Column

U.S. fiscal fix can’t wait

Today’s (July 6) dismal jobs report is another sobering reminder that the U.S. economy is stuck, if not headed in reverse. Employers added a modest 80,000 jobs in June, falling…

Is the Supreme Court conservative?

Will the real U.S. Supreme Court please stand up? Impeccable liberal sources, including the editorial page of the New York Times, insist that the court is radically activist and conservative,…

Founding Fathers’ debt

As Americans pause this Fourth of July to reflect on their independence, it’s worth casting a thought across the Atlantic. One story from America’s founding era, in particular, keeps reminding…

Seven-year itch

In 2005, just two years after Whirlpool gave us a clear hint about the future of its Fort Smith manufacturing operations, business and community leaders in the Fort Smith region…

“it’s constitutional. Bitches” (Punctuated as tweeted) Just in case you missed it, the above quote was tweeted Thursday by Patrick Gaspard, the Democratic National Committee’s Executive Director, when he learned…

Who are you?

A decided minority of Arkansas Third District voters do not much care for U.S. Rep. Steve Womack’s Republican politics. Opponents see little besides a hyper-partisan who will someday look to…

Roberts and the health-care tax

Judges can say things politicians can’t. So it was left to U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts to use the three-letter word for the individual mandate that President Barack Obama…

Picking a VP

Mitt Romney’s running mate is going to rank very low on the list of what’s on voters’ minds in November. Political journalists are obsessing about whom he’ll pick anyway, because…

A simple concern

There during Thursday’s (June 21) taping of The City Wire show were two examples of what we likely could use more of in Little Rock. Sen. Jake Files, a Republican…

Back to basics?

Conventional wisdom has it that Congressional hearings rarely shed new light and devolve quickly into a stream of sound bites that members can use in their re- election campaigns. By…

Make voting mandatory

The U.S. prides itself as the beacon of democracy, but it’s very likely no U.S. president has ever been elected by a majority of American adults. It’s our own fault…

The no-tax pledge battle

“Tell me something cheerful” is how Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, has started most of the conversations I’ve had with him over the past 20 years….

Hoodwinked

In explaining why individualized trash collection preference is a right of citizenship beyond the whims of collective governance, Fort Smith Director Philip Merry Jr. says the city is not necessarily…

2% or 20%?

A friend related to me a conversation he had a few years back with a yellow pages salesman. The salesman was explaining to him the difference, in his opinion, between…

Lighting a candle

This past June 5 saw the Fayetteville City Council take action on a resolution supporting the “Move to Amend” coalition that is campaigning for passage of a constitutional amendment to…

Boring banking not the answer

If only banking were boring again, as it was from the end of World War II to about 1980, our financial system and economy would be in much better shape,…

Getting it right

If Fort Smith is to be successful in developing amenities and infrastructure that support diversified job and wage growth in the region, public-private partnerships (P3s) will be vital. The number…

Known knowns in Presidential race

This year’s presidential race is considered a tossup by both sides, and unforeseen events could prove determinative: contagion from the European economic crisis, war or terrorism. The largest imponderable is…

Oklahoma changes

This year’s legislative session included a number of major policy victories that will save taxpayer dollars, deliver more efficient government services and create an environment more conducive to job creation….

The micromanaging thing

The debate in Fort Smith between automated and non-automated trash collection with 2,402 households among all 28,673 households is instructive in that it well serves as an obvious symptom of…