by Michael Tilley - January 31, 2016 5:48 pm
Here we go again with this Fort Smith Convention Center/prepared food tax debate in which room for calm and reasoned analysis is nuked by emotion, half-truths, perception sans context, anecdotal…
by Michael Tilley - January 10, 2016 9:57 pm
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s call to appreciate police and shut down “the negativity toward those who protect and serve” is noble in sentiment but incredibly naive and ill serves…
by Michael Tilley - January 2, 2016 11:25 am
Editor’s note: This essay first appeared Dec. 28, 2008, on The City Wire, now Talk Business & Politics. It continues to be an appropriate note to begin a new year….
by Michael Tilley - December 15, 2015 3:56 pm
Editor’s note: This essay was first published Dec. 18, 2011. –––––––––– My closet hero has died. He called Bill Clinton a rapist. He wrote frequently of his distaste for George…
by Michael Tilley - December 1, 2015 7:51 pm
Look away now for those of you hoping top personnel changes underway at the city of Fort Smith and recent actions by the Fort Smith Board are leading to more…
by Michael Tilley - November 15, 2015 8:06 pm
U.S. and Arkansas job and tourism growth related to microbreweries is on the rise. Church membership is on the decline. Wanna guess which has the ear of the Fort Smith…
by Michael Tilley - October 20, 2015 3:02 pm
Some in the upper levels of Fort Smith city leadership have said the city has cut expenses as much as possible and the best/only way to fix budget holes is…
by Michael Tilley - September 26, 2015 2:11 pm
Downtown Fort Smith was alive. Alive with “special energy.” A new element of culture was brought to the city. The “cool switch” was turned on for Fort Smith. Those are…
by Michael Tilley - August 20, 2015 9:03 pm
It’s not likely I’ll soon praise the presidency of Jimmy Carter, if for no other reason than dad would disown me. He is not a fan of the Georgia peanut…
by Michael Tilley - August 9, 2015 11:26 pm
Recent commentary suggesting citizens should avoid escalation during police interactions to avoid negative outcomes serves only to escalate avoidance of what is a broad and complex problem. Reducing violence and…
by Michael Tilley - July 12, 2015 8:59 pm
The trust and transparency deficit with Fort Smith municipal government took another hit Friday (July 10) when Mayor Sandy Sanders admitted – maybe unwittingly – that the Board broke state…
by Michael Tilley - July 5, 2015 6:19 pm
Recent numbers reflect well on the Fort Smith metro economy, but there remains a four-letter word that makes unpleasant a more in-depth conversation: Jobs. Positive economic headlines have been frequent…
by The City Wire staff - June 29, 2015 5:10 pm
Let’s take a moment and talk about the late Jack White and leadership and paperclips. Jack is remembered by the Jack White Legislative Golf Classic held each year by the…
by Michael Tilley - May 17, 2015 11:26 pm
Funding for a 35-mile multi-use trail system in Fort Smith wasn’t rejected because voters don’t like trails. It wasn’t about the trails. Never was. It was about trust. It was…
by Michael Tilley - May 7, 2015 4:11 pm
A lot has changed in Mom’s world. The world in 1949, the year of her birth, was a crazy place. Europe was rebuilding its continental economy, the Soviets were rattling…
by Michael Tilley - April 26, 2015 5:47 pm
The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it. – H.L. Mencken Recently toured several of the fine museums in Chicago. The city…
by Michael Tilley - April 23, 2015 1:12 pm
Raising of Fort Smith sewer rates in a process that will more than triple the average bill by 2017 is not a problem. It’s not welcome news, but we’ve been…
by Michael Tilley - April 1, 2015 11:48 pm
Having watched and interviewed elected officials for more than 30 years, there are only two with which it was easily and immediately evident why they were popular and successful: Bill…
by Michael Tilley - March 18, 2015 9:19 pm
The good Senator Tom Cotton isn’t acting like the farm boy from Yell County who was dominant in his campaign commercials. Those small town, farm values he loaded up in…
by Michael Tilley - March 4, 2015 9:50 pm
If or when the post-Great Recession history of Fort Smith is written, a leading candidate as an historic marker in the economic recovery will be the recent and well-attended cold…
