It was a good week for …
The PULASKI COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT. Charlie Wood, one of the most strident anti-union members of the School Board, drew opposition from retired teacher Gloria Lawrence, who offers hope of a return to peace in a district that needs it. Wood certainly hasn’t delivered the better management he promised when first elected.
The UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS. It said it expected record enrollment this fall of nearly 21,000.
OLD-SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT. Alyse Eady of Fort Smith won the Miss Arkansas title after a talent act that featured her clogging and doing a ventriloquist bit, including hand puppets yodeling from “I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart.”
It was a bad week for …
SEN. BLANCHE LINCOLN. The country is drowning in red ink and she wants to give billionaires a multi-billion-dollar estate tax cut? What kind of sense does that make? Plenty if Walton, Anthony, Stephens and Dillard are among the names of some of your biggest financial supporters.
FREE STATE CARS. A taxpayers’ lawsuit was filed claiming an illegal exaction of tax money by the hundreds of state employees who enjoy free state-purchased cars that they use for personal purposes, including daily commutes.
WASHINGTON COUNTY SHERIFF TIM HELDER. He fired jailer Jessie Lunderby for posing nude for Playboy. Inadequate focus on her job, Helder harrumphed. Compare this action to the 30-day suspension Helder gave a deputy for locking an alien in a courthouse cell for four days and forgetting her. She almost died. Talk about lack of focus.
LITTLE ROCK CITY WORKERS. Union police and firefighters and sanitation workers had no choice but to accept a wage freeze on account of a woefully miscalculated city budget and absence of reserves. Will the Chamber of Commerce be asked to sacrifice next year like the garbage men by a loss of its outrageously unaccountable city subsidy? Don’t bet on it.
PIERCE BOYD. The 19-year-old dropped her cell phone while driving on Interstate 430 and, in trying to retrieve it, drove her car into the Arkansas River. She escaped her sinking Toyota unharmed, but not before being sure she still had her cell phone — and Bible. Pray for those who use cell phones while driving.