Wallace and Jama Fowler of Jonesboro have given $2.5 million to the University of Arkansas to toward a $9.1 million building for baseball and track teams. The UA Board of Trustees will consider a resolution Thursday to name the building in their owner.

In other money news, it was reported that three state legislators directed a total of $35,000 from the general improvement fund to support the David and Barbara Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History at UA.

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What? You didn’t know legislators still controlled individual grants from the general improvement fund? You thought former Rep. Mike Wilson’s lawsuit stopped the practice of allowing individual legislators to specify spending on their pet local projects? You haven’t been paying attention. There was always an argument, however, that use of the money for university purpose was allowable, and not unconstitutional special local legislation. The Pryor Center is of statewide use and interest as opposed to, say, Jeremy Hutchinson’s July 4 Saline County fireworks show. Reps. David Whitaker, Darrin Williams and Charlie Collins claimed credit for the Pryor Center allotment.

Who says athletics and history can’t mix. The Pryor Center collection now includes an interview with Frank Broyles, the former Razorback football coach and athletic director.

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