Honor Flight takes 75 vets on D.C. trip
WASHINGTON -- O&A Honor Flight, which arranges free one-day trips to Washington for military veterans, took another planeload of visitors to the capital last week.
The latest group flew out of Tulsa on Wednesday and included about 75 Oklahoma veterans, according to Rob Hopkins, one of the trip's organizers.
The service members visited the World War II, Korean and Vietnam memorials, as well as Arlington National Cemetery.
The Siloam Springs-based O&A flew a group in April from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.
The O stands for Oklahoma, and the A stands for Arkansas.
The organization plans to take another planeload of veterans from Northwest Arkansas next April. Information about the organization, and application forms for veterans and volunteers are available at oahonorflight.org/
Preparedness expo on disasters is set
U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford last week announced plans for a disaster-preparedness exposition.
The free event, organized in conjunction with the Craighead County Office of Emergency Management and the Regional Center for Disaster Preparedness, will take place from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. Oct. 22 at the St. Bernards Auditorium, 505 E. Washington Ave. in Jonesboro.
First responders and others are invited to attend, the Republican from Jonesboro said.
More than two dozen groups have agreed to participate, and topics will range from tornadoes to the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
"The 1st District of Arkansas is prone to all sorts of disasters, both natural and man-made," Crawford said in a news release.
"Families in the 1st District of Arkansas can't prevent those disasters from happening, but they can familiarize themselves with the latest safety information and technology in order to keep themselves safe when disasters do strike."
Hill calls out study on drunken eating
U.S. Rep. French Hill gave his latest Golden Fleece Award to the National Institutes of Health, challenging its decision to spend money studying drunken college students' eating habits.
In a letter to the agency's director, Dr. Francis S. Collins, Hill questioned the decision to spend $50,000 on the study.
"Other studies have also raised concerns, such as the $1.5 million in funding to study the so-called 'freshman 15' weight gain of college freshmen. While the health and well-being of our nation's college students is of paramount concern, there are many more pressing issues affecting our nation's health than drunken college kids eating junk food," Hill wrote.
"At a time when NIH has proposed and Congress is supporting substantial spending increases to fund critical research priorities for debilitating and deadly diseases, it is puzzling as to why these types of studies are being funded by the agency."
The Republican from Little Rock wrote that he would target this type of "frivolous and unnecessary spending that must be eliminated."
The late U.S. Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., was the original creator of the Golden Fleece Award, using it to highlight government spending that he considered wasteful.
After his election to Congress in 2014, Hill resurrected the award.
Boozman in state, signs steel letter
U.S. Sen. John Boozman visited with computer science students from Rogers High School on Tuesday, toured a new high school in Eureka Springs on Wednesday and got a jump-start on National Manufacturing Day by visiting the Northwest Technical Institute of Springdale on Thursday. (National Manufacturing Day, officially, was Friday.)
The Republican from Rogers also announced that he had joined 11 colleagues in sending a letter to President Barack Obama urging the White House to work harder to challenge Chinese overproduction of steel.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers argued that diplomatic pressure won't be enough on its own to address the imbalance.
"We urge the Administration to consider all options for increasing China's compliance with its international trade obligations, including a potential case brought with our allies at the World Trade Organization and a pause of other trade negotiations with China, such as the Bilateral Investment Treaty talks," the letter stated.
The steel industry is a major employer in northeastern Arkansas.
Womack speaks, travels in district
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack traveled across his district last week. The Republican from Rogers was to speak at the Fort Smith Downtown Rotary Club on Wednesday and to tour the town's Goodwill Industries location.
He also spent a day in Eureka Springs, with stops planned at the new high school, a community center and the local chamber of commerce.
Additional stops in Springdale, Rogers, Fort Smith and Eureka Springs were also on the calendar.
Westerman talks at dyslexia event
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman spoke at a conference on dyslexia Thursday in Fort Smith.
"This learning disability is widespread and teachers need resources and techniques to help students overcome the challenges they face," the Republican from Hot Springs wrote on his Facebook page. "Students with dyslexia can succeed and educators play a major role."
Westerman served on the Fountain Lake School District Board of Education and his wife, Sharon, taught special education for many years.
Earlier this year, he hosted a Congressional Dyslexia Forum in Hot Springs, appearing with Sally Shaywitz, co-director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.
Planning to visit the nation's capital? Know something happening in Washington, D.C.? Please contact Frank Lockwood at (202) 662-7690 or flockwood@arkansasonline.com. Want the latest from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Washington bureau? It's available on Twitter@LockwoodFrank.
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