It was a good week for …

The HOGS. The men’s basketball team knocked off Tennessee and Vanderbilt to reach the finals of the SEC Tournament. The loss in the finals to Georgia didn’t prevent them from a ninth-seed into the NCAA Tournament in Raleigh.

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LITTLE ROCK. The metro area braced for a huge influx of basketball fans for opening-round NCAA basketball tournament games in Alltel Arena.

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CLEAN AIR. The Little Rock Parks Commission is studying whether to restrict smoking in city parks.

The LITTLE ROCK HOUSING AUTHORITY. It has sued to go after cash raised by a private nonprofit created by a former Housing Authority director. The Housing Authority says, rightly, that its former officials shouldn’t profit from arrangements they created as government employees.

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ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY. It’s official. Its teams are no longer Indians, a mascot that Native Americans found demeaning. They are Red Wolves.

It was a bad week for …

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JUSTICE. Word slipped out that Thomas Coughlin, the former Wal-Mart executive, was allowed to attend a Wild Turkey Federation banquet, complete with drinks and firearm displays, in fulfillment of the “community service” he’s supposed to perform instead of jail time for his felony theft conviction. First a federal judge helped Coughlin on account of his station in life. Now, it appears, the U.S. probation office is doing the same.

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The LITTLE ROCK ZOO. It had to close the children’s petting zoo because of the spread of Johne’s Disease. Twelve animals were destroyed; a cow, four sheep and seven goats were put in quarantine.

The CITY OF LITTLE ROCK. It ran a $3.2 million deficit in 2007. Absent a lot of layoffs, or an unexpected rise in tax revenues, there seems to be no fix short of a sales tax increase. How about starting with a hard look at programs that funnel tens of thousands into churches and other politically favored organizations for youth services of dubious reach?

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