It was a good week for…
THE NORTH LITTLE ROCK CITY COUNCIL. It endorsed a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment to override the U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United decision that gave personhood to corporations.
LITTLE ROCK’S MAIN STREET. Portland, Ore., developer Scott Reed, whose K Lofts enterprise on 315 Main St. got off to a rocky start but seems to have smoothed out, made good on his promise to keep working downtown by buying the four buildings on the west side of Main between Capitol and Sixth Street. He said the buildings would be developed with a focus on the arts.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA. Arkansans for Compassionate Care turned in additional signatures for its medical marijuana initiative. A spokesman for the secretary of state said the group turned in 74,406 signatures, on 11,596 pages of petitions. At their previous success rate in gathering signatures of registered voters, that would put them over the top to get the 62,507 they need to be on the November ballot. The group turned in 65,413 signatures July 5 and 55.7 percent were declared valid, leaving a need for 26,012 more. After the validation process, they qualified for an additional 30 days to add signatures. They now must be reviewed by the secretary of state’s office.
It was a bad week for…
HERB RULE. The Democratic congressional candidate for the 2nd District was arrested for DWI in Fayetteville. Rule maintains his innocence. He said he had one drink, wasn’t drunk and reportedly had drifted across the lane line on a four-lane road in the course of trying to find a turn.
ALEX REED. An aide to Secretary of State Mark Martin. Reed told a Republican group in Union County that Democratic county clerks were allowing illegal immigrants to register to vote. Thus, he said, it was important to elect Republicans as clerks. Reed and Martin initially maintained that Reed had been misquoted, but a reporter from the El Dorado News-Times posted a recording of Reed’s remarks. Pressed to respond further, the secretary of state’s office has refused to comment.
ALSO
HELEN GURLEY BROWN. The Arkansas native and longtime editor of Cosmopolitan died at age 90. Born in Green Forest, Brown lived in Little Rock and attended Pulaski Heights Elementary, but her family moved to California after her father, a state legislator, was killed in an elevator accident at the Capitol. The philosophy she advanced in her 1962 bestseller “Sex and the Single Girl” helped build Cosmo into a dominant worldwide brand.