Environmental issues
Sometimes it just overwhelms me reading Mike Masterson's continuous blabbering on C&H Hog Farms. I worked 38-plus years for UofA Division of Agriculture and weathered many storms on environmental issues.
I attended the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame Induction program recently and came away with this verification of my concerns for C&H and the assault it is facing from environmentalists who just do not understand. One inductee who is world-known for his scientific research stated, "Storms will come concerning whatever we do that changes our culture. When they do, and they will come, we need to jump on our research, believe it, and ride out the storm." Folks, our Legislature realizes this and that's why they funded the UofA Division of Agriculture's unbiased research to continue the work going on in the watershed. I believe Masterson and his groups trying to change the rules after the game starts is just not acceptable, and I applaud the Legislature for recognizing this and proposing legislation to help fix it.
No. 2: School resource officers can make a difference with our school security concerns. We require every school to have a nurse; why not require them to have a school resource officer?
Finally: UofA colors all the years I worked there were cardinal red and white. Let's keep it that way.
TOMMY THOMPSON
Morrilton
Wake me when done
Originally the NEWS was "all the information from the north, east, west and south."
Now we ought to call the 6 p.m. news the snooze because all the commercials and drivel put you to sleep.
LARRY HACKER
Bryant
Struck a nerve, again
Your preposterous second-place columnist really struck a nerve when, in the midst of accusing everyone who has in any way supported the president of being a dupe of Russia if not an outright Russky agent, almost as an aside disparaged our founding fathers as a bunch of out of date 18th century white men for giving us something so horrid and outdated as the electoral college. The failure of the special counsel investigation so far to come up with any real connection between his campaign and the Russkys makes the first half of that accusation laughable, if not pathetic.
As to the electoral college, I have already enumerated on this page the considerable advantages of it, especially to small states like Arkansas, and he has already pooh-poohed them in his unconvincing way. Our brilliant founders quite intentionally gave us a representative republic rather than a pure democracy, which they rightly saw as two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. Our 18th century Constitution which Mr. Preposterous so scorns was written to protect the rights of the individual against the whims of the majority, and the inhabitants of small states from being steamrolled by the bigger ones. Traditional Constitution and liberty-loving Americans in flyover country have no desire to force their way of life and values on the huddled dependent masses of squalid coastal cities against their will. It seems Democrats, socialists, and the news media (but I repeat myself) do want to ram their anti-Constitution and anti-liberty agendas down the throats of the aforementioned Americans who for the most part just want to be left alone.
I take it back, though; in a paper that publishes Gitz, Williams, Greenberg, Nelson, and Martin, your house lefty is only less deplorable than the hate-filled and dishonest Paul Krugman. Let's call him your preposterous second-to-last-place columnist.
KARL T. KIMBALL
Little Rock
Fiscally questionable
Voters in Maumelle should vote no in the special election that mainly serves special interests. Maumelle voters have the opportunity to vote yes or no on the questions of raising the city's sales-tax rate to pay for infrastructure improvements and to pay for one or more of the following purposes: public safety, bonds for new interchange, or bonds for sewer. This is fiscally questionable.
The fiscal soundness of these measures must be questioned because there is no published economic analysis of the impacts on existing vacant land, and if the new tax proves to be insufficient, our property taxes will skyrocket. Of greater concern is our small city taking on the majority of funding. This burden should be shared with the federal, state, and county governments; adjacent municipalities (in this case North Little Rock); and those landowners and developers receiving public subsidy for their private business endeavors.
We should also question if it's in the best interest of our city that outside special interests offer to fund a special election to plunge us $18 million further in debt to primarily benefit special interests' business development.
This is being sold as a traffic fix, but it will strongly increase the traffic on the Parkway for Country Club of Arkansas residents. Traffic should be addressed, but only by shared funding and for development viable in this century which does not compete with our existing business community.
Please vote no in the special election.
PAT LANDES
Maumelle
Narrowing the field
Thanks to John Brummett for last Sunday's column, "A leader emerges." It kinda--sorta--helped me separate the sheep from the goats in the upcoming nonpartisan Little Rock mayor's race.
While Mr. Scott may be a fine man, I'm not inclined to put much faith in a conservative preacher-type or to mark my ballot for him.
Warwick Sabin has been an asset in the Legislature. I've known him since his days on Congressman Marion Berry's staff in Washington and sat next to him at President Clinton's last hurrah in 2001. He has yet to acknowledge my presence at local Democratic Party meetings. He might have edged out and won my vote for mayor anyway, notwithstanding his penchant for smiling and running from potential constituents, but alas, I see his big sponsors and fundraisers are none other than Sheffield Nelson and one of the notorious Huckabee boys. Ugh.
Mayor Stodola seems to have found his niche in that office despite the fact the city is governed by a board of directors. I find Mr. Brummett's description of him as "competent" and "average" to be quite accurate. Just nothing spectacular. I don't know what he's done, but I don't know what he hasn't done either.
There is not a single sheep in the race. I'm down to a choice between two goats.
LEE JONES
Little Rock
Editorial on 03/11/2018