Spring trash abloom
It is ironic that Little Rock holds city-wide cleanup of roadside trash but apparently allows Republic dumpster trucks to travel with no screens to stop more trash from blowing out. I recently followed truck No. 2406 from Reservoir Road, along Rodney Parham Road across Interstate 430, to where the truck finally stopped.
I told the driver that the entire way, 2.2 miles, trash was blowing out of the top of his truck. He responded that there was nothing he could do about it. The truck was not designed to have screens or covers to prevent trash from blowing out. He also said he couldn't control the wind. Basically, tough luck.
I drove back to Reservoir Road and took several pictures of the paper scraps that lined both sides of the street. Sure, part of the problem is that people dump loose trash into dumpsters instead of bagging it. But doesn't Republic have some responsibility, too?
April 22, Earth Day, is coming. Spring is here. Instead of flowers, we have trash blooming along the roads.
NELL MATTHEWS
Little Rock
Responsible for acts
It is significant that former Vice President Mike Pence will not endorse Donald Trump for president in 2024. This is not surprising as Trump scoffs at the application of justice applied to people who broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, and he expresses his intent to pardon them.
Trump is an individual citizen responsible for his own behavior. He faces many criminal indictments including retaining and hiding national defense classified documents, obstructing justice, corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, and conspiring to defraud the United States. He is accountable for the outcomes of his actions. He lost in 2020 and he is not fit to be president in 2024.
KATHLEEN BARTA
Springdale
A mistaken reaction
My 10-year-old granddaughter runs in my house after hearing a loud shot. She says call 911: We heard gunshots. I had heard it too.
It was a transformer blowing. My heart cries, shame on us. Shame on you, Arkansas.
HEIDI HOGAN
North Little Rock
Chapter and verse?
I have seen reports that Donald Trump is selling Bibles as a means to raise campaign funds. It has been rumored that God dictated this Bible to Donald, which he dutifully copied with his black Sharpie pen. This version is to be called the King Donald version. An additional chapter has been added which describes The Donald walking on water as most of his most ardent MAGA supporters already believe is true.
DON ENTENMAN
Blytheville
Online paper format
There's much one could write about: e.g., it appears more or less half the voters find an apparent autistic psychopath with obvious signs of dementia, numerous indictments and huge civil judgments still suitable to be president. Today, however, I want to grouse about the paper.
Six days a week, I read the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette over breakfast on a laptop. It had worked very well since we stopped getting daily paper deliveries. Suddenly a few days ago, the format of the online paper changed, and it became very difficult to read.
In the earlier version, I could see the content of a page and scroll through to read stories. No real problems. In the new format, there are black margins around the paper, the view of the full pages is too small to read, and when you open a page, you have to click and drag to move content. Moreover, since you cannot see the whole page, it is very easy to miss entire stories.
My wife reads the paper on an iPad and has seen no change. Apparently, it is those of us going through the website who are having trouble. The person I talked with at the paper offered no hope, but said I was not the only complainer.
It is hard to imagine that our paper--and a very good paper it is--would make changes that would so annoy its readers. I will maintain my subscription as long as I and the paper last, but it would not surprise me if some readers dropped theirs over this mess.
ROGER A. WEBB
Little Rock
Jay Horton of WEHCO Media responds: We care very deeply about the experience our readers have with our products, and we will work diligently to make improvements to the experience you've shared with us. Our change with the Web edition of our newspaper was predicated by the technology provider we were using increasing the cost by more than 400 percent in a single year. An increase that was unthinkable to pass along to our readers. We will keep you informed as we progress and hope to continue to get your valuable feedback to help us along the way. As you noted, our experience in our iOS and Android applications is far superior, and we would be happy to help you and all readers with getting started with one of those on any and all of your devices (arkansasonline.com/downloadapps). Thank you for your loyalty to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.