IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR …
The SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE. It beat the bill to require anti-gay-marriage language in textbooks.
LITTLE ROCK MAYOR JIM DAILEY. He plans to push for a ban on smoking in workplaces and, eventually, restaurants. We say go for the whole enchilada first thing.
FEDERAL JUDGE JIMM HENDREN. He blistered the Greenwood School District for punishing a National Merit scholar and another student for maintaining websites at home that were critical of school officials. The judge enjoined school officials from punishing them or marking student records over the incident.
IT WAS A BAD WEEK FOR …
A HIGHWAY BOND ISSUE. The truck lobby is against it, so far. The proposal doesn’t target the interstate highways truckers use most and might force them to pay a bit in new taxes. Come up with a plan that sticks the taxes only on little guys and we bet they’ll “compromise.”
The FIRST AMENDMENT. The House defeated a resolution expressing support for separation of church and state. Thus, it was a good week for state-sponsored religion. Roll over, Jefferson, tell G. Washington the news.
The BEEBE SCHOOL BOARD. It invited an expensive, losing lawsuit by refusing to remove anti-evolution stickers from textbooks.
STATE REP. STEPHEN BRIGHT. Shades of Nick Wilson. Bright introduced a bill that would have given monopoly control of a lucrative chunk of state business (performing criminal background checks) to a business owned in part by one of Nick’s old running buddies, the disreputable former Sen. Steve Bell. Even if rumors Wilson is involved aren’t true, his spirit lingers. The plan is a template of his schemes on bail bonds, legal aid for children and child support collection.
The HOGS. NIT here we come. If we don’t lose too many more basketball games.