Charlie Frago
Stories by Charlie
Obama primary foe goes to court
posted: 05/26/2012 3:23 a.m. Discuss
A Tennessee lawyer who won 42 percent of the vote in the Democratic presidential primary earlier this week filed a federal lawsuit Friday claiming the party had violated his constitutional rights and disenfranchised tens of thousands of Arkansas voters by refusing to award delegates to him.
Challenger gives Obama a run
posted: 05/23/2012 4:55 a.m. Discuss
President Barack Obama won the Arkansas presidential primary Tuesday, but a little-known challenger from Tennessee drew large numbers of votes.
3 more support Obama rival
posted: 05/19/2012 5:02 a.m. Discuss
State Democratic officials said Friday that three more delegate candidates pledged their support for John Wolfe, raising his total to four — a day after the party had said it wouldn’t seat delegates for the Tennessee lawyer challenging President Barack Obama.
U.S. Democrats bar door to Wolfe
posted: 05/18/2012 3:14 a.m. Comments 3
John Wolfe, the Tennessee lawyer who is polling strongly against President Barack Obama, won’t be granted any delegates by the state Democratic Party — no matter how many votes he gets in the May 22 Democratic primary, party officials said Thursday.
Students, activists speak up for DREAM Act at UALR
posted: 05/18/2012 3:01 a.m.
Discuss
About a dozen students and activists gathered Thursday at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to rally support for stalled federal legislation granting temporary residency status to those who arrived illegally in the United States as children and want to serve in the military or attend college.
Some in one county see Obama losing ground
posted: 05/14/2012 4:45 a.m. Comments 17
Gary Smith leaned back behind the counter of his hunting supply store on U.S. 167, placed his hands on his head and pondered President Barack Obama’s fate in Grant County.
Ethics initiative gains backers for bid at ballot
posted: 05/12/2012 4:48 a.m. Discuss
Political outsiders struggling to place an ethics initiative on the ballot in November muscled up Friday by allying with a clout-heavy bipartisan group that will try to corral the cash to collect enough signatures to beat an early July deadline.
Census overestimates Mormon growth
posted: 05/12/2012 4:19 a.m. Discuss
A national religious census recently overestimated the growth in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, say Mormon leaders, because they have changed the way they counted their flock since the last tally.
Obama’s stance on gays no game changer in state
posted: 05/10/2012 5:47 a.m. Discuss
President Barack Obama’s statement in support of samesex marriage Wednesday isn’t likely to reshape the political landscape much in Arkansas — at least in the short term — but marks a historic shift in perceptions of homosexuals, said Arkansas politicians, activists, political scientists and religious leaders.
He’s a true populist, Wolfe says
posted: 05/06/2012 4:08 a.m. Discuss
Get ready, Arkansas. John Wolfe is coming and he’s on a hot streak. At least by fringe candidate standards.
State’s Mormon ranks surge
posted: 05/02/2012 5:51 a.m. Comments 12
Extensive missionary efforts and a nimble church structure have helped fuel a Southern-tinged “Mormon moment” in Arkansas as the church’s numbers have nearly doubled over the past decade, say experts and church leaders.
Craws for a Cause organizer’s lapses have supporters fleeing
posted: 04/28/2012 2:59 a.m. Discuss
Skedaddling sponsors. Disgruntled donors. Investigation by a local TV station.
Drug plotter hid cocaine in police car
posted: 04/26/2012 5:15 a.m.
Comment 1
A man who stashed cocaine in the seats of an Arkansas State Police patrol car while peddling drugs for a multistate narcotics ring pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to being part of the criminal conspiracy.
Proposed sale of hospital, clinics concerns LR bishop
posted: 04/25/2012 4:17 a.m. Comment 1
Little Rock’s bishop said Tuesday that his diocese has “serious reservations” about a proposed sale of a Catholic hospital and clinics in Hot Springs, adding that the hospital didn’t inform the diocese or seek its consent beforehand.
Farm to market to church
posted: 08/13/2011 5:47 a.m. Discuss
It was heat-dome hot on a recent early Saturday morning, but that didn’t keep the strollers, foodies and the idly curious from the line of tents strung along the sidewalk in front of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church on Kavanaugh Boulevard.
GOP whip at LR: Debt pact to reach far
posted: 08/06/2011 4:37 a.m. Discuss
The Republican House whip said Friday in Little Rock that the recent debt-ceiling crisis has awakened the country and he is optimistic about future negotiations to reduce the deficit.
At town halls, Griffin grilled by both sides
posted: 08/05/2011 3:50 a.m. Discuss
U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin got an earful Thursday from both sides of the political divide in the 2nd Congressional District during town-hall meetings in Conway and Little Rock.
Ross’ post a gem both parties covet
posted: 07/31/2011 4:14 a.m.
Discuss
U.S. Rep. Mike Ross’ decision not to run for re-election instantly turned the Prescott Democrat’s district into political bling for the national parties and a tempting prize for a cluster of potential candidates.
Debt standoff puts Arkansans on edge
posted: 07/25/2011 5:57 a.m. Comments 2
As they worked unsuccessfully this week to reach a deal that would raise the nation’s borrowing limit, lawmakers in Washington warily kept an eye on the Aug. 2 deadline.
GOP faithful to tax cuts, national chief says in LR
posted: 07/23/2011 5:03 a.m. Discuss
The leader of the national Republican party, appearing Friday in Little Rock, dismissed rumored GOP support for allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire, a possible compromise that surfaced recently in talks between congressional Republicans and President Barack Obama.
Dentists set to see Medicaid changes
posted: 07/03/2011 5:33 a.m. Comments 2
A North Little Rock oral surgeon who was paid $100 per hour to be a Medicaid watchdog said he doesn’t remember rejecting a single claim out of the tens of thousands he reviewed over the past decade. And in an interview, he said he won’t deny any claims in the future if he is asked to review them.
Civil rights a moral issue for minister
posted: 06/25/2011 5:02 a.m. Comment 1
A white minister who took a stand for civil rights in Little Rock will have a chapel renamed in his honor Sunday at the church he led for nearly four decades.
Helena, its Jewish heritage faded in tandem
posted: 06/18/2011 5:23 a.m. Discuss
When cotton and timber reigned in this once-prosperous river port, the town’s Jewish community thrived, numbering more than 400, including the owners of many of the stores and businesses along Cherry Street, a bustling main drag.
Town-hall routine familiar for Ross
posted: 06/13/2011 6:26 a.m. Discuss
U.S. Rep. Mike Ross walked into a classroom at Cossatot Community College and worked it like a pro. He shook every hand and knew many of the names of the 30 or so people who showed up for a midday town-hall meeting. He looked as relaxed as possible for someone dressed in a blue button-down shirt and khakis (over scuffed boots) on a blazing hot day in Howard County.
Partisan ‘games’ miring debt-cap deal, Pryor says
posted: 06/03/2011 5:06 a.m. Comment 1
Congressional bickering shouldn’t prevent a deal being made on raising the debt ceiling, Sen. Mark Pryor said Thursday, but partisan games in Washington aren’t helping.
Huckabee: Won’t say ‘never’ to election bid
posted: 06/02/2011 3:42 a.m.
Comment 1
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee left the door ever so slightly ajar on his political future Wednesday, declining to categorically say whether he would accept a spot on a presidential ticket or reconsider his May announcement to bow out of the 2012 race.
Son of the father
posted: 05/28/2011 3:06 a.m. Discuss
The man in charge of the country’s fifth largest denomination, Charles E. Blake, has a childhood memory of North Little Rock — where he was born and lived until he was 7 years old — that remains vivid after nearly seven decades.
Blogger talks of finding his conservative voice
posted: 05/26/2011 3:19 a.m. Discuss
Blogger Andrew Breitbart shifted easily between selfdeprecating humor and combative partisanship Wednesday during an off-the-cuff talk before a conservative audience in Little Rock.
Obama praises Memphis grads
posted: 05/17/2011 5:01 a.m. Discuss
President Barack Obama urged graduates from a South Memphis high school to keep beating the odds Monday, saying their school’s turnaround shows that America’s troubled urban schools can succeed.
Crawford leak probe wasteful, Democrats say
posted: 05/11/2011 2:42 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Democratic Party said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford should stop wasting taxpayer dollars with his call for an FBI investigation into whether “Democratic operatives” illegally obtained his financial and medical records relating to his 1994 bankruptcy.
Crawford to FBI: Investigate foes
posted: 05/10/2011 5:13 a.m. Comments 5
U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford has asked the FBI to investigate whether “Democratic operatives” illegally obtained personal financial and medical information detailing when he repaid debts incurred in a 1994 bankruptcy.
For Delta, ‘green’ jobs seen as key to revival
posted: 05/07/2011 2:57 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Delta’s decades-long stagnation could be revived with renewable energy and “green” jobs, said former President Bill Clinton, sentiments echoed by a bipartisan chorus of elected officials Friday at the annual meeting of the Delta Grassroots Caucus.
U.S. gives Beebe’s plan to overhaul Medicaid green light
posted: 05/03/2011 5:13 a.m. Comment 1
Gov. Mike Beebe’s plan to overhaul the state’s Medicaid system advanced Monday after the federal government gave preliminary approval to a proposal to restructure payments to doctors, hospitals and other health providers for treating its mostly poor and disabled recipients.
9/11 victims’ Arkansas kin react to bin Laden’s death
posted: 05/03/2011 4:24 a.m.
Discuss
News of Osama bin Laden’s death at the hands of U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan gave rise to jubilant crowds in the streets of New York City and Washington, D.C., but unleashed more complex emotions among four Arkansas families who lost members in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks masterminded by al-Qaida’s chief architect.
Public stations fearing fund cut
posted: 05/01/2011 3:47 a.m. Discuss
Although private-sector support has held up well during three limp economic years, the state’s public television station and three public radio stations say possible cuts in federal funding would hamper operations and endanger popular programming.
Student looking for work found it from church sign
posted: 04/30/2011 3:47 a.m. Discuss
Conner McMains was a high school student on his way to a job as a sales clerk when he noticed the church sign on Little Rock’s Rodney Parham Road.
Health policy for state lagging
posted: 04/26/2011 4:02 a.m. Discuss
Nearly nine months after it started, a federal insurance program seeking to offer health coverage to uninsured Arkansans with pre-existing conditions has signed up less than 10 percent of its budgeted enrollees.
Head Start leaders told to expect cuts
posted: 04/22/2011 3:29 a.m. Discuss
U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin read a story Thursday, about a hungry caterpillar that ate all it wanted and still turned into a beautiful butterfly, to a group of children in a Head Start program in southwest Little Rock.
U.S. strong but debt a worry, Pryor says
posted: 04/21/2011 3:07 a.m. Comments 2
Reports of America’s decline are greatly exaggerated, Mark Pryor said Wednesday, but he warned that a bipartisan solution for the growing national debt must be reached soon, or he won’t vote to raise the debt limit.
Florida’s welcome mat out for the Huckabees
posted: 04/17/2011 5:49 a.m. Comments 2
As the surf was pounding over the bone-white sand near Mike Huckabee’s future home last week, Seth DuBois said he hopes the possible presidential contender won’t close down his favorite fishing hole.
Cuts, tax shift best course for U.S., Forbes says
posted: 04/08/2011 3:35 a.m. Discuss
The economic crisis in the United States is an “aberration” that can be cured by a return to the gold standard, federal spending cuts and a flat tax, Steve Forbes told a Harding University audience Thursday.
State officials decry GOP Medicaid plan
posted: 04/06/2011 3:45 a.m. Discuss
A Republican budget proposal unveiled Tuesday recasting federal Medicaid payments to states in the form of block grants prompted harsh criticism from Gov. Mike Beebe, who called it “simply unacceptable.” State medical officials offered blunter assessments, calling the GOP idea “a pig in a poke” and a “hatchet job.” The state’s congressional delegation split along partisan lines over the proposal.
Medicaid in 5% corner
posted: 04/03/2011 6:17 a.m. Comments 5
Zavier Bufford’s sweet smile is deceiving.
Power Hour energizes congregation
posted: 03/26/2011 2:36 a.m. Discuss
The streetlights flicker to life in the chilly air as Patti LaBelle hits a patented high note from a boombox perched on a chair.
Input scant in Beebe’s Medicaid plan, GOP says
posted: 03/24/2011 4:30 a.m. Discuss
Republican lawmakers attacked Gov. Mike Beebe’s proposal to cut Medicaid costs Wednesday, saying Department of Human Services officials had been secretive in developing a plan to revamp the $4.3 billion system covering hundreds of thousands of the state’s poor and disabled.
Sides air proposals to repair Medicaid
posted: 03/20/2011 4:08 a.m. Discuss
Faced with looming funding shortages and skyrocketing costs, the state is looking to overhaul its Medicaid payment system.
Mayan prophecy inspires Arkansas author
posted: 03/19/2011 4:18 a.m. Discuss
Anyone who saw the movie trailer for 2012 has a notion of the Hollywood vision of what happens when the Mayan long-count calendar ends.
Overhaul of Medicaid in state breeds conflict
posted: 03/18/2011 4:20 a.m. Discuss
Health-care providers said Thursday that Gov. Mike Beebe’s plans to overhaul Medicaid will disrupt services, kill jobs and damage the state’s economy. Groups representing doctors, pharmacists and hospitals also questioned why the state has kept the plan largely under wraps until recently.
Idea for heavily black district wilts
posted: 03/16/2011 5:22 a.m. Discuss
Drawing a heavily black congressional district would backfire for Arkansas’ minority populations if other states’ examples are the guide, redistricting experts and political scientists say. Black lawmakers appear to agree.
Tense moments for state’s Japan links
posted: 03/12/2011 6:24 a.m. Discuss
Yukiko Taylor spent much of Friday trying to reach family in Japan after she learned of her native country’s largest-on-record earthquake and a devastating tsunami.
