It was a good week for:
HOUSTON NUTT. No matter what fans think, Frank Broyles likes him. He really likes him. The athletic director gave the football coach a new six-year contract at higher pay. Sorry, Mitch.
It was a bad week for …
The JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. The Bush administration ignored the constitutional nominating process to give Tim Griffin a recess appointment as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Republicans don’t want Griffin to testify about his role in Karl Rove’s dirty political operation, particularly alleged vote suppression in Florida.
LITTLE ROCK CITY GOVERNMENT:
• An airport commissioner talked about doing business with the Little Rock National Airport’s concession contractor.
• A Democrat-Gazette investigation revealed self-dealing and an absence of financial controls at the Advertising and Promotion Commission.
• The lame duck City Board was prepared to vote on a hurry-up deal to expand mining operations into Gillam Park, over objections of Granite Mountain neighbors. A conservation group’s last-minute objection torpedoed the vote.
• City Hall hired someone with no experience working with the homeless — but plenty working to roust them out of hobo camps — to coordinate the city’s homeless efforts.
PULASKI COUNTY GOVERNMENT. It can’t operate the County Jail with existing money, but it’s madly searching for money to find more free parking for county employees.
THE HUCKSTER WATCH
He made a piddling $500,000 at a fund-raiser to jumpstart his presidential exploratory efforts and released a new so-called “book” with self-congratulation, self-pity and misstatement of fact. Three weeks to go.