by - June 19, 2011 3:37 pm
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…
Author: Michael Tilley
by - June 12, 2011 6:50 pm
Paid media
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] We FOI’d ourselves this week about secret correspondence we’ve been having with the city of Fort Smith. After our attorneys argued with themselves as…
by - June 5, 2011 11:17 pm
The noisy shall inherit …
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Only a callous, if not wholly obtuse, observer would fail to appreciate the great cacophony created by a small group among us who possess…
by - May 29, 2011 6:27 pm
Campbell’s political soup
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Republican leadership in Arkansas this week sought to expose Matt Campbell as a cheater who, while working at his taxpayer-supported job at the Arkansas…
by - May 22, 2011 5:08 pm
Still here
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Wasn’t prepared to have an essay for this week. The great Messianic recall of all good souls was to happen Saturday. It didn’t. Unless…
by - May 15, 2011 8:37 pm
Billy’s prostitution solution
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Billy, a college friend from thousands of years ago, called again this week. He’d just returned from Vegas because “them sumbitches with the Corps…
by - May 8, 2011 9:04 am
Still a fortunate son
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] Editor’s note: This essay was first posted May 10, 2009. Happy Mother’s Day! A lot has changed in Mom’s world. The world in 1949,…
by - May 1, 2011 1:45 pm
Elementary lessons
There they were, talking core leadership principles like being proactive, seeking first to understand, the importance of responsibility and accountability, being gracious in winning and losing and establishing and then…
by - April 23, 2011 1:54 pm
More than just a day
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] The plan for this essay was to pontificate broadly on some terrific issue of the day on which my self-absorbed awareness had crafted a…
by - April 17, 2011 6:07 pm
Redistricting lessons
Riff Raff, by Michael Tilley [email protected] When it became clear Congressional redistricting would divide the Fort Smith metro area in a way that defied reason, the first response by local…
by - April 10, 2011 1:16 pm
Recycling for Earth Day, again
Editor’s note: This essay first appeared Aug. 1, 2009. It runs here again because Earth Day is right around the corner and we believe recycling an essay will help save…
by - April 3, 2011 5:50 pm
Positives, negatives and expectations
It should come as no surprise the strong and various reactions to news that Golden Living would move at least 200 jobs to Fort Smith in the next two years….
by - March 27, 2011 5:16 pm
Run for the hills
As if you needed more proof of the absolute certainty provided by the Mayan Calendar that the world is going to end Dec. 21, 2012, we have the Japan disaster,…
by - March 20, 2011 6:53 pm
Legislative disappointment
In what was often termed a tidal wave, Arkansas Republicans picked up all seven contested Arkansas Senate races and added 16 new Republican House seats to their totals. The end result…
by - March 13, 2011 9:03 pm
Running blind
During the course of recent events, I was reminded of a somewhat rambling essay — titled “Brain freight” — first published May 31, 2009, in this space on The City…
by - March 6, 2011 9:37 pm
Billy calls with condolences
Billy, the college friend from thousands of years ago, called this week. He had read The City Wire coverage of Mayor Ray Baker’s death. However, once Billy believed the solemnity…
by - February 27, 2011 6:58 pm
Not a big deal, but …
It’s not a big deal, and may possibly be a minor waste of time when considering all the important things on which folks in this region are or should be…
by - February 20, 2011 5:50 pm
Pork-n-Wings
Enough already about what I’m thinking. Let’s pick your brain using the following multiple choice exercise. The national economy will improve: 1. as the housing and commercial building inventories reach…
by - February 13, 2011 7:24 pm
Opportunities possible
Might we consider that the 2010 Census numbers released Thursday (Feb. 10) are more than just numbers tracking population growth and shifts. They may also contain insight into opportunities missed…
by - February 6, 2011 1:10 pm
All bark
They call a recent bill designed to nip the temptation of nefarious activity among Arkansas legislators an ethics reform bill, which was, after reading the bill, a piece of literature…