Arkansas
updated
10:46 p.m.
Last week was a rough one here in Arkansas. For those that were living under a rock, the Democratic campaign manager for the Ken Aden campaign (AR-03) came home with his kids to find their family cat killed with the word "LIBERAL" written on the animal's fur. (warning, link contains a graphic image of the cat). Well the even sparked a national outcry and being close to what'...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Thu 3:47 p.m. - 9 clicks 
The USDA is proposing to close 131 of its 2,113 offices throughout the U.S., and the Lafayette/Columbia County office is on the closure list. A public meeting was held this morning at the Lewisville Agriplex to discuss reasons this office should be removed from the list. ...
Under The Dome - Mon 9:40 a.m.
The Temple Memorial Rehabilitation Center is holding its 9th Annual Phantom here in Texarkana tonight. Temple Memorial began in 1952 for the purpose of rehabilitating children who had physical disabilities as a result of polio. Since that time, the organization has grown and changed. This year's Phantom honoree is the late Jack Trigg. ...
Under The Dome - Sat 7:05 p.m. - 14 clicks
Testing out my mobile blogging skills. Denis Washington is the winner of this year's C.E. Palmer award. ...
Under The Dome - Jan 27 - 11 clicks
Local steelworkers are voting today to ratify a contract between the tire company and workers. The Texarkana Gazette reported that 1,200 workers showed up to a ratification meeting yesterday at the fairgrounds to get details of the agreement. Voting started at 6:00 a.m. today. Here are a few highlights of the four year contract as reported by the Texarkana Gazette: • Wage increases: Workers hi...
Under The Dome - Jan 26 - 3 clicks
SWEPCO has signed long-term power purchase agreements for a total of 358.65 megawatts of renewable energy from wind projects in neighboring states (Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas). The company has now complied with the 400-MW renewable energy commitment in a recent settlement of legal issues involving the John W. Turk Jr. Power Plant in Hempstead County. One of the concerns with this power plant has be...
Under The Dome - Jan 25
Two local positions close tomorrow: FDA tobacco inspections ($30K-35K) and DHS specialist ($27K-47K). Apply at https://www.ark.org/arstatejobs/index.php . ...
Under The Dome - Jan 25
It's fairly well known that one of the fiscal issues that has been at the forefront this year is the revenue shortage in the Administration of Justice Fund to pay the state's trial court assistants. Here in Arkansas, the court of general jurisdiction is the circuit court, and each of the 120 circuit judges in the state employs an assistant to facilitate the caseload that is assigned to that j...
Under The Dome - Jan 25 - 2 clicks
Some updates on the tragic killing of a Dem campaign manager's cat in Arkansas: First, as many have inquired, the Russellville police have opened up an investigation. As far as assigning guilt or speculating who may have done it, even jokingly, let's just let the police do their jobs on that point. Secondly, there are some conservative trolls out there who are suggesting in various t...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 24
The murder of a family's cat in Arkansas for apparent political reasons is one of the most nauseating stories I've read in a long time. It also is a story filled with irony. The cat belonged to the campaign manager for Ken Aden, a Democrat running for a seat in the state's 3rd Congressional District. The word "liberal" was scrawled on the cat's body in paint, hinting that this was a "political...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 24
By now most of you know the horrifying story of Gato, the cat who belonged to Jake Burris, campaign manager for the Ken Aden for Congress campaign in Arkansas. Sunday night, Jake and his young children found Gato brutally slaughtered on their front porch, the word "LIBERAL" written across her body. Well, since we broke the story on Blue Arkansas yesterday it has attracted national at...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 24
I toured the ongoing construction of the initial administration building on campus at the new UACCH at Texarkana. This 10,000 sf building will be completed and classes will begin here on campus Fall, 2012. ...
Under The Dome - Jan 24
In case you haven't heard, on Sunday night Jake Burris, the campaign manager for Ken Aden , the Democratic candidate in Arkansas' insanely red 3rd District, came home to a horrifying scene . Some yayhoos had showed up at Burris' home and brutally killed his pet cat, then scrawled "LIBERAL" across the cat's body. To his credit, Republican incumbent Steve Womack condemned this i...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 24
Jake Burris, the campaign manager for Arkansas 3rd District Democratic congressional candidate Ken Aden found his cat killed and defaced with "LIBERAL" markings yesterday. More information and the press release are available here: http://www.arktimes.com/... The original post, (TRIGGER WARNING, complete with a picture of the cat) is here: http://bluearkansasblog.com/... ...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 23 - 3 clicks
This is a gruesome story and contains a link to an image that may be found to be disturbing. I won't post the pic in the diary but will provide a link. I've gone back and forth on the merits of sharing the image since last night when this all happened and finally decided that it's best to make the image available so those that would deny it happened cannot. Beyond that, I'll te...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 23
For background on this tornado outbreak, please see my diary from earlier today. The SPC has issued a "Particularly Dangerous Situation" Tornado Watch for parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee until midnight CST as a line of storms continues to build up and move east across Arkansas. "Particularly Dangerous Situation" is enhanced wording added to a tornado watch to indicate the highe...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 22
7:08PM CST Update: I've posted the liveblog diary for this outbreak . I'm going to keep it going as long as I can. 5:35PM CST Update: A PDS Tornado Watch has been issued for the area that the SPC put in the bullseye this morning. The watch is in effect until Midnight CST. PDS means "Particularly Dangerous Situation," which is enhanced wording added to a tornado watch to indicate the poten...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 22
Officers with the Steelworkers 752L union with Cooper Tire in Texarkana struck a tentative agreement with administrators at Cooper Tire headquarters in Findlay, Ohio late last night. The deal extends the negotiations deadline in an effort to hammer out details of the agreement and to get the agreement ratified by the 1,500 steelworkers at the Texarkana plant over the weekend. The previous ...
Under The Dome - Jan 20
The Joint Budget Committee is meeting for the third day here at the Capitol this week reviewing agency budget requests and funding recommendations from the governor's proposed budget. Today we're reviewing Dept of Health and DHS budgets. It's expected that we'll get a motion to review the Department of Community Corrections budget, which was considered yesterday. In particular, we're reviewing...
Under The Dome - Jan 19
These people have issues, and they apparently hate education. I guess they thought it was cute when Chris "Chrissie Walnuts" Christie told a constituent to mind her own business, or told a teacher to go get a different job if she wants to be properly compensated. Now Arkansas' Steve Womack has gone off on a woman who confronted him at a town hall. She had the audacity to ask him why he...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 6
Or not. Really, please, or not. Too often, this site has diarists who go off half-cocked, and way too many readers follow them off the cliff, rather than use the common sense that God gave them to recognize that there isn't enough evidence to support the conspiracy theory that's been floated. This diary bemoans that happenstance. See, last year at this point in time, there were multiple diaris...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Jan 3
I'm posting from Jerusalem while on a legislative study tour with the AIFL. Ten legislators from 10 different states are here, and we met with Ambassador Uri Bar-Ner yesterday along with Hebrew University political science professor Shlomo Avineri before visiting the Old City of Jerusalem and the Mt. of Olives. Also in Jerusalem is U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman (right). We're meeting with Je...
Under The Dome - Dec 30
Newt Gingrich’s assault on ‘activist judges’ draws criticism, even from right – The Washington Post. I was hibernating, snoozing peacefully and not hurting anybody, but this story is really weird. You may have heard that Republican Presidential front-runner Newt Gingrich wants to arrest federal judges. Never one to be accused of timidity, Republican presidential contender [...] ...
Lynch at Large - Dec 18
The year 1811 was the 35th year of the United States. Most Americans lived along the east coast, but the newly opened Louisiana Purchase opened up new opportunities. Along the Mississippi, new towns and cities were being established, serviced by barge traffic moving down the Ohio to the Mississippi, and then onward to New Orleans and the sea. ...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Dec 16
Ok, I volunteer at KASU and part of the deal is all the actual employees get a long vacation over Christmas Break. Which means I have to get all my Something Blue shows produced and turned in at the station early. Which is nice in a way because now I've got everything done and I don't have to worry about producing shows during the holidays. But it's naughty in a way because I missed Protest Tues...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Dec 14
A ceremony was held yesterday commemorating the construction and "raising of the beam" of the future University of Arkansas Community College at Hope - Texarkana campus. The governor was in attendance and made remarks, as did Dr. Don Bobbitt, the new UofA system President. Several other university and elected officials were also on hand to see the beam raised and hoisted into place on the ini...
Under The Dome - Dec 1
When you got together and got us out to Arkansas to help my parents rather than having to go to a Bay Area homeless shelter, I promised to pay it forward and write. Here's my latest effort at writing, and the last Red State Diary. What we managed to accomplish here, and why we're being driven out, below the fold. ...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Nov 30
Rod Dreher » Paulson put the fix in for financial elites. Conspiracy? Yes, so it seems. Rod Dreher is back and one of his blog posts today requires your immediate attention. The extensive reporting and commentary is based on a Bloomberg report that is nothing short of stunning. Reaction? Nice to see the Obama administration [...] ...
Lynch at Large - Nov 29
Here’s the deal. He didn’t mention God. I must part company with some of my liberal friends who suggest that this is a secular holiday. It is a really big strain, or so it seems to me, to be just thankful to each other for the good things of life. Now, ingratitude is a widespread [...] ...
Lynch at Large - Nov 26
Fox News Viewers Know Less Than People Who Don’t Watch Any News: Study. Dan Cassino, a political science professor at Fairleigh Dickinson, explained in a statement, “Because of the controls for partisanship, we know these results are not just driven by Republicans or other groups being more likely to watch Fox News. Rather, the results [...] ...
Lynch at Large - Nov 22
An exchange with Blair Jackson, editor of the Fayetteville-based Free Weekly, addresses the question of how to deal with right-wing propaganda. In one of a series of columns on the Occupy Wall Street movement (which now has a camp in … Continue reading → ...
arkansasmediawatch - Nov 22
Well, who would have seen it coming? In view of the obvious loyalty of Republican powers to an alien power (Grover Norquist) most of us figured that honoring a pledge to sink the ship would trump any sincere attempts to get it past the icebergs. Blame Democrats for refusing to put all the pain and [...] ...
Lynch at Large - Nov 21
Well, when you all got together and helped us to get out here to Arkansas rather than a shelter in the Bay Area, I promised that I'd write and pay it forward. Due to working 16 hour nights, I've gotten seriously behind on the 'writing' end of that, but the project is over and my schedule's pretty much normalized now, so here we are. After the whatever the hell it is that we've decided to cal...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Nov 12
Thank you dad, and all other veterans, for the sacrifices you made for this country. Dad in Vietnam Paternal Grandfather Maternal Grandfather The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day ceremony will take place at 11:00 a.m. this morning in the 2nd floor rotunda of the State Capitol. I'll participate in the Sevier County ceremony on the Cossatot College ca...
Under The Dome - Nov 11
This cartoon (cortesy of Think Progress) expresses well how the corporate media are trying to shape the narrative about the inconvenient Wall Street protesters. Regardless what one’s political opinion on the issues, nobody in their right mind can claim that … Continue reading → ...
arkansasmediawatch - Nov 7
Democrat Ken Aden, running in an incredibly tough district (Arkansas's third), has apparently managed to do something no Democrat has ever managed to do against a sitting Republican in that district. He's gotten under his opponent's skin so much that Congressman Steve Womack, an arrogant prick if there ever was one, actually had to take a swipe at his opponent...and it blew up in Womack's ...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Nov 4
Last week, Fort Smith was hit hard by the news that Whirlpool was closing its refrigerator factory, putting 1,000 employees out of work. An analysis in Columbia Journalism Review‘s Audit on the Business Press criticizes the local newspaper’s coverage of … Continue reading → ...
arkansasmediawatch - Nov 3
Cross-posted at Minnesota Progressive Project . A bit of this gets Minnesota-centric, but it's broadly applicable. I'm reposting this diary I wrote two years ago minus a month , because we're at that same point in the election cycle. Actually, it's a copying and pasting rather than a reposting since I want to open it up for comments. I offered a test of whether it made sense to try to defe...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Nov 2
The Democrats in Arkansas were screwed over by a dipshit incumbent and losses in 2/3 of the Dem-held districts last year. As a result they drew a 0-4 map. However, they retained the trifecta in a state that allowed them to draw the maps they wanted. If they had decided to draw a new map which would give them a guaranteed Democratic district, or two districts they might have a s...
DailyKos (Arkansas) - Oct 25
