Opinion

by The City Wire staff - July 15, 2012 8:53 am

21 new taxes

Since June 28, the date the Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the mandate requiring individuals to purchase health insurance or…

by The City Wire staff - July 11, 2012 4:16 pm

Help study cancer

What if we could personally participate in research that might help determine factors that cause or prevent cancer? What if our involvement, and that research, ultimately leads to the elimination…

by Michael Tilley - July 8, 2012 10:44 pm

Billy and ballot stuff

Billy, a college friend from thousands of years ago, called again this week. Hadn’t heard from him in several months. He took a part time job on evenings and some…

by The City Wire staff - July 6, 2012 4:21 pm

A penny FOR Van Buren

On Tuesday, July 10, the citizens of Van Buren will have a chance to vote on a plan that will do much to vastly improve quality-of-life fundamentals for this second-largest…

by The City Wire staff - July 6, 2012 2:29 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - July 5, 2012 6:35 pm

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,…

by The City Wire staff - July 4, 2012 3:15 pm

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…

by Michael Tilley - July 1, 2012 5:59 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - July 1, 2012 12:58 pm

Thumb your nose at Washington

“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…

by The City Wire staff - July 1, 2012 12:48 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - June 28, 2012 4:55 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - June 26, 2012 4:38 pm

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…

by Michael Tilley - June 24, 2012 6:57 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - June 24, 2012 6:56 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - June 19, 2012 6:14 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - June 18, 2012 7:05 pm

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….

by Michael Tilley - June 17, 2012 10:48 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - June 17, 2012 3:14 pm

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…

by The City Wire staff - June 17, 2012 3:02 pm

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…