The line is open. Closing out today with some notes on school resegregation and more of the run to the right in the Republican race for attorney general. Also: another Little Rock homicide.
* RESEGREGATION: Pro Publica’s monumental project on resegregation of U.S. schools, with great help from federal courts, continues here. One point of this installment is that federal courts have often lost tracks of school districts nominally under desegregation orders. Of course, the guidance from the top says that race doesn’t matter any longer.
* REPUBLICAN ATTORNEY GENERAL: Leslie Rutledge boasts today of an endorsement by James Bopp, legal counsel to National Right to Life and a well-known national figure in anti-abortion circles. It remains to be seen if Rutledge’s growing list of establishment Republican endorsements can overcome the expensive, secretive ad buy by out-of-state conservatives to help David Sterling by portraying as the most gun-crazy of a univerally gun-crazed field. Added Rutledge:
Jim Bopp joins a long and growing list of endorsers, including former Governor Mike Huckabee, former Congressman John Paul Hammerschmidt, State Senator Ron Caldwell, State Senator Alan Clark, State Rep. Bruce Cozart, State Rep. COL Doug House, US Army (Ret.), State Rep. Allen Kerr, State Rep. Mark Biviano, State Rep. Mark Lowery, Benton County Judge Bob Clinard, White County Sheriff Ricky Shourd, as well as business leaders such as Madison Murphy of Murphy Oil and Ray Dillon of Deltic Timber, and top Conservative Lawyer and Fox News regular Cleta Mitchell. Rutledge is also endorsed by Former Arkansas First Lady Gay White and Former Chief Justice Betty Dickey.
Remember the name Nate Steel, Democratic candidate.
* ANOTHER HOMICIDE: The Little Rock police reported today that Bryan Fountain died today as a result of wounds in a shootout April 25 at the Splash car wash on Base Line Road. The case will be reviewed for possible charges. The original accounts said that Fountain initiated the shooting. Two other men suffered minor wounds. It was the year’s 23rd homicide, 11 of them deaths in April.