Can the center make a comeback?

vote, Mark Moore, 16-year-olds, Clarke TuckerBy Steve Brawner

© 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Does “the middle” equal “mushy”?

The concept came up in an interview with Rep. Clarke Tucker, D-Little Rock, by the New York Times. The newspaper featured Tucker in a story about national Democrats favoring moderate candidates in Republican-leaning districts like central Arkansas’ 2nd.

It’s represented by Republican Rep. French Hill, himself not a fire-breather, but national and local Democrats think they have a shot at winning it. So they recruited Tucker and have backed him financially.  Continue reading →

Voters flying blind on Supreme Court race

Lake View, Arkansas Supreme CourtOnly three names appear on every ballot in Arkansas in the May primary elections: Justice Courtney Goodson, Judge Kenneth Hixson, and attorney David Sterling, the three candidates running for Goodson’s Arkansas Supreme Court justice seat.

For voters, making an informed choice between the three can be challenging – like flying blind or at least with limited visibility. The Supreme Court race is nonpartisan, and we voters rely on those Ds and Rs by candidates’ names. Moreover, judicial candidates aren’t supposed to say how they would vote in particular cases – unlike, say, a congressional candidate who can promise not to cut taxes. The thinking is, if a judicial candidate reveals a preference beforehand, he or she can’t serve as an impartial jurist when it counts.

Outside groups, however, don’t have those limitations.  Continue reading →

Why five legislators are going to jail

Arkansas Legislature, Arkansas WorksFour of the 135 members of the 2013-14 Arkansas Legislature probably are going to jail, along with a fifth who served earlier. More might join them before the FBI is finished. Let’s consider why this is happening, beyond the standard explanation that, “All politicians are crooks,” which is not true.

The four ex-legislators – Sen. Jon Woods, R-Springdale; Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale; Sen. Jake Files, R-Fort Smith; and Rep. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff – have been found guilty (Woods) or pleaded guilty (the others) to various financial crimes, a common denominator being misuse of the state’s General Improvement Fund for their own benefit. A fifth ex-legislator, Rep. Eddie Cooper, D-Melbourne, who served from 2005 to the beginning of 2011, has also pleaded guilty to financial wrongdoings including misuse of the fund.

The GIF is a grant program directing state dollars to specific local projects at the behest of individual legislators. The process has changed many times because of political machinations or court rulings, the latest last year. Its latest incarnation sent grants to planning districts that rubber-stamped legislators’ wishes.

Continue reading →

This year’s Pulitzer goes to … an ex-journalist

The Pulitzer Prize is journalism’s highest honor, and this year one winner no longer is a journalist.

On his last day working for his local newspaper, Ryan Kelly photographed a white supremacist driving a car through a crowd in Charlottesville, Virginia. He told the Associated Press that he left the profession because of the long hours, low pay, stress and job insecurity. He was doing digital media work for a brewery when he learned he’d won the award. And as the AP reported, he wasn’t the first journalist to leave the profession before or not long after winning the Pulitzer.

These are tough times for journalism in general and newspapers in particular.  Continue reading →

For waiting kids, these are the real superheroes

Lauri Currier, Christie Erwin

Project Zero’s Christie Erwin takes a selfie with The CALL’s Lauri Currier at the Walk for the Waiting.

There were superheroes on the field at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock Saturday – Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, some others. And then a lot of real ones.

The comic book characters – those were actors. The real ones were people like Bryan and Stephanie Emmerling, who are adopting their second daughter after fostering her for the past year-and-a-half.

The Emmerlings – he a FedEx delivery driver, she employed by a mortgage company – were among thousands participating in the Walk for the Waiting. The annual event raises money for three faith-based organizations serving children removed by the state from their biological families because of abuse, parental drug use or other reasons. The CALL works with churches to recruit foster and adoptive families. Project Zero connects potential adoptive families with children whose parents’ rights have been terminated. Immerse Arkansas primarily provides support to children who are aging out of the system without being adopted. Continue reading →