Opinion

Looking for ethics

While the year began with earth-shaking election results from November 2012, the Arkansas Republican Party held majorities in the state Senate and House. It was a rather tricky year to…

The University of Audit

The long, anxiously awaited discussion of the audit of the University of Arkansas’ flagship campus’ Advancement division sputtered to a halt Friday morning by a quickly made procedural vote of…

Water whirled

In case you were wondering, we checked and are confident that the concepts and planning and budgeting for this on-again, off-again water park at Ben Geren Regional Park were not…

Kudos on downtown support

It’s no secret that numerous changes in residential, commercial and traffic patterns during the past several decades have resulted in the decay – if not abandonment – of thousands of…

The UA 4th in SEC drug arrests

The above is not a headline that parents of college students at the state’s flagship campus like to see, but as always, “the devil is in the details.” Yes, while…

Looking for a Fort Smith renaissance

Last month my article “We have arrived” focused on a conversation about Fort Smith compared to Pine Bluff and was provoked by a “top ten list” ranking Fort Smith as…

In this space in September we encouraged, no, we begged, Alice Walton, the Wal-Mart heiress and the signature/dreamer builder/financier of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, to please purchase…

A nod to the traveling man

Lots of folks retire to keep from being on the road, but not Richard Hudson. Hudson, the vice chancellor for government and community relations at the University of Arkansas, will…

The megasite message

Arkansas must use every available tool at our disposal to highlight our state's economic advantages in a competitive global marketplace. Companies looking to call Arkansas home need and want easy…

Water park recalculation

Take a wrong turn while using some of the popular GPS-based travel instruction devices and a pleasant female voice will immediately say, “Recalculating.” That’s the essence of our recommendation to…

What a difference a year makes

This time last year the political rhetoric and conversation around coffee was about the expiration of the Bush “tax cuts.” Most provisions lowering federal income taxes after President Bush had…

Same-sex cohabitation and Amendment 83

This week, one of the most often violated “laws” on unmarried cohabitation in child-custody cases was finally ended by a ruling from the Arkansas Supreme Court. No longer will unmarried,…

Sebastian County concerns

We have concerns about the administration of Sebastian County Judge David Hudson. Hudson has been in county government more than 37 years, with more than 16 of those as the…

Tangled treasurer tales (Updated)

Who knew that a little sightseeing tour of the upper reaches of the Arkansas Capitol recently would turn into a World War III skirmish? Even if you are an Arkansas…

Can Hillary win Arkansas in 2016?

There’s a friendly debate among Arkansas politicos these days: If Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee in 2016, will she be able to win our state’s six electoral votes? And…

The sound of politics

Wondering how to respond to this idiocy-bordering-on-insanity that emerges hourly from Washington DeeCee like moldy-oatmeal looking detritus from a deeply infected and open brown recluse bite wound? With a mixed…

The education-jobs link

Students in the Bentonville, Fayetteville and Greenwood School districts, in four consecutive annual reports (2005-08) produced by our economic think tank earned 'A' grades for their performance on standardized national…

We have arrived

For years I have been saying in jest that if Fort Smith isn’t careful we will become the next Pine Bluff. We’ve arrived, at least in one ranking. The website…

Watching the Independents

The off-year elections held in states elsewhere than Arkansas seem to be following a theme that’s held true since the end of the 16-day government shut down last month. There…

Study haul

Let’s again talk about this 18-month study on which Fort Smith taxpayers are doling out $340,000 for an adventure into collective self-analysis that, solely out of respect for some of…