If you think we need a full-time legislator, you need only read the daily bill filings to disabuse yourself of the thought. Some of the stuff that got dropped in the hopper today:

* PHYSICIAN SUPERVISION: Sen. Gary Stubblefield wants to omit physician supervision from nurse anesthetist’s and broaden legal immunity for doctors who do consult. But more supervision is needed for doctors who give a pill to a woman seeking to end a pregnancy.

Advertisement

* PROPERTY RIGHTS: Sen. Jon Woods and Rep. Greg Leding would protect the “property rights” to use of a person’s name, voice, signature and likeness, not only for the person, but for a person’s family. This smells Razorbacky to me. Is a state law necessary?

UPDATE: Leding confirmed to the Democrat-Gazette that this is a bill prompted by the family of Frank Broyles, concerned about the potential use of his likeness for commercial purposes.

Advertisement

A lawyer who’s studied the bill says it’s mostly an unnecessary add-on to existing common law property rights. It also creates a new way for such rights to expire and creates a new administrative burden to create them. He views it as a limitation of an existing common law right and perhaps an unsuccessful attempt to limit federal fair competition law. In other words, it won’t be without contention. 

* SOCIAL MEDIA: Rep. Nate Bell has a bill to amend the 2013 bill to prevent employers from requiring employees to disclose such things as passwords for social media accounts. UPDATE: A closer reading by the Democrat-Gazette and the ACLU indicates this bill is actually an effort to roll back social media protections passed in 2013. Particularly, Big Brother Bell would allow employers to require employees to include their bosses on their social media accounts and allow access to posting not publicly displayed. 

Advertisement

* TEACH FOR AMERICA: Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson proposes to give the organization $3 million in taxpayer money to help it train teachers. This is Wendy Kopp’s nonprofit that has been praised for putting brainy college grads — often with little training or experience — into poor school districts. It has also been criticized for putting untrained teachers into needy classes and forcing experienced teachers out of them. To those who’ve criticized TFA’s record, Kopp once said: Kopp spoke on a Seattle radio station, saying that people often misunderstand the function of TFA. “We’re a leadership development organization, not a teaching organization.”  So why again does Hutchinson want to give them $3 million in scarce state dollars “to provide training and support for teachers.”

Sen. Kim Hendren’s bill to require teaching of cursive writing was on a committee agenda today, but didn’t come up for consideration. It’s early yet.

Advertisement

Help to Keep Great Journalism Alive in Arkansas

Join the fight for truth and become a subscriber of the Arkansas Times. We've been battling powerful forces for 50 years through our tough, determined, and feisty journalism. With over 63,000 Facebook followers, 58,000 Twitter followers, 35,000 Arkansas blog followers, and 70,000 daily email blasts, our readers value great journalism. But we need your help to do even more. By subscribing and supporting our efforts, you'll not only have access to all of our articles, but you'll also be helping us hire more writers to expand our coverage. Together, we can continue to hold the powerful accountable and bring important stories to light. Subscribe now or donate for as little as $1 and be a part of the Arkansas Times community.

Previous article Hutchinson talks budget, in general terms Next article Tuesday’s open line and video Plus, Huckabee lowlight reel; Jermain Taylor heading back to slammer