May 15-20, 2008

It was a good week for …

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GOV. MIKE BEEBE. He succinctly but clearly and persuasively expressed reasons to oppose the initiative petition seeking to stop state help for aliens.

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VICE PRESIDENTIAL DREAMING. Mike Huckabee put himself in the veepstakes with a statement on Meet the Press saying there’s no one he’d rather be on a ticket with than John McCain.

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JOHN MCDONNELL. The UA track coach, who’s retiring at the end of this year, saw his team win the SEC outdoor track and field championship, his 46th conference title in indoor and outdoor track and cross-country.

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The LITTLE ROCK FILM FESTIVAL. Year two was another hit. Big crowds. Good films. Interesting panels. Fun parties. It’s a keeper.

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ANIMALS. Sen. Sue Madison continued her fight for a felony animal abuse law in Arkansas, despite continued opposition from the farm lobby. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said he’ll be in the fight, too.

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It was a bad week for …

 

BRIDGE WALKING. With great pomp, officials opened the Junction Bridge to pedestrian traffic Saturday morning. They closed it several hours later for continuing construction work. But officials hoped it would be ready for Riverfest this weekend.

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The UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE. It’s short faculty and money, even though it’s the one school on campus that generates more student tuition than it spends. The UA subsidizes — and has put more emphasis on — business, engineering and agricultural programs. Money from fat cats named Walton, Tyson, etc. to those subsidized programs certainly hasn’t influenced the imbalance, do you think?

 

The PULASKI COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD. Its members met one by one with a private bus contractor to thwart the Freedom of Information Act’s requirement of open meetings in the course of moving to bust a bus drivers’ union. Privatizing won’t save money in the long run, most likely, but it will cost the drivers plenty.

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