It was a good week for …

MIKE HUCKABEE. He handily won the Iowa Republican caucus (in a week we didn’t publish) and moved to the front of the pack for the nomination for president. Can he be more than the church vote candidate?

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SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS. Various state officials complained about the costs of 1) meeting stricter FEMA rules on flood plain development and 2) adopting stricter building codes for earthquake zones. Pay now or pay more later in both cases. It’s a lesson learned elsewhere, but not, apparently, in Arkansas.

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It was a bad week for …

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CRIME. Six-year-old Kamya Weathersby was killed in a fusillade of bullets when her Central Little Rock home was shot up in what police believe was a revenge crime. Fear of the perpetrators was discouraging witnesses with information from stepping forward, police said.

The HOGS. The UA football team got smashed by Missouri in the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Day. Wait ’til next year and new coach Bobby Petrino. Right?

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RAZORBACK FANS. No, not just because of the lost football game. A Democrat-Gazette report indicates that the Razorback Foundation, which pays for UA athletics, has had flat revenues for the last five years. Most of the money comes from premium seat sales. All of which means those premiums are likely to go up.

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HILLARY CLINTON. The former Arkansan’s loss to Barack Obama and John Edwards in Iowa seemed likely to be eclipsed in damage this week by a bigger loss to Obama in New Hampshire (results after our publishing deadline).

PHILLIPS COUNTY. The county had to shut down county services because a divided Quorum Court couldn’t agree on a 2008 budget.

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EL DORADO FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH. A guilty plea to theft revealed that the church’s former financial secretary, 62-year-old Carol Ann Thompson, had bilked the church of more than $650,000. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison. She repaid about $320,000. Her daughter received probation for fraudulent use of a credit card.

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