Arkansas Times - October 30, 2014

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Who will stand up to Big Labor?

It’s simple. No worker should be forced to pay tribute to a union boss just to get or keep a job.

Yet right now, over 11 million Americans are forced to surrender billions of dollars each year or be fired.

And all Americans pay the price for Big Labor’s forced-dues power:

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Forced union dues and fees fund aggressive “organizing” drives, provide a limousine lifestyle for union officials and bankroll tax-and-spend politicians, resulting in out-of-control spending and skyrocketing debt;

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Big Labor’s power is deadly to millions of small businesses. Union-label politicians and Obama-stacked bureaucracies strangle small businesses with confiscatory taxes, destructive laws and straitjacket regulations;

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Wasteful work rules, slowdowns, “sick-outs,” strikes and a hate-the-boss mentality have all taken their crippling toll on our economy, driving millions of good jobs overseas or out of existence;

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Union thugs terrorize workers into submission. Threats, intimidation and even physical violence are all tools Big Labor has routinely used to force workers to pay union dues and keep quiet.

What is right for Arkansas?

Mark Pryor

Tom Cotton

Voted to KILL a Right to Work Amendment that would have ended forced unionism across the country;

Pledges to cosponsor the National Right to Work Act which would remove from federal labor law the authorization for forced union dues;

Voted for the Card Check Forced Unionism Bill to strip from workers the right to a secret ballot in union elections; Refused to cosponsor the Freedom from Union Violence Act.

Opposes monopoly union bargaining power in the public sector; Supports the Freedom from Union Violence Act.

Right now is when politicians pay the most attention to the folks back home!

Contact Mark Pryor today and demand he apologize to the citizens of Arkansas for his past support of forced unionism.

Call Mark Pryor at 202-224-2353 For more information, please return this to:

The National Right to Work Committee This advertisement was paid for by voluntary contributions from Arkansas members of the National Right to Work Committee, 8001 Braddock Road, Springfield, Virginia 22160. The Committee is non-partisan and does not endorse or support any political candidate or party.

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National Right to Work Committee 8001 Braddock Road Springfield, Virginia 22160 q

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COMMENT

Pay attention If you haven’t been following the news lately, you might be interested in knowing the Arkansas Legislative Council is holding briefings or budget hearings by state agencies.

Now is the time to contact your friendly — or unfriendly — state representative, state senator and agency directors if you have an issue that affects you, your business or the area.

What are your concerns?

For example, everyone talks about the roads and how gas taxes are down. But why doesn’t Arkansas dedicate the sales tax from vehicle sales, vehicle repairs, vehicle parts, etc. to the development of road improvements based on the county or zip code that it is collected in? If we had this at 50 percent for the state for regional roads, 25 percent for county and 25 for cities, then perhaps Metroplan and the Highway Department would have extended Hwy. 440 out to Hwy. 107 already. That would have been a cheaper North Belt solution. No tax increase, but a change in what agency gets the money.

Other issues of concern: • Child support being tax deductible and retroactive for as many years as the IRS allows.

• Ending cost of living raises based on a percentage of an employees’ salary. One percent of $150,000 is a lot more than 1 percent of $35,000. Do the lower paid employees not have a greater need to keep up with inflation?

• Ending discriminatory city election systems that favor incumbents by allowing all city residents to vote on the aldermen who are supposed to represent a specific ward and requiring 10 wards instead of five wards with two aldermen.

• Requiring all public agencies to offer their facilities to other agencies and local groups as needed — at just the cost of someone to look up afterward if the cleaning crew wouldn’t still be at the facility still — so that a school auditorium or gym can be used for a city, county or organizational event.

• Allowing businesses and people to deduct from their taxes anything they provide to a local government that improves their local area or provides a needed service for a local government, such as paying to improve downtown with a park or bandstand between Wendy’s and First Arkansas Bank, or donating land and paying for equipment for mini-parks on vacant land or land with homes that need to be torn down.

What are your concerns? Speak up or suffer later.

Keith Weber Jacksonville 4

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

From the web, in response to David Koon’s cover story last week, “The martyr of Danville Mountain”: Excellent writing. Something like a hobo finding a friendly door back in the Great Depression, for reasons I don’t know or can’t remember, Jay and his brother rode up in our yard a number of years ago. Mag and I gave them glasses of ice water and a crumpled 20-dollar bill as we talked about endless war and the often unseen damage veterans bring back with them.

The visit only lasted about 10 min-

utes, and I forgot about it until I learned of Jay’s untimely death. Since then two of my high school buddies have lost their sons by the same method after they returned from several tours of Afghanistan and Iraq and couldn’t regain their footing and couldn’t leave what they had to do and what they witnessed back in the Middle East.

Now Jay makes three and who knows how many more will follow a similar path in the future. Unlike WWII veterans, no one knows why these boys were sent to war and I predict no one will know 50 years from now. I don’t

Let us find your underground utilities before you do.

even want to try to imagine the anguish these families are going through and will go through for the rest of their lives. I can only hope that someday America will not be at war and no one’s son or daughter will take up arms in another country in defense of the Fortune 500.

Deathbyinches From the web, in response to Max Brantley’s column, “Clarke Tucker: a vote for the future”: Beside his name is a D, which rhymes with B, which stands for Barack. Hurst has a nice red R beside her name on the ballot. If that makes a major difference in a relatively progressive, educated district, it’s a real statement about the state of the Arkansas electorate.

Jack Zibluk From the web, in response to Joseph Jones’ guest column, “Eugene Ellison: Little Rock’s Michael Brown”: Dear blacks, if you don’t want to die, don’t attack people. Is that too much to ask of you?

Jack Elfingham Dear Little Rock white cops, when you enter an elderly black man’s apartment, unannounced, without warrant and give no warning when his disabled mind is confused while shooting to kill, you should be charged with murder. eLwood

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Ellison is no Brown. The difference is illuminating. Ellison was clearly a victim of police abuse and over reaction, much the same way that cops murdered John Crawford in Walmart.

The circumstances of Brown being shot are in dispute, and favor the narrative of officer Wilson, as Brown was NOT shot in the back, and had attacked officer Wilson.

If ever there was a case for protests, Eugene Ellison is that case, but Brown is NOT. Steven E From the web in response to “Obamacare is working,” an Oct. 27 post on the Arkansas Blog by Max Brantley: I’m telling you those people are so hard headed they’ll kill the PO AND keep the tax cuts no matter how much they have to slash government services.

And then we’ll be back in court over school funding. ... But they won’t care.

JB

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EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS mind of a man on record as opposing any sort of minimum wage at all? It’s now officially on the ballot. As the hymn suggests, once to every man and banker comes a moment to decide.

Coming to a theater near you Apparently unconvinced by Arkansans’ complaints about ubiquitous political advertising, the Cotton campaign produced a 14-minute video hagiography of Cotton that will air not just on television in major markets in the state, but also in a shorter version during movie theatre previews.

The film, “Dardanelle Boys Always Come Home” (original title: “Dardanelle Boys Often Come Home From Washington When They Need Residency to Run for Congress”), often plays like a scene-byscene ripoff of the first season of “Friday Night Lights.” Clear eyes, full hearts, can snooze.

Study Hall The proposed state minimum wage hike this week overcame a legal challenge from millionaire Jackson T. Stephens Jr. and will be on the ballot next Tuesday.

The raise, which would eventually boost the minimum wage in Arkansas from $6.25 to $8.50, is so popular that even Republicans who clearly oppose the thing have had to flip-flop or lie and say they support it (see statewide GOP candidates Asa Hutchinson and Tom Cotton, in full triangulating mode). Ninth-generation Arkansan J. French Hill, a millionaire banker in a tight battle for the 2nd U.S. District Congressional seat, so hates the very concept of a minimum wage that he just hasn’t managed to bring himself to come out in support of the state wage hike. Hill gave a long exposition on the evils of minimum wage hikes of any kind during his AETN debate with Democratic opponent Pat Hays.

Hill explained, “If a family is truly in poverty, the minimum wage is not any answer.” So does Hill have the guts to be honest about his opposition to the state minimum wage ballot initiative?

Not quite. Pressed by questioners at a rally this week with Mike Huckabee that drew dozens in Conway, Hill claimed he was still “studying” the issue. What, one wonders, is left to study? Perhaps taking a break from the campaign trail, Hill has been retiring to the Country Club of Little Rock (membership fee $46,000 per year, more than three times what a full-time worker would make on the current Arkansas minimum wage) for deep reflection. What might change the 6

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ARKANSAS TIMES

The Democrat-Gazette still fond of white supremacists, in spite of themselves The descent into self-parody in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s endorsement of Tom Cotton was as inevitable as the endorsement itself.

Flowery hero-worship? Check. Mattie Ross? Check. Purple prose love letters to bygone American greatness? But of course. But it wouldn’t be a true D-G editorial classic without a few fond words for John C. Calhoun, the white supremacist firebrand who argued that slavery was a “positive good” and who stands by any measure as one of the great villains of 19th century America. The D-G’s premise is that Cotton’s unbending principles remind the paper of Calhoun, and this is supposed to be a good thing (seems like Cotton’s been doing plenty of bending on the minimum wage, the private option, and slippery dodges on various votes he took in Congress, but never mind that for now). Here’s the D-G, waxing nostalgic for the good ol’ bad old days when “giants roamed the earth”: “[Calhoun] defended his principles, however dubious, with a coherence and courage that even now inspire admiration despite ourselves.” One wonders, considering the “principles” in question, who might be included in “ourselves” and who might not.

Perhaps those who admire Calhoun ought to have the guts to offer up a few examples. A few samples from Calhoun, who served as vice president, Cabinet member, and congressman from South Carolina: “[T]o destroy [slavery] would be to destroy us as a people.” Or: “I hold [slavery] to be a good … the black race of Central Africa … came among us in a low, degraded, and savage condition, and in the course of a few generations it has grown up under the fostering care of our institutions, reviled as they have been, to its present compara­tively civilized condition. This, with the rapid increase of numbers, is conclusive proof of the general happiness of the race, in spite of all the exaggerated tales to the contrary.” Or: “Slavery is indispensable to a republican government.” I mean, the coherence! The courage!

Arkansans should vote for Cotton or vote for Sen. Mark Pryor as they see fit.

But all of us should be embarrassed of

FROM HEAD TO TOE: The scene at the end of last Saturday’s Mud Run at Two Rivers Park.

our daily paper’s Confederate nostalgia gussied up as true grit. In fact, if Cotton really wants to be a profile in courage, he could say thanks but no thanks to an endorsement grounded in such a rotten conceit.

Golden Eagles and the NRA National Patriot’s Medal. Hays distributed the letter after Republicans whined that Hays was being misleading by asserting in an ad the facts that he owns guns and has been a long-time NRA member. Hays had gotten an F grade from the NRA, so he shouldn’t be allowed to be in commercials with guns, or something. Ninth-generation NRA member J. French Hill said Hays has been “ex-communicated” from the NRA. Who knew the NRA had a pope who could revoke memberships? St. LaPierre better check himself. Who knows how many praiseful form letters went out to infidels?

Dirty telephone tricks The prodigal gun “You stood by my in some of the toughest battles ever fought by NRA … America’s gun owners owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude.”

—From a letter by Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association nominating Pat Hays for membership in the NRA’s

Reports have poured in across the state of robocalls falsely telling registered voters they’re not registered to vote. The calls state that they are paid for by the Tom Cotton campaign.

Sounds an awful lot like voter discouragement. The Cotton camp’s excuse was bad data on registered voters.

OPINION

Election decisions Some thoughts on voting: • TOP OF THE TICKET: The Democratic Party candidates for top offices — Sen. Mark Pryor, gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross and congressional candidates Jackie McPherson (1st), Pat Hays (2nd) and James Lee Witt (4th) — are cut from remarkably similar cloth. They are centrists, with records of bipartisanship in public life. In each race, Republican opponents are from the extreme right end of the spectrum.

• ISSUES: Two easy NO votes (Issues 1 and 2) on legislative amendments: one to take control of executive agency rules and the other to make it harder to put initiatives on the ballot. Two easy YES votes (Issues 4 and 5) — to allow legal sales of six-packs of beer and other alcohol in all 75 counties and to increase the state minimum wage of $6.25 an hour. A conflicted NO vote for me (Issue 3): What started as an ethics amendment was polluted by the addition of a path to legislative pay raises and longer term limits. But, in fairness, the measure could put a limit on corporate campaign contributions. This could end the

purchase of state Supreme Court and attorney general seats by the likes of nursing home magMAX nate Michael BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com Morton.

• CONTROL OF STATEWIDE OFFICES: The outcome of elections for the seven statewide offices — governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and land commissioner — determines partisan control of county election commissions, currently controlled by Democrats. If Republicans win four seats, they take control. Their record doesn’t inspire confidence that this would broaden voter participation.

See the Republicans’ unconstitutional voter ID law and, for just one other example, the Lonoke County Republican election commissioner who backed early voting in the Republican part of the county but not the Democratic part.

• QUALIFICATIONS FOR STATE OFFICE: Democrats fielded quali-

Romney’s Obamacare

S

ince it’s too late in the election cycle for much else, can we engage in a historical what-if? Specifically, what if Mitt Romney had peaked in the spring of 2008 rather than 2012?

His own fortunes, Barack Obama’s and the country’s might have been considerably different than they proved to be. But whether Romney in 2008 would have won or lost the presidency, this year’s election and its great national debate might barely resemble the present reality.

Harkening back to those halcyon days may help us put the horrors of this year’s mid-term elections in better perspective.

For one thing, regardless of whether Romney or Obama had been elected in 2008, we likely would have Obamacare or something very much like it today and it almost certainly would not be playing the critical role in races across the South and Midwest. Campaigns would be just as nasty and the quotients of hate and distortion just as high, but the parties would have found other reasons to say the sky is falling.

Democratic candidates from Sen. Mark Pryor to newcomers running for a state legislative seat from rural Arkansas counties would not face the quandary of explaining or defending their votes for the Affordable Care Act or explaining why

they had nothing to do with it.

Remember the situation in the spring of 2008. Sen. Hillary ERNEST Clinton was no DUMAS longer a cinch for the Democratic nomination because Sen. Obama paid attention to the small primaries and caucuses that she ignored.

The early Republican frontrunner, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, had turned into a phantom and the other favorite, Romney, was sandbagged in Iowa by Bible-thumping Mike Huckabee and in New Hampshire, next door to home, by Sen. John McCain. When Super Tuesday left him in second place but with no momentum, Romney pulled out so that McCain would have a clear shot and a chance to build for the big race in the fall.

Huckabee stayed in to torment McCain a while longer. It was a noble gesture by Romney but he proved four years later that grinding on can pay off.

Had Romney played on and won the nomination in 2008, the fall campaign would have been quite different. He did not need to choose an exciting youthful running mate, as the handlers of the aging John McCain felt he had to do, so Romney

fied candidates for all seven statewide offices. The Republicans are a mixed bag. The integrity and qualifications gap is particularly wide for: 1) secretary of state, where Democrat Susan Inman challenges the inept Secretary of State-in-Hiding Mark Martin; 2) treasurer, where a corporate accountant and proven public servant, Karen Sealy Garcia, is the choice over a bullying political blackmailer, the GOP’s Dennis Milligan, and 3) attorney general, where the solid Nate Steel, small-town lawyer and prosecutor, offers a stark contrast to the checkered employment history and poor judgment of Republican Leslie Rutledge. Then there’s lieutenant governor, an office of little importance. If it must be filled and if economic development really is an issue, you have a proven successful, self-made businessman, John Burkhalter, against Republican Tim Griffin, who’s spent most of his working life hauling toxic waste as a Republican political hit man.

• DOWN THE BALLOT: The crazy expenditures on the races for U.S. Senate and governor make it hard for lesser offices to break through the noise. Those worth considering include: House District 35, where Democrat Clarke

Tucker is the choice over Republican Stacy Hurst. Hurst’s dishonest campaign has shown contempt for the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of legal counsel, schemed to make political hay out of Tucker’s 4-year-old son and demonstrated her vindictive streak, something already in oversupply at the legislature. …. Little Rock City Board, where Ward 2 incumbent director Ken Richardson, one of the board’s most independent voices, deserves re-election … Pulaski Quorum Court, where District 3 JP Kathy Lewison should be favored to continue her community-oriented service in a swing district over yet another right-wing extremist challenger … This week’s courthouse tossup: Barry Hyde and Phil Wyrick for Pulaski County judge.

• THE QUESTION OF THE YEAR: Are issues and qualifications relevant?

Or is Republican Party identification enough? Answers will be evident in Susan Inman’s race for secretary of state against the bumbling, absentee incumbent and three races for state House in Benton County, where the Democratic candidates are so superior that even the local Republican-owned newspaper is backing them.

would not have picked a pretty Alaska airhead. After Sarah Palin’s frightening exhibitions of ignorance, millions of independent voters lost confidence in McCain’s judgment and he never got it back.

The big ponderable is what would Obama and Romney, head to head, have said about the latter of the two big issues of the day, war and health care? They had virtually the same idea about how to insure everyone in America and give them ready access to medical care. If anything, Romney was more ardent about it.

Two years earlier, Romney had passed in the Massachusetts legislature a bill that became the framework for Obamacare, passed by Congress in 2010. He then announced he would not run for governor again and set out on his campaign for the presidency, carrying the blueprint for an achievement that had evaded 10 presidents in the 20th century.

In Massachusetts, he had set up an exchange where insurance companies offered policies for individuals and employers. For people who could afford to pay some but not all of the premiums, the state would subsidize them. People whose incomes were too low would receive Medicaid. That, of course, is the foundation of the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare.

That also had been the plan designed by the conservative Heritage Foundation in

1990 and was the Republican alternative to the Clinton plan in 1993-94. By 2008, Hillary Clinton had adopted it and so, in some form, did all the other Democratic candidates for president except Dennis Kucinich, who favored Medicare for all.

Obama was something of an outlier.

He did not favor a mandate. Affordable insurance would be offered but people would not be required to buy it or pay a penalty. Clinton, Joe Biden and John Edwards scolded him for it. The plan would not work without a mandate, they said, because only sick people would buy the insurance and this would drive the premiums sky-high.

Romney was even tougher about the mandate. He would not require employers to buy insurance but individuals would have to buy it or, like Obamacare later, pay a penalty.

“I like mandates,” Romney said. “The mandates work. If somebody can afford insurance and decides not to buy it and then they get sick, they ought to pay their own way …” He called it “an American principle.”

Now, the mandate is the main Republican criticism of Obamacare, the only criticism that has anything to do with something that actually is in the law. The architect of the Romney plan helped sell the new president and Congress on the mandate’s necessity. www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

7

Naive cynicism

U

pon first venturing to write about politics 20 years ago, I held naive views about political journalism.

Specifically, I imagined that factual accuracy mattered as it did in the kinds of books and magazine pieces I’d written on non-political topics — opinionated, yes, but grounded in careful reporting.

After 10 years, I became persuaded that the honor system supposedly governing journalists had broken down. “Claiming the moral authority of a code of professional ethics it idealizes in the abstract but repudiates in practice,” I wrote in Harper’s magazine, “today’s Washington press corps has grown as decadent and self-protective as any politician or interest group whose behavior it purports to monitor.”

Driven partly by cable TV celebrity, personality-based narratives rule. Politicians are depicted as heroes or villains in group melodramas as simplistic as any TV soap opera. Facts are fitted to the storyline.

Cheap psychodrama thrives. The whole world’s a Maureen Dowd column.

Which brings us back to Harper’s and author Doug Henwood. Because he finds her too close to Wall Street and too hawkish on foreign policy, Henwood evidently feels it his moral duty to blacken Hillary Clinton’s character. It’s not enough to say she voted for the Iraq War and favored bombing Syria. Henwood had to dig up “Whitewater” to prove her a liar and a cheat.

Then after I wrote a column pointing out that almost everything he’d written about that phony scandal was nonsense, Henwood began calling me bad names on social media. “Clinton towel boy,” was one.

So I posted the following on his Facebook page: “I find it interesting that when confronted with several quite basic factual errors in his description of the great Whitewater scandal of legend and song, Doug Henwood’s response is name-calling. That tells me pretty much all I need to know about him.

“However, it’s false to say that the late Jim McDougal’s savings and loan financed the Clintons’ Whitewater investment. He didn’t buy it until five years later. Another bank made the loan, for which both Clintons were jointly and severally responsible — meaning they’d have to pay it off regardless of what happened to McDougal or his other investments. Which they did. Whitewater cost the S&L nothing.

“It’s doubly false that ‘the Clintons, of course, were also investors in McDougal’s schemes.’ They had no other financial relationship whatsoever. That was the whole point of quoting the prosecutor’s closing argument in McDougal’s bank fraud trial: convicting him depended upon convincing

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

the jury that [he’d] … misled the Clintons about their investment and resorted to desperate measures to try to keep GENE the bank afloat. In LYONS a word, they got conned.

“Regardless of one’s opinion about Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy ideas, those are the facts, available for about 18 years now.

Henwood simply doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

Now if somebody took something of mine apart like that, I’d do my best to make them regret it. But Henwood can’t, because he was blowing smoke to begin with.

“What I don’t get,” he answered “is why you’re so invested in doing PR for these [bleeps].”

Sorry dude, not playing. Facts are facts.

Everybody makes mistakes. Professionals own them.

That wouldn’t be our Mr. Henwood. So let me add that almost everything he wrote about the Clintons in Arkansas reflects sheer incomprehension. Mostly, it’s what Joe Conason and I call “naive cynicism,” in which a reporter innocent of basic political realities presumes corruption.

For example, he accuses Bill Clinton of a cynical ploy “aimed at distancing himself from traditional liberal politics” by not calling for repeal of Arkansas’s right-to-work law. Shockingly, Clinton also failed to call for abolishing Razorback football and duck hunting season.

Henwood alleges that Clinton “went light on environmental enforcement,” covering the state in “chicken feces.” Would it help to know that until Clinton wrestled the timber industry and Farm Bureau to the ground in 1985, Arkansas environmental agencies had virtually no enforcement powers?

Elsewhere, Henwood alleges that the Clintons schemed to earn the enmity of teacher unions. In vain, alas. But he left out town hall meetings Hillary held with educators and parents in all 75 Arkansas counties back in 1983 in support of her husband’s educational reforms.

No matter. Her efforts were pointless anyway, Henwood thinks, because real advances “would require a wholesale overhaul of the political economy … and the Clintons weren’t about to take that on.”

Ah, yes. Wholesale overhaul. If only Hillary had been willing to wave her magic wand, wiping away 200 years of history, abolishing the legislature and converting Arkansas into Connecticut.

Mental health system in crisis in Arkansas

T

he National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) has been sounding the alarm of a nationwide crisis in mental health services since 2011. On the other side of the Atlantic, the National Health Service in the United Kingdom is struggling to provide adequate mental health services. For us mental health professionals in Arkansas, these jeremiads ring a familiar bell.

Accepting the risk of oversimplification, let’s summarize two centuries of history to provide background. The modern system of care for mental illness was inaugurated in wake of the French and American revolutions with the process of converting the old asylums into psychiatric hospitals. Over time those psychiatric hospitals deteriorated into large inhumane warehouses, and community mental health centers were hailed as the answer. That was 50 years ago. Since then we’ve seen a dramatic decrease in psychiatric hospital bed availability without the reciprocal creation of a community network of providers and clinics to care for the mentally ill. The result has been a transfer from the old psychiatric hospitals to prisons and the streets of a population suffering not only from severe mental disorders, but also from substance abuse, poverty and, at times, despair. So, who cares for these people?

An adequate mental health system includes a variety of professionals, from psychiatrists, social workers and psychologists to counselors, nurses and physicianassistants. These professionals need to work in clinics and hospitals with medical, psychological and social support. The data on the availability of such professionals in Arkansas speaks to our precarious situation.

According to the Dartmouth Atlas for Health Care in America, nationwide there are on average 11.4 psychiatrists per 100,000 U.S. residents, while the estimate for Arkansas is about 5.2. Furthermore, the distribution of these psychiatrists is unequal across the state, with Little Rock having 9.2 while cities like Fort Smith have 3.2 psychiatrists per 100,000 residents. Regarding the availability of public psychiatric beds, the Treatment Advocacy Center argues for 50 psychiatric beds per 100,000 residents as minimally adequate. Arkansas was listed as the state with the third fewest number of beds with 6.7 public psychiatric beds per 100,000 in 2005.

The short-term effects of our shortages are long wait times to get care, untreated conditions yielding co-occurring disorders like alcohol and drug use (sometimes used as self-medications) and use of emergency rooms as stop-gap measures. These are followed by the long-term consequences of

chronic and relapsing disorders: violence — more likely as victims than perpetrators — recidivism, overcrowding ERICK of jails and prisons MESSIAS and a terrible burden of suffering for those patients, their families, and all of us.

The solution to a historical crisis in mental health care will require a multipronged strategy. It’s clear we need more professionals trained to handle these complex issues.

In order to be a psychiatrist, a physician needs several years of graduate medical education, and funding for more slots is needed in the only residency program in the state, at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Psychologists, counselors and social workers will be required to provide psychotherapy and behavior modification strategies. We need to help nurses and PAs see the potential in specializing in mental health.

These professionals will need places to work, like community mental health centers and psychiatric hospitals. Compared to nearby states such as Alabama with 39 community mental services providers, Arkansas has far fewer such providers with 15. A strong infrastructure with clinics, residential options, hospitals and crisis centers will be required to address this need. Diversion programs, from jails and shelters to families and communities, will help ease some of the overcrowded situation on the legal front. Finally, integration with the general health system will be required. Primary care clinics and family physicians will need training and education on mental health issues to prevent undue referrals to an overwhelmed system.

The needs of the mentally ill should not be hijacked by ideologies, especially since both conservative and liberal politicians can contribute ideas to build the way forward. Part of the solution will come from private enterprise, part will come from the state and many will involve public-private partnerships.

The realization of a mental health crisis tends to happen when tragedies occur.

I hope we can avoid tragedies by working to move Arkansas from the bottom of the report card on mental health systems to become that shining city on the hill we all aspire to live in.

Erick Messias, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and president of the Arkansas Psychiatric Society.

Little Rock artist Jon Shannon Rogers brings scenes of the capital city to Thea Foundation for his exhibition “Space is the Place.” From 6:30 to 9 p.m. November 7, $10 at the door covers music by Bonnie Montgomery, heavy hors d’oeuvres, an open growler bar by 107 Liquor and a chance to win an original painting by Rogers. All proceeds support Thea Foundation. theasartdepartment.com

Thea Foundation

@TheaStaff

@TheaFoundation

www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

hree debilitating losses in a fourweek span made Arkansas a little sour for homecoming Saturday.

UAB paid the iron price for all that misery.

The Hogs blew the doors off the Blazers in a 35-0 first half, then more or less slogged through a special teams comedy in the second half to end up with a 45-17 win over a team that had reportedly improved after the failure of a twoyear experiment with former Hog offensive coordinator Garrick McGee as head coach. It didn’t really look like a Conference-USA contender at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on a bright morning in the Ozarks, though some of that may have been attributable to quarterback Cody Clements being sidelined.

UAB had mounted a fierce challenge to Mississippi State way back in September when the Bulldogs were a bit of a national mystery, rather than the sudden titan of the land. That game ended 47-34, and the Blazers actually outgained the Bulldogs at Davis-Wade Stadium, slicing through what has morphed into a terrific defense with a bunch of big plays.

Their best efforts at duplicating that kind of effort in Fayetteville came too late and would’ve likely not even been visible but for the Hogs’ glaring woes on special teams — UAB’s only touchdown until backups yielded a late passing score was a 100-yard kickoff return by Jamarcus Nelson, and not long before that, Nelson’s 35-yard punt return put the Blazers inside the 10 before they ended up faltering and settling for a field goal. Arkansas got its fourth win of the season on the strength of Jonathan Williams’ best rushing output of the year and a boisterous defensive showing, plus the now-renowned ingenuity of left guard Sebastian Tretola lofting a nice little fade to deep snapper Alan D’Appollonio out of a tricky formation to cement the early blowout.

It was hard to get terribly excited over it all. Three rough losses in a row, the last of which being the first-half vanishing act against Georgia, had sapped once-building momentum and left the crowd looking both sporadic and uninterested. But for those who trudged out for the late morning kickoff, they did see several great signs: • Drew Morgan got involved, albeit only once, with a nice 44-yard grab on the opening possession. The Greenwood product has only four catches but you would swear for all the buzz after the past two summers, he’s poised to become a more relied-upon target. He’s above average in all the key traits — burst, size and hands — but it’s

clear that Brandon Allen hasn’t quite developed the rhythm with him. Maybe this over-theBEAU shoulder grab WILCOX changes the dynamic a bit.

• Jeremy Sprinkle snatched Allen’s second scoring toss and the only secondhalf TD for the Hogs. He’s another guy with underwhelming numbers and overwhelming talent. At this juncture, with the Razorback receiving corps being what it is, why not afford Sprinkle more chances? Granted, the team is blessed with great depth at tight end right now given A.J. Derby’s phenomenal conversion, but Sprinkle’s height and straight-line quickness need to be tapped into sooner rather than later.

• For all the return maladies, the kicking game got some stability. Sam Irwin-Hill took his benching to heart, and after Toby Baker’s lone punt was a short liner that Nelson quickly brought back into the red zone, the Aussie resumed his position and knocked one 54 yards, eventually averaging 43 yards on four boots. The big story was that Adam McFain drilled six PATs and a 49-yard field goal that looked to have enough distance to be good from 60. Those three points yielded arguably more gusto from the crowd than the Tretola pass, sadly enough.

• Defensively, this was a pretty complete effort against a respectable up-tempo attack, and much more of the unit that squared off against Alabama and less of the one that got befuddled by Georgia.

Of course, this was UAB, and that aforementioned Bulldog team looms now as the nation’s prohibitive top squad. Dak Prescott walked away from a hard-fought win over Kentucky in a protective boot, but there’s no reason to think the Heisman frontrunner will be ailing in the least by the time this one tees up.

Arkansas goes to Starkville this season under completely foreign conditions: Just last year, this game in Little Rock was going to decide who resided in last place in the SEC West Division. The pressure clearly rests upon the home team, which faces a new and more daunting task each passing week, and that gives the Hogs a window of opportunity. They’ve never lost three consecutive games to Mississippi State since entering the conference, and if that distinction remains intact by the time Saturday night ends, it’ll be the story of the season.

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

The ghost road

T

he Observer has been at this awhile now, so we can’t quite remember if we’ve made this admission before in print. Whatever the case, given Halloween, we’re prepared to issue a full confession: Several years back, Yours Truly spent four years looking for ghosts all over the state.

Now, don’t get us wrong, and cut out that snickering. The Observer is not one of those kooks on TV, peeing down both legs every time the wind hoots in the eaves. The Observer is just a curious sort, and came from a family with a lot of ghost stories. Rather than discount them all, we decided to go see if there was Anything Out There.

And so, with the help of our brother, we did. The pair of us tromped all over, talking to people, jotting notes, staying up late, taking pictures, drinking truck stop coffee before rolling home through the dawn. It was an experience.

What you learn first out there on the Ghost Road is the 10,000 ways your perfectly functional brain can trick you in the dark, turning every squeak and shadow into the very shade of Hamlet’s dead ol’ daddy. If you’re not careful, an air conditioner kicking on can become the murmuring of spectral voices, every floorboard creak a secret step. It’s worse when you’re there with the inevitable True Believer, the guy or gal for whom every thumbprint on a camera lens is proof positive that we are in communication with The Great Beyond.

That, by the way, is the second thing you learn: just how ready people are to believe in hokum, especially when they’re looking for proof that we won’t all eventually just wink out like a porch light. You would not believe how many otherwise rational people will stand in dusty parlors with a light buckled to their head, prepared to fistfight if you don’t affirm their contention that a blurry picture of a camera strap is, in fact, proof of immortality. There were plenty of those arguments. Arguments over the funny thing digital cameras do to dust in the air (“orbs of energy!”). Over lens flare. Over the clearing of a mortal throat, translated into “Get out!” by the needy ear of a True Believer. If anything pushed The Observer

from Sorta Agnostic to Teetering Atheist on all things supernatural, it was our walk on the Ghost Road, where we were soon convinced that yes, five billion people can, in fact, be wrong, especially when life after death is on the line.

We have left all that behind, and glad to be shed of it. Bah, humbug!

That said, how to explain the things The Observer and our baby bro saw and heard out there? How to explain the seemingly sane man, a successful executive with a company you would likely know, living alone on a lake, who described seeing a little boy in his locked house over and over, the businessman repeatedly finding his clothes soaked on a dry floor, his fine leather shoes in the closet filled to the brim with brackish water? How to explain the family up in Faulkner County whose 5-year-old started regularly reporting a strange, sad woman standing on a chair in his room, months before a questioning of neighbors found that the previous owner of the house had hanged herself there?

How to explain The Observer’s own broad-daylight sighting of a man — not a shadow or reflection from a passing car or corner-of-the-eye bit of schmutz, but a man — walking past a doorway in a locked museum over in Forrest City, an older gent with a mustache and a gray sweater and a slight smile on his face, who could not be found after a search from dirt to attic? How to explain the man-shaped shadow that hung at the end of a darkened hallway in an abandoned hospital way up in the hills before both of us one night, hovering in our lights for a solid minute before swirling away like dishwater down a drain? How, dear skeptic or believer, to square these things with this world where up is infallibly up?

Crazy, you’ll surely say. More gravy than grave. Dreams. Tricks of the light. Maybe so. The brain, as we’ve recounted, is tricky.

We’d think the same thing. But even as sure as we are that people are desperate enough for an Afterlife to lie even to themselves, The Observer is here to tell you that we observed a handful of things we can’t explain out on the Ghost Road. And that’s the part of those four years we still consider with a frown, especially in late October.

WHILE OTHERS DABBLE IN RETAIL, WE SPECIALIZE IN IT.

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

11

Arkansas Reporter

THE

IN S IDE R

Ethics Commission to investigate Rutledge’s ad coordination Blue Hog Report’s Matt Campbell reports that the Arkansas Ethics Commission has notified him he’s provided sufficient grounds for it to investigate Republican attorney general candidate Leslie Rutledge’s participation in TV ads promoting her candidacy by a dark money group.

This is a big deal. Possibly a watershed case.

It’s unlikely to have any impact on the race for attorney general. Even a probable cause finding — up or down — isn’t likely before the Nov. 4 election.

But what the Commission decides in this case could wreck campaign finance accountability as we know it.

The Republican Attorney Generals Association’s 527 Super PAC poured $400,000 into TV ads touting Rutledge’s campaign theme: fighting President Obama. It, regrettably, can do that without meeting any sort of meaningful disclosure standard so long as it’s an independent “voter education” message and avoids direct advocacy.

But there was this twist: The ad featured Leslie Rutledge herself. She speaks. She holds a saltshaker. Clearly, if she didn’t dictate the ad, she approved its content. Her appearance was arranged by the RAGA and she willingly participated. This kind of direct coordination is clearly prohibited in federal law between candidates and independent groups. Rutledge says it is not prohibited by state law. She claims she got clearance from the Ethics Commission to do it. Apparently not, since it finds Blue Hog’s complaint worthy of review.

Though the ad may not include “express advocacy” phrases — such as “vote for Rutledge” or “vote against her opponent, Democrat Nate Steel” — Rutledge’s presence and use of her campaign theme should prove to any fair observer that this is an ad aimed at electing Leslie Rutledge. She participated. The ad should be reported as a campaign contribution to her and the laws on contribution limits and disclosure of donors should apply.

If the Ethics Commission does not come to this conclusion, Katie bar the door.

Every Super PAC, 501(c)(4) and silver spooner like Jackson T. Stephens Jr. will be buying TV ads featuring the candidate of their choice spouting the identical campaign message they spout in their own advertising.

But they will be unfettered by disclosure and contribution limits.

It will be the end of accountability in Arkansas election campaigns.

This development might further help you understand why Rutledge is also benefit-

THE GREEN PARTY’S MARK SWANEY: Says he’s the only progressive Senate candidate.

A third and fourth way

Green and Libertarian candidates fight to be heard.

BY DAVID RAMSEY

U

nprecedented millions have flowed into Arkansas as Republicans and Democrats duke it out to see who the state’s next governor and United States senator will be. Voters would be forgiven, based on the ubiquitous advertisements and media coverage of the big statewide races, for assuming they had two choices: Democrats or Republican. In fact, there will be four

names on the ballot for governor and senator, as well as a number of other races, thanks to two minor parties trying to get a foothold in state politics: the Green Party and the Libertarian Party.

“We’re trying to give people an alternative to the Democrats and the Republicans,” said Green Party gubernatorial candidate Josh Drake.

The Greens are a progressive party

that is generally more liberal than the Democrats — particularly in Arkansas, Green candidates tend to suggest that the Democratic politicians in the state have abandoned progressive principles. The Libertarians, meanwhile, are hardcore proponents of limited government and individual liberties, which often puts them to the left of many Arkansas Democratic politicians on social issues (they’re strongly in favor of gay rights, for example), to the right of many Arkansas Republican politicians on fiscal issues (they’re firmly opposed to the private option), and in disagreement with both Dems and the GOP on other issues (like the Greens, Libertarians oppose the Drug War and believe the nation spends too much on its military).

Including governor and senator, the Libertarians have 28 total candidates running for various offices in the state; the Greens just have two. Ballot access for third parties isn’t easy, demanding 10,000 signatures, an expensive and CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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ARKANSAS TIMES

THE

BIG PICTURE

LISTEN UP

THE ARKANSAS TIMES ELECTION NIGHT DRINKING GAME

Tune in to the Times’ “Week In Review” podcast each Friday.

Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

INSIDER, CONT.

Let’s get blotto after the polls close Nov. 4! (You must have voted to participate. Otherwise, pour drink on head.)

Tom Cotton cries “It’s a new day in Arkansas” Drink

Loser refuses to concede Chug

Candidate gives thanks to Mama

Candidate gives thanks to Jesus

Sip

Drink wine

John Mellencamp’s “I Was Born in a Small Town” playing at the watch party Drink

“It’s been a long, hard road ...”

Chug

Drink a shot from a “Wizard of Oz” prop oilcan.

N.W.A.’s “Straight Outta Compton” playing at the watch party Chug everything under the sink

Max Brantley sighting Pour one out for your homies

“The voters of Arkansas have got a message for you, President Obama!”

Chug tea

Candidate gives thanks to a non-Judeo-Christian deity and/or Charles Darwin Chug the six-pack of Billy Beer you’ve had since 1977

Candidate forgets to thank his or her spouse Drink

“Growing up a poor kid in _______, I never could have imagined this ...”

Newscaster mispronounces “Desha County,” “El Dorado” or “Monticello” One sip per occurrence

Candidate forgets to thank the Koch brothers Chug pure grain alcohol from an “I Am the NRA” tumbler

“As I told grandma when I woke up this morning...”

Fold

Drink gruel

ing from — though not making a personal appearance in — a $1.8 million ad buy to trash Nate Steel by the Center for Individual Freedom. Nobody knows who the group really is (maybe Big Tobacco), but we do know absolutely that it has spent money in the past to protect the ability of rich people to contribute unlimited amounts in secret to political campaigns.

By directly participating in and defending this kind of clandestine stuff, Leslie Rutledge is saying she opposes transparency in political campaigns. There was a time — when dark money was being used against her in the primary — that she had a different view. We defended her then. We don’t now.

Cotton makes whoppers list Politifact has compiled a list of the nine biggest political whoppers of the 2014 campaign season. Tom Cotton, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, makes the list for the lie he told to cover his vote against the farm bill.

“No, President Obama did not hijack the farm bill and turn it into a food stamp bill.

“The farm bill is pretty important in Arkansas, where Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton is challenging incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor for the U.S. Senate. Cotton explained his ‘no’ vote on the farm bill by claiming in a campaign ad that Obama ‘hijacked the farm bill (and) turned it into a food stamp bill.’

“Actually, the farm bill has included food stamps since 1973. It was Cotton and other tea party supporters who tried to take food stamps out of the farm bill, a move that ultimately failed. We rated Cotton’s statement Pants on Fire.”

Cotton would say this is liberal baloney, though Politifact is nonpartisan. It’s true that facts do seem to have a liberal bias.

Biting the hand

“humble beginnings”

Candidate mentions Obamacare (pro)

Candidate mentions Obamacare (con)

“The voters have spoken...”

Not applicable in Arkansas

Drink ipecac

Sip

Drink

“Democrat Party” Chug

Candidate talks about being chased by a dog while knocking on doors

Candidate talks about being chased by methheads while knocking on doors

Drink

Chug

“I’ll reach across the aisle...”

Reconsider your choice to chug a powerful hallucinogenic soup made of lichens from the Amazon rain forest, because this is not really happening

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced a $24 million governmentsubsidized loan to Danville-based ArkWest Communication to expand broadband access to rural customers in Yell County.

ArkWest is headed by P.T. Sanders, one of Tom Cotton’s major campaign supporters.

Back in 2013, when Cotton took office, the Democrat-Gazette reported that Sanders and Cotton “shared a frustration with government regulations that were hurting his business.”

The USDA loan that Sanders received flowed through an omnibus spending bill that — yes, you guessed it — Tom Cotton voted against.

Damn those government regulations!

Damn their $24 million in subsidized loan money! www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

13

A THIRD AND FOURTH WAY, CONT. about, that the media never covered.

So that point of view at least gets heard over the air.” Swaney added that even with a Green and Libertarian on stage, the major-party candidates will inevitably ignore them and stick to their talking points. Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate Nathan LaFrance said that during the Senate debate he participated in, he could see the panelists visibly frustrated with the refusal of Republican Rep. Tom Cotton and Democrat Sen. Mark Pryor to answer questions directly. “Both of them, especially Cotton, would just not give an answer. They just repeated the same talking points [from] the thousands of commercials that have run.”

LIBERTARIAN NATHAN LAFRANCE: Candidate for the U.S. Senate.

DRAKE: Favors reasonable gun laws.

labor-intensive process. The stakes for the Greens and Libertarians are big in this year’s gubernatorial race: If a candidate for governor clears 3 percent of the popular vote, the party automatically gets a slot on the ballot for all offices the following year. Then, the party could simply nominate a candidate for each office without going through the laborious signaturegathering process.

There’s a catch, though: The party has to keep meeting that 3 percent threshold in the next major election, and the vagaries of Arkansas ballot law state that the threshold must be met for the candidate at the top of the ballot. In 2016, that means the presidential candidate has to nab 3 percent, a virtual impossibility. Even if Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Frank Gilbert, for example, got 3 percent this year, the Libertarians would get an automatic ballot slot in

The Senate and gubernatorial races, depending on which poll you believe, could both turn out to be very close.

Green and Libertarian candidates have typically been polling around 2 percent, though historically minor party candidates have done less well on election day than they’ve polled, either because their supporters don’t show up or because many of them drift to one of the major parties once they get to the ballot box. Still, it’s certainly possible that four men who haven’t been getting much attention — the Greens’ Swaney and Drake, the Libertarians’ LaFrance and Gilbert — could be difference makers in the state’s two biggest races.

So it’s worth taking a moment to ask — paraphrasing Adm. James Stockdale, the vice-presidential nominee for the most successful third-party effort in recent American history — Who are they? Why are they here?

THE GREENS

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

2016, only to almost surely lose it in 2018. “You can just see the D’s and R’s in the backrooms clinking glasses,” Gilbert said. “As long as they’re writing the laws, they’re going to find all sorts of ways to stay in power.”

In addition to being outspent by millions by the major parties, the Greens and Libertarians are not invited to most of the debates (debates hosted

by AETN were an exception, inviting candidates from all four parties, as did the Arkansas Press Association for the governor’s debate).

When debates are limited to two candidates, “the citizens are shortchanged of alternative points of view,” argued Mark Swaney, Green candidate for U.S. Senate. “When minor party candidates are speaking and answering the same questions as the major party candidates, they bring up issues and points of view that the other two candidates never talked

“I decided to run for the U.S. Senate with the Green Party because there are no other progressive candidates or parties participating in the Senate race,” said Swaney of Madison County, a commercialization manager working with intellectual property for the University of Arkansas. Swaney, in his second run for office after running for state representative as a Green in 2012, had one of the most memorable lines of the AETN debate, on politicians seeking to further slash food stamps: “These are people who don’t care if babies starve. They like their ideology more than human beings.”

Swaney is particularly critical of Pryor for supporting the Iraq war, a shoddy record on civil liberties, and voting like a Republican on issues related to climate change.

“As a senator, he’s got no guts,” Swaney said. “If you look at his record, he never supports anything unless he can find 150 other people to sign on for it. He basically attempts to run the middle of the road. He attempts to do nothing but appeal to the lowest common denominator in Arkansas.”

Drake, a Hot Springs lawyer, is running for governor after previously running three times for U.S. Congress as a Green, twice against Mike Ross (one year, he complained, he got 14 percent of the vote, but the major networks in Little Rock reported that Ross had run unopposed).

“People like Ross and Pryor, they water [the Democratic Party] down,” Drake said. “They make people think that the only people who can ever get elected are these quasi-Republicans.

That that’s our only option in Arkansas because people are so right-wing. It’s part of the Democrats’ job to speak out against the nuts like Jason Rapert. … If the only people talking are the rightwing nuts and Democrats are sitting there with their mouth shut, people are going to believe the people that are talking.”

Both Drake and Swaney said that they were the only candidates in their races in favor of reasonable gun control.

“Mike Ross is the biggest gun nut there is, right behind Asa Hutchinson,” Drake said. He is similarly frustrated with the state party’s wishy-washy position on gay marriage. “Mike Ross is just adamant that marriage is between a man and a woman and it will always be that way,” he said. “That’s a thoroughly Republican viewpoint and even Republicans are running away from that. We’ve got a Democrat running for our highest elective office

they don’t differ on the fact that they want to waste our money and grow government,” he said. “And they want to reduce our freedom and reduce our ability to live our lives without government interference.”

LaFrance said that two of his biggest policy priorities were term limits for all members of Congress and a balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution. “I think we as a country would be better off if we could stop the days of the career politician,” he said. “The balanced budget amendment is another big one, Begins 7 p.m. because our politicians in the federal Bless the Mic: Chopped and Screwed in the M.L. Harris Auditorium, government have proven that they free and open to the public.

Arvin Mitchell, August 8, 2014 cannot help themselves from spending Arvin Mitchell, born in the heart of St. Louis, is For more information call more money than they take in. known for Coming to the Stage (2003), Dance Fu (2011) and BET’s Comicview (1992).

The Greens and the Libertarians Comedian Arvin Mitchell has hit the comedy scene running since his debut on BET’s 501-370-5354.

Coming to the Stage in 2003. Arvin Mitchell also starredof in twoagreement gospel hit plays, A and havehasareas No tickets or RSVPs required.

House Divided (Fox Theater- STL, Norfolk, Peoria) and If They Only Knew (Wichita, Oklahoma City).they’re disagreement on policy, but He was the co-host of BET’s Club Comic View and host of Spring Bling 21 Questions. firmly in the same camp when it comes Season 10: Bless the Mic Opener to the belief that Arkansas and the nation need a change from the twoDr. Walter Kimbrough, August 21, 2014 party system.

Kimbrough has been recognized for his research and writings on HBCUs and African noof place onnamed thethe ballot American men in college. In October of “There’s 2004, at the age 37, he was 12th that president of Philander Smith College.says In 2012 he became 7th president Dillardanyone ‘who do Ithe hate more ofthan FRANK GILBERT: Running for governor as a Libertarian after breaking with the GOP. University in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In February of 2013 he was named“I to NBC News/ the else?’ ” Swaney said. believe The Griot.com’s 100 African Americans making history today, joining another impressive country is beginning to become group including Kerry Washington, Ambassador Susan Rice, Kendrick Lamar, Mellody Hobson, and RG III.ready who’s still saying that shit — it’s just I thought they were confused, but then for a multiparty system, which is the Guy,consistent.

September 16, 2014 mind-boggling.”

I realized Jasmine they were case in every other democratic society Performer, director, writer, and choreographer Jasmine Guy became a national Drake said that too many Arkansas It took Gilbert, raised a Free on the face of the earth except this sensation playing iconic southern belle “Whitely Gilbert” on The Cosby Show spinoff A Will Baptist, a while, but he now Democrats have “no backbone. The one.”

Different World, for which she won six consecutive NAACP Awards. Her other television rolesand includeadvocates the mini-series Queen with“We’ve Halle Berry,gotten The Vampire Anne Rice’s supports gay rights only way to really have progressive toDiaries, this point because Rapper Feast All Saints,policy.

The Boy Who Painted Christ Black with Wesleyinto Snipes,the NYPD for radical reforms toof drug politics whether you’re a Democrat or we’ve been locked two-party Blue, Melrose Place, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Parkers, Touched by an Angel, and Showtime’s system and they’ve owned politics in a Green is you gotta be willing to stand “If I was governor, I would start the Talib Kweli is a rapper from hit series Dead Like Me with Mandy Patinkin. On the big screen, Guy’s first film work was in Spike up to the other politicians and explain process immediately to pardon every this country more than a century,” Lee’s School Daze. She co-starred with Eddie Murphy in Harlem Nights for and also starred in several Brooklyn. His gain in popularity fils includingin Kalsh, Men, and Thesaid.

Heart Specialist with Zoe to people.” He added, “So many times nonviolentindependent drug offender theGuinevere, state,”Diamond LaFrance “It’s like a Saldana. monopoly. started when he rapped with Mos you’re voting for the lesser of two evils he said.

If you have one or two companies that All events in the BlessTheMic Prentice Powell, October 9, 2014 Def in a group called Black Star — so many people are so disillusioned Gilbert, who James joked thealumnus dominate Loganthat High School and spoken wordan artist.industry, Prentice is onethey of two become series begin atKweli 7 p.m. in the in the late 90’s. has been Republicans and Democrats because they don’t have anyone to and poets that appearedwere on two episodesinefficient, of Verses & Flowthey seasonbecome one, and wascorrupt, brought back Socialist for season two.Party Powell uses poetry speak on thing issues of starts race, social thetowhole tojustice rot and from the vote for.”

“Socialist Party A and the Harris rap gameAuditorium, for more than M.in L. fatherhood, often challenging stereotypes of black men. Powell was named the Best core.”

“The last time I voted for a B,” said he takes Poet strong positions 20 years, with songs like “Black by the East Bay Express in 2010, as well as 2007 Spoken Word Artist of the Year and open to the public.

Democrat for president, it made me against Common Core, wage Critics of minor parties often are free at theminimum Black Music Awards.

Girl Pain,” “Broken Glass,” and feel so bad I had to go home and take hikes, and the private option, whereas suggest that voting for them is a For “Brown moreSkin information please Lady.” He released Talib Kweli, November 6,“Those 2014 three showers in a row,” Swaney said.

Hutchinson triangulates. wasted vote, or argue that they act Talib Kweli is a rapper from Brooklyn. His gain in popularity started when he rapped with an album in early 2014 called things he can finesse, cancalled play “I said I will never, ever, ever again spoilers, drawing from call 501-370-5354.

Mos Defhe in a group Black Staras in the late 90s. Kweli has been in votes the rap game for one “Grativitas.” vote for a candidate I do not want to games with, he can answer and Glass”, helping the more than circuitously 20 years, with songs like candidate “Black Girl Pain”, “Broken and “Brown Skinother.

Lady”.

He released anthat album in earlyThe 2014 called Grativitas.issue is a subject of No tickets or RSVPs required get elected.” to avoid,” said Gilbert, who added spoiler much debate; the Greens and “when the Pooch Democrat suggests more tax Hall, January 22, 2015 THE LIBERTARIANS cuts than the Republican, got Libertarians argue that more often Actor Poochyou’ve Hall didn’t get started with “The Game”; he began in commercials and then madeHutchinson, his debut in the film Lift (2001). playedthey Derrick,are a shoplifter.

Pooch was voters Gilbert, who was once the vicesomething out of order.” thanHenot, attracting in several movies, including the hit film Black otherwise Cloud (2004) written and directed bygo Rickto the chairman of the state Republican he said, pays occasional lip service who wouldn’t Schroder. His latest acting role is playing Ty’ree Bailey in the new miniseries based on party back when Asa Hutchinson to Tea Party Republican voters, the book, Miracle’s Boysbut (2005). polls at all. Their bigger pitch, though, seems simply to be that was chairman, said that some time ultimately takes them for granted.

February 11,to 2015 the red-and-blue divide doesn’t in the late 1990s, “I finally realized “And MikeElaine doesBrown, the same thing the 900 Daisy Bates Drive Elaine Brown is an American prison activist, writer, singer, and former Black Panther that what the Republican Party was left wing of his party that Asa does capture all the shades of opinion, Party chairman; she is the only woman to have held that position. As a Panther, Brown Little Rock, AR 72202 doing had nothing to do with what I to the right wing ofalso his,” Gilbert said.on the City and voters should options to 900 Daisy Bates Drive ran twice for a position Council of Oakland.

Since thehave 1970s she has www.philander.edu Little Rock, AR 72202 been active in prison andfor education vote reform and juvenile justice.

LaFrance, an energy strategist wanted to do, and had very little do for candidates who actually www.philander.edu with individual liberty or personal Walmart running for office for the represent their views.

Amy Dubios Barnett, April 16, 2015 freedoms.” Gilbert, now the constable first time, said thatAmyhe hadBarnett become whatmedia hisexecutive, goal forwriter theandelection DuBois is an award-winningAsked print and online of DeKalb Township inGrant County, disillusioned with both parties. was, Swaney “I expect motivator.

She is the“They author of an empowering advice booksaid, for women, Get Yours!and How hope Haveof Everything You Ever Dreamed And votes.

More. HerIvision shaped the pages to Ofget canhaspromise I’ll get at eventually joined the Libertarian both have their ownTosets big donors of Harper’s Bazaar, Essence, Teen People, Honey magazine, and Ebony - the oldest Party. “They were socially liberal and and their own sets of things they least one vote, and that makes it worth and largest black magazine in the country where she was editor-in-chief until 2014. fiscally conservative,” he said. “At first want to waste our tax dollars on, but it to me.”

THURSDAY NOV 6, 2014

2014-2015 Talib Kweli Lecture Schedule

www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

15

ELECTION 2014 PRIMER

What you need to know on the candidates (no, Obama is not one, contrary to what you have heard) and the issues.

T

he finish line is finally in sight.

A bajillion dollars have been spent, football games and web surfing have been thoroughly ruined by excruciating and ubiquitous political ads, and we’ve endured more whoppers and flip-flops than we can count. It’s election season. You can almost smell all the bull.

We’ve seen new faces and familiar rascals. Scandals from donut-shop

blackmail to racist emails (oh, it was just “literary technique” or “country talk”). Fact-checkers pouncing, flaks spinning and national media swooping in to find the perfect Arkansas redneck for a salty quote.

We’ve heard the word “Obama” repeated so many times that Republicans are left speaking something not recognizable as English. It’s their catchall phrase, full of Tea Party sound and fury.

Many GOP candidates have decided it’s all they need. They might be right.

A few of you have been like us, absorbing and inhaling every new nugget of overhyped news. Most of you have been smarter than that, dodging the onslaught when possible.

Whether you’re a political junkie or just a citizen trying to figure out what’s what, we have your one-stop shop for Election 2014: the legislative races to watch, those ballot initiatives you keep promising yourself to study up on (they’re a big deal!), the misadventures of Leslie Rutledge, the best and worst of the sea-

son’s political ads, the impact of the unprecedented onslaught of money into Arkansas politics, and a rundown of all the demagoguery that would be shameful if only more politicians were capable of shame.

All the polling and predictions and punditry will soon be forgotten.

Big questions — from control of the U.S. Senate to whether Arkansas has turned into a state as red as Oklahoma — will be answered Tuesday, Nov. 4. Mark your calendars. It’s been an inglorious season, but here’s our hokey political pitch: Exercising your right to vote remains a glorious thing.

‘I approved this message’ The Arkansas Times’ awards for best and worst political ads of the 2014 election season.

BY DAVID KOON

E BEST OF THE BUNCH: Pat Hays serves up Blue Bell ice cream.

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

lection Day will soon be over.

We’re thankful for that, because — as much as we like politics around here — you can’t turn on an electronic device of any kind these days without having your eyes and eardrums roundhouse-kicked by a political ad, most of them featuring some stuffed shirt calling another stuffed shirt everything but a child of God. After you’ve

seen a couple thousand hours of those, they can wear pretty thin. Seriously, candidates: At this point in the race, do you really think talking about your mom wearing cardboard shoes growing up and claiming your opponent is personally spreading Ebola through South Arkansas like Johnny Pandemicseed is going to sway anybody to your side?

It may be a little late to tell you this,

Shaky Cam, and news footage of dudes in hazmat suits scrubbing down streets — which sought to connect the Ebola outbreak to Tom Cotton’s vote against funding pandemic response. “He was the only one to vote against Children’s Hospital!” the narrator goes on to say.

Which would lead any reasonable voter to wonder: Who is Tom Cotton, and why is he so intent on making blood shoot out of our tear ducts and giving us all superherpes? The best part of the ad, though, is at the end, when a comment about Cotton voting for tax cuts for billionaires is queued to footage of a 2006-ish Lincoln Town Car gliding up to a parked jet. Seriously, Pryor campaign: Do you really think the robber barons that Two-Gun Tommy owes his spurs to would let their silky pantaloons touch the seat of a non-Teutonic motorcar?

NO, THIS ISN’T THE WEDDING SCENE FROM ‘REVENGE’: Rather, it’s some lame-brain ad conjured up by the College Republican National Committee for the Arkansas governor’s race.

but we’ve watched all the political ads so you don’t have to. Here are our awards for the best and worst of the season: WORST EXTENDED METAPHOR The College Republican National Committee’s head-scratcher of a digital ad featuring a waaaay-overextended metaphor in which Mike Ross and Asa Hutchinson are somehow represented by two wedding dresses, and the voters are represented as a bunch of wooden young actresses watching another wooden young actress try on the dresses, and the Mike Ross voter is somebody’s clueless idiot mom, which of course makes the owner of the dress shop ... what? The invisible hand of the Free Market? Nancy Pelosi’s stunt double?

The Koch brothers in a pantsuit? Who knows? The only thing the ad is really proof of is what you already knew: Young Republicans are, in fact, the least funny people on any campus.

THE IVORY-BILLED WOODPECKER RARE BIRD AWARD FOR POSITIVE

POLITICAL ADVERTISING We actually have a winner this year!

It’s the spot by 2nd District Congressional candidate Patrick Henry Hays in which Hays, clad in Workin’ Man duds, drives a barge pushboat and a tractor trailer rig, hangs off the side of a moving Caterpillar road grader and serves Blue Bell ice cream at a soda fountain while talking about the jobs that came to North Little Rock on his mayoral watch.

No scary type fonts. No insinuations that his opponent is out to kill your children. Just a guy talking about the good things he did for his constituents while in office. Of course, shortly thereafter it was no more Mr. Nice Guy from Hays, as he went after Hill with ads stretching to connect him to disgraced former Treasurer Martha Shoffner, but it was nice while it lasted.

BIGGEST LIE Tom Cotton’s TV spot, showing picturesque scenes of the Cotton family farm, in which he stated: “When President Obama hijacked the Farm Bill and turned it into a food stamp bill, with

They said what?

The off-the-cuff quotes, rote talking points, zingers, tweets, insults, arguments, scripted lines, whoppers, claims and counter-claims we’ll remember (or try to forget) from a noisy election cycle.

billions more in spending, I voted no.”

In fact, the Farm Bill has been heavily linked to food assistance for struggling Americans since 1973, long before Obama even thought about becoming the president of Republican nightmares. Cotton was the only member of the Arkansas congressional delegation to vote against the Farm Bill in January 2014, but it wasn’t because Cotton was standing up to the bogeyman-in-chief.

It’s because Cotton and those who pull his strings would tell hungry poor folks to eat cake. With opponent Mark Pryor hammering him over the vote and desperate to distance himself from a move that could hurt him with the state’s farmers, Cotton spun himself a whopper.

Cotton’s claim that Obama had somehow hacked the Farm Bill, leaving him no choice but to vote against it, was so egregious that it wound up on Politifact. com’s list of the nine biggest lies of the 2014 election season.

MOST HORRIFIC Mark Pryor’s ad — featuring “piano in an insane asylum” music, plentiful

“What you see in this campaign, playing out on your TV screens and playing out in your mailboxes is a business transaction. … Congressman Cotton is a good investment for them, and that’s why they’ve spent more than $20 million on television trying to buy this Senate seat. But ladies and gentlemen, you

WEIRDEST NAME CHANGE Perhaps taking a page from Bryant Mayor Jill Dabbs’ efforts to have her name changed to “Republican” Jill Dabbs on the ballot, Republican congressional candidate Conrad “Connie” Reynolds changed his name to “Colonel Conrad Reynolds” (and yes, “Colonel” is apparently part of his legal name now) before the 2nd Congressional District primary last May. BONUS: Colonel Conrad Reynolds is —wait for it — a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, which means his full, honorary title is now apparently “Col. Colonel Conrad Reynolds.” Paging Dr. Strangelove. Roger, Roger. What’s your vector, Victor?

MOST DOWN-IN-THE-GUTTER, CHICKENSHIT, SLIMY, ETC., ETC. While there were plenty of candidates for this one (as always), this year’s prize goes to the anonymous mailer sent out in late September to residents of House District 35 against Democrat Clarke Tucker.

Featuring a fake return address, a picture of a woman being menaced and a font that would best be called “Serial Killer Taunts the Police Serif,” the flyer said, in part: “Why would Clarke Tucker defend a violent criminal for free who pled guilty to robbery and terroristic threatCONTINUED ON PAGE 18

know what: This seat is not for sale.”

— Sen. Mark Pryor “There are only three things for certain in life: death, taxes and the unpopularity of Obamacare in the South.”

— GOP strategist Bill Vickery www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

17

THEY SAID WHAT?, CONT. “It’s a pretty good scam isn’t it? Give me a sixyear job for a two-year protest. That’s Mark Pryor’s opponent’s message.”

— Bill Clinton, campaigning in Arkansas, on Tom Cotton’s allObama-all-the-time campaign.

“My opponent [John Burkhalter] is the preferred candidate of President Obama.”

— Tim Griffin, with a straight face, as part of his stump speech. Griffin is running for lieutenant governor, a state office of no importance.

“I am Obama’s last choice for Arkansas Attorney General.”

— Leslie Rutledge. We’re pretty sure the president has never heard of her.

“After the Sandy Hook incident, Mr. Ross’ knees buckled.”

— Asa Hutchinson, accusing opponent Mike Ross of being insufficiently pro-gun in the immediate aftermath of the slaughter of 20 elementary school children.

“It’s not an issue in my district. Folks there agree with my point of view on firearms and the personal use of firearms. I made it very clear that the timing certainly had a negative effect on some people. I meant exactly what I said. But sometimes tactfully it’s better to refrain from saying some things at certain times.”

— Rep. Nate Bell of Mena, currently running for re-election, on an infamous tweet that his opponent has made an issue of during the campaign.

Bell added that he had counted 13 major media figures who made “the same basic statement ... without any repercussions whatsoever.” The statement in question: During the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber in 2013, Bell tweeted: “I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine? #2A.” “Mike Ross is the biggest gun nut there is, right behind Asa Hutchinson.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 18

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

ening? While on probation, that Tucker arranged, this same man beat a woman with a bottle. ... Is Clarke Tucker soft on violent crime?” If you know where this is going, raise your hand. That’s right: Clarke Tucker, who is a lawyer, once served as the attorney for a man who shoplifted under $10 worth of stuff from Kmart — a man who, after avoiding being sentenced to death for shoplifting, was acquitted of a subsequent charge. Tucker’s opponent, Republican Stacy Hurst, initially disavowed the attacks, before sending out her own mailer that largely repeated the claims of the first. So, good job, Hurst campaign/anonymous jerks!

Not only are you helping make people more stupid with your head-injury-victim syntax, you’re wiping your rump with the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of an attorney for everyone accused of a crime.

WIGGLIEST EARWORM/BEST USE OF UNPAID INTERN LABOR The radio jingle for Lackey Moody Jr., candidate for State House District 63, written and performed by his 10-yearold daughter, Kate, with guitar accompaniment. It goes: “Lackey Moody, Lackey Moody, Lackey Moooooody!

Just vote for State House District 63! Lackey Mooooody! District 63!

Lackey Moody, Lackey Moody, Lackey Moooooody! A great representative for District 63! I love the man dearly! He is my daddy, too!”

THE MIKE HUCKABEE AWARD FOR BEST USE OF OUTHOUSE, DIRT FLOOR, TARPAPER SHACK OR “WE ET NUTTIN’ BUT POKE SALAT AND HARDTACK GROWIN’ UP …” QUALIFICATIONS FOR OFFICE Tom Cotton’s ad with his mom, Avis Cotton, in which he unpacks a bag of groceries in a kitchen before saying she grew up without indoor plumbing. Cotton uses the inevitable mental image of his mom hunkered in the Wind Box as a segue into: “Every vote I’ve cast and will cast on Social Security and Medicare protects and preserves benefits for seniors like mom.” In fact, Cotton has repeatedly supported cutting benefits and raising the eligibility age for Social Security, and has generally been a fan of any policy that would help slash the social safety net to tatters. It’s an ad whose script belongs in the john out back, next to the cobs.

BEST EVIDENCE THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER PUT YOUR PARENTS IN POLITICAL ADS Mike Ross’ ad featuring his mom and dad, which shows exactly where

BOTTOM OF THE BARREL: Uncle Sam as never before.

his wax-dummy stiffness before the cameras comes from.

RUNNER-UP: Tom Cotton’s ad in which he sits on the tailgate of a pickup truck, surrounded by lowing cattle, while his dad gripes at him like a hick version of Clint Eastwood in “Gran Torino.”

exchange rate is fairly rusty, “gobs and gobs and gobs” is a pretty big order, pal, not to mention the assurance that “he can do anything.” You know that “anything” includes a pony in every backyard, solid gold hula-hoops for everyone in the district, and a cure for cancer in your first term, right? Hope you can deliver.

THE WORST. JUST ... THE WORST The bizarre anti-Pryor web ad, paid for by “Generation Opportunity” (the most youthful of the numerous Astroturf groups backed by the Koch brothers), featuring a satanic-looking Uncle Sam with an enormous paper mache head throwing stacks of money slo-mo in a hospital room to a circa-1988 hip- hop beat before a card comes up that says: “Tell Mark Pryor: Stop supporting Obamacare.” It was all part of one of the weirdest political ad campaigns in history, which also featured the creepy Uncle Sam (and we are not making this up) sneaking into a doctor’s office and snapping on a glove to give a young man a prostate exam, and silently preparing to assault a terrified young woman with a speculum during her visit to the gynecologist. Both ads then encouraged young people to “opt out of Obamacare.”

Nothing like a few terrifying-clown rape threats to get young folks rushing away from affordable health care, we guess.

BEST “I’M JUST LIKE YOU POOR SAPS!” The weird jalopy-off that some Republican candidates got into to prove their alleged penny-pinching, broke-folks bona fides to the for-real broke folks they wanted to vote for them. Included were ads by congressional candidate French Hill (a millionaire banker married to a lawyer) featuring “Old Blue,” a 1998 Volvo wagon, and an ad by gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson (a lawyer, former three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives and former Drug Enforcement Agency director) in which he bragged that his truck had over 130,000 miles on it, while his wife’s Chrysler had over 145,000. PREDICTION: By the next election cycle, we’ll be seeing ads featuring a Republican gazillionaire swearing up and down his sole transpo to the gettin’ place is a bicycle with no seat and with two flats. Built it himself. Didn’t need no help from the gubmint!

BEST USE OF ‘GOBS’ The truly epic radio jingle fielded

by State Senate District 19 candidate James McLean, which features multiple singers belting out: “James McLean!

James McLean! For Arkansas state Senate! James McLean! James McLean!

He’s the man we need to win it! Can you save us from the brink? Quicker than a wink! Can you bring this county cash? Faster than a flash! Can you bring us new jobs? Gobs and gobs and gobs! Can you make our future sing?

James McLean can do anything! James McLean, James McLean! For Arkansas state Senate! James McLean, James McLean! He’s the man we need to win it! James McLean! James McLean!

James McLeaaaaaaaaaaaaan!” While our recollection of the gobs-to-reality

WORST (LITERAL) MONKEY BUSINESS The anti-Mark Pryor mailer, paid for by the Koch brothers’ group Americans for Prosperity, which features a smiling monkey, a background of ripe bananas and a screaming headline that says the government spent $71,000 to study how monkeys react to the influence of cocaine. Monkeys on blow?! Those wastrels! Never mind that the mailer is referencing a four-year-old study, paid for by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, that helped scientists at Wake Forest University learn more about combating crippling drug addiction. Then again, who needs useless bullshit like that when we could be spending that $71,000 to buy a handful of Unobtainium wing-nuts for the Joint Strike Fighter?

Who will run the House?

The races that will determine control of the Arkansas House of Representatives.

BY DAVID RAMSEY

A

s countless election recaps recounted in 2012, Republicans took control of the Arkansas General Assembly for the first time since Reconstruction. But before we count the Natural State dead red, keep in mind that in the state House of Representatives, Republicans have the narrowest of majorities (51-49, including one Green who caucuses with the Dems), and they only got there by winning District 52 in Northeast Arkansas in 2012 by 45 votes.

With a favorable map this time around, Democrats have a path to retake control.

While the big boys at the top of the ballot soak up all the media oxygen, the House could be the most consequential political story in terms of bread-and-butter issues in Arkansas. It’s likely to be very, very, very close. Here are some races to watch.

DISTRICT 18 (ARKADELPHIA AREA) DEMOCRAT: DAMON DANIELS REPUBLICAN: REP. RICHARD WOMACK This one is a test case for the private option in a general election. Hardcore Tea Partier Rep. Richard Womack of Arkadelphia reportedly said at one candidate forum that he had devoted his life to ending the private option. That might be an awkward fit for this district, given the influence of Baptist Health Medical Center in Arkadelphia. Democrat Damon Daniels of Alpine, the owner of a dispatch trucking company, has been a steadfast supporter of the policy. Womack won with a small margin last time and this is seen as a strong pickup opportunity for the Dems.

DISTRICT 26 (MALVERN AND SURROUNDING AREA) DEMOCRAT: REP. DAVID KIZZIA REPUBLICAN: LAURIE RUSHING Rep. David Kizzia of Malvern distinguished himself in his freshman year as one of the most competent and thoughtful

legislators on the Democratic side, and no one in the House is more passionate or knowledgeable about pre-K and early childhood education. Kizzia took this seat by 10 percentage points in 2012, but he had the advantage of running against an opponent, Loy Mauch, who was disturbingly fond of slavery. No such luck this time — Republican Laurie Rushing, a Tea Partyapproved Hot Springs realtor, is considered a strong candidate.

DISTRICT 31 (FERNDALE AREA) DEMOCRAT: CLEA HUPP REPUBLICAN: REP. ANDY DAVIS Incumbent Rep. Andy Davis of Little Rock is a pro-private-option establishment Republican best known for attempts to dismantle environmental protections, including a law he passed that backfired catastrophically when the federal Environmental Protection Agency responded with plans to intervene to make sure Arkansas didn’t violate the Clean Water Act; the law was repealed in a special session. Davis, an engineer, has been a consistent champion for industries he works for; Davis’ own company, New Water Systems, has been cited 21 times in three years by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality for releasing contaminated water. He’s being challenged by University of Arkansas at Little Rock professor Dr. Clea Hupp, who is focusing on education and raising the minimum wage. Davis is expected to cruise to victory, but Democrats are playing hard here.

DISTRICT 32 (WEST LITTLE ROCK) DEMOCRAT: JOHN ADAMS REPUBLICAN: JIM SORVILLO Democrats have had their eyes on this seat (in a district with a population diversifying faster than you might think) for a while. Republican Rep. Allen Kerr, an establishment Republican who flipped

his vote to a nay on the private option during the fiscal session, is term limited.

Former Justice of the Peace Jim Sorvillo, a GOP Tea Partier, is vying for the seat against Democrat John Adams, a banker and former assistant attorney general, who lost the Democratic primary for 2nd District Congress in 2010. Adams has been active in good-government efforts, including Regnat Populus. This probably still remains favorable territory for Republicans. Another race where the private option looms large.

DISTRICT 35 (LITTLE ROCK HEIGHTS AND PARTS OF WEST LITTLE ROCK) DEMOCRAT: CLARKE TUCKER REPUBLICAN: STACY HURST The most expensive House race in the history of the state pits Little Rock City Director Stacy Hurst, a self-described “very moderate Republican,” against Democrat Clarke Tucker, a political newcomer with a familiar name in town (his father is developer Rett Tucker).

Hurst reportedly originally planned to run as a Democrat before billionaire backer Warren Stephens told her she had to go GOP. With little separating the two candidates on the issues, the race has gotten personal and nasty. This district, where Obama won twice, has been a blue island in a red state. Can Hurst flip it?

DISTRICT 38 (NORTHERN PULASKI COUNTY) DEMOCRAT: REP. PATTI JULIAN REPUBLICAN: DONNIE COPELAND Rep. Patti Julian of North Little Rock wasn’t afraid to stand with her party and take tough votes in her first term, which has Republicans viewing her as a target. Julian, a retired North Little Rock lawyer, is being challenged by Donnie Copeland of Sherwood, a Pentecostal pastor whose previous forays into politics include a failed bid in the 2012 GOP primary for lieutenant governor against pizza man Mark Darr. Copeland is an extreme right-winger being backed

by Tea Party gadfly Curtis Coleman.

Outside groups like Conduit for Action, affiliated with Fayetteville millionaire Joe Maynard, a diehard opponent of the private option, have

targeted this race.

DISTRICT 41 (NORTHERN PULASKI COUNTY) DEMOCRAT: DANNY KNIGHT REPUBLICAN: KARILYN BROWN This is a seat being vacated by termlimited Rep. Jim Nickels, a strong progressive who won a squeaker in 2012 to hang on to a reddening district. Democrat Danny Knight of Sherwood, a former school superintendent, faces off against Republican Justice of the Peace Karilyn Brown, also of Sherwood. Having Pat Hays, the popular former mayor of North Little Rock, on the congressional ballot could help Democrats hang tough north of the river, but Brown, another Tea Party favorite, has reportedly been running ahead thus far.

DISTRICT 52 (NORTHEAST ARKANSAS) DEMOCRAT: RADIUS BAKER REPUBLICAN: DWIGHT TOSH This was the Florida of the 2012 Arkansas House race, with Republican John Hutchison eking out a tiny 45-vote victory, 45 votes that gave GOPs control of the House for the first time since Reconstruction. It could be the differencemaking race that will keep us up watching late again this year. Hutchison, the least qualified person in all of state government, went down in the primary to extreme right-winger Dwight Tosh, a retired State Police officer. Radius Baker, a former school superintendent with a strong base in the Valley View School District, is taking on Tosh, with control of the House potentially in the balance.

DISTRICT 53 (CRAIGHEAD COUNTY) DEMOCRAT: REP. HOMER LENDERMAN REPUBLICAN: DAN SULLIVAN This is a big target for the GOP with turf getting friendlier and friendlier to Republicans, as witnessed by Republican Sen. John Cooper’s big win in a special election to take Democrat Paul Bookout’s old seat. Rep. Homer Lenderman CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

19

THEY SAID WHAT?, CONT. — Green Party gubernatorial candidate Joshua Drake.

“These smartphones that children have these days are the devil.”

— Attorney general candidate Leslie Rutledge, during a debate, on battling crimes in cyberspace.

“I’m a Christian, pro-life, guncarrying conservative.”

— Rutledge, explaining the totality of her qualifications for attorney general.

“Obama.”

— U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, 74 times during his first debate with Sen. Mark Pryor and 80 times during the second debate.

“Congressman Hutchinson here, I can’t figure out if he sounds more like a slick lawyer or a slick D.C. politician — he’s been both. … He was against the ballot initiative to raise the state minimum wage before he was for it. You know, you’ve gotta make decisions, Asa, not based on what public polling tells you. But you gotta make decisions from the heart.”

— Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross, on GOP opponent Asa Hutchinson’s flipflop on the minimum wage.

“It’s Asa says, Asa does. He says one thing in Arkansas, he does another in Washington D.C. Let me tell you something, back home in Prescott, Arkansas, at the deer camp, we do what we say and we say what we do.”

— Ross, on Hutchinson’s pre-K flip-flops “Economics is incredibly simple.”

— State Rep. Richard Womack, running for re-election in Arkadelphia, explaining that all Arkansas has to do in order to enjoy prosperity is cut state income taxes. Womack, who’s in the paint and construction business, noted that his theory comes from a three-day seminar with Art Laffer, the godfather of voodoo economics. Laffer served as intellectual inspiration, consultant and cheerleader for the tax-cutting experiment in Kansas, called a “redstate model,” which was supposed to be something that could be applied in other states. The Laffer plan led to disastrous fiscal ruin in Kansas. Laffer predicted that the tax cuts would lead to booming growth in Kansas.

He was horribly, catastrophically CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 20

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

(D-Paragould), a retired teacher serving his second term, ran unopposed in 2012, but could be vulnerable this year. This time he’s facing off against Dan Sullivan, CEO of Ascent Children’s Health Services, which provides mental health services for children. The company, for which Sullivan has worked as a lobbyist at the Capitol, is heavily dependent on state Medicaid dollars. Sullivan, who lost to Cooper in a fiercely contested primary in the special election for Bookout’s seat, has taken an Asa Hutchinson-style evasive approach to the private option. Polling has tightened in a race that has divided church pews — both Lenderman and Sullivan are elders in the Church of Christ, a powerful voting bloc in the district.

DISTRICT 58 (JONESBORO AREA) DEMOCRAT: REP. HAROLD COPENHAVER REPUBLICAN: BRANDT SMITH Another seat Republicans are targeting aggressively because the Jonesboro area has gone dead red over the last few years, but Rep. Harold Copenhaver, a Jonesboro insurance salesman whose business caters to churches, is extremely popular in the district. Republican Brandt Smith, a former pastor and missionary who spent time working for a nongovernmental organization in Iraq during the war, is the challenger. GOPs are playing hard, but Copenhaver is considered the favorite to hold on to the seat he won in 2012 challenging slavery apologist Rep. Jon Hubbard.

DISTRICT 59 (CRAIGHEAD COUNTY) DEMOCRAT: RON CARROLL REPUBLICAN: JACK LADYMAN Yet another tight battle in Northeast Arkansas. Term-limited Rep. Butch Wilkins, a conservative Democrat, narrowly survived a challenge from John Cooper (now the state senator) in 2012.

Democrats have a strong candidate to fill the open seat in Ron Carroll, the head athletic trainer at Arkansas State University, though he’s not a natural-born campaigner.

His opponent, Jack Ladyman, formerly an engineer at the failed Nordex plant in Jonesboro, leans establishment Republican; he opposes the private option but doesn’t sound like he’s vying for a spot in the “Hell

No” caucus. Ladyman has some baggage — improper tax exemptions, whispers about fiscal mismanagement during his tenure as mayor of Elkins, and past domestic violence incidents. Still, this one’s a tossup.

DISTRICT 63 (INDEPENDENCE COUNTY) DEMOCRAT: LACKEY MOODY REPUBLICAN: JAMES STURCH Term-limited Rep. James McLean (D-Batesville) is in a dogfight for a Senate seat. Can Democrats hang on to the Batesville area? It won’t be easy.

Democratic Justice of the Peace Lackey Moody, a realtor, faces off against Republican James Sturch, a UALR student pursuing a master’s degree in public administration. This is a tossup race that could make the difference for control of the House. Moody’s daughter wrote a very cute radio jingle that could swing the race.

DISTRICT 70 (CONWAY AREA) DEMOCRAT: FRANK SHAW REPUBLICAN: REP. DAVID MEEKS Taking down the incumbent, Rep. David Meeks, of Conway, would be a shocking upset, though we keep hearing it could be closer than a lot of folks expect. Meeks, a former propane truck driver who teaches Sunday school, is the mouthpiece for the hyperactive Faulkner County Tea Party. Democrat Frank Shaw is a Conway lawyer previously rumored to be considering a run against state Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway).

DISTRICT 84 (FAYETTEVILLE AREA) DEMOCRAT: CANDY CLARK REPUBLICAN: REP. CHARLIE COLLINS He’s the favorite to hang on, but even some Republican insiders believe Fayetteville Rep. Charlie Collins is vulnerable. The two-term-incumbent Collins, a bulldog legislator known for a narrow obsession with tax cuts and “Charnalogies” (frequent metaphors that infrequently make sense), won a squeaker

last time and faces a strong challenger in Democratic Justice of the Peace Candy Clark, who has been on the Quorum Court for five years and is a former member of the Fayetteville Planning Commission. Collins originally planned to ditch the district for a run for lieutenant governor but backed out when Tim Griffin entered that race.

DISTRICT 93 (BENTONVILLE) DEMOCRAT: LEAH WILLIAMS REPUBLICAN: REP. JIM DOTSON This is a long shot but Democrats are trying to expand the map into Benton County. Incumbent Rep. Jim Dotson of Bentonville is one of the most right-wing and least active (he passed just one bill) legislators in the state. The Democratic challenger, Leah Williams, is a strong candidate: a member of the Bentonville City Council, a former Walmart employee and wife of a Walmart employee. She has gotten the endorsement of former Republican U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt and is emphasizing education and economic development. The dynamics in the race are interesting. Walmart money backed an unsuccessful primary challenge against Dotson, and get this: It’s flowing money toward Democrat Williams in the general election, too. Big business Republicans aren’t always happy with purist ideologues like Dotson.

DISTRICT 94 (ROGERS) DEMOCRAT: GRIMSLEY GRAHAM REPUBLICAN: REBECCA PETTY If the Democrats pull off a miracle and win a seat in Benton County, this is the most promising target. That’s hard to believe, given that Rogers sent right-wing extremist Debbie Hobbs (term-limited) to the House for six years. Grimsley Graham, a Marine Corps vet and longtime English teacher at Rogers High School, could be the one to turn the tides — we’ve been hearing universal raves about Graham from the Rogers area. If there’s a spot where candidate quality could overcome the “R” by a candidate’s name, this could be it. Still a tough slog in Benton County.

Graham is taking on Rebecca Petty, an advocate for families of victims of child predators, who won a closely fought GOP primary by out-Tea-Partying her opponent.

What about the ballot issues?

To give the legislature more power, the people less, a wetter Arkansas, longer term limits and a bump in the minimum wage.

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his year’s General Election ballot includes four proposed amendments to the Arkansas Constitution and one amendment to the Arkansas Code. A court challenge has been filed to the latter, which would increase the minimum wage. The state Supreme Court had not ruled by press time. That means the issue will be on the ballot but it’s possible the court will disqualify it.

Three of the ballot issues were referred by the General Assembly, which is limited to three. The others were referred by petitions from voters. Below, the ballot issues and their popular titles.

BALLOT ISSUE NO. 1: Empowering the General Assembly to provide for legislative committee review and approval of state agencies’ administrative rules.

This legislatively referred ballot issue is a power grab by the General Assembly to give lawmakers say over agency rules and regulations, a function now performed, as it should be, by the executive branch. The legislature has the power to appropriate funds to agencies and requires agencies to report its rules to the General Assembly’s Legislative Council. So, say the Game and Fish Commission decides a bag limit of six deer, but there’s a legislator who wants that limit set at nine.

Sorry, G&FC! Then there are Medicaid coverage policies … . A yes vote on Ballot Issue No. 1 would force lawmakers, given how many administrative rules there are to be examined, to keep the legislature in session forever. A no vote is appropriate. If approved, the amendment would go into effect 30 days after the election.

(The legislature — those in Republican Sen. Jason Rapert’s camp, anyway — would also like final say over the judicial branch as well, thus creating a one-branch government, but that’s for the next election.)

BALLOT ISSUE NO. 2: An amendment allowing more time to gather signatures on a state-wide initiative or referendum petition only if the petition as originally filed contained at least 75 percent of the valid signatures required.

This amendment, sponsored by Sen. Bill Sample (R-Hot Springs), would make it harder for people to propose changes to state law. Under current Arkansas law, the secretary of state allows groups whose petitions meet the required number of signatures (78,133 for constitutional amendments, 62,507 for initiated measures, from at least 15 counties) but whose valid signatures fall short 30 days to collect more signatures. This amendment would require the secretary of state to verify that 75 percent of the submitted signatures are valid before granting groups more time to get names.

Had this amendment been in place in this year’s and previous elections, for example, the 2012 medical marijuana issue and this year’s minimum wage and alcohol issues would not have qualified for the ballot. Supporters say the amendment will keep groups from buying time with nonvalid signatures. Opposition to the amendment has made unlikely bedfellows of the Arkansas ACLU, the Family Council, the AFL-CIO and Republican Rep. Bob Ballinger (who was quoted as saying, “This is one area where people can touch government and can affect government and the only

reason for this is to make it harder for them to do that.”).

BALLOT ISSUE NO. 3: The Arkansas elected officials ethics, transparency, and financial report amendment of 2014.

This amendment, referred by the legislature, has pro-term limits folks up in arms — or at least up to rolling around a big wooden Trojan Horse in protest — because it would extend term limits (now six years in the House and eight in the Senate) to 16 years, regardless of chamber. Its main proposals would prohibit lobbyist gifts to elected officials (already codified, but not in the state Constitution), create an independent commission that would determine legislative salaries and per diem reimbursement (so lawmakers don’t have to take the heat for voting to increase their pay), and would require a two-year wait for lawmakers whose terms have expired to register as lobbyists. If approved, the amendment would go into effect 30 days after the election.

BALLOT ISSUE NO. 4 The Arkansas alcoholic beverage amendment A vote for Ballot Issue No. 4, proposed by petition of the people, would mean you could buy beer, wine or liquor in Jasper or Searcy or Hamburg — any place at all, in fact, in Arkansas (provided you could find a liquor store) — by ending local “wet” or “dry” elections.

Opponents, including county line liquor stores, tried to knock the issue off the ballot, arguing that the state allowed the petitions to be filed past deadline, but the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Oct. 16 against them. Arkansas is a hooch checkerboard: There are 37 “dry” counties in Arkansas and 38 “wet,” but some towns in wet counties are dry and some businesses in dry counties are wet, having gotten “private club” licenses to sell drinks. Supporters, including convenience and grocery stores, say statewide sales of alcohol would be good for the economy and could reduce the risk of drunk-driving accidents by folks driving a distance to pick up legal booze.

The state Alcohol and Beverage Control Board will continue to regulate the sale of alcohol.

There are county alcohol sales votes in Columbia and Saline counties on Election Day (though the Saline County measure may be removed by the Arkansas Supreme Court, which had not ruled by press time), but if Ballot Issue No. 4 is approved, it would supersede the outcomes of those votes.

The amendment would go into effect July 1, 2015.

BALLOT ISSUE NO. 5 An act to increase the Arkansas Minimum Wage A vote for Ballot Issue No. 5 (by petition of the people) would raise the state minimum wage of $6.25 to $7.50 an hour on Jan. 1, 2015; to $8 an hour on Jan. 1, 2016, and to $8.50 on Jan. 1, 2017.

That means a 25-cent bump up from the federal rate of $7.25 in January, which would put Arkansas in league with the 23 states and the District of Columbia whose minimum wage is higher than the federal government’s. Seven states, including Arkansas, currently either have rates below the federal minimum or no laws, meaning the federal rate applies. A bill in Congress that would have raised the federal rate to $10.10 over 30 months failed this year.

The measure is supported by Give Arkansas a Raise Now coalition, the Arkansas Interfaith Alliance, the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the Hunger Relief Alliance, most candidates for higher office and 79 percent of Arkansans, according to a Talk BusinessHendrix College poll. It was opposed by multimillionaire Club for Growth head Jackson T. Stephens Jr. (who is unfamiliar with trying to live on $7.25 an hour). He believes paying living wages will bring businesses to their knees or result in big layoffs. That has been the argument against since the idea of a minimum wage, at one time meant to be a living wage, was first proposed.

Stephens unsuccessfully petitioned the Supreme Court to take the minimum wage off the ballot, saying petitions were submitted past deadline (Monday, July 7, since the official deadline fell on the Fourth of July holiday this year). He also challenged the sufficiency of the signatures. The court denied Stephens’ challenge on Monday. www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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The demagogues must be crazy As Election Day gets closer, the demagoguery is going into high gear. A few lowlights from those seeking votes by playing to the worst in us.

BY DAVID RAMSEY

only criminal case he ever handled in his legal career, a pro-bono case he took as a favor to his mother. The case involved a man accused of shoplifting a $9.99 piece of merchandise at Kmart, a guy the Hurst team sought to turn into Willie Horton.

Rep. David Meeks went the same route against his Democratic opponent, Conway lawyer Frank Shaw. Because Shaw asked for probation for a client, Meeks’ mailer said he was “soft on crime.” The notion that a lawyer is soft on crime for providing legal counsel to the accused,

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hen it comes to rank demagoguery and fearmongering, this one is hard to top: U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton told a tele-townhall that ISIS was going to join forces with Mexican drug cartels, “infiltrate our defenseless border,” and attack Arkansas. Terrorism! Illegal immigration! Obama! The claim, which Cotton’s camp later said was based on blog posts from various right-wing websites, is completely without merit (and leads one to wonder if ISIS could even find the landlocked, sparsely populated state of Arkansas on a map). When called on it, Cotton’s rapid response team didn’t even bother trying to defend the original claim — they had already done their work in sewing panic for political profit. Cotton talks a lot about being a statesman, and has written about the special role of the elite representatives in a republic providing calm and sober leadership without being inflamed by the passions of the populace. He talks a lot about being senatorial. He can do better than this.

The ghosts of Orval Faubus: In a perfect marriage of the modern Republican Party’s fetish for eff-you federalism and Obamacaranoia, 18 Republican legislative candidates said in response to a survey from the Campaign for Liberty that they would “support legislation to nullify ObamaCare and authorize state and local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement the health care scheme, known as ObamaCare.” Again, that’s arresting federal officials for enacting federal law in Arkansas. Among those who said yes: three sitting GOP legislators — Sen. Missy Irvin of Mountain View and Reps. Richard Womack of Arkadelphia and John Payton of Wilburn (Irvin later said she didn’t remember filling out the survey and that the notion of arresting federal officials for implementing Obamacare was “ridiculous”). A number of Republican lawmakers and candidates declined to respond to that question.

None said no.

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FIRE, BRIMSTONE: State Sen. Rapert called for end of parole.

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the tragic murder of real estate agent Beverly Carter was to call for parole to be abolished entirely. When Pearson pointed out that Rapert’s proposal “would likely bankrupt our state,” Rapert responded only as demagogues can: “I’d like you to ask Mrs. Carter’s family today if she wished that that man who should have been in prison was there when he killed her.”

No one has a better instinct for appealing to people’s ugliest instincts than Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway), the cameraloving lawmaker being challenged by a surprisingly frisky young upstart, Tyler Pearson. Rapert’s immediate response to

Oppo research this cycle has shown an ugly disdain for due process. Witness Republican House candidate Stacy Hurst campaign’s attempt to slime her Democratic opponent, Clarke Tucker, for the

***

something guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, is frankly un-American. The same reprehensible smear was used by dark money groups against Tim Cullen in his unsuccessful bid for the Arkansas Supreme Court. Gubernatorial candidate Mike Ross even mixed in some McCarthyism, attacking Asa Hutchinson for having represented a Pentagon employee convicted of espionage. “You know, attorneys can pick their clients,” said Ross, who said he didn’t know any other lawyers “who would represent a spy for communist China.” Shameful stuff.

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Finally, if there’s going to be populist rabble-rousing, you know old friend Mike Huckabee (not running for anything at the moment, but eyeing the 2016 Iowa presidential caucus) will be in the mix. Perhaps imagining himself as Faubus staring down National Guardsmen handing out marriage certificates, Huckabee said that states should simply ignore court rulings invalidating same-sex marriage bans, which he dismissed as merely “the court’s opinion.” Said Huck, “It is NOT the ‘law of the land’ as is often heralded.” When other GOP leaders began slowly bowing to the inevitable, Huckabee said that if Republicans didn’t go back to full-throated discrimination against gay people, he’d leave the party. “If the Republicans want to lose guys like me and a bunch of still God-fearing, Bible-believing people, then go ahead and abdicate on this issue,” Huckabee said.

THEY SAID WHAT?, CONT. wrong. Incredibly simple, see?

“Rumors … in social circles and cocktail party conversations.”

— Stacy Hurst, Republican candidate for state representative, explaining why she initiated an investigation into the pre-K placement of Democratic opponent Clarke Tucker’s 4-year-old child.

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“Congressman Cotton wants to build the economy from the billionaires down. I want to build it from the middle class out.”

— Mark Pryor, employing a zinger he used in both debates.

“When I think of middle class I think of most of Arkansas, up to $150,000 or $200,000.”

— Pryor, asked to define the middle class, during his second debate with Cotton. Pressed for more specifics, Pryor again said “up to $200,000.” He was referring to federal tax brackets and he meant a ceiling, not a median, but it was still a bone-headed thing to say, his only real unforced error in the debates.

Only a tiny fraction of Americans

make $200,000. Cotton pounced: “Sen. Pryor must be the one who’s hanging around with out-of-state billionaires if he thinks $200,000 in Arkansas is the middle class.”

“You may not believe it but I’m actually trying to help you. … Here’s the bottom line, you’re finding a new CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

THEY SAID WHAT?, CONT. career, you’re not gonna run for state treasurer.

OK? Unless you want to see this on the 7 o’clock news.”

— Republican candidate for Treasurer Dennis Milligan, in an unsuccessful attempt to blackmail GOP primary opponent Rep. Duncan Baird out of the race with what turned out to be an innocuous video. Milligan was widely rumored to be wearing sunglasses during the encounter, which took place at a Krispy Kreme donut shop at Milligan’s request (Baird declined to comment on what Milligan was wearing). Despite the revelation of Milligan’s extortion attempt, Republican voters chose him as their preferred candidate.

BRIAN CHILSON

“If you want to vote for a boy who voted for Barack Obama … and thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, vote for Tyler Pearson.”

— Sen. Jason Rapert on his 28-year-old opponent. Later, when Pearson had the mic, Rapert audibly added, “Act like a man.”

RUTLEDGE: Not qualified.

Leslie Rutledge is not fit to be attorney general Seven reasons why.

BY LINDSEY MILLAR

1. She has a sketchy job record with little relevant experience.

Since graduating from law school in 2001, she’s had at least nine jobs, lasting two years or more at only two.

Apart from 14 months as a deputy prosecutor in Lonoke County, a few months in private practice in Jacksonville and her establishment of a personal law firm in Little Rock when she returned from Washington after the 2012 election, her jobs have almost entirely been in service of partisan pol-

itics (for national Republican groups and Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign) or government positions she landed through nepotism (as law clerk for family friend Jo Hart, when Hart was on the Court of Appeals, and as deputy counsel for the Huckabee administration, in which her father served as drug czar). Although Huckabee has endorsed her for attorney general, she only lasted 10 months working for him as governor and left for a lower-paying job. A former staffer

has told the Times controversy surrounded her departure.

2. One of the largest state agencies, which she would represent as attorney general, wouldn’t rehire her. Following her resignation, after 14 months, as staff counsel for the Division of Children and Family Services for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, agency officials put her on a “do not rehire” list because of “gross misconduct.” DHS files contain accounts of Rutledge mishandling cases. An examination of her personnel file is limited by state law, but Rutledge could allow records to be released. She’s refused.

3. She doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with forwarding a racist email. Perhaps a hint at what “gross misconduct” might mean: While working at DHS, she forwarded an email written in grotesquely offensive dialect.

A sample passage: “baby’s momma done turn into a ho and a stripper an she be raisin’ fusses and kickin’ and bitin’ and whoopin dis man ...” After releasing a statement saying she’d merely for-

“I’m warm, dammit.”

— Tom Cotton to Politico, on complaints that he was too cold or robotic on the campaign trail.

“He’s a human. …He’s not a robot.”

— State Sen. Michael Lamoureux on longtime friend Tom Cotton.

“He does have a great deal of empathy. It’s just it’s hard to see it.”

— Another old friend of Tom Cotton’s.

“He’s had kind of a bad press for being unapproachable and rigid. I don’t see that. Maybe he’s a little on a different intellectual level. But I don’t see he’s unapproachable.”

— An unidentified Cotton campaign staffer to a reporter from the Guardian at a church bazaar in Hattieville.

“You all know me.”

— Mark Pryor, repeatedly during the debates.

“The worst of dirty politics. … These ridiculous, manipulative attacks are an attempt by a secret group, with secret donors and a secret agenda, to manipulate Arkansas’s Attorney General election.”

— Leslie Rutledge, on the influence CONTINUED ON PAGE 24 www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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warded the email “without comment,” she told a TV reporter that whether one sees racist overtones in the email is determined by “the heart of the reader.”

She also said several “black individuals” told her the email sounded like “country talk.” That she could make such a statement alone should discredit her for public office.

4. She supported Arkansas’s unconstitutional voter ID law, committed voter fraud herself and was tossed from voter rolls for being simultaneously registered to vote in three states. Before the Arkansas Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional, Rutledge pledged to defend Arkansas’s voter ID law. In the May primary, the law disenfranchised more than 1,000 Arkansas absentee voters whose ballots would have been counted if not for the unnecessary and politically contrived law.

One vote that shouldn’t have been counted? Rutledge’s in 2008. After moving to work for the Huckabee presidential campaign, she registered to vote July 3, 2008, as a permanent resident of Washington, D.C. Then on Sept. 15,

2008, she requested an Arkansas ballot to vote absentee in the 2008 general election. She had to affirmatively swear on the absentee ballot application: “I reside within the county in which I am registered to vote.”

Her explanation? She said she voted where she knew she was registered.

Rutledge’s voter history came under scrutiny after Pulaski County Clerk Larry Crane canceled Rutledge’s voter registration after learning she was simultaneously registered to vote in Pulaski County, Washington, D.C., and Alexandria, Va. 5. When she screws up, it’s always someone else’s fault. She has suggested her poor review at DHS was politically motivated, even though in 2007, when she held the job, she was politically unknown. She refused to apologize for forwarding a racist email, calling reporting on it a “desperate attempt by leftist bloggers to misattribute someone else’s words to me.” After Crane followed the law and canceled her voter registration — which simply meant that she had to reregister — she said he had “displayed a

total lack of integrity by using desperate Chicago-style, partisan politics to disenfranchise me … in an attempt to illegally secure the election for the Democratic Party.” She also scurrilously said Crane had violated state and election law.

6. All she wants to do is fight the feds. Like many in her party, she has tried to distill her campaign message to one word — “Obama.” Also like many in her party, she’s running for an office that has little to do with the federal government. We’d be tempted to write this off as cynical campaigning, a lesser sin than forgetting the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution (hint: it’s what keeps the United States united). But Rutledge gives every sign that, if elected, she’ll focus on fighting every federal law and regulation she objects to.

7. She coordinated with a dark money group. When a 501(c)(4) “stealth” PAC went after her during the Republican primary, she called the ads “manipulative” and “the worst of dirty politics.” She also said anyone

who didn’t denounce the ads was “dishonest.” So when the Center for Individual Freedom — a secretive 501(c) (4) nonprofit with a history of spending money to protect rich people’s ability to contribute unlimited amounts in secret to political campaigns — pumped $1.8 million into attacking her opponent, Democrat Nate Steel, she denounced the group, right? Nope.

She even went a step farther with the Republican Attorney Generals Association, a tax-exempt 527 Super PAC whose mission is to support Republican candidates financially and with message support. Federal law bars 527s from coordinating advertising with candidates, but Rutledge appeared in one of the group’s ads. She maintains state law allows it. Though the ad didn’t include any “express advocacy” words (such as “vote for” Rutledge), the value of it to Rutledge should surely be required to be reported as a campaign contribution and the laws on contribution limits and disclosure of donors should apply. The Arkansas Ethics Commission is currently investigating the matter, though it won’t rule before the election.

THEY SAID WHAT?, CONT. of outside groups using dark money in the Republican primary to attack her. Her opponent, she said, was “dishonest” not to disavow the attacks.

That was last summer. This fall, when a shadowy conservative group swooped in with $1.8 million in dark money to make misleading attacks on her Democratic opponent, Nate Steel? Not a peep from Rutledge.

“If a family is truly in poverty, the minimum wage is not any answer.”

— Millionaire banker and ninth-generation Arkansans J. French Hill, running for U.S. Congress in the 2nd District.

“Actually, birth control is not an abortion issue. That’s a contraceptive issue. Totally different issue.”

— State Sen. Jason Rapert, asked at a Vilonia Area Chamber forum whether given his opposition to abortion, he would do anything to increase access to contraception.

In fact, that very same week, a study in the New England Journal

of Medicine found giving free birth control to teenagers dramatically reduced their abortion rate.

“The best thing that could happen” to the Senate would be if Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) “gets beat and Harry Reid gets replaced.”

— Mark Pryor, being Mark Pryor.

“Millionaires can get food stamps.”

— Tom Cotton, who’s never been able to cite an example of a food stamp millionaire. Almost all food stamp beneficiaries make less than 130 percent of the federal poverty level, and the program offers a benefit averaging $1.50 per person per meal.

“We’ve all been in a situation where we stand in the grocery store at Walmart or at Brookshires and someone has steak in their basket yet they have a brand new iPhone and they’re going out to a brand new SUV.” — Tom Cotton. Around 500,000 Arkansans — 17 percent of us — get food stamps. Nearly all have incomes below the poverty line, with a median income

around $13,000. The program offers a benefit averaging $1.50 per person per meal.

“These are people who don’t care if babies starve. They like their ideology more than human beings.”

— Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate Mark Swaney, on people seeking to further slash funding for food stamps.

“I told President Clinton yesterday you’ve been running around taking credit for the balanced budget he provided this country. He got a pretty good kick out of it.”

— Mike Ross, on Asa Hutchinson’s repeated boasts that he “had the last balanced budget in our nation, when I left Congress.” Of course, that was under President Clinton, who Hutchinson tried very hard to boot out of office.

“Several months ago Congressman Cotton went to a luxury resort in California to spend time with his billionaire donors. There’s an audiotape

where they brag about him for voting against the Farm Bill. It’s a vote against Arkansas. You can hear the ovation on the tape — for voting against Arkansas.

Folks, he’s not listening to you. He’s listening to them. That applause is still ringing in his ears and those dollar signs are still in his eyes. … He has his billionaires, but I have you.”

— Mark Pryor “I’ve dodged real bullets in the streets of Baghdad, so a few metaphorical bullets on a political campaign don’t really bother me that much.”

— Tom Cotton “President Obama has two years left in his last term. He is a lame duck.

He is blocked by a hostile majority in the House. He has a Senate that at best is going to be evenly and bitterly divided. This is a six-year term for Senate you’re running for. Would you please tell us what you hope to accomplish in those six years, most of which would not be under the administration of Barack Obama.

Please don’t mention Obama if you can give me an answer to that.

— Senate debate panelist Doug Thompson of Northwest Arkansas Newspapers. Cotton CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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ARKANSAS TIMES

BOSWELL

MOUROT

FINE ART

OPENING RECEPTION

MOVEMENT OF LINE

BRIAN CHILSON

Sat, Nov. 8 6-9pm Through Nov. 29

TOO CLOSE TO CALL: Robert Thompson is one of two Democrats in tight Senate races.

The future of the private option It could turn on the results of two state Senate races.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY AND DAVID RAMSEY

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his election in this Senate district is going to determine the future of the private option,” said Rep. James McLean (D-Batesville), vying for an open state Senate seat against Republican Linda Collins-Smith of Pocahontas, a Tea Party stalwart and diehard opponent of the private option.

McLean could be right. Most local politicos are focusing on the tight race for control of the Arkansas House (see our story on p. 19). The Senate won’t be changing hands, with just a handful of contested races and Republicans with a healthy 22-13 majority. But Democrats are defending a couple of seats in the northeastern corner of the state that could have a huge impact on the private option, the state’s unique policy that uses Medicaid funds to purchase private health insurance for low-income

Arkansans.

It takes 75 percent supermajorities in both the House and Senate to appropriate the federal funds that pay for the private option. The policy barely got over the finish line in both 2013 and 2014 after protracted battles; it passed in the Senate this year with no votes to spare. Two Senate seats held by proprivate option Republicans were seized in the GOP primaries by candidates who campaigned explicitly on opposition to the policy. That doesn’t mean it’s over; most believe that it’s at least possible to flip two votes to reauthorize the policy again next year. But if the private option loses another Yea vote? Or two? Yikes.

In the House, regardless of what happens this November, things have a way of working themselves out. Finding 75 votes in a big body, with plenty of places

to hide, and lots of fence sitters to aim for, is an easier task than in the Senate, where just nine votes can derail the private option (and where the “Hell No” caucus is anchored by at least half a dozen immoveable opponents).

The private option’s survival, then, could depend on whether 1) McLean can win a tossup race against CollinsSmith for the District 19 seat vacated by Democrat David Wyatt, who opted not to run for re-election, and 2) potentially whether District 20 Sen. Robert Thompson (D-Paragould), who won a squeaker in 2012, can fend off a rematch challenge from Republican Blake Johnson, whose position on the private option remains somewhat murky. “[Collins-Smith] doesn’t have anything to run on except Obamacare,” McLean told the Times (like the private option’s Republican proponents, McLean draws a distinction between the state’s policy and the federal law that funds it). “She has said that she is bitterly opposed to the private option, and she’s committed to ending it. Which is a vote against the largest employer in this Senate district.”

This is a point that McLean hammers home a lot: White River Medical Center and affiliated hospitals and clinics in 10 communities in the area employ more than 1,200 people.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

ELIZABETH WEBER

ANDY HUSS

ROBIN HAZARD-BISHOP 5815 KAVANAUGH BLVD LITTLE ROCK, AR 72207 (501) 664-0030 boswellmourot.com www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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THEY SAID WHAT?, CONT. began his response by saying … “Barack Obama.”

“When you ask a question about negative ads, Congressman Cotton talks about Obama. When you ask a question about ISIS, Congressman Cotton talks about Obama, ask a question about the Farm Bill, he talks about Obama. You see a pattern? Clearly Congressman Cotton is running against one man. But I am running for 3 million Arkansans.”

— Mark Pryor “The best political talent of his generation that I have personally witnessed.”

— Gov. Mike Beebe on political newcomer Clarke Tucker, running for state representative.

“I think many primaries in [Arkansas politics] boil down to one issue: goofy vs nongoofy. My money is on non-goofy to win the day.”

— Rep. John Burris, tweeting during the Republican primaries. In fact, goofy held its own in the GOP primary this year, including in the case of know-nothing Tea Party fave Scott Flippo, who knocked Burris off in their battle for state Senate.

“I’ve passed about 70 pieces of legislation, almost all of it bipartisan.

That’s how I work. … [Cotton’s] approach is this ‘my way or the highway,’ this dead-end politics that leads to things like fiscal cliffs and shutting down the government. Leadership in Washington involves walking across the aisle. And Congressman, you don’t have the reputation, the ability, CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

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“It has been the engine that’s floated our boat for the last 10 years when we’ve lost industry,” McLean said. “I have a hard time understanding someone who is pro-business and claims to want to invest in the economy and grow jobs can immediately, on day one, vote against the largest employer in the Senate district. She has no answer to that. She cannot go and explain to the employees of White River Medical Center and their families why she’s going to vote against it except for purely ideological reasons.

That’s where we’re at and that’s what this election is going to be about.”

The private option has helped to get struggling medical facilities on their feet, McLean said.

“Prior to the private option they were losing millions of dollars each year,” he said. “Because of the private option they’ve been able to build a standalone emergency room in Sharp County, which was badly needed, they’re continuing to provide service at Stone County with the hospital up there, and they have a multitude of small clinics spread throughout this five-county area.

This is a big deal. She is putting the hospitals and small clinics providing people health care in small communities at risk. She is committed to putting politics before people. She is putting a rigid, radical ideology before the people that she professes to want to represent. To me, that’s just unconscionable. Linda Collins-Smith has said ‘I’m going to vote against the private option and I don’t care.’ She needs to be held accountable for that. She needs to explain to the business community — is she going to be someone who has your back, or is she somebody who’s going to be committed to the Tea Party talking points and cut off your nose to spite your face.”

The right-wing Collins-Smith, a former state representative who owns a Days Inn in Pocahontas, was ostensibly a Democrat until flipping to the GOP in a failed bid for Senate District 19 in

2012. She did not respond to numerous requests for an interview.

Meanwhile, another decisive race is playing out next door in Senate District 20, a rural area nestled against the Missouri bootheel. Thompson, one of the Senate’s strongest supporters of the private option, is facing a tough challenge from Johnson in a rematch of a 2012 race that Thompson won by a margin of fewer than 500 votes.

Johnson, a soybean farmer, is not a fan of the private option, but he won’t say whether or not he’d vote the policy down in 2015 if he should win.

“It is not a good system as it is … it is not sustainable as it is,” he stated. “You don’t know if the federal reimbursement is going to stay until the end of the threeyear period … we’re over those federal caps, we’re almost $20 per person [over], and that is a concern.” Johnson also cited the Government Accountability Office report this fall that indicated expansion of traditional Medicaid would have cost less than the private approach.

Does that mean he would have pushed for traditional Medicaid instead in 2013, if he’d been in office then? “I probably would have,” he said.

When pressed to state whether he’d vote the private option up or down, though, Johnson said, “It’s not an action of today,” and the answer was “not as simple as yes or no.” Still, he indicated that he does not see the private option itself as a necessity, and asked, “Do you put the wants before the needs as a state?”

Given the great pressure that legislators will be under in 2015 to vote yes, it seems like Johnson might not be a solid no; on the other hand, he’s been supported by Conduit For Action, the “dark money” conservative group created for the express purpose of opposing the private option. It’s hard to know which way Johnson is hedging: Is he placating Conduit and the hardliners, or is he placating the powerful hospitals in

his district that want the private option?

Thompson, who practices law in Paragould, said he’s met with administrators from all four hospitals about the private option. “To the one, every administrator said not only has it been an unqualified success in terms of providing care through our hospital, but also taking it away would be devastating. So, I’m proud to support it.”

Thompson also believes perception of the policy in conservative rural Arkansas is slowly but surely changing.

“I do think the importance of the private option is sort of seeping down to people — especially people who work in health care, but also the general public,” he said. “I spoke with one woman who is in her early 30s. She’s had a back condition her entire life and didn’t understand what it was. She never had health insurance. She received insurance through the private option and now she’s receiving treatment for a congenital problem with her spinal cord. I’ve heard a number of anecdotes like that.”

So where are things headed in the legislature in 2015, then? “I’ll let you know on Nov. 5th,” Thompson said.

McLean is adamant about the stakes in this election, saying that if Collins-Smith wins, he believes “the private option is dead. You’re going to have too many radicals in the Senate to do anything. It’s over with.”

The private option has been declared dead before, so even if the aginners gain another vote in the Senate, it remains to be seen whether a rump minority of legislators will succeed in blocking billions in federal money flowing into the state and kicking more than 200,000 Arkansans off of their health insurance. Still, if either McLean or Thompson loses, reauthorization becomes a much steeper climb and the future of the private option would be very much in doubt.

“I’m going to vote for the private option,” McLean said. “She is not. The impacts are huge.”

BRIAN CHILSON

THEY SAID WHAT?, CONT.

ALL SMILES: Tom Cotton and his opponent have both benefited from millions in outside spending.

Shadow parties

How the new world of campaign finance threatens Arkansas state elections.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY

T

he presence of big money in campaign finance is nothing new. As the saying goes, cash flows toward power as surely as water flows downhill. What’s changed in American elections in recent years is the dizzying rise in the level of outside spending — that is, money intended to influence an election but that is not given directly to a candidate.

To circumvent legal limits on the size of the direct campaign donations, wealthy individual donors — think the Koch brothers or Michael Bloomberg — give generously to groups such as super PACs and 501(c)(4) “social welfare” nonprofits. These outside groups then support their favored candidates by spending their vast pools of money on advertising blitzes that are, in theory, entirely separate from the candidates’ campaigns themselves. The Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), which tracks such figures, projects that outside groups across the country will spend about $900 million in the 2014 midterms, while the candidates

and parties themselves will spend around $2.7 billion. That is, about a quarter of all spending in federal elections this cycle will come from outside groups. The largest have essentially become auxiliary political parties.

In Arkansas’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race, spending by outside groups such as Crossroads GPS and Patriot Majority USA is on track to exceed the spending of the Mark Pryor and Tom Cotton campaigns. As of Sept. 30, according to CRP, Pryor had spent over $12 million and Cotton had spent about $8 million; outside ads that aided the Pryor campaign cost around $14.5 million, while spending friendly to Cotton topped $21 million.

The glut of outside money gives a disturbing amount of influence to wealthy donors in big ticket contests like the Pryor/Cotton race, but it potentially poses a graver danger within another set of races: those at the state level. Elections for state office — including governor, attorney general,

the legislature, the judiciary, etc. — abide by laws that differ from federal elections regulations. Arkansas has its own statutes concerning campaign finance and reporting, and they have yet to catch up to the new world of outside spending.

Federal watchdog groups like CRP often criticize the role of “dark money” in federal elections, which refers to spending by 501(c)(4)s, such as Americans for Prosperity. Unlike super PACs, such nonprofits don’t have to disclose their donors. But in Arkansas’s statelevel races there’s an additional layer of opacity: Not only can outside groups keep their donors secret, they often don’t have to disclose their spending, either.

Arkansas does require reporting of “independent expenditures” made by outside groups — but if an ad doesn’t explicitly tell the public to vote for or against a candidate, it’s not considered an independent expenditure.

For example, an outside ad can smear a candidate as being “soft on violent crime,” as happened to House District 35 hopeful Clarke Tucker this fall, yet if it never mentions the election itself, the ad is entirely unregulated by the Arkansas Ethics Commission.

In federal races, ads that mention a candidate have to be disclosed to the Federal Election Commission if they take place in the 60 days before a general election. In Arkansas, though, ads are reported to the state only if they expressly advocate for a candidate; others, like the Tucker mailer, fly completely under the radar. That makes it impossible to tell just how much money is being spent on state races in which an outside group gets involved in a big way.

The best example this cycle may be the race for attorney general, in which Republican Leslie Rutledge has received untold support from an organization called the Republican Attorney Generals Association; her opponent, Democrat Nate Steel, has been assisted by ads from a group called the Committee for Justice and Fairness. Rutledge herself was attacked in the GOP primary earlier this by the Judicial Crisis Network, a 501(c)(4) organization that supported her opponent. But until the legislature takes steps to update Arkansas law to account for the new realities of outside spending, it’s impossible to know exactly how much cash those groups and others are spending to influence our elections.

or the desire to walk across the aisle to get things done in Washington.”

— Mark Pryor “People like Ross and Pryor, they water [the Democratic Party] down. They make people think that the only people who can ever get elected are these quasi-Republicans. That that’s our only option in Arkansas because people are so right-wing. It’s part of the Democrats’ job to speak out against the nuts like Jason Rapert. So many Democrats sat on their hands when Jason Rapert was passing all this crazy legislation. … When Nate Bell took away outreach money toward the private option, Democrats just rolled over. They just have no backbone. The only way to really have progressive politics whether you’re a Democrat or a Green or whatever is you gotta be willing to stand up to the other politicians and explain to people. If the only people talking are the right-wing nuts and Democrats are sitting there with their mouth shut, people are going to believe the people that are talking.”

— Green Party gubernatorial candidate Josh Drake “Just because a liberal reporter calls themselves a fact checker doesn’t make anything he says a fact.”

— Tom Cotton, responding to a reporter asking him about factually inaccurate advertisements.

“You just heard Congressman Cotton basically admit that he hasn’t passed anything since he’s been in the House. Even though he was there for one month and he ran a poll on the Senate race. Didn’t even know where the bathrooms were but nonetheless now he thinks he is entitled to be in the Senate.”

— Mark Pryor “The word that I hear everywhere I go is ‘embarrassment’ — that Jason Rapert is an embarrassment to our district and our state. … All he cared about was getting in the spotlight and focusing on himself.”

— Political newcomer Tyler Pearson, challenging state Sen. Jason Rapert.

“My wife and I have been married near 15 years with the best 3 children.

She stays home. I love to hunt and fish as does my kids. I believe in the constitution as written.”

— Marc Rosson, a Libertarian candidate for state representative in District 20. www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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Cynthia L. Conger

Charlotte John

Anne Powell-Black

Cara Hazlewood

Lisa Leggett

Janet Jones

WOMEN Entrepreneurs E

arlier this year, the folks at Arkansas Times asked if I would work on a project they were pursuing with the Arkansas Economic Development Commission, the goal of which was to encourage economic development in the state’s nonprofit sector. I spoke to the leaders of and wrote about the national and international nonprofits that have their global headquarters in Arkansas, asking why they located here and why other nonprofits should consider having their headquarters here, too. It was an opportunity for me to meet with and learn from a breadth of people I never would have had the chance to speak with otherwise.

And it made me think. If Arkansas is serious about economic development, we need to focus on entrepreneurs — in particular, women entrepreneurs. I approached the Times about the idea, citing a few women-owned businesses that had been in operation for decades.

It was these women who I thought should be promoted — the ones who started with nothing or very close to it, stuck it out in good times and bad, and are still here today. In addition, or maybe because of a variety of reasons — marriage, divorce, having and raising children, a love for their profession — these entrepreneurs started or took over

businesses that form the backbone of our communities.

It was the shortest pitch of my life. “Do it,” Times publisher Alan Leveritt said.

After brainstorming with several people who have knowledge of the leaders in each category, we compiled a list of women in five different industries and selected about six to eight to portray in each. A priority for us was to feature women who Arkansans aren’t so used to seeing in traditional and social media, and our criteria for who is profiled is based on range — in experience, backgrounds, age and their particular takes on their industry. All of them have unique stories, all of them came to entrepreneurship in different ways, and all of them had one thing in common: Never quit if what you are doing is your calling.

We have focused throughout the past month on successful women in food, professional services, nontraditional, retail and design. This week, in the final segment, we focus on women entrepreneurs in real estate and financial planning, among other feilds. We hope you find inspiration in their stories and motivation in their successes. — KD Reep

This week: ASSETS INDUSTRY ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

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CYNTHIA L.Conger CONGER HIT HIGH NOTES IN FINANCIAL PLANNING

“I

was going to be Barbra Streisand’s replacement,” said Cynthia L. Conger, a nationally recognized financial planner in Little Rock. “I went to a college in San Antonio on a scholarship to study voice and theater. When I got there, I found out I had been a big fish in a small pond in Colorado.”

Conger worked as the house manager for a small theater in San Antonio. “I found I liked that aspect of the business much better,” she said.

A summer job as a bookkeeper helped her decide to change her major to accounting. At the time Conger was attending college, few women were pursuing accounting as a career. She was advised to return to school to get a degree in accounting because, as Conger said, “they were just starting to let women take the CPA exam.”

“When I moved home and started at Colorado State, I

was the only woman in a class of 100 men,” Conger said.

“When I finished that year, I was first in my accounting class. My average was 102 percent.”

Love then entered the picture. Conger met and married her husband, who was studying to be a veterinarian. She worked to support him through his last three years in veterinary school. The couple moved to Philadelphia after his graduation, had their first child, and then moved back to Colorado — all within the same year. After another move to East Lansing, Mich., for his job, and another baby, Conger decided to return to college.

“I had a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old, and had to start all over in accounting because my credits as a fine arts major didn’t fit the accounting curriculum.” Conger said. “I was determined to make it work even though at the time only about 25-30 percent of accountants were women.”

Conger and her husband moved once more, to Arkansas, where she transferred to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1979. She finished her degree in 1980, took the CPA exam and went on to get a master’s degree.

“I had a plan,” Conger said. “My marriage was failing, and I had children I needed to care for as well as myself.

My mother always told my sister and me to do whatever it

CHARLOTTEJohn REAL ESTATE REVOLUTIONARY

I

n 1982, Charlotte John rocked the real estate boat in central Arkansas.

“I had practiced with two other real estate agencies in Little Rock for seven years, and I had ideas to do things differently,” John said.

With the relationships she had built with clients and a line of credit from Pulaski Bank, John struck out on her own. The first thing she did was to charge 1 percent less commission than the industry standard.

“The national rate was lower than what it was in Arkansas then,” John said. “It drew a lot of controversy from other real estate companies, but it set me apart.”

At the time John started her business, it was a seller’s market. “People looking to purchase a home had to call the realtors for the price, and the agent wouldn’t give you the address unless you gave them your information,” she said.

“I started putting both the price and address in ads, and that resulted in more buyer calls.”

John also made up flyers with all the available listings

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she represented and delivered them to the agent in the area. “I paid the normal fee to agents from other companies,” John said. “That gave them initiative to sell houses listed with me, the buyers got the home they wanted, the sellers were able to sell their home in a timely manner at a lower commission rate, and I had a happy client. There was no loser in the equation.”

In 1982, John founded the Charlotte John Co. in the Prospect Building in Little Rock. She convinced her sister, Diane Hinkle, to join her as an agent.

“She didn’t know anything about real estate, and now we’ve been together as agents for more than 30 years,” John said.

As her company began to grow, John made it a priority to hire and keep the top agents in the area. “I offered the agents a generous split,” she said. “It didn’t lead to much profit in the beginning, but eventually we grew to 20 agents.”

In 2005, John moved her company to 5813 Kavanaugh Blvd. in the Heights in Little Rock. People can drop in as they stroll among the retail shops and restaurants, and

John now sees how foot traffic is a boon for her business.

“We have visibility now that we never had before,” John said. “The move to the Heights opened up a whole new world for us.”

Today, John’s company has locations in Little Rock and Conway, and in addition to selling homes, the company is now managing rental property.

“Some of our clients have to move to another home before theirs sells,” John said. “We expanded into rental management to help them. We also sell homes to inves-

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took to be able to care of ourselves and our families. I knew completing my education was the key to that.”

Taking 12 hours per semester to finish graduate school while also looking for a job, Conger saw an ad to work in an insurance agency to pursue financial planning. She had no desire to work for an insurance company, but a mentor encouraged her to consider the financial planning aspect of it.

“No one really knew what financial planning was,” Conger said. “It was a unique way of working in accounting while helping the client achieve personal goals — securing the present and future. I really liked that facet of it.”

In 1983, she interviewed with Rick Adkins at Arkansas Financial Group — five times. She joined the firm, eventually becoming its president and co-owner with Adkins.

“We wrote financial plans for a fee then,” Conger said. “We would host luncheons on financial planning for doctors and lawyers. We did a lot of groundbreaking together — we put the client first and developed relationships with them instead of one-time plans.”

Conger was with AFG for 20 years before opening her own firm, Conger Wealth Management, in 2005. She switched her focus to helping women in life’s transitions.

“Most of my clients are women in their late 50s and early 60s,”Conger said. “My goal is to create a culture where my clients know I care about them and want the best for them and their futures, no matter what.”

Today, Conger looks back over her life and career and notes two things that made all the difference in her success: education and perseverance.

“If I had not gone back to college, I would not be here today,” she said. “And I have lived all over the country, traveled all over the world, and I’m always glad to be back in Arkansas.”

“For anyone who wants to start her or his own business, my advice is to get your financial ducks in a row first. I was a single parent, but I knew this was something I could do. If you

have a vision for a business, by all means, follow it.”

— Charlotte John

tors who want us to handle the homes they buy as rental property.”

John says one of the biggest reasons for her success is the support she received from her family, friends and allies in the industry. “My brother-in-law encouraged the bank to give me a loan,” John said.

“Janet Jones encouraged me to get into real estate, and another agent, Carol Jenkins, took me under her wing and helped me get my start.

For anyone who wants to start her or his own business, my advice is to get your financial ducks in a row first. I was a single parent, but I knew this was something I could do. If you have a vision for a business, by all means, follow it.”

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

ANNE

Powell-Black CONTINUITY WITH COMMUNITY KEY TO SUCCESS FOR POWELL-BLACK

F

or Anne Powell-Black, insurance has long been a way of life.

“My father built the North Little Rock Funeral Home in 1955. In 1963 he bought a stipulated premium insurance charter, American Home Life Insurance Co., to allow individuals to buy enough funeral insurance to pay for their final expenses,” Powell-Black said. “In 1969 the Arkansas Legislature passed a law that all future business written had to be legal reserve [cash] life insurance. I enjoyed working with my father and decided to learn all I could about the life insurance business.”

When her father retired in 1975, she became president of the company.

Over the years, she has stared down the challenges of finding and hiring the right people to work in the company she has watched grow from a few thousand dollars in assets to over $18 million today.

“I have also had to find the right consultants to advise me,” Powell-Black said. “I work with an insurance lawyer, a certified public accountant who is knowledgeable about the life insurance industry, an actuary and investment professionals. There are many regulatory issues that affect my business. It is imperative that I know and understand these issues, which are constantly changing.”

Being the owner of a company has afforded her the chance to glean knowledge from various sources she might not otherwise have encountered.

“I have had many wonderful opportunities,” Powell-Black said. “I have learned from many professionals in the industry. I have attended many great conventions and meetings where I have met many people and heard outstanding speakers.”

She tells entrepreneurial hopefuls that they should, first and foremost, be in touch with their audience.

“The best advice I can give someone looking to start their own business is to first be sure the product or service you plan to offer is needed in the community,” she said. “Second, learn everything you can about the product or service.

Provide a good product/service to meet the

need and always make sure your clients know you care! You need to become the ‘best’ there is in your line of business. It is also important for everyone to understand some basic accounting.

Next, find successful business leaders who are willing to help you.”

Though she entered the insurance industry after thoughtful consideration, she couldn’t have known then how much satisfaction she would get from following through on the business to which her father introduced her.

“I had no idea in 1969 when I started attending a class at UALR that was sponsored by the local CLU (Chartered Life Underwriter) Chapter that I was beginning a career that would offer me so many challenges and opportunities. In 1974 I was the second lady in Arkansas to receive the Chartered Life Underwriter designation from the American College in Bryn Mawr, Penn. I later received my ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant) designation from the American College,” Powell-Black said. “I am very proud of American Home Life Insurance Co. We offer good products at competitive prices. We primarily write insurance to cover final expenses. We offer excellent service and make it possible for people to work with a local home office in their home town.”

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CARAHazlewood CHALLENGES UNVEIL TALENTS FOR HAZLEWOOD

C

ara Hazlewood recognized that people turn to technology in all kinds of fact-finding missions, and that creating a home — or a home-buying experience — should be no different.

“With the advances in the way we communicate and instant access to information through smart phones and tablets, the real estate industry is literally at people’s fingertips,” Hazlewood said. “My business partner and I saw the need for a new real estate company to lead that digital force on a local level. From our digital marketing strategies to helping clients decipher the enormous amount of information available to them online, the entire Property Group team sees firsthand the shift that has and will continue to take place in our industry.”

The Property Group, founded by Hazlewood and her partner, Robert Klein, has an eye toward making the most

of emergent technologies and social media strategies to help clients find their perfect homes.

Honing her real estate craft has required not only business savvy, but also chutzpah mixed with a little trial and error.

“Owning your own business requires that you wear many hats and face unfamiliar situations that challenge our abilities and reveal new talents that we wouldn’t have discovered otherwise,”said Hazlewood.“Sometimes a decision is a home run. Other times there is room left for improvement. But a smart business owner takes the lessons learned from challenges and applies them to future opportunities.”

She has a passion for small home projects as much as for more comprehensive ones and strives to envision a home’s potential upon entering it, usually with individual clients’ needs in mind.

She is the creator of Live the Home Life, one of Arkansas’s

most widely read real estate and home-improvement blogs, where she writes about her own do-it-yourself endeavors. She owes her inspiration for that lifestyle, she says, to her father, an architect, and to her “do-it-yourself rockstar” mother, and she gives photographic evidence of the before-and-after transformation of her own first home.

“Until I was old enough to strike out on my own DIY adventures, I watched my parents tear apart/rebuild/ add-on to every corner of my childhood home,” she writes.

Hazlewood is also a regular contributor to At Home in Arkansas magazine’s blog.

LISALeggett TAKING A LEAP LEADS LEGGETT TO LEADERSHIP

L

isa Leggett’s sense of independence and her craving for organization have made owning her own company attractive and practical.

“Early in our marriage, my husband and I both worked in the corporate world at Alltel,” said Leggett, who specialized in marketing communications. “My husband’s parents have always been entrepreneurs. Before we got married, he told me that he would like to eventually own his own business as well.”

Leggett left Alltel in 2002 after she and her husband, Mark, adopted their first child.

“At that time, I started doing freelance work,” she says.

She was thriving as a freelance database designer and writer and liked working for herself, which is why she jumped at an opportunity to take on a new challenge.

“So when my husband told me a year later that he was also ready to leave corporate, I was ready to take the leap,” she said. “We have been our own bosses since 2003.”

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Leggett’s first big endeavor, with Mark at her side, was to buy a struggling Closet Factory franchise, facilitating the company’s marketing and managing its design staff while also custom-creating storage systems for homes and offices.

Real estate was a natural progression for the duo. Selling the Closet Factory and moving into the real estate arena allowed her to take full advantage of her ability to visualize and unlock the potential of homes she was showing to their clients.

She and Mark, now parents of three, continued working as Team Leggett to help clients buy and sell real estate for about five years for an established Little Rock agency before they took a bold step back into entrepreneurship, using their collective experiences and joining with four other established agents to open an agency of their own earlier this year.

Their agency, Aspire Realty, operates under the slogan “You aspire, we achieve.” With an office in Little Rock’s

Hillcrest neighborhood, the company quickly grew to 21 agents that serve Central Arkansas.

While Leggett values the freedom that comes with owning a business, she sometimes realizes how much easier it would be to let someone else make the hard decisions. She said she shakes off those thoughts and rises to the occasion, with a little — or a lot of — help from God.

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WOMEN Entrepreneurs

JANET

“Surround yourself with those whose strengths are your struggles. As a business owner,

Jones

it’s impossible to excel on every level, and to think that you will is foolish.”

— Cara Hazlewood

GOLDEN RULE LEADS TO SHINING SUCCESS FOR JONES

Hazlewood thrives in the positive environment with which she purposefully envelops herself.

“Surround yourself with those whose strengths are your struggles.

As a business owner, it’s impossible to excel on every level, and to think that you will is foolish. Find a group of trusted individuals that you can turn to for advice or just to bounce ideas off of.”

Her own success is bolstered by that of those around her. She takes great satisfaction in seeing everyone at The Property Group do well and is constantly looking for tools that might help them do even better.

“As a business owner and real estate broker, the most rewarding part of my day is watching our agents succeed,” Hazlewood said.

“Knowing that the skills and support provided by The Property Group allows our agents to successfully assist clients with as large of an asset as their home is an amazing feeling. Our agents’ training, think-outside-the-box mentality and drive for excellence is what sets them apart, and maintaining a sharp focus on helping them succeed is always my top priority.”

“There are so many ups and downs. I have had times when it was so tempting to go back to the security of a job. But, in the end, you are still relying on someone else along the way to provide, at some level.” — Lisa Leggett “There are so many ups and downs,” she says. “I have had times when it was so tempting to go back to the security of a job,” she says. “But, in the end, you are still relying on someone else along the way to provide, at some level. I have found that when we have only ourselves and our faith to rely on, we can do some really great things.”

Self-discipline and self-motivation are characteristics Leggett sees as crucial to being a successful business owner. So, too, does she value humility.

“You have to have thick skin and be able to fail. Sometimes the best lessons are learned from failing,” she said. “You also have to be willing to know when you need help and be willing to ask (or pay) for help!”

J

anet Jones is the epitome of a Southern lady: gracious, calm and astute.

The owner and president of The Janet Jones Co., Jones was one of the first women to sell real estate and establish her own agency in Little Rock.

Successful in sales, Jones sold real estate for more than five years. When the owners of the company where she worked decided to form two different companies, she decided it was an opportunity to strike out on her own.

“I thought, ‘If I’m going to another company, it might as well be my own.’ An older person in my life tried to talk me out of it, but my husband, Bud, was always behind me,” Jones said.“I took the chance, and that was 1980.”

The Janet Jones Co. opened in one office at 7915 Cantrell Road. Jones said she centered the business on her value system, which was to treat people the way she would like to be treated and put their needs above her own.

“The relationships were, and still are, my greatest love,” Jones said. “I appreciate the relationship between a buyer and seller, between an agent and client. It’s all interwoven, and I appreciate how it works in a business setting.”

Jones notes that her biggest challenges were her biggest opportunities, too. While her schedule was her own and allowed her more freedom, she also answered only to herself and was a much harder taskmaster than any other employer may have been.

“I think women aren’t afraid of working hard and doing what has to be done,”Jones said.“We’re accustomed to juggling families, work, home, community and church responsibilities; we’re good communicators, and we are patient because

we have to be. We also are natural collaborators, and in real estate, that is a skill that sets agents apart from those who are strictly sales-oriented.”

As she and her company became known throughout Central Arkansas, Jones began to grow strategically.

“I didn’t have a detailed plan when I started,”Jones said.“I followed my instincts and went with the flow of things. We eventually outgrew that one office, so we rented another one in the same building.

Then, when the company needed more space, we rented another office in the same spot until, eventually, we took over the entire building.”

Jones says she was always mindful that the buck stopped with her, and that as the proprietor of her business, she was responsible for its culture as well as its success.

“If you ever see someone sweeping up the parking lot at 7:30 a.m., that’s probably the business owner,” she said. “Many people don’t think about owning a business in those terms, and a lot of younger people want to start out at the top. But you have to pay your dues, do your homework and get experience so you know what you’re doing before you ever start out.”

After more than three decades as one of the top real estate agencies in Little Rock, Jones’ business philosophy remains the same as it was in 1980.

“Particularly now, when everything is moving so fast, it’s crucial to treat everyone with kindness and respect,” she said. “I followed my dream and believed in what I was doing, but it was the people I surrounded myself with that had similar standards and goals that helped make the agency a success.”

“A lot of younger people want to start out at the top. But you have to

pay your dues, do your homework and get experience so you know what you’re doing before you ever start out.” — Janet Jones ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT www.arktimes.com

www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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33

Arts Entertainment AND

Arkansas reading room

A survey of some of the season’s best local books.

BY BENJAMIN HARDY, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK AND WILL STEPHENSON

W

e get a lot of books in the mail here at the Arkansas Times HQ. This week we decided to dig through the stacks and bring you the best of the batch. Here are our takes on some of the most exciting recent books to engage with or emerge from the state, taking on a wide range of topics, from Delta cuisine to the prehistory of rock ’n’ roll.

“Of the Soil: Photographs of Vernacular Architecture and Stories of Changing Times in Arkansas”

By Geoff Winningham Fay Jones School of Architecture with the University of Arkansas Press, $44.95 The way we lived, when Arkansas

was first a wilderness and then a sparsely settled state and then a state with commerce that brought in new ideas, is a story largely told in how we build our homes and other shelters. Cyrus Sutherland, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, was the Arkansan who knew the most about what we call vernacular architecture: architecture as language — the way we spoke.

So Texas photographer Geoff Winningham was a lucky man to get to travel the state with Sutherland, to record the buildings in Mineral Springs, Stuttgart, Kingston, Newhope, Fort Smith, Bingen and places without a name in August 1980. A savings and loan financed the trip and got 100 photographs for its end of the deal.

In 2008, after Sutherland died, Winningham looked at his photographs again and made digital files of 500 of them. He decided to publish the pictures and, he writes, “cast about for prose or poetry that would complement” them. In 2010, Winningham returned to Arkansas and traveled to some of the places where he and Sutherland visited. Unsurprisingly, and sadly, many of the old stores and dogtrots and barns and the like were gone. But people remembered the old buildings and

it’s their stories Winningham chose to combine with these beautiful black and white photographs of an Arkansas that once was. Where folks gathered on the porch of the store, where people of few means lived, the old inns in towns that no longer see visitors, like the Riverview Inn in Arkansas City or the New South Inn in Clarendon. These are structures that, if you see them by the side of the rural road you happen to be on, make you want to stop and touch and realize that Arkansas history can be told in board and batten and the Beaux Arts.

One of the first photographs in the book is of a home whose paint is long gone, whose roof is tin, and which has a porch across the entire front of the house. A man, supported by a cane, is on the porch, as is an upholstered chair and an old water heater. Winningham recalls that as they approached the house in Howard County, Sutherland told him that just ahead “you will behold the most beautiful Greek Revival cottage in all of Arkansas.” It was the shack. Like Winningham, the reader will wonder what Sutherland was on about.

“Cy pointed out the perfect symmetry of the little house, its elegant battered columns, and the precise classical details of its window framing. ... Cy explained that classical architectural styles had spread across America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely through widely distributed carpenter’s guides and pattern books.”

It’s gone, this Greek Revival sharecropper’s shack, like so much of Arkansas’s oldest structures. We are not New England; we tear down and put up ugly.

But Winningham’s photos are still around, and they are lovely, if a little wistful. LNP “We Wanna Boogie: The Rockabilly Roots of Sonny Burgess and the Pacers” Marvin Schwartz Butler Center Books, $29.95 Marvin Schwartz describes himself as a “New York native and an Arkansan by choice,” and he writes about the state with what can only be understood as the enthusiasm of the perpetual outsider. It’s an advantage: Those things that natives take for granted still interest him. And he’s persistent. He’s written biographies of Don Tyson and J.B.

Hunt, monographs on Central High and local antipoverty measures, and a “history of competitive swimming in Central Arkansas.”

His latest effort, perhaps less ambitious than a “history of swimming” but certainly more accessible, takes on rockabilly pioneer Sonny Burgess, born on a farm near Newport in 1929 and legendary for a string of singles recorded with Sam Phillips at Sun Records. The book aspires not only to tell Burgess’ story, but, as governor and fellow Newport favorite son Mike Beebe writes in the foreword, to tell “the history of individuals and a community during the emergence of a new genre of music in the late 1950s and early 1960.”

In doing so, the book relies heavily on Burgess’ participation, but thankfully avoids trailing off into record-collector hagiography. Schwartz writes like a historian, not an embattled fan. The flipside of this, of course, is that the book doesn’t particularly feel like a labor of love. If Schwartz is passionate about rockabilly, he does a pretty good job of hiding it.

The approach can be dry, the research a little warmed-over (the End Notes cite more than one Wikipedia page).

Descriptions of music are rare and not inspiring, and several chapters lack any discernible scenes or narrative, instead reading like obligatory lists of facts.

Schwartz seems comfortable observing and recording Burgess’ career rather than attempting to inhabit or understand it on some deeper level, but for CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

34

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

ROCK CANDY Check out the Times’ A&E blog arktimes.com

AL MEXICAN FOOD LUPITA’S ORIGIN

NOW OPEN

Thurs & Fri 11-6 & Sat 10-3

A&E NEWS SAVE THE DATE: THE SECOND installment in the Arkansas Times’ new film series collaboration with the Little Rock Film Festival is coming up at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14, at the Ron Robinson Theater.

We’ll screen “Who Is Dayani Cristal,” a new documentary by the actor Gael Garcia Bernal and Marc Silver. The film weaves together two stories that attempt to humanize the immigrant experience, one where officials try to identify a dead man found in the Arizona desert with the words “Dayani Cristal” tattooed on him and no other form of identification. The other narrative follows Bernal as he portrays a migrant traveling from Honduras.

Reviews have been largely positive, with most using the word “poignant.” We’re hosting the screening with El Zócalo, the Central Arkansas Immigrant Resource Center. Thanks to El Zócalo, it’ll be free.

No advance tickets required. There’ll be discussion following the film. More details soon.

AND DON’T FORGET: The Times is hosting its first-ever Fiction Contest this year. We’re looking for short stories that, in some way, engage the question of what it means to live in Arkansas in 2014. Yes, that’s an intentionally vague prompt — we want you to surprise us.

The first-place winner will receive $250 and second place will receive $150. Winning stories will also be published as the centerpiece of our Fiction Issue this December. Trenton Lee Stewart, Arkansas native and bestselling author of the “Mysterious Benedict Society” series and the Arkansas-set “Flood Summer,” has agreed to serve as our guest judge.

Submissions must be previously unpublished (this is important) and should be no longer than 3,000 words. Writers must live in Arkansas (and should have lived in Arkansas for at least one year) to submit. In the interest of fairness, stories will be passed on to Stewart anonymously. Deadline for submissions is 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 10. Send your short story (one per applicant, please) to will@arktimes.com, with the subject line “Fiction Contest.”

WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT that discount theater Cinemark Tandy 10 is closing, it comes as a huge relief to the local film scene to learn that Riverdale 10 can now serve beer and wine. The theater will also host three showings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show on Halloween night, at 6:45, 9 and 11 p.m. You’re encouraged to come in costume.

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Yule Dig It

The CARTI Auxiliary invites you to join us November 19-22 at Festival of Trees as we honor the cancer patients of Arkansas and celebrate 38 years of tradition.

November 19-22 Statehouse Convention Center Ballroom

Love, Peace & Soul Since 1976

Festival of Fashion

Festival After Dark

Presented by Inviting Arkansas & Marriott Little Rock

Presented by Frank & Judy Fletcher Sponsored by Alice 107.7 & Sync

Wednesday, Nov. 19 Doors open at 5 p.m. • Show begins at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: $50 each • Box of 10 seats: $500 Honoring Style Icon Kim Cook

Sugar Plum Ball

Friday, Nov. 21 • 7 p.m. • Tickets: $50 in advance Table sponsorship (reserved seating for 10): $1000

Tux 'n Trees Presented by Acxiom, Larry Sturdivant and Soirée

Saturday, Nov. 22 • 6 p.m.

Tickets: $200 each • Table of 10: $2000

Presented by Arkansas Life Magazine

Thursday, Nov. 20 6 - 8:30 p.m. • Tickets: $40 each Ticket sales will be limited to 650.

Stroll Through the Forest

For tickets, visit carti.com or call 501-660-7616

Friday, Nov. 21 • 1:30-4 p.m.

Like CARTI on Facebook @cartiarkansas #festivaloftrees

Get a Ticket to Ride Win a 2014 Dodge Dart $100 per chance

Only 600 tickets will be sold – 1 in 600 chance to win!

Drawing held on Nov. 21st, 2014 at Festival After Dark *Need NOT be present to win. **Winner is responsible for all taxes and licensings.

Go to carti.com to purchase tickets.

Special Thanks To valued at $19,000

www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

35

ARKANSAS READING ROOM, CONT. the most part it doesn’t really matter: The project is still a welcome one, and the facts are largely interesting enough on their own. Students of Arkansas history and early rock ’n’ roll will be thrilled and anyone drawn to the title will be satisfied. WS “Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA”

By Randall B. Woods Basic Books, $18.99 On Saturday, April 27, 1996, William Colby, paramilitary pioneer and director of the CIA under Presidents Nixon and Ford, bought a dozen clams at a seafood market in southern Maryland, drove home and called his wife, Sally, who was away visiting her mother. At approximately 7:15 that night, he spoke to the caretaker of his vacation cottage, who had stopped by for a visit. He watered his willow trees and made himself dinner, the remnants of which were found in his kitchen by local police the following night, along with his wallet, his computer and his car keys. Nine days later, Colby’s body was discovered on the shore of Neale Sound. He was 76.

Randall Woods, historian and John A. Cooper Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas, opens his new

biography of Colby (released in paperback Oct. 7) with this scene, the last night of his life, a set of circumstances long considered an unsolved mystery by friends, family and journalists. His former employer, the CIA, reported that the death was an accident, though essentially no one close to the man believed them. With this, Woods lures us into a cinematic and distinctly American story, a grandly realized portrait of the rise of one man alongside that of the national security state he helped construct.

This starting point is also a surprising and effective concession to suspense on the part of Woods, who in the past has made a point to distinguish his own, presumably more serious, work from other biographers who show more concern for things like writerly prose and well-crafted narrative.

While working on his biography of Lyndon Johnson, for instance, Woods bragged that he’d avoided even reading Pulitzer and National Book Award winner Robert Caro’s epic five-volume work in progress on the former president, a project that the London Times has called “the greatest biography of our era” and which has been routinely praised as a masterpiece. “He’s such a compelling writer,” Woods said of Caro, by way of explaining why he considered his books distracting failures.

It’s unexpected, then, that Woods turns out to be such a generally compelling writer himself.

He’s a strong storyteller with an intuitive grasp of the complex historical dynamics at work in Colby’s insane career. He does have a tendency to tip over into outright admiration, with occasional paeans to his subject’s bril-

liance: “There seemed to be no limit to his will and determination — carrying a pack one-third of his own weight, scaling icy mountains and fording frozen rivers. … His contemporaries then and later would call him fearless.” But given the scenarios he’s describing, this is understandable.

Colby’s real-life Bond exploits are matched by an oddly poetic sensibility, as seen in the stretches of his memoir quoted here. Hiding from Nazi patrols in a ditch, having just parachuted into occupied France, he remembers: “It was a warm summer day, the air thick with the scent of manure and wild flowers; bees and flies buzzed around us drowsily and one by one we would doze off for a few moments, each with his own private thoughts.”

This is a person worth reading about. And the book has other strengths, for instance offering an elaborate and vividly rendered context for the Vietnam War, during which Colby served as the head of the CIA’s Far East Division. Woods’ skill as a researcher and his diligence as an academic lend themselves to a story in which nothing about Colby is simple, not even his death. WS CONTINUED ON PAGE 46

Beer Night with Arkansas Times and shock top Thursday, November 6th 6-7 pm, Foster’s Bar at The Rep In honor of the most thrilling production of the season, the Arkansas Times and shock top present their “Wait Until Dark” preshow-tasting of Shock top beer.

For tickets, call the Box Office at (501) 378-0405 or visit therep.org ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE SPONSORED BY

AMY HUTCHINS. PHOTO BY JOHN DAVID PITTMAN. 36

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

www.arktimes.com www.arktimes.com SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 30, 19, 2014 2013

37 39

THE TO-DO

LIST

BY LINDSEY MILLAR, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK AND WILL STEPHENSON

THURSDAY 10/30

BIG BOO!SEUM BASH

6 p.m.-8:30 p.m. Various venus.

I remember the first Big Boo!seum Bash fondly — the smiling heads on platters at the Historic Arkansas Museum (emerging from hidden holes in the table), the spooky grounds of the Old State House, the happy 4-year-old. That

was 19 years ago; the Big Boo!seum Bash is now firmly ensconced in Little Rock Halloween tradition as a place where young trick-or-treaters will get more than sweets (and do so safely) at nine downtown haunts: the Arkansas Arts Center, HAM (a Twinkie Walk here!), the Little Rock Visitor’s Center at Curran

Hall, the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Museum of Discovery, the OSH, the Ron Robinson Theater and the Witt Stephens Jr. Nature Center.

Each location will have game cards; those whose cards prove they’ve visited all nine venues will get Big Boo!seum Baskets

of goodies and can enter a drawing for a flat-screen TV (limited to ages 18 and under). Hit seven destinations and enter a drawing for a $100 gift card. The costumed are encouraged to show off their duds and their Boo!seum booty by posting Instagram pix with the hashtag #LRbooseum. LNP

FRIDAY 10/31

HALLOWEEN COVER-UP: WILCO AND ELTON JOHN 10 p.m. White Water Tavern.

UNBEARABLE URGES: Nathan Englander speaks at Hendrix College at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, free.

THURSDAY 10/30

NATHAN ENGLANDER

7:30 p.m. Reves Recital Hall, Hendrix College.

Nathan Englander is often compared to Isaac Bashevis Singer and to Woody Allen. A Pulitzer Prize finalist, Englander’s writing has frequently appeared in “The Best American Short Stories” series, as well as in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly 38

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

and the Washington Post. The New York Times has described his story collections — including “For the Relief of Unbearable Urges” (1999) and “What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank” (2012) — as “poised at the trapdoor between spiritual thirst and physical hunger.” His characters clash with rabbis, therapists, wives and the Angel of Death. He’s writ-

ten plays, and published a translation of the ancient Jewish text the Haggadah. “I’m obsessed with the social contract, or rather the ways that it can be tested and eventually broken,” he said of his work in an interview with Granta. “It fascinates me how an individual has to hold so many opposing realities in his or her head simply in order to survive.” WS

For 12 years running, local musicians have used Halloween as an excuse to dress up like a favorite band and cover its songs in front of a costumed crowd. The now defunct Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative began the tradition, hosting truly memorable nights — American Princes did The Pixies so well, they did it two years in a row; a few years later, The Moving Front legitimized lazy music writer comparisons (cough, cough) by embracing them and playing as The Clash. At some point, the best bands started playing Halloween at White Water. There was The Boondogs and friends doing Fleetwood Mac. The Good Fear as Six Tom Pettys and a Heartbreaker, which the Fayetteville band enjoyed so much, it now does it annually (this year on Saturday at Smoke and Barrel in Fayetteville). And Greg Spradlin and members of Amasa Hines and Velvet Kente as The Allman Brothers. I haven’t been lately, but the formula for success is still there: Familiar music, played with enthusiasm and some precision, is really fun to sing along with when you’re dressed in a costume and tipsy. This year: Isaac Alexander does his best Jeff Tweedy, with Phillip Huddleston, Thom Asewicz, Lee Petray, Ryan Hitt, Brenna Gilstrap and Kim Farris rounding out the rest of “Wilco.” Expect more “Honky Cat” and “Crocodile Rock” and not so much “Candle in the Wind” and “Circle of Life” from Elton John imposters Justin Hicks, Gaines Fricke, Joe Yoder, Lucas Murray, Charles Lyford, Joshua Blackstock and James Szenher. LM

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 10/30

FRIDAY 10/31-SATURDAY 11/15

“TOPDOG/UNDERDOG”

7:30 p.m. Weekend Theater. $16.

Suzan Lori-Parks’ Pulitzer Prizewinning play about two brothers, named Lincoln and Booth by parents with a mean sense of humor and worse ability to care for them, who are struggling with racism, poverty, sibling

rivalry and petty crime, comes to the Weekend Theater for a three-weekend run Fridays and Saturdays Oct. 31-Nov. 1, Nov. 7-8 and Nov. 14-15. Byron Thomas Jr. plays Lincoln (the “topdog,” played by Don Cheadle off-Broadway in 2001); Jermaine McClure plays Booth (the “underdog,” Jef-

frey Wright on and off-Broadway) and also directs. New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote that the play “considers nothing less than the existential traps of being AfricanAmerican and male in the United States, the masks that wear the men as well as vice versa.” LNP

FRIDAY 10/31

TUESDAY 11/4

SLIPKNOT

7 p.m. Verizon Arena. $39-$80.

In 1995, Joey Jordison worked in a gas station in Des Moines, Iowa.

When he worked nights, his friends Paul and Shawn would hang out, and they’d talk about the band they wanted to start together. They were private school kids, children of stagnant Iowan suburbs. Generation Xers, born in the early 1970s, just like Beck and Green Day and Goodie Mob and Aphex Twin, but

Randy Oates, author of “The Healing Begins Today,” appears at WordsWorth Books for a book signing and reading, 4 p.m. The Joint hosts the launch party for KABF FM 88.3’s Pow Wow Radio Morning Show, featuring performances by Joshua Asante, Big Piph and Sean Fresh, 7 p.m.

Portland “choral pop” group Ages and Ages is at Juanita’s with Horse Thief, 8 p.m., $8. Giant Kitty and Madd Comrades are at Vino’s, 9 p.m., $5, and JB and the Moonshine Band plays at Revolution with the Trey Hawkins Band, $10 adv., $12 day of.

again: This was Iowa. Theirs was a sensibility that didn’t develop in record stores or downtown bars or dorm rooms — they didn’t have cool older brothers or college radio. They had absent fathers, Slayer and VHS horror. When they played in public, they wore masks. The masks changed over the years, but there were constants: leather straps, metal teeth, disfigured wooden noses, nails. They tuned their guitars down, added auxiliary percussion and turntables.

They called their fans “Maggots,” and NME described their concerts as “a scene of chaos.” They wrote songs with titles like “Wait and Bleed” and “I Am Hated” and “People=Shit” and “Iowa.” The last is 15 minutes long, a suite of distorted prog menace.

“Relax, it’s over,” it begins, “You belong to me.” In the background there is panting, maniacal laughter, pained groans. “I fill your mouth with dirt,” they sing. “Relax, it’s over.” WS

WEDNESDAY 11/5

ETERNAL SUMMERS

The Clinton School for Public Service presents a lecture titled “Facts and Myths: How Ebola in West Africa Affects Arkansas” at noon. The Old State House Museum presents “On the Hunt for the Texarkana Moonlight Phantom” at noon. At the Ron Robinson Theater, paranormal investigators present footage and findings, followed by screenings of horror shorts, 6:30 p.m., free. The Fold hosts a Day of the Dead Costume Party with DJ Seth Baldy, 9 p.m. The Buzz Halloween Bash is at Cajun’s Wharf, 7:30 p.m. Pizza D’Action presents its Friday the Thirsty First Halloween Party, with a costume contest and music by DJs Poebot and Calico Arms, 9 p.m. The Big Dam Halloween Improv Show is at The Joint at 9 p.m., featuring a performance by the Big Dam Horns, $10. Grateful Dead tribute band The Stolen Faces is at Stickyz at 9:30 p.m., $10.

8 p.m. Juanita’s. $8.

THE DROP BENEATH: Eternal Summers are at Juanita's at 8 p.m., $8.

“I wouldn’t say we live in a commune, as some would suggest,” Eternal Summers’ Daniel Cundiff told Impose Magazine in 2010. “However, we are very interwoven in the quilt of life and live closely with one another. We are all really into the spirit of music and really enjoy sound as a medium.” In other words, they live on a commune. Or, they did. Based somewhere in the woods of Roanoke, Va., the so-called Magic Twig Community was a collective of lo-fi musicians in the tradition of Elephant 6 from Athens, Ga. Eternal Summers, then a duo, was one of a number of overlapping bands that also included The Young Sinclairs, The Sad Cobras, SUNKING and The Missionaries. Their recording studio was called the “Mystic Fortress.” The band has domesticated a bit now. They have a bassist, a Facebook page, a publicist.

Recording their new record, “The Drop Beneath,” they eschewed the Mystical Fortress for Austin, Texas, and hired producer Doug Gillard, a former member of Guided By Voices. It’s 11 songs of goodnatured, upbeat garage pop, jangly and sensitive and bright. WS

SATURDAY 11/1 National Homebrew Day is celebrated all day at the Ron Robinson Theater with home-brewing demonstrations, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Kansas electronic duo The Floozies come to Revolution with Freddy Todd, 9 p.m., $13 adv., $15 day of. White Water Tavern hosts Mojo Depot at 9 p.m., $5. Indie pop group The Pains of Being Pure at Heart is at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. Former Creed front man Scott Stapp performs at Juanita’s with Cody Joe Tillman and The Wicked Truth, 9 p.m., $30. Consumers plays at Vino’s with Wolves in Sheeps’ Clothing, My Brother My Friend and Black Horse, 9 p.m., $5.

WEDNESDAY 11/5 Troy Poteete, director of the National Trail of Tears Association and a Cherokee Nation Supreme Court justice, speaks at the Ron Robinson Theater at noon. Film series Splice Microcinema returns at 8 p.m. with a screening of Francois Truffaut’s brilliant film noir homage, “Shoot the Piano Player” at design space Few. www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

39

AFTER DARK All events are in the Greater Little Rock area unless otherwise noted. To place an event in the Arkansas Times calendar, please email the listing and all pertinent information, including date, time, location, price and contact information, to calendar@arktimes.com.

ar.us/ron-robinson-theater.aspx.

BOOKS

Nathan Englander. Reves Recital Hall. Hendrix College, 7:30 p.m. 1600 Washington Ave., Conway. www.hendrix.edu.

Randy Oates. A book signing and appearance by the author of “The Healing Begins Today.”

WordsWorth Books & Co., 4 p.m., free. 5920 R St. 501-663-9198. www.wordsworthbooks.org.

THURSDAY, OCT. 30

MUSIC

Ages and Ages, Horse Thief. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Giant Kitty, Madd Comrades. Vino’s, 9 p.m., $5. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Heather Smith. Crush Wine Bar, 7 p.m. 318 Main St., NLR. 501-374-9463. www.facebook. com/pages/North-Little-Rock-AR/Crush-WineBar/125442286602.

“Inferno.” DJs play pop, electro, house and more, plus drink specials and $1 cover before 11 p.m.

Sway, 9 p.m. 412 Louisiana. 501-907-2582.

JB And the Moonshine Band, Trey Hawkins Band. Revolution, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Joshua Asante, Big Piph, Sean Fresh. The Pow Wow Radio Show launch party. The Joint, 7 p.m.

301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Krush Thursdays with DJ Kavaleer. Club Climax, free before 11 p.m. 824 W. Capitol. 501-554-3437.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

The Lowest Pair, Tyler Lee Holter. White Water Tavern, 9:30 p.m., $5. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-3758400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

Open Jam. Thirst n’ Howl, 8 p.m. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501-379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

Open jam with The Port Arthur Band. Parrot Beach Cafe, 9 p.m. 9611 MacArthur Drive, NLR. 771-2994.

Paul Thorn. George’s Majestic Lounge, 9 p.m., $20. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-4424226.

RockUsaurus. Senor Tequila, 7-9 p.m. 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-224-5505. www. senor-tequila.com.

SOULution. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $5. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com/.

White Chocolate (headliner), Richie Johnson (happy hour). Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 and 9 p.m.

2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

COMEDY

Mikey Mason. The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. $7-$10.

10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

EVENTS

23rd Annual Boo at the Zoo. With a haunted train ride, a “day of the dead” celebration on Nov. 1, trick-or-treating, bounce houses and a Frankenstein-themed dance party. Little Rock 40

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

CLASSES

Holiday Side Dishes Cooking Class. Pulaski Technical College-South Campus, 5:30 p.m., $85. Exit 128, I-30.

FRIDAY, OCT. 31

MUSIC

PHANTOM LIMB: Water Liars are at White Water Tavern 10 p.m. Tuesday.

Zoo, through Nov. 1, 6 p.m., $10. 1 Jonesboro Drive. 501-666-2406. www.littlerockzoo.com.

Central Arkansas New Agrarian Society Fall Mixer. Argenta Market, 6:30 p.m., $5 suggested donation. 521 N. Main St., NLR. 501-379-9980. www.argentamarket.com.

Girl’s Night Out with Indigo. Arkansas Repertory

Theatre, 6 p.m. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. www. therep.org.

Holiday House 2014. A holiday shopping event with over 180 merchants. Statehouse Convention Center, 9 a.m. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

Monster House. Ron Robinson Theater, 8 p.m., free. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals.lib.

2nd Annual Day of the Dead Costume Party.

With Halloween make-up, a $100 gift certificate for Best Costume and music by DJ Seth Baldy.

The Fold Botanas Bar. 3501 Old Cantrell Road.

501-916-9706. www.thefoldlr.com.

All In Fridays. Club Elevations. 7200 Colonel Glenn Road. 501-562-3317.

B Flats. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 9 p.m. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com/.

Blameshift, Burning Addison, Redefined Reflection. Vino’s, 9 p.m., $7. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Buzz Halloween Bash. Cajun’s Wharf, 7:30 p.m.

2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf.com.

Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. Dance night, with DJs, drink specials and bar menu, until 2 a.m.

1620 Savoy, 10 p.m. 1620 Market St. 501-2211620. www.1620savoy.com.

Friday the Thirsty First Halloween Party. With a costume contest and music by DJs Poebot and Calico Arms. Pizza D’Action, 9 p.m. 2919 W. Markham St. 501-666-5403.

Greenwood Studios 7 Year Anniversary Show.

Greenwood Studio, 10 p.m., $5. 2225 Prince St., Conway. 501-499-0101.

Halloween Cover Up Show. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

J Roddy Walston and The Business, Fly Golden Eagle. Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $12 adv., $15 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Lucious Spiller. Another Round Pub, 9 p.m. 12111 West Markham. www.anotherroundpub.com/.

Route 66. Agora Conference and Special Event Center, 6:30 p.m., $5. 705 E. Siebenmorgan, Conway.

The Stolen Faces. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9:30 p.m., $10. 107 Commerce St. 501372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com/.

COMEDY

The Big Dam Halloween Improv Show. The Joint, 9 p.m., $10. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Mikey Mason. The Loony Bin, 9 p.m., $7-$10.

10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555.

PARTY AT OUR PLACE!

www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Halloween ACDS Contra Dance. Park Hill Presbyterian Church, 7:30 p.m., $5. 3520 JFK Blvd., NLR. “Salsa Night.” Begins with a one-hour salsa lesson. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

23rd Annual Boo at the Zoo. See Oct. 30.

Fantastic Friday. Literary and music event, refreshments included. For reservations, call 479-968-2452 or email artscenter@centurytel. net. River Valley Arts Center, Every third Friday, 7 p.m., $10 suggested donation. 1001 E. B St., Russellville. 479-968-2452. www.arvartscenter.org.

Geocaching. The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

Holiday House 2014. A holiday shopping event with over 180 merchants. Statehouse Convention Center, 9 a.m. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

LGBTQ/SGL weekly meeting. Diverse Youth for Social Change is a group for LGBTQ/SGL and straight ally youth and young adults age 14 to 23. For more information, call 244-9690 or search “DYSC” on Facebook. LGBTQ/SGL Youth and Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m. 800 Scott St. Trick or Treat Mall-o-Ween. Park Plaza, 5 p.m., free. 6000 W. Markham St. 501-664-4956. www. parkplazamall.com/shop/parkplaza.nsf/index.

FILM

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Riverdale 10 Cinema, 6:45, 9 and 11 p.m. 2600 Cantrell Road. 501-296-9955.

LECTURES

“Facts and Myths: How Ebola in West Africa Affects Arkansans.” Sturgis Hall, noon. 1200 President Clinton Ave. 501-683-5200. clintonschool.uasys.edu.

“On the Hunt For the Texarkana Moonlight Phantom.” Old State House Museum, noon, free. 500 Clinton Ave. 501-324-9685. www.oldstatehouse.com.

Paranormal Theater. Presentations on paranormal investigation. Ron Robinson Theater, 6:30 p.m., free. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www. cals.lib.ar.us/ron-robinson-theater.aspx.

SATURDAY, NOV. 1

MUSIC

Club Nights at 1620 Savoy. See Oct. 31.

Consumers, Wolves In Sheeps Clothing, My Brother My Friend, Black Horse. Vino’s, 9 p.m., $5. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www. vinosbrewpub.com.

The Floozies, Freddy Todd. Revolution, 9 p.m., $13 adv., $15 day of. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

K.I.S.S. Saturdays. Featuring DJ Silky Slim. Dress code enforced. Sway, 10 p.m. 412 Louisiana.

501-492-9802.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Mojo Depot. White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $5.

2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www. stickyz.com.

Pickin’ Porch. Bring your instrument. All ages welcome. Faulkner County Library, 9:30 a.m. 1900 Tyler St., Conway. 501-327-7482. www.fcl.org.

Scott Stapp, Cody Joe Tillman and The Wicked Truth. Juanita’s, 9 p.m., $30. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 9 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com/.

Book Our Party Room Today!

All American Food & Great Place to Watch Your Favorite Event

COMEDY

Mikey Mason. The Loony Bin, 7:30 and 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Little Rock West Coast Dance Club. Dance lessons. Singles welcome. Ernie Biggs, 7 p.m., $2. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-247-5240. www. arstreetswing.com.

EVENTS

23rd Annual Boo at the Zoo. See Oct. 30.

Argenta Farmers Market. Argenta Farmers Market, 7 a.m. 6th and Main St., NLR. 501-8317881. www.argentaartsdistrict.org/argenta-farmers-market/.

Fall Craft Show and Used Book Sale. Grace Lutheran Church, 9 a.m., free. 5124 Hillcrest Ave. 501-663-3631.

Falun Gong meditation. Allsopp Park, 9 a.m., free. Cantrell & Cedar Hill Roads.

Geocaching. The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

Hillcrest Farmers Market. Pulaski Heights Baptist Church, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. 2200 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Historic Neighborhoods Tour. Bike tour of historic neighborhoods includes bike, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 9 a.m., $8-$28. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001.

Holiday House 2014. A holiday shopping event with over 180 merchants. Statehouse Convention Center, 9 a.m. 7 Statehouse Plaza.

“Inner” Active Family Festival. William J. Clinton Presidential Library, 11 a.m. 1200 Clinton Avenue.

501-374-4242. www.clintonlibrary.gov.

National Homebrew Day. All-day brewing demonstrations. Ron Robinson Theater. 1 Pulaski Way. 501-320-5703. www.cals.lib.ar.us/ron-robinsontheater.aspx.

Pork & Bourbon Tour. Bike tour includes bicycle, guide, helmets and maps. Bobby’s Bike Hike, 11:30 a.m., $35-$45. 400 President Clinton Ave. 501-613-7001.

BENEFITS

2014 Puppy Up! Little Rock. 2-Mile Walk and Silent Auction MacArthur Park, 11 a.m., $20 adv., $25 day of. 503 E. Ninth St. Aspire 5k. Two Rivers Park, 8 a.m., $25. Rivercrest Dr. www.littlerock.org/ParksRecreation.

SUNDAY, NOV. 2

MUSIC

Irish Traditional Music Session. Hibernia Irish Tavern, first and third Sunday of every month, 2:30 p.m. 9700 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-

Rockin’ Mondays! $2 Off all Rock Town products after 6pm

ROCK TOWN WHISKEY NOW ON TAP! OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK | 11AM - LATE % -!2+(!- s ,)44,% 2/#+ !2

(501) 324-2449

bigwhiskeyslittlerock.com

ERNIE BIGGS

HEAVEN

HELL

COSTUME PARTY Friday October 31st @ 8 PM

DJ Paul Grass Upstairs

E. C. Haynes

Opens Downstairs @ 6:30 PM Dueling Pianos @ 8:30 PM

incredible drink specials all night Costume Contest on both levels!

0ver $1,000 in prizes!

Special appearance by: The Captain Morgan Morganettes!

307 President Clinton Avenue Little Rock, Arkansas 72201 (501) 372-4782 www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

41

AFTER DARK, CONT.

PARTY

TIME!

246-4340. www.hiberniairishtavern.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Motopony. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $10. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

EVENTS

Halloween Party this Friday 10pm-2am • Drink Specials Featuring DJ Seth Baldy Best Costume Wins $100 gift card!

HEATED PATIO! L ATE NIGHT HOURS! Daily Drink Specials Happy Hour Tues-Fri 2-6pm • Open Late

3501 Old Cantrell Rd • 501.916.9706 • thefoldlr.com facebook.com/thefoldbar • twitter - @fold_the • instagram - littlerocktaco

2014 Full Moon Walk. Big Dam Bridge, 7 p.m., free. 7600 Rebsamen Park Road. www.bigdambridge.com.

Bernice Garden Farmer’s Market. Bernice Garden, 10 a.m. 1401 S. Main St. www.thebernicegarden.org.

Doggie Paddle Day. War Memorial Park, 2 p.m., $10. Van Buren and Markham Streets.

Geocaching. The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

“Live from the Back Room.” Spoken word event.

Vino’s, first Sunday of every month, 7 p.m. 923 W. 7th St. 501-375-8466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

MONDAY, NOV. 3

MUSIC

NO SKINNY STEAKS! ay

sday–Saturd

Piano Bar Tue e Bar Martini & Win

Wine 335 Selections Of ass Gl e Th By 35 e World Th ss ro Ac m Fro Fine Spirits Scotland Ever y Region Of Scotch List From urbons Bo l 6 Single-Barre

In The River Market District • 501.324.2999 sonnywilliamssteakroom.com

Free Valet Parking

WE ARE LOOKING FOR HONORABLE MEN to become members of the best deer camp in Arkansas.

JORDAN CAMP

15 minutes south of Monticello www.JordanHuntingCamp.com 42

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

Blue Man Group. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 7:30 p.m. 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Monday Night Jazz. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., $5. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com/.

Otis the Destroyer, Open Fields, Whale Fire.

Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $8. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Particle, Good Foot. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $10 adv., $12 day of. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Richie Johnson. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

TUESDAY, NOV. 4

MUSIC

Brian and Nick. Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m. 2400 Cantrell Road. 501-375-5351. www.cajunswharf. com.

Fred Eaglesmith Traveling Steam Show.

George’s Majestic Lounge, 8:30 p.m., $20. 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. 479-442-4226.

Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month.

120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Jeff Ling. Khalil’s Pub, 6 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com.

Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Karaoke Tuesdays. On the patio. Stickyz Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 7:30 p.m., free. 107 Commerce St. 501-372-7707. www.stickyz.com.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-372-4782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

Liz Longley. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $10. 614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www.juanitas.com.

Moon Taxi, The Bright Light Social Hour.

Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $15. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501-823-0090. revroom.com.

Music Jam. Hosted by Elliott Griffen and Joseph Fuller. The Joint, 8-11 p.m., free. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Slipknot, Korn, King 810. Verizon Arena, 7 p.m., $39-$80. 1 Alltel Arena Way, NLR. 501-975-9001.

verizonarena.com.

Tuesday Jam Session with Carl Mouton.

Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com/.

Water Liars, Midwest Caravan. White Water Tavern, 10 p.m. 2500 W. 7th St. 501-375-8400. www.whitewatertavern.com.

COMEDY

Stand-Up Tuesday. Hosted by Adam Hogg. The Joint, 8 p.m., $5. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

DANCE

“Latin Night.” Revolution, 7:30 p.m., $5 regular, $7 under 21. 300 President Clinton Ave. 501823-0090. www.littlerocksalsa.com.

EVENTS

Geocaching. The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www.centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

Trivia Bowl. Flying Saucer, 8:30 p.m. 323 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-8032. www.beerknurd. com/stores/littlerock.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 5

MUSIC

Acoustic Open Mic. Afterthought Bistro & Bar, 8 p.m., free. 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-1196. www.afterthoughtbistroandbar.com/.

Eternal Summers, Biblical. Juanita’s, 8 p.m., $8.

614 President Clinton Ave. 501-372-1228. www. juanitas.com.

Gil Franklin & Friends. Holiday Inn, North Little Rock, first Tuesday, Wednesday of every month.

120 W. Pershing Blvd., NLR. Jim Dickerson. Sonny Williams’ Steak Room, 7 p.m. 500 President Clinton Ave. 501-324-2999. www.sonnywilliamssteakroom.com.

Jimmy Kinard Group. South on Main, 7:30 p.m., free. 1304 Main St. 501-244-9660. southonmain. com.

Karaoke at Khalil’s. Khalil’s Pub, 7 p.m. 110 S. Shackleford Road. 501-224-0224. www.khalilspub.com.

Karaoke. MUSE Ultra Lounge, 8:30 p.m., free.

2611 Kavanaugh Blvd. 501-663-6398.

Live music. No cover charge Sun.-Tue. and Thu. Ernie Biggs. 307 Clinton Ave. 501-3724782. littlerock.erniebiggs.com.

The Moms, Everything Ever, Dead Anchors.

Vino’s, 9 p.m., $5. 923 W. 7th St. 501-3758466. www.vinosbrewpub.com.

Open Mic Nite with Deuce. Thirst n’ Howl, 7:30 p.m., free. 14710 Cantrell Road. 501379-8189. www.thirst-n-howl.com.

STS9. Fayetteville Town Center, 8 p.m., $29.50. 15 W. Mountain St., Fayetteville.

479-587-9944.

Ted Ludwig Trio. Capital Bar and Grill, 7:30 p.m., free. 111 Markham St. 501-370-7013. www.capitalbarandgrill.com/.

COMEDY

The Joint Venture. Improv comedy group.

The Joint, 8 p.m., $7. 301 Main St. No. 102, NLR. 501-372-0205. thejointinlittlerock.com.

Kevin Bozeman. The Loony Bin, Nov. 5-8, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 7-8, 10 p.m., $7-$10. 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road. 501-228-5555. www.loonybincomedy.com.

DANCE

Little Rock Bop Club. Beginning dance lessons for ages 10 and older. Singles welcome.

Bess Chisum Stephens Community Center,

AFTER DARK, CONT. 7 p.m., $4 for members, $7 for guests. 12th & Cleveland streets. 501-350-4712. www. littlerockbopclub.

EVENTS

14th Annual St. James Shopping Spree & Bazaar. St. James United Methodist Church, 12 p.m., free. 321 Pleasant Valley Drive. 501225-7372. www.stjames-umc.org.

Geocaching. The Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center, 8:30 a.m. 602 President Clinton Ave. 501-907-0636. www. centralarkansasnaturecenter.com.

BFA “Juried Senior Exhibition,” Nov. 6-Dec. 4. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., to 7 p.m. Thu. 501450-5793.

HOT SPRINGS FINE ARTS CENTER, 626 Central Ave. and Prospect: 3rd annual “Photographic Competition,” Oct. 30-Nov. 29, reception 5-9 p.m. Nov. 7. 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 501624-0489.

FAYETTEVILLE

THE DEPOT, 548 W. Dickson St: “Extrasensory Memory,” new works by Emily Chase, through Nov. 1; “Oh Wow! Reverence for Nature,” landscapes by Adam Campbell, Nov. 3-30, reception 5-8 p.m. Nov. 6, First Thursday. mbuonaiu@uark.edu.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS: “Lucious: The Body Adorned,” photographs, video by Lauren Kalman, tapestries by John Eric Riis, glitter covered panels by Jill Wissmiller, Nov. 3-Dec. 5, lecture by Wissmiller 5:30 p.m. Oct.

LECTURES

Troy Poteete. Director of the National Trail of Tears Association and Cherokee Nation Supreme Court Justice. Ron Robinson Theater, 12 p.m., free. 1 Pulaski Way. 501320-5703. www.cals.lib.ar.us/ron-robinsontheater.aspx.

POETRY

Wednesday Night Poetry. 21-and-older show. Maxine’s, 7 p.m., free. 700 Central Ave., Hot Springs. 501-321-0909. maxineslive.com/shows.html.

2600 CANTRELL RD 5 0 1 . 2 9 6 . 9 9 5 5 | R I V E R D A L E 1 0 .C O M

FEATURING DIGITAL LIGHT PROJECTION & DOLBY DIGITAL SOUND

SHOW TIMES: FRI, OCT 31-TUESDAY NOV 4 FURY (DIGITAL) R | 1:30 4:15 7:00 9:40 THE SKELETON TWINS (DIGITAL) R | 2:15 4:30 7:15 9:30 GONE GIRL (DIGITAL) R | 1:30 4:15 7:00 9:40 THE JUDGE (DIGITAL) R | 1:30 4:15 7:00 9:40 BOOK OF LIFE (DIGITAL) PG | 2:15 4:30 THE EQUALIZER (DIGITAL) R | 6:45 9:25

THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (DIGITAL) FRI 10/31 R | 6:45 9:00 11:00 NIGHTCRAWLER (DIGITAL) R | 1:45 4:10 6:45 9:15 BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP (DIGITAL) R | 2:00 4:20 7:15 9:15 HORNS (DIGITAL) R | 1:45 4:15 6:45 9:15 GLEN CAMPBELL: I’LL BE ME (DIGITAL) PG | 1:45 4:15 6:45 9:15 ST. VINCENT (DIGITAL) PG13 | 2:00 4:20 7:00 9:30

CONTINUING ART EXHIBITS

NOW SERVING BEER & WINE GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE

CLASSES

Wine Tasting 101. Pulaski Technical CollegeSouth Campus, 6 p.m., $75. Exit 128, I-30.

NEW GALLERY EXHIBITS, EVENTS

562-3131

murrysdp.com

COX CREATIVE CENTER, 120 River Market Ave.: “Who Lives-Who Dies-Who Decides: The Art Event on Capital Punishment,” works by Kenneth Reams and Isabelle Watson, Nov. 5-Dec. 31, reception 5:30-7:30 p.m. Nov. 13, tickets $20, purchase by contacting elanejudith@ gmail.com. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 918-3093.

LAMAN LIBRARY, 2801 Orange St., NLR: “The Rise of a Landmark: Lewis Hine and the Empire State Building,” photographs documenting the construction of New York’s famed building in 1930, Oct. 30-Dec. 28. 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Fri.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. (closed Nov. 27-28 and Dec. 24-25). 758-1720.

L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Still Life,” paintings by Louis Beck, drawing for free giclee 7 p.m. Nov. 20. 6604006.

STEPHANO’S FINE ART GALLERY, 1813 N. Grant: New work by Gene Brack. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Fri.; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Thu.; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 563-4218.

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK, Fine Arts Building: Faculty biennial, Gallery I, through Dec. 12, reception 5-7 p.m. Nov. 5; event celebrating Gallery II renaming to Ann Maners and Dr. Alex Pappas Gallery, 5:30 p.m. Nov. 5; “Perception/Reality,” concrete furniture by Mia Hall, Gallery II, through Nov. 10; “The Painted Figure: Artwork from the UALR Permanent Collection,” Gallery III, through Oct. 30. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun. 569-8977.

CONWAY UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS: BA/

HANK AND MY HONKY TONK HEROES November 11 & 12

AN EVENING WITH EDDIE MILES November 13, 14 & 15

PINE BLUFF HIGH COTTON EVENT SPACE, 220 Barraque St.: “100 Years of Light Through the Pines,” photographs and 15-minute documentary of historic Hotel Pines’ grand past and poor present, noon-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Nov. 3-8, reception with photographers 2-5 p.m. Nov.8.. 664-0553.

RUSSELLVILLE RIVER VALLEY ARTS CENTER, 1001 E. B St.: “The Natural State: An Ode to Arkansas,” paintings by Jessica Mae Simpson, opens with reception 1-3 p.m. Nov. 2, show through November. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fri. 479-968-2452.

FILM

“ S h o o t t h e P i a n o P l a y e r. ” Splice Microcinema. Few, 8 p.m., donations. 220 W. 6th St., Suite A. 501-628-9270.

30, room 102, Kimpel Hall; lecture by Kalman 5:30 p.m. Nov. 13, room 102, Kimpel Hall. 479575-7987.

DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER November 18 – December 31

a FREE Public CHARTER School announces its

TOWN MEETING

to introduce the opening of a new charter school in Little Rock

Tuesday, November 11th 6:30-8pm at St. John Baptist Church’s Fellowship Hall 2501 S. Main • Little Rock REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED Rockbridge Montessori School is currently applying to become a free and public open enrollment charter school. Montessori education is an established, hands-on curriculum that has over 4,500 schools in the United States and 20,000 schools internationally.

Free and public Montessori education will be offered in central Arkansas only through Rockbridge Montessori School, scheduled to open its doors in Fall 2015.

Rockbridge Montessori School is currently applying to become a free and public open enrollment charter school. Montessori education is an established, hands-on curriculum that has over 4,500 schools in the United States and 20,000 schools internationally. Free and public Montessori education will be

(CENTRAL ARKANSAS) ARGENTA GALLERY, 413A-B Main St.: “The Pornography of Color,” paintings by Ray Wittenberg, through Nov. 1. All sales benefit Art Connection. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tue.-Thu., 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Fri.-Sat. through Nov. 1. 225-5600.

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “William Beckman: Drawings 1967-2013,” through Feb. 1; “A Sense of Balance: The Sculpture of Stoney Lamar,” through Jan. 18, “Color, an Artist’s Tale: Paintings by Virmarie DePoyster,” through Feb. 15, Museum School Gallery. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000.

ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP. GROUP, 200 River Market Ave.: “People, Places and Things,” paintings by Kathy Strause and Taimur Cleary, jewelry

by Christie Young.

BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Johnny Cash: Arkansas Icon,” photographs and recorded music, Underground Gallery, through Jan. 24; “Echoes of the Ancestors: Native American Objects from the University of Arkansas Museum,” Concordia Gallery, through March 15, 2015; annual juried Arkansas League of Artists exhibition, West Gallery, through Dec. 27. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8206 Cantrell Road: “Painting,” work by Megan A. Lewis, through the end of the year. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335.

CHROMA GALLERY, 5707 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Robert Reep and other Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Sat. 664-0880.

CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: “Chihuly,” studio glass, through Jan. 5, 2015; permanent exhibits on the Clinton administration. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $7 adults; $5 college students, seniors, retired military; $3 ages 6-17. 370-8000.

THE EDGE, 301B President Clinton Ave.: Paintings by Avila (Fernando Gomez), Eric Freeman, James Hayes, Jerry Colburn, St. Joseph Thomason and Stephen Drive. 992-1099.

ELLEN GOLDEN ANTIQUES, 5701 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Paintings by Barry Thomas and Arden Boyce. 664-7746.

GALLERY 221 & ART STUDIOS 221, Pyramid Place: New works by Tyler Arnold, also work by Kathi Couch, Gino Hollander, Greg Lahti, Mary Ann Stafford, Byron Taylor, sculpture by Siri Hollander, jewelry by Rae Ann Bayless, Sean LeCrone, Emile and Brenda Fowler. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801-0211.

GALLERY 360, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: CONTINUED ON PAGE 44 www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

43

AFTER DARK, CONT. “Artists Scrounging,” assemblages of found objects by Laura Fanning, Melissa “Mo” Lashbrook, Michelle Canulla, Nina Sharkey Culpepper, Jay King, Jessica Crenshaw, Amy Edgington, Ming Donkey, Michael Crenshaw, Gerald Brown, Joyce Haase, Mike Church, Kelley Naylor Wise, Byron Werner, Loogie, Debra Young, Wade Wise, Chris Massingill, Lynn Frost, Steph Brouwers, Fabio Adrian Delgado, Ann Filiatreau and Jessica Forest, through Nov. 1. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 663-2222.

GINO HOLLANDER GALLERY, 2nd and Center: Paintings and works on paper by Gino Hollander. 801-0211.

GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Best of the South,” through Nov. 15. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Sat. 664-2787.

HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: “All That I Am: A Retrospective,” works on paper

by Aj Smith, through Nov. 8. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. 372-6822.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. 3rd St.: “Disciplined Inspiration,” photographs by Jack Kenner, art glass by Ed Pennebaker, through Nov. 9; “40 Years of the Arkansas Times,” through Dec. 9; “The Great Arkansas Quilt Show 3,” juried exhibit of contemporary quilts, through May 3; “A Beauty on It Sells: Advertising Art from the Collection of Marsha Stone,” 13th annual Eclectic Collector exhibit, through Jan. 1; “Arkansas Made,” ongoing. 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351.

LOCAL COLOUR, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Rotating work by 27 artists in collective. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422.

M2GALLERY, 11525 Cantrell Road (Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center): “Laureate,” retrospective of engravings by Evan Lindquist, Arkansas’s first artist laureate; also works by Richard Sutton and Jennifer and Richard Cutshall. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 944-7155.

MUGS CAFE, 515 Main St., NLR: “Energy & Elegance,” paintings and drawings by Steven Rockwell, Kelly Furr and Karlyn Holloway, through Nov. 18. 442-7778.

SEQUOYAH NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTER: “Toy Tipis and Totem Poles: Native American Stereotypes in the Lives of Children,” more than 1,500 objects and documents from the Hirschfelder-Molin collection, through Dec. 19. 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

Mon.-Fri. 569-8336.

CHRIST CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: MidSouthern Watercolorists’ 2014 “Special Juried Members Exhibition,” through Dec. 28. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 9 a.m.-noon Fri. sixthstreetlibrary.tumblr.com.

SIXTH STREET LIBRARY GALLERY, Christ Church, 509 Scott St.: Photographs by Tim Hursley, including time-lapse photos of Christ Church, his broken silo series and polygamist community series, through December. sixthstreetlibrary.tumblr.com.

STUDIOMAIN, 1423 S. Main St.: “Community Center Design Competition.” www.facebook.com/studio.main.ar.

WILDWOOD PARK, 20919 Denny Road: “Art in the Park,” work by Vicki Kovaleski, Emily Moll Wood, Tom Tull, Robin Tucker, Gary Wayne Golden, Tim Jacob, W. Michael Spain and Mark Johnson, through Nov. 16.

821-7275.

BENTON DIANNE ROBERTS ART STUDIO AND GALLERY, 110 N. Market St.: Work by Dianne Roberts, classes. 10 a.m.-9 p.m.

44

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat. 860-7467.

CONWAY ART ON THE GREEN, Littleton Park, 1100 Bob Courtway: Paintings by Harold Kraus, featured artist, also works by Patricia Wilkes, Nina Ruth Baker and Emelene Russell, through December. 501-499-3177.

HOT SPRINGS ALISON PARSONS GALLERY, 802 Central Ave.: Clay sculpture by Lori Arnold, wire tree sculpture by Kevin Treeman Chrislip, metal truck sculpture by Brian Cowdery; mobiles

by Gerald Lee Delavan; paintings by Alison Parson. 501-655-0604.

ARTISTS WORKSHOP GALLERY, 610 A Central Ave.: Paintings by John Faginkrantz and Jim Oberst, through October. 50-623-6401.

JUSTUS FINE ART, 827 Central Ave.: Mixed media paintings by Dan Thornhill, Kari Albright, Robyn Horn, Dolores Justus, V. Noe, Rebecca Thompson and others, through October. 501321-2335.

PERRYVILLE SUDS GALLERY, Courthouse Square: Paintings

by Dottie Morrissey, Alma Gipson, Al Garrett Jr., Phyllis Loftin, Alene Otts, Mauretta Frantz, Raylene Finkbeiner, Kathy Williams and Evelyn Garrett. Noon-6 p.m. Wed.-Fri, noon-4 p.m.

Sat. 501-766-7584.

PINE BLUFF ARTS AND SCIENCE CENTER FOR SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, 701 S. Main St.: “SUB|URBAN: Work by Dennis and Jason McCann,” through January; “A Deep Sense of Place: The Arkansas Delta,” the 2014 Pine Bluff Art League Juried Exhibition, through Nov. 12; “Nanotechnology: What’s the Big Deal?” through Jan. 2. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 1-4 p.m.

Sat. 870-536-3375.

CONTINUING EXHIBITS

(AROUND ARKANSAS)

BENTONVILLE CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way: “State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now,” work by more than 100 contemporary artists, through Jan. 5; permanent collection of American masterworks spanning four centuries. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sat.-Sun., closed Tue. 479-418-5700.

CALICO ROCK CALICO ROCK ARTISTS COOPERATIVE, Hwy. 5 at White River Bridge: Paintings, photographs, jewelry, fiber art, wood, ceramics and other crafts.

11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Thu., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri.-Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun. calicorocket.org/artists.

El DORADO SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. Fifth St.: “Clementine Hunter: The Nolan Collections,” through October. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 870862-5474.

FAYETTEVILLE FAYETTEVILLE UNDERGROUND, 101 W. Mountain St., Ste. 222: New drawings and paintings by Dominique Simmons, through Nov. 2.

GEORGE DOMBEK GALLERY, 844 Blue Springs Road: Open gallery and studio, includes work by wood sculptor Robyn Horn, 1-6 p.m. Sat.Sun. through Nov. 16.

FORT SMITH

REGIONAL ART MUSEUM, 1601 Rogers Ave.: “An American in Venice: James McNeill Whistler and his Legacy,” through Jan. 4; “Selections from the Permanent Collection,” including work

by Sandra Bermudez, William Mayes Flanagan, Louise Halsey, Jimmy Leach, Jane Osti and Peggi Kroll-Roberts, through Nov. 2. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 479-784-2787.

CALICO ROCK CALICO ROCK MUSEUM, Main Street: Displays on Native American cultures, steamboats, the railroad and local history. www.calicorockmuseum.com.

HARRISON ARTISTS OF THE OZARKS, 124½ N. Willow St.: Work by Amelia Renkel, Ann Graffy, Christy Dillard, Helen McAllister, Sandy Williams and D. Savannah George. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Thu.-Sat., noon-4 p.m. Sun. 870-429-1683.

ENGLAND TOLTEC MOUNDS STATE PARK, U.S. Hwy. 165: Major prehistoric Indian site with visitors’ center and museum. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun., closed Mon. $3 for adults, $2 for ages 6-12. 961-9442.

JONESBORO ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY, Bradbury Gallery: “Chimera,” work by faculty members Nikki Arnell and Joe Ford, through Nov. 12.

Noon-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun. 870-9723471.

JACKSONVILLE JACKSONVILLE MUSEUM OF MILITARY HISTORY, 100 Veterans Circle: Exhibits on D-Day; F-105, Vietnam era plane (“The Thud”); the Civil War Battle of Reed’s Bridge, Arkansas Ordnance Plant (AOP) and other military history. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $3 adults; $2 seniors, military; $1 students. 501-241-1943.

MORRILTON MUSEUM OF AUTOMOBILES, Petit Jean MOUNTAIN: Permanent exhibit of more than 50 cars from 1904-1967 depicting the evolution of the automobile. 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

7 days. 501-727-5427.

HISTORY, SCIENCE EXHIBITS

ARKANSAS INLAND MARITIME MUSEUM, North Little Rock: 371-8320.

ARKANSAS SPORTS HALL OF FAME MUSEUM, Verizon Arena, NLR: 10 a.m.4:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 663-4328.

CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSEUM VISITOR CENTER, Bates and Park: Exhibits on the 1957 desegregation of Central and the civil rights movement. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. 374-1957.

ESSE PURSE MUSEUM & STORE, 1510 S. Main St.: “Handbags for Hillary,” collaboration with Clinton Presidential Library in honor of 10th anniversary, through November; “Barbie®: The Vintage Years, 1959-1972,” private collection. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sun., $8-$10. 916-9022.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. 3rd St.: Historic tavern, refurbished 19th century structures from original city, permanent exhibits on the Bowie knife and Arkansas’s Native American tribes (“We Walk in Two Worlds”), also changing exhibits. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351.

MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS MILITARY HISTORY, MacArthur Park: “First Call – American Posters of World War I”; “Capital In Crisis: Little Rock and the Civil War”; “Through the Camera’s Eye: The Allison Collection of World War II Photographs”; Conflict and Crisis: The MacArthur-Truman Controversy.” 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602.

MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 501 W. 9th St.: Exhibits on black cultural life and entrepreneurship in Arkansas. 683-3593.

MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: “Wiggle Worms,” science program for pre-K children 10 -10:30 a.m. every Tue. Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 ages 13 and older, $8 ages 1-12, free to members and children under 1. 396-7050.

OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham: “Different Strokes,” the history of bicycling and places cycling in Arkansas, featuring artifacts, historical pictures and video, through February 2016; “Lights! Camera!

Arkansas!”, the state’s ties to Hollywood, including costumes, scripts, film footage, photographs and more, through March 1, 2015. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m.

Sun. 324-9685.

WITT STEPHENS JR. CENTRAL ARKANSAS NATURE CENTER, Riverfront Park: Exhibits

on wildlife and the state Game and Fish Commission. 907-0636.

POTTSVILLE POTTS INN, 25 E. Ash St.: Preserved 1850s stagecoach station on the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, with period furnishings, log structures, hat museum, doll museum, doctor’s office, antique farm equipment. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Sat. $5 adults, $2 students, 5 and under free. 479968-9369.

ROGERS ROGERS HISTORICAL MUSEUM, 322 S. Second St.: “IMAGINE: A NEW Rogers Historical Museum,” conceptual designs of new exhibition areas to be built. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., tours of Hawkins House 1-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 479-6210-1154.

SCOTT SCOTT PLANTATION SETTLEMENT: 1840s log CABIN, one-room school house, tenant houses, smokehouse and artifacts on plantation life. 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Thu.-Sat. 351-0300. www.scottconnections.org.

CALL FOR ARTISTS, ANNOUNCEMENTS

The Arkansas Arts Council is seeking nominations for the 2015 Arkansas Living Treasure. Deadline for nominations is Nov. 14. The annual award honors an Arkansan who is outstanding in the creation of a traditional craft and has significantly contributed to the preservation of the art form. Go to www.arkansasarts. org or call 324-9766 for nomination forms.

For more information, call Robin Muse McClea, artist services program manager, at 324-9348 or email robinm@arkansasheritage.org.

StudioMAIN is taking proposals from artists for sculpture to be placed in three areas of Main Street between 12th and 17th streets. For more information contact James Meyer, southmainpublicart@ gmail.com or 374-5300, or go to www. southmainpublicart.com. Proposals are due by Dec. 15.

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Full of interesting voices and colorful portraits of 17 Little Rock and North Little Rock neighborhoods, this book gives an intimate, block-by-block, native’s view of the place more than 250,000 Arkansans call home. Created from interviews with residents and largely written by writers who actually live in the neighborhoods they’re writing about, the book features over 90 full color photos by Little Rock photographer Brian Chilson.

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Payment: check or credit card Order by Mail: arkansas times Books P.o. Box 34010, LittLe rock, ar 72203 Phone: 501-375-2985 Fax: 501-375-3623 Email: anitra@arktimes.com Send ______________ book(s) of The Unique Neighborhoods of Central Arkansas @ $19.95 Send ______________ book(s) of A History Of Arkansas @ $10.95 Send ______________ book(s) of Almanac Of Arkansas History @ $18.95 Shipping and handling $3 per book Name _____________________________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________________________ City, State, Zip _______________________________________________________ Phone ____________________________________________________________ Visa, MC, AMEX, Disc # ___________________________________ Exp. Date _______

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

45

ARKANSAS READING ROOM, CONT.

“The Southern Manifesto: Massive Resistance and the Fight to Preserve Segregation.”

By John Kyle Day University Press of Misssissippi, $52.80 The Central High crisis of 1957 will forever be the iconic image of white Southern resistance to Brown v. Board of Education, but it was only the high- water mark on a much larger movement of segregationist elected officials calling for defiance of the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision ordering the integration of American public

schools. In 1956, 19 Southern senators and 77 members of the House signed a document that became known as the “Southern Manifesto” — a resolution that deemed Brown a “clear abuse of judicial power” that “has planted hatred and suspicion where there has been heretofore friendship and understanding.”

John Kyle Day, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, has written a political history of that episode, during which the Southern Congressional Delegation endorsed open defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court. Understanding Day’s narrative requires some

prior knowledge of the historical backstory, and he commits the error of including a few too many names of congressmen and journalists without adequate introduction to those figures. There’s also not much in the way of ordinary voices, either black or white; this is a book about politics and politicians, not everyday people.

But Day is a strong, fluid writer with the right balance of moral conviction and academic distance, and he makes some intriguing claims.

Prior to the Southern Manifesto, he argues, white opposition to civil rights was widespread, but encompassed a

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

range of viewpoints about how to comply with Brown. When Southern congressmen united behind the resolution, something shifted. Southern Democratic politicians, including Arkansas’s own Sens. William Fulbright and John McClellan, made the choice (largely for partisan reasons) to draw a line in the sand that ultimately set the stage for the state-condoned violence of the 1960s. The document, Day says, “made the white South’s definition of race relations a legitimate point of debate in the national discussion.” Those repercussions are with us still. BH “Classic Eateries of the Arkansas Delta”

By Kat Robinson, photography by Grav Weldon American Palate, $19.99 This guide, almost certainly not coincidentally, is styled in precisely the same way as Lane Birdfinding guides, right down to the fonts. As Lane guides give birders driving directions to places they’ll find, say, the painted bunting, Kat Robinson’s guide steers the hungry through the Delta to find, say, the polish sausages at the Pic-Nic-Ker Drive In in Dumas (the Lower Delta section), or the donut bread pudding at the Tudor-styled Wilson Cafe in Wilson (the Upper Delta section), and provides little colorful histories and color photographs along the way. She also shares recipes from some of these out-of-theway spots, such as Biscuit Pudding for Supper from the Ole Sawmill Cafe in Forrest City. If you’ve ever been on the road and having a hard time finding a decent place to eat — a not-uncommon experience in Arkansas — you’ll be glad to have this book. Even if you haven’t, you’ll want the book. Maybe she’ll take on Southwest Arkansas next, and good luck to her. LNP

MOVIE REVIEW

SHOP ‘N’ SIP Shop ’til 8pm and enjoy dining in one of the many area restaurants.

‘JOHN WICK’: Keanu Reeves stars.

Keanu kills ‘Wick’ better than expected.

BY SAM EIFLING

H

aters who rip Keanu Reeves for his wooden acting overlook the concomitant brilliance when he is cast as a tree. The title role in “John Wick” is uncommonly suited to his Botoxian stoicism. Wick, a retired gangland assassin, was so skilled at his job that when he told his thenboss, a powerful mobster name of Viggo (Michael Nyqvist), that he was leaving the life, bossman actually let him do so, pending Wick’s completing something so stupendously impossible that he should’ve died. He didn’t, and Viggo let him go out to pasture, to get married and lie low in Jersey.

Instead, and there had to be an instead, life intervened. The wife, she died. As Wick grapples with his grief, a couple of lowlifes steal his car and kill his dog. You can fairly presume these lowlifes won’t have long lives.

Except, oops, one of them (Alfie Allen, Theon Greyjoy of “Game of Thrones”) happens to be Viggo’s kid. Viggo knows enough about Wick, upon learning what happened, to essentially launch a preemptive gang war against his former employee. The results are what you might call mixed, at best.

These are the flour, eggs and milk of your run-of-the-mill noir revenge flick. Going beyond the basics, firsttime directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, both stuntmen with resumes as long as an IV drip line, swirl in heaping doses of slick weirdness without letting flash overwhelm substance. For instance: The fact that Wick’s reputation precedes him so that no one with any sense wants any part of him whatsoever adds a glint of realism to what could otherwise become a cartoon. The fight sequences are heavy on the gunplay but

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move at a pace and rhythm befitting a Jackie Chan movie, or perhaps a round of “Splinter Cell” on Xbox. The violence is brutal, unyielding, and yet stops just shy of hyperbolic. Small touches in Wick’s style (finishing his adversaries with two shots to the head — the doubletap — stands out) make this guy feel different from the homicidal dervishes we’ve cheered in movies past.

Deeper into this world, too, we find deadpan, surrealistic flourishes that bring buoyancy to the grimness.

Adrianne Palicki, Ian McShane, Willem Dafoe and Lance Reddick appear as players in a sort of hitman subculture with its own rules and norms. The humor here is arch but subtle, with a touch of a modern sci-fi cool to the lingo and the currency (a single gold coin for seemingly every transaction).

The hotel where Wick holes up for a while, the Continental, could earn its own network spin-off series, as a hive of assassins where business cannot be conducted on the premises (i.e., no murdering allowed) but where its house doctor will come stitch up your knife wounds and advise you on how to keep fighting when they inevitably rip. Because work calls.

It all amounts to dark fun served cold. The secret weapon here is Nyqvist, the crime boss who is thoroughly unsurprised, to the point of casual resignation, that Wick is picking apart his empire, man by man, corpse by corpse. Meanwhile, for his part, Reeves doesn’t have to strike too many notes.

He is no viola. At best, he is a timpani, in command of a truncated scale. Anger, he has down pat. Homicidal rage, that’s also pretty convincing. The smiling, he leaves for other people.

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47

Dining

Information in our restaurant capsules reflects the opinions of the newspaper staff and its reviewers. The newspaper accepts no advertising or other considerations in exchange for reviews, which are conducted anonymously. We invite the opinions of readers who think we are in error.

B Breakfast L Lunch D Dinner $ Inexpensive (under $8/person) $$ Moderate ($8-$20/person) $$$ Expensive (over $20/person) CC Accepts credit cards

WHAT’S COOKIN’ Diamond Bear Brewing Company has decided to put the spacious north lawn of its new North Little Rock headquarters to good use. On weekends when the weather is pleasant, the brewery is setting up areas for visitors to drink beer and play bocce ball, Frisbeer (which involves trying to knock a beer bottle off a PVC pipe lodged into the ground), Baggo and other games.

In last week’s item on Three Fold Noodles and Dumpling Co., a new Little Rock restaurant planning to open in mid-December at 215 Center St., we misspelled owner Lisa Zhang’s name and mistakenly suggested that she won’t make Three Fold’s steamed buns in house.

DINING CAPSULES

AMERICAN

4 SQUARE CAFE AND GIFTS Vegetarian salads, soups, wraps and paninis and a broad selection of smoothies in an Arkansas products gift shop. 405 President Clinton Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-244-2622. BLD Mon.-Sat., L Sun. APPLE SPICE JUNCTION A chain sandwich and salad spot with sit-down lunch space and a vibrant box lunch catering business. With a wide range of options and quick service. Order online via applespice.com. 2000 S. University Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $$. 501-663-7008. L Mon.-Fri. (10 a.m.-3 p.m.).

ARKANSAS BURGER CO. Good burgers, fries and shakes, plus salads and other entrees. Try the cheese dip. 7410 Cantrell Road. Beer and wine, CC. $-$$. 501-663-0600. LD Tue.-Sat. BELLWOOD DINER Traditional breakfasts and plate lunch specials are the norm at this lostin-time hole in the wall. 3815 MacArthur Drive.

NLR. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-753-1012. BL Mon.-Fri. THE BLIND PIG Tasty bar food, including Zweigle’s brand hot dogs. 6015 Chenonceau Blvd. Full bar, CC. $-$$. 501-868-8194. D Wed-Fri., LD Sat. BONEFISH GRILL A half-dozen or more types of fresh fish filets are offered daily at this upscale chain. 11525 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$$.

501-228-0356. D Mon.-Fri., LD Sat-Sun. BRAVE NEW RESTAURANT Chef/owner Peter Brave was doing “farm to table” before most of us knew the term. His focus is on fresh, highquality ingredients prepared elegantly but simply. Ordering the fish special is never a bad choice. His chocolate crème brulee sets the pace. 2300 Cottondale Lane. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-663-2677. LD Mon.-Sat. BRAY GOURMET DELI AND CATERING Turkey spreads in four flavors -- original, jalapeno, Cajun and dill -- and the homemade pimiento cheese are the signature items at Chris Bray’s delicatessen, which serves sandwiches, wraps, soups, stuffed potatoes and salads and sells the turkey spreads to go. 323 48

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

The Pantry Crest 722 N. Palm St. 725-4945 littlerockpantry.com

QUICK BITE Sign up for The Pantry’s email newsletter to receive “buzzwords,” a sort of code that is good for special deals on food and drink. Get the word, mention it to your server, and reap the benefits of staying connected.

HOURS 4 p.m. until midnight Monday through Saturday. Bar open later.

OTHER INFO Full bar, all major CC accepted.

APPETIZING: The Pantry Board.

The Pantry stocks up Hillcrest Comfort food, homey feel fits the neighborhood.

I

f the address and the antique staircase inside hadn’t been the same, we never would have realized we were in the same spot that formerly played host to The House restaurant. Gone are the dingy walls, replaced by new paint and bright fixtures. Gone, too, are the scuffed floors; now the wood is polished to a warm walnut glow. Everything is new here, the product of a massive overhaul of the property, which was gutted and reconstructed in the image that Pantry Crest owner Tomas Bohm had in mind for casual fine dining in Hillcrest. Even the foundation of the converted residence has been strengthened and leveled, a theme that proves true for the food as well as the building.

The Pantry bills itself as having a German/Czech bent, with its schnitzels, svickova, goulash and bratwurst, but it can’t be pigeonholed into one ethnic label.

Rather,The Pantry is about comfort food — rustic, simple and well-made dishes that hearty eaters can enjoy over a stein of imported beer or one of the excellent cocktails stirred up at the bar. It’s a place that works best with a large group, as many of the most outstanding menu items are meant to be shared, and while the food isn’t going to blow anyone away with its style or complexity, it’s not really intended

to — which is just fine with us.

The Pantry Crest’s menu is almost identical to its West Little Rock counterpart’s, and while it was nice seeing so many familiar dishes, it seems a shame that beyond a couple of minor tweaks, there isn’t really anything to differentiate this restaurant from the one on Rodney Parham. Still, our table was pleased to order one old favorite, The Pantry Board ($19.25), because this charcuterie extravaganza is one of those destination appetizers worth a trip out by itself. This board is like a who’s who of delicious meat products. First up, a bratwurst that might be the best in town: juicy, flavorful, and with a casing that provides just the right amount of snap. Next, a one-two punch of pork terrine with pistachios and a smooth, rich chicken liver mousse, both of which kept us munching in delighted silence for a good while. The only weak point to the board was a rillette that tasted a little too strongly of fat, but we admit that’s more of a personal preference issue than one of quality.

We paired our charcuterie board with a cheese board ($10) and an order of Brussels sprouts ($5), and were treated to a nice selection of cheeses: creamy Brie, a mild chevre, a sharp blue and one of the best fetas we’ve ever eaten. A highlight

of the cheese board was the three pickled figs, which added a bold punch to the rich flavor of the cheese. The sprouts were cooked just right to maintain their texture and sweetness — a hard thing to pull off, as sprouts tend to be a vegetable that goes from great to bad very quickly.

By the time our entrees hit the table, our entire party was in good spirits and ready to dig in. A bowl of Moules Frites ($14.95), tender mussels bolstered by a wonderful white wine and tomato sauce, came with crisp fries and aioli on the side.

The Lasagna al Forno ($12.50) looked fantastic but was unfortunately a little bland, with a sweet tomato sauce that didn’t do the dish any favors. It was with our last entree, the Fish and Frites ($12.95), where we found true love — two massive slabs of moist, flaky cod fried in a perfect batter and served piping hot with a pile of delicious fries. Portions are always generous at The Pantry, but these pieces of fish were so huge we shared several bites around the table and had plenty to spare.

Fish and chips is so simple, yet we’ve not found very many places in Arkansas that do the dish justice, so it was considered one of the great discoveries of the meal.

The Pantry Crest is a great fit for the neighborhood. It’s tasty without being fussy, provides great service without being overbearing, and overall exists as a homey, comforting space where friends and family can bond over some delicious food. As service settles in, here’s hoping that the Hillcrest restaurant will start asserting itself with more independent menu items. Those sorts of things come with time, however, and given the crowded dining room and tasty, rustic fare, The Pantry Crest will have the business to support taking all the time it needs.

BELLY UP

*

Check out the Times’ food blog, Eat Arkansas arktimes.com

Center St. Suite 150. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-353-1045. BL Mon.-Fri. BUFFALO WILD WINGS A sports bar on steroids with numerous humongous TVs and a menu full of thirst-inducing items. The wings, which can be slathered with one of 14 sauces, are the starring attraction and will undoubtedly have fans. 14800 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-868-5279. LD daily.

BY THE GLASS A broad but not ridiculously large wine list is studded with interesting, diverse selections, and prices are uniformly reasonable. The food focus is on high-end items that pair well with wine -- olives, hummus, cheese, bread, and some meats and sausages.

Happy hour daily from 4-6 p.m. 5713 Kavanaugh Blvd. Beer and wine, All CC. $$. 501-663-9463.

D Mon.-Sat. CAFE BRUNELLE Coffee shop and cafe serving sweets, tasty sandwiches and Loblolly ice cream.

17819 Chenal Parkway. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-448-2687. BLD daily.

CAFE@HEIFER Serving fresh pastries, omelets, soups, salads, sandwiches and pizzas. Located inside Heifer Village. 1 World Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-907-8801. BL Mon.-Fri. CAPITAL BAR AND GRILL Big hearty sandwiches, daily lunch specials and fine evening dining all rolled up into one at this landing spot downtown. Surprisingly inexpensive with a great bar staff and a good selection of unique desserts. 111 Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-370-7013. LD daily.

CAPITOL BISTRO Serving breakfast and lunch items, including quiche, sandwiches, coffees and the like. 1401 W. Capitol Ave. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-371-9575. BL Mon.-Fri. CATERING TO YOU Painstakingly prepared entrees and great appetizers in this gourmetto-go location, attached to a gift shop. Caters everything from family dinners to weddings and large corporate events. 8121 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-614-9030. Serving meals to go: LD Mon.-Sat. CATFISH HOLE Downhome place for wellcooked catfish and tasty hushpuppies. 603 E. Spriggs. NLR. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-758-3516.

D Tue.-Sat. CELLAR 220 Ecclectic menu and strong wine list.

220 W. 6th St. Full bar, CC. $$$. 501-374-5100.

LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. CIAO BACI The focus is on fine dining in this casually elegant Hillcrest bungalow, though excellent tapas are out of this world. The treeshaded, light-strung deck is a popular destination. 605 N. Beechwood St. Full bar, All CC. $$$.

501-603-0238. D Mon.-Sat. CRAZEE’S COOL CAFE Good burgers, daily plate specials and bar food amid pool tables and TVs. 7626 Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-221-9696. LD Mon.-Sat. CUPCAKES ON KAVANAUGH Gourmet cupcakes and coffee, indoor seating. 5625 Kavanaugh Blvd. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-664-2253. LD Mon.-Sat. DEMPSEY BAKERY Bakery with sit down area, serving coffee and specializing in gluten-, nutand soy-free baked goods. 323 Cross St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-375-2257. Serving BL Tue.-Sat. DOE’S EAT PLACE A skid-row dive turned

CONTINUED ON PAGE 50

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OCTOBER 29 - NOVEMBER 4, 2014 power brokers’ watering hole with huge steaks, great tamales and broiled shrimp, and killer burgers at lunch. 1023 W. Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-376-1195. LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat. DOUBLETREE PLAZA BAR & GRILL The lobby restaurant in the Doubletree is elegantly comfortable, but you’ll find no airs put on at heaping breakfast and lunch buffets. 424 West Markham St. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-372-4371.

BLD daily.

EJ’S EATS AND DRINKS The friendly neighborhood hoagie shop downtown serves at a handful of tables and by delivery. The sandwiches are generous, the soup homemade and the salads cold. Vegetarians can craft any number of acceptable meals from the flexible menu. The housemade potato chips are da bomb. 523 Center St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$.

501-666-3700. LD Mon.-Fri., BR Sun. FILIBUSTER’S BISTRO & LOUNGE Sandwiches, salads in the Legacy Hotel. 625 W. Capitol Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-374-0100. D Mon.-Fri. FIVE GUYS BURGERS & FRIES Nationwide burger chain with emphasis on freshly made fries and patties. 2923 Lakewood Village Drive.

NLR. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-246-5295. LD daily. 13000 Chenal Parkway. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-1100. LD daily.

FLYING FISH The fried seafood is fresh and crunchy and there are plenty of raw, boiled and grilled offerings, too. The hamburgers are a hit, too. It’s counter service; wander on through the screen door and you’ll find a slick team of cooks and servers doing a creditable job of serving big crowds. 511 President Clinton Ave. Beer and wine, All CC. $$. 501-375-3474. LD daily.

GINO’S PIZZA AND PHILLY STEAK 8000 Geyer Springs Road. 501-562-0152. LD daily.

THE GRAND CAFE Typical hotel restaurant fare from this Hilton cafe. 925 South University Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-664-5020. BD daily.

GRUMPY’S TOO Music venue and sports bar with lots of TVs, pub grub and regular drink specials. 1801 Green Mountain Drive. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-225-3768. D Mon.-Sat. GUS’S WORLD FAMOUS FRIED CHICKEN The best fried chicken in town can now be had in West Little Rock. 300 President Clinton Ave. Beer, CC. $-$$. 501-372-2211. LD daily.; 400 N. Bowman. Beer. 501-400-8745. LD daily.

HOMER’S Great vegetables, huge yeast rolls and killer cobblers. Follow the mobs. 2001 E. Roosevelt Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-374-1400. BL Mon.-Fri. 9700 N Rodney Parham. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-6637. BLD Mon.-Sat., BL Sun. IRONHORSE SALOON Bar and grill offering juicy hamburgers and cheeseburgers. 9125 Mann Road. Full bar, All CC. $. 501-562-4464.

LD daily.

J. GUMBO’S Fast-casual Cajun fare served, primarily, in a bowl. Better than expected. 12911 Cantrell Road. Beer, All CC. $-$$. 501-916-9635.

LD daily.

JIMMY’S SERIOUS SANDWICHES Consistently fine sandwiches, side orders and desserts for 30 years. Chicken salad’s among the best in town, and there are fun specialty sandwiches such as Thai One On and The Garden. Get there early

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

49

DINING CAPSULES, CONT. for lunch. 5116 W. Markham St. No alcohol, CC. $-$$. 501-666-3354. L Mon.-Sat., D Mon.-Sat. (drive-through only).

K. HALL AND SONS Neighborhood grocery store with excellent lunch counter. The cheeseburger is hard to beat. 1900 Wright Avenue. No alcohol, CC. $. 501-372-1513. BLD Mon.-Sat. (closes at 6 p.m.), BL Sun. KRAZY MIKE’S Po’Boys, catfish and shrimp and other fishes, fried chicken wings and all the expected sides served up fresh and hot to order on demand. 200 N. Bowman Road. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-907-6453. LD Mon.-Sat. LOCA LUNA Grilled meats, seafood and pasta dishes that never stray far from country roots, whether Italian, Spanish or Arkie. “Gourmet plate lunches” are good, as is Sunday brunch.

3519 Old Cantrell Road. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$.

501-663-4666. BR Sun., LD Mon.-Fri., D Sat.

THE MAIN CHEESE A restaurant devoted to grilled cheese. 14524 Cantrell Road. Beer and wine. $-$$. 501-367-8082. LD Mon.-Sat. MILFORD TRACK Healthy and tasty are the key words at this deli/grill that serves breakfast and lunch. Hot entrees change daily and there are soups, sandwiches, salads and killer desserts. Bread is baked in-house, and there are several veggie options. 10809 Executive Center Dr., Searcy Building. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-223-2257. BL Mon.-Fri., L Sat. NATCHEZ RESTAURANT Smart, elegant takes on Southern classics. 323 Center St. Beer and wine, CC. $$-$$$. 501-372-1167. L Tue.-Fri., D Wed.-Sat. THE OYSTER BAR Gumbo, red beans and rice (all you can eat on Mondays), peel-andeat shrimp, oysters on the half shell, addictive po’ boys. Killer jukebox. 3003 W. Markham St.

Beer and wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-7100. LD Mon.-Sat. OZARK COUNTRY RESTAURANT A longstanding favorite with many Little Rock residents, the eatery specializes in big country breakfasts and pancakes plus sandwiches and several meat-and-two options for lunch and dinner. Try the pancakes and don’t leave without some sort of smoked meat. 202 Keightley Drive. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-663-7319. BL daily.

PANERA BREAD This bakery/cafe serves freshly baked breads, bagels and pastries every morning as well as a full line of espresso beverages. Panera also offers a full menu of sandwiches, hand-tossed salads and hearty soups. 11525 Cantrell Road. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$. 501-227-0222. BLD daily.; 314 S. University.

501-664-6878. BLD. PLAYTIME PIZZA Tons of fun isn’t rained out

Go BIG with ideas for a better Arkansas

WE NEED YOU

Have a Big Idea for Arkansas?

It could be featured in the Arkansas Times’ 5th annual Big Ideas for Arkansas issue on Dec. 18. We’re looking for specific, potentially transformative suggestions for making Arkansas a better place to live. Ideas can be practical or wacky or anything in between.

See past ideas at arktimes.com/bigideas. Submit your idea to Lindsey Millar at lindseymillar@arktimes.com before Dec. 1.

ARKANSAS TIMES arktimes.com

50

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

by lackluster eats at the new Playtime Pizza, the $11 million, 65,000-square-foot kidtopia near the Rave theater. While the buffet is only so-so, features like indoor mini-golf, laser tag, go karts, arcade games and bumper cars make it a winner for both kids and adults. 600 Colonel Glenn Plaza Loop. All CC. $-$$. 501-227-7529.

D Mon.-Wed., LD Thu.-Sun. PURPLE COW DINER 1950s fare -- cheeseburgers, chili dogs, thick milk shakes -- in a ‘50s setting at today’s prices. 8026 Cantrell Road.

Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-221-3555. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. 11602 Chenal Pkwy. Full bar, All CC. $$. 501-224-4433. LD daily, BR Sat.-Sun. 1419 Higden Ferry Road. Hot Springs. Beer, All CC. $$. 501-625-7999. LD daily, B Sun. THE RELAY STATION This grill offers a short menu, which includes chicken strips, French fries, hamburgers, jalapeno poppers and cheese sticks. 12225 Stagecoach Road. Full bar, All CC. $-$$. 501-455-9919. LD daily.

THE ROOT CAFE Homey, local foods-focused cafe. With tasty burgers, homemade bratwurst, banh mi and a number of vegan and veggie options. Breakfast and Sunday brunch, too. 1500 S. Main St. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-414-0423. BL Tue.-Sat., BR Sun. SALUT BISTRO This bistro/late-night hangout does upscale tapas. 1501 N. University. Full bar, All CC. $$-$$$. 501-660-4200. L Mon.-Fri., D Tue.-Sat. SANDY’S HOMEPLACE CAFE Specializing in home style buffet, with two meats and seven vegetables to choose from. It’s all-youcan-eat. 1710 E 15th St. No alcohol, No CC. $. 501-375-3216. L Mon.-Fri. SATCHEMO’S BAR AND GRILL Pulled pork egg rolls, chicken fries and a “butter” burger star. 1900 W. Third St. Full bar, All CC. $-$$.

501-725-4657. L Mon.-Wed., LD Thu.-Sun. SCALLIONS Reliably good food, great desserts, pleasant atmosphere, able servers -- a solid lunch spot. 5110 Kavanaugh Blvd.

Beer and wine, All CC. $-$$. 501-666-6468.

L Mon.-Sat. SCOOP DOG 5508 John F. Kennedy Blvd. NLR. No alcohol, No CC. 501-753-5407. LD daily.

SHAKE’S FROZEN CUSTARD Frozen custards, concretes, sundaes. 12011 Westhaven Dr. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-2240150. LD daily.

SHIPLEY DO-NUTS With locations just about everywhere in Central Arkansas, it’s hard to miss Shipley’s. Their signature smooth glazed doughnuts and dozen or so varieties of fills are well known. 7514 Cantrell Rd. No alcohol, All CC. $. 501-664-5353. B daily.

SHORTY SMALL’S Land of big, juicy burgers, massive cheese logs, smoky barbecue platters and the signature onion loaf. 1100 N. Rodney Parham Road. Full bar, All CC. $$.

501-224-3344. LD daily.

SLIM CHICKENS Chicken tenders and wings served fast. Better than the Colonel.

4500 W. Markham. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-907-0111. LD daily.

SONNY WILLIAMS’ STEAK ROOM Steaks, chicken and seafood in a wonderful setting in the River Market. Steak gets pricey, though. Menu is seasonal, changes every few months. 500 President Clinton Ave. Full bar, All CC. $$$. 501-324-2999. D Mon.-Sat. SLIM CHICKENS Chicken tenders and wings served fast. Better than the Colonel.

4500 W. Markham. No alcohol, All CC. $-$$.

501-907-0111. LD daily.

SOUTH ON MAIN Fine, innovative takes on Southern fare in a casual, but wellappointed setting. 1304 Main St. Full bar, CC. $-$$. 501-244-9660. L Mon.-Fri., D Tue.-Sat.

The second installment in Arkansas Times’ new film series collaboration with the Little Rock Film Festival at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

The film weaves together two stories that attempt to humanize the immigrant experience: In one, officials try to identify a dead man found in the Arizona desert with a tattoo of the words “Dayani Cristal” and no other form of identification. The other narrative follows filmmaker and actor Gael García Bernal (above) as he portrays a migrant traveling from Honduras.

Hosted with El Zócalo, the Central Arkansas Immigrant Resource Center.

7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 14 CALS Ron Robinson Theater • 100 River Market Avenue Free Admission • No advanced tickets required. www.arktimes.com

OCTOBER 30, 2014

51

NOTICE OF DATA SECURITY EVENT Arkansas, October 30, 2014 - On July 30, 2014, Delaware River and Bay Authority (“the Authority”) was notified of a possible security compromise involving credit and debit card data stored on certain systems at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry’s terminals and vessels. An investigation into this incident was immediately initiated and our team, including third-party forensics experts, has been working continuously to understand the nature and scope of the incident. Although this investigation is ongoing, we have determined that the security of card processing systems relating to food, beverage, and retail sales at the Cape May - Lewes Ferry were compromised and some data from certain credit and debit cards that were used from September 20, 2013 to August 7, 2014 at Cape May - Lewes Ferry’s terminals and vessels may be at risk. The credit and debit card data potentially at risk includes the card number, the cardholder’s name and/or the card’s expiration date. We have not determined that any specific cardholder’s credit or debit card data was stolen by the intruder.

“We take the security of our customers’ personal information very seriously and work extremely hard to protect their credit and debit card data,” said Heath Gehrke, Director of Ferry Operations. “Despite any company’s best efforts, intrusions can occur. With the help of professional experts, we want to understand the nature and scope of this incident so we can learn from it.” The Authority is also working with these experts to enhance the security of its credit and debit card processing systems at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry’s terminals and vessels.

Gehrke emphasized that the food, beverage, and retail locations at the Cape May - Lewes’s terminals and vessels have been processing credit and debit card transactions securely since August 8, 2014. Gehrke also stressed that only food, beverage, and retail sales locations were affected by the security compromise.

The Cape May - Lewes Ferry reservation system, including on-line bookings and terminal point-of-sale locations, utilized for the purchase of vehicle or passenger tickets was not compromised.

Please visit: http://cmlf.com/notification to learn more about this data security event and the identity protection services being provided for potentially affected customers.

The Authority encourages its customers to remain vigilant and seek to protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss by reviewing account statements for any unusual activity, notifying their credit card companies, and monitoring their credit reports. Under U.S. law, individuals are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit bureaus. To obtain a free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, (877) 3228228.

At no charge, Cape May-Lewes Ferry customers can also have these credit bureaus place a “fraud alert” on their files that alerts creditors to take additional steps to verify their identity prior to granting credit in their names. Please note, however, that because it tells creditors to follow certain procedures to protect the individual’s credit, it may also delay the ability to obtain credit while the agency verifies the individual’s identity. As soon as one credit bureau confirms an individual’s fraud alert, the others are notified to place fraud alerts on that individual’s file. Any individual wishing to place a fraud alert, or who has questions regarding their credit report, can contact any one of the following agencies: Equifax, P.O. Box 105069, Atlanta, GA 30348-5069, 800-525-6285, www.equifax.com; Experian, P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013, 888-397-3742, www.experian.com; or TransUnion, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022-2000, 800-680-7289, www.transunion.com. Information regarding security freezes may also be obtained from these sources.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. To file a complaint with the FTC, or to obtain additional information on identity theft and the steps that can be taken to avoid identity theft, the FTC can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20580, or at www.ftc.gov/ bcp/edu/microsites/idtheft/ or (877) ID-THEFT (877-438-4338); TTY: (866) 653-4261. State Attorneys General may also have advice on preventing identity theft, and instances of known or suspected identity theft should be reported to law enforcement, the Attorney General in the individual’s state of residence, and the FTC. Individuals can also learn more about placing a fraud alert or security freeze on their credit files by contacting the FTC or their state’s Attorney General.

For North Carolina residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 9001 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-9001, (919) 716-6400, www.ncdoj.gov. For Maryland residents, the Attorney General can be contacted at 200 St. Paul Place, 16th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202, (888) 743-0023, www.oag.state.md.us.

We regret any inconvenience this security compromise may have caused our customers. To better assist our customers whose card data may potentially have been affected, Cape May-Lewes Ferry has established a confidential hotline to answer questions. This hotline is available Monday through Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. C.S.T. and can be reached at 1-855-865-4457.

Customers can also visit: http://cmlf.com/notification 52

OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES

HEIFER INTERNATIONAL

PUBLIC NOTICE

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration,OfficeofIntergovernmental Services is seeking proposals for funding under the FY 2014 Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT) for State Prisoners Program. The RSAT Program assists state and local governments to develop and implement substance abuse treatment programs in state and local correctional and detention facilities and to create and maintain community-based aftercare services for offenders. Specific information regarding this announcement can be accessed by the following link: www.dfa.arkansas.gov/offices/intergovernmentalServices/grants/Pages/rsat.aspx

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS:

Applicants are limited to state agencies and units of local government that operate and maintain correctional facilities. These agencies must be responsible for offenders who have a documented substance abuse problem, and they must have the capability of housing the offenders for a period of time sufficient to complete the treatment program.

FACILITIES ASSOCIATE LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS

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Central Standard Time on Tuesday, November 25, 2014. Pages requiring a signature may be e-mailed to meet the deadline, but the original pages with signatures must be mailed on that same date. The applications should be mailed, delivered or e-mailed and mailed to the JAG section of the Office of Intergovernmental services on or before 4:30 p.m., on November 25, 2014.

CONTACT:

For assistance with any other requirements of this solicitation, contact IGS via email at igs.jag@dfa.arkansas.gov or call the IGS office at 501-683-5604 and speak with Diana Wilson or James Lawson between 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. CST, Monday through Friday. Q&A submitted related to this specific solicitation from any interested party are posted on the current RSAT request for proposal page in the grants of the DF&A website to assist all potential applicants with answers to question that might have been provided to others. Any questions received, either in writing or orally, will be posted here.

Directed by Jermaine McClure Oct 31, Nov 1, 7, 8, 14, and 15, 2014

Tickets: $16 Adults $12 Students and Seniors Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www.weekendtheater.org

1001 W. 7th St., LR, AR 72201 On the corner of 7th and Chester, across from Vino’s.

Topdog/Underdog is presented by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc., New York.

Support for TWT is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the DAH, and the NEA.

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Participation involves completing a Minimum of 5 years work medical evaluation and attending 6 experience. Experience must sessions at the Psychiatric Research include 2 years with TransactInstitute at UAMS. Monetary SQL (SQL Server 2000 & compensation and taxi service to youhave have problem with cocaine cocaine youprovided. may If Ifyou aaproblem with maybebeeligible eligibletoto above), C#.NET, ASP.NET, and from sessions will beyou participateininaa15-week 15-weekUAMS UAMS research participate researchstudy studylooking lookingatatthethe Web Services Development effectsofofCarvedilol Carvedilolon cocaine use.

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“Coca-Cola” is a trademark of The Coca-Cola Company. Coca-Cola Company is an equal opportunity/drug-free employer requiring background checks.

Arkansas Times 10/24/2014 8229758-HO08951 COCCOL 2.125” x 2.625” Loretta Towne v.2

Apply online at www.transamerica.com.

All Transamerica companies are equal opportunity employers.

C U S T O M F U R N I T U R E tommy@tommyfarrell.com ■ 501.375.7225

“PROVIDING CARE, IN A CARING WAY” “Providing Care, In A Caring Way"

The Highlands Highlands ofofHeber The Springs is currently Heber Springs is hiring for the following currently hiring for positions: CNAs/LPNs Activity Director: LPNs: • Must have active LPN license • Must possess ASN or be a graduate of an LPN program • 2-5 years experience in supervision within a healthcare setting

LPNs: • Must have active LPN license • Must possess ASN or be a graduate of an LPN program • 2-5 years experience in supervision within a healthcare setting CNAs: • Must possess a high school diploma or GED • Licensed CNA

• Must possess good knowledge of the organization and the techniques of a diversimed The Highlands of Heber Springs | 1040 Weddingford Road program of meaningful, appropriate leisure Heber time Springs, AR 72543 activities in aDrug residential health free workplace · EOE/M/F/D/V care facility.

• Demonstates good knowledge of www.arktimes.com activities program direction

APPLY IN PERSON

CNAs:

Part-Time

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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THE MOST SPIRITED HALLOWEEN PARTY OF THE YEAR Colonial Wine & Spirits libation essentials essentials for a proper seasonal party OCTOBER 30, 2014

hearsay ➥ MRS. POLKA DOT, a locally owned monogram and gift boutique, will open a new location at The Promenade at Chenal on Nov. 3 and will be there through Jan. 1, 2015. The store will be located between Kenneth Edwards Fine Jewelers and Crazy 8, will offer great products like totes, home decor, baby items and personalized gifts for all ages just in time for the holidays. Hours of operation will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Monday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday. ➥ Narrative artist ROBERT BEAN is hosting a 30 in 30 artwork sale that started Oct. 27. Subscribers to his Scribbles & Smudges monthly email, as well as his social media followers, have the opportunity to purchase selected works for $300 and under during this time. Bean is posting a week’s work of pieces at a time online, so be sure to sign up to get notices by emailing robert@ rbfineart.com. Bean expects to raise the price of his works in 2015, so now’s the time to snap up a few pieces at great prices. ➥ THE ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORPORATION GROUP will host the art exhibit, “People, Places, and Things”, with art by Kathy Strause, Taimur Cleary and Christie Young. Opening night is scheduled for Nov. 14 during downtown’s SECOND FRIDAY ART NIGHT. Beginning at 6 p.m., there will be a conversation with Cleary and Young about art vs. craft – what makes something fine art and what makes it a more traditional craft? Food and coffee will be supplied by Mugs Café. The Arkansas Capital Corporation Group is located at 200 River Market Ave., Suite 400.

I

t seems to sneak up earlier each year; your Halloween party is at hand. Details have to be attended to, decorations deployed, menus planned. Then there’s the beverage menu.

Drinks are often treated as an afterthought, but can be a highlight of your celebration with a little prep.

Calculate your needed alcohol quantity. A good rule of thumb: you will need one and a half drinks per hour, per guest.

If you’re expecting 100 guests for a fourhour party, plan on 600 drinks (100 x 4 x 1.5). Serving sizes break out like this: • Wine: 5oz serving size/750ml=5 servings; 1.5 Liter=10 servings

JULY 31, 2014

Putting these numbers together should give you an idea of budgets and quantities.

Make sure to have non-alcoholic beverages available for your guests. This time of year, sparkling punch, hot tea or coffee are popular choices. Bottled water is another option that’s hard to beat.

Now we can concentrate on little details that really make a party memorable. If you’re serving a signature cock-

Scenes from Design & Dine

T

he Riverdale Design District kicked off their first late night shopping and dining event recently. With 18 participants and beautiful weather, the evening was perfect.

Riviera Condominiums welcomed residents and guests with a smooth jazz band. The Riviera was also a main parking location for trolley riders.

Tuft & Table showed they know how to throw a party (and have it styl-

Advertising Supplement 54

• Champagne: 3oz serving size/750ml=8 servings • Spirits: 1oz serving size/750ml=25 servings; 1.75 Liter=59 servings • Beer: 12oz serving size/750ml=5 servings; ½ barrel keg=120 servings

ADVERTISING SUPLEMENT TO ARKANSAS TIMES

ishly decorated!) with their Fall Bash featuring DJ Hollywood and Rodney Block.

Tanarah Luxe Floral helped get everyone in the holiday mood by creating a Christmas Wonderland at her location.

The designers at Providence Design showcased large decorative pieces and extra-cool jewelry.

The luxury apartment complex, Residences at Riverdale, hosted an open house and Eric was on hand to give tours

tail, use fresh ingredients whenever possible. Your martini requires rosemary?

Avoid the spice rack and get some fresh sprigs to garnish. A mojito needs some more mojo? Prepare a simple syrup infused with fresh mint in advance of your party and watch your guests gush about its great flavor. Making your own ice from distilled or spring water ahead of time will let the essence of any mixed drink shine.

This short guide should get you started off on the right foot for your party. Your guests will certainly notice and appreciate the extra effort you’ve made for their drinking enjoyment. A prepared host is a happy host!

of the property and more.

Distinctive Kitchens & Baths opened up their showroom to showcase all their many options. For November, they’re planning to have a guest chef on hand so be sure to mark those calendars.

Make plans to attend the second Riverdale Design & Dine event on Thursday, Nov. 13. Arkansas Destinations will again provide the wheeled trolley to make getting to all the participating merchants and restaurants a cinch. The trolley starts making the rounds at 5:30 p.m. and continues until 8 p.m. Plenty of free parking can be found in both Riverdale and the Warehouse District.

Hey, do this!

Each Wednesday night, the Oxford American presents Local Live at South on Main. Landers FIAT of Benton sponsors the free concert series that welcomes top local and regional music talent to the South on Main stage.

All shows start at 7:30 p.m.

NOV. 5 – JIMMY KINARD GROUP NOV. 12 – STEVE HOWELL & THE MIGHTY MEN NOV. 19 – HANDMADE MOMENTS NOV. 26 – BONNIE MONTGOMERY Also this month, the OA welcomes WARREN WOLF AND THE WOLFPACK to the SOUTH ON MAIN stage on Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. as part of its jazz series sponsored by the University of Central Arkansas. South on Main also hosts the John Kilzer album release show on Nov. 20. The event is free and open to the public due to the generous underwriting of Ben E. Keith Foods.

For more info, visit www.southonmain.com.

NOVEMBER FUN!

Food, Music, Entertainment and everything else that’s NOV 1

Catch the thriller WAIT UNTIL DARK at the ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE. After the show, stick around for drinks in Foster’s Lounge as cast members make an appearance to the after party at 10:30 p.m.

For tickets, performance times and a list of special events, visit www.therep.org.

NOV 1-28

This month’s live music calendar at Choctaw Casino in Pocola, Okla., includes performances by THOMAS MARTINEZ (NOV. 1), BRENT FRAILICKS (NOV. 8), HEATH WRIGHT & THE HANGMEN (NOV. 15) AND TRAGIKLY WHITE (NOV. 28). All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. at Gilley’s Pocola. For more info, visit www. choctawcasinos.com.

NOV 5

UALR hosts an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. for its new exhibition in Gallery I of the Fine Arts Building. UALR’s FACULTY BIENNIAL features a variety of work, including drawing, printmaking, metals, ceramics and sculpture, and runs through Dec. 12. THE PAINTED FIGURE is also showing through Oct. 30. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m.; and Sunday 2-5 p.m. For more info, visit www.ualr.edu.

NOV 6

Brooklyn rapper TALIB KWELI will speak at PHILANDER SMITH COLLEGE as part of the Bless the Mic lecture series. The event begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. For more info, call 501-370-5354. n Join the ARKANSAS REP and SHOCK TOP BREWERY for a fall beer tasting at Foster’s at 6:00 before the performance of WAIT UNTIL DARK. Shock Top is a premium beer offering great brews like Pumpkin Spice.

Talib Kweli

NOV 7-9

WILDWOOD PARK FOR THE ARTS hosts several events this month. THE WINE RESERVE DINNER takes place on Friday, Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Chenal Country Club. The annual fundraiser includes a four-course dinner and is $200 per ticket or $2,000 for a table of 10. On Saturday, Nov. 8 at 10 a.m., composer John Corigliano will be on hand at Wildwood Park for a free workshop. Then, on Sunday, Nov. 9, just in time for Thanksgiving, WILDCOOKS! class will be held at 2 p.m. Learn how to brine poultry, and make holiday sides and desserts. The class is $70, and each participant will leave with a chicken. For more information, visit www.wildwoodpark.org.

NOV 8

Ride the ARKANSAS TIMES ART BUS with two stops in Arkansas art towns: Fayetteville, to tour the gallery of George Dombeck, watercolorist, and Bentonville, to see the “State of the Art” exhibit at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The cost is $109 per person and includes round-trip transporation, box lunch and dinner.

For reservations, call 501-375-2985. n BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART will be having a RECEPTION FOR ELIZABETH WEBER, ANDY HUSS and ROBIN HAZARD-BISHOP on Saturday, Nov. 8 6-9pm. at 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd for more info call 664-0030

NOV 11-12

NOV 11

MURRY’S DINNER PLAYHOUSE presents HANK AND MY HONKY TONK HEROES. Award winning star Jason Petty and his band return in this nostalgic tribute to Hank Williams. For tickets and showtimes, visit www.murrysdp.com.

ROCKBRIDGE MONTESSORI SCHOOL, a free and public charter school, will hold a town meeting from 6:30-8 p.m. to announce the opening of a new charter school in Little Rock. The meeting will take place at St. John’s Baptist Church’s Fellowship Hall. Refreshments will be served. n VERIZON ARENA hosts AN EVENING WITH JOE BONAMASSA at 8 p.m. The internationally renowned guitar superstar offers two exciting band lineups for two entirely unique sets. Tickets are $79-$125 and available through Ticketmaster online at www.ticketmaster.com or by phone at 800-745-3000.

Joe Bonamassa

THROUGH OCT 10

NOV. 8

Now on display at LAMAN LIBRARY, HOUSE & HOME is a new exhibit made possible through the National Endowment of the Humanities that explores the many cultural meanings of the American home. Admission is free. For library hours and more information, visit www. lamanlibrary.org.

OCT 13

RISTORANTE CAPEO hosts a MONTHLY WINE DINNER on the 2nd Monday of each Month beginning at 6:30 p.m. $55 per person includes 3 full courses and 3 full glasses of wine. Reserve your space now by calling 376-3463 or visit http:// capeo.us/

NOV 15

THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS welcomes comedians COLIN MOCHRIE AND BRAD SHERWOOD, stars of the Emmy nominated Whose Line is it Anyway? The quickwitted duo will perform at REYNOLDS PERFORMANCE HALL at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, visit www.uca.edu/ publicappearances.

NOV 8-9

WHITE GOAT welcomes you to celebrate its grand opening in Conway at 1008 Oak Street. For more info, visit www. whitegoatstyle. com.

NOV 10

RISTORANTE CAPEO hosts a MONTHLY WINE DINNER on the 2nd Monday of the month beginning at 6:30 p.m. For $55 per person, the dinner includes 3 full courses and 3 full glasses of wine. Reserve your space now by calling 501-3763463 or visit capeo.us.

NOV13

THE SECOND THURSDAY of the month. join the folks in the RIVERDALE DESIGN DISTRICT for their second Design & Dine - over twelve places will be open late, which allows patrons to shop until 8 at places like About Vase, Urban Pad, Mertinsdykehome, Distinctive Kitchens & Baths, Fabulous Finds and both Riviera Condos and the Residences at Riverdale will have open houses. Over in the Warehouse area visit The Shade Above, Tom Chandler & Associates, Providence Design, Tanarah Luxe Floral and Tuft & Table. A trolley is provided so you can park and ride the trolley from place to place. Be sure to grab a drink or a bite at The Fold, Maggie’s Place or Faded Rose.

NOV 17

CIRQUE MECHANICS: PEDAL PUNK rolls into REYNOLDS PERFORMANCE HALL at 7:30 p.m. as part of the UCA Public Appearances series. It’s a rowdy circus show with mischief on wheels and high-flying acrobatics. For tickets, visit www.uca.edu/ publicappearances.

NOV. 14

2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT takes place from 5-8 p.m. Hop on the free Art Night shuttle or stroll the RIVER MARKET DISTRICT (and beyond) to visit participating locations.

Dine afterwards at one of the area’s many fine restaurants.

OCT. 30 THE ARKANSAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA’S annual “BEER AND BRATS” street party will be held at 500 Main Street in Downtown Little Rock on Wed,, Nov, 5 from 5-8pm. Attendees can support the Arkansas Foodbank by dropping off a frozen turkey or other bird at the “Beers and Brats” party. And as a thank you, turkey donors will receive a pair of free tickets to any concert from the ASO’s 2014-2015 Season.

The Arkansas Cornbread Festival

takes place on SOUTH MAIN from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Cornbread and side dishes will be judged by everyone in attendance as well as a panel of celebrity judges. Vendors will display and sell Arkansas art, handmade crafts, clothes and other local products. Tickets are $7 in advance for those 13 and older ($10 at the gate) and $3 for ages 6-12 ($5 at the gate). Children 5 and younger are free. For more info, visit arkansascornbreadfestival.com ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT www.arktimes.com

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OCTOBER 30, 2014

ARKANSAS TIMES