April 16-22, 2008

It was a good week for …

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REDEMPTION. Steve Clark, who lost his job as Arkansas attorney general for felony expense account fraud, announced he’d run for mayor of Fayetteville.

OPEN GOVERNMENT. With an ethics complaint by Jim Parsons pending, former Gov. Mike Huckabee finally revealed the people — quite a few of them recipients of gubernatorial appointments — who pitched in $32,000 to pay for his official portrait.

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ELEVATIONS. A federal judge turned down the city of Little Rock’s effort to close the after-hours club as a common nuisance. 

CITY DIRECTOR ERMA HENDRIX. A petition drive to set an election to recall Hendrix fell short.

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DUMB CRIMINALS. Police arrested men responsible for a string of home burglaries with the help of photos of the celebrating criminals found on a stolen camera they had pawned.

It was a bad week for …  

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The UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS. Coach John McDonnell announced his retirement after a career marked by dozens of conference and national championships in cross country and track and field. 

NORTH LITTLE ROCK MAYOR PAT HAYS. He wants to raise the sales tax to temporarily lower electric bills (as if they’ll eventually go down of their own accord). Also, he wants to siphon some of the money for a mayoral slush fund for economic development (read: more Navy scrap  for the riverfront and welfare payments to developer Bruce Burrow). Nobody seems to be saluting the cockamamie plan. 

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WORKING PEOPLE. Gov. Mike Beebe complained that the federal government had cut back workforce training money that trains the unemployed or underemployed for new jobs.

SEN. JACK CRUMBLY. Yes a Senate committee recommended that he be allowed to keep his seat, despite an opponent’s allegation of election fraud. But the margin was a scant 4-3 vote and the committee said flagrant fraud had occurred in the election, though there was no evidence Crumbly was personally responsible. Can you say “tainted”?

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