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January 20, 2005

Vol 3 • No 1

The court's prophecy

Rarely has the Arkansas Supreme Court been so strenuously divided as it was last summer when a bare 4-3 majority decided to at least temporarily bow out of the struggle to give children the good education that the state Constitution requires.

The Insider Jan. 20

The first of three billboards in the Arkansans for Human Rights group’s campaign to show the faces of gay Arkansans went up Monday at University and Twelfth Street. The billboard includes two photos, one of a businessman and a military man and the other o

TV highlights Jan. 20-26

DEAD MEN DON’T WEAR PLAID (1982) 10:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 23 American Movie Classics (Comcast Ch. 31) While Steve Martin has gotten a little middle-aged moody for my taste in recent years, morphing from “wild and crazy guy” to “sober and scowling ar

Mount up for Saddle Creek

While we’ve never been to Montana, what we know about it makes us believe the old saw: A nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there. Sure, they’ve got buffalo herds, solitude and the Rocky Mountains. But they’ve also got bone-chilling cold,

More picks Jan. 20-26

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Quapaw Quartet will be featured Friday, Jan. 21, in the third concert of the Art of Music chamber music series at the Arkansas Arts Center.

Dewayne speaks!

Investigative reporter Dewayne Graham, recently departed from KLRT Fox 16, took some time out for a chat recently. Graham said the decision to leave Fox was his own, the result of disappointment over assignments that had him on “rat and roach patrol” and

This Modern World Jan. 20

Canvassed ham

The legislature is in town, and in session once more, and that’s always occasion for celebrating. Let us pay our respects to the solons as we did recently to the library luminaries. Roll out the barrel. Bring forth the fatted calf and the canvassed ha

What now on TIFs?

As we went to press last week, Attorney General Mike Beebe dropped a bomb of an official opinion. He said that the 25-mill minimum school operating millage required by the Arkansas Constitution was, by statutory definition, a state tax. It cannot be

Smart Talk Jan. 20

In the January issue of The American Prospect magazine, Michael Tomasky writes that football has become a Republican sport. In his essay, he recalls a moment with which Razorback fans are all too familiar.

What's cooking/capsule reviews

What's cooking: Capriccio Capsule reviews: China Inn and a correction on Ferneau.

For real

Afroman, famous for the hit song “Because I Got High,” has had his lawyers issue a cease-and-desist order on a performer who has been impersonating Afroman in appearances up and down the West Coast. The good news, though, is that the real Afroman will

Gallery 26 turns 10

Gallery 26, the Hillcrest gallery and frame shop, will celebrate its 10th year in business Feb. 7. It’s marking the event early with an exhibit of representational drawings and paintings by Little Rock artist Michael Lierly. Co-owner Renee Williams said a

Smart Talk Jan. 20

In the January issue of The American Prospect magazine, Michael Tomasky writes that football has become a Republican sport. In his essay, he recalls a moment with which Razorback fans are all too familiar.

Swelling herself short

While pregnant, I gained 80 pounds. Before, I was 5’8”, 118 lbs. (size 3 or 5), and I always wore slim-fitting jeans and miniskirts. In the first six months after giving birth, I lost 35 lbs. I’m now at the 13-month mark, and I haven’t lost another ounce.

Bonus Brummett

Three items are on my mind, and each is timely and of potential public interest. It’s a circumstance that compels me to offer a limited arrow column. [Editor's note: We can't replicate arrows here, so we've used our thumb instead.]

The week that was Jan. 12-18, 2005

IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR … LYING. President George W. Bush kept telling 20-year-olds that Social Security will be bankrupt by the time they’re eligible. No matter how often government experts say this isn’t true, Bush keeps telling the lie.

Needed: A primer for 'Primer'

I have long repeated — though I suspect it’s a kind of literary urban legend — what the great Southern writer Flannery O’Connor supposedly said about making art approachable: “You should write as if your audience is made up of reasonably bright 14-year-ol

The court's prophecy

Rarely has the Arkansas Supreme Court been so strenuously divided as it was last summer when a bare 4-3 majority decided to at least temporarily bow out of the struggle to give children the good education that the state Constitution requires.

Irish music fan delivers bands

Dr. Mark Pippenger is one of those guys with an expensive hobby that his wife, Diedre, mostly scratches her head about. Rather than taking high-dollar golf excursions with his buddies or something along those lines, though, Pippenger spends his money on

Editorials Jan. 20

We always figured there was a better chance of O.J. Simpson finding the real killer than there was of President Bush finding the weapons of mass destruction. Sure enough, the Bush administration has now officially abandoned the search for the WMD that wer

Patsy Montana

?Patsy Montana, who was born Ruby Rebecca Blevins on Oct. 30, 1908, became the first female million-seller in the history of country music.�af. The Nov. 3 event at the Statehouse Convention Center will also include live music and other fun. �uctuations)

A morality play (for votes)

We have been subjected to tortured deliberations about “moral issues” since the November elections, with morality defined strictly in terms of the conservative social agenda: anti-abortion rights, anti-homosexual rights, and the further erosion of the

In review

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra put on a spectacular performance in collaboration with luminary violinist Elmar Oliveira last weekend at the Robinson Center.

Bad start to the year

The country is barely into a new year and already we have a lot of problems. • The newspaper USA Today found out that a columnist whose work is syndicated to several daily conservative newspapers was paid $240,000 to write favorable columns about Pre

Words Jan. 20

Gwen Moritz writes: “I thought ‘fish or cut bait’ meant to do something useful — if you can’t be the leader, then at least lend a hand (by cutting bait for the guy who is fishing). But in this case, a columnist seems to be using it as a synonym for ‘****

Editorial cartoon Jan. 20

Letters Jan. 20

Tom Strickland asserts (Letters, Jan. 13) that “conservative Christians” don’t covet the earnings of others nor want the government to steal it from the citizenry. With such “Christians” opposed to taxation, I would wonder how vital services like our nat

The Observer Jan. 20

So The Observer’s friend is driving in Cammack and spies, at a three-way intersection, three dogs trotting along together in the street. Two of the dogs look like little peek-a-poo type things, and the other — well, it looks like a goat. Up drives a van,

Orval Jan. 20

Might sugar make kids fat?

As moves go, this one was smooth.Gov. Mike Huckabee announced that he was recommending that the state Board of Education adopt a wide array of good-health initiatives for public schools that had been forwarded to it seven months ago by the Child Health Ad

A report from Guantanamo

In the days after Sept. 11, 2001, one thought kept running through my mind. I wondered whether the terrorist attacks of that day signaled a loss of freedom we would never recoup. Would we ever be able to live free of fear that a terrorist could strike clo

A cheerleader for hunger relief

When the board of Heifer International picked Jo Luck as its new executive director not everyone thought she was a great hire. One member of the board is supposed to have groused, before quitting, that it was a disastrous mistake to turn the organization

It was a very good year

Many people stood out in Arkansas this year — for good and bad, we might add. Among those mentioned by readers and staff as we deliberated on people to honor this year, in no particular order: • Sen. Jim Argue. The Senate president pro-tem earns m

Can Oaklawn Out 'Smart' 2004 season?

Thoroughbreds take to the track beginning Friday, Jan. 21. Smarty Jones, the 3-year-old colt who excited the nation’s horse-racing fans before falling short of the Triple Crown, made Oaklawn Park’s 2004 centennial season one that won’t soon be forgotte

Skip Rutherford quietly gets things done

“I tell bankers around the state that they owe me a debt of gratitude,” says former U.S. senator and governor David Pryor. “I hired Skip Rutherford away from McIlroy Bank in Fayetteville in 1978. Had he remained a banker, he’d be the biggest banker in the

Is the legislator/lobbyist back?

State Sen. Randy Laverty of Jasper says that he’s not a lobbyist, despite appearances, but an advocate. He makes a fine distinction. Every lobbyist is an advocate, though not every advocate is a lobbyist. In layman’s terms, a lobbyist is usually a paid ad

Government at the freshman level

This was State Government 101. Whenever a state agency budget got brought up the other morning at the legislative Joint Budget Committee, Sen. David Bisbee of Rogers, the co-chairman who’s been around awhile, a surviving dinosaur, would explain to committ

2005 Musicians Showcase Lineup

The prelimary round is over, and the judges have sorted through and listened to more than 50 entries to the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase., Here are the 16 semifinalists and the schedule.

2005 Musicians Showcase Lineup

The prelimary round is over, and the judges have sorted through and listened to more than 50 entries to the Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase., Here are the 16 semifinalists and the schedule.
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