It was a good week for...
A RACE TO THE BOTTOM.Lt. Governor Mark Darr and Rep. Bruce Westerman each announced as candidates for Fourth District of the U.S. House of Representatives. It'll be a fight to the death about who hates Obamacare more.
OWNING OBAMACARE. Sen. Mark Pryor finally made got around to speaking up for the controversial health care law. He did vote for it after all. He was going to be hung with it no matter what he said. So he's chosen a pretty good path of defense — it's not perfect, it needs refinement, but elements of it are in place and are working.
KALI HARDIG. Doctors said the 12-year-old girl would survive an infection by primary amoebic meningoencephalitis (PAM). That makes her only the third person in North America to survive PAM. Hardig apparently contracted the amoeba while swimming at Willow Springs Water Park in Little Rock. (More on page 13).
SPECIAL CHICKENS. Vikon Farms announced it would spend more than $5 million to restart a former Petit Jean Poultry plant in Arkadelphia that will employ more than 172 people processing a special breed of chicken sold to Asian markets. It's a free-range chicken fed organically.
It was a bad week for...
SECRETARY OF STATE MARK MARTIN.Judge Tim Fox sided with blogger and attorney Matt Campbell, who's sued Martin for failure to produce all public documents in his possession concerning his practice of hiring outside lawyers to represent his office. Martin hired outside counsel to represent him in the suit. Fox granted Campbell's motion to keep Chad Pekron and Joseph Price of the Quattlebaum firmfrom representing Martin in the Freedom of Information case. The state Democratic Party has called for a criminal probe into Martin's actions.
SCHOOL CHOICE. The state Board of Education heard 13 appeals of school transfer denials under the new school choice law and denied them all.