Category Archives: Politics

These legislators will make things interesting

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Legislators from across Arkansas will gather at the Capitol next week to begin three months of controlled chaos that thankfully occur only once every two years.

Some of the 135 lawmakers will be particularly interesting to watch.

Before listing them, for any left-out legislator who happens to read this column, notice I wrote “some” and “interesting.” Sometimes important work doesn’t create headlines. Sometimes, you’re doing something I just don’t know about yet. And sometimes it’s just not your year.

In no particular order, starting with the Senate … Continue reading →

Should schools be required to teach about real news?

Julie Mayberry

Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, has pre-filed a bill that would require Arkansas high schools to offer journalism as an elective.

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Society needs people who can produce real news, so should Arkansas high schools be required to offer a class teaching those skills?

Rep. Julie Mayberry, R-Hensley, says yes, which is why her House Bill 1015 would require high schools to offer journalism as an elective. That’s the way it was until July 2018, when the Arkansas Board of Education voted to instead allow school districts the option of providing the class.

Mayberry believes that was a mistake for several reasons. Journalism has always been a critical check and balance on the government. In fact, she said, it’s so important that the Founding Fathers listed freedom of the press in the very First Amendment. She as a legislator relies on the newspaper to inform her about meetings she can’t attend. Continue reading →

What’s different about this $1 trillion?

By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Winter has arrived, and squirrels everywhere have enough to eat because they stored up food when it was more available in the warmer months.

We could learn a lot from those little rodent-sized brains. Instead of squirreling away our savings, we pig out on today’s and tomorrow’s resources.

This year, the federal government will run a deficit of about $970 billion, or 4.6 percent of the gross domestic product, despite a warm-weather economy that has been expanding for almost a decade. As a recent headline by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told us, “The deficit has never been this high when the economy was this strong.” Continue reading →

Tom Cotton and criminal justice reform’s FIRST STEP

Tom CottonBy Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

In politics, it’s often not about who’s right and who’s wrong. Instead, it’s often about who’s more right. Which brings us to Sen. Tom Cotton and the FIRST STEP Act.

President Trump signed the criminal justice reform act into law Dec. 21, a day after the House passed it 358-36. Previously, the Senate had passed it 87-12. Cotton was the most vocal opponent among the 12 (and the 36). The rest of Arkansas’ congressional delegation voted yes.

Politics makes strange bedfellows. Advocates across the political spectrum supported the law, including Charles and David Koch, the ultra-wealthy, conservative activists, and the American Civil Liberties Union. President Trump supported it, but according to insider news reports, it was his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, the son of an ex-federal inmate, who really pushed it. Continue reading →

The year’s top posts

Happy new year! Here are independentarkansas’ most-read posts from 2018.

Jim Hendren Joyce Elliott

How to disagree agreeably about the NFL anthem controversy. Here’s how Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Sulphur Springs, a conservative Republican Senate leader, and Sen. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock, who grew up in segregated schools, handle their differences on that hot-button issue. By far the year’s top-performing post.

Your pharmacist doesn’t want to see you now. Read how changes in pharmacy benefit manager disbursements left Arkansas druggists struggling to turn a profit. Legislators later met in special session to address the issue, but you can bet it won’t go away.

Why five legislators are going to jail. Another one has since been indicted, and the investigation is continuing.

Project Zero

How one video changed a life. A report by KTHV’s Dawn Scott led one couple to provide a home for a young man who needed a family. It’s the fourth-biggest performing post despite being online less than three weeks.