IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR …
POLITICS. Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller said he definitely would run for governor in 2006, thus adding a little urgency to fellow Republican Asa Hutchinson’s decision-making. Thought won’t be required for whatever Sen. Jim Holt ultimately does in this regard.
GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE. He was all over the national prints, on Bill Maher and angling for Oprah on the strength of his rising position in the National Governors Association and his declining waistline. A second library for Little Rock?
U.S. REP. VIC SNYDER. He forthrightly, in the clinical fashion of the physician he is, defended Medicare coverage of drugs that combat male impotence for their wide-ranging health benefits. It was a welcome response to the sniggering schoolboys like Rep. John Boozman who think this is strictly about codger sex.
ILLEGAL ALIENS. The House passed a bill to allow undocumented aliens to receive in-state college tuition and scholarships, once they have established residency. A crank’s objection slowed the bill in the Senate.
PENGUINS. The Little Rock City Board will pledge $600,000 to match private money to build a penguin exhibit at the Zoo. (Someone will shortly be asking the city to compare expenditures on penguins and the homeless.)
IT WAS A BAD WEEK FOR …
CENTRAL ARKANSAS WATER. The utility seemed in danger of having its own commission go wobbly in a fight with Deltic Timber over environmentally dangerous development in the Lake Maumelle watershed. Reason: Business community pressure on commissioners, applied through Deltic’s friends at the chamber of commerce.