The line is open. Finishing up:

* ADD SHANE BROADWAY TO THE LIST: 12 a.m. Sept. 16 (today) was the deadline for applications for the job of director of the Arkansas Higher Education Department, currently led on an interim basis by Shane Broadway. Broadway was among four more applications that came in the final hours before the deadline to make for a list of 20 applicants, three of whom applied on a previous search.

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The recent legislature changed qualifications for the job to make Broadway eligible to hold the job on a permanent basis. The requirement that the position be filled by someone with a doctorate had stymied Gov. Mike Beebe’s intention to appoint Broadway on a permanent basis.

Broadway has been popular in the job and can be expected to be a strong candidate for consideration by the Higher Education Coordinating Board, whose 12 members all were appointed by Beebe.

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* FOUR YEARS FOR COUNTY OFFICIALS? REALLY?: The attorney general’s office today gave approval to David Dinwiddie of Pine Bluff of the form of a proposed constitutional amendment to give county officials and constables four-year, instead of two-year, terms. I remarked recently that the two-year term is a good alternative to recall, not available under Arkansas law for county officials, when you run into a situation like Saline County is currently facing with a troubled sheriff. sheriffs have pushed for such a measure in the past. I don’t know yet if Dinwiddie has the organizational heft to get the measure on the ballot.

* EARLY VOTING FOR SCHOOL BOARD: The Pulaski County Election Commission reports that 133 people voted early in local school elections.

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