Opinion

More needed from Hutchinson, Ross

There is some confusion surfacing in the Arkansas Governor’s race. Here we sit just past the 4th of July heading into the November election cycle with two distinct Arkansans vying…

Economic stability. Now what?

The corpus of the Fort Smith regional economy is not a fully recovered patient but we should pause to take note of recent positive developments. The developments may offer even…

Beebe’s Special Session call

I have called the Arkansas General Assembly to Little Rock for an extraordinary session, often referred to as a special session. There are legislative issues to be addressed before the…

The President’s war

The recent advances of the ISIS insurgency in Iraq, which threatens to undo what this country poured so much blood and treasure into is disturbing to many Americans, particularly veterans…

A ‘Bold’ push for jobs

There’s something in the water. How else do you explain the success that Arkansas entrepreneurs have enjoyed over the past 50 years? There is no precedent for a state with…

Walmart and lottery tickets

If I were a small convenience store owner enjoying the nuances of selling a plethora of Arkansas Lottery tickets, a pack of Marlboros, a Slim Jim or two, an occasional…

Trust and city government

Trusting people has its risk as well as its reward. Business works best when you can trust your employees to show up to work and work hard and when you…

Just don’t call him a Savior

A simple and smart-alecky assessment could be that singer-songwriter Sturgill Simpson ran out of beer before he ran out of herb and converted an empty Bud can into a bong…

A legal mess

A rarely used procedural action taken June 11 by the Fort Smith Board of Directors to kill a review of the city’s long-term relationship with and recent billings from the…

What did we gain in Iraq?

In May, my wife Cara and I had the pleasure of seeing her son graduate from the Army Academy at West Point. To watch so many young men and women…

The Reverend Ronnie Floyd of Springdale this week became the third Arkansas-based pastor history to lead one of the largest U.S. religious denominations, the 15.7 million Southern Baptists. Floyd, back…

Would you invest in your business?

Many new business owners open for business with limited capital but unlimited dreams. If the market is cruel to their business concept, their limited capital becomes a capital shortage that…

College student perspective

Now that May has ended thousands of newly minted college graduates in Arkansas will join the workforce – or at least they will try to join the workforce. Two recent…

Isbell the AMP and You

He dang sure shouldn’t be, but Jason Isbell was an afterthought on the promo stuff announcing a July 7 concert at the AMP in Northwest Arkansas. Isbell would probably be…

Asa goes bold on fighting crime

It came as no surprise this past week when Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor, unveiled a plan to ratchet up efforts to curtail violent crime and…

Arkansas’ income-parity struggle

A long-standing economic goal of Arkansas officials is to achieve 100% income parity with the United States. The goal is ambitious – overly so in the short-term but possible long-term…

A hardware industry look-ahead

Sales of hardware related products look to be a sweet spot for retailers and suppliers in the months and years ahead. The recent announcement that U.S. regulators are backing off…

Battling with documentation

Growing up my mother often would warn me as an inducement to behave or face the consequences, “Be sure your sins will find you out.” I have found throughout my…

Arkansas voter polling insights

When conceiving this column a few months ago, we planned to make the space allotted us on this website a place where we explain the strategic motivations behind the actions…

Naïve much?

This news about Whirlpool officials indirectly admitting new details about pollution at their shuttered Fort Smith manufacturing plant tells us more about certain members of the Fort Smith Board of…