On KARK-TV’s “Capitol View,” Steve Brawner and Roby Brock discuss …

– The upcoming primary elections

– Whether legislators will fund Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ prison in the fiscal session

– And what will happen in the November elections. (Steve says Democrats narrowly win back the U.S. House, while Libertarians hit 3% in the governor’s race.)

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

You probably don’t need another huge global problem to worry about. At least Shannon Speir is doing something about this one. 

Speir recently helped lead a study of how microplastics travel through streams, and how storms affect that process. She’s a Ph.D. and assistant professor of water quality in the University of Arkansas’ Topsoil and Environmental Sciences Department.

Plastics pollution may or may not be on your radar screen when there are so many other big, potentially terrible things happening. But it’s a very real problem nonetheless. 

The world is producing hundreds of millions of tons of plastic each year, and it doesn’t biodegrade. Instead, it slowly disintegrates over many years into microplastics and smaller nanoplastics. These get into the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe.

As a result, these tiny plastics particles exist throughout our bodies. They get into our bloodstreams. They travel through a pregnant woman’s umbilical cord into her unborn baby. One recent study led by the University of New Mexico found that the microplastics found in deceased people’s brain tissue had increased by 50% from 2016 to 2024, and that people who had been diagnosed with dementia had more plastic than people who hadn’t.  Continue reading →

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

For Americans over age 45, our childhoods were defined in part by the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. We grew up knowing the next war could destroy the world, and it could happen with the press of a button.

Now Blytheville is becoming the central place to remember that era as the home of the National Cold War Center.

The center still has a long way to go from being constructed, but it’s making progress. Dr. Christian Ostermann, the new executive director, said it has raised $7 million of the initial goal of $75 million. It soon will start a major fundraising campaign. Continue reading →