By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

A billionaire businessman and former New York City mayor flew to Little Rock to file his presidential candidacy paperwork at the Capitol Tuesday, and that wasn’t the most unexpected event on the last day of campaign filing.

Michael Bloomberg, 77, was the only major presidential candidate to file in person. He has openly flirted with running for president for years but has never pulled the trigger. But he really doesn’t approve of his fellow billionaire New Yorker, President Donald Trump, and has been critical of the Democratic field.

Bloomberg had filed in Alabama, which like Arkansas has a ridiculously early filing period, but Arkansas was the first state where he did it in person. His appearance wasn’t previously announced, but word began to spread that morning, and reporters and onlookers were waiting when he arrived. He paid his $2,500 filing fee to the Democratic Party of Arkansas, filed his paperwork, had his picture taken, and then spoke briefly with reporters. He did not confirm he is running for president but did say he was “the only candidate to come here.” If he’s not a candidate, he’s doing a great impression of one.

Bloomberg wasn’t the only major party candidate to file Tuesday. Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld filed in the Republican Party primary against Trump. Weld is an announced candidate and had been talking to the state party, so his decision, though notable, wasn’t a complete surprise. Continue reading Last day of filing: The unexpected and the weird →

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

I don’t know if Bobby Petrino’s first return to Arkansas since 2012 was the most important statewide story this week, but it definitely was one of the most interesting.

The former Arkansas Razorbacks head football coach appeared before 700 people at a sold-out-in-24-hours Little Rock Touchdown Club meeting Monday. The format was a Q and A with media personality and former Razorback David Bazzel.

It didn’t take long for Petrino to address the issue that was on everyone’s mind. After briefly sharing some football-related memories, he said, without being asked, “I wanted to be able to come here and apologize to everybody, the fans, the players, and truly tell you how sorry I am for the way it ended. I also wanted to come here and thank you for everything that the people in this room and the state did for me and my family.”

His voice choked up a little, but he held it together. The crowd gave him a standing ovation.

Petrino had not been back in the state since after he was fired April 11, 2012, by former University of Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long. Continue reading Petrino returns with humble apology →

By Steve Brawner, © 2019 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

June 13, 2019

Angela Haseltine Pozzi’s a-ha moment came when she was walking along her beloved southern Oregon beach and saw a “mosaic of plastic” – pieces so small she realized they were turning into sand.

“I always felt that the ocean was something that would never change, that would always be the same and be that beautiful constant, serene beautiful place. And I was horrified to know that we were really hurting the ocean so much, so I really decided that my mission in my life was going to have to be to save the ocean,” she said with a laugh.

The artist and art teacher founded Washed Ashore in 2009 at age 51. It has created 75 works of art from 22 tons of trash washed up on the Oregon coastline to call attention to ocean pollution. Pozzi has done this with help from a staff of 10 and more than 14,000 volunteers. Twenty pieces are on display at the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock until Oct. 27.

How big is the problem? Her website says the world produces 300 million pounds of plastic annually, and less than 10 percent is recycled. In some places overseas, trash-infested rivers are pouring plastic into the ocean. Some of the plastic litter in Arkansas’ recently flooded areas likely will end up in the sea. Plastic is not biodegradable and can take hundreds of years to disintegrate (turn into tiny plastic pieces). Sea creatures mistake it for food and eat it, so it enters the food chain. Ocean currents have created the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is twice the size of Texas, between California and Hawaii. There are four other garbage patches worldwide. Trash including a plastic bag has been found in the Mariana Trench seven miles below the surface. Continue reading How ocean trash became Greta the Great White Shark →