Saturday, November 07, 2009 - 00:15:22
I'm shortly to board a plane for home, so I'm not readily able to investigate this question. But perhaps an informed reader is at hand.
Gov. Mike Beebe caterwauled yesterday that the cost of extending health care to millions of Americans and untold thousands in Arkansas through a bill before the House today could add $200 million to the state's Medicaid budget. A big number.
Has anybody addressed the actual cost to the state? Isn't Medicaid spending typically at a 3-1 federal match, so a $200 million increase would mean about $50 million in state spending? Not small change, to be sure, but against a general revenue budget 100 times that size, not quite so much, with some very real benefits to sick Arkansans along the way.
U.S. Rep. Mike Ross is already wailing about tax increases on Arkansas families to pay for the outrage of trying to cover the one in four in his district with no coverage.
Can somebody help on this question?
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 18:57:08
Vandy Nash, a fourth grade teacher at Indian Hills Elementary in North Little Rock, has just been presented the 2010 Teacher of the Year award of the state Department of Education at the Governor's Mansion gala. Which gives me an opportunity to post this story from the New York Times Magazine about one teacher's experience trying to make a difference in the Arkansas Delta.
Consider this open line No. 2.
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 16:47:48
Photo from enjoyarkansas on flickr.
This is an open line but I just wanted to tell all you Facebook fans out there that if you haven't checked out the State Parks of Arkansas fan page, you should. Always lots of beautiful pictures and useful info. The picture above is from Petit Jean.
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 16:31:52
Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods, the Little Rock communications firm, was awarded an advertising contract by the
University of Central Arkansas. The board approved the contract this afternoon. After the infamous Lu Hardin era, the university could use some good P.R. - but it's going to cost them.
Sam Eifling at Arkansas Business has the details.
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 16:03:06
Local stations are reporting that three buses carrying Grambling State University band members were involvevd in a crash on Highway 167 near Fordyce. Nine to twelve students were injured in the accident. Injuries, according to reports, are minor. The students were on their way to Little Rock to play at War Memorial Stadium tomorrow during the Grambling State, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff game.
UPDATED INFORMATION:
Continue Reading »
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 16:02:22
Photo by Brian Chilson
This morning's testimony in the capital murder trial of Curtis Vance centered on evidence measured in microns, as attorneys questioned employees of the Arkansas State Crime Lab about fluids and hairs found during the investigation into the murder of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly.
First on the stand was Lisa Channell, chief criminalist for the Crime Lab, who testified about hair evidence, and the efforts to isolate a DNA sample from items found at the crime scene and swabs collected during a rape examination of Pressly.
Continue Reading »
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 11:47:37
The Nation's David Corn asks, "Is the tea party gang turning the GOP into a party of hate?"
When John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House, appeared at the Tea Party rally at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon, it was a dramatic signal: The wing-nuts have taken over the GOP.
Think I'm being harsh? The angry folks at the protest -- which attracted several thousand conservatives -- held up signs with messages of hate: "Get the Red Out of the White House," "Waterboard Congress," "Ken-ya Trust Obama?" One called the president a "Traitor to the U.S. Constitution." Another sign showed pictures of dead bodies at the Dachau concentration camp and compared health care reform to the Holocaust. A different placard depicted Obama as Sambo. Yes, Sambo. Another read, "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds" -- a reference to the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory holding that one evil Jewish family has manipulated events around the globe for decades.
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 09:41:18
Priceless.
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 09:34:44
Roby Brock reports on some sweet and sour news from Conway. Although the town will be home to an
Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield data center that will employ roughly 15 to 20 workers, the bus manufacturing plant owned by
IC Corporation will consolidate operations with another plant and close to 477 jobs could be lost.
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 09:27:33
The number of people who, according to a Gallup poll, believe that Mike Huckabee is qualified to be president? 50. What about Sarah Palin? Only 31 percent believe she is qualified to hold the highest office in the land.
Friday, November 06, 2009 - 01:58:34
Republicans, at long last, have cobbled together some health legislation to give the appearance that they stand for something besides NO in the debate. It's mostly empty bromides, with little immediate impact on rising health costs and virtually no positive impact on covering those who have no coverage or skimpy coverage. Insurance companies still could deny coverage and impose ruinous rates selectively, to name just one shortcoming of the House bill. Sen. Gilbert Baker, anointed by national Republicans as the chosen opponent for Sen. Blanche Lincoln, is touting a coookie-cutter version of this same empty rhetoric. Tort reform and health savings accounts will provide coverage for people with pre-existing illnesses? Don't think so.
The New York Times summarizes the shortcomings of this line of thinking.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 17:24:38
In the classic story "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe, a prisoner is slowly bricked up alive inside a vault. Today, prosecutors kept laying on the bricks in the case of Curtis Lavelle Vance, accused of capital murder in the rape and beating death of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly. The wall they are building may be an insurmountable obstacle for the defense team trying to save their client from the death penalty.
The day began with testimony from members of the Little Rock Police Department's Crime Scene Search Unit, who testified about evidence collection in Pressly's home. Of particular interest to the defense was the way fingerprints are gathered at a crime scene. The root of that interest, said Deputy Prosecutor John Johnson in a short conversation during a break in proceedings, is that no prints from Vance were found in Pressly's house, and the defense plans to eventually make an issue of that.
Testimony next came from the Marianna biology teacher who was raped by a stranger in her home on April 21, 2008. Jurors and spectators sat riveted as she stoically described being grabbed from behind in her living room after emerging from the shower while wearing only a bathrobe. In one particularly poignant moment, the victim mouthed the words "It's okay" to her parents, who were sitting on the other side of the courtroom. She said that after raping her on the couch while telling her that he would kill her if she tried to look at him, her attacker stole $3 and a cell phone.
Later today, Krista Hall, a serologist, and Mary Simonson, a forensic DNA examiner, both with the Arkansas State Crime Lab, described how they tested fluids recovered during a rape examination of the Marianna victim -- tests which revealed her assailant's DNA profile. That profile, they said, eventually made a "high stringency hit" with the DNA profile of the assailant in the Pressly case. Later, after he submitted oral swabs to police, the DNA of Curtis Vance was linked to both the Marianna rape and DNA found at the Pressly scene to a certainty of one in billions.
Defense attorney Katherine Streett countered by asking Simonson about possible cross-contamination of evidence while it is being reviewed at the Crime Lab. Simonson said that in addition to having their results "peer reviewed" -- double-checked by other DNA investigators -- specialists are required to run control samples during testing to assure that there's no contamination.
The day ended with jurors listening to an audio recording of an interview between Little Rock Police detectives and Vance taken in Marianna while detectives where there investigating leads in the Pressly murder. In the audio recording, Vance denies that he was in Little Rock on Oct. 20, 2008, and says that he has never had sex with anyone from Little Rock.
Still to come: the audio and video recordings seen and heard during pre-trial suppression hearings, in which Vance admits much more.
Testimony resumes tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 16:52:32
Consider this your open line.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 16:42:27
Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic picks up on a bit of political back-peddling involving our very own Sen. Gilbert Baker.
One day after National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman John Cornyn promised that his group wouldn't play in Republican primaries, a Republican Senate candidate in Arkansas is preparing for a fundraiser at the National Republican Senatorial Committee headquarters in Washington.
AP is reporting that Cornyn is even hosting the event.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 15:41:12
The U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce has released a districty-by-district analysis of the impact of the Affordable Health Care for America Act (or H.R. 3962). The results are incredibly interesting to look at. Take Rep. Mike Ross' 4th Congressional District. According to the assessment, the house health care reform bill would:
- Improve employer-based coverage for 307,000 residents.
- Provide credits to help pay for coverage for up to 196,000 households.
- Improve Medicare for 130,000 beneficiaries, including closing the prescription drug donut hole for 10,800 seniors.
- Allow 14,000 small businesses to obtain affordable health care coverage and provide tax credits to help reduce health insurance costs for up to 13,000 small businesses.
- Provide coverage for 90,000 uninsured residents.
- Protect up to 1,700 families from bankruptcy due to unaffordable health care costs.
- Reduce the cost of uncompensated care for hospitals and health care providers by $156 million.
And that's just the fourth district. You can find the same info for the districts represented by Vic Snyder, Marion Berry and John Boozman.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 14:49:58
Grim news from MSNBC:
At least seven people are dead and 12 20 31 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, the base's public affairs office told NBC News on Thursday.
A lot of unknowns at this point. Not known whether victims are soldiers or civilians. One gunman is in custody. One, maybe two others are on the loose. Fort Hood is an army base located in between Austin and Waco, TX.
The Austin American Statesman has set up this Twitter site to keep up with all Fort Hood-related info. Or just use the #fthood tag.
UPDATE: MSNBC is now reporting that three soldiers opened fire. One was killed and the other two are now in custody.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 14:09:46
Sen. Blanche Lincoln held a conference call with reporters late this morning. Most questions revolved around health care reform although the senator did spend a good deal of time talking about climate change. More about that on the jump.
On health care, Lincoln stressed the importance of being more efficient with health care spending. She said that we need to make sure insurers understand they cannot withhold insurance because of a pre-existing condition or drop people just because they become ill. When asked about all the third party groups getting involved in the debate, Lincoln said hearing from various constituencies was very important but everyone needed to "keep our eye on the ball," and provide needed reforms.
"I’ve been disappointed in the polarization of these different groups who either want too much or too little and they’ve just polarized around a government plan and that’s such a small part of any of this. We’ve got so many things that we can agree on and we should agree on those things and move forward," Lincoln said.
In terms of a final senate vote on a health care bill, Lincoln said it was unlikely to happen before Thanksgiving. "The House is projected to have a vote on this on Saturday, so we’re waiting to see what the bill is going to be," she said. "We don’t know. I know what we did in finance and I was very proud of what we did. I felt we made great strides in improving and expanding health care accessibility and quality. We did so without adding any extra burden on the taxpayers or the treasury."
More on the jump, plus a response from the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Continue Reading »
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 12:03:39
The state Supreme Court has
tossed out the conviction of former
police chief of Lonoke on corruption charges, saying the admission into evidence of his wife's sexual shenanigans was improper and testimony backing up the charge was hearsay.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 11:50:43
From David Koon: The murder trial of Curtis Vance in the slaying of KATV news anchor Anne Pressly continued this morning with testimony by LRPD crime scene specialist Stuart Bartlett, who showed the jury grisly photographs taken at Pressly's home Oct. 20, 2008, the day of the slaying. Bartlett was one of three in the crime scene search unit that gathered evidence, including prints and hair samples, at the house.
Vance's defense team, on cross examination, asked Bartlett about the method used in gathering fingerprints at the house.
Testimony didn't begin until 10:15 a.m. because one juror had trouble finding a parking place near the courthouse (there's a teacher curriculum meeting going on).
Circuit Judge Chris Piazza admonished the jury to get in earlier "because it's going to take us until Christmas [to hear the case] if we don't get started on time."
UPDATE:
Former Marianna teacher Kristin Edwards took the stand to testify about her April 21, 2008, rape. (Evidence in that case led to Vance's arrest.)
Edwards said she had just gotten out of the shower that Monday morning before school and was walking through her living room when a man came up behind her and put his hand over her mouth. "He said 'I have a gun, don't do anything, don't look at me, or I'll kill you," she testified. Edwards said the man was angry and loud and pushed her onto her couch face down, where he raped her, saying over and over again that he would kill her is she looked at him and "I know your house."
(Continued on jump)
Continue Reading »
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 11:23:59
But don't take my word for it. Ask the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO says the bill would only extend coverage to 3 million people by 2019, leaving 52 million uninsured by the same year. It would, however, reduce insurance premium costs. The Democrats' bill, by contrast, would extend coverage to 36 million. From the NYT blog "Prescriptions":
According to the report by nonpartisan budget office, the Republican bill would reduce future federal deficits by $68 billion over 10 years, compared to a reduction of $104 billion by the House Democrats’ legislation.
The findings by the budget office mostly seemed to confirm assertions by Democrats that the Republican bill, offered as an amendment to the Democrats’ measure, would do little to change the status quo.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 11:05:23
L.T. Simes, the East Arkansas judge who made money from a law practice on the side, has been suspended from the bench until the end of his term next year by the Arkansas Supreme Court. The court said he can run again, rejecting the recommendation of the judicial discipline panel.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 10:31:10
Sen. Tracy Steele (D-North Little Rock) announced that he will challenge Green-turned-Democrat Richard Carroll in the Democratic primary for the House seat in District 39. It's an office Steele has held before. Before being elected to the State Senate in 2002, Steele served two terms as a representative for District 39. When asked about the challenge, Carroll said there wasn't much of a difference policy-wise between the two candidates and that he didn't really understand Steele's reason for opposing him, other than simply wanting to stay in the political arena.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 09:40:59
LRPD officers surrounded a house and arrested an armed burglary suspect Wednesday after he jumped from a second-floor window trying to escape. Police were called by a witness who'd seen the suspect, Miles Williams, 22, kick in a carport door to get in a house in the Kingwood neighborhood. The suspect, who police said pointed a gun in their direction, was charged with aggravated burglary, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm and also with theft by receiving in connection with a burglary at another Kingwood home.
Police report on the jump.
Continue Reading »
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 08:29:53
While Blanche Lincoln's vulnerability in the 2010 Senate election has been covered like the dew in the press, most of Arkansas isn't listening, the University of Arkansas's 2009 Arkansas Poll, released today, says.
"While a few of us are making a lot of noise already about the 2010 U.S. Senate contest, the reality is that the vast majority of Arkansans are not yet paying attention," a UA press release quotes political science professor and poll director Janine Parry as saying.
How vast is that majority? Fully 75 percent of Arkansans aren't following the challenge to Lincoln or aren't paying too much attention to it, the 11th annual poll says.
Other details from the poll:
-More of those polled would vote for a Democrat (41 percent) over a Republican (36 percent).
-Nearly half of Arkansans -- 48 percent -- oppose a public option as a way to reform health care. But 56 percent of uninsured Arkansans support the public option.
-Fifty-nine percent of Arkansans believe the death penalty provides a pyschological benefit to victim families.
-Sixty-nine percent believe that the death penalty costs the state less than a life without parole. Psychology professor Denise Beike, who contributed the questions about the death penalty to the poll, said multiple studies have shown the opposite is true, because of the cost of court appeals.
One finding of the 2008 Arkansas poll was way off. While the poll found that 55 percent of Arkansans opposed Initiated Act 1, which makes it unlawful for gay couples (and other unmarried couples) to act as foster parents, 57 percent of Arkansans voted in favor of the act.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 07:06:53
E.J. Dionne Jr. offers some perspective on Tuesday's elections. Democrats should take warning, he says, and President Obama needs to use his much-celebrated grass-roots political organization to start making people feel hopeful again. But the night's big loser?
the national conservative political machine -- the wealthy tax-cutters at the Club for Growth and the Palin-Limbaugh-Beck complex. The Beltway Right shoved aside local Republicans in an Upstate New York congressional race, imposed their own candidate who didn't even live in the district, and went down in a heap.
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 06:55:24
Susan Page of
USA Today cites a recent poll that puts former Arkansas governor
Mike Huckabee at the top of a list of prospective GOP presidential candidates (with 40 percent saying they would "seriously consider supporting"), just edging out
Mitt Romney (39 percent).
Sarah Palin came in third at 33 percent. Of course, it's a little early for this to really mean anything. Page says, "None of the GOP prospects has announced he or she will join the race, but all are making the sort of appearances and speeches that would keep the option open."
Thursday, November 05, 2009 - 06:46:52
at the state legislature yesterday. For all you open-government buffs, the House Management Committee decided to stream all House proceedings on the internet starting in February of 2010. It will be interesting to see how that plays out logistically. Roby Brock has more at Talk Business. Also, Brock notes that a recent Talk Business poll shows that 57 percent of Arkansans have a favorable view of the state legislature (27 percent unfavorable). You can also check out Speaker Robbie Wills' blog for his side of the story.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 - 17:52:48
There are horrors in this world, and one of them was sitting in a clean, well-lit courtroom, listening to a veteran emergency room doctor and a sexual assault examination nurse describe the injuries of KATV anchorwoman Anne Pressly.
WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS TO FOLLOW
Earlier, Anne's mother, Patti Cannady, had described how she found her daughter in her rented house on Club Road in the early morning hours of October 20, 2008, lying in a fetal position on a bed soaked with her own blood. Cannady teared up at least once as she told how she tried to stop her only daughter's bleeding with towels retrieved from the bathroom -- how, when she looked up to pray as EMT's worked to save Anne's life, she saw that the attack had been so brutal that it left flecks of blood on the ceiling.
St. Vincent Infirmary ER doctor Theresa McBride and Carla Jackson, a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, took the description of Pressly's injuries where a mother's mind would not allow itself to tread, and their account was -- in a word -- horrific.
Jackson, who examined Pressly for signs of rape as doctors worked to stabilize her, testified that Pressly's face and scalp bore signs of "massive trauma." Jackson said that there was a half-centimeter tear to the skin between Pressly's vagina and anus, which she said can be indicitive that a forcible rape has occurred.
McBride, an emergency room physician who has taught emergency medicine at UAMS, said that she was surprised that Pressly even made it to the hospital. When she first saw her, McBride said, Pressly was, "laying in a pool of blood on the gurney... She did not have a recognizable human face."
McBride testified that when she tried to put a tube down Pressly's throat to help her breathe, she found that the bones in Pressly's face were so shattered that they moved under the skin. Pressly's hair was matted with blood to the point that McBride said she first took her to be a redhead. Her nose was crushed beyond recognition. What McBride first took to be a laceration to Pressly's neck was actually her dislocated jaw, which had collapsed down onto her throat.
Given the chance to cross-examine McBride and Jackson, defense attorneys for defendant Curtis Vance gave the impression of grasping at straws, with attorney Katherine Streett seizing on the fact that McBride is a Doctor of Osteopathy, not an M.D., and questioning Jackson over the fact that she couldn't remember if she'd used one swab or two to collect evidence from Pressly's body. McBride countered that the D.O. and the M.D. degrees are recognized by medical licensing bodies as "equivalent degrees."
Testimony resumes tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 - 16:54:06
Before we shut it down for the night (though David Koon may post again later), here's a press release from the Baxter County sheriff about the sentencing today of the woman who fled Arkansas after officials found 500 dogs in miserable condition on her property in Gameliel (see picture above of one of them). A Baxter County judge sentenced her to a year in prison and fined her $500 on each of 20 counts of animal cruelty. She also ordered to pay the Humane Society of the United States $500. Paltry (though the legal max), given the HSUS says it spent $100,000 on the rescue and placement of the dogs.
Now, an open line.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009 - 15:43:09
Chris Heller, the attorney for the Little Rock School District who has told federal court that open-enrollment charter schools are threatening desegregation efforts in Pulaski County, today provided school board members and the superintendent with data his office has collected supporting his position.
The information includes enrollment and test data (here, here, and here) from a student sample that suggests that most of the transfers to e-Stem and the Lisa Academy were already scoring proficient or advanced on benchmark exams in the LRSD.
Heller will present the information to the School Board at its meeting tomorrow night. He said he's seeking more information on how charter schools are affecting traditional public schools from the state Education Department. He writes:
From the information we do have, it appears that we could reach a financial settlement that would make it much more difficult but not impossible to provide our students a high-quality education in the next ten years, and that the continued unconditional approval of open enrollment charter schools in Pulaski County, and particularly the magnet type charters, will have the foreseeable effect of creating greater concentrations of poverty and greater racial segregation in LRSD schools.