Unless Max wants to send in pictures of some fabulous meal he’s having in San Francisco later, we’ll say goodnight and turn the line over to you. (He did have a good, at One Market, but no photos and walked up Nob Hill after the cable car broke down.) Some final news items:
* Activists are rightly sounding the alarm about a Fort Smith junior high that sent a student home for wearing a rainbow bracelet because it was a symbol for homosexuality, then suspended her for wearing a hand-painted T-shirt saying “homosexual l-o-v-e.” It’s an outrage. I hope the ACLU is on the case. News on jump.
* Jury in Prairie County awarded a family $10.3 million in a case stemming from a fiery car accident. Iraq veteran had to rescue his family from a burning car after being hit by several tractor-trailers. Release on jump.
* Sens. Lincoln and Pryor announce $15 million in federal spending on a 40-mile bike/hike/”mobility” project in Northwest Arkansas. More of that nasty earmarking that Rep. John Boozman refuses to be a part of.
* On the double-dipping front: The attorney general today said it was legal for the state personnel management office to release information on when certain state employees had retired and then were rehired. I’m uncertain at this moment which employees are covered by this request and who’s making it, but I’ll try to pick up the information next week. Though the legislature has strengthened the law to prevent fake retirement for the purpose of being automatically added back on the payroll for two paychecks, I think taxpayers are owed a look at how widespread the practice was and which departments engaged most in the practice. Were there meaningful hiring efforts for openings created by these “retirements”? You know there were not in most, if not all, cases.