A couple of points seemed worth emphasis after a run-through of the morning Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:
* RAZORBACK FOOTBALL: Sports editor Wally Hall wrote:
Arkansas’ two biggest problems against Auburn, as well as in their two other losses, were blocking and tackling.
No comment, except this: We are in the fourth year of a head coach who is guaranteed a $4.1 million salary and an aggregate coaching staff payroll of just a hair under $8 million. We pay the man who hired them about a half-million a year. No wonder sports show callers are unhappy.
* CANCER: The Health Department’s Gary Wheeler was quoted again in the paper, in a diplomatic fashion, about bringing the legislature around to continuing a modest program aimed at helping people quit smoking. It costs $1.8 million a year, too much for Bully Bart Hester.
Context: Arkansas ranks second, behind only tobacco-state Kentucky, in the percentage of cancer deaths attributable to smoking. Health care costs for smoking-related cancer runs more than $1 billion a year.
We get a lot of bang for the buck when people are helped to quit smoking.
That smoking cessation program is cheap, about 20 percent of the cost of paying Razorback coaches to teach players how to block and tackle.