Author: Michael Tilley

Crack research

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Tiresome has become this 1% prepared food tax issue in Fort Smith. This back and forth with their facts, our facts, your facts, my…

The ‘Keep moving’ business plan

Had the opportunity this week to gather with a group of folks related to the home building industry. The Greater Fort Smith Association of Home Builders presented its 2011 Showcase…

Ball Rolling on Adult Job Program

Training is free to business and industry partners.

UA Researcher Sees Possible Job Creation

Manasreh has received more than $8 million in funding

Maria and John Paul

Events sometimes coincide to provide perspective on the world around us. Such was the case a few weeks ago, with one event a tragedy and the other a triumph. On…

A natural solution?

Nicolas Loris is of the belief that natural gas is the answer to an ailing U.S. economy and the pursuit of national energy independence. He posted on Sept. 21 a…

The business owner says …

Warning: If you are more offended by blue language than government incompetence, please CLICK NOW to another page. This week came the news that Arkansas officials overpaid an estimated $161…

Connections

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] It was when encamped at Yosemite National Park with a small group of U.S. Marines and Naval Corpsmen that I achieved my most “religious”…

Pants on the ground

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Folks who rant and rave about the so-called failure of the Fort Smith Convention Center are a tad off base. More than a tad,…

Note to self

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Please know, Kind Reader, that what follows is commentary directed at myself. It’s not being selfish, but more a matter of the need to…

Building blocks

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Thousands of years ago when employed by a local chamber of commerce, a gaggle of us chamber folks from around the country gathered in…

Ticket punching

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] The gaggle of Republicans hoping to get their chance to redecorate the Oval Office in early 2013 participated Thursday in what these days passes…

On losing Sam

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] I once got angry at Sam M. Sicard. It was during my time as an employee of the Fort Smith Chamber of Commerce. There…

It’s been an historic debate in Washington D.C., with far-reaching ramifications. For example, Illusionist David Copperfield, who once made the Statue of Liberty disappear, faces a significant career crisis because…

Unsettled

The thing is, Fort Smith City Director Kevin Settle is a likable guy. Or, to the point of this essay, he has a likable side; amiable, also. More to the…

An unlikely plurality

A local banker forwarded a PDF of a presentation Bill Emmons conducted July 13. Emmons, an assistant vice president and economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, titled…

Lighting the fire

Gordon Woolf turned the party barge due east, taking his excited passengers about a mile closer to the point from which four U.S. astronauts were strapped into the Atlantis for…

Let’s talk

Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] A popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps…

Drama revisited

Editor’s note: This essay was first posted March 21, 2010. In light of the recent drama at Fort Smith Board of Director meetings, this re-posted essay serves to remind that…

Farm family pride

Over in Johnson County, Linda and Harry Tilley and their wide swath of cows and turkeys and round bales of hay and other implements and accoutrements of agricultural life and…