a white male, 5’10- 5’11, 150-160 pounds, 25-30 years of age, wearing a red, long sleeved button up shirt, khaki pants, clean shaven, shaved hair cut “brown”, and sunglasses.
UPDATE: The LRPD has identified the suspect as Christopher W. Gable, 29. He's believed to be driving a red Dodge pickup with damage to the bed on the passenger side. He should be presumed to be armed and dangerous.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010 - 06:37:31
Congressional Republicans are making U.S. Rep. Mike Ross a poster child for defeat of health reform, citing his opposition in this story about Obama's last push for the bill. Thanks, Mike.
Ross yesterday even proudly distributed an op-ed he'd contributed to Roll Call. You'd think it was a sermon for health reform as he recites the litany of ills of our system, from the pernicious insurance companies to the desperate poor people with no place to turn. But no. Ross never really specifies what's wrong with the watered-down option remaining on the table. Ross even writes, unbelievably:
One thing in this debate is clear: The status quo is simply not acceptable, nor is it sustainable.
He, of course, will vote for the status quo. His main argument against action is that his voters are confused. Will he set them straight? He is too cowardly to do that, too involved in his own self-preservation to save a few lives.
Read Ernest Dumas' column this week on how poor Arkansas -- in the person of Ross, Marion Berry and Blanche Lincoln -- may be the key to defeat of improving the lot of millions of Americans. It will be a dark day for the state whose former leaders brought old-age insurance and Medicare to U.S. citizens.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 17:37:47
Another thing before we sign off: Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings says the Summit Bank at 1800 N. Tyler St. just west of the Cantrell Road Kroger grocery store was robbed around 5 p.m. today. A white male dressed in a red polo shirt and slacks and wearing sunglasses told a teller he was armed and left on foot with an undisclosed sum of money. There were customers in the bank at the time, Hastings said, but no one was hurt. Hastings said the robber was 5' 8" and weighed about 170 pounds and he believed the man was described as being in his 30s. Police are still on the scene.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 16:35:01
Burn it up. But first some odds and ends:
We got this all messed up last week, but the Oyster Bar gathering of politicos who'll drink beer and discuss the coming campaign season now that political filing has closed REALLY is scheduled for tonight, 6-10, Stacy Sells advises.
Stacy was among the select crowd at today's Walton-Hussman gathering of invited business people on education reform issues at the Little Rock Club. She said the program pretty well followed the outline Luke Gordy had outlined to me earlier (second item in linked article) -- no immediate specific major strategy unveiled on the political front.
Also: Several have asked about the more detailed filing expected in the Lindsey bankruptcy case in Northwest Arkansas. Court records indicate an extension on the filing has been granted.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 15:16:03
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Obama administration plans to go after civil rights inequities in schools and colleges, notably including racial disparity in discipline.
The campaign will essentially put an enforcement stick behind the carrot of the administration's $4.35 billion Race to the Top program, which holds out the promise of extra federal funding if states revamp their education policies. While Race to the Top will reward school reforms, the civil-rights push will emphasize the potential to punish offending schools.
Recent testimony in Little Rock has highlighted breathtaking racial differences in suspension rates in the North Little Rock and Pulaski County school districts. Arkansas, a holdout state for corporal punishment, also has tended to show a propensity to mete out physical violence as punishment disproportionately to black students.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 14:29:39
Good piece by David McCollum in the Log Cabin Democrat about high school basketball playoffs, particularly a couple of scenes at Carlisle Friday -- most prominently a temper outburst featuring Ky Madden, a nationally watched guard for East Poinsett.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 14:09:26
Acting Pulaski School Superintendent Rob McGill, once the sole remaining finalist to be the permanent superintendent, won't be sticking around for the superintendent selection process, which was reopened after a semi-finalist with McGill dropped out.
It was announced today that he'll be the new executive director of the Academics Plus Charter School in Maumelle. The school's board will vote on his contract tonight. It provides an annual salary of $95,000. Here's the news release.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 12:42:04
Filing ended today, too, for local officials. Here's the list of candidates who filed for Pulaski County office.
Interest is high in the pay raise-happy Quorum Court.
County Judge Buddy Villines was unopposed. Sheriff Doc Holladay drew a Republican opponent. There will be contests in primaries or general election for 10 of the 15 JP seats.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 11:24:35
Sen. Steve Bryles joins the Democratic field for 1st District Congress.
Former legislator Doug Matayo makes eight in the Republican primary for 3rd District Congress.
With a half-hour to spare, prima donna Jim Holt made it eight Repubs in the race for U.S. Senate. In this bunch, Gilbert Baker looks like Winston Churchill.
UPDATE: No final day surprises. It looks like Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and Secretary of State Charlie Daniels are the two most dominant politicians in Arkansas. Neither drew a Democratic or Republican opponent -- McDaniel for re-election, Daniels for auditor. (I don't know if the Green Party will be challenging these.) Oh, and Treasurer Martha Shoffner also was unopposed at the statewide level. Contested Republican primaries for every federal office. No challenges to Democrats in the 3rd and 4th Congressional Districts.
Also, Willard Proctor didn't file to regain his Pulaski judgeship despite the law barring the recently ousted judge from running again. I don't know if that means his legal fight is at an end, or not.
Here's the secretary of state's final list of Republican and Democratic candidates.
Here's the list of independents who may yet qualify for the ballot by submitting sufficient signatures by May 1.
Still pending are Green Party nominees.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 10:35:39
A report from Doug Smith on the lawsuit by the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers against the Pulaski County School Board for voting to end recognition of PACT as a bargaining agent for teachers:
Circuit Judge Timothy Fox on Monday ordered the Pulaski County School Board and the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers to try to mediate their differences while he deliberates on a lawsuit over whether there’s still a contract between the board and the teachers union. The board voted in December to stop recognizing PACT as the bargaining agent for teachers. PACT said the board had no authority for such a decision, and that the existing contract was still in effect.
At the end of a hearing Monday, Fox said he wouldn’t make a decision in the case until he was convinced that both sides had mediated in good faith. He said he’d appoint a mediator if the two sides couldn’t agree on one. He told the parties to report back in two weeks.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 10:07:01
The state Board of Education has a handy blog to keep up with events at the board meetings almost as they occur. You can check the link as the day progresses if you're interested in the Weiner School District merger with a neighbor and a couple of other merger proposals. So far today:
* Financial trouble at a charter school in Humphrey.
* Wickes and Van Cove will consolidate.
* Delight and Murfreesboro will merge -- the official end of the Weiner Delight idea.
* Board approves Weiner's annexation into the Harrisburg School District. In the beginning, all Weiner schools are preserved.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 09:58:44
Main Justice, a website that follows the U.S. Justice Department, provides more details on the curious case of Carlton Jones of Texarkana. A late addition to the slate of nominations from Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln for a federal judgeship, he more recently had been pushed as a nominee for U.S. attorney in the western district of Arkansas.
Some black lawyers took the change of direction as a slap, because it meant all four federal judicial openings in Arkansas would go to whites. The odds of that have grown stronger now that Carlton Jones has taken himself out of the running for the U.S. attorney seat. As we reported previously, he's running for prosecutor in Texarkana. He cites family considerations for the change, but some think he's just being diplomatic.
What's happened is a political screwup by the Arkansas senators. They had their favorites for openings, as senators in the majority always do, and intended to push them through. But between their utter tone deafness to broader politics and the Obama administration's lackadaisacal approach to filling vacancies, they have a political snafu on their hands. It's another black mark with black voters, at a minimum. From the article:
But some black leaders say they aren’t happy.
“We are now in an election season and we can’t say we got anything productive out of the Democratic Party,” Arkansas NAACP president Dale Charles said in an interview with Main Justice. “We’re not satisfied with being left out of the process.”
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 09:15:48
Here's a film clip from Roby Brock on Talk Business on Senate candidate Bill Halter's answer to a question about abortion. Halter, a Catholic, gives a thoughtful, nuanced answer in which he expresses a personal aversion to abortion but a reluctance to impose his beliefs on others. He calls for work on a consensus on the issue that could lead to fewer abortions. In the end, in answer to a question of whether he supports Roe v. Wade as the law of the land, he says, "I do."
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 09:03:12
There will be a small rush today as filing closes for the primary election season. Sounds like the elite eight of Republicans will assemble for U.S. Senate. Still more names are being added to the Republican primary for 3rd District Congress, good news for Fort Smith's Gunner DeLay, I'd guess, who stands alone as a candidate from the other side of the mountain.
You can check here for updates.
Gilbert Baker, Republican for Senate, tore into Dr. No Boozman, another GOP Senate candidate, for his TARP vote. Republican blogger Jason Tolbert expresses surprise that Baker is going after Boozman instead of Blanche Lincoln. I'd say it's about time the Republicans started running against each other. There's no November match with Lincoln (or Halter) for the losers.
Monday, March 08, 2010 - 06:38:54
Concealed weapon laws are no longer enough for the gun zealots. Open carry is the new rage (and I do mean rage) and the threats of angry gun packers have spooked, among others, Starbucks, into not adopting the law-allowed private property rules against guns on premises.
Is the movement to make every Main Street look like an episode of "Gunsmoke" a good or bad thing for the pro-gun crowd? On that question, opinion is mixed.
Robert Weisberg, a gun law expert and a criminal justice professor at Stanford University, described the open-carry activists as “a liability” for the N.R.A., in particular.
While the N.R.A. is almost always going to support the increased deregulation of guns, Professor Weisberg said, the organization keeps its distance from open-carry advocacy because it does not want to distract attention from its higher priority of promoting the right to carry concealed weapons.
“Add to this that the N.R.A. is a very disciplined, on-message organization,” he said, contrasting the N.R.A.’s approach with the free-wheeling nature of some open-carry advocates.
Asked to comment on the open-carry movement, Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the N.R.A., said the organization “supports the right of law abiding people to exercise their self-defense rights in accordance with state local and federal law.” He declined to comment further.
A gun bridge the NRA will not cross? Surprising.
PS -- Of course the overheated pistol packers are at work in Arkansas.
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Monday, March 08, 2010 - 06:23:31
The New York Times parachutes into darkest Arkansas to assess Sen. Blanche Lincoln's troubled standing. The anecdotal lead finds troubles even among ladies who lunch with her mama.
HELENA, Ark. — When the subject of Senator Blanche Lincoln came up at a women’s luncheon last week at the historic Pillow-Thompson House in this Mississippi River town, there was an awkward pause in the chatter.
“We’ve known Blanche all her life, and we love her,” one woman explained delicately while Mrs. Lincoln’s mother, a town fixture beloved for her pimento cheese sandwiches and homemade cookies, ate at a nearby table. “We just don’t think she’s been making very good decisions lately.”
Ouch. It gets worse with quotes, by name, from a farmer and a hunting buddy of her daddy's who aren't planning to vote for Lincoln.
Republican politico Bill Vickery is quoted as saying that survival of the primary could help Lincoln in the fall and I think that's probably true. Particularly if the lacklustre Dr. No Boozman awaits.
Sunday, March 07, 2010 - 17:02:26
I'm an old fogey set in my ways, I know. But I can't stand the Heights Kroger.
Other than that, the line is open.
Sunday, March 07, 2010 - 10:24:57
Brian Chilson captured the throng at the start on a cool, overcast day.
Sunday, March 07, 2010 - 10:10:57
LR Central Principal Nancy Rousseau sends word that both of the state of Arkansas's winners in the annual Siemens Foundation scholarship competition are Central seniors. A male and female student from each state receives a $2,000 scholarship for outstanding scores on Advanced Placement math and science tests. Arkansas winners are Yi Wu and Helio Liu. As luck would have it, I spoke to Helio last week. He's a member of this year's Arkansas Times Academic All-Star Team, which will be featured in our April 29 issue. He's a future engineer hoping to study at MIT. He has a gaudy academic resume (and a sense of humor).
I was thinking about these students yesterday as I drove past the new public charter high school under construction downtown. What need is it, exactly, that is unmet in existing public high schools in Pulaski County? (Middle schools are another matter in many ways, I'd be the first to admit, though there are pockets of excellence there, too.) Helio's praise of his teachers was heartfelt. He, too, said he didn't understand the negative feelings that he'd encountered toward local public schools since moving to Little Rock six years ago.
Sunday, March 07, 2010 - 07:49:07
A couple of stories in the NY Times assess the Democrats' current low estate nationally.
One is the profile of David Axelrod, message genius of the Obama campaign, perceived goat of a failing White House message machine. (Actually, polls show the public more favorably inclined toward the Obama White House on many issues than the 'baggers' howls would have you believe.)
Another is a lengthy look at what it would take to re-energize the Democratic base voters for November. Bottom line: No simple solution. One- and two-word solutions -- No, death panel, death taxes, etc. -- have always been more the province of Republicans. Maybe a Coffee Party is in order.
ALSO: Frank Rich puzzles over Obama's failure to lead.