You perhaps remember when Argenta News, the scrappy chronicler of news and events in downtown NLR, turned the spotlight on the expropriation of public right of way by Valentine’s Restaurant at Dickey-Stephens Park for its customers.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette followed up, but got snookered.A light-hearted front page article made it appear the restaurant and ballpark nabobs were blameless in the affair and the blocked spaces were merely the work of a cagey independent entrepreneur on a bike.

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Right.

For your information, Argenta News is still on the case. And it reports that the very important people associated with the ballpark are still getting special treatment from Commodore Hays’ administration.

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This is kind of petty stuff, I know. But little favors for the right people are the sorts of things that contribute to cynical feelings about government — like those sweetheart mortgage deals that have been turned up for U.S. Sens. Dorgan and Dodd. The sweethearts who think the public doesn’t notice this sort of thing need only check Argenta News now and again.

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