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Friday, February 29, 2008 - 19:21:14
Post no bills
Your turn.
But this just in: Northwest Medical Center's Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson has distributed a news release about a baby boom Thursday -- 22 babies in under 18 hours, or a delivery every 47 minutes on average.
Hillary 70, Obama 26
That's the final official presidential primary vote in Arkansas, released today by Secretary of State Charlie Daniels. Go here for totals and county-by-county numbers.
I love to comb the county totals and ponder such questions as: Who are those two Kucinich voters in Calhoun County? And that lone Joe Biden supporter in Newton County? And what do you think about Huckabee getting a bare majority of Republican votes in Pulaski County, where he's lived for better than 10 years?
Glasgow case
Arkansas Business goes on-line with a long summary piece on the case of John Glasgow, the missing chief financial officer of CDI Contractors. It develops in greater detail what we've reported before, primarily that Glasgow felt pressure from CDI partner Dillard's in the transition of CDI following the death of founder Bill Clark. Dillard's provided some limited answers to written questions. The statement confirms previous reports that no evidence of financial wrongdoing had been found on the part of Glasgow or anyone at CDI, but the statement didn't respond directly to the suggestion that Glasgow felt Dillard's CEO William Dillard and CFO James Freeman had challenged his honesty.
Glasgow had told his family, according to accounts we've received, that he was particularly shaken by one phone call with Freeman shortly before he disappeared in which Freeman reportedly mentioned the Enron scandal and the ill that had befallen the CFO at that company. Our sources said, however, that Freeman disavowed that statement in a subsequent meeting that, nonethless, was tense from Glasgow's point of view. Freeman also challenged Glasgow over bonuses paid to CDI officials for 2007 -- about $300,000 for Glasgow. Freeman said the late Bill Clark never would have authorized such bonuses. (Never mind the bonus record at Dillard's Department Stores.) Glasgow silenced Freeman by producing a memorandum Clark had written before his death estimating profits for the year and outlining bonus projections if the profit goals were met. According to our account, the projections were on target.
The article details a letter that Glasgow wrote for Bill Clark's son William Clark, now the leader of CDI, as a suggested message to Dillard's CEO William Dillard. It's unknown if Clark adopted the language suggested in that letter, which emphasized long years of profitable association and hurt on the part of CDI oficials that they'd be suspected of dishonesty. My sources say Clark delivered a letter to William Dillard the Saturday before Glasgow disappeared on a Monday, Jan. 28. The letter was delivered to Dillard at his home just hours after Dillard returned from a trip to China. Its contents aren't known. Clark reportedly told Glasgow on the Sunday before his disappearance that he didn't yet have a response to the letter.
We understand the Democrat-Gazette has sent one of its news feature writers to talk to the family, so it could be that the statewide newspaper's low-profile handling of the case may be due for a change.
House candidate
I can't keep up with them all, but I'll note significant legislative entries from time to time. Here's one: Little Rock lawyer Darrin Williams, who was chief of staff when Mark Pryor was attorney general, has announced for House District 36. Rep. Linda Chesterfield is term limited in the seat."Blank" contracts in Conway?
The latest cost-cutting move in the financially strapped
All the details on the jump.
The rest of the Arkansas Tech story
As I suggested last night, Arkansas Tech's announcement that the play "Assassins" would be staged on campus after all was a product of negotiations and the ACLU played a role.
Here's the ACLU news release. It welcomes the outcome, but also notes 1) the university's story on cancellation of scheduled play performances changed several times 2) one of the authors of the play had expressed unhappiness with the decision, and 3) the university also had banned student news reporting on the controversy, a clear First Amendment violation. That ban has been lifted.
UPDATE: A letter from a student suggests all the free speech issues at Ark. Tech haven't been solved yet. Check it on the jump.
UPDATE: A final news release on the production, which will open March 13. Advance ticket sales only. None at the door. Does that strike you as weird?
More pay for Hays?
Word has been going around North Little Rock that Mayor Pat Hays wants a hefty salary boost. Any truth to that?
Boost yes, hefty not so much, says Alderman Murry Witcher, and not until a 2 to 3 percent raise for city employees has been enacted. He hopes that will happen in April.
Hays, who could retire at half his current pay of $90,000, has suggested he should make more, Witcher confirmed. Hays’ counterpart in Little Rock, Mark Stodola, is paid $160,000 a year. Witcher denies whispers that Hays wanted a 50 percent raise. A 25 percent increase, “if it is going to occur,” Witcher says, would be more appropriate. That would bring Hays’ salary to $112,500 (and would raise his retirement pay accordingly), but Witcher said “no amount” has been talked about, and stressed that “nothing is on the table” for now.
If Little Rock should be a benchmark for mayoral pay, what about police officers? The union has called for a raise of about $6,000 per officer to bring pay in line with Little Rock’s to stem a rise in resignations from the force. That would cost over $1 million a year, a sum Hays has said the city can’t afford.
UPDATE: Hizzoner says he would not accept a 25 percent pay raise "this year." If the City Council agrees to give employees a 2 to 3 percent raise, he'd like one, too, but that's it. But "nothing is further from the truth" that he's asked for more.
Hays acknowledged "chewing the fat" with folks about his salary, which he said at one time was the highest for any mayor in the state. And when he talked to the firefighters and police about their desire for parity with Little Rock, he said he told them, "Amen to that," given what Mayor Stodola and City Manager Bruce Moore are paid (Moore also gets $160,000).
"God bless Murry Witcher," he added.
School supt. booted
Looking gift horse in mouth
Court: get serious on hate crime
The show must go on
Presidential library transparency
Arkansas Tech hearts drama
Today I am an Obamaist
Niche journalism -- storms
Legislative race UPDATE
Oy vay OA!
All's quiet at UALR
Wyrick is running
New job for Chamber head
Will they overcome?
Slowdown in NWA?
That leaves Arkansas
That gas tax
Shooting at UALR -- UPDATE
Grand Gulf III
What a loser
Crooks and liars
Is a missing person news?
Who played the race card?
Ride 'em Cowboy
Arkansas Tech feels the heat
LRSD back channel UPDATE
Death on his mind
Who's got the spaghetti?
Riiiiiight
The last debate UPDATE
Shooting in Boyle Park -- UPDATE
'Leave Mike Huckabee alone'
We're all Matt Drudge UPDATE
Pork express sidetracked
Leslie Basham leaves Landers ...
On the attack
Building smart in Fayetteville
Signing up for judgeships
Dogtown puts on airs
Catholic Diocese nixes Race for the Cure
Tough on crime
Coal: A full and fair review?
Hillary's soft side
The morning Huck
Election 2008: Early returns
Huckabee's gay outreach
Henderson State's new president
In the name of M.L. King
Those super delegates
Hog tickets going up
Homeless in LR
Huckabook
The not-so-friendly skies UPDATE
County judge race
Argumentum Argentum
Hogs seek Texas breather
Combing the Clinton archives
Judicial perspective
The electability thing
Huckabee's hypocrisy
Free speech at Arkansas Tech
The other bit on SNL
Unelectable in any year
David Shuster says ...
'Worth more dead than alive'
Obama and the red states
Draft: Huckabee for Senate UPDATE
Welcome back, Asa
Open line Saturday
Feel-good story of the day
Huckabee stand-in
Arts talk
Phantom quote
Gun nuts rule
The Clinton rules -- UPDATE
Because Jazzy asked for it
FLASH: Glasgow case
Huck's expenses
Huck's brokered convention dream
Arkansas Times live!
Death at the zoo
Bill Halter is governor
NY Times stoops to conquer
The missing Huckabee tapes
Public welfare? Hah.
Obama v. Clinton
Bloodsuckers bloodied
'Arkansas Twist' writer dies at 74
Charter school lawsuit settled
The Glasgow case
Arkansas schools: better but ....
UA tuition to buy high school
Huckabee on McCain
Statehouse to courthouse?
Who'll speak for the chickens?
Janet Huckabee does Hooters
McCain's lovely lobbyist
What the Huck?
Sexy teacher, Day II
Don't tug on Superman's cape
Vacation home
Taxing gas production
Now we know why Huck fights on
Hell on the border
Barack: Your vessel
Mike Huckabee's diehards
Crumbling Capitol
Scratch Chelsea
Huckabee blasts fellow Repubs
Riverfront Park's new look
Huckabee's next payday
Louisiana politico tonight
Farm Bureau's man of the year?
Aiming for the Quorum Court
Obama also lands Hawaiian punch
Another sexy teacher for cable TV
As the D-G turns
On Wisconsin
It's not over until it's over
Tyson table talk -- UPDATE
FEMA's toxic trailers
Nuttin' but trouble UPDATE
Feuding Fort Smith -- UPDATE
Rush and me UPDATE
Coming up, 'Rose Garden'
Huckabee: Card playing
The secret life of blogs
Sun shines in La.
Clinton comeback?
Sundown towns
BREAKING: Farewell Fidel
Late arrival: D-G boys' club
It's over
Huckabee's last stand
Fayetteville High in motion
Media death
Huckabee: Toast
Presidential pickings
Beat goes on, on tape
That ol' double standard
The wind beneath his wings
Adios, Bro. Mike
Hannah Montana rules
McCain's No. 2
Bad beef
Tough times
Never say die
Soup's on
In the final analysis, it's personal
Saturday night sights
Huckabee to give ethics lecture
Friday night lights - Glasgow redux
A million words
Clinton press coverage
In Hot Buttons We Trust
Fayetteville impact fees
Huckabee's Cayman payday
Two bits, four bits ...
The leadership question -- UPDATE
Roots: Obama's Ozark Mts. home
Irritation with Huckabee
Gas companies must disclose spending
Double standard -- UPDATE
Got any spare change?
How bad is Mike Ross?
Hucked on a feeling
M.L. King Commission director
Hashing out the hamburger tax
Huckstering the Caymans
All the sex ain't in Texas
So, NOW will he quit?
Nelson: Wants to debate gas company
Why Clinton can win
Democrat-Gazette: 'Good ole' boys club'
Land banker
Red and yellow, black and white UPDATE
The morning Huck
Training lacking
Huckster Inc.: Taking care of business
Georgia is peachy
Glasgow case: New details
Asa!
Episcopal Collegiate grows -- UPDATE
Labor muscle
Blue skateboard flu
MSNBC doesn't mean Ms.
Invitation-only debate
Buy my book
Politics make a strange carpool
Advanced Placement advancements
Conway school woes
A Democratic solution
Be mine
The Barry and Mike show
LRSD reorganization: Not so hot
Asa! emerges
The race in Jonesboro
Katrina memories
What's a windfall?
Seat the Florida delegates
Judicial nominee
John Glasgow update
Huckabee for Senate?
The public v. phone companies
Bush visit cancelled
Up against the wall
Fishing for compliments
Hillary hate
Judicial speech
Huckabee: A happy warrior
Open records
Embezzler drains Oxford American
Former legislator dies at 91
UALR builds for future
Severance tax advances
Bush visit
Sound like anybody else we know?
Mike Huckabee, Esq.
We get (e)letters
By popular demand
Doing Dallas
St. Huck -- UPDATE
Divided Democrats
Fun on the prairie
Electability
Running for a TV show?
Sunday, Sunday
'No, I really don't'
Huckmentum
Bisbee is in
Regional rivarly in NWA
The state of Republicanism
Up and down
Turning up the heat UPDATE
The line is open
He likes Mike UPDATE
The morning Huck
Inspirational words
'See you at the inauguration'
M for misogynist
Care about health care?
Horror story
Huckabee and religious voters
The delegate count
The so-called liberal media UPDATE
Courthouse capers
Four score and 96 hours from now ...
Quality education
Bill admits mistake
Leprosy report -- UPDATE
Political Animals -- UPDATE II
Free speech? Not in Fayetteville
The morning Huck
The Fort Chaffee fire
Torturers rule
I smell a rat
Two-man race? UPDATE II
Judgeship progress
Donkeys and elephants
Off the fence
Grand jury quashed
The immigration police
The Pulaski vote
Bang for the buck
The morning Huck
Junk the touch-screens
Is Mike Huckabee lying?
Storm damage UPDATED
And the winner is ...
Prime time
Let's play hardball
Wind damage
Lucky number
A font of information
Spoiling for a fight
The Arkansas angle
Two-man race
Mike Huckabee's clemencies
Terrible Tuesday
A historic night?
Willett's in
The president of heaven
It's downhill from here UPDATE
Search continues
Fighting the adoption ban
At last, LR gets Mexican restaurant
A thoroughly unscientific sample
A Blue Green
Wouldn't you know it
Benton County blues
Election day
Green they're not
Mystery deepens
Enthusiasm meter
Crime stopped
Obama: Gone viral
The race is on UPDATE
Huckstering
Show them the money
Bill who?
Hillary hatred -- UPDATE
Trooper killed in crash
Is Bill hurting Hillary?
Hold that standing o
Money watch
Monkey see monkey do
The left-wing echo chamber
The morning Huck
Super Sunday
A second political career?
Clinton town hall
Sen. Lincoln on the sidelines
After Super Tuesday, eh
The morning Huck
You're on your own
Remember Ada Mills?
Crossing paths
UPDATE: Glasgow search
A tip of the hat
Heckuva job, judge
The morning Huck
Obama's McDougal
Friday night lights
White collar, no stripes
Hillary v. Obama: Commercial appeals
A matter of fact
John Glasgow update
The morning cHUCKle
The morning Huck
Full of gas
The vice squad
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