IT WAS A GOOD WEEK FOR …
CONFUSION. The change has been long overdue, but the busy frontage roads between McCain Boulevard in North Little Rock and Wildwood Avenue in Sherwood have been converted to one-way traffic. It will be safer just as soon as people figure out access, exits and turnarounds.
EUDORA MOSBY. The Hazen native was crowned Miss Arkansas.
TAXES. The North Little Rock City Council seemed willing to schedule an August election on a sales tax to raise $28 million for a minor league baseball park downtown. The increase would put the tax on a McDonald’s burger at 12 cents on the dollar. But, at press time, it wasn’t clear if the mayor had come up with a deal acceptable to the Arkansas Travelers, who’d occupy the park, and the Council’s vote was still pending.
The UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS. With a significant head start from the Walton family and Wal-Mart-related millionaires, the UA achieved its $1 billion fund-raising goal.
The LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL DISTRICT. Achievement test scores are up, plus the School Board made a commitment to more physical education and to remove unhealthy snacks from campus vending machines.
IT WAS A BAD WEEK FOR …
ARKANSAS WINERIES. A lawsuit was filed to challenge the state’s clearly unconstitutional law that allows Arkansas wineries to ship product anywhere but doesn’t allow out-of-state wineries to ship into Arkansas. Once the law is overturned in court, the situation can’t be fixed until the next legislative session.
The DEMOCRATIC PARTY. The former leadership gleefully provided the press with criticism of the new leadership and plenty of details on the new leader’s spending habits. (An early investment in 2006, he says.) Democrats who weren’t obsessed with getting even should be guiding the newspapers to more inspection of the lingering stench from a giant Republican financial scandal overseen by the state’s governor. They’d rather commit mass political suicide.