TCW Editorial

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…

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…

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…

Bloomberg’s second strike

The first time Bloomberg news fouled up a story about Wal-Mart Stores one could simply consider it a surprising and ill-advised report. A one-off, if you will. Even a smart…

Now is the time

We respectfully disagree with the view of U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, who believes a looming budget battle is not the time to defund and/or otherwise kill the federal healthcare law…

A twinkle of hope

An edict out of Bentonville, Ark., has more of a chance to shore up (pun intended) America’s ailing manufacturing sector than anything our elected officials may promulgate from Washington, D.C.,…

Hutchinson’s Herculean challenge

The proofreaders for the Mike Ross gubernatorial inauguration invitations have been hired and called in to work early. Such were some of the early notes from the conventional political wisdom…

Improving cost AND turnout

The Sebastian County Election Commission is to be commended for seeking to increase efficiencies and reduce costs with a plan to change the number of voting sites in the county….

Political petulance

The deceased and fantastically brilliant comedian Mitch Hedberg once quipped that he wore a necklace “cause I wanna know when I’m upside down.” Well, when the detached and fantastically buffoonish…

We must renew the 1% county tax

When famed jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. noted that taxes are the price we pay for civilization, he likely had in mind taxes like Sebastian County’s 1% sales tax. County…

The Whirlpool watch must continue (Updated)

Debbie Keith should not have had to call in reinforcements. But she did, and now the company of famous environmental activist Erin Brockovich is likely to be in Fort Smith…

Political bets with public dollars

While there has been much noted of Arkansas’ recently approved “pain capable” abortion bill, there has been little meaningful public debate among legislators about the political, social and legal complexities…

Whirlpool’s spin cycle

The Fort Smith Board of Directors should put the brakes on this request by Whirlpool Corp. to ban the installation of groundwater wells in an area near the company's former…

TCW editorial: Bait and switch

Jobs, jobs, jobs. That was the pre-election mantra of these heady Republicans who knew they were within striking distance of capturing the keys to the Arkansas lawmaking engine. It was…

The comfort of discomfort

Regional political, business and civic leaders in Benton and Washington counties appear to speak the same language with respect to socio-economic development. It’s silly to think they read from the…

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…

Slimy news

What’s the difference between a media report and pink slime? One is perfectly fine to ingest, while the other can leave thousands of people without jobs and raise the price…

TCW Editorial: Mostly ‘For,’ a little ‘Against’

On March 13, Fort Smith voters will consider the extended use of a 1% sales tax that will refinance bonds, pay for the issuance of new bonds and support operations…