*IS THE BUFFALO RIVER SAFE?: Michael Dougherty, president of the Buffalo River Chamber of Commerce, sounds off on the permit granted to C & H Hog Farms in a guest editorial in the D-G (paywall). Dougherty outlines some of the risks that come from the two million gallons of manure that the factory farm will produce near Big Creek, a tributary of the Buffalo. Worth reading the whole thing.

*EXXON ASKS FOR DISMISSAL: From a Fox16 report:

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ExxonMobil is fighting back against a group of homeowners that filed a lawsuit in the wake of the Mayflower oil spill on March 29th.

In a Motion to Dismiss filed Thursday, lawyers for ExxonMobil argue that residents whose property wasn’t directly impacted by the spill can’t sue the company on the basis that their property has lost value.

“It’s typical of what we’ve seen so far in their approach,” said George Wise, a lawyer and co-chair of the Central Arkansas Chapter of the the Sierra Club, an environmental group that’s been vocal about the spill. “They’ve not really reached out to everyone in the community.”

*HEAD START CUTS: Brenda Bernet reports in this morning’s paper (paywall) on the sequester’s impact on Head Start programs in the state. Rep. Tim Griffin offers the standard line when confronted with the pain implicit in the austerity regime he favors. He doesn’t like these cuts. He’d rather cut, you know, waste, somewhere. Griffin accuses HHS of “choosing waste over kids by refusing to cut wasteful spending and instead shifting the burden to preschool kids.” And what is this wasteful spending? He doesn’t say. (Actually I should count it as progress if Congressmen are actually expressing concern about pre-school for poor kids. Not quite the fever pitch over flight delays, of course…but priorities, priorities.)

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