Isaac’s Law says you must stop for school bus

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

Today I’ll write something that close to 100% of us will appreciate: All motorists must stop when a school bus deploys its stop sign and flashes its red lights. But 100% of us aren’t doing it.

I know this from experience. When I’m not scratching out a living as a writer, I drive a school bus for the Bryant School District. Almost everyone stops when I deploy my stop sign. But so far this year half a dozen cars have zoomed past while my bus was lit up like a Christmas tree and students were preparing to board or depart. 

I attribute the incidents to inattention, distraction, impatience or ignorance of the law – and also, I’m sure,  my own experience.  Most have been the equivalent of trying to beat the yellow light.

None of those motorists wanted to hit a student, but then neither did the driver who killed Isaac Brian. That was a fourth-grader in the same Bryant district who lost his life in 2004.  Continue reading →

When Hope wriggles in

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

My side of the family gathered in Wynne for our Christmas celebration Dec. 23. It was a wonderful time of gift exchanging, Papaw’s grilled steaks and Grandma’s cakes and pies. Five years ago, my wife, Melissa, and I had to skip it.

That was the year she was big and pregnant with our daughter, Hope, originally due around Christmas and ultimately greeting the world on January 10, 2020. We couldn’t risk traveling that Christmas, so we sent our older daughters, Mattie, then 18, and Abigail, then 15.

Hope was an unexpected blessing at an unexpected time. I was 50, and Melissa was 44. Our new daughter came into the world only a couple of weeks after my college roommate became a grandfather. In fact, many of my high school and college classmates have reached that stage. A few people who have seen Hope and me in public have commented about my “granddaughter” before I joyfully set them straight. It’s a great ice-breaker when I tell people that my daughters are 23, 20 and … four. I like adding that little pause. Continue reading →

Arkansan of the year brings families together

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Christie Erwin did not know when she sat down in a rocking chair in January 1993 that her life was about to change, and that she would help reduce the number of foster children in Arkansas waiting to be adopted from 700 to 200. 

But she has, and that’s why she’s this columnist’s Arkansan of the year for 2024.

Erwin is the founder and executive director of Project Zero (www.theprojectzero.org). This year alone, that organization had helped connect 125 foster children with adoptive families as of November. Foster children are those the state removes from their homes because of neglect, abuse and/or unsafe conditions.

Project Zero, which she started in 2011, does this through an online Heart Gallery featuring photos and powerful videos that tell the kids’ stories, and through events like the Candyland Christmas December 7.

The latter brought 143 waiting kids and 48 prospective families to Little Rock’s Fellowship Bible Church for food, fun, gifts from 250 people, and, most importantly, a chance to connect. Last year’s event resulted in 17 adoptions. Continue reading →

Questions awaiting answers Tuesday

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Many questions await answers after Election Day. Let’s consider a few of them, starting with …

Which party will control the Senate and the House of Representatives? The answer, or answers, will largely determine the next president’s agenda. If everything is controlled by one party, then the president will have an easier time accomplishing some of his or her goals – or at least he or she won’t be investigated by congressional committees. If one party controls the White House and the Senate, then more of the president’s judicial appointments will be confirmed. Otherwise, we’ll generally have gridlock, which may be the best scenario given the alternatives.

Gridlock basically is what we have now. Democrats control the Senate, 51-49, while Republicans control the House, 220-212 with three vacancies. 

After the election, Republicans likely will control the Senate because Democrats are defending 23 of the 34 contested seats, including some in states where they are vulnerable. Those include an open West Virginia seat that Republicans will win, and a Montana seat where the Republican is leading the Democratic incumbent. If Republicans gain control, Arkansas’ Sen. John Boozman is in line to chair the Agriculture Committee.  Continue reading →

Chief justice candidates differ on initiatives fix

By Steve Brawner, © 2024 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Early voting had already started October 21 when Arkansans finally learned the state Supreme Court had disqualified the medical marijuana amendment from the ballot. 

The decision came a little more than two weeks before Election Day Nov. 5, which surely we all can agree is too late in the process.

This happens a lot. Maybe the next Supreme Court chief justice can do something about it. 

Two current justices, Rhonda Wood and Karen Baker, are vying to be chief justice. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette gave them both a chance to address the issue in its Sunday edition Oct. 13. 

The article quoted a news release from Wood where she said she planned to create a working group to review the process and potentially change Arkansas Supreme Court rules. Changes could include adding a deadline for legal challenges, allowing ballot title changes to come earlier than they do now, and providing a 14-day briefing calendar and five-day deadline for the court to issue its opinion. That latter change would have produced a decision by Sept. 16 this year.  Continue reading →