Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 17:46:15
I'm clocking out.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 17:37:27
The
California Supreme Court today said it would take up a challenge to Prop. 8, the gay marriage ban. But it declined to allow such marriages to continue pending a ruling.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 17:33:36
I hinited broadly at this several days ago, but St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center refused comment. Today, I got this statement from Margaret Preston at the hospital:
Several former employees of St. Vincent were dismissed from their jobs for inappropriately reviewing medical records of KATV Channel 7 news reporter Anne Pressly.
Pressly’s family was notified at the time of the incidents.
St. Vincent is committed to providing not only excellent health care to our patients, but also providing those patients with the assurance that everything possible will be done to protect their privacy during and after they receive care at a St. Vincent facility. Procedures are in place to monitor inappropriate access of patient information as required by federal law. All violations are subject to penalties up to and including dismissal of employees who violate those procedures.
Looks like the story will break in the daily press tomorrow. Though original reports to me said as many as 10 people had viewed the records, the hospital is now saying the number was around eight, while Pressly was still alive and in treatment in ICU. Apparently two were determined to have reasons to see the records. A undetermined number did not and were fired.
The next interesting question is how much to believe about details that leaked concerning the extent of her injuries and events that led to her death.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 17:11:03
A gunshot was fired today somewhere near the point where Ouachita Baptist and Henderson State campuses meet in Arkadelphia, but an OBU spokesman said no one was harmed and the persons responsible were taken into custody.
KATV is reporting three people were arrested. One shot was fired at a group of students heading to a dormitory, police told the station. No one was hurt.
My Twitter alert on this got a return tweet from a local news reporter who says it looks like a "domestic" incident: girl's boyfriend fired shot at ex-boyfriend.
More on the jump from Fox 16's early newscast:.
Dawn Parker of KARN Radio puts the shooting on a parking lot between the two campuses and says the three arrested were not OBU students.
Continue Reading »
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 15:28:51
Dow below 8,000. And Republicans (like Mitt Romney) tell hundreds of thousands of auto workers and related industries to go to hell. Deflation fears arise.
2009 looks like a very bad year and it hasn't even started.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 14:02:25
A point of personal indulgence. My hometown Louisiana newspaper has full coverage of a big sporting event in Arkansas this weekend -- the inaugural Red Beans and Rice Bowl. Read on for details. But let me say first that, though you can take the boy out of Louisiana ....
"Hot boudin, cold coosh coosh. Come on McNeese, poosh, poosh, poosh." I hope to hear many choruses of "Jole Blon" before the night is over.
No offense, UCA fans, but my dad was a member of the then-juco's first graduating class and played tuba in the McNeese band. His college best friend, who became a near uncle to me, was a halfback on the first Cowboy team. My dad always bought season tickets, even when the crowd numbered in the hundreds and you could walk in free at halftime.
We traveled near and far for Cowboy road games, generally with me dozing on my dad's shoulder as he drove home in the wee hours. Games were always at night in Louisiana. What a memory. Cocooned in a big V-8 Pontiac, the heater cranking against the chill, we coursed through the piney woods of North Louisiana accompanied by the radio sounds of Ace Ferguson in the LSU wrapup show and the college football scoreboard, fight songs blaring. A Pitt Grill hamburger stop in Alexandria was always in order.
Names like Don Breaux (Arkies should remember him) and Tom Sestak still thrill me. The current Cowboy coach is son of a famed Cowboy QB and his wife, my high school speech teacher. I spent many an hour during summer programs at The Ranch, the McNeese student center.
In short: Sauce piquante is thicker than water. Go Cowboys.
Continue Reading »
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 12:47:54
Do I detect a little here in Mike Huckabee's remarks?
“What John McCain did for her was to give her the capacity to sort of leapfrog over the process and get right to the center stage,” he said at a breakfast with reporters this morning. “By naming her (his running mate) he was able to put her in a position where she did [not] have to go through the bruising process of the primaries. Many of us had been out there for 15 months … she walks into the hot spotlight and she’s a blank slate nobody knows so Republicans are fired up.”
....
Huckabee’s comments on Palin, a possible rival for the 2012 Republican nomination, suggest some jealously [sic]. “She didn’t have to go through any the debates, she didn’t have to go through the primaries, she didn’t have to have people pick her or pick someone else against her. State parties did not have to divide from one to 12 ways over her. So it was a remarkable ability for her to come in at a level that is an extraordinary benefit to her.”
He continued: “So will she be part of the future? Of course she will, for the simple reason that she is one of the few people who played at that stage who didn’t have to get bloodied in the process.”
Poor, pitiful Mike. Nobody has to work as hard as he does to get freebies and attention.
ALSO: Still more harsh commentary for Huck on his comment that gay people haven't suffered enough to deserve civil rights. American Prospect recognizes a racial wedge play when it sees it. Queerty offers Huck remediation in the sad record of violence against people on account of their sexual orientation. It's worse because he knows better. I wonder what some of his former staff members think of his pandering to sexual bigots, apparently believed to be the great hope of the future for the Republican Party. A talk show host and former fan was disappointed to see Huck put his foot in his mouth, an occasion on which the former fan also learned Huck had once equated gay marriage with animal marriage. The Human Rights Campaign recalled the beastiality crack, his suggestion about locking up HIV sufferers and other remarks in labeling him a "mouthpiece for homophobia."
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 12:06:55
The Clinton Foundation raised $124 million in 2007 and spent $140 million, according to its annual filing with the IRS. You can peruse the whole thing here. Bruce Lindsey is the top employee, at $240,000 per.
You won't find individual contributors (though the rising president might be interested in whether the contributors present potential conflicts with a future secretary of state). The cash position of $90 million, I'm told, overstates the organization's situation. A good bit of that is committed to AIDS-fighting drugs. (But looks to me like there still should be some leeway for a little railroad bridge renovation.)
UPDATE: A Clinton Foundation spokesman says all the organization's excess cash comes in the form of grants for specific programs and that there's little or no discretionary money in the reserve for the long-promised renovation of the rusting Rock Island bridge. But, he adds, the Foundation has raised $5 million for this cause and continues to seek other sources to complete the $10 million necessary.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 11:27:28
In the morning mail:
What: Confined to a cage with her nude body painted like a tiger and a banner above her reading, "Wild Animals Don't Belong Behind Bars," PETA member Christina Dang will protest the impending arrival of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Little Rock.
What's wrong with Ringling? If you're the caged tiger who was shot to death by a Ringling trainer, the young lion who died unattended in a stiflingly hot railway boxcar, or one of the circus's elephants who is constantly chained and disciplined with steel-tipped bullhooks, everything.
"I'll gladly bare my skin if it will help expose Ringling's abusive treatment of animals," says Dang. "The best way to stop this abuse is for people to boycott Ringling and other circuses that use animals."
Where: S. Rock Street and President Clinton Avenue, Little Rock
When: Thursday, November 20, 1 p.m.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 11:25:45
Says here he's coming back as Obama's head of Health and Human Services.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 10:19:17
... and zoning issues.
On the jump, a WLR neighborhood association leader is unhappy about a zoning variance sought for a drive-through McDonald's on Highway 10. It would be another affront to the Highway 10 design overlay district. (Yes. Really. That hellish corridor actually is the product of a design overlay. Let that be a reminder of why Library Director Bobby Roberts' insistence on slavish devotion to the tiniest, and already oft-ignored River Market Design Overlay District rules rings a touch hollow in this city.)
Having ultimately lost a battle over a litter-strewn drive-through Sonic in my backyard (plus an automatic car wash that immediately began pre-dawn operations despite representations to the contrary) I feel the pain of the complainant and the feeling of futility that arises from facing commercial interests before the City Board.
Continue Reading »
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 09:14:34
I'm just about to begin to feel sorry for the University of Central Arkansas. Bond downgrade. Lingering debt from the Oxford American investment.
Then I remember that interim President Tom Courtway is protecting others -- like himself -- who benefitted from the campus' irregular discretionary scholarship program. That state Sen. Gilbert Baker, who stood silent through the burgeoning UCA financial disaster at his hometown school, was a recipient of numerous special UCA financial favors and now, thanks to Brotherhood membership, is the presiding officer of the top legislative budget panel. That Trustee Michael Stanton, a Baker facilitator and also a beneficiary of special UCA favors, thinks he should be reappointed to the UCA Board for his "leadership." That the Board met in secret and approved illegal bonus deals for former President Lu Hardin.
Sometimes, you earn your grief. But I do feel sorry for the innocent bystanders.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 08:48:58
City Director Michael Keck has, by my lights, long been the unofficial mayor of WLR in terms of advocacy of that part of the city's interests in our crazily bifurcated governance scheme. So, I found it interesting that he's taken a side with residents opposing a Deltic Timber rezoning plan, bumped from the City Board agenda last night. A street change, the particular bone of contention, also was put on hold. His note to opponents of the plan on the jump.
Here's yesterday's blog entry, which includes a link to David Koon's story on the dispute.
Continue Reading »
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 07:05:20
Reminder: the Arkansas Times is Twittering.
Arkansas Blog at twitter.com/arkansasblog
Rock Candy at twitter.com/rockcandies
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 06:56:28
So says a poll of women by the Daily Beast. They think there's gender bias in the media. They think female candidates -- both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin -- didn't get an even break, Palin worse than Hillary, but Hillary worse than male candidates. A bunch of them think men are sexist pigs (i.e., many men think men are better suited to be president). Most of them believe they are treated unfairly in the workplace.
I think, as usual, that the women are right.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 06:40:57
I reinstitute the Morning Huck feature briefly for Mike Huckabee's book tour in support of "Do the Right Thing." Why? Because he wants to run for president again in 2012. Why? Because his book has laid bare -- and national writer after national writer gets it -- a side of the former governor that he generally kept hidden in his campaign. He's an acid-tongued and resentful sort when not running with the tide.
Boston Globe: "But once and perhaps future GOP rival Mike Huckabee has an elephant's memory - and a penchant for nursing a grudge." Yep.
Philadelphia Bulletin: "Mr. Huckabee, however, could not resist the temptation to look back to the primary and pick at the scabs of his electoral losses." Surprise.
David Sanders, a former Huckabee employee, for Stephens Media:
Seriously, I had hoped that Mike Huckabee had put it behind him, but apparently the prospect of getting paid for pettiness was too much to overcome.
In his new book, curiously named "Do the Right Thing," the former Arkansas governor's vindictiveness is on full display as he systematically calls out those who campaigned against his quest to become the GOP's presidential nominee.
This isn't the first time Huckabee had contemplated such a tome. Former aides claim that after winning his second full term as governor in 2002, he flirted with the idea of writing a book taking Arkansas' news media to task for its perceived bias toward his losing opponent.
But this time, Huckabee came up short and he wants payback.
Someone very close to Huckabee wrote me yesterday complaining about the emphasis on The Huckster's critical remarks in the book and suggesting more attention to different passages. Says Sanders on that point:
It's hard to read the other parts of the book, in which he tries to copy Ronald Reagan's hopeful optimism, after spending so many pages emulating Richard Nixon's paranoia and vindictiveness.
Instead of using his book to mend fences with those who didn't support him, Huckabee's pettiness has put him on a destructive bridge-burning crusade. That's not a smart strategy for someone who may be planning another White House run down the road.
David Sanders and I. Together at last.
The Arkansas Project has a slightly different take -- that Huck will get the last laugh with big book sales .
So to summarize: Mike Huckabee writes a book; sprinkles in a few score-settling passages to sex it up and goose media interest and sales (reserving his toughest hits for Mitt Romney, a guy who’s going exactly nowhere in U.S. presidential politics); conducts an 18-state tour in a bus with his picture on the side; receives millions of dollars in free TV, radio and print coverage; and has all us low-rent scrubs talking about him for days on end. By 2012, all of the controversy will be long forgotten, of course.
And HE’S the dummy? No, I don’t think it works quite like that.
Acute analysis. But I don't fully share it. I still think the narrative is the thing. Huck's whining won't have much carryover with voters, true. But the reporters who write the campaign narratives -- and who generally saw Huck as an amiable sort in 2008 -- now have documentary evidence of a side of Huck Arkies have long been familiar with. Plus, those he's newly aggrieved have memories, too. I stick with Sanders on long-run political impact. But money? I hope he's jumping in a swimming pool full of it, a la Scrooge McDuck. It might discourage him from further desires to take a pay cut to govern me.
Arkansas Leader: "When a buck is to be made, nobody is going to beat our former governor to the throttle." And: "Doing the right thing, it turns out, is settling scores with your opponents and those who should have supported you but backed someone else. Turning the other cheek is not an impulse that often moves the former evangelist."
Speaking of analysis: I didn't watch enough of The Huckster on The View yesterday. Though he made a tossed-off comment about a seeming belief that gay people shouldn't be discriminated against in the workplace, he went on to make it clear where his heart is -- gay people can't claim civil rights, at least not until enough of them are battered, stoned and fire-hosed. This is the Right's new wedge -- comparative suffering -- to steer black people into their camp. Gay people haven't suffered enough to deserve civil rights. I hope the Right miscalculates the hearts and souls of a people who, unlike Huck, truly do understand the invidious damage of even non-violent violation of civil rights. What schmucks. But Huck, speaking of violence: heard of Matthew Shepherd?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 - 06:34:57
If the state is offloading school costs on the local property tax. If drug courts can't be funded. If the state prison system can't open new beds. If state employees face little or no pay raise over the next two years --
Why take another $30 milllion out of available money so that Gov. Beebe can enhance his political resume.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 18:41:25
Whatever. Maybe Wes will go to church or something.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 18:38:09
Other accounts suggest the
prosecutor in this South Texas county isn't exactly solid, still ... The image of
Dick Cheney in an orange jumpsuit is a pleasant thought.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 18:30:51
NLR cops report that a dog had to be shot in the Chicago capture of an NLR murder suspect, Turdell "Turk" Watkins. NLR Times reports.
Turdell?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 17:05:11
It's becoming clearer still that Democrat
Mark Begich will upend Republican
Sen. Ted Stevens in Alaska.
In Minnnesota, the reptilian Republican Sen.
Norm Coleman takes a 215-vote final edge into what will be a lengthy and contentious recount with Democrat
Al Franken
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 16:46:38
The Pulaski County Election Commission recounted ballots in the state representative race, District 38, between Democrat John Edwards and Republican Kelly Eichler. The count produced some small changes on both sides, but the final total still leaves Edwards the victor by 77 votes, 7,067 to 6,990.
All county certified returns here. Interesting: Eichler won at-poll voting; Edwards won early voting and, by 69 votes, absentees. Every vote counts, as they say.
NOTED: Democrat Kathy Lewison won a 91-vote victory, out of more than 11,400 cast, over Republican state Rep. Sid Rosenbuam in the race for a WLR seat on the County Quorum Court.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 14:52:13
Budweiser is now a Belgian beer.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 14:49:11
Here's the full list of Senate assignments.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 14:04:10
Newsweek says it will be
Eric Holder, a top Justice Department hand during the Clinton administration. He'd be the first black in the post.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 13:58:15
U.S. automakers took their plea for help to Congress today.
Given the timing, I think it's worth an early look at Ernie Dumas' column this week.
Continue Reading »
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 13:32:16
The noisy wheels don't always get greased, but they sometimes force a driver to slow down and take a look at what's causing the noise.
Bad metaphor. Sorry.
The news is that some WLR folks unhappy about a road construction proposal by development giant Deltic to help a new shopping center -- to the detriment of a residential neighborhood -- have at least slowed the steamroller. The matter, which was to be before the LR City Board tonight, will go back to the Planning Commission, which had approved the plan, because of alterations made by the developer in its rezoning plan.
UPDATE: Dana Carney, zoning and subdivisions manager with the Little Rock Planning Commission has called back with a bit more detail.
Carney said the application was withdrawn from consideration by the LR City Board at the request of the developer. In Deltic's original plan, Carney said, they had requested that 20 acres along Rahling Road be rezoned for multi-family housing. Deltic now wants that 20 acres zoned for general office space.
"Typically," Carney said, "when they have a change like that, past practice has been to send that back to the Planning Commission." Carney said that the Planning Commission staff will have to study the proposed change to see if it alters their original recommenation (they opposed the rezoning the first go-round) and added that residents in the area will have the opportunity to make their thoughts on the change known.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 12:25:05
The Senate Democratic caucus today allowed Sen. Joe Lieberman to keep his committee chairmanship. Vote was 42-13, TPM said. More here.
The vote was secret. I've asked the offices of Sens. Pryor and Lincoln for comments.
UPDATE: Lincoln and Pryor voted with the majority.
Pryor said: “While I was disappointed with Joe’s actions during the campaign season, I agree with President-elect Obama that there is no need to hold grudges and it’s time to move on.”
Lincoln said: “Like others in our caucus, I was disappointed in Senator Lieberman’s handling of the campaign. But as President-elect Obama has said, now is the time to move forward. Our country faces some extraordinary challenges, and our caucus is as united as we’ve ever been to address those issues head on.”
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 12:13:57
TV 40/29 reporting State Police raids at Tony Alamo compounds at Fouke and Fort Smith, apparently to take children into protective custody.
UPDATE: The state has taken 21 children into protective custody as a result of the raids.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 - 11:35:03
Using history as a guide, Anna Quindlen writes on the inevitability of same-sex marriage (and tosses in a lament on Arkansas's Act 1 vote.)
UPDATE: Check me, but I do believe Mike Huckabee endorsed civil rights protection in employment for gay people in an appearance on The View.