It was a good week for …

GOV. MIKE BEEBE. The title was predicted for him a couple of decades ago. The prediction came true Tuesday.

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BIG BUCKS. A Democrat-Gazette analysis showed that the number of people making more than $100,000 in state government has jumped by 30 percent in two years.

DAVID O. DODD. He’s still dead and still a minor Civil War figure (a teen hanged for spying on Union troops in Little Rock), but the memorial of his death by a handful of unreconstructed Confederate worshippers still rates 1B coverage in the Arkansas Dixiecrat-Gazette. If Dodd had been Episcopalian, he’d probably rate 1A.

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CAR TALK. The Wall Street Journal reported that Arkansas is again in the running for a Toyota assembly plant.

MARK STODOLA. The new Little Rock mayor persuaded the city board to have an independent review of the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, in the spotlight for sloppy financial practices.

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It was a bad week for …

REPUBLICANS. The dawn of the new year left the GOP with a single congressman from Arkansas, no constitutional officers, a reduced delegation in the legislature and a Democrat in charge of state patronage for the first time in 10 years.

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THE HUCKSTER WATCH

He completed his tenure as governor in fine fashion. He used his public office to help peddle his new book; he tried to illegally divert appropriated money to unappropriated pet projects, including one for his weight-loss doctor; and his staff abused the Freedom of Information Act a few final times. Now, he belongs to the world.

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