I will get right to the point: It is becoming way too easy to lock people up. Our jails and prisons are overcrowded. Our criminal justice system is bursting at the seams.
We must not allow state Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) to frame the lawsuits generated against his placement of a Ten Commandments monument on the state Capitol grounds as an assault upon Christianity itself — or, as he does when he's pretending that the monument serves a secular function, an assault upon American "heritage and history."
Spare us the interviews with Rudy Giuliani and the endless debates among cable TV lawyers about the terms and conditions of Donald Trump's testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller.
The Observer, like a lot of Americans, has got our secrets, but for the most part they're so boring they couldn't even excite the senses or loins of one of those housebound, horngry Incels we've heard so much about on the news of late.
When we last left our beloved Razorbacks of 2018, they had meandered through a slightly atypical nonconference slate of three games unscathed, per Pearls' annual prediction.
Signature counting and legal challenges aren't done, but the November ballot is shaping up as a rich opportunity to side with your choice of people or corporations.
How about a new law? If you want to join a white supremacist organization, you have to take one of those complex DNA tests first. That would cut way down on the membership.
Could "they" be right that President Trump and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III are not really at war but are secret collaborators who have a grand plot that will end with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in striped prison suits and Trump as the national savior?
Mathew Wendt, fired as Fayetteville school superintendent after a district employee accused him of sexual harassment, has now sued the woman, Shae Lynn Newman, a former elementary teacher Wendt had hired as a receptionist. This would seem to scuttle efforts by Newman and her lawyer in other legal actions to keep details of their relationship and her identity secret.
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has finalized new rules that roll back standards for pollution by electric power plants and the Sierra Club says they are bad for clean air.
If you believe the new work rule for Medicaid eligibility was put in place to reduce the number of people helped with health coverage — as I do — then you have to admit it's working like a charm. No wonder a lawsuit was filed and won in Kentucky over a similar work rule and a lawsuit is expected against the Arkansas rule as early as today. Don't miss Benji Hary's report in this week's Times on the 60,000 dropped from Medicaid coverage in Arkansas the last 18 months.
A legal group has sued White County District Judge Mark Derrick over his sentencing practices, which the lawsuit contends amount to an unconstitutional debtors' prison.
The Arkansas Times Whole Hog Roast is Sunday, October 7. Starting tonight at midnight tickets will be on sale for just $15 each. 48 hours only. Digital Subscribers, check your email for a coupon code for an additional $5 off.
USA Today and Kaiser Health News have combined for an investigation of the patchwork regulation of surgery centers around the country, a story that begins with accounts of deaths in a Little Rock center.
Jared Henderson, the Democratic candidate for governor, today proposed a major investment in teacher pay, which was promptly dismissed by the Hutchinson campaign as the proposal of an out-of touch liberal.
A Democratic Party employee will file a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit today to see Department of Human Services personnel records for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.
When a group pushing to save the abandoned U.S. 79 bridge over the White River in Clarendon announced this week a state deal to support the effort, it crossed a bridge too far — criticizing Republican U.S. Sen. John Boozman. State Republican officials aren't happy about it.
We don't get to post all the jpegs of artwork on exhibit that come into the office, but they have more allure and tell you more about the work than what I can write about them. Hence this slideshow of work from shows opening tonight (Aug. 10) for 2nd Friday Art Night, 5-8 p.m. (see the To Do list for more information), and other openings and shows this weekend and in the days ahead.
This week, William Moon stopped by to talk about the selections for the 2018 Kaleidoscope Film Festival. Plus, a new TV series from Graham Gordy, Levon Helm's boyhood home gets recognized on the Arkansas Register of Historic Places and Low Key Arts announces the lineup for October's Hot Water Hills Music & Arts Festival.
Trouble is brewing in the Little Rock School District over the Hutchinson administration's apparent unwillingness to deal with the Little Rock Education Association and fears that the governor's education commissioner, Johnny Key, is also bent on enabling more charter school development in the city, including a high school in Northwest Little Rock. Multiple sources tell me a meeting of teachers will be called this afternoon to discuss developments.
The potential coming conflict between the Hutchinson administration and the Little Rock Education Association, a federal court ruling on student transfers and allegations of another debtor’s prison — all covered on this week's podcast.
Matt Campbell's Blue Hog Report this week reviews the history and spotty academic record of Ecclesia College, the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars thanks to the work of many legislators, at least a couple of whom (Jon Woods and Micah Neal) are heading to federal prison for kickbacks from the felonious former college president.
The Little Rock City Board agenda next week includes a non-controversial annexation that has received unanimous assent from the Planning Commission, city staff and city agencies. But it's worth a mention.
The state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission last week rejected Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen's request that it allow broadcast or recording of his public hearings on ethics charges.
Diane Ravitch reports on the Southern Poverty Law Center's lawsuit attacking a Mississippi law that forces local school districts to give some of their local property tax money to charter schools.
The Washington Post has a useful editorial explaining Donald Trump's faulty effort to turn attention from his campaign's Russian collusion to Hillary Clinton, an explanation that again presents questions for Republican 2nd District Congressman French HIll.
An admirer of Frank Scott Jr. wanted me to know that the Little Rock mayoral candidate has tapped into old Republican money for fund-raising help. Which brings up more than one historical political connection of interest.
If you're counting, the one-year anniversary of the white supremacist conflagration in Charlottesville seems to be running in favor of an arc in the universe pointing toward justice. But the day isn't over. Nor is the struggle.
An Azerbaijan news agency reports on a visit from U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, Donald Trump's protector on the House Intelligence Committee, along with committee member, Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican from Arkansas's 1st Congressional District.
The candidates for governor are scheduled to appear at a 90-minute forum at 6:30 p.m. today at New Hope Baptist Church, 1821 Edmonds Street, North Little Rock.
Now Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is working to deprive Ohio women of healthcare. If her work in Arkansas is any indication, it won't be good for Ohio women.
Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights legend, will visit Little Rock Sunday afternoon for a fund-raiser for state Rep. Clarke Tucker, the Democratic candidate for 2nd District Congress against Republican Rep. French Hill.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge regularly bends the truth to suit her narrative of the day, but she gets extra credit for dragging George Soros into her re-election campaign.
The prosecution has rested and the defense says it will call no witnesses in the fraud trial of Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort. A local defense lawyer thinks he's toast.
Antwan and Charles provide perspective and conversation on the England Police Department’s termination of Michael Moore for telling black folks they do not belong in the England and City of Little Rock’s infrastructure investments. They also discuss the 2018 Filmland with the executive director of Arkansas Cinema Society, Kathryn Tucker.
Chintan Desai, the Democratic candidate for 1st District Congress, just dropped by with some news: An endorsement, a debate date and a celebrity visitor for his Republican incumbent opponent, Rep. Rick Crawford.
In episode 11 of our electrifying new podcast, "The Conversation," host Matt Price interviews Charles Blake and Antwan Phillips about their hit new podcast "Rock the Culture" They talk politics, culture, and what needs to happen in Little Rock under the next mayor.
Vincent Tolliver, a candidate for Little Rock, mayor, has written legislators asking the Senate Education Committee to ask Education Commissioner Johnny Key to testify about problems encountered by parents on Monday, the first day of school in the state-run Little Rock School District.
The latest numbers from the Department of Human Services show thousands more people did not meet the reporting requirement on work hours in July to meet Medicaid eligibility standards.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson has responded sharply to the lawsuit challenging the legality of the state's new work requirement for Medicaid coverage and also criticizing the online-only reporting requirement. His statement:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders was nailed again yesterday for peddling baloney in a White House press briefing. For once, she acknowledged it, grudgingly and with more spin. But that wasn't all for her on the racially fraught Trump front.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson was asked today about recent reporting on the high rate of gun deaths in Arkansas and he made it clear he has little enthusiasm for most ideas on gun safety legislation.
Pro Publica has a good retelling of a story familiar to most Arkansans — when OBU student Sarah Huckabee linked up with the ACLU to successfully challenge a Democrat's effort to discourage college student voting in Arkadelphia.
Arkansans for a Fair Wage, the committee backing an increase in the state minimum wage, reported this month a $350,000 contribution from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a Washington-based nonprofit that has funded advocacy campaigns for social and environmental causes around the country.
Danny Trent Barrows, 38, wanted for abducting his child earlier in the week, was arrested Wednesday as he attempted to jump off an Interstate 49 bridge near Mountainburg.
Clarke Tucker, the Democratic candidate for 2nd District Congress, has called on Republican incumbent Rep. French Hill to reconsider his refusal to participate in a televised debate in September and to join him for a series of three debates.