A lot can happen in two years, but in November 2020 Arkansans could vote on reforming the act of voting itself.
That will be the case if ranked choice voting supporters can craft a proposal, get it past the attorney general, raise money, collect signatures, and survive the usual court challenges.
Otherwise known as “instant runoffs,” ranked choice voting lets voters rank candidates in order of preference, rather than simply checking the box next to one. Arkansas already uses this system for overseas ballots. Continue reading Would you rather rank your choices on the ballot?→
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.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verna hands a waiver to Gov. Asa Hutchinson allowing the state to require Arkansas Works recipients to work. Hutchinson opposes Obamacare but has championed the Arkansas Works program created as a result of the law.
How significant was the federal judge’s ruling last week that Obamacare is unconstitutional? We might not know for another two years, but the bigger question is, what happens in the next 20?
The judge ruled in a lawsuit that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional because the U.S. Supreme Court’s original reasoning could no longer stand.
Back in 2013, the Supremes ruled the individual mandate to buy health insurance is constitutional because the penalty for not doing so is a “tax.”
In December, Congress repealed the penalty when it passed the Tax Cut and Jobs Act. A Texas-led coalition of 20 states, including Arkansas under Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, sued arguing that without the penalty, there’s no tax, which means Obamacare itself is no longer constitutional.
How powerful can a short video be? Powerful enough to change a boy’s life – and a family’s.
In March 2015, Chrystal and Adam Baker were living a normal life in Alexander. She was an IT professional and he was a Game and Fish officer, and they were raising their blended family of four children. They had talked about adoption but had never taken any concrete steps.
Then Chrystal saw a Facebook video of a recurring television news series, “A Place to Call Home,” produced by KTHV Channel 11’s Dawn Scott. It featured 13-year-old Donté, who’d been in foster care four years. It was his birthday, and the gift he wanted was a family.
Chrystal told Adam he needed to watch it. He said he already had and told her to start the paperwork.
“I cry every time I watch it and when I think about it. … I knew he was ours,” she said.
Chrystal texted a neighbor who had adopted two teens from foster care and who suggested they contact The CALL, a Christian organization that recruits foster and adoptive parents. She “immediately” called the local chapter. Continue reading How one video changed a life→
