Arkansas Times - October 12, 2017 by Arkansas Times

Johnny Cash Heritage Festival October 21st Don’t Miss the Arkansas times Cash Bus! Featuring: BUDDY JEWELL JOANNE CASH & TOMMY CASH ROSEANNE CASH KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

$109Ticket includes:

Round-trip transportation • General admission ticket • Adult beverages Box Lunch provided by Boulevard

Along for the ride: Jason Lee Hale provides tunes & fun!

Bus departs at 9 a.m. Meet at Old Ray Winder Field/UAMS Parking lot • bring chairs and blankets for seating.

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OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

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COMMENT

If not now, then when?

men misrepresenting Arkansas in D.C. From the web in response to the Oct. I remember asking that question today, your days may be numbered. 10 Arkansas Blog post “Mike Pence after 20 children were murdered at Also the continued poking of Kim Jung makes political hay from National Sandy Hook. Surely, this tragedy would Un with a sharp stick may doom us Anthem; Trump ready for war”: wake us up--get us working to end our all. If you are still a Cotton supporter, gun violence epidemic. But nothing please self-deport ASAP! What one thing do you know for sure was done. Fast forward five years and DeathbyInches when they say that it’s not about racism? more headlines saying “Deadliest mass Silverback66 shooting in modern U.S. history,” and we Sen. Corker, who I disagree with have the national tragedy in Las Vegas. on most issues, is dead on with this. Pence should have just said he I’m sure the gun lobby will double Trump is a danger to the country and disagreed with the players. But not down; they have proven that profits, Sen. Corker is remembering that his go to the stadium with the intention not people are important. For decades oath of office is not to Trump and his of turning right around and leaving. the NRA has dismantled gun safety regime, but to the U.S. Constitution. Imagine all the extra security and regulations across the country with Rick 1 inconvience to paying fans wanting to their message of fear — that we can just see a game — all in the name of a only be safe if we are armed at all times. I don’t think an arms race is the answer. We need a policy that prohibits gun access to criminals and people suffering from mental illness, and allow research on gun violence as a health issue so we can really shine a light on the problem. Together, we can make our communities safer and still respect the Second amendment. Contrary to what the NRA says, this isn’t a zero sum game. Universal background checks on all gun sales, including sales at gun shows and online would help enforce existing prohibitions and doesn’t infringe on anyone’s right. This idea is supported by 93 prcent of Americans, including gun owners and NRA members. Please take action, call your representatives: Tell them now is the time to take a stand against the NRA, and pass common sense gun laws. You can also join Moms Demand Action for Gunsense in America, a grassroots organization standing up to the NRA, made up of volunteers in all states who are tired of seeing the endless gun violence. Let’s start now. When our country is faced with a problem we fix it, we Closing October 31 don’t throw our hands up and say there’s nothing we can do. Thoughts and prayers are needed in times like these, but if we don’t take action, we won’t escape these times. If not now then when? Daniel Bishop Conway From the web in response to the Oct. 9 Arkansas Blog post “Trump can still count on Tom Cotton”: Cotton may be the last face your children and grandchildren sees before the door slams shut to deliver Trump’s Final Solution. If you aren’t of the pure Aryan Race a la the six white 4

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

publicity stunt. Still waiting on final totals for the total cost to the taxpayers for this racist PR stunt. There are no figures I can find on secret service and local police costs and support staff in the three various locations. We know this was a preplanned farce because the press corp traveling with Pence was told not to enter the stadium in Indiana because Pence wouldn’t be in there very long. But according to the Air Force, the 3 hour 20 minute flight on AF2 from Las Vegas to Indianapolis cost the taxpayers $100,000. Shortly after, the flight from Indianapolis to the republican fundraiser in Los Angeles cost taxpayers $142,500. Mountaingirl From the web in response to the Oct. 10 Arkansas Blog post “Gun goddess Jan Morgan is exploring a run for governor”: Might want to leave her in obscurity, Max. With all this Trump Derangement hysteria feeding the mob, any news of Jan would most likely help her win. Remember, the media mocked Trump, and he won over Obama voters, so you might want to let Jan live in obscurity because all you are doing is helping her win. Steven E If the Roy Moore/Bannon branch takes over the Republican Party, and the rest of us let them take over the U.S., we will all get what they deserve. Silverback66 A Northwest Arkansas TV station has video of her at a Republican event and her criticisms of A$a drew lots of applause. Interesting. Screen name taken She looks like another blind ultraconservative, toeing and towing the party line, no matter how much it hurts regular people. Arkansas Works is working well, whether the President is black or not. BIGMUSIC For those folks who think Donald Trump isn’t quite nutty enough, now we have this thing. Doesn’t Arkansas already have enough to be embarrassed about? The problem is, I could drive downtown and find 50 people in a matter of minutes who would think she is the answer to their prayers. mountaingirl

From the web in response to the Oct. 8

Arkansas Blog post “Huckabee serves up soft balls to Donald Trump”: I didn’t watch but from what I’ve seen the most ridiculous thing Trump said was that he came up with the word “fake”! I think one of the greatest of all terms I’ve come up with is ‘fake’,” he said. I guess other people have used it, perhaps, over the years, but I’ve never noticed it.” NeverVoteRepublican My old step-dad would say, “Right there’s where two fools came together.” Errol Roberts

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From the web in response to the Oct. 6 Arkansas Blog post “Trump administration moves to loosen birth control mandate in health insurance”: Seems that some personal responsibility might be required. baker

I know, right? Like why should my premiums go to pay for the treatment of some dude’s coronary artery disease when he should have taken “personal responsibility” for his health and adopted a vegan diet. Why should my premiums go to pay for the ER treatment of kids sick with measles or whooping-cough because their parent’s opposed vaccinations on religious grounds? They should have taken “personal responsibility” for their kid’s health. I think this “citing religious or moral objections” is a two-way street. I think that the amount of money my insurance company charges for drug X is outrageously and immorally expensive and thus, “citing religious or moral objections,” I will refuse to pay my bill to them. They better just suck it up and write the debt off, cause I got “religious freedom” on my side.

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Birth control protects families as well as men. And who causes pregnancies? Men. Who fathers babies? Men. Who is protected by birth control? Men as well as families. This is just an excuse to weaken maternity and child coverage! But viagra is covered — even for unmarried men. Why should a celibate widow of 17 years pay for men to have relations?

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arktimes.com OCTOBER 12, 2017

WEEK THAT WAS

Quote of the week “[D]elusions so cloud [Jack] Greene’s thinking that, as a psychiatrist has determined, he does not rationally understand his execution. An execution of that nature would not be humane and it would not serve the purposes of punishment. It would merely be a miserable spectacle.” — Scott Braden, the assistant federal defender representing Jack Greene, who is scheduled to be killed by the state Nov. 9 for his conviction in the 1991 slaying of Sidney Burnett, a Johnson County pastor. The state Parole Board last week voted 6-0 against recommending clemency for Greene. Court action continues on efforts to stop the execution on that ground. Governor Hutchinson has the final say on clemency.

“community service,” where the men would come to Boeckmann’s house to “pick up cans,” during which Boeckmann would photograph them in compromising positions. Investigators who later searched Boeckmann’s computers later found thousands of such photographs. Prosecutors also said Boeckmann dismissed charges of one defendant in exchange for sexual favors. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of between 30 and 37 months in prison.

GIF gone The Arkansas Supreme Court has reversed a lower court ruling by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza and declared that former legislator Mike Wilson had properly challenged spending of state surplus — the General Improvement Fund — as unconstitutional. Wilson had earlier challenged the spending of state surplus on local projects that was directed by legislators and not explicitly designated in law. The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled in his favor in decisions in 2006 and 2007. In response, the legislature began parceling out surplus to regional planning districts. These agencies then generally distributed the money as individual legislators directed from proportionate shares of the money. Spending of this money has always been corrupt at a certain level — bad government if not strictly illegal. But it has led to criminal corruption. Two former legislators, Jon Woods and Micah Neal, were indicted for scheming with others to get kickbacks 6

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

from hundreds of thousands of GIF money funneled to Ecclesia College, a private Bible college in Springdale. Numerous instances have been cited of money spent on dubious or nonexistent enterprises. Lawyers in the Springdale case have said they’ve been told to expect further indictments. Senate Republicans have even adopted a rule to deal with leadership changes that might be required in the event of more criminal charges. With money tight and Governor Hutchinson in opposition, the legislature sent out no GIF money

in the 2017 session, but many were unhappy about it.

Former judge pleads guilty Joseph Boeckmann, the former state district judge from Wynne, pleaded guilty to two felony charges in federal court last week in exchange for the dismissal of more than 20 other counts. Federal prosecutors described to U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker a scheme in which Boeckmann would dismiss charges of young male defendants in misdemeanor and traffic cases in exchange for

Morgan ponders governor’s race Happiest political news of the week is word from Arkansas’s premier gun nut, Jan Morgan, that she might challenge Governor Hutchinson in the Republican primary next year. Morgan would make Hutchinson, a regular carrier of NRA luggage, look like a liberal gun confiscator. She’s the shooting range owner and self-styled Second Amendment expert who gets a lot of cable TV time for her gun rants. She first burst into the limelight by declaring her Hot Springs gun range a Muslim-free zone.

Pork barrel III

ike Wilson, the Jacksonville lawyer and former state representative, for the third time last week won a victory for the Arkansas Constitution and taxpayers and set back pork barreling. The Arkansas Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, ruled unconstitutional a legislative money laundering scheme to get around past Wilson victories against legislative use of state surpluses in the millions. Before Wilson and his lawsuits came along, the legislature spent up a surplus fund with specific appropriations — say, street lights for Bigelow (really). Such expenditures were, in many cases, to be unconstitutional local legislation. The legislature can spend money on projects of statewide benefit (colleges are a good example) but not for strictly local things like the Boys Club or garden club. Why should an Ashley County taxpayer foot the bill for the Little Rock Boys and Girls Club? But legislative hunger for pork could not be denied. They developed a new scheme, appropriating millions

OPINION

for “grants” to the state’s regional planning and development districts, which ostensibly exist to help MAX economic develop- BRANTLEY maxbrantley@arktimes.com ment. This was just a ruse. Each legislator got an equal amount of money and could tell the regional district in which he or she resided how to spend it. Some of it, arguably, had a legitimate state purpose. Some of it — a fireworks show, football team warmups, a “gala” for a local institution, Boys and Girls Club grants — clearly amounted to an indirect way to deliver unconstitutional local pork. Most legislators refuse to understand this because they love being photographed in local papers holding oversized checks symbolizing their gifts of taxpayer money. Wilson (who works pro bono on these cases) sued again. This time, he suffered a loss before Circuit Judge Chris Piazza.

Trust and obey

his past week marked an anniversary of sorts for the country. A year ago, the “Access Hollywood” tape of then-candidate Donald Trump claiming to get away with sexually assaulting women finally exposed the truth about the man the GOP had chosen as its nominee. He was a disgusting, cruel, entitled misogynist. I thought our nightmare was over because surely religious conservatives would no longer support such a person for the nation’s highest office. My optimism did not last long. Over the next week, evangelicals began downplaying his comments as “locker room talk” and “just boys being boys.” Preachers compared him to King David and called him an “imperfect vessel” and a “baby Christian.” He got a pass because they trusted he would end abortion. The same week the world learned the truth about Trump, we also learned that, for some evangelicals, no deed or word was too terrible as long as he claimed to be “pro-life.” It was worth it, they said, to end abortion. This week, we saw an unraveling of that logic. It was never about abortion. It is about imposing an oppressive view of the world where straight, white conservative males are in charge and women, people of color, immigrants, LBGTQ and

anyone who dares challenge that view are divisive and unpatriotic. While Vice President Pence stages expensive, taxpayerfunded public tantrums over football players quietly protesting racial injustice and police brutality, Trump ends the ObamaAUTUMN era mandate that TOLBERT required employers to provide coverage for birth control. A move that studies show will actually increase the number of abortions. A number that was, by all accounts, on the decline. In order to support this decision, one has to completely disregard science and facts to believe that women and men will somehow have less sex if birth control is unaffordable. One also has to disregard the truth that birth control is an important medicine that treats a number of physical conditions. But ignoring truth seems to be the new normal in a country where no women are invited to help write proposed health care bills, free speech is considered unpatriotic, and the most powerful men in the country consist of one who

The state law didn’t say how the money Legislators are already talking about was to be spent — beyond “grants” — but developing a new pork work-around. Piazza bought the argument that you could What would be wrong, they say, with read that appropriation in concert with projects funded from a rainy day fund other laws establishing the planning and given entire legislative approval? development districts and their ostensiFor one, this would only reinstate the ble purpose to spur the economy. Wilson old process — street lights for Bigelow. appealed. The Supreme Court majority For another, a legislative declaration that agreed on one key point: A Supreme Court a Benton fireworks show is state, not decision in an earlier Wilson challenge local, spending doesn’t make it so. Or at said the legislature must specify “how” least not under existing court precedent. money is to be spent. Authorizing grants But Wood and Womack, both Republito planning districts wasn’t enough. cans at heart and ever obedient to the But, significantly, the court said its legislature, have already signaled that decision on faulty appropriation language they’re willing to go along. Wilson’s vicmeant it did not have to reach another tory — big as it was — might prove fleetimportant question raised by Wilson. Was ing if there are two more of like mind the spending unconstitutional local leg- in the majority that decided this case. islation? Ominously, two dissenters, JusIf pork barreling resumes it will at least tices Rhonda Wood and Shawn Womack, be good news for reporters. Egregious went out of their way to declare this post- waste and corruption will soon follow. laundering pork barreling was NOT local See the pending federal trial of two forlegislation. We don’t know how the five- mer legislators for taking kickbacks from person majority feels on this question. If hundreds of thousands in tax money they two of them agree that money laundering and other Republican legislators guided to (with sufficient verbiage in the appro- a Bible college in Springdale. Christians priation bill about a system of planning need an education, said one obtuse legisladistrict allocations) cures the “local leg- tor in defense of this spending, an outrage islation” objection, the legislature could even without the kickbacks. Legislators, someday be back in business. too, I’d add.

treats women like objects to be ranked a story about a good time at a wedding to and graded on their physical attributes fit their agenda of control. and another who believes women to be Now, I know enough about art history so tempting and sinful he cannot eat alone to know the painting is not meant to be with one without his mother-wife pres- an accurate depiction of the biblical event, ent. All the while, a narrative of “America but what I saw in it was an unraveling of First” is pushed in order to isolate us from the logic behind my church’s teachings. our former allies. It’s as if we are living Of course, it was wine that the wedding in the midst of “The Parable of the Rich guests were after. It was a party. It was a Fool” and we have yet to learn our lesson. feast. And I wasn’t sinful or bad for quesI have a sort of parable of my own. Many tioning those conservative teachings. years ago, I was fortunate enough to travel Here was the largest paintto Paris with my family and visit the Lou- ing in the Louvre showing a differvre. Best I remember, my sister pointed out ent version of events than what I Paolo Veronese’s painting “The Wedding had been taught. It was showing the Feast at Cana.” For those of you who are version that made the most sense. not art historians or have forgotten your I’m ready for the Trump supporters to church geography, the painting is a depic- wake up and realize they are being sold a tion of the wedding celebration where false version of the world. They are being Jesus is said to have turned water into sold a version where good is evil and freewine. dom is bad and nothing makes sense. I try As we stood there, I remembered how to be optimistic that each new ridiculous I was taught over and over in my teeto- tweet or unhinged speech will do the taler church that it wasn’t really wine trick. But I’m losing hope that his supJesus created from water. It was really porters will ever question whether electjust grape juice despite the original text ing this man was worth it as he supports using the word for wine. And he didn’t policies that seem to hurt the weakest and do it because people were simply having least powerful among us. They continue a good time at a wedding and wanted to to view him as the Christian choice. I’m keep on drinking, it was because the water afraid as long as straight, white consermust have been unsafe to drink. Right vative men control the government and there in front of that painting, I realized the church, Trump will stay in power. how far some on the religious right will “Trust and obey,” they continue to sing twist truth and common sense and even on Sundays. Trust and obey. Follow Arkansas Blog on Twitter: @ArkansasBlog

arktimes.com OCTOBER 12, 2017

Conspiracy

H presents…

Beppe Gambetta Thursday October 19 7:30 p.m. The Joint

As an Italian in love with both American roots music and the music of his native 301 Main Street land, Beppe has dazzled North Little Rock and charmed music enthusiasts worldwide. Tickets $25 Available at the door or online at www.argentaartsacousticmusic.com or www.centralarkansastickets.com

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

ardly anybody today believes that agenda, take away our 2nd amendment, once unsettling events like solar cause more ‘policing,’ with end result eclipses are caused by wolves being Trumps impeachment. Better learn or demons eating the sun. But when it how to live off the grid. May sound crazy comes to all-too-frequent eruptions of but I feel civil war what Philip Roth calls “the indigenous is coming soon.” American berserk,” many retreat into su“Could a terrorperstition, or worse. ist have set this guy Worse because we don’t blame myth- up,” a New York ological creatures for increasingly com- literary agent wonGENE mon mass shooting events like Stephen dered, “then shot LYONS Paddock’s murder of 58 concertgoers in him and slipped Las Vegas. Instead, we blame each other. away before the cops got there?” What caused the reclusive profesIt’s all the “Deep State’s” fault, you see. sional gambler — a classic American lone Because it couldn’t possibly be that lax demento — to murder 58 total strangers regulation allowing a homicidal lunatic from a distance of 500 yards? Well, who to carry enough military rifles to arm an do you hate and fear? infantry platoon into a hotel and conNo sooner had police blown down the vert them to auto-fire without breaking door of the 32nd floor suite at the Man- a single law until the moment he began dalay Bay hotel to find the killer dead shooting might be a really bad idea. in the sniper’s nest he’d painstakingly Nor that maybe it’s time to bring constructed than conspiracy theories the “well-regulated” part of the Second spread like wildfire across the Internet Amendment back into play. and beyond. Why perish the thought! Even before Paddock’s identity was And perish it did as right-wing huckknown, online sleuths at the anonymous sters of every variety took the imagined message site 4chan fingered a totally conspiracy to heights of sheer folly. Someinnocent Arkansas man described as “a thing called “Freedom Daily” pressed Trump-hating Rachel Maddow fan.” a theory involving Hillary Clinton and The reasoning seemed to be that coun- Barack Obama, who supposedly funded try music fans are Trumpists by defini- “Antifa terrorists.” tion, ergo … According to an excellent Media MatWell, if Garth Brooks and Emmylou ters roundup, Infowars nutjob Alex Jones Harris are country singers, then I’m a blamed “Democrats and their Islamic country music fan who finds Rachel Mad- allies,” “Bolshevik” revolutionaries, ISIS, dow extremely annoying. Antifa, leftists, Communists and globalists. But a Trump supporter? Um, no. Jones predicts an imminent left-wing Nevertheless, this cartoon-think coup. “The enemy’s engaging us. Everyquickly became one of Google’s “top sto- body needs to be packing,” he said. “Get ries” until supplanted by even crazier ready — Democrats are going to be killconspiracy theories put forth by atten- ing people, a lot of folks.” tion seeking hucksters. On her Fox News program “The “Multiple shooters,” proclaimed Ingraham Angle,” host Laura Ingraa Facebook friend connected to law ham endorsed similar speculation. Othenforcement. People jumped right in, ers blamed Jews (naturally), the Sausome proclaiming that video sound dis, even Las Vegas labor unions. Lists tracks they’d heard on TV were obviously appeared on social media alleging that altered to conceal them. Others specu- every prominent shooter from would-be lated that FBI agents and Las Vegas cops Reagan assassin John Hinckley through scrubbed the sniper’s nest of evidence Newtown, Conn., child murderer Adam linking him to ISIS, probably to cover up Lanza were registered Democrats — all a botched gunrunning sting. false, every one. Mention of treasonous cops may have Psychologists who study them say that given my friend pause, because the thread conspiracy narratives represent the selfdisappeared. But not before one particu- protective impulses of people who feel larly imaginative woman pronounced powerless and threatened. The idea that her verdict: evildoers collude secretly to stage-man“Definitely not ISIS but Antifa. Prob- age otherwise incomprehensible events ably led by no other than Soros, Clinton, like the Las Vegas massacre comforts Obama and some RINOs. Multiple shoot- people with the belief that nobody’s foolers. All part of their wicked scheme to ing them. They are in the know. advance their NWO [New World Order]

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PEARLS ABOUT SWINE

The end is near

hose unspectacular ’Cocks of wins over Ole Miss South Carolina, teetering after and LSU to get bowla shaky home win against Loui- eligible, and then siana Tech and an unsightly defeat to knocking off Charlie Texas A&M at Kyle Field, represented Strong’s punchless a potential pivot point for Bret Bielema Longhorns in Housand the Razorbacks on Saturday. Why, ton to end the bounce- BEAU WILCOX if he could just coax a methodical, con- back campaign. What sistent performance out of his maligned may have been forgotten in that four-game charges and get a road win to even the stretch, however, is the contest that was Hogs’ SEC mark at 1-1 and his own five- a harbinger of Bielema’s chronic failing. year ledger at 28-28, the 2017 season Fresh off those shutouts of the Tigers might not be nearly as lost as once feared, and Rebel-Sharkbears, Arkansas traveled and he might have a sporting chance to to Missouri for the first go-around of this coach out the remaining seven games foisted rivalry game, and threatened to without hearing the word “buyout.” completely unravel the Tigers’ bid to win It was all proceeding decently back-to-back East Division titles. Branenough for the Hogs after Austin Allen don Allen was a little gimpy after taking fired a short touchdown pass to knot a hit to the shoulder in the Ole Miss victhe score at 10-10 midway through the tory, though, and the Hogs’ 14-6 halftime second quarter. The Razorback defense lead disappeared in the fourth quarter. had played a strong half generally, with Arkansas was shut out by Missouri one failed assignment leading to the in the second half at Faurot Field in a Gamecocks’ touchdown, and the offense 21-14 loss. The same vanishing act in started gaining its footing on that drive the same locale happened last Novemthat Allen punctuated. But right before ber when the Hogs were angling for an halftime, Carolina parlayed one ques- 8-4 regular season and Missouri was tionable pass interference call into a floundering badly. It happened in the Jake Bentley-to-Bryan Edwards touch- Belk Bowl about five weeks after that down pass with four seconds to play, and when the Razorbacks’ 24-0 halftime that sent the home team to the locker lead over Virginia Tech turned into a room ahead 17-10 and enthused. 35-24 loss that brought about the first And, of course, that one throw serious clarion call for Bielema to procemented the Razorbacks’ fate. See, it duce. It happens generally every Sephas fast become gospel around here that tember now against Texas A&M. if Bielema’s staring at a smaller number Take away Bielema’s 0-16 mark in on the scoreboard as he saunters into games where the Hogs have trailed at the locker room at the midway point of the half, and you still have 13 losses over a game, there’s no credible reason for less than five seasons where the Hogs Arkansas to take the field for the last 30 have led or been tied at the break, too. minutes of action. The status quo played The upshot? There has never been a out accordingly: South Carolina scored worse second-half coach in the prothree defensive touchdowns en route to a gram’s history, and this is not Pearls’ way 31-12 second-half blowout that made the of saying Bielema’s tenure has been worfinal score 48-22, and made me actually thy of complete dismissal. He endeared turn on a little Monday morning sports himself to a lot of skeptical fans by being radio for a bit of jaundiced commentary. self-effacing, deferential to his staff and One caller posited that Bielema has endlessly complimentary of his players. 15 million reasons to do nothing but But the cracks in the façade are showfiddle while Fayetteville burns, and he ing now. He’s publicly aired disappointis absolutely right. The head coach’s ment toward at least a couple of players. absurdly exorbitant bye-bye package He remains apparently committed to — orchestrated by UA Athletic Director assistant coach Kurt Anderson after an Jeff Long after the Hogs’ quasi-mythical 18-game stretch of generally horrid offen7-6, Texas Bowl-championship season of sive line performance and personnel 2014 — easily outstrips the boneheaded shuffling. The postgame pontification no golden parachute that former chancel- longer sounds sincere or insightful. He’s lor John White strapped onto Houston going through the proverbial motions, Nutt’s waiting back as he coasted down and this Saturday’s motion will be the to Oxford back in aught-seven. merciless foot of Nick Saban swinging Bielema had “earned” his security dutifully into Bielema’s backside, shipblanket by authoring a couple of nice ping it right back to Fayetteville.

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

WE HAVE BEEN A PART OF THE DOWNTOWN SKYLINE FOR OVER 38 YEARS!

NBA season

rkansas will never have an NBA team. This is a law of nature — like gravity. But, in case you need proof, let’s discuss the Arkansas RimRockers. First off, great name. Even the Harlem Globetrotters would find “RimRockers” too gaudy. Secondly, they were actually a pretty good team! In their first year in the league in 2004, they won the American Basketball Association title game against the Bellevue Blackhawks 115-103. After trouncing the ABA on the first go, they moved up to the NBA Development League. This was Arkansas’s “10th grader with an egg that a teacher says is a baby” moment for pro basketball: If we could handle the D-League team, maybe, way down the line, the NBA would give us a real team. But, no. Onlythree years after their title, the Arkansas RimRockers became the La Crosse RimRockers. La Crosse, Wis. (population ~52,000 and with no other facts worth mentioning after skimming its Wikipedia page other than something about fur trappers) was able to fill seats for RimRocker games; Little Rock was not. We broke the egg. Add that fact to these: We can no longer ignore — though we tried — that the NFL is killing its players for money; the NCAA is a scam and Rick Pitino stealing money from his players is just the crusted scum atop a uranium-polluted swamp; and baseball sucks except for the playoffs. (Full disclosure: the Observer spends significant time caring about and watching all sports.) That means the NBA is our last hope to watch American sports without any pangs of shame. (Fútbol is not American, hockey is Canadian and golf is worse than baseball.) So when the NBA season begins Oct. 17, The Observer needs to watch. Who do we root for as Arkansans? There are two ways to go about choosing: geography or bandwagon. If you root for the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Golden State Warriors — fine

— The Observer is sure you’ll have a fun season but you’re also a traitor and a low-down coward. OK, now to geography. The closest NBA teams are: Memphis Grizzlies (139 miles to FedEx Forum), Dallas Mavericks (322 miles to American Airlines Center), Oklahoma City Thunder (339 miles to Chesapeake Energy Arena). The Thunder had the off-season of a lifetime after re-signing Russell Westbrook (averaged a historic triple-double last year) to a long-term contract, finally pulling Carmelo Anthony away from the New York Knicks, and adding Paul George. But, if you like the Thunder you have to root for Carmelo Anthony. For all the unstoppable combustion of Westbrook’s game — who would dunk a child without remorse — you have the unmistakable lethargy of Anthony. The Observer is not a hater, just someone who does not have the time for the emotional toil that cheering for Carmelo entails; it’s too much. We can decide on the Mavs with the same pettiness The Observer rejected OKC fandom: Owner Mark Cuban is annoying. The Observer can’t watch a game that is going to cut to his face reacting. Done. That only leaves the Memphis Grizzlies. They’re the team closest to the state. (Actually, in some ways, by being in Memphis, they are very much part of this state: What’s more Arkansas than having to go to Memphis for a major event?) Mike Conley Jr. and Marc Gasol are both talented, likable star players. They’ve been going to the playoffs in the better of the two conferences for the last seven years. And, their slogan is “Grit and Grind.” Grit and Grind! Most importantly, after a game of last year’s playoffs Coach David Fizdale was complaining about the lack of fouls called on the San Antonio Spurs and, after listing off a few statistics, yelled, “TAKE THAT FOR DATA!” at reporters. It’s now the perfect thing to yell during any Memphis Grizzlies scoring run. It’s so good you can yell it all the time.

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Arkansas Reporter

THE

BRIAN CHILSON

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH: That’s what Shannon Brumley says a change in the hours of in-home care he receives through Medicaid could mean.

DHS rule change threatens disabled care

ARChoices algorithm inspires state and federal lawsuits. BY JACOB ROSENBERG

ome 4,000 disabled and elderly Arkansans who rely on a Medicaid waiver program to receive inhome services have seen their benefits cut by the state Department of Human Services due to an unannounced rule change. The waiver provides attendant care, where someone helps a patient dress, bathe, eat and take medication. This inhome care allows elderly and disabled

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

Medicaid recipients to avoid going to a nursing home for care. “You will continue to have the same services,” Craig Cloud, director of the DHS’ Division of Aging and Adult Services, had written in a letter sent to beneficiaries of two Medicaid waiver programs near the end of 2015 announcing their combination into a single new one named ARChoices. For some elderly and disabled Arkan-

sans, that has proved true. But many others have seen their hours of in-home care reduced significantly. Legal Aid of Arkansas filed state and federal lawsuits on behalf of waiver recipients who object to the change from DHS. Legal Aid prevailed in one suit. In a judgment entered last November, U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall agreed that recipients were not given proper notice from the DHS that a change in allocation of Medicaid hours would occur, nor the reason for that change. Marshall said in a ruling from the bench that the DHS did not give enough information “to allow a man on the street or a woman on the street to understand why the benefits were changing.” However, Marshall did not rule that the new method that the DHS is using to allocate hours is itself illegal. He simply said that the DHS needed to provide more information and notice before making the change. Because Marshall stopped short of blocking the implementation of the new program more broadly, Legal Aid,

on behalf of seven recipients, sued in state court in January 2017. On Feb. 6, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen issued a temporary injunction, halting the hour changes for only the seven recipients involved in the lawsuit. The DHS appealed that ruling and the Arkansas Supreme Court is set to hear the appeal Oct. 26. A full trial in Griffen’s court will follow. Medicaid waivers that allow for inhome care save Arkansas a lot of money and, experts say, could save the state a lot more. The DHS estimates that it spends on average about $8,500 on waiver services vs. about $47,500 on nursing homes per patient per year. Seventy percent of the funds for Medicaid comes from the federal government and 30 percent from the state of Arkansas. Still, the gaping disparity in costs is why The Stephen Group, when conducting a review for the Health Reform Legislative Task Force in Arkansas, said the state’s spending of Medicaid money on long-term care was too weighted toward nursing homes. Arkansas currently spends 35 percent of its Medicaid funding on patients who receive longterm in-home care, whereas the national average is 50 percent. “If the Arkansas Medicaid program were to shift its expenditures on [longterm service care] such that expenditures on community-based represented 50 percent … the Arkansas Medicaid program could recognize almost $200 million in annual, all-funds savings by 2021,” The Stephen Group concluded in its report. The DHS agrees that a shift toward in-home care is necessary. “It is less costly, but it is also just better generally for individuals to be in a familiar home-like setting,” Amy Webb, a spokeswoman for the DHS, said. “[In] an environment that makes them feel comfortable, they seem to do better, have a better quality of life, and are more likely to live longer and to live healthier.” ARChoices was created in this light as a way to save money and provide better care. Per recipient, it’s estimated to cost $18,170 vs. $50,100 cost for a nursing home, according to the DHS. Because of the assurance of the “same services” in Cloud’s letter, Shannon Brumley, 44, a quadriplegic who had been receiving in-home care via

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Medicaid for six years, did not expect Liban also asked if there was a study run a change when he was notified about by the DHS to see what would happen ARChoices in 2015. when the implementation took place. Not announced in Cloud’s letter There were “absolutely zero metrics to was a substantial, if seemingly techni- measure how many people it’s going to cal, change in how the DHS calculates impact,” De Liban said. the number of hours of care that waiver The DHS contends that a large numrecipients receive on ARChoices. ber of beneficiaries had their hours go up, Before ARChoices, a nurse would too — an estimated 42 percent compared administer a long survey — called the to 47 percent who had their hours cut. ARPath assessment tool — that would But, there is no data to indicate estimate the numbers of hours that a the magnitude of the change in either waiver recipient should receive based on direction. The DHS has not tracked physical needs. Then, the nurse would the degree to which hours increased have discretion to assign hours based on or decreased. her experience in providing care. There should have been notice given For example, under the old rules, if and time to comment on the changes Brumley answered the survey about before they were made, De Liban said. his health and was allocated five hours “They can’t just decide, ‘OK, one day, a day, but the nurse knew he needed people are going to be decided accordmore, the nurse would be able to bump ing to nurse discretion and another day it up to eight hours. according to an algorithm.’ … If the state Under ARChoices, a nurse has no does something, but they adopted it discretion. After taking the survey about without using the proper procedures, health, a patient is put into a tier of care what they’re doing is invalid,” he said. by an assessment algorithm. The new The DHS has conceded that its notificaalgorithm compares the needs of all tion effort was flawed, but says the new ARChoices recepients and assigns each rule is proper. one to a tier based on who needs the “The [federal Marshall ruling] on this most and least attention considering the issue found the algorithm itself is valid resources available to the DHS. [as] a tool. The court took exception to With the change, Brumley’s hours the notice we provided to beneficiaries,” were slated to drop considerably. Webb said. “We have made improve“They were going to cut my hours ments to our notices based on that case from 56 hours a week to 32 hours a and are confident that the ARChoices week,” Brumley said. “It’s the differ- tool is working appropriately and people ence between staying in soiled clothes are being assigned the level of care that and staying in fresh clothes. Getting a best meets their needs.” shower or not getting a shower. Getting The DHS has argued that the efforts fed or not getting fed. I mean it’s the dif- were about standardization, and that, ference between, really, life and death.” despite the lack of notice, it helps people Brumley is not a plaintiff in Legal on the program. Aid’s state lawsuit, but he did seek help “We knew there would be changes from Legal Aid in appealing the change for some individuals because, again, in hours. So far his hours have not been this assessment is much more objeccut. tive,” Webb said. “Before you had mostly Since the DHS relied solely on the nurses who were providing the assessalgorithm, Legal Aid’s suit asked the ments, and based on their personal DHS to provide the data on how it deter- experience and knowledge with similar mined hours for each tier. The DHS said patients they might say, ‘Oh this individit lost that data. Kevin De Liban, a Legal ual needs 10 hours.’ For the same patient, Aid staff attorney, also sought internal another nurse might say, ‘This person memos that would address the decision needs 15 hours for the week.’ Because to do away with nurses’ discretion — giv- we use an algorithm that assigns peoing a motivation for the action — but he ple based on similarities with others was told there were none. In response in a group, it’s just, again, much less to that request, the DHS said some subjective.” nurses had complained about certain Beneficiaries can also appeal the patients getting too many hours. De change in their waivers to the DHS

administration. But such an appeal, De Brumley said — allowing the Brumley Liban points out, does not challenge the boys, including Shannon Brumley’s now use of the algorithm as a method, only 17-year-old son, to go hunting together. if it was properly applied. But this care is expensive. Lana “We’ve had, in the last few months, a Brumley pointed this reporter toward dozen or maybe more hearings for indi- the cushion on his wheelchair: $2,500 viduals who are not part of the seven and not covered by insurance. “You plaintiffs who are having to fight those go buy stuff for him, and the price is cuts through the administrative process. going to increase by four times [a norThe vast majority are losing,” he said. mal item],” she said. “You’re so worried Brumley — who describes himself about, ‘Am I going to have the money as a “44-year-old country boy” on his for this? Am I going to have the money blog — has been able to hold off cuts for that?’ ” by appealing his decision within the And new problems have occurred: a DHS’s appeal process. In-home care, brain hemorrhage led to paralysis on the Brumley said, has been essential to his right side of Brumley’s body, an antibiprogress after a devastating motorcycle otic proved toxic, and there have been accident in 2001. infections. He did not die in the wreck, but it was “It’s a never-ending thing,” Lana close: He broke his neck and spine in 10 Brumley said of the subsequent health places, his lungs and brain were badly challenges and costs that grow from a damaged, and his limbs were paralyzed. single tragedy like her son’s motorcycle “The first two years, all we worried about accident. was, ‘Is he going to make it?’ ” Lana After the accident, days became comBrumley, his mother, told the Arkan- plex dives into the heart of American sas Times. The family shuttled Brum- medicine, Lana Brumley said. They ley to over 30 doctors in Memphis, and would go to a doctor and have to learn Brumley moved back in with his family new phrases and terms and diseases. on their farm in Lawrence County near Then, she’d learn about the intricacies Walnut Ridge. “If he needs anything, I’m of health insurance, looking for some right there all the time for him,” she said. way to pay for it all. “You just love him, “If he was in a nursing home [during the you just take care of him,” Lana Brumley first two years], he would have died.” said. “You’re trying to get the necessiThe accident altered Shannon Brum- ties that they need.” ley’s life in profound ways. “I had to go Six years ago, the costs became too from independent to totally dependent,” high. “Financially, he couldn’t afford it,” he said. “Can’t brush my teeth, can’t Lana said, “That enabled him to be able brush my hair. I can’t bathe myself. I to get Medicaid.” Before that, he had can’t use the bathroom myself. I can’t been paying through his own insurance. feed myself.” But, someone needed to. The Legal Aid state lawsuit hinges, “His life totally changed and so did ours, mostly, on the idea of notice: Were our whole family,” Lana Brumley said. waiver recipients properly informed Her job became making sure her son of a changed? could live. And not just survive but live But for Lana Brumley that issue is a full life. secondary. The new rules are unfair, The family rigged the entire house she says. “Somebody like Shannon to accommodate him and his wheel- requires around-the-clock care, but if chair. He writes poems on his computer, eight [hours per day] is the most you can updating his blog by using a mouth stick get — for somebody in that bad of shape to hit the keys. So Brumley won’t develop — give it to them,” Lana Brumley said, bed sores, his family adapted their sched- referencing the eight hours per day her ules to ensure that he’s turned every son receives vs. the approximately five few hours — an intricate process that hours per day the ARChoices algorithm must be done delicately, so as not to says he should receive. “Why wouldn’t cause Brumley any pain. Lana even you give it to them? Our government can set up a baby monitor to hear Brum- do so much more, our state can do so ley from another room. And Brumley’s much more by providing for the family father adapted the wheelchair to hold members to take care at home, or allow a gun — “I bite and it pulls the trigger,” them to hire somebody to come in.” arktimes.com OCTOBER 12, 2017

THORN IN LRPD’S SIDE Civil rights attorney Mike Laux has spent years taking on the LRPD over fatal shootings of suspects. He isn’t done yet. BY DAVID KOON

BRIAN CHILSON

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

he fact is, no matter how heinous the circumstance, no matter how damning the proof, no matter how clear the video, no matter how sympathetic the person who died, America just does not like to send cops to jail for killing in the line of duty. According to a massive database of police use-of-force incidents since 2005 compiled by Bowling Green State University criminologist Dr. Philip Stinson, American police officers kill somewhere between 900 and 1,000 people every year while on duty. While it’s pretty much a statistical certainty that at least some of those shootings aren’t by the book and on the up-andup, Stinson’s research also shows that cops who kill suspects in the United States are rarely charged for crimes related to those killings. They’re even more rarely convicted. Stinson can find only around 80 police officers who have been charged with murder or manslaughter after a fatal on-duty shooting since 2005. Only 29 of those officers were later convicted, with all but five convicted of the less serious crime of manslaughter. The difficulty of securing a conviction against a cop played out in Little Rock in recent years, with former Little Rock Police Department officer Josh Hastings twice put on trial for seconddegree murder in the 2012 slaying of Bobby Moore, a 15-year-old who was shot to death by Hastings as Moore and two friends tried to flee in a stolen Honda from a West Little Rock apartment complex where they had been breaking into parked cars. After two long and expensive trials in which prosecutors and experts alleged that Hastings shot Moore even though Hastings’ life wasn’t in danger and then he lied extensively to cover up what had happened, the jury hung twice, unable to reach a verdict after days of deliberation. With anger about police killings of suspects — 748 nationwide so far this year, according to a running tally kept

by The Washington Post — boiling over into popular culture in the form of the Black Lives Matter movement and the President Trump-fanned controversy over NFL players taking a knee during the National Anthem to protest police brutality, the federal civil rights lawsuit has become the strongest pry bar for those seeking justice, or at least some financial semblance of it, when official investigative channels and criminal prosecutions fail after questionable police use of deadly force. While criminal juries may be reluctant to put cops in jail following the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard, civil juries, which only have to decide whether a plaintiff’s claims are more likely to be true than not, seem to have no problem meting out punishment to municipal pocketbooks over iffy police killings. When it comes to civil suits against the Little Rock Police Department, the biggest thorn in its side right now is civil rights attorney Mike Laux. Laux (whose name is pronounced like “low”) has sued the city over questionable use of deadly force five times, including a recently filed lawsuit over the death of Roy Richards, a 46-year-old Little Rock resident shot in October 2016 after Richards pulled out a BB gun during a drunken fight with his uncle. From those lawsuits, Laux has won a string of settlements and judgments for his clients, including a $415,000 personal judgment against former LRPD officer Hastings in April over the Moore shooting, and a rare apology from the city and a $900,000 settlement related to the death of 67-year-old Navy veteran Eugene Ellison, who was shot to death by LRPD officer Donna Lesher after an altercation in Ellison’s apartment near

only attorney in his family. His uncle was the person his extended family called on in times of trouble, a calming force who always seemed to have the answers when his loved ones found themselves in a jam. As he got older, Laux realized that not every family has a person like that. “There are people in society who are disadvantaged, and Colonel Glenn Road and University who don’t have a voice,” he said. “We Avenue in December 2010. The Ellison had Uncle Elliott. Some people don’t payout is the largest settlement in a have an Uncle Elliott. Some people civil rights case in state history. don’t even know a lawyer. They don’t Preparing for those cases meant know where to go.” deposing dozens of LRPD and city Laux went to law school at the officials and plowing through reams University of Wisconsin, graduating of departmental documents related to in 2002. In school, Laux came to love past police shootings. In the process, the symmetry and predictability of the Laux has taken a deep dive into the law and the notion of reasonableness as history of the LRPD’s use of deadly a standard. After law school, he moved force and how the department handles to Chicago and joined the firm of Johncases where a suspect winds up in the son and Bell, specializing in medical morgue. Though he’s definitely got malpractice defense. He did that for a profitable dog in the hunt when it four years, but always felt something comes to his opinion of how the LRPD was missing. A chance meeting with uses deadly force, Laux believes that in attorney Johnny Cochran, famous for most cases, official attempts to insulate his defense of O.J. Simpson, changed an officer from responsibility begin the Laux’s trajectory. moment a fatal round is fired. Laux also “We had a real nice conversabelieves that Little Rock’s pattern of tion, and he said to me, ‘Mike, what resisting apology and defending cops are you doing with the defendants? in court at all costs, sometimes for You’ve got to come to the plainyears, following the questionable use tiff ’s side, son,’ ” Laux recalled. of deadly force is a wedge that drives At the time, Cochran was forging relablacks and whites in Little Rock ever tionships with black-owned firms further apart. across the country, including a loose partnership with the civil rights attorA call from Little Rock ney Jim Montgomery in Chicago. Laux signed on as an attorney with MontLaux knows what it is to walk a gomery’s firm in 2006 and started tightrope between worlds. Born to a working on civil rights cases. white mother and black father in MilLaux was working there in January waukee, Wis., in 1973, Laux said it was 2011 when he got a call from brothers hard growing up biracial in a city he Troy and Spencer Ellison in Little Rock, says is still one of the most racially both veteran officers with the Little divided in the country. But the diplo- Rock Police Department. On Dec. 9, macy skills he had to cultivate as a kid 2010, their father, Eugene Ellison, was have made him a good trial lawyer, and sitting in his apartment near Asher help him understand the push-pull that and University when Donna Lesher keeps race relations in Little Rock on and Tabitha McCrillis, two off-duty edge. “I know that tension,” he said. LRPD officers working security at the Laux said he wanted to be a law- complex, noticed Ellison’s door ajar yer because of his Uncle Elliott, the and stepped inside. After Ellison told arktimes.com OCTOBER 12, 2017

BRIAN CHILSON

them to get out, a fight ensued, with containing footage from the camera I say they were approaching me standLesher and McCrillis both later testi- pointed at Ellison’s door — footage that ing up, and the bullets go up and down fying that Ellison had used his walk- should have showed Lesher firing the — vertical and not horizontal [through ing cane as a weapon. With the two shot that killed Eugene Ellison — was their body] — I’m in a lot of trouble. I officers unable to subdue Ellison, they damaged. Though the LRPD use-of- dare say there’s a lot of people doing called in backup. Though the facts of force continuum, a kind of ladder of time right now because their stories the case are disputed, after two other escalating force with deadly force on don’t match the physical evidence. officers arrived on scene, the four offi- the top rung, stipulates that pepper That’s a question that was never asked cers were standing on the balcony out- spray should be employed if possible of her. It was never asked of her until side Ellison’s apartment door when before shooting a suspect, and Lesher I took her deposition, and she had no Lesher pulled her department-issued later stated that she’d used pepper answer for it.” Glock and fired through the open door, spray on Ellison, not a single report In preparing for the case, Laux shooting Ellison twice in the chest. He filed in the case mentioned the odor made what he called “a very, very big died at the scene. of pepper spray in Ellison’s apartment. document request” from the city of Vincent Lucio, one of the backup After it became an issue in the case, Little Rock: the prosecutor’s file on officers, would later testify that at the almost a dozen LRPD officers submit- every fatal police shooting in Little time Lesher shot, he didn’t believe Elli- ted supplementary reports saying they Rock since 2005. The resulting files son represented a deadly threat to the had, in fact, smelled pepper spray at filled 30 packed bankers boxes. In officers on scene. Another officer, vet- the scene that night. Pulaski County between other cases, he started ploweran detective J.C. White, would later Coroner Garland Camper and others ing through the reams of paper, learntestify that it was his belief that the would later confirm there was no pep- ing the ways the LRPD investigated department and the city had made Elli- per spray on Ellison’s body. their own when a suspect wound up son out to be “a monster” in the wake of the shooting. Nonetheless, in May 2011, Pulaski County prosecutors ruled the shooting justified and announced they wouldn’t be filing criminal charges against McCrillis or Lesher. “[Spencer and Troy Ellison] were so credible that I didn’t have any reason to doubt them,” Laux said. “The facts were incredible to me. Shot in his own home? No crime, no call, not even, ‘there’s a suspicious person hanging around’? Just a routine sweep at an apartment complex and a man is dead because of a walking cane? Those facts are what drew me to it … . I basically just trusted these guys, and it just seemed like an important case in a historic city. It was really the caliber of those two men, and the hurt they were JUDGMENT: Laux, attorney Austin Porter Jr. and Sylvia Perkins outside the federal courthouse in Little Rock. experiencing. The betrayal they felt — the true betrayal.” Through Laux, Troy and Spencer It was an autopsy report, however, dead. Ellison declined an opportunity to that revealed what Laux believes is one “I swear to God, there was not one comment for this story. of the most damning bits of evidence in file that I looked through that was, ‘OK, Right off the bat, Laux noticed a the case. Though the official report said that’s legit,’” he said. “It was always number of glaring abnormalities in Lesher shot Ellison as Ellison rose from something. Sometimes it was huge. the police investigation of the Ellison the couch to confront officers again Sometimes it was curious. But there shooting. Lesher’s husband, Sgt. James with the walking cane they say he’d was always something. A witness said Lesher, was the head of the section that been using as a weapon, the autopsy something extremely provocative that investigated officer-involved shoot- found that the trajectory of both bul- no one followed up on. Or, ‘Where’s the ings at the time. Laux would eventually lets through Ellison’s body entered his video these guys keep talking about?’ Or, learn that on the night of the killing, upper chest and ran the length of his ‘Why didn’t they dust for fingerprints?’” James Lesher had picked his wife up torso before exiting at his lower back, Laux said there are a number of troufrom the crime scene and drove her as if he was bending over, on his hands bling themes that pop out from the back to department headquarters, stay- and knees, or falling forward onto his police questioning of witnesses, susing with her for four hours until she face when he was shot. pects and officers following officerwas officially interviewed. It was one “If you could only ask one ques- involved shootings. “Let’s say someof dozens of troubling things about the tion of Donna Lesher,” Laux said, “it one’s cousin gets blown away before investigation. For example, Laux later was this, ‘If Mr. Ellison was standing their eyes. They question the cousin,” learned that of all the DVDs contain- upright when you shot him, like you he said. “You’d think the cousin is the ing footage from surveillance cameras say he was, why did the bullets go the criminal. They’re hard-assed with the in the complex that were collected as length of his body? Answer that ques- cousin. They’re like, ‘You didn’t see evidence by the LRPD, only the DVD tion.’ Because if I shoot somebody, and that, right? You didn’t see his hands, 16

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

right? Well, I think I did. Well you said before you didn’t. Now you’re changing your story? Well, I didn’t see it at the time …’ Treating him like an asshole. What they try to do is, they try to rule out that any particular witness saw the victim’s hands at the exact time of the shooting.” Laux said that what the witnesses don’t realize about a conversation like that is, it’s a sort of de-facto deposition, which Laux believes is designed to insulate the officer from responsibility should the shooting ever be the subject of official scrutiny or a lawsuit. “Sometimes these people are barefoot and still have bloodstains on them,” he said. “They literally saw someone blown away an hour and 40 minutes ago. Now they’re being threatened with charges of perjury. They tend to not be the most sophisticated citizens. The cops know where they live. It’s a terrible situation. Fast-forward to the officers and it’s like night and day. Open questions, vague questions, no follow-ups.” In October 2011, Laux and the Ellison brothers announced they would be filing a federal civil rights lawsuit over the shooting of Eugene Ellison. Over the next five years, Laux would spend over $200,000 and untold hours on the case, deposing almost every officer or city official who ever came near it. After years of back and forth between the parties and thousands of hours of work, U.S. District Judge Brian Miller refused the city’s request to dismiss the case. The city appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear it, which allowed the Ellison brothers’ lawsuit to go forward. On May 6, 2016, the Friday before the case was set for trial in Miller’s court, Laux announced his clients had reached a historic settlement with the city that included a $900,000 payment, an apology to the family and the installation of a bench dedicated to the memory of Eugene Ellison. The city refused to admit liability in the death of Ellison. An undisclosed settlement reached on April 27 with the owners of the apartment complex where Ellison lived when he was killed pushed the total awards in Ellison’s death to well over $1 million. Even though the settlement benefited both Laux’s pocketbook and his practice, he said it’s an expenditure of money, time and resources the city could have easily avoided. “If they had told Spencer and Troy, ‘We’re mortified by what happened. This is a terrible shooting. We’re not going to arrest her, but we’re going to

Laux eventually sued over two other LRPD shooting cases: the July 2008 death of 25-year-old Collin Spradling — who police say was killed after he pointed a gun at them, though a witness said that at the time he was shot, police had him on the ground with both hands behind his back — and the November 2009 death of Landris Hawkins, a mentally ill man whose family called police after Hawkins put a knife to his throat and threatened suicide. Hawkins was shot four times, 98 seconds after the first officer arrived on the scene. Laux settled the Hawkins case. The Spradling case is still pending. In the summer of 2014, Laux was contacted by the family of Bobby Moore, which was frustrated after two mistrials and an announcement by the Pulaski County prosecuting attorney’s office that Josh Hastings wouldn’t be put on trial for a third time. In April this year, arguing before an all-white jury, Laux won a $415,000 personal judgment against Hastings in the case. “I’ve never had an all-white jury before and certainly never in the Deep South,” Laux said. “To be able to get them to see the light and focus on what’s right and what’s wrong is very important to me. I was very proud of that.” Sylvia Perkins, Moore’s mother, said that she believes her family would have never been able to reach a successful conclusion in their case without Laux’s help. She believes part of the reason Laux is successful is because, being from out of town, he isn’t part of the Little Rock system. “Mike Laux don’t know nobody here,” Perkins said. “He works for his clients. He don’t work for himself. He don’t work to make himself look good, he works to make his clients feel good. … When I got into the civil suit, there was a lot that I heard and found out that I didn’t know nothing about from the other trials. Mike showed me a lot. He put a lot in my face that I feel

15-year-old kid doing out there?’ Which elsewhere as an asset. “If you really is a legitimate question. But we all do take racial injustice to the mat here, the best we can with the resources we no holds barred, the way you should have. Sylvia was working 65 hours a advocate for your client, and you hapweek. She was the woman who cleans pen to be an African-American lawyer, up your hotel. She did the best she you can run into big problems,” he said. could with her boy.” “I believe that I am invulnerable to a These days, Laux has only a handful lot of the pressures that can be placed of cases pending in Chicago and Cali- upon the great, well-intentioned black fornia, where he splits his time. The lawyers in this town. … lion’s share of his work is in Little Rock. Socially, politically, all of the above.” While he said Little Rock is full of fine His current caseload includes a civil civil rights attorneys and more than its suit filed in August over the shooting share of excellent African-American of Little Rock resident Roy Richards, attorneys, he sees being headquartered 46, who was killed on Oct. 25, 2016, on

DR. WALTER HARRIS NUNN

passed away on October 2, 2017. Born in Monticello, Arkansas, Nunn attended Hendrix College and graduated with high honors in 1964. Nunn was editor of the Hendrix “College Profile” newspaper in 1961 and 1962 and received numerous awards for outstanding contributions to journalism.

unn subsequently received a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Kansas in 1966, as well as a doctoral degree in Higher Education Administration from the University of Arkansas in 1992. Nunn was well known for his service to Arkansas. A passionate community organizer, in the 1970s, Nunn led a neighborhood association effort in the Little Rock Oak Forest neighborhood to prevent blockbusting and to promote integration. He directed the Arkansas Institute of Politics and Government from 1978-1981, which taught others to run political campaigns. For over thirty years, Nunn directed the Arkansas International Center, a nonprofit agency in Little Rock dedicated to teaching international visitors about US governance, business and culture. Nunn raised over $10 million to bring over 10,000 international visitors to Arkansas. He also took hundreds of Arkansan public school teachers abroad for cultural experiences that they could integrate into their public school curricula. Nunn was also a Professor of Political Science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. For over twenty years, he taught courses about Arkansas government. Nunn was also the founding owner of Rose Publishing

Company, which published books about Arkansas, including its politics, history and government. He won awards from the Southern Books competition in 1981. Widely respected as the state’s foremost expert on the Arkansas Constitution, Nunn published over 70 books about Arkansas, including “Arkansas Odyssey,” recognized to be the most complete recounting of Arkansas history. He was also the first publisher of book compilations of George Fisher’s political cartoons. Nunn was Vice President of the Little Rock Racial and Cultural Diversity Commission in the early 2000s. Nunn was also active in his book club for over 45 years and was an active member of the downtown rotary club for 40 years. An avid dog lover with a jovial spirit, Nunn was fond of walking his four dogs at the Paws Dog Park and over the Big Dam Bridge, often proudly donning his favorite t-shirt labeled with the Pun “The Dogfather.” Nunn was survived by Gale Stewart, an attorney, farmer, and expert gardener. He is also survived by his two children: Robert Nunn, a political organizer and volunteer at Heifer International, and Dr. Amy Nunn, a Professor of Public Health and Medicine at Brown University. He was the proud grandfather of Agustin (8) and Valentina Velasco (6).

A memorial service was held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 7, 2017 and a reception followed, both were at Ruebel Funeral Home at 6313 West Markham St., Little Rock, Arkansas 72205.

$415,000

like was hid from me. I fault Little Rock. I fault the police department.” Laux said Perkins is a very special client who reminds him a lot of his late mother. While Bobby Moore was a different kind of victim than Eugene Ellison, Laux believes Moore didn’t deserve to die for breaking into cars. “No one likes that. That’s a total breach, and Bobby did that. That’s what he was doing. I’ve had cases like that with clients before, with clients who weren’t doing good stuff,” Laux said. “But he was 15 years old. On the one hand you say, ‘What the hell is a

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Global Ties Arkansas, 16 Toulouse Court, Little Rock, Arkansas 72211.

discipline the shit out of her and she’ll never be on the street again, and can we make a $10,000 donation to the U.S. Veterans fund?’ those guys would have said yes and turned the page. That’s the kind of guy those guys are. But instead, they spent all kinds of money fighting this. They created all kinds of discord and division fighting this ... . They wound up giving $900,000 anyway and suffering a black eye, and made me a folk hero of sorts, deservedly or not. They created me. Now they’re bitching about me. But they created me.”

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BRIAN CHILSON

E. Eighth St. by LRPD Officer Dennis Hutchins with an AR-15 rifle during a drunken altercation with Richards’ uncle, Derrell Underwood. Though the official report claims that Hutchins fired the fatal shots because he feared for Underwood’s life after seeing Richards pursuing his uncle with a rifle — a rifle that turned out to be a BB gun — Richards’ family, including Underwood, contends that at the time Richards was killed, Underwood had already gone into his house, locked the door and had gone to a back bedroom to wake a sleeping relative. Video from LRPD cruiser dash cams shows Hutchins and another officer arriving on scene without even their headlights on, much less blue lights and sirens, then approaching the scene in the dark. Though the actual shooting isn’t captured on the footage, the audio is, and no verbal command or announcement of the officers’ presence can be heard before the fatal shots were fired. Another high-profile case Laux has pending is a First Amendment-based suit on behalf of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who was stripped of his ability to hear cases associated with the death penalty by the Arkansas Supreme Court after Griffen participated in a 2017 Good Friday vigil at the Governor’s Mansion, which saw Griffen lay down on a cot while members of his church and protestors with anti-death penalty signs stood nearby. The vigil happened the same day Griffen had ruled against the state in a claim filed by the drug supplier McKesson, with his ruling temporarily halting a raft of executions scheduled by the governor. Though initial news reports said Griffen was emulating a condemned inmate on a gurney, the judge has since said he was actually acting in solidarity with Jesus, with the Governor’s Mansion chosen because of the similar role played by Pontius Pilate in the crucifixion. Griffen said he chose Laux to represent him in the case because Laux is “the real deal,” and is carrying on the work of longtime Little Rock civil rights attorney Rep. John Walker (D-Little Rock). Griffen believes civil suits over police shootings, like those filed by Laux, have an important role to play when internal investigations and criminal trials over questionable police shootings bear no fruit. “The civil remedy does allow oppressed people who have been victimized by abusive and homicidal police conduct to recover what damage has been done to them,” Griffen

FREE SPEECH: (From right) Laux, Griffen and Austin Porter Jr. announce the filing of Griffen’s civil suit.

said. “Eventually, taxpayers and voters and honking their horns to give him ought to get tired of having part of their an attaboy. He’s been coming here for revenue stream being used to basically seven years now, and he has seen the defend and to pay damages for abusive city develop an energy to it like Austin and homicidal conduct. This is money or Nashville, becoming what he called that is being spent in the name of the a “complete place,” full of aspirations, public for conduct that the public has dreams and talented people, ready to every right to detest. I think eventually bloom. But he also believes that energy, people ought to say, ‘We can figure out and attempts at healing the city’s racial how to stop this. If we have to fire some divisions, is being held back by an old folks, we can fire folks until they learn guard who doesn’t really want things how to not get sued.’ ” to change. Griffen said the $900,000 settle“This place could pop like nothing if ment in the Ellison case should send you took the shackles off of it,” he said. the message that people who have been “People don’t like to do business where victimized “are not going to tolerate there’s corruption. People don’t like to this kind of conduct.” He said he’s seen do business where there’s bad vibes and no evidence that it’s a lesson the city bad headlines. I feel like maybe in a has learned yet. “There is something generation, it’ll be different, but it’s like systematically wrong with the way the there’s this old claw that won’t quite let city of Little Rock does policing that go.” That claw, Laux said, belongs to a cannot be cured by business as usual,” select few grasping at power, squeezGriffen said. “You can’t keep doing the ing tighter as it slips through their finsame thing you’ve always done, expect- gers. He believes that struggle touches ing different results. So, I think these every facet of life in the city. Call it Mike lawsuits and these recoveries show that Laux’s Theory of Everything. people are fighting; secondly, that the “It’s about control,” he said. “If you fights are going to be waged seriously; want to talk about an overarching situand third, that the fights are going to ation that affects everything — Wensucceed. The question is whether or dell Griffen, the LRPD, Roy Richards, not the Little Rock Police Department I suspect the [Little Rock School Disis going to get the message and change trict] — it’s about controlling resources their ways.” and power. … Everyone can feel it percolating — diversity. But this place is A Theory of Everything stifling that diversity because I think it’s threatened by it.” Here’s news that should send a While Laux believes breaking that shiver through the powers that be: stranglehold is a complicated puzMike Laux, having forged friendships zle, he said it could start with truly and relationships here, has considered changing things at the LRPD, includmoving his growing family to Little ing requiring independent review of Rock. He’s been on TV enough now police-involved shootings by an outthat he gets honest-to-God “Rocky” side agency, possibly the Arkansas style shouts of encouragement while State Police, with civilian input. walking down the street, with people “I’ve said to [LRPD officials] so rolling down their windows to shout many times in depositions: ‘If you

trust your training, if you trust your people, if you trust your curriculum, if you trust your officers, why would you be adverse to independent review? If you’ve trained them the way they’re supposed to be trained, if they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing, why not say, ‘Bring it on’? But it’s a power thing. They don’t want to relinquish that power.” Another piece of the puzzle, Laux believes, would be the city admitting fault and moving to atone for mistakes when the evidence clearly shows a police shooting has gone wrong. During the Ellison case, Laux said, he told attorneys for the city as much, and tried to convince them that a protracted legal fight could only deepen the city’s divisions, whereas offering an apology and settlement would help heal them. It’s an argument he’s prepared to make again in the Roy Richards case. “If the city apparatus as it were really wanted to make a statement and really wanted to signify something,” Laux said, “they should come out and say, ‘This was a bad shooting, and we’re sorry, and we want to make it right.’ Not only is that the right thing to do for the family and the right thing to do for that officer, but do you know what a political boon that would be for them? Do you know how refreshing that would be to this city?” By fighting every lawsuit over a police shooting tooth and nail, Laux said, Little Rock further alienates the black community, making African Americans feel more adversarial to the police and divorced from ownership of their city. “Citizens need to feel like they have a stake in the game,” he said. “Again, it’s all inter-related. If you don’t feel like you have a stake in the game, if black folks get killed and nothing happens, you’re not going to feel like you’re a participant. If you don’t feel like you’re a participant, then who gives a shit? ‘I’ll vandalize anything, I’ll steal from anyone, I’ll jack anyone.’ I really feel like that about the city as a whole.” As for his practice, Laux is keeping track of police shootings in Little Rock. He’s currently doing research on a number of shootings that have crossed his desk and will be filing more suits in the future, trying to dig deep enough into the city’s purse that officials finally get the message that things need to change. He believes he owes it to a city he has adopted as a second home. “We’re talking about universal rights in my opinion,” he said. “So I’m not going anywhere.”

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A PIONEER IN PHYSICAL THERAPY

hen you’ve managed to stay in business almost 30 years, you’re doing something right. In the case of Dr. Renee Crater, that something is a passion for helping patients across a wide spectrum of conditions. Her practice, MCH PhysicalTherapy, is one of the few that treats virtually all comers, regardless of age or medical diagnosis. “A lot of practices will specialize into a certain area, whether it be orthopedics or it may be strictly sports-related, or some people will do home health or contract out to do nursing,” she said. “I have not limited myself in any one area. I treat, as they say, from the cradle to the grave.” Crater was raised in Smackover and said she didn’t have any real medical role models growing up, she just gravitated to her life’s work as a result of being talented in the sciences in high school. She earned her undergraduate degree in physical therapy from the University of Central Arkansas in 1983 and her clinical doctorate in physical therapy from Alabama State University in 2012. During her undergrad years, she saw plenty of other women, but very few African Americans in the field of physical therapy. “In recent years there’s been more males going into it, but back then there were a lot more females,” she said. “As far as African-American physical therapists, I knew none. When I went to school, the only place you could go in Arkansas was UCA. That was the only school that offered physical therapy and they took 30 students per year, so it was very, very competitive to get in.” “There were three African Americans that started in my class [and] two of us graduated. We were the first two AfricanAmericans in the state of Arkansas to ever graduate with a degree in physical therapy.” Crater spent the first few years after college working in several environments before co-founding MCH Physical Therapy

WOMEN Entrepreneurs

CARVING OUT A SUCCESSFUL NICHE AS MODERN LAW FIRM

in 1989. Over time, she built a successful business as well as helped develop succeeding generations of physical therapists in Arkansas. She’s a member of the American Academy of Physical Therapy and co-chair of the national group’s annual conference, which will come to Little Rock in November. She’s also helped directly develop talent closer to home. “I frequently have students that are interested in going into physical therapy contact me to come observe and see if this is what they want to do,” she said. “Actually, if you’re going to apply to physical therapy school now, you have to have so many hours of observation as part of the application process. I do that for any student that wants to come to my clinic to observe.” After all of these years, she’s showing no sign of slowing down; if anything, she’s more gratified than ever to bring relief to someone who’s hurting. “When I have a patient that’s been in a lot of pain, whether it’s from a car accident, a fall, a work-related injury or whatever and we can do something to make that better and improve their quality of life, that is what I get up for every day,” she said.

everaging technology and employing a flexible pricing structure, Victoria “Tori” Leigh has blazed a trail for so-called modern law firms in Little Rock. She said such elements, products of generational differences, are important points of differentiation in a crowded field. “There’s two big differences that I see in generational practices. One is the use of technology; the older folks are real hesitant to expand their horizons with respect to the tools that are out there now,” she said. “Then the second thing is the way we structure our fees and the way we approach clients and handle cases.” “We’ve marketed ourselves as a modern law practice. We do very thorough consultations, we figure out exactly what’s going on, we tell you what your options are and we can fit services into almost any budget.” Leigh said this system of providing legal services better fits with the economic realities many potential clients are facing. “There’s a study out there that said something like 50 or 60 percent of middleclass Americans could not absorb a $400 emergency,”she said.“If something happens and they need a lawyer, they don’t have $3,000 or $5,000 to put down to pay somebody $250 an hour.” “More than 50 percent of litigants in domestic relations cases represent themselves. They need lawyers that can help them some of the way, even if not all the way.” Leigh’s empathy for client circumstances isn’t something that’s come along recently; it’s surfaced throughout her legal career in the form of pro bono work and hundreds of volunteer hours on behalf of underserved communities. In her career, she’s defended homeowners dealing with debt collectors who fraudulently foreclosed homes and served a tenure as the attorney member of the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illnesses Advisory Council of the Disability Rights Center of Arkansas.

The North Little Rock native said the opportunity to affect change and a fascination with the legal process made her want to pursue law in the first place. “Nobody calls a lawyer when good things are happening in their life,” she said. “People have problems and you get to solve them. The flexibility and creativity with which you solve them is what’s the most appealing to me.” Flexibility is also what she appreciates about having her own practice, as it gives her opportunities to attend to her daughter, despite spending long hours on cases. “My personality has always been I march to the tune of my own drum,”she said. “The flexibility and independence [of private practice] goes well with my personality.” As for being a woman competing in a male-dominated field, Leigh said it’s a process that hardly gets easier with time. “It’s difficult to decide what battles to fight and what battles are not worth fighting,” she said. “I certainly can think back about battles when I was younger that I fought that I regret. Like, man, that was not a hill worth dying on. Then there were times that I didn’t say anything and I really should have. It’s a balancing act.”

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Arts Entertainment AND

THREE-TIME WINNER: Event organizer Emily Blumenthal and Neiman Marcus fashion director Ken Downing stand with Christopher Belt as he clutches his trophies from the Independent Handbag Design Awards.

Aerial and Amelia

How a Sheridan native started with soda can purses and landed at the top of the handbag industry. BY ALEX FLANDERS

“

’ve found the best way to keep good opportunities coming my way is to think like a beginner, because the moment I don’t think I’m a beginner, I quit learning.” That’s Sheridan native Christopher Belt’s approach to the competitive world of fashion design and, so far, it’s worked out for him pretty well. Belt competed against 44 other handbag designer finalists from around the 26

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

world and won three titles at the 11th annual Independent Handbag Designer Awards in New York in June, a global contest that could effectively transform a homemade designer into a household name like Kenneth Cole — who, by the way, was one of 20 esteemed judges for this year’s event. Belt won the Best Retail Handbag presented by Neiman Marcus, the Bernina Best Handmade Handbag and the Perfect Everyday Work Tote Bag by Aimee Kestenberg. “I don’t think

there’s anything wrong with a healthy realization that you have to wake up and compete,” he said. Growing up in a small town in the middle of the South, Belt sought inspiration from pop culture and the women in his life. “I watched a lot of ‘Project Runway’ and looked up to the idea that the contestants competed against thousands of designer applications to be chosen,” he said. “The fact that talent could be discovered from towns and cities you never see in the movies gave me hope.” Belt says he began to notice women around him communicating with each other through fashion and accessories, even when they had vastly different senses of style. He remembers perusing department stores critiquing the accessories on display with his grandmother, Angela Belt, when he was young, and recalls his high school art teacher, Patricia McClain, who was passionate about providing a space where artistic minds could grow. His competing bags, the Amelia

tote and the Aerial bag, were named with a strong female lead in mind; Amelia means “hard worker,” and Aerial describes something existing, happening or operating in the air (and serves as a nod to his favorite redheaded mermaid). Belt envisions the lady wearing his wares to be “a woman who lives her life unapologetically, a woman who knows what she wants: sexy, strong and determined.” As a student at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, Belt said his knack for building bags began with some creativity and a bit of, well, trash. “I wanted to do something different, so I began making shoes and handbags out of found items,” Belt remembers. “I agreed to sell a soda can handbag with a matching set of shoes to one girl in the class. The next morning, I had orders for every kind of canned beverage you could imagine in the form of a handbag.” It’s not impossible to imagine building accessories out of scraps (anyone remember the era of Duct Tape fashion?), but Belt gave it flair. Belt’s bags, to him, are more than merely a vessel used to store crumpled receipts, a debit card and long-forgotten tubes of seasonal lipsticks. “If you look over at the handbag nearest you, it will become obvious that it’s not that different from a home,” Belt says. “It houses all your essentials, plus frivolous items you love. I grew up with the notion that a house can be built to your exact needs and desires.” Belt is referring to his own childhood home, built by his father and, as he says, not a “cookie cutter McMansion.” Building handbags, he says, isn’t so different from architecture itself. When it comes to balancing human sensory appeal and structural efficiency, Belt says, there can be a domino effect. “Anytime you change one detail, it affects another. Then you have to change another until, finally, the design is reliable, yet elegant,” he related. Don’t expect Belt to slow down anytime soon. He says each workday involves four different collections, “the one on the shelves, the one you are promoting next, the one you are developing, and the one you are brainstorming, which is the same season that is on the shelves a year

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A&E NEWS from now,” he said. “My life is a circus.” Two collections Belt will soon launch are the Harrian Collection, a partnership with a South Korean company that offers an innovative approach to the classic handbag, and the Christopher Belt brand collection, which will include inspirations and design elements from the Aerial bag paired with classic styles. As a result of his victories at the Independent Handbag Designer Awards, Belt’s collections will soon be featured in Neiman Marcus stores. Belt, who lives in New York, says he returns to Arkansas as often as he can — most immediately, Oct. 12, where he’ll be the star at ESSE Purse Museum’s “An Evening at ESSE with Christopher Belt,” benefiting Comfort Cases, a nonprofit that provides children in the foster care system with travel cases filled with essential and comfort items. See Eventbrite for $50 tickets. Prototypes of Belt’s winning handbags — the Aerial Bag and the Amelia Tote — will be showcased, along with a few other new bags from his upcoming collections at the event, and will remain housed at the ESSE Purse Museum.

JASON ISBELL AND The 400 Unit, the acclaimed outfit fronted by the former DriveBy Trucker guitarist, announced Little Rock as the second stop on the group’s upcoming tour, in support of 2017’s “The Nashville Sound.” James McMurtry opens the show, which takes place 8 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018 at Robinson Center. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster as of 10 a.m., Friday, Oct. 13. LESS THAN A week after a sign was unveiled in Cotton Plant to honor the rock pioneer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe became a first-time nominee for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. For fans of Tharpe’s, the accolades are obnoxiously overdue; not only is Sister Rosetta part of rock ’n’roll’s complex story, but there’s good reason to argue that she’s the very inventor of the genre. Out of the 19 nominees for the 2018 induction process, Sister Rosetta’s eligibility is the oldest; artists become eligible for induction 25 years after the release of their first record. The induction process, a combination of public votes and ballots from music historians, is a cumulative tally of votes from “more than 900 historians, members of the music industry and artists,” as stated on rockhall.com, “including every living Rock Hall inductee.” The five performers with the most votes, including a single ballot from an online public vote, become that year’s induction class. The public vote is up at rockhall.com through 11:59 EST, Tuesday, Dec. 5, and that same month, inductees will be announced. The induction ceremony will take place in Cleveland, Ohio, on April 14, 2018. WADE RATHKE, WHO started the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) in Arkansas in 1970, is the subject of “The Organizer,” a documentary from filmmakers Nick Taylor and Joey Carey. The film’s world premiere takes place Thursday, Oct. 12 at the New Orleans Film Festival, and will be screened at the Woodstock Film Festival in upstate New York, Sunday, Oc.15. Meanwhile, a documentary about ACORN’s controversial history from directors Reuben Atlas and Samuel D. Pollard, “ACORN and the Firestorm,” screens at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12. The film focuses on the political fires stoked by ACORN’s bankruptcy, and was described by filmmaker Michael Moore as “a compelling cautionary tale.” See hsdfi.org for details.

ArkansasStateFair.com

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THURSDAY 10/12-SUNDAY 10/22 ready-made for pairing with concession beer — Avant, 7 p.m. Oct. 15; Vince Various times. Arkansas State FairNeil, 8 p.m. Oct. 13; Freddie Jackson, grounds, 2600 Howard St. $3-$50. 8 p.m. Oct. 17; Tracy Lawrence, 8 p.m. At its heart, the Arkansas State Oct. 18; Ann Wilson of Heart, 7:30 Fair is like its counterparts elsewhere p.m. Oct. 19; Tom Keifer from Cinderin America: an outgrowth of the ag- ella, 8 p.m. Oct. 20; Coolio, 7 p.m. Oct. ricultural sciences. The “midway and 22; and more. Especially helpful for corndogs” part, to quote an Arkansas State Fair food enthusiasts: a detailed, Times columnist’s summary of the pocket-sized fair guide, with pages fair, is just extra. If, like me, you find 20-21 dedicated to a map that tells you yourself blithely unaware of the dif- exactly where to find bacon bombers, ference between a gilt and a barrow Koolickles (Kool-Aid pickles), pinepig, there’s plenty to learn about and apple whips, armadillo eggs, chicken coo at in the livestock barns — rab- on a stick, gator on a stick, salad on a bits, sheep, chickens, turkeys, pigs, stick and something called Thankscows, geese, donkeys. If that doesn’t giving tacos. See arkansasstatefair. float your boat or you’re allergic to com for details. SS hay, there’s a throwback music lineup

ARKANSAS STATE FAIR

THURSDAY 10/12-SATURDAY 10/14

RED OCTOPUS THEATER: ‘THE WOKE DEAD’ SERIGRAPH: Jesus “Cimi” Alvarado’s “Yolitzli” is part of “Estamos Aqui,” up at UA Little Rock Art Gallery III through Nov. 10.

WEDNESDAY 10/11-FRIDAY 11/10

‘ESTAMOS AQUI’

9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat., 2 p.m.-5 p.m. Sun. UA Little Rock. Free.

In 1993, Austin-based other themes. As part of the Chicano painter and print- National Endowment for the maker Sam Coronado began Arts’ “Big Read” program, the opening his studio space and Ottenheimer Library at UA equipment to other artists — Little Rock received an NEA specifically, underrepresent- grant — the only one of its ed artists interested in learn- kind to be awarded to an Aring the art of silk-screening. kansas library this year — to The space became known as house some of the work that a hub for collaboration among emerged from Coronado’s stuMexican and Latin American dio. Curated by UA Little Rock artists, and resulted in a port- Gallery Director Brad Cushfolio of work depicting “family man, the exhibit traveled to and religious symbols, politi- 17 gallery spaces in 10 states cal motifs, Mexican ‘Lucha Li- between 2013-17 and 18 pieces bre’ wrestling matches, video from that serigraph collecand performance art, neigh- tion are up at the university borhood themes and Mexican through Nov. 10. SS graphic traditions,” among

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

8 p.m. The Public Theatre, 616 Center Street. $8-$10.

Humor, like attitudes toward cilantro, is a finicky and hard-wired thing; you either love “Waiting for Guffman” or you don’t, and your attitude isn’t likely to change overnight. For fans of the trashy and tasteless, the off-kilter and the over-the-top, Red Octopus shows are your shade of blue. This Halloween season, they take on

the “ongoing political culture of America to the perils of cheese dip addiction,” a press release states, just above a photo of the troupe dressed as zombies on the Capitol Lawn, holding up protest signs that read “Death is not pre-existing,” “Zombies were people, too” and “Brains Now.” The show’s content is intended for mature audiences; children’s tickets are listed at $486. SS

THURSDAY 10/12-SUNDAY 10/15

HILLBERRY MUSIC FESTIVAL

Bluegrass, Keller Williams’ Grateful Grass, Sad Daddy, Mountain Sprout, 6 p.m. Thu., 4:25 p.m. Fri., 2:25 p.m. Arkansauce and a host of others. See Sat., 2:50 p.m. Sun. The Farm, 1 Blue hillberryfestival.com for tickets. And, Heron Lane, Eureka Springs. $60-$180. the festival’s only a 22-minute drive Look, there are only a few week- away from Basin Park in downtown ends left in 2017 good for pitching a Eureka Springs, where the concurtent and stomping around barefoot in rent Bluegrass Weekend is going on, the hills on 160 acres under the har- with free admission to hear sets from vest moon, and if you’re of a mind to Cedar Hill, 2 p.m. Fri. and 4 p.m. Sat.; do that in the company of some new- The Shook Twins, 3:45 p.m. Fri. and grass jam bands, this is your scene. 1 p.m. Sat.; Lonesome Road, 2:30 p.m. The mandolin-forward Railroad Earth Sat.; and the Black Lillies, 5:30 p.m. plays two nights, and it’s joined on the Fri.-Sat. SS lineup by Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, Greensky

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 10/12

FRIDAY 10/13

ARKANSAS CHAMBER SINGERS: ‘SING THE UNIVERSAL’

7:30 p.m. Fri., Christ Episcopal Church; 3 p.m. Sun., Calvary Baptist Church. $10-$15.

ISAAC ALEXANDER

Maybe because pre-17th century music has been enjoying a revival in the choral community, contemporary choral music like the work of Ola Gjeilo, Morten Lauridsen or Eric Whitacre can often have thematic or harmonic kinship with pieces from early composers like Byrd or Palestrina. The Arkansas Chamber Singers, local poster children for exceptional choral intonation, present this concert of jewels, pairing modern works with early pieces that use an identical or similar text. SS

ZVIPANI ZEAL: Dr. Tererai Trent, who Oprah Winfrey called her “all-time favorite guest,” speaks at the Clinton School for Public Service Thursday evening.

FRIDAY 10/13

THURSDAY 10/12

‘THE AWAKENED WOMAN’

6 p.m. Clinton School of Public Service. Free.

In a video at oprah.com, Tererai Trent revisits her rural birthplace of Zvipani, Zimbabwe, where as a young girl she’d absconded with her brother’s school books, doing his homework and secretly learning to read on a big boulder she used as a desk. Her secret got out, and she was allowed to go to school for two terms before being married off at age 11, bearing three children by the time she turned 18 and — after confessing to her husband her dreams of getting a degree — being beaten. Trent has a doctorate now, thanks to her own persistence and boosts from Heifer International and other aid organizations. And, with a $1.5 million grant from Oprah Winfrey, she opened the doors to a school for 1,200 students in her native Zvipani. Trent’s given an address in front of the United Nations and aims to rebuild 10 more schools in rural Zimbabwe over the next 10 years. She speaks at the Clinton School about her book, “The Awakened Woman,” and about her educational organization, Tererai Trent International. SS

Founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds Jimmie Vaughan performs at UA Pulaski Technical College for the Arts Center for Humanities and Arts (CHARTS), 7 p.m., $39-$125. Jacob Metcalf brings the crystalline guitar arrangements from 2016’s “Fjord” to South on Main, 8 p.m., $10. Local comedians face off at The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse for Comedy Cage Match: Season Finale, with music from Miki Gaynor, 8 p.m., $5. The Creek Rocks bring their folklore-based songs to Four Quarter Bar for a free, early show, 6 p.m. Delta Translation plays a happy hour set at Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m., free, and at 9 p.m., Tragikly White takes the stage, $5. Texas country singer Mike Ryan brings piano ballad “Sad Song” and others to Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 8:30 p.m., $10. Appleton, Wis., band Tenement joins locals Fiscal Spliff and Attagirl for a rock show at the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. Comedian Sam Norton tackles “hard-hitting topics like baboons, Furbys, and the psychology of trees” at The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $8-$12. It’s Poetry Night at Guillermo’s Coffee, Tea & Roastery, 6:30 p.m., free.

CAROUSE ON KAVANAUGH: The Salty Dogs bring tunes from a new EP, “Goodnight,” to the stage for Hillcrest’s Harvestfest, and they’re joined by Isaac Alexander, Mojo Depot, Good Time Ramblers and Amasa Hines.

FRIDAY 10/13

THE SALTY DOGS

10 p.m. Four Quarter Bar.

For the first time in four years, The Salty Dogs have a new EP, “Goodnight.” That should be cause for celebration for anyone with any appreciation for classic country music. Take the opening track, “Goodnight ’47.” It sounds everything like something from a Bear Family Records compilation of post-World War II honky tonk. But it’s actually lead singer Brad Williams honey-twanged voice recorded on a refurbished 1947 Voice-o-Graph machine at Jack White’s Third Man Records store in Nashville, Tenn. That song is followed by a kicked-up version of The Louvin Brothers’ classic “The Christian Life” (1959). Elsewhere, ace Little Rock trumpeter Rodney Block guests on a moody love ballad. The Salty Dogs, which also includes bassist Brent LaBeau, guitarist Nick Devlin and drummer Bart Angel, celebrate the EP’s release (officially out Oct. 20 on Max Recordings) at Four Quarter on Friday, HarvestFest on Saturday and at an early 6 p.m. all ages show at White Water Tavern Sunday, Oct. 22. LM

Isaac Alexander brings tunes from “Like a Sinking Stone” to Maxine’s in Hot Springs, with Chuck Dodson, 9 p.m., $7. Ballet Arkansas presents “Emergence,” featuring Chris Stuart’s “Under the Lights by Chris Stuart,” set to the music of Johnny Cash, George Balanchine’s “Valse Fantaisie” and a world premiere by Mariana Oliveira, winner of the company’s 2017 “Winter Visions” choreography competition, 8 p.m. Walton Arts Center, Baum Walker Hall, $10. Mister Lucky brings its high-energy set to Cajun’s Wharf, 9 p.m., $5. Howard & Skye fill Cregeen’s Irish Pub with acoustic folk, 9 p.m., free. Chicago’s Dead Rider shares a bill with Or and Ghost Bones at Low Key Arts in Hot Springs, 118 Arbor St., 9 p.m., $7-$10. Mark Currey plays songs from “Tarrant County” at Core Public House, 5 p.m., free. Memphis hip-hop artist Moneybagg Yo lands at the Clear Channel Metroplex, 10 p.m., $25-$100 with discounted rate for Pine Bluff residents. Pine Bluff native Kami Renee, who plays bass for Arkansas Times Musicians Showcase reigning champions Dazz & Brie, performs at Chi’s Asian Cafe for Sushi & Chill, 10 p.m., free admission. Former showcase champions The Uh Huhs share a bill with Missouri’s Mouton for Freaky Friday, 11 p.m., Pizza D’Action. Irma Gerd, Jesse Kitten, Electra Complex and Envy S. Hart share the stage for Club Sway’s Club Camp: Scream Queens,

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

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FRIDAY 10/13

2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT

Beer: An Intoxicating History.” Topping that off with a head of historic In addition to the new street foam will be Stone’s Throw Brewing, vendors you’ll see on Main, 2nd which will pour its “Geo. Bros. Historic Friday Art Night has increased its Arkansas Ale,” based on beer brewed artisanal footprint with two new by Henry and Alexander George in the shops, Mariposa Photography at 229 1840s in Little Rock. John Burnette W. Capitol and Beige, featuring jewelry will provide music. Over at the Butler designed by LBJ Design, at 300 River Center Galleries, find an exhibition Market Ave. For the after-hours art of assemblages by Bret Aaker of New event, the Historic Arkansas Museum, Mexico titled “Conatus,” a word the 200 E. Third St., and the Butler Center Butler Center says is “defined by Galleries, 401 President Clinton early philosophers of psychology and Ave., open new exhibitions of fine metaphysics as the innate drive of an art; the Antigallery at Club Sway, 412 animate object to continue to exist S. Louisiana St., will feature a multi- and enhance itself.” We’ve all got a bit discipline show; and McLeod Fine of conatus, right? Behind the Butler Art, 108 W. Sixth St., will show works Center, at the Cox Creative Center, from its stable of artists. HAM has the ACANSA continues its exhibition. Hear merriest schedule for gallery-goers: Charlotte Taylor and Gypsy Rain play It opens “Body/Ecology: Daniella live at the Old State House Museum, Napolitano and Carmen Alexandria 300 W. Markham; here the suds will Thompson,” linocuts, serigraphy, be served by Core Brewing. Should Xerox lithography and chine-colle by you get too sudsy, stop by Nexus Coffee, the Little Rock artists. Beer is also a 301B President Clinton Ave.; with head theme: Brian Sorenson of Fayetteville cleared, hit Bella Vita, 523 W. Louisiana, will sign copies of his book “Arkansas for an earring party. LNP 5 p.m.-8 p.m., venues downtown.

FRIDAY 10/13

PAUL THORN

8:30 p.m. Revolution. $25.

When Paul Thorn speaks into the microphone to introduce a song, it’s pretty clear what side of the Mississippi River he hails from. The Tupelo native was once a prizefighter, and probably a prize trash talker, too, if songs like “Joanie, the Jehovah’s Witness Stripper” and “It’s a Great Day To Whup Somebody’s Ass” are any indication. “My father was a preacher, so I went with him to churches that white people

attended and churches that black people attended,” Thorn says on his website. “The white people sang gospel like it was country music, and the black people sang it like it was rhythm and blues.” He blends those styles, keeping the instrumentation sparse enough that the jabs come across: “Celibacy is a cross that I must carry/I couldn’t get laid when I was single, so I guess I’ll just stay married.” Bonnie Bishop opens the show. SS

FRIDAY 10/13-SUNDAY 10/15

‘KINKY BOOTS’

7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sun., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. Robinson Center Performance Hall. $28-$77.

Maybe the image of Cyndi Lauper and Harvey Fierstein perched together on a red velvet recliner alongside choreographer Jerry Mitchell is all you need to know to get stoked on “Kinky Boots.” Lauper and Fierstein are responsible for the 16 songs that fuel “Boots,” the story of how a 30

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

BACK ONSTAGE: Following a hiatus in light of the mass shooting at Jason Aldean’s Las Vegas concert, the country star resumes his “You Don’t Know” tour with a show at Verizon Arena.

FRIDAY 10/13

JASON ALDEAN

7:30 p.m. Verizon Arena. $34-$74.

Jason Aldean was a household name among country fans well before his set at the Route 91 Harvest Festival erupted into a horrific mass shooting, but it’s unlikely his name will be invoked anytime soon without feeling its link to that tragedy. Aldean, whose pregnant wife, Brittany Kerr, was backstage during the onslaught, canceled his shows that weekend, saying, “I feel like out of respect for the victims, their families and our fans, it is the right thing to do.”

At our press deadline, Aldean’s tour was to resume with a Tulsa date preceding his stop in Little Rock. The singer issued a statement to his nine million Facebook fans saying, “Something has changed in this country and in this world lately that is scary to see. This world is becoming the kind of place I am afraid to raise my children in.” Unlike fellow country musicians Rosanne Cash and Caleb Jeeter, Aldean — an avid deer hunter and the celebrity face of outdoorsman outfitters Field & Stream — offered his thoughts and prayers on social media, but made no mention of gun control. SS

SATURDAY 10/14 shoe factory owner and a drag queen invent a line of high-heeled boots designed to withstand the weight of the queens who strut night after night across a nightclub floor. The play won six Tony Awards in 2013 when it premiered and was nearly impossible to get tickets to in its original Broadway form. Robinson Center presents the touring version of that production, starring Billy Porter as Lola and Stark Sands as Charlie Price. SS

HARVESTFEST

11 a.m. Kavanaugh Boulevard between Walnut and Monroe streets, Hillcrest Historic District. Free.

Harvestfest has quietly ballooned into of the best one-day festival lineups in the city, and picturesque Hillcrest is not a bad place to take in those sounds on a chill fall afternoon. This year, there are sets from Mojo Depot, Amasa Hines and Good Time Ramblers, as well as

The Salty Dogs and Isaac Alexander, both of which have new albums worthy of your attention. For early risers, there’s an 8 a.m. dog walk beginning at Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church with a pancake breakfast afterward, also at the church. Or, if 8 a.m. is an hour in which socialization seems detestable, check in for the gumbo cookoff at noon at the corner of Spruce Street and Kavanaugh Boulevard. SS

IN BRIEF, CONT.

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CW: AE:

AD:

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CHEER YOUR TEAM, AS A TEAM.

GLASGOW, 1973: Lynne Ramsay’s “Ratcatcher,” the next film in the Arkansas Times Film Series, follows 12-year-old James Gillespie through his hometown as it succumbs to the desolation of its housing crisis.

TUESDAY 10/17

ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘RATCATCHER’ 7 p.m. Riverdale 10 Cinema. $8.50.

In a video essay titled “Lynne Ramsay — The Poetry of Details,” film editor Tony Zhou contemplates what it means to say a film is poetic. “To me, poetry in cinema is when I can ignore the plot and just appreciate the picture and the sound doing something unique,” he says. Set in 1973 against the backdrop of a garbage strike, Ramsay’s 1999 feature debut “Ratcatcher” depicts the residents of a Scottish housing scheme, a version of government housing. The growing mountains of trash bags that invade their environment create the ideal conditions for an invading army of disease-spreading rats; they are vermin and pests, but fighting them back is a futile effort. There’s an effort to move the residents to better, more modern and sanitary accommodations, but they must wait for the opportunity. “Ratcatcher” is the story of that wait — an unromantic

view of hopeless poverty, but with instances of humanity and compassion that elevate the film and keep it from being purely voyeuristic. We see a mother picking lice from her son’s hair, for example, and then the boy repeating the gesture with a girl named Margaret Anne, with whom he shares a platonic friendship. James, the young boy through whose eyes we view this world, accidentally kills another young boy in the act of playing early on in the film. He’s consumed with guilt, not quite able to process what’s happened and surrounded by adults who are unable to help him cope. Ramsay’s composition and careful framing of the characters allow the story to be told by the actors. “Everything is conveyed through the camera, the person’s face, and the details,” as Zhou notes, and it’s the repetition, the quiet pauses and focus on the details that people are referring to when they describe Ramsay’s’ work as poetic. OJ

Monticello country rocker Ward Davis returns to Revolution, 8:30 p.m., $15-$45. Tulsa-based funk ensemble Henna Roso lands at Four Quarter Bar with an opening set from Good Foot, 10 p.m., $8. Tempe, Ari.’s Ded fills Stickyz with nu metal songs like “Anti-Everything,” 8:30 p.m., $10. Dirty Lindsey takes the stage at West End Smokehouse, 10 p.m., $7. The Akeem Kemp Band performs at Kings Live Music, 8:30 p.m., $5. The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas (SoNA) kicks off its 2017-18 season with “Masterworks I: Tchaikovsky 5,” a concert featuring works from Haydn and Haas, 7:30 p.m., Walton Arts Center, $30-$52.

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SATURDAY 10/14

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“Hey, you guys!” Arkansas Cinema Society and Downtown Little Rock Partnership are screening “The Goonies” in the parking lot of

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6 p.m. The Root Cafe. Free.

The Root in the SoMa neighborhood, and they’ve invited everyone. Bring chairs or blankets. The movie begins at sundown, and you’ll be able to score some Loblolly Ice Cream, beer from Lost Forty Brewing or supper from one of the adjacent food trucks. SS

Closing Date: 9/11/2017

MOVIES IN THE PARKING LOT: ‘THE GOONIES’

Publication: Arkansas Times

SUNDAY 10/15

10:30 p.m. and midnight. Highway 124 takes its red dirt country music toPRINT the stage at Oaklawn Racing & Gaming’s Silks Bar & Grill, 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., free. “Boo!: Images of the Macabre” opens at UA Pulaski Tech’s CHARTS with a reception featuring music from saxophonist Barry McVinney and pianist Ron Hall, 6 p.m., Windgate Gallery, free. Airpark makes a stop at Kings Live Music in Conway for a show with Cosmic Farmer, 8:30 p.m., $5. The Little Rock Wind Symphony presents works from Gustav Holst and Adam Gorb, 7:30 p.m., Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive, $8-$15. Guitarist and crooner Liz Brasher returns to the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. The Ben Miller Band brings its rowdy fiddle-forward mix back to Little Rock for a show at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $10-$12.

TUESDAY 10/17 Ginger Rogers stars in “A Shriek in the Night,” the next horror flick up in Central Arkansas Library System’s Boos & Booze series, 6 p.m., Ron Robinson Theater, $2. Author David Jauss (“Black Maps,” “Glossolalia”) reads from his work at UA Pulaski Tech’s (CHARTS) as part of the Big Rock on the Map series, 7 p.m., free. Journalists Thomas Oliphant and Curtis Wilkie discuss their book “The Road to Camelot: Inside JFK’s Five-Year Campaign,” 6 p.m., Clinton School of Public Service, free.

WEDNESDAY 10/18 John Burnette, Darren Barry, Tyndall Jackson, Rob Moore and others share the stage for Celebrating the Life of Tom Petty at the Rev Room, 8 p.m., $10-$15. Over at South on Main, V.L. Cox’s curated month of Sessions concerts resumes with A+B, 8 p.m., $10. Hendrix graduate and University of North Carolina professor GerShun Avilez gives a lecture titled “Vanishing Acts: Black Labor, Social Absence, & Civil Rights Reform” at Hendrix College, 4:15 p.m.

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Dining BLUE CANOE BREWING CO. is opening a 20,000-square-foot brewing and gaming space at 1637 E. 15th St., the old PC Hardware warehouse. Macie Fellows, who described herself as a “brand ambassador,” said the space, which Blue Canoe has remodeled “from the ground up,” will be Blue Canoe’s primary brewery. The Blue Canoe taproom at 425 E. Third St. will remain open. Fellows said Blue Canoe hopes to open the new space before October is out — it all depends on Alcohol Beverage Control action — but whenever it opens it will be “fully interactive” indoors and in the outdoor pavilion, with pool, shuffleboard and foosball tables, Pac-Man games, Baggo, horseshoes, Giant Jenga and darts. Food trucks, in rotation, will provide the chow; there won’t be a kitchen at the Blue Canoe east. The brewery will be open for tours, tastings and private events. Next spring, Fellows said, Blue Canoe hopes to create a beer garden. Blue Canoe brews Razorback Rye P.A., Whittler Milk Stout, 4 X 4 pale ale, Lazy River Table Beer and seasonals, like its Wolf Trail Irish Red. Hours are 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, noon to 11 p.m. Saturday and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. LOST FORTY BREWING took home a silver medal at the 2017 Great American Beer Festival, the largest commercial beer competition in the world. It drew notice for its Logger Rita Vienna Lager, which the brewery describes as a “refreshing amber colored lager with smooth malty flavors, citrus fruit aromas, and a crisp finish.” It’s the first medal for an Arkansas brewery since 2008, when Vino’s earned gold for its imperial red ale. Diamond Bear Brewery earned gold in 2007 for its pale ale. Lost Forty was among 2,217 breweries that entered this year’s competition. The winners were announced Oct. 7. IT’S TIME TO buy tickets to the Little Rock No Kid Hungry Dinner that chef Matt Bell and South on Main will host Monday, Oct. 16. To support the childhood nutrition effort, buy a $175 ticket and dine on dishes made by culinary mavens Bell and guest chefs Ben Brainard of Yellow Rocket Concepts; Jason Campbell of Mary Eddy’s Kitchen and Lounge of Oklahoma City; John Currence of City Grocery Restaurant Group in Oxford, Miss.; and Anthony Valinoti of Deluca’s Pizzeria in Hot Springs. Cocktails will be served at 6 p.m., followed by dinner and a live auction starting at 7 p.m. Be a Healthy Meals Advocate for $500, or buy a table for $2,500. The dinner has raised over $200,000 in Arkansas since 2014. No Kid Hungry Arkansas works with the private and public sector to connect children in need to free food during school and summer and teaches families how to prepare healthy meals. 32

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

WHAT’S COOKIN’

A LOAD OF SOUP: The pork noodle bowl fills the famished.

Three Fold improved The noodle and dumpling co. moves to Main Street and a good thing gets better.

hree Fold Noodles and Dumpling Co. developed a large cadre of fiercely loyal fans in its almost three-year run in the Pyramid Building at Second and Center. The fans have followed Three Fold south to its new, larger, brighter, less cacophonous location at 611 S. Main St. And still others surely have now just discovered this clean, fresh alternative that’s unique in downtown Little Rock. The formula is still pretty much the same — queue up and place your order at the counter. But, rather than wait for the staff to scoop up your food from steam table compartments and hand it over, now you place a number on your table and staff brings it over after it’s been prepared to order in woks and steamers. And, unless you order pan-fried dumplings, the food still comes out super fast. The noodle bowl, dumpling bowl and

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steamed buns — choose chicken, pork or tofu — remain the staple lunch/dinner entrees. But now the restaurant is advertising on its menu items that regulars have long been ordering off-menu: a soup noodle bowl ($9.89); a bowl that combines half orders of dumplings and noodles ($12.89) and pan-fried dumplings ($10.79). And there’s a separate, miniscule breakfast menu. More on that in a minute. The time the Three Fold team takes to make noodles and dumplings from scratch is well worth it. Each is firm, flavorful and exceedingly fresh. The shredded chicken and minced-pork fillings in the dumplings are dosed with the signature spices we can’t quite pin down, and the pickled veggie relish and shredded carrot slaw add-ons contribute a lot to the flavor. Small and large noodle bowls are $6.49 and $8.49 while the dumpling

bowls are $7.49 and $9.49. With each you get a small container of sauce to pour over noodles or dip your dumpling into. There are four heat levels, from non-spicy to “poison.” We went with medium, and it provided just the right amount of kick. The steamed buns ($6.49 and $8.49) come on house-made “mo,” a bun with a springy consistency that’s somewhere between a regular bread bun and pita. Our shredded chicken, lettuce and the usual pickled veggies soaked into the bottom bun and made the whole thing dreamy good. We’re already plotting a return trip to try the pork bun. We also sampled the soup noodle bowl with pork, this time a few slices vs. the minced pork stuffed into dumplings. It came out so quickly that the pork wasn’t even fully heated through yet. But what a load of soup! The bulk was provided by the noodles, not broth. We weren’t ravenous, but we worked on it a while, probably getting through about one-quarter of it. When we got home and popped it on our food scale, we found we had 2.3 POUNDS of leftover soup. The next day we added two quarts of chicken broth, much of which the noodles absorbed, some leftover pork from another meal

BELLY UP

Check out the Times’ food blog, Eat Arkansas

ARTISAN MEATS • CHEESES • BEER • WINE • DIPPING OILS • SPREADS

arktimes.com BRIAN CHILSON

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and ate on it for days. No lie! The pan-fried dumplings take 8-10 minutes longer than other dishes, because they are cooked to order — each of the nine plump dumplings browned to a nice crunch on one side. We love the steamed dumplings. We love the pan-fried ones even more, as much for the added texture as taste. As much as we and hundreds of others are loving the new Three Fold, we’re not sure breakfast will survive. First off, our experience is most folks are just trying to get to their offices by the appointed time, so downtown isn’t a major breakfast market. There was only one other customer the day we popped in. And the only offering (other than a $1.50 “tea-scented egg” — we’re scared!) — is “baozi.” The menu describes it as “filled steamed buns, pan-fried to golden perfection.” Each in our order of three ($9.99

vs. $4.29 for a single) had seen some time in a pan but still was a huge, very doughy monstrosity that had too little filling to offset the volume of almostwet dough. We enjoyed the egg with veggies filling the best; the ground pork was the same as is in the dumplings, so thumbs up; we didn’t care at all for the red bean, which was slightly sweet the way baked beans are. Three Fold has a nice vibe. It’s a huge space with seating for more than 100 in two dining areas, and sidewalk seating, too. The décor is white and bright, but not clinical, with tall windows and ceilings thanks to being housed in a historic building, the original home of the Arkansas Democrat. The floor is polished concrete bordered in white and gray penny tile, appropriate for the age of the building. Acoustic panels keep the sound — a problem in the old spot — under control.

NOVEMBER2-12 anew pl ayby CHRI S T OPHERDURANG

320W.7T HS T .-DOWNT OWNL I T T L EROCK f ol l ow usons oci al medi a@s t udi ot heat r el r arktimes.com OCTOBER 12, 2017

JOHN DAVID PITTMAN

A&E FEATURE

COUPLINGS AND COUPLETS: Janie Brookshire stars as Celimene and Jeremy Rishe as Frank in The Rep’s production of “The School for Lies,” a silver-tongued remix of Moliere’s “The Misanthrope.”

Sexy fun

In ‘The School For Lies,’ BY JAMES SZENHER

kewering high-society antics for comedy’s sake is something of a universal human pastime, sometimes executed with razor-sharp wit, in the hands of a skilled satirist like Moliere, or with blunt force, as you might see in a reality show like “The Bachelorette.” “There’s something so delicious about watching people misbehave,”

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

socially relevant and hilariously funny. Here, the clever cynicism of Moliere’s comedy of manners is coupled with contemporary language, suggesting up next at The Rep. that the hypocrisy of upper-class mannerisms and mores transcends said Mark Light-Orr. He plays time and place — and that France in Cl it a nder, a we a lt hy F r enc h 1666 is closer to us than we might think. aristocrat in the Arkansas Repertory The misanthropic Alceste is cast Theatre’s upcoming production of in Ives’ adaptation as Frank (Jeremy David Ives’ “The School for Lies.” Rishe), a man who denounces the The play, a remix of Moliere’s “The trifling drama of those who linger at the Misanthrope” promises to be a treat salon of Celimene (Janie Brookshire), for audiences who enjoy a good but who finds himself drawn to her laugh at rich people behaving poorly. charm and her skills in cutting others “The School for Lies” blends the down, which rival his own. Director highbrow and the low in its approach, Giovanna Sardelli described Celimene aiming to create something that’s both as “a widow who’s had to rely on men

because of the lack of power women had at the time. She’s mostly relied on men whom she can easily manipulate, and she finds [in Frank] a man who doesn’t play by the same rules she’s used to.” Frank and Celimene are surrounded by a clownish lot of supporting characters whose ridiculous behavior serves as fodder for the couple’s quips and barbs while providing plenty of laughs for theater-goers. The extravagant costumes and ornate set design highlight the colorfulness of the characters. “Everyone will be rooting against us, and taking a lot of pleasure in it,” said Patrick Halley, who plays Acaste, a wealthy marquis and suitor of Celimene.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The School for Liesâ&#x20AC;? opens Friday, Oct. 13, and plays through Sunday, Oct. 29. The cast and crew gives a panel discussion on the play Thursday, October 12 at the Clinton School of Public Service, noon, free. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Pay Your Ageâ&#x20AC;? night is Sunday, Oct. 15, and Sign Interpreter Night is Wednesday, Oct. 25. For tickets and more info, see therep.org/attend.

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Michael Stewart Allen (Macbeth) in Macbeth. Photo by John David Pittman.

Shawn Fagan, who plays the stumbling poet Oronte, said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a world where behavior is artificial because everyone is always being seen, thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s always an audience.â&#x20AC;? This kind of behavior is familiar thanks to the common thread tying these 17th century aristocrats to 21st century reality TV stars, particularly when they speak in modern slang. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hypocrisy and lies are the enemy,â&#x20AC;? Sardelli said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The play works because everyone can relate to being opposed to those, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also filled with lots of bawdy, sexy fun.â&#x20AC;? Ivesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; adaptation turns Moliereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social satire into an all-out farce presented in rhyming couplets that retain the French bardâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s witty lyricism with modern phrasing. The result is language thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;rich, but doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t feel stuffy. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s got a lot of sparkle to it,â&#x20AC;? Fagan said. Carine Montbertrand compared her character, Arsinoe, to â&#x20AC;&#x153;a troll on Twitter,â&#x20AC;? adding that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a role sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wanted to play for a long time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I studied acting at the Conservatoire in France, and my dad was actually a Moliere scholar who was very much like Moliere himself,â&#x20AC;? she said. At a recent performance in Washington, D.C., members of the cast said, some of the lines that lampooned behaviors felt right on the mark, dialogue we might recognize in some of our own ruling class of politicians. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It feels relevant, but like all good satire, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in this beautiful meringue of a play, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so light and airy and sweet,â&#x20AC;? Light-Orr said, with a core of rich, dark chocolate. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re working with a revised script, and this is only the second time that the new version has been produced,â&#x20AC;? Halley said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s trimmed the fat. The comedy is streamlined and not a word is wasted.â&#x20AC;? Speaking of sweets, Loblolly will be serving its salted caramel ice cream at The Rep to match the saltiness of the characters. Meanwhile, for those whose tastes lean more toward hoppy bitterness, Stoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Throw is introducing a new Biere de Gardestyle brew to mark the occasion.

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SEPTEMBER 11-27, 2015 (501) 378-0405 | TheRep.org

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October 11-29, 2017

For tickets, call the Box Office at (501) 378-0405 or visit TheRep.org sponsored by

ARKANSAS TIMES arktimes.com OCTOBER 12, 2017

B U RG

WE R E

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OCTOBER 21-29, 2017 (2 WEEKENDS!) WHO DOESN’T LOVE A GOOD BURGER? From beef or turkey to portabella or veggie—or with a gluten-free bun!—we really know how to ROCK burger week in central Arkansas. This nine day event gives readers a chance to taste all of the best burgers that the Rock has to offer. The best part? Optional burger pricing: $5 to $8.

WHAT ELSE DO READERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BURGER WEEK ROCK(S)? Restaurants WILL run out, so: get there early, have a backup plan and maybe try again the next day. There will be a wait, since we’ve been talking about delicious burgers for the entire month of October. You will tip as though the burger is regular price. This should go without saying, but step up to the plate with a 20% tip, and say “Thank you” for the sweet deal. Buy a beverage and maybe some other delectable food to enjoy with your burger. So, when appropriate, have a beer or cocktail. Stay updated with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and (of course) arktimes.com

PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS

610 Center Bar & Grill Big Orange Boulevard Bistro Cache Crazee’s Dizzy’s Gypsy Bistro Doe’s Eat Place

Dugan’s Pub Four Quarter Bar Gigi’s Grumpy’s Too Neighborhood Bar & Grill Homer’s West Lazy Pete’s Fish and Shrimp Midtown Billiards

Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom North Little Rock & Conway Prospect Sports Bar & Grill Purple Cow Rev Room Skinny J’s Stickyz

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Four page section in the October 19 issue. The event is limited to 30 participating restaurants. Posters and social media promotional materials will be provided.

DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 13.

Let’s show off that delicious burger. FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED SINCE 1959!

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ARKANSAS TIMES

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“I DO SOLEMNLY SWEAR” STARTED WITH “I DO.” Before Bill and Hillary ever took an oath for public office, they took an oath to each other at their home in Fayetteville. Now called the Clinton House Museum, you can even see a replica of Hillary’s wedding dress. Now with FREE admission, see where their life in public service began. Then, enjoy the sights and sounds of the entertainment capital of Northwest Arkansas.

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arktimes.com OCTOBER 12, 2017

ALSO IN THE ARTS

THEATER

9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790.

“The School For Lies.” The Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s production of David Ives’ saucy play, adapted from Moliere’s “The Misanthrope.” 7 p.m. Wed.-Thu. and Sun., 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. through Oct. 29. $30-$65. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. “The Savannah Sipping Society.” Murry’s Dinner Playhouse presents the comedy from Jamie Wooten, Jessie Jones and Nicholas Hope. 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat., dinner at 6 p.m.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., dinner at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., through Oct. 21. $15-$37. 6323 Colonel Glenn Road. 501-562-3131. “Dork Reunion.” The Main Thing’s fall musical comedy, a flashback to the Fertle Family’s high school days. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., through Nov. 18. $24. The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse. 301 Main St., NLR. 501372-0205. “The Champion.” TheatreSquared’s world premiere of a play by Amy Evans, featuring Joy Jones as Nina Simone. 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. through Nov. 5. $10-$40. Walton Arts Center’s Studio Theater, 495 W. Dickson St. 479443-5600. “Little Shop of Horrors.” Pocket Community Theater’s production of the musical inspired by Roger Corman’s 1960 film. 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2:30 p.m. Sun. through Oct. 15. $5-$15. 170 Ravine St., Hot Springs. 501-623-8585. “Kinky Boots.” A touring production of Harvey Fierstein and Cyndi Lauper’s Tony Award-winning Broadway hit. 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sun., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. $28-$77. Robinson Center Performance Hall. 501244-8800.

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. CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: “Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu,” photographs by Matthew Willman and recreation of Mandela’s cell, through Feb. 19, 2018; “Art of Africa: One Continent, Limitless Vision,” pieces from the Clinton Presidential Center’s archives as well as from President Clinton’s own personal collection, through Feb. 12, 2018; permanent exhibits on the Clinton administration. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 adults, $8 seniors, retired military and college students, $6 youth 6-17, free to active military and children under 6, President Clinton’s birthday. 374-4242. CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way,

Handbags,” permanent exhibit. 11 a.m.4 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sun. $10, $8 for students, seniors and military. 9169022.

MATT McLEOD FINE ART, 108 W. 6th St.: Work in all media by Arkansas and outof-state artists. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, 725-8508.

FORT SMITH REGIONAL ART MUSEUM, 1601 Rogers Ave.: “Momoyo Torimitsu: Somehow, I Don’t Feel Comfortable,” giant inflatable bunnies, through December; Arkansas Arts Center Artmobile: “A Feast for the Eyes,” foodthemed art, through Oct. 14; “Searching for the Seventies: The DOCUMERICA Photography Project from the National Archives,” through Oct. 29. 18. 11 a.m.6 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 479-7842787.

MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 9th and Broadway: “Hidden No More,” work by 11 artists for the 2017 Creativity Arkansas collection. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Sat. 683-3593.

HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. 3rd St.: “Body/Ecology: Daniella Napolitano and Carmen Alexandria Thompson,” opens with reception 5-8 p.m. Oct. 13, 2nd Friday Art Night, with music by John Burnette, author signing of “Arkansas Beer: An Intoxicating History” by Brian Sorenson, and beer based on Sorenson’s book by Stone’s Throw Brewery, show through Jan. 7; “Hidden

OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham St.: Music by Charlotte Taylor & the Gypsy Rain, Core Brewing Co. beer, 5-8 p.m. Oct. 13, 2nd Friday Art Night; “Cabinet of Curiosities: Treasures from the University of Arkansas Museum Collection”; “True Faith, True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley,” musical instruments, through 2017; “First Families: Mingling of Politics and Culture” permanent exhibit including first ladies’ gowns. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685.

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FINE ART, HISTORY EXHIBITS MAJOR VENUES ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design,” through December; “Fashion and the Myth of Mid-Century Modernism: 1947 to 1957,” talk by fashion historian Raissa Bretana, 6 p.m. Oct. 12, wine reception before at 5:30 p.m., free to members, $10 for nonmembers, tickets required; “Will Counts: The Central High Photographs,” marking the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of Central, through Oct. 22. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000. ARTS & SCIENCE CENTER FOR SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, 701 S. Main St., Pine Bluff: “2017 Irene Rosenzweig Biennial Juried Exhibition”; “Pine Bluff Art League Annual Juried Exhibition,” through Nov. 11. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat. 870-536-3375. BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “Bret Aaker: Conatus,” Loft Gallery, Oct. 13-Jan. 27, 2nd Friday Art Night reception 5-8 p.m. Oct. 13; “Modern Ink,” work by Carmen Alexandria, Robert Bean, Daniel Broening, Diane Harper, Neal Harrington and Steve Rockwell, through Oct. 28; “The Art of Injustice,” Paul Faris’ photographs of Japanese incarceration at Rohwer, through Dec. 30; “Jim Nelson: Abstraction and Color,” through Nov. 25. 38

OCTOBER 12, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

11610 Pleasant Ridge Rd. • Suite 110 • Little Rock • 501-225-1300 2513 McCain Blvd. • North Little Rock • 501-753-9800

Bentonville: “Spotlight Talk: Robert Rubin,” talk about the restoration of Buckminster Fuller’s “Fly’s Eye Dome” on the grounds, 7-8 p.m. Oct. 13; “Stuart Davis: In Full Swing,” nearly 100 works by the modernist jazz-influenced painter, through Jan. 1; “Native North America,” indigenous art, through Jan. 7, 2018; “Not to Scale: Highlights from the Fly’s Eye Dome Archive,” drawings and models of Fuller’s geodesic dome, through March 2018; American masterworks spanning four centuries in the permanent collection. 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. ESSE PURSE MUSEUM & STORE, 1510 S. Main St.: “An Evening at Esse with Christopher Bell,” reception for handbag designer sponsored by Joel’s Hair Salon and Comfort Cases charity for foster children, 6-8 p.m. Oct. 12, $50; “The Power of Plastics: Reshaping Midcentury Fashion,” plastic handbags from Anita Davis’ collection, through Jan. 7; “What’s Inside: A Century of Women and

Treasure: Selected Gala Fund Purchases,” including portraiture by Henry Byrd, work by Thomas Hart Benton, watercolors by Jacob Semiatin and more, through Jan. 8; “Danny Campbell and Winston Taylor,” an exhibition of Campbell’s found-object sculpture and Taylor’s ceramic vessels, through Nov. 5; “Gordon and Wenonah Fay Holl: Collecting a Legacy,” through Feb. 4, 2018. Ticketed tours of renovated and replicated 19th century structures from original city, guided Monday and Tuesday on the hour, self-guided Wednesday through Sunday, $2.50 adults, $1 under 18, free to 65 and over. (Galleries free.) 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351. MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS MILITARY HISTORY, 503 E. 9th St. (MacArthur Park): “Waging Modern Warfare”; “Gen. Wesley Clark”; “Vietnam, America’s Conflict”; “Undaunted Courage, Proven Loyalty: Japanese American Soldiers in World War II. 9 a.m.4 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602.

MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: Interactive science exhibits and activities for children and teenagers. 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.

SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. 5th St., El Dorado: Paintings by Bill and Gloria Garrison, Merkle and Price Galleries, and Gary Hall, Lobby Gallery, through Oct. 30. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 870-862-5474. TOLTEC MOUNDS STATE PARK, U.S. Hwy. 165, England: Major prehistoric Indian site with visitors’ center and museum. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun., closed Mon. $4 for adults, $3 for ages 6-12, $14 for family. 961-9442. UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS AT LITTLE ROCK, 2801 S. University Ave.: “Peri Schwartz: The Artist’s Studio,” Gallery I, through Oct. 17; “Creating Youth,” works by Michael Warrick, Gallery II, through Nov. 10, “Estamos Aqui (We Are Here),” serigraphs by Latino artists, including Jesus “Cimi” Alvarado, Alec Dempster, Delilah Montoya, Juan Miguel Ramos and Quintin Gonzalez, Gallery III, in conjunction with the NEH Big Read project, through Nov. 10; Fine Arts Building Gallery I. Artists’ reception 2-4 p.m. Oct. 14. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat., 2-5 p.m. Sun. 569-8977. UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS, Conway: “Vertebrates: An Installation by Ben Butler,” through Oct. 19; “Equivocal Exposures: Alternative Photographic Processes,” photographs by Kalee Appleton, Jesseca Ferguson, Clive Holden, Mo Munley and Juan Alberto Negroni, through Oct. 19, Baum Gallery. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Wed., Fri., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thu. 501-450-5793. WALTON ARTS CENTER, Fayetteville: “Charting Terrain: A confluence of light and form,” work by Victoria Burge, Ben Butler, Theresa Chong, Sean Morrissey, James Siena and James Turrell, through Dec. 23. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, noon-4 p.m. Sat. 479-443-5600. SMALLER VENUES ARGENTA GALLERY, 413 Main St., NLR: “Art to the Rescue,” a benefit for Puerto Rico, hosted by the Latino Art Project, 6-9 p.m. Oct. 14. 225-5600.

ATTENTION HALL HIGH ALUMNI OUR ANNUAL HOMECOMING PARADE is back after an 11 year hiatus!

Join us Thursday, October 12, 2017 • 9:00 a.m. At Hall High School 6700 H. Street, Little Rock Projects: Homecoming - Mentoring - Gardening & More

ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

MIZAR PAINTING

For all your interior - exterior painting needs Residential & Commercial Free Estimates · 30 years experiance Will provide References

Mike Morris 501-541-6662 Mizarpainting1@gmail.com

RFP for Cumberland Towers 311 E. Eighth Street, Little Rock, AR. BIDS DUE: Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, at 2:00pm PRE-BID MEETING will be held on site on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. Times: Site: 9:00am -9:45am, Roof: 9:45am - 10:30am, Mechanical Room: 10:30am 11:15am, Unit: 11:15am - Noon. PLANS: Hard Copies of plans available upon request and at subcontractor’s expense from Southern Reprographics, phone: 501-372-4011, www.sriplanroom.com OR for a link contact Linda at lstache@gormanusa.com. Contact Info: Linda Stache, Gorman & Company, Phone: 608-835-5177, Fax: 608-835-3667 CERTIFICATIONS: SBE, MBE, WBE, EBE, DBE, SECTION 3 Please note: This is a prevailing wage rate project.

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RFP for Powell Towers 1010 Wolfe Street, Little Rock, AR. BIDS DUE: Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, at 2:00pm PRE-BID MEETING will be held on site on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. Times: Site: 9:00am - 9:45am, Roof (exhaust fan repl.): 9:45am - 10:30am, Mechanical Room: 10:30am - 11:15am, Unit: 11:15am - Noon. PLANS: Hard Copies of plans available upon request and at subcontractor’s expense from Southern Reprographics, phone: 501-372-4011, www.sriplanroom.com OR for a link contact Linda at lstache@ gormanusa.com. Contact Info: Linda Stache, Gorman & Company, Phone: 608-835-5177, Fax: 608-835-3667 CERTIFICATIONS: SBE, MBE, WBE, EBE, DBE, SECTION 3 Please note: This is a prevailing wage rate project. Directed by Andrea McDaniel Music Direction by Tanner Oglesby Zachery Ingersoll, Assistant Director

October 20, 21, 22, 26, 27, 28, 29, November 3, 4, 5, 2017

RFP for Parris Towers 1800 S. Broadway Street, Little Rock, AR.

$20 Adults • $16 Students & Seniors

BIDS DUE: Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017, at 2:00pm PRE-BID MEETING will be held on site on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. Times: Site: 1:30pm - 2:15pm, Mechanical Room: 2:15pm - 3:00pm, Unit: 3:00pm - 3:45pm. PLANS: Hard Copies of plans available upon request and at subcontractor’s expense from Southern Reprographics, phone: 501-372-4011, www.sriplanroom.com OR for a link contact Linda at lstache@ gormanusa.com. Contact Info: Linda Stache, Gorman & Company, Phone: 608-835-5177, Fax: 608-835-3667 CERTIFICATIONS: SBE, MBE, WBE, EBE, DBE, SECTION 3 Please note: This is a prevailing wage rate project.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday night curtain time is 7:30 pm. NOTE: On Saturday, November 4, there will be an additional performance at midnight. Sunday afternoon curtain time is 2:30 pm. Please Be Advised: this production is intended for mature audiences only due to extremely sexual content.

For more information contact us at 501.374.3761 or www.weekendtheater.org Our 25th Season Is Sponsored By Piano Kraft

1001 W. 7th St. Little Rock, AR 72201

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