Hey, let me edit that!
We usually look forward to reading the little news snippets in the "In the News" column on the left side of the front page. But sometimes we wonder how you select what to run because the items are so trivial/irrelevant.
Case in point was the May 15 section, with one item about a New York man cited for disorderly conduct because a restaurant was out of potatoes, and another item about a Georgia man arrested on DUI charges after returning from a concert.
Don't know who gets to select the items, nor from what source, but I am convinced I can do better, and volunteer to do this at no charge to the paper.
PAUL POULIDES
Bella Vista
That about sums it up
Regarding Brenda Looper's column on homophones: Here, here!
JO GEHM
Batesville
Highway pains high
Coming back into Arkansas from a vacation, we were traveling from Pine Bluff to Little Rock on Interstate 530, and began to see orange barrels, about 13 miles of them. Traffic was stopped and slow-going.
At the end of the construction zone, we saw three highway employees standing around talking to each other.
Yep, three road workers in about 13 miles. Do those highway department guys and engineers even know how to repair a road? Are these people all from a deficient gene pool? First, 1950s, running a four-lane Interstate 30 into a red light at Asher Avenue/University, then years later running Interstate 630 into a red light at Chenal Parkway. Was this a grandfather, grandson, piggy-back project?
Oh well, only in Arkansas.
DENNIS MILAM
North Little Rock
Many thanks offered
I think I might disagree with Ms. Anita Gatzke on some of the finer points of foreign and military policy, but I suspect we agree on the vast sweep of such issues.
I spent 23 years, 6 months and 15 days in the U.S. Army and worked on the ground in 14 countries. I have been stopped in dozens of airports and hotels by strangers who saw the uniform and said, "Thank you for your service." My response was always "No problem. I enjoy it. And thank you for the paycheck!"
And thank you again, Ms. Gatzke.
WALTER G. RIDDICK III
Little Rock
Definition of a person
I remembered a cartoon I saved from the 1980s. A small boy brings a box of Tampax to the pharmacist at the drugstore checkout. The caption reads "Yeah ... That's what I want. The box says that with these you can swim, ride or play tennis, and I can't do any of those things."
Can a corporation get pregnant, father a child, breastfeed a baby, do brain surgery, be a Girl Scout, have a heart transplant, drive a bus, be a Navy SEAL, get married, be a jockey, compete in the Olympics, have a valid voter-registration card, write a best-seller, die in hospice care, or be an organ donor?
So how can a corporation be a person?
BETTY HUNT
North Little Rock
A tasteless headline
“Pedestrian dies after being hit by Duck”: That was the headline of a story about an accident that killed a woman in Philadelphia. It sounded like a joke, but it wasn’t funny. The pedestrian was a woman hit in the street by an amphibious Duck tour boat.
I thought a more down-to-earth title should have been used to announce an accidental death. It was most definitely not a joke and not funny.
MELBA SHARP
Little Rock
Bad for average Joes
Entergy Arkansas will be handing the Arkansas Public Service Commission a request shortly for a rate hike that will, as reported in this paper, raise the average consumer rate by about 13 percent. It will likely be rubberstamped by the commission, as it’s Teflon, appointed by the governor himself.
If you spend $200 a month, that’s an annual $312 out of your pocket. Businesses hovering around $400? An extra $624 a year.
What’s not widely known is that Rep. Charlie Collins and the entire Legislature quietly slipped Act 725 through this past session. Among its 13 pages, some key phrases such as “for the class of customers” and “demand and capacity” take on a big meaning. The key, though, is “not withstanding the commission’s authority to otherwise determine and fix rates for all classes of customers.”
What that means is that big consumers (industrial plants, retailers with multiple outlets such as Wal-Mart) won’t get hit with the same percentage increase as average Joes like you and I. The utility itself dictates the terms within its application.
As a business owner, I have no problem with giving quantity discounts. When it comes to utilities, however, they are monopolies. My customers can go elsewhere; when it comes to Entergy, we can’t.
Amazingly, this wasn’t a partisan issue; it passed unanimously through both the state House and Senate, then was signed by the governor.
I believe this is a ripoff for Arkansas residents at the largest levels. Each and every one of your House and Senate elected officials voted for this. It’s done. All we can do is vote them out of office next election.
ANTHONY LLOYD
Hot Springs
Editorial on 05/20/2015