My Arkansas News Bureau column this week discusses the need to halt the growth rate in the state’s prison population and asks what the new Republicans in the Legislature are willing to do about it. Arkansas’ population, and the money it spends on it, are both rising at unsustainable rates. A panel has proposed a set of reforms, but the issue will be easy to demagogue on law and order grounds.

Will newly elected Republicans come to the table and be consistent with the GOP’s small-government-is-better philosophy? Or will they do as the national Republicans have done: tout small government but never actually offer any real, specific cuts.

I’ll be watching. I hope others are as well.

Here is the column.

My Arkansas News Bureau column this week discusses a bill by Rep. David Sanders that would put some real teeth into the law that punishes sports agents for illegally providing gifts to college athletes. Sports agents are the only guilty parties that never get punished when this happens; the universities, the players and the fans are the ones who suffer. Sanders’ bill would make the crime a felony, raise fines to $250,000, and revoke their license for five years. It’s a good start.

I wish I was one-thousandth as good an accountant as blogger Jason Tolbert is a reporter. Check out The Tolbert Report for an excellent report on the amount of money spent by the Blue Ribbon Committee on Highway Finance.

Rep. David Sanders (R-Little Rock) has introduced a bill to return the state’s marketing slogan to “Land of Opportunity” from its current one, “The Natural State.”

I think they’re both lame. A marketing slogan should differentiate your state. Every state would want to claim to be the “Land of Opportunity.” And “The Natural State”? It’s a punchline. Gov. Huckabee used to say that we call ourselves The Natural State, “and not because we all run around in the natural state.” Always got a laugh.

I suggested “Where the South Meets the West” to Sanders.

Not interested.

This is why people like Sanders stop being columnists and actually run for office.