Arkansas Times - April 13, 2017 by Arkansas Times

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APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

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VOLUME 43, NUMBER 32 ARKANSAS TIMES (ISSN 0164-6273) is published each week by Arkansas Times Limited Partnership, 201 East Markham Street, Suite 200, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201, phone (501) 375-2985. Periodical postage paid at Little Rock, Arkansas, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ARKANSAS TIMES, 201 EAST MARKHAM STREET, SUITE 200, Little Rock, AR, 72201. Subscription prices are $42 for one year, $74 for two years. Subscriptions outside Arkansas are $49 for one year, $88 for two years. Foreign (including Canadian) subscriptions are $168 a year. For subscriber service call (501) 375-2985. Current singlecopy price is 75¢, free in Pulaski County. Single issues are available by mail at $2.50 each, postage paid. Payment must accompany all single-copy orders. Reproduction or use in whole or in part of the contents without the written consent of the publishers is prohibited. Manuscripts and artwork will not be returned or acknowledged unless sufficient return postage and a self-addressed stamped envelope are included. All materials are handled with due care; however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for care and safe return of unsolicited materials. All letters sent to ARKANSAS TIMES will be treated as intended for publication and are subject to ARKANSAS TIMES’ unrestricted right to edit or to comment editorially.

Pancake Stacking Contest

COMMENT

From the web In response to Ernest Dumas’ April 6 column, “Race to Kill”: I have to wonder if Mr. Dumas is opposed to the death sentences handed down at Nuremberg and Tokyo after WWII. Cato Unfortunately our society works off of a reactive instead of a proactive way. Providing society with an appropriate education, medical/mental health care, health equity (environment) and livable wages significantly impacts criminality. capenn63

“I’m with Trump” shows that Womack is another right-winger who puts party ahead of the voters. “We have to cut somewhere” might start with a bloated military budget, which their OWN consultants said wasted $125 billion a year so the report was dumped. A wall may end up being THE infrastructure bill, a totally useless monument to the idiot class. And we can save millions by telling Trump to pick just one extra residence and no security for any others or for his useless kids. He supposedly has money; let the kids pay Blackwater for their own security. couldn’t be better

I’m still not seeing that modicum of dignity [Governor Hutchinson] supposedly exhibits. And Leslie [Rutledge], forget about dignity altogether. Warren

“I’m with Trump,” Womack said. Well of course he is. The DoD is a budgetary black hole, they can stage a 60 cruise missile (at $1.5 mil a pop) fireworks display for Drumpf to use to threaten China over North Korea while Xi is eating dinner at Mar-A-Grifto, but there’s no money for health care. tsallernarng

In response to an April 11 Arkansas Blog post, “Congressman Womack gets earful at town hall”:

Hill’s constituency includes many more delusional D-Rats who still haven’t come to terms with America’s decision

Killing people doesn’t stop people from killing people. jerico-oh-oh

that Donald J. Trump is our president. Why subject yourself to the rants and raves of these irrational partisans? golfer71909 Donald Trump isn’t yours or my president. Donald Trump is president. His ego won’t let him stray from decades of narcissism. Donald loves Donald; he’s the bigly, magnificent one who is the only one capable of solving all of America’s problems. Donald will bring back jobs, health care for all, cheaper and much better. Building the wall will show ’em south of the border and will kick off a massive infrastructure program and pump $54 billion into the military. Of course, as his travel expenses grow exponentially, there might not be enough money left. See how wonderful his eminence Donald Trump is. He will lift the financial burdens from this country and just spend the money himself. Maxifer In response to an April 10 Arkansas Blog post, “More headlines for Arkansas: John Grisham raps executions in USA Today”: There is a multiunit scaffold at the Fort Smith museum that could be used

for eight by adding two ropes. We could call it a re-enactment of Judge Parker’s court, with a picnic lunch and a good time had by all. It might be promoted as part of the marshal’s museum. We need to anticipate problems and have alternate sources to solve pressing problems. I would think that 20 years can be classified as pressing. Old ways are sometime good ways. Going for the record The only way justice would lose is if any of them are not guilty of the crimes. That is my only concern, and should be the only concern. If there is a chance they are not guilty, then wait. But if they are guilty, then let justice rule, and execute them. Otherwise, there haven’t been any botched executions. So far, all executed have died, so nothing was botched. Steven E My God, Steven E, what a shallow and ignorant understanding of justice. Are you for real, or just some anonymous and idiotic provocateur? It’s not just whether they die, but whether it is performed in a constitutionally humane way. And how arrogant of you to think your simpleminded eye-for-an-eye definition of justice is adequate. PVNasby I know for some of you, justice would be achieved by getting rid of the death penalty entirely. From that point, there would be no method of execution that would meet the standard. That lethal injection is the most humane way, so far, in executing a person is without doubt. That it is imperfect is also not in doubt. I don’t hold to an eye for an eye, either. There are, though, some people that can never, ever, be allowed into civilized society. They will hurt and kill and there are only two alternatives, neither of them humane. Life in a cage, or death. You seek perfection, I seek that which is practical. Steven E According to a poll, the majority of Arkansans approve of carrying out the sentences. We don’t need outsiders telling us how to conduct our affairs. Then again, that is the Dumbocrat way, government overreach into state’s rights. Enough with beating the drums. If you feel strongly about it, go stand in a cornfield outside the prison with a sign. If you can’t do the time, then don’t do the crime. Razorblade

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

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EYE ON ARKANSAS

WEEK THAT WAS

“The establishment of a football team would help boost student life and in turn, enrollment for UA Little Rock, as well as provide a home for Arkansas studentathletes. It would also be a tremendous alumni attraction and would provide great rivalries immediately with ASU, UCA and UAPB. As mayor, I certainly see this as a way to utilize War Memorial Stadium as a phenomenal state-owned asset in the city, particularly with the uncertainty surrounding the future of the contract with the Razorbacks. There are also definite economic advantages of being home to a college football team.” — Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, writing in his weekly newsletter, about a student petition drive to bring football to UA Little Rock. The introduction of football might be a win for the city, but it likely wouldn’t be for the university. USA Today compiles statistics on athletic spending by colleges. In 2015, Arkansas State University spent $29.2 million on athletics. The budget ran deeply in the red. It required $4.5 million in student fees and $9.5 million in university money to balance its budget. At the University of Central Arkansas, $9.4 million of the $12.4 million it spends on sports comes from student fees and university money. Little Rock knows the story, but, without the major expense of football, doesn’t run so deeply in the red. It spent $9.5 million in 2015 with $6.4 million coming from student fees and university money.

And then there were seven The Arkansas Parole Board recommended clemency last week for death row inmate Jason McGehee on a 6-1 vote. It will be up to Governor Hutchinson whether McGehee is spared, but even if Hutchinson decides against clemency, McGehee will not be among those executed beginning Monday and continuing over the next 10 days. Federal Judge Price Marshall stayed McGehee’s execution because the hurried timeframe would not allow for a 30-day comment period, which the law requires. Marshall said the expedited consideration of the other five inmates who sought clemency was flawed, but not enough to stop their executions. A broader federal challenge in Judge Kristine Baker’s court was taking place this week. Lawyers for the group of inmates on death row argue, among other things, that the rushed schedule of the executions poses the risk of error and that midazolam, one of the three drugs in the state’s lethal injection drug 6

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

Quote of the week

HOPING TO STOP EXECUTIONS: Jeff Rosenzweig, lawyer for men sentenced to death next week, talks to the press after Monday’s federal court hearing on the use of midazolam in as part of the killing drug cocktail.

cocktail, will not sufficiently anesthetize the inmates. It has no official bearing on Baker’s decision, but worth noting: The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati rejected the three-drug lethal injection protocol in Ohio because, in part, it said the use of midazolam was unconstitutional.

Womack faces critics U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, a Republican who represents the state’s 3rd District, got an earful from constituents at a town hall in Russellville on Monday night, though, as is his custom, he didn’t sound too sympathetic to critics. Big college loan debt? Join the military, Womack said. Problems with health care? Some have problems because they don’t work, Womack seemed to suggest. He was pressed on defense spending and Donald Trump, too. “I’m with Trump,” Womack said.

Well-deserved vetoes Governor Hutchinson admirably vetoed Senate Bill 550, a so-called

“mass picketing” bill from Sen. Trent Garner (R-El Dorado). The bill would have broadened the latitude for police to make arrests of demonstrators who might slow traffic or be perceived to be intimidating someone in a private residence. It was one of a wave of anti-demonstration bills nationwide by Republican legislators. Hutchinson said existing law provides multiple means to cope with

Hell NO. I veto.

people whose demonstrations block traffic or access to homes and businesses. He said the bill was “overbroad, vague and will have the effect of restricting free speech and the right to assemble.” He quoted Benjamin Franklin in his note to the Senate: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” The governor also vetoed SB 496 from Sen. Scott Flippo (R-Bull Shoals), which would prohibit Alcoholic Beverage Control Division agents from enforcing laws related to gambling machines. Some businesses, including private clubs in Flippo’s area and elsewhere, have developed lucrative sidelines in running gambling machines, nominally prohibited by the state Constitution. Hutchinson said the bill would infringe on the executive branch’s power to enforce laws. A simple majority is enough to override a veto, though Hutchinson’s wishes could keep the bills from becoming law.

OPINION

The end of democracy in LR

he state Board of Education was scheduled to talk this week about the Little Rock School District, under state control for two years because six of its 48 schools failed to meet an arbitrary pass rate on a standardized test. Board member Jay Barth had the idea, because of progress in the district, to get the board to use its flexible powers to promise a return to local school board control in elections in May 2018. Education Commissioner Johnny Key, who serves as the “school board” now, can’t make such a decision unilaterally. He had to check with HIS boss, Governor Hutchinson, who now controls the majority of seats on the state board. He said no. This means, barring surprises, the district will stay in state control for at least five years, maybe forever. A new state law changes the way school distress is mea-

Those same white chamber of commerce establishment forces — many of whom have never sent a child to public schools — that pushed the state takeover are now asking voters to approve a tax plan to add some $600 million in property tax payments over 14 years. Some of this would go to buildings. The majority will be consured. But it’s certrolled by Key for any use he deems fit. There’s justifiable fear that Key and tain to give the state board flexibility to Co. want to get the buildings in shape for control whatever the eventual surrender of the Little Rock district it wishes School District to a privatized operation to control. such as exists in New Orleans. The WalMAX ton forces tried to legislate that in 2015. Backers of the BRANTLEY school “choice” Meanwhile, Key is encouraging explosive maxbrantley@arktimes.com movement don’t (and LRSD damaging) growth of charmuch like school boards. They like center schools, the Waltons are financing tral authority. And they like choice for charter school buildings and their chief choice’s sake; quality of schools and lobbyist in town is singing the praises of results are largely unimportant. anything and everything but the old Little Barth hoped to send a positive signal Rock School District. Lurking in the wing to Little Rock school supporters unhappy is still further Little Rock charter expanabout the state takeover. Instead, he got sion by a national private school chain. confirmation that the governor and Key We shoot our own feet in Little Rock. don’t want them to have their school board There’s no greater proof of the sorry state back. Key and Hutchinson undoubtedly of Little Rock schools than the speed with fear a return of the majority black school which rich, white chamber of commerce board that so riled the Little Rock business. types run from them and encourage devel-

Coal is over

eeding solace days after the Trump election in November, an old friend who has spent his long career in industry and government working for cheaper, cleaner energy and healthier air and water telephoned his mentor, Amory B. Lovins, the great physicist and environmental scientist who originated the “soft path” for achieving energy independence and a healthier world. More than anyone, Lovins is the father of the clean, renewable energy movement that is the chief hope for staving off global devastation. Only seven years earlier Donald Trump had signed a full-page ad in The New York Times demanding that President Obama adopt an audacious plan to halt global warming and protect Americans’ health from atmospheric poisons, but, as with so many other issues, like abortion, war and health care, his last campaign promises went dramatically in the opposite direction. “Is all lost?” my friend asked Lovins. “Work hard, make money and love, travel and be happy,” the old oracle replied cheerily. The free market’s natural search for cheaper and more efficient energy has taken over and even President Trump and a governing party heavily

in denial about climate change cannot stop it, he said. My friend passed the balm on to me. Lovins may ERNEST have been in DUMAS denial about how much harm Trump’s energy and environmental policies, such as he is able to implement, will bring to the planet and our little corner of it between the Mississippi and Red rivers, but he was mostly right. Despite Trump’s promise to applauding unemployed coal miners and a largely sympathetic public that he would “bring back coal” and their jobs by scuttling President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, it won’t happen. The president of the largest privately held coal company said the next day, “He can’t bring them back.” Obama was not coal’s problem; it was the market. I was reminded of Lovins and his uplifting message the other day when I was perusing the testimony in a little rate case at the Arkansas Public Service Commission. If you are a customer of Entergy Arkansas, the state’s biggest power supplier, you will detect a little jump in your monthly bill in a few weeks as the com-

pany recovers from its ratepayers some $2.6 million it lost dealing with the coal companies that supply fuel for its Independence and White Bluff power plants. The loss actually was $7.1 million, but Entergy’s partners will have to recover the rest. There could be more of that later, especially if the president can sway things, but the Public Service Commission, which was complicit in perhaps the cause of Entergy’s coal-buying fiasco in 2015, will see to it that it doesn’t happen again in Arkansas. It is probably too complicated to explain here, but it’s important to understand how power generation and distribution work. Entergy has a bunch of generating plants powered by coal, nuclear, gas and water, and, shortly, by solar and wind. However, which plants in which companies actually generate the power on any given day is determined by a regional independent operator (now MidContinent), based partly on the generating costs at each plant. Coal used to be dirt cheap, but, with the surge of hydraulic fracturing, natural gas has become a competitor, and solar and wind have become competitive with the availability of federal tax credits. Usage of the coal plants sank from 75 percent to 45 percent from 2014 to 2016. Entergy had signed long-term contracts for the mandatory delivery of coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyo-

opment in white flight suburbs. I just don’t happen to share the racially infected negative view of Little Rock schools, which my own children attended. But we continue to reward people who harm the community. The Little Rock City Board is just about to renew $300,000 in taxpayer subsidies (from the pennies of a city whose taxpayers are predominantly black and poor) to the same Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce that worked to end local school control. Their pennies will help pay salaries of people who also lobby against decent benefits and job protection for working people. The city dole to the chamber is being restored thanks to a constitutional amendment crafted by the now-indicted former Sen. Jon Woods. City Manager Bruce Moore gave so little thought to the fact that some might object to another giveaway to the fat cats that he initially placed the vote on the corporate welfare on the board’s “consent agenda.” Even if the board has a perfunctory discussion, be assured the chamber will get its money, just like it got the school board.

ming, but when gas replaced coal as the cheap fuel and Independence and White Bluff were idled, Entergy found itself with vast stockpiles it could not use and more coal coming. It found buyers for 1.25 million tons of its stockpiles but at $7.1 million less than it paid for it. Ratepayers of Entergy and other power companies will make it up. But that was not an aberration, as most everyone but Trump should know. Gas is now so overabundant and cheaply accessible that exploration companies are pulling up rigs. Coal is not coming back. Coal accounted for half of the nation’s electricity in 2000. Now it’s 16 percent and it will continue to decline, though perhaps more slowly, even with the Clean Power Plan neutered. Arkansas, which was one of the states most under the gun, owing to its continuing to build coal capacity after the rest of the country stopped, was moving rapidly toward meeting its goal for reducing atmospheric carbon. Entergy bought a giant gas plant near El Dorado and is venturing into solar and wind power. But Arkansas’s entire congressional delegation, the state attorney general and the State Chamber of Commerce wanted the Clean Power Plan crushed, the Environmental Protection Agency neutered and coal’s dominance celebrated, even though no one in Arkansas, even if they own coal shares, would benefit.

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arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

Now and then

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APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

lmost exactly 10 years before launching a Tomahawk missile strike against a Syrian air base, Donald J. Trump enjoyed a similar triumph in an internationally televised, pay-per-view spectacle called the “Battle of the Billionaires.” Staged as the culmination of a widely hyped “feud” between Trump and World Wrestling Entertainment mogul Vince McMahon, the event featured Trump in a business suit tackling his rival on the ring apron. Trump pummeled his rival with some of the weakest fake punches in professional wrestling history. Smirking and swaggering, he then plunked McMahon in a chair in the center of the ring and shaved his head. Now I don’t want to shock anybody, but professional wrestling feuds are purely scripted theatrical events. Let Wikipedia explain: “Feuds are often the result of the friction that is created between faces (the heroic figures) and heels (the malevolent, ‘evil’ participants). Common causes of feuds are a purported slight or insult, although they can be based on many other things, including conflicting moral codes or simple professional one-upmanship.” Which brings us back to Syria. Because if it would be irresponsible to call the events of last week as stage-managed as “WrestleMania 23,” it would also be naive to ignore their theatrical aspects. First, because neither the Assad nerve gas atrocity nor the U.S. response had any real military purpose. The Syrian dictator and his Russian backers have been winning the civil war, bombing hospitals and slaughtering thousands of civilians without resorting to banned weapons. Assad’s only imaginable motive would have been to convince rebel factions of his absolute ruthlessness — which they already believe. Supposedly, however, the Russians had persuaded Assad to surrender his biochemical arsenal back in 2013, after President Obama’s ill-considered “red line” blunder. How, then, with Russian soldiers all over the remote air strip where the gas attack was allegedly launched, could Vladimir Putin not have known what was going down? And why would Assad have defied the Russians? Last week’s barbaric strike killed a reported 84 civilians in a rebel-held Syrian village. In contrast, the 2013 chemical assault that prompted Barack Obama’s anger took 1,400 lives — an outrage that troubled Trump hardly at all.

Reasoning that Assad’s enemies were Sunni extremists like ISIS, Trump sent out a series of GENE Twitter messages LYONS urging Obama to lay off. “AGAIN, TO OUR VERY FOOLISH LEADER,” he wrote “DO NOT ATTACK SYRIA - IF YOU DO MANY VERY BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN & FROM THAT FIGHT THE U.S. GETS NOTHING!” Never mind that Obama ultimately agreed with Trump about the risks of involving the U.S. in yet another war in the Middle East. “Now that Obama’s poll numbers are in tailspin,” he tweeted in October 2012, “watch for him to launch a strike in Libya or Iran. He is desperate.” A month later, Obama was re-elected easily. Meanwhile, “If he [Trump] can reverse himself on Syria,” writes former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, “he can reverse himself on anything.” But back to Vladimir Putin. Assuming for the sake of argument that the Russian strongman did know about Assad’s plan to use nerve gas against his own people, why would he let it happen? Consider what has taken place. By playing the heel, Putin has allowed President Trump to enact the role of hero: launching an almost purely symbolic, militarily insignificant strike against Syria. “When I take action,” George W. Bush famously said after 9/11, “I’m not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt. It’s going to be decisive.” Trump went camel-hunting, carefully warning the Russians (hence the Syrians) about the exact time and place precision-guided missiles would strike. Not that it was the wrong thing to do. While few Americans would have minded the U.S. sending a drone strike into Bashar al-Assad’s bedroom window, that would risk intensifying Syria’s many-sided, 6-year-old civil war. And yes, Hillary Clinton was urging Trump on. “You’re going to end up in World War Three over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton,” Trump said last fall. “You’re not fighting Syria any more, you’re fighting Syria, Russia and Iran, all right?” But that was then. This is now.

Erasing humanity

uring law school, when I clerked for my local public defender’s office, I was often tasked with getting lunch for defendants during trials. This served two purposes: It kept the defendant near the attorneys during the break instead of down at the jail, and it helped build rapport in what was often a tough relationship. Without fail, the men facing death always requested a burger and fries from McDonald’s. A wise attorney in the office pointed out, after some of us questioned why when just about any local restaurant was an option, that McDonald’s burgers and fries taste like no other burgers and fries in the world. It is a taste that these men were likely never to enjoy again. It was the taste of freedom. I know from experience and statistics that, chances are, these men I helped feed had childhoods that looked nothing like mine, but somewhere along the way, a parent or a teacher or a foster family surely treated them to a Happy Meal full of that delicious combination of sodium and carbs we spend our adult lives trying to avoid. Whether it was indeed the taste of freedom they were after during those lunches or an attempt to recapture a memory from their youth before everything went terribly wrong, it demonstrates, to me at least, the humanity we try to erase from those men in order to make them easier to kill. It shows we are all connected sometimes by just the smallest things, like the desire for a burger and fries. Only one of the men who requested McDonald’s from me during my time as a law clerk is on death row in Arkansas, and he is not one of the men scheduled to be executed in the upcoming days. I have no connection to the cases of the inmates that are to die. I do not know them. The crimes they have been convicted of are terrible. Those of us who advocate for life do so with a heavy heart for the victims and their anger. If these men did those things to my family members, I’d probably like to kill them with my own hands. But that is not where we are. We are in the middle of Holy Week and quickly approaching Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Yet, on Monday, the state

of Arkansas seeks to walk these living and breathing men into a small cinder block room, AUTUMN strap them to a TOLBERT gurney and draw back the curtains so that witnesses can watch them die. After law school, I went on to become a public defender and volunteered to try every case I could. I am now certified to sit as co-counsel on death penalty cases in Arkansas. I hope I never obtain the highest certification of lead counsel, as it requires more capital trial experience. More death. More dead victims, a potential death sentence for my client, and all of the sadness that comes along with it all. More sights and sounds to add to the ones I can never get out of my head no matter how many beers I drink at happy hour (my old vice) or how many days I camp in the woods with my husband and daughters (my new vice): autopsy photos of a murdered 4-year-old, the guttural cry from a mother as she comes face to face with the man accused of shooting her child, the break in a mother’s voice as she tries to keep it together enough to say the right words while pleading with 12 strangers to spare her son’s life, and, finally, the long sigh from the Cummins prison guard standing in the execution chamber as he points out there are not many other jobs around. Governor Hutchinson has surely received letter after letter and phone call after phone call from Arkansans asking him to follow in the footsteps of Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller who, due to his faith, commuted the death sentences of 15 men to life in prison. Whether it is because of his own faith, or his desire to prevent these 11 days of executions from overshadowing all of the good things about our state, or the reality that the men and women who work in the prison will live with this for the rest of their lives, or if the governor, even when contemplating those among us who are considered the worst of the worst, understands we are all connected, I hope he stops the executions. I hope he stops them for humanity. I hope he stops them for Arkansas.

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arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

PEARLS ABOUT SWINE

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APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

PUBLIC RADIO

Baseball’s back

ave Van Horn was authoring the reclamation story of an era throughout the first half of the 2017 baseball season. LSU rudely rejected an initial manuscript over the weekend, but let’s not let one painful weekend blemish what’s happened so far for the Diamond Hogs. After the Tigers stormed back from an 8-1 deficit Saturday night to send a record crowd home surly and stinging from a 10-8 loss, they ended up claiming the rubber match of the three-game set at Baum Stadium on Sunday against a listless Razorback offense. The weekend began promisingly when Blaine Knight fired six shutout innings in a 9-3 win Friday, and Trevor Stephan was nearly as good for the Saturday tilt, but the bullpen — that damning weakness that had only shown minor fissures rather than outright cracks — fell apart late. Arkansas still finished up the series in a dead heat atop the SEC West with fellow surprise Auburn, at 8-4 in league play, and that 25-8 overall mark is merely one win behind last year’s output at season’s end. Van Horn’s 2016 team will forever rate as a weird aberration in the coach’s distinguished tenure: Despite some returning experience in the infield and on the mound, injuries and sporadic offensive production doomed the squad. Those Hogs sat at a still-respectable 26-17 mark with three league series left to play, but they got swept in all of them to finish 26-29, and a rather hideous 7-23 in SEC games. LSU had a memorable rally spurred by a possum on the loose during that fated campaign, and that devious rodent was likely smiling Saturday as Hog reliever Cannon Chadwick lost all semblance of command in the ninth inning and Jax Biggers fired a game-ending throw to first well beyond the target and into the dugout to put the Tigers in front. Van Horn’s teams had — again, excepting last spring’s collapse — trended toward resilient. After all, they have reached four College World Series in his 15 years at the helm, and the last three of those (2009, 2012, 2015) went that far despite not winning the division title. Consistency, short of dominance, has been the hallmark of his tenure: The Hogs have never won 20 conference games in a season, and yet until last season, they had also never had any issues blowing past the 30-win mark and into the NCAA Tournament. This squad looks more the part of

an Omaha-bound bunch, what with a muscled lineup featuring far and away the most overall power in BEAU the league (45 WILCOX team home runs leading the pack by a healthy margin) but still showing enough discipline and small-ball ability to not look like one of those mid-2000s groups that former hitting coach Todd Butler guided to unprecedented power and strikeout marks. There’s balance in the lineup, with no sure outs in the bunch, and the bench has some pop, too. In the field, Biggers’ gaffe on Saturday notwithstanding, this is one of the finest fielding squads around, not just regionally but on a national scale. As has become typical, they’re anchored up the middle with Biggers and veteran Carson Shaddy seeming very comfortable with his transition to second base. Most impressively, though, the outfielders have agility and instincts, and they can run down balls in Baum’s wide alleys with relative ease. Grant Koch and veteran Alex Gosser are a productive offensive catching tandem, but they handle the staff beautifully, too. And about that staff: Knight (5-1) and Stephan (4-2) are a dynamic and overpowering 1-2 punch at the top of the order, but at that point things get decidedly weaker, and that’s where this team may find its postseason fate hinged. Josh Alberius hasn’t been bad, but as a third starter he’s not pitching deep into games, and former starter Dominic Taccolini is far too erratic to reclaim the spot. That’s where Jake Reindl comes in, and why the Sunday loss to LSU may have been of great benefit down the line. With Alberius knocked out early, Reindl came on and was nothing short of brilliant. And after 10 relief appearances, where he’s posted a 22-4 strikeout-walk ratio and surrendered only five earned runs in 21 2/3 innings, maybe he’s the long-term answer on the Sabbath. He’s got exceptional movement but he also harnesses it well, sacrificing speed for control, and he could easily be the long-term solution if he builds off that momentum. The Hogs have numerous challenges ahead on the schedule, so solidifying that third starter post, and figuring out where the bullpen’s magic can source from, is critical for Van Horn and new pitching coach Wes Johnson.

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THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

The chair

he Observer’s pal and former colleague, a dedicated Deputy Observer, ran across the following piece of writing while cleaning out an online folder to make room for still more of the snippets and starts and literary flotsam and jetsam that seem to pile up around a writer like snowdrifts. The Observer has got a million of ’em, tucked back for our biographer. Her son is 9 now, and the rocker she speaks of is long gone. That’s life, folks: Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future, no matter how much we might want to make a moment stick. As our friend notes below, when you’re a parent you become acutely aware of time whether you want to or not, every child a living clock that doesn’t tick or gong the hour, but only grows and grows. Parenthood is joy upon joy, with some sadness and fear in between, in turn interspersed with plentiful frustration and long minutes of staring at yourself in the mirror, trying to remember who you were before you became Mom or Dad, all of it jumbled in together like a jar full of stones, with pebbles to fill the spaces between the stones, and sand to fill the spaces between the pebbles. May your joys always be the stones in that concoction, my friend, not the pebbles or sand. Whatever the case, it’s good to see that our Deputy is figuring out the hardest lesson of parenthood — that the bittersweet part is part of the sweet: “Sometime this week we’ll be donating the glider chair and ottoman that I inherited from my sister when I had my first baby seven years ago. Hours and hours I spent in that chair, nursing him, rocking him, reading him stories, singing him to sleep, dozing off myself with him sacked out on my chest. My sister rocked both of her babies in it for years before she gave it to me. It’s sat neglected in an overcrowded corner of my younger child’s room for a year or two now, though, ever since we all decided we liked it better piling together on the living room couch for

story time and snuggles. Our rocking days are over, and there are other moms and dads with other babies who could use it, so off it goes. I’ll probably force both kids to sit on my lap for one final snuggle before we load it into my dad’s truck. I’ll probably cry. “The goodbyes are hard enough when you know they’re coming. The ones you miss altogether, though — those can be brutal. When your younger child is relating yet another exploit of her invisible friend, and it occurs to you that it’s been an awfully long time since your older child mentioned his — the one who used to spend hours with him in his underground invention garage, who arrived by a portal that came out into one of his desk drawers, who skateboarded alongside our car on the way to school most mornings. For that matter, it’s been awhile since you’ve even heard about the underground invention garage, or anything invisible at all. You could ask about him, and probably bring him back for the 30 seconds it would take for your son to make up something, but that feels too much like when you’d keep calling that guy who’d tried to just drift away without making a scene. “And you can’t remember the last time he asked you to tie a blanket around his shoulders like a cape. Or the last time you read “Goodnight Moon.” The last time you carried your little girl across the street. Vanished into the mist of growing up. “The saving grace of raising children, though, is that everything that vanishes makes room for something new — the first time he reads a book without help. The first time she makes her own peanut butter sandwich. The first time they sit down and build a new Lego set together, him reading the instructions and her following them without a fuss. The first time you have a real conversation with your son. You don’t always notice the firsts either, but they come, and they’re amazing, and they make it almost OK to let that rocking chair go.”

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BY BENJAMIN HARDY, DAVID KOON, LINDSEY

Mean. Nast

And short-sighted, for the have been worse ALL PHOTOS BY BRIAN CHILSON

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSASâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;TIMES

DSEY MILLAR AND LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

sty. Brutish.

he most part. But it could rse at the Capitol.

BAD APPLES: (from left) Rep. Brandt Smith, Sen. Jason Rapert and Rep. Mary Bentley, all Republicans, sponsored bills that were prime contenders for 2017â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most obnoxious legislation.

arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

rkansas’s legislators were locked and loaded when they arrived for the 91st General Assembly this year, determined to get more guns into public places and take away voting and abortion rights, their evergreen attacks. Thanks to the legislature, concealed weapons soon may be carried just about everywhere except Razorback games and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Unemployment benefits were cut, whistleblowers were silenced and charter schools were given advantages over regular public schools. Other legislation was symbolic but ugly, such as an act authored by Rep. Brandt Smith (R-Jonesboro) that aims to stop Sharia, or Islamic ecclesiastical law, from taking over Arkansas’s court system. Some of the silliest bills went nowhere, such as efforts by Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) to wipe Bill and Hillary Clinton’s names off the Little Rock airport, to indefinitely delay implementing the voter-approved medical marijuana program and to call a convention of the states to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. Anti-immigrant legislation that would have penalized colleges and cities with so-called “sanctuary” policies withered in committee. Rep. Smith, the sponsor of the bill targeting universities, warned that rogue professors might hide undocumented immigrants in their offices and then dump their human waste on campus in the dark of night; surprisingly, this argument did not persuade his colleagues. Rep. Kim Hendren (R-Gravette) proposed banning cell phones from public schools; later, he filed a bill prohibiting teachers from using books authored by leftist historian Howard Zinn. Neither gained traction. What was good? A little. Conservatives tried to circumscribe the medical marijuana amendment with bans on smoking and edible products, among other roadblocks, but the worst of the anti-pot legislation stalled. Evidently reassured by Governor Hutchinson’s promises to make the private option more conservative (read: stingier) down the line, the annual appropriation for Medicaid passed without a major fight — a relief for the 300,000-plus Arkansans receiving health insurance through Obamacare. Pushed by Hutchinson, the ledge directed some of Arkansas’s tobacco settlement proceeds to expand a waiver program for the developmentally disabled, opening 14

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

IN THE WILDERNESS: Democrats such as Reps. Clarke Tucker (left) and Charles Blake, both of Little Rock, found their efforts frustrated by the GOP majority at every turn.

the door to services for some 500 to 900 desperate families stranded for years on a waitlist. At long last, the state will stop its reprehensible practice of celebrating Robert E. Lee’s birthday simultaneously with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a symbolic but important step forward that was championed by the governor. Here’s our survey of the damage:

GUNS In Glock we trust The biggest gun-related news this session was the passage and signing of House Bill 1249, now Act 562, which creates a new “enhanced carry” permit that will allow gun owners who have undergone eight hours of additional training — including active shooter training, with a curriculum still to be worked out by the Arkansas State Police — to carry a concealed handgun in many places previously forbidden under the state’s concealed carry law, including the state Capitol, public colleges and universities, bars, churches and courthouses. Concealed carry in prisons, courtrooms and K-12 schools is still forbidden, and private property owners, including bars, churches and private colleges, can still prohibit firearms if they choose.

Sponsored by Rep. Charlie Collins (R-Fayetteville), the bill was a far piece from where it started by the time it was signed. Originally, Collins’ bill would have solely mandated that public universities and colleges allow faculty and staff to carry concealed handguns. It was an attempt to push back against the state’s public colleges and universities, which have steadfastly rejected Collins’ and his colleagues’ attempts to institute “campus carry” in the past. Amendments to HB 1249 soon pushed it several clicks further toward the broad “guns everywhere” approach favored by the National Rifle Association, and far beyond a potential shooting iron in a well-trained professor’s briefcase. Now, anyone with the enhanced permit will be able to carry on a college campus, including into sometimes-contentious student and faculty disciplinary hearings and raucous college dorms. The passage of the bill spawned some last minute scrambling when the Southeastern Conference expressed concerns about fans coming to college football games carrying heat, resulting in Act 859, a cleanup effort that prohibits concealed carry in college athletic venues. Also exempted by Act 859 were daycares, UAMS and the Arkansas State Hospital, an inpatient facility for the mentally ill. The bill also allows private businesses and organizations to ban concealed carry without posting a sign

BIG GUN: Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the NRA, celebrates the signing of Act 562 while Governor Hutchinson (center) and bill sponsor Rep. Charlie Collins (right) look on.

to that effect. If a private business decides to ban concealed carry without posting a sign, anyone caught carrying a concealed weapon on the premises can be ejected or told to remove their gun if they want to come back. If the concealed carrier repeats the infraction, they can be charged with a crime. Even after the purported cleanup, that still leaves a lot of places open to concealed carry unless those places set a policy forbidding the practice, including most hospitals, mental health facilities and off-campus high school and middle school sporting events. At the signing ceremony for HB 1249, Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said, “We believe that if you have a legal right to be somewhere, and you’re a law-abiding person, you ought to have a legal right to defend yourself.” For the NRA, that means the right to be armed everywhere, any time, as long as you don’t have a criminal record. Notice Cox didn’t say anything about pesky permits or training. Speaking of law-abiding persons, also of concern when it comes to concealed carry is Act 486. Under the law, the Arkansas State Police is now prohibited from establishing or amending any administrative rule that would revoke or suspend a concealed carry permit unless the holder of the permit was found to be in violation of a criminal offense. While not penalizing a person if they haven’t committed a crime sounds like a good idea, the problem is that people can and do go off the rails for a multitude of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with a violation of the criminal code. Before the passage of Act 486, the State Police had broad latitude to revoke or suspend concealed carry permits for a number of reasons, including serious alcohol and drug abuse, dangerous mental illness, or a mental health professional’s determination that a permit holder might be a threat to himself, his family or the public. With the passage of Act 486, though, a concealed carry holder who suffers a complete mental breakdown to the point of visual hallucinations can keep on packing right until the moment he or she is admitted at the State Hospital (thanks Act 859!), even if the person’s family or a doctor asks the State Police to pull their permit. Ditto with people suffering from substance abuse issues, elderly dementia patients and those who hint they might be capable of suicide or homicide. Under the law, a permit

can still be revoked or suspended if the person is caught carrying into a prohibited place like a courtroom or jail, but as seen above, the list of places where handguns are prohibited is dwindling by the year. Otherwise, thanks to Act 486, we just have to wait until that person commits a crime. By then, it’s too late. In the What Could Have Been column, we have HB 1630, by Rep. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock), which would have created the misdemeanor offense of “negligently allowing access to a firearm by a child” if an owner failed to secure a loaded gun or left it in a place a child could easily access. Though the bill had exemptions for hunting, sport shooting and use of firearms on a farm and had a sliding scale of penalties, with incidents involving the death or serious injury of a child at the top of the list, it went nowhere.

EDUCATION Traditional schools took licks, but the worst was kept at bay. The single worst education bill passed in 2017 was probably Act 542, sponsored by Alan Clark (R-Lonsdale), which requires school districts to sell or lease “unused or underutilized” facilities to competitor charter schools. Charters already had right of first refusal in the event a district decides to sell a building — but after Act 542 goes into effect this summer, a charter can force a district to sell or lease a building, even if the district doesn’t want to do so. If a different entity — a nonprofit, say, or a clinic or a business — wants to buy an unoccupied school building instead, that’s too bad. Act 542 requires a district to hold on to unused buildings for two years, just in case a charter comes along and wants the facility for itself. Clark pointed to a situation a few years ago in which the Helena-West Helena School District refused to sell a vacant elementary to KIPP Delta, a charter. But there are good reasons why a district wouldn’t want to hand over an asset to a direct competitor: Charter networks tend to weaken districts by bleeding away higher-performing students and public money, and they often enjoy advantages their traditional public school counterparts do not. As some opponents of the bill pointed out, the new law is tantamount to

STILL FIGHTING: Democrats Rep. John Walker (left), of Little Rock, and Greg Leding, of Fayetteville, in committee.

forcing Walmart to sell a store to Target. That’s why school superintendents across the state fought the bill and convinced no small number of Republicans to join Democrats in opposing it. In the end, though, it passed the House on a 53-32 vote. Republican legislators also rejected proposals by Democrats Sen. Joyce Elliott and Rep. Clarke Tucker — both from Little Rock, which is seeing unchecked charter growth at the expense of traditional public schools — to impose fairer rules on charters. Thankfully, the legislature turned down an even worse proposal. HB 1222 by Rep. Jim Dotson (R-Bentonville) proposed a convoluted scheme to divert millions of dollars away from the public coffers (by means of a tax credit to wealthy donors) and toward private schools in the guise of “education savings accounts” to be used for student tuition. A school voucher plan in all but name, the bill would have been devastating to public education. Dotson eventually scaled back the legislation to a pilot program with a four-year sunset, allowing a Senate version of the bill to win passage in that chamber — but many Republicans remain fond of their local school districts, and it narrowly failed in the House. Meanwhile, legislators expanded an existing voucher program, the Succeed Scholarship. Created in the 2015 session, it uses public tax dollars to pay private

school tuition for a limited number of K-12 students with special needs. Parents are required to waive their child’s civil rights protections under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. In the past, the scholarship was open only to kids with an Individualized Education Program, or IEP; now, foster children living in group homes will also be eligible, thanks to Act 894 by Rep. Kim Hammer (R-Benton). Act 327 by Rep. Carlton Wing (R-North Little Rock) will allow a nonaccredited private school to participate, as long as the school has applied for accreditation. And, the appropriation for the Succeed Scholarship rose from $800,000 to $1.3 million — an increase of 63 percent — potentially allowing as many as 200 students statewide to participate. That bump is especially notable alongside the meager 1 percent increase in the state’s overall K-12 education budget for the next two years — far less than the 2.5 percent boost recommended by legislative staff tasked with determining what constitutes “adequate” school funding. A bit more money will be directed to teacher pay and special education, and pre-kindergarten will see an overdue $3 million increase, so the money situation could be worse. Still, with state revenue squeezed hard by tax cuts, and private and charter schools knocking at the door, traditional public schools are clearly not the General

CONSERVATIVE DARLING: Republican Sen. Bart Hester (left), of Cave Springs, championed a number of bad bills this session, including a failed effort to undermine the FOIA.

Assembly’s top priority. On other fronts, school legislation was a mixed bag. Elliott’s Act 1059, will limit the use of out-ofschool suspensions and expulsions for students in grades K-5 — a muchneeded reform — but her bid to end corporal punishment failed in committee. (Rural Arkansas still loves the paddle.) One of the better education bills to pass this session was Elliott’s Act 1039 which gives teeth to a 2013 law (also by Elliott) requiring dyslexia screening and intervention. Its reporting requirements and enforcement mechanism hopefully will force districts to deliver better reading interventions to dyslexic students. A major accountability bill developed by the state Education Department, Act 930, will overhaul how schools are monitored by the state, though it’s too soon to say how the changes will play out. Act 478 by Rep. Bruce Cozart (R-Hot Springs), will require high school students to pass a civics test before graduating; an attempt by Rep. John Walker (D-Little Rock) to impose the same requirement on legislators and state agency heads received a cold reception. A bill by Rep. Mark Lowery (R-Maumelle), now Act 910, will end September school elections and require them to be held concurrent with the November general or spring primary election date. That could spell trouble for future millage votes. Finally, there’s higher education: “Campus carry” dominated the news, but a major change in funding may be just as consequential. Act 148, which originated with the governor’s office, creates a funding formula for colleges and universities that ties state money to metrics like graduation rate. HB 1518, now Act 563, a worthy bill by Rep. James Sturch (R-Batesville) requires the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board to create an action plan for addressing sexual assault on college campuses. — Benjamin Hardy

TAXES Some help for the working poor and lots of punting. Give modest credit to Governor Hutchinson. In the 2013 and 2015 legislative sessions, Republican legislators pushed a massive cut on taxes on capital gains and reduced the income tax burden on all but the working poor. This session, arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

Hutchinson provided some relief at the lower end of the tax bracket. Hutchinson pushed through a $50 million tax cut, directed at households with a taxable income of less than $21,000. The cut is misleading, though, as it targets taxable income, which is often far less than salary or adjusted gross income. In fact, Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families pointed out that 48 percent of the overall $50 million cut will go to taxpayers in the top 40 percent of earners, while only 5 percent will go to those making less than $18,000 per year. Establishing a refundable state Earned Income Tax Credit, tied to the federal EITC, would have been considerably more beneficial to the lower 40 percent of Arkansas earners, who often have no income tax liability, but pay a large share of their income in sales tax. An EITC would have provided a more substantial boost to the working poor at less cost than Hutchinson’s cut. Rep. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock) and Sen. Jake Files (R-Fort Smith) were behind the EITC proposal, which historically has bipartisan appeal, but they couldn’t get support from Hutchinson or enough other legislators. Hutchinson also supported legislation that exempted all military retirement pay and survivor benefits from state income taxes. The first $6,000 of military retirement pay had been exempt previously. Since most veterans aren’t career soldiers and eligible for a pension, the exemption will leave out many veterans (again, an EITC would have been a better avenue). But few politicians on either side of the aisle were going to stand in the way of helping veterans — even though Hutchinson unconscionably larded the measure with unrelated tax hikes. The legislation offset the eventual $13.4 million cost of the exemption by raising the sales tax on candy and soda. Completely unrelated to veterans’ retirement income, the bill provided a $6 million tax cut on soft drink syrup, which it paid for by taxing unemployment benefits and digital downloads. So, veterans with pensions got a bump and corporate interests got significant help, while folks downloading books and movies, as well as people in between jobs, got screwed. In the “could have been worse” column, more credit for Hutchinson: He held at bay lawmakers from his party such as Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs) who wanted to cut $100 million or more in taxes — threatening essential state services in the process — by creating a commission to consider the future of tax policies in the state. 16

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

The commission will have to consider two issues the General Assembly punted on. A bill that would have required out-of-state online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases made by Arkansans stalled in the House, with several Republicans decrying the proposal as a tax increase even though

CRIMINAL JUSTICE Actual reform Act 423, “The Criminal Justice Efficiency and Safety Act,” might be the most consequential piece of good legislation the General Assembly passed. It’s

nificantly longer stints. Arkansas in recent years has had the fastest growing prison population in the country, fueled largely by parole violators returning to prison. Swift and certain sanctioning is expected to free up as many as 1,600 prison beds and save the state as much as $30-$40 million.

HASHING IT OUT: The House Education Committee at work.

Arkansans already are required to pay the tax by law (few do because it requires self-reporting.) Still, Amazon said it would voluntarily begin collecting sales tax on Arkansas customers beginning in March. Another bill that merely would have referred to voters a proposal to increase the tax on gas to pay for bonds for highway construction failed on similar anti-tax grounds. — Lindsey Millar

a sprawling, omnibus law, with three primary components. Most consequentially, it introduces swift and certain sanctioning, which means parolees and probationers who commit minor violations of the terms of their supervision will be sent for 45 to 90 days to Arkansas Community Correction facilities, where they will receive rehabilitative programming, instead of being sent to prison for sig-

The law also seeks to divert people who commit nuisance offenses because they are high on drugs or having a mental health crisis in public from jail or prison. It establishes Crisis Stabilization Units, regional facilities where people in crisis could go to receive treatment for several days. The law mandates the creation of three such units, but $5 million earmarked in the state budget for the operation of the facilities,

paired with significant additional federal money the state expects to draw from Medicaid, could allow for several more CSUs to open. The locations of the CSUs have not yet been selected, but Craighead, Pulaski and Sebastian counties are thought to be leading candidates. Finally, Act 423 also requires law

son, co-sponsor Rep. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock) and CSG say the new law will save the state money, which can be reinvested in effective criminal justice policies. CSG’s justice reinvestment program has successfully been implemented in states across the country. Of course, whether it’s successful

to Arkansas Community Correction permanent, which will at least allow the department to retain the 60 officers it had hired since 2015. That’s not enough, Sen. Hutchinson (who is the governor’s nephew) said. He hopes a future General Assembly will approve additional funding for more officers using some of

enforcement officers to receive crisis intervention training to help them deescalate interactions with people amid behavioral health episodes. The law is the product of 18 months of study and presentations by the nonprofit Council of State Governments, which reported to a Legislative Criminal Justice Oversight Task Force that bill sponsor Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson (R-Little Rock) co-chaired. Hutchin-

here will depend on policymakers seeing the reforms through. One potential stumbling block: CSG recommended that the state hire 100 new parole and probation officers to better supervise the nearly 56,000 people on parole and probation. Current supervision officers handle on average 125 cases. Governor Hutchinson’s budget didn’t provide for funding to hire 100 new officers, though it did make temporary funding

the savings generated by Act 423. A perennial stumbling block for any criminal justice reform is the inevitable violator who commits a serious crime. A significant portion of Arkansas’s recent prison growth spike came because of punitive parole policies enacted in the wake of the 2013 murder of a teenager in Little Rock by a serial parole violator. It’s natural to think that locking up people who commit crimes for long stretches

reduces crime, but research shows it’s just the opposite, Sen. Hutchinson said. “I’ve had the luxury of studying this for years now. It’s hard to wrap your brain around sometimes,” Hutchinson said. “Longer sentences do not, in fact, result in lower crime rates. The longer [people are] incarcerated, the greater chance of recidivism they have.” Hutchinson chaired the Senate Judiciary Committee, and many of its members, chief among them Sen. Bryan King (R-Green Forest), were hostile to the idea of moving away from incarceration in certain situations. King introduced the tough-on-crime Senate Bill 177, which would have required anyone with three stints in prison to serve at least 80 percent of any subsequent sentence. Arkansas already has a twostrikes law: After someone commits a second serious violent or sexual crime, he’s required to serve 100 percent of his sentence. So King’s measure would have mostly targeted low-level property and drug crimes and at huge cost. According to an impact statement, it would have added 5,499 inmates at a cost of $121 million in 2026. The total 10-year cost to the state would have been $692 million, and that’s not including the significant cost of building new prison housing. King let the bill die in the House Judiciary Committee after Governor Hutchinson forcefully spoke out against it. Three other positive new laws: Act 566, sponsored by the odd couple Rep. John Walker (D-Little Rock) and Rep. Bob Ballinger (R-Berryville), has Arkansas opt out of a section in President Clinton’s sweeping 1996 welfare reform law that prevents anyone who has been convicted of a felony drug offense from receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits. Act 1012, from legislation sponsored by Tucker and Hutchinson, allows someone on probation or parole for an offense that did not involve the operation of a motor vehicle who has a suspended drivers license because of unpaid fines or fees to continue to drive to work or school. Act 539, sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain Home) and Rep. Rebecca Petty (R-Springdale), prevents minors from being sentenced to life without parole. Before they become eligible for parole, the new law requires minors sentenced to life terms to serve 20 years for nonhomicide offenses, 25 years for first-degree murder and 30 years for capital murder. Of course, the Parole Board could repeatedly deny parole requests and force someone sentenced to a life term as a minor to spend his life in prison. arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

The heartbreaker of the session in criminal justice was the failure of Democratic Sen. Joyce Elliott’s proposal to require racial impact statements for new criminal justice legislation. The impact statements would have provided research on whether proposed legislation would have a disparate impact on minority groups. Similar bills failed in 2013 and 2015, and this one was substantially amended to merely provide the impact statements as an option, but it died on the House floor. It was another reminder that for many white people, there is no greater insult than suggesting that they or something they do might be racist, even if the bias was unintended. One opponent, Rep. Ballinger, said he did not believe in systemic racism. — Lindsey Millar

are far less safe. There is no exception for incest or rape in the law. And, like previous laws passed by legislators who think their particular religious beliefs give them the right to control women, the law particularly harms women who can’t afford to travel to a more broad-minded jurisdiction to exercise a legal right. Another evil of the law is that it allows a spouse, parent or guardian to bring a civil suit against the abortion provider if the woman has “received or attempted to receive” dilation and evacuation. That means, according to abortion rights activists and Mayberry himself, a husband can stop an abortion. He may have committed rape. A parent

to “request the medical records of the pregnant woman relating directly to the entire pregnancy history of the woman.” No abortion may be performed until every chart for every pregnancy generated by the woman’s ob-gyn (or obgyns) and staffs and hospitals, every record generated during every trip to the ER she may have had to make, is supplied and reviewed by the abortion provider. Not only could that take a lot of time and generate a mountain of paperwork — what if the woman already had five children? — but it would also notify, perhaps against the woman’s will, her doctors and their staffs that she is seeking to obtain an abortion. The bill does not state what informa-

ABORTION Risking women’s health Women and their bodies were subjected to serious new insults this year by Arkansas legislators practicing medicine without a license. Among the most egregious laws was the so-called “dismemberment abortion” bill, now Act 45, whose chief sponsors were Rep. Andy Mayberry (R-Hensley) and Sen. David Sanders (R-Little Rock). The bill prohibits doctors from performing what doctors believe is the safest method of second trimester abortion: dilation and evacuation. The alternatives would be something akin to a Caesarean section, in which the belly is cut open to remove the fetus, or an induced abortion, which requires the woman to go into labor to expel a fetus killed by an injection of salt water, urea or potassium chloride into the amniotic sac. Those procedures are what doctors call “high morbidity” — meaning they have a high risk of making patients sick. Dilation and evacuation is recommended by the World Health Organization, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the American Medical Association. The difference between those organizations and the Arkansas legislature is that one group does not believe women should receive the best health care possible. But Mayberry and Sanders and their co-sponsors think D&E, which uses a vacuum, is tantamount to butchery. But hysterectomy and induction abortions accomplish the same end as a D&E and 18

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ARKANSAS TIMES

limitation,” and to collect an annual fee of $500. While purporting to be a bill to protect women’s health, the new law, Act 383, is designed to let the state shut down a clinic for facilities violations not spelled out in the legislation. It’s not clear what violation would close the clinic. Towel on the floor? Out of paper towels? Scoop left in the break room freezer’s icemaker? As it happens, Little Rock Family Planning is inspected frequently, more than the once every year that the law already called for. The health department inspected the clinic four times in 2016, citing such things as discolored ceiling tiles and a chair with rips. The clinic’s spokesman said some inspections are instigated by complaints from the anti-abortion protesters that picket outside. The vague language of Act 383 “has potential for abuse. We don’t know if we would be singled out and treated differently, if our license could be suspended for even minor paperwork violations,” the spokesman said. — Leslie Newell Peacock

TRANSPARENCY The public’s right to know took one step forward, two steps back. WARRIOR: Democratic Sen. Joyce Elliott of Little Rock eked out a win on some positive education bills, though many others were shot down.

may have committed incest. Doesn’t matter. Rep. Charlie Collins (R-Fayetteville) and Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain View) brought us the bill that became Act 733, the so-called “sex-selection abortion ban.” Despite the fact that there is zero evidence that Arkansas women are dashing into abortion clinics because they’ve determined the sex of their fetus and don’t like it, the bill has the potential to create an huge burden on the doctor provider. Say a woman has had prenatal tests to see if her fetus has a genetic disorder. She learns there is a disorder and, by the way, the sex of the fetus. Her doctor must ask if she knows the gender of the fetus. If she answers that she does, the abortion must be delayed, because this new state law requires the doctor

tion in those records would suggest that the woman was hell-bent on not having another boy or girl. “Why are physicians and the clinic made to be an investigative party into a woman’s motives to have an abortion?” asked a spokesman for Little Rock Family Planning, the state’s only clinic that offers abortion up to 21 weeks. Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R-Elm Springs) and Sen. Scott Flippo (R-Bull Shoals), like Mayberry and Sanders, introduced what’s called a model TRAP law (targeted regulation of abortion providers) meant to end abortion by imposing stricter inspection regulations on clinics. The bill allows the state Department of Health to make yearly trips to inspect clinic records and “a representative sample of procedures”; to regulate all aspects of the clinic “without

Arkansas’s robust Freedom of Information Act came under assault in 2017 as never before, with legislators proposing at least a dozen new exemptions to the open records law. Thanks to SB 131, now Act 474, by Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R-Branch), security plans of the State Capitol Police are no longer disclosable to the public; Stubblefield’s reasoning was that someone seeking to do violence at the Capitol might request such plans, but the law is written so broadly that virtually any record of the Capitol police could fall under the new exemption. Stubblefield’s SB 12 (Act 541) created a similar exemption for schools, including colleges and universities. HB 1236, now Act 531, by Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R-Paragould), prevents the disclosure of a body-cam or dash-cam recording of the death of a law enforcement officer. Thankfully, though, many anti-FOIA bills failed. The most significant was SB 373, by Sen. Bart Hester (R-Cave Springs), which proposed exempting

The legislature still shows animus toward people who don’t fit its definition of normal, but Arkansans lucked out when three anti-LGBT bills failed. Two so-called “bathroom bills” that targeted transgender children and adults and another that would have let doctors refuse to perform a procedure if it offended their “deeply held beliefs” did not make it into law. But the legislature also blocked a bill that would have corrected an injustice.

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ANTI-LGBT Threats stalled.

SB 580, by Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock), would have provided for the automatic listing of both parents’ names on the birth certificates of children of married same-sex couples, an important factor in establishing inheritance and other matters. In a marriage between a man and a woman, the names of both parents are listed on a child’s birth certificate, even in cases of surrogacy or artificial insemination. Arkansas is the only state that treats children of same-sex parents differently in this regard, seemingly in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling that struck down bans on gay marriage nationwide. Elliott’s bill would have fixed the problem, but when SB 580 came before the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice-chair Sen. Linda Collins-Smith (R-Pocahontas) said same-sex parents could make a will if they wanted to ensure their kids get an inheritance. Besides the children of same-sex couples, Collins-Smith doesn’t much like transgender people, either. She introduced SB 774 to require that people had to use public bathroom or changing facilities that corresponded with the sex as listed on their birth certificates, and that the governing body of the public entity had to make sure the law was enforced. Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau director Gretchen Hall and Verizon Arena General Manager Michael Marion told Collins-Smith in a hearing on the bill said they could not see how it would be possible to know what was on the birth certificate on the thousands of people who might answer the call of nature at an event. “It’s your job to find a way,” Collins-Smith snarled. Collins-Smith pulled down the bill when she realized it was not going to pass. The House passed a bill introduced by Rep. Bob Ballinger (R-Berryville), who also had his mind on bathroom use, to expand the state’s indecent exposure law. State law already says it is a crime to expose one’s genitalia with intent to gratify sexual desire; Ballinger’s bill would have made it a crime simply to expose genitalia in front of a person of the opposite sex. (Maybe it’s common practice to inspect genitalia in bathrooms up in Berryville.) Though the House vote for the bill was 65 to 3, the bill went down the Senate Judiciary Committee drain, as Collins-Smith’s did. Governor Hutchinson, who did not want Arkansas to suffer economically as North Carolina did when it passed its “bathroom bill” (since partially repealed), was relieved. Another ugly bill was introduced by Rep. Brandt Smith (R-Jonesboro): the

FOA-P U ULA N S D KI A T TI EC O H N

attorney-client communications and work product from the FOIA if the client is a public entity. The force behind the bill was the University of Arkansas. The problem with this idea — aside from the fact that attorney-client communications can already be shielded on a caseby-case basis, by order of a judge — is that a public entity could declare almost any record exempt simply by emailing that record to its attorney. Had it passed, this loophole could have swallowed the entire FOIA. On the bright side, Rep. Jana Della Rosa (R-Rogers) managed to pass HB 1427, now Act 318, to require candidates to file their monthly finance reports electronically, rather than on paper. HB 1010, now Act 616, by Rep. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock) extends the same requirement to political action committees and other groups. This matters because a searchable electronic database will make it much easier for the public to track contributions made to candidates and PACs, as well as their expenditures. However, the legislature quashed an effort to shine a light on the darkest regions of campaign finance when it rejected HB 1005, by Rep. Clarke Tucker (D-Little Rock). The bill would have required disclosure of “electioneering” spending, meaning advertisements by independent organizations, nominally unaffiliated with any candidate, that dodge ethics laws by scrupulously avoiding the use of phrasings like “vote for” or “vote against.” A growing number of states recognize that such ads — which have proliferated tremendously in recent years and comprise hundreds of millions of dollars in spending nationwide — are de facto campaign commercials and require them to be reported as such. Not Arkansas. — Benjamin Hardy

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Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act, which would have allowed doctors to refuse to administer health care services that offended their “deeply held beliefs.” Smith had in mind both reproductive rights and transgender reassignment surgery. There was no support for the bill from medical professionals, and state Surgeon General Dr. Gregory Bledsoe spoke against it, saying, “If you’re a member of any sort of minority group ... these sorts of bills send a message that threatens you.” —Leslie Newell Peacock

AVERAGE ARKANSANS Workers, consumers and other enemies of the state got a raw deal. Governor Hutchinson deserves some recognition for passing a modest income tax cut for working people this session, even if it wasn’t quite the boost for the poor that he claimed (see Taxes, page 15). But in almost every other way, the average Arkansan got screwed by the 2017 session.

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Start with Act 986, by Rep. Laurie Rushing (R-Hot Springs), which will outlaw private class-action lawsuits under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act — a cornerstone of consumer protection law. Such suits are a powerful deterrent against businesses that intentionally scam customers in various small ways, such as false advertising or misleading promotional offers. Preventing consumers from bringing claims as a class gives the unscrupulous a freer hand to prey on the unsuspecting. Act 606, by Rep. DeAnn Vaught (R-Horatio), provides a boon to corpo-

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APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

rations by allowing an employer to sue a worker who records a video or takes photos in the workplace “and uses the recording in a manner that damages the employer.” In other words, it will stop whistleblowers from documenting unethical or illegal practices, such as animal abuse at factory farms. Animal rights organizations refer to it as an “ag-gag” bill. Maybe the biggest prize for big business, though, was the “tort reform” measure that was referred to the 2018 ballot, Senate Joint Resolution 8. Sponsored by Sen. Missy Irvin (R-Mountain Home), it proposes a new amendment to the state constitution that would place ceilings on the noneconomic and punitive damages that may be awarded to a claimant in a civil suit. Attorney contingency fees would also be capped, at one-third of the net recovery. In short, this would sharply limit the ability of someone who was grievously harmed by an act of medical malpractice to seek compensation in court. SJR 8 sparked a bruising fight in the legislature, with a few Republicans breaking ranks to speak forcefully against abridging the right to a trial by jury. But business interests — especially nursing homes — have been pushing tort reform for years, and the measure proved unstoppable. Unless Arkansas voters reject it in 2018, that is. Speaking of abridged rights, the legislature also referred a proposed amendment that would enshrine a voter ID requirement in the Arkansas Constitution. The hard truth is that House Joint Resolution 1016, by Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R-Elm Springs), will likely pass in 2018 given the state’s electoral trends. Never mind that proponents of voter ID can’t cite any documented instances of voter impersonation in Arkansas, and never mind the evidence that such measures elsewhere have resulted in voters being disenfranchised — voter ID has become gospel to Republicans, aided by President Trump’s falsehoods about rampant fraud in the 2016 election. Redundantly enough, the legislature also passed a voter ID bill in addition to the referred amendment, Act 633 by Rep. Mark Lowery (R-Maumelle). Arkansas’s status as the worst state in the nation for renters went unchallenged. A bill by Sen. Blake Johnson (R-Corning), now Act 159, softened but preserved the state’s unconscionable, one-of-a-kind criminal eviction statute, which courts in several counties have deemed unconstitutional. Thanks to the lobbying efforts of the Arkansas Realtors Association, Arkansas also remains the only state in which there is no minimum habitability standard for rental property.

SHINING A LIGHT: A bill by Republican Rep. Jana Della Rosa of Rogers will make campaign funding more transparent.

INTRAPARTY DIVIDE: Republican Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson emerged as a voice of moderation and reason within the GOP, while Sen. Linda Collins-Smith (R-Pocahontas) hails from the party’s rightward fringe.

HB 1166, by Hot Springs Republican Rushing, purported to address that deficiency, but the bill’s proposed standards were pitifully weak — limited to electricity, water, sewer and a roof — and it may have limited renters’ meager rights in other ways, so it’s best it failed. Legislators’ sympathy for landlords didn’t translate to protecting small property owners railroaded by the oil industry. House Bill 2086, an effort by Rep. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock) to more carefully examine the use of eminent domain by pipeline companies, was drafted in response to the construction of the Diamond Pipeline, which will carry crude oil across the length of Arkansas from Oklahoma to Memphis. It failed to get out of committee. Currently, unemployment benefits in Arkansas cover workers for a maximum of 20 weeks, which is a shorter span than any surrounding state except Missouri (also 20 weeks). Act 734 from Rep. Lundstrum will soon reduce that coverage time to 16 weeks … and reduce weekly benefits checks paid to laidoff workers. This is despite the state’s unemployment trust fund having amply recovered from the recession (it now contains around $500 million) and unemployment levels at record lows. So why trim benefits now? Simple: Employers want more money for themselves. There was at least one good piece of consumer legislation, though, sponsored by none other than Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway). Act 944 aims to close a loophole exploited by payday lenders, which were driven out of Arkansas some years ago by a ban on high-interest loans but recently have been creeping back into the state by charging astronomical “fees” in place of interest. And some bad measures failed, the most obnoxious probably being HB 1035 by Rep. Mary Bentley (R-Perryville). The bill would have prohibited SNAP recipients from using food stamps to purchase items the state Health Department deems unhealthy, such as soda; it stalled in the face of opposition from grocery stores and others. House Bill 1825 by Rep. John Payton (R-Wilburn), which went nowhere, would have seized lottery winnings from citizens who have received public assistance from the Arkansas Department of Human Services. And, efforts to chip away at workers compensation failed this time around. Got to leave something for 2019. —Benjamin Hardy

arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

Arts Entertainment AND

Big Room, big mission At Capitol View Studio. BRIAN CHILSON

BY ANDREW MCCLAIN

ryan Frazier didn’t quite know what he was getting himself into when he started looking for a downtown studio apartment back in 2015. “I just wanted to move downtown and have a studio apartment where I could have more space to do my art,” Frazier, a visual artist, musician and photographer, said. To that end, or so he thought, Frazier bought a flat-roofed, one-story brick building at 120 S. Cross St., about two blocks from Union Station and across the street from the Salvation Army. Frazier spent about a year remodeling to tailor the 2,300-square-foot space to his needs, and the slick transformation is HGTV-worthy. “The studio was sort of a happy accident,” Frazier explains. “When I bought the building, I didn’t think I was going to build a recording studio.” Frazier and Revolution sound engineer Mark Colbert started talking one day, though, and Frazier learned Colbert, also a producer, needed a place “to stash his gear for a bit.” Once the remodel had begun, Frazier said, “we just sat down one day and I asked him, ‘You know, if we were to make this a proper recording studio, what would we need to do? What are 22

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ARKANSAS TIMES

the basics?’ And we decided to go for it, and here we are.” Thus, Capitol View Studio was born. Colbert is now the primary audio engineer at Capitol View Studio, and has already recorded several projects there, as well as running the business end of the recording studio. Frazier painted the brick exterior a deep blue-gray and installed a garage door facing the street and opening into the main room, which is the studio’s centerpiece. Within the Big Room (as Frazier calls it) there are two booths: a control room and an isolation room for recording vocals. The studio’s logo on the back wall provides a backdrop for bands to play in front of; films can be projected onto the wall, too. Frazier envisions the space as a multipurpose venue. The main area can seat about 60 people, and there’s a small, comfortable lounge area with couches, a library and an ultra-modern gas fireplace. He also has room for a screen-printing project he’s working on. “I can kinda do it all here,” Frazier said. “It’s not too big, not too small. It’s a familiar space. “I think that when people come to record at Capitol View Studio, they’ll come here for Mark’s talent and the unique space and feel here. It doesn’t

The organization endows a photography scholarship of $1,000 that honors Frazier’s friend and the building’s previous owner, Rob Fisher, who died unexpectedly in 2016. Fisher, founder of the nonprofit Ecological Conservation Organization (ECO), and Frazier attended Henderson State University and took photography classes together, and the two later worked together on Arkansas Take Action, developing a “living petition” of video testimonies to free the West Memphis Three. The $1,000 Robert J. Fisher Memorial Award is given annually to a photography student at HSU. “There’s a lot of work we have to do to carry on his legacy. It just makes sense to have that award be awarded to a Henderson photo student. I was an artist, he was an ecologist, and photography is kind of where art and ecology met for us.” The Arkansas Music & Arts Foundation, while still in its infancy, has several public outreach and fundraising programs in the works in addition to the scholarship award, all slated to launch this year. Colbert, who is partnering with CALS to teach an elementary level audio recording class at the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library, is also teaching a more advanced class at Capitol View Studio. Starting in June, the studio will play host to “The Bottega Brunch” on select Sundays, an art show where two artists display and speak about their work in person. For more information, and to keep in touch with Capitol View Studio’s upcoming projects, visit capitolviewstudio.com. ‘NOT TOO BIG, NOT TOO SMALL’: Capitol View Studio co-founder and musician Bryan Frazier (The Alpha Ray) has carved out a 2,300-square-foot creative space in a one-story brick building on Cross Street, just a few blocks northeast of the state Capitol.

sound like any other space in town, especially live drums in the Big Room. We got lucky. We really did. Because of the way I sprayed insulation in the ceiling and the way the room is broken up, it diffuses the sound really nicely; it’s live but it’s not super wet. It doesn’t sound muddy.” Beyond the Big Room is Frazier’s kitchen, bedroom and another workspace with mixers that he calls “Studio B”; he records there for his project The Alpha Ray. Out the back door is a fencedin parking lot with a small deck, where Frazier joked about wanting to shoot some “Tiny Deck Concerts” for YouTube. From the garage door to the back yard, Frazier has designed the whole space to feel inviting, and envisions plenty of open house events, as well as a film series. He’s now on the advisory boards for the Salvation Army and the Capitol Zoning District Commission. “We have some really cool plans for this block.” The building is also home to another nonprofit entity, founded by Frazier as the Arkansas Music & Arts Foundation (AMAF), a 501(c)(3) organization that describes itself as “an exclusive philanthropic partner of Capitol View Studio, advocating the importance of visual arts, music and filmmaking in Arkansas.”

Capitol View Studio will open its doors to the public for a reception at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 15, and Joshua Asante (Amasa Hines, Velvet Kente) and Ghost Bones will perform at 9:30 p.m. The cover is $10.

ROCK CANDY

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

A&E NEWS BRIGGSVILLE NATIVE JACOB Lofland, who played the young “Neckbone” opposite Matthew McConaughey in Jeff Nichols’ 2012 film “Mud,” stars as the young version of Eli McCullough (played by Pierce Brosnan) in the new AMC series, “The Son.” The season premiere aired April 8 and continues at 8 p.m. Saturdays. THE 59TH ANNUAL Delta Exhibition at the Arkansas Arts Center, to open June 9, will feature 73 works by 57 artists from seven states, the Arts Center announced last week. Of the 57 artists, 42 are from Arkansas. (Others may have Arkansas ties.) This year’s juror, Betsy Bradley, director of the Mississippi Museum of Art, chose significantly more works than last year’s juror, art dealer Elizabeth Garvey, who chose only 52 works by 30 artists. Winners of the show awards, including the $2,500 Grand Award, two $750 Delta Awards and a $250 Contemporaries Delta Award, will be announced at the member preview June 8. Bradley will give a lecture at 6 p.m. that evening. AS PART OF ITS ongoing 25th anniversary celebration and in partnership with the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies, the Oxford American magazine launched a new online weekly series called “The By and By,” featuring works from Tift Merritt, Sandra Gutierrez, Matthew Neill Null, Ronni Lundy and former Arkansas Times entertainment editor Will Stephenson. The series will post installments every Thursday through December at oxfordamerican.org. GRAHAM GORDY, WRITER, and Gary Newton, producer of Mortuus Pater Pictures’ “Antiquities,” will give a talk at the University of Arkansas — Pulaski Technical College’s Center for Humanities and Arts (CHARTS), 3000 W. Scenic Drive, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 18, as part of the college’s Big Rock on the Map series. Admission is free, and Gordy and Newton will discuss the origins of the film, a feature-length adaptation of Daniel Campbell’s short film of the same name. VIDEOGRAPHER, PHOTOGRAPHER, SOCIAL media consultant and former Arkansas Times associate editor Gerard Matthews has expanded his advocacy work with a series called “Protest Songs.” Check out the latest on Vimeo, Cory Branan’s “Another Nightmare in America,” and “We Dare Defend Our Rights” from Lee Bains III (of Lee Bains and the Glory Fires) about Alabama’s anti-immigration House Bill 56 and its aftermath.

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arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY DAVID KOON, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, TYLER NANCE AND STEPHANIE SMITTLE

THURSDAY 4/13

BENEFIT FOR ARKANSAS COALITION TO ABOLISH THE DEATH PENALTY

8:30 p.m. White Water Tavern. $6 suggested donation.

If you read the cover story of last week’s Arkansas Times, you read about the Arkansas Department of Correction’s plans to execute eight men in rapid succession — Bruce Ward, Kenneth Williams, Jack Harold Jones, Jason McGehee, Stacey Johnson, Don Williamson Davis, Marcel Williams and Ledell Lee (McGehee’s execution was stayed by a federal judge after the state Parole Board recommended him for clemency). The executions are slated

to be carried out starting at 7 p.m. April 17, 20, 24 and 27 — before the end of the month when Arkansas’s supply of midazolam, the drug used to sedate condemned inmates before lethal injection, expires. Outcry over the frenzied pace and questionable legality of the execution spree (not to mention the risks involved with using midazolam, a sedative associated with botched executions in other states) has emerged from a number of sources: the Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project; Patrick Crain, a former Varner Unit death row guard; and members of the public, in a March 30 town hall meeting at the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen Law School. One of the organizations

working to “Halt the #8in10” is the Arkansas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a self-described “non-partisan, non-sectarian coalition of religious and civic organizations and concerned citizens.” The benefit show, organized by musician Correne Spero (DOT, Lucky Bitch, Northern State) precedes the ACADP’s Arkansas Rally Against Executions at 1:30 p.m. Friday at the state Capitol, which will be attended by former death row inmate Damien Echols. The keynote speech will come from ACADP Executive Director Furonda Brasfield, who spoke Saturday afternoon on KWCP-LPFM, 98.9, about how the Georgia execution of Troy Davis in 2011 first moved her to volunteer for the

coalition she now spearheads. Spero was moved, she says, by a sense that it’s hypocritical for government to cite the sanctity of life in anti-abortion legislation, but not “when it comes to the incarcerated population convicted by an imperfect and racially biased judicial system, and one in which poor people and the mentally ill often do not have equal access to legal resources.” Amy Garland and Listen Sister, a quartet fronted by Sulac, the artist responsible for Hector Faceplant and The Winston Family Orchestra, will take the stage at some point, and there will be a postcard table for sending your thoughts on #8in10 (or anything else, presumably) to Governor Hutchinson. SS

FRIDAY 4/14

2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT

DAVID MCCLISTER

5-8 p.m. Downtown Little Rock art galleries. Free. SOULSVILLE ‘RUMBLE’: Named after the road that runs through the middle of Memphis, the fiery Stax quintet Southern Avenue plays at Stickyz at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, April 13, $10.

THURSDAY 4/13

SOUTHERN AVENUE

8:30 p.m. Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack. $10.

Who would have guessed, in Stax Records’ heyday, that an up-and-coming Memphis soul band named after the famed road to Soulsville would have been catalyzed by a blues-obsessed guitarist from Israel, and that it would have Melissa Etheridge to thank for landing a Stax record deal? Evidently, that’s the way it went down. Stax exec John Burk was in Memphis to work on Etheridge’s Stax tribute when he heard Southern Avenue in Cooper-Young on St. Patrick’s Day and signed them to make a record for the legendary label. Ori Naftaly moved to the United States from Israel to make music

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

after competing in the International Blues Challenge in 2013 and, after meeting sisters Tikyra and Tierinii Jackson, decided to ditch the solo project he’d been building and cofounded Southern Avenue, whose eponymous debut was released earlier this year. “I feel like being on Stax is a responsibility,” Tierinii stated on the group’s website. “I grew up in Memphis, seeing the name Stax everywhere. It was a constant presence, and now it’s up to us to live up to that.” That’s a lot of pressure for a band made up mostly of Memphis natives, no doubt, but something about Tierinii’s Tina Turner shimmy and the democratic vibe of Southern Avenue’s singalongs says they’re probably good for it. SS

The centennial of World War I provides a theme to exhibitions opening with 2nd Friday Night events. The Historic Arkansas Museum (200 E. Third St.) opens “The Great War: Arkansas in World War I,” artifacts and images of original documents, photographs, posters and maps in its Study Gallery. It also hosts two book signings, by Michael Hibblen for his book “Rock Island Railroad in Arkansas” and by Elizabeth Griffin Hill for her book “Faithful to Our Tasks: Arkansas’s Women and the Great War,” 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Stone’s Throw Brewing will provide the craft suds, Loblolly Creamery will have ice cream samples and Delta Brass Combo will play WWI-era tunes. The Butler Center Galleries (401 President Clinton Ave.) opens “The American Red Cross in Arkansas,” posters, documents and photographs from the past 100 years; in the Underground Gallery is a new exhibition of work by Angela Davis Johnson, “Ritual II.” The Accidentals will provide the music. The Old State House Museum will show “Sergeant York,” the story of the WWI hero from Arkansas whose turkey call saved his soldiers. Also up: UA Little Rock art professors Mia Hall, Joli Livaudais and Carey Roberson will gather at 6:30 p.m. at Arkansas Capital Corp. (200 River Market Ave.) for a panel discussion; the Cox Creative Center down the block (120 River Market) has an exhibition of Little Golden Books, which featured some of the greatest mid-century illustrators; Matt McLeod Fine Art Gallery (108 W. Sixth Street) will be open; and Bella Vita Jewelry (523 S. Louisiana St.) will host an Earring Party ($15). There is trolley service to all the galleries. Not on the trolley route Friday night is Gallery 221, which is showing work by Kasten McClellan Searles. LNP

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 4/13

‘YAKONA’: Austinbased experimental classical ensemble Montopolis accompanies a screening of “Yakona” at the Ozark Foothills Film Fest, April 14-15 and April 21-22 at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville.

FRIDAY 4/14

FRIDAY 4/14-SATURDAY 4/15, FRIDAY 4/21-SATURDAY 4/22

OZARK FOOTHILLS FILM FEST

Various times. University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville. $10-$30.

One of the longest-running film festivals in the state, this year’s festival will no doubt benefit greatly from a $10,000 “Challenge America” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. “Reel Rural: Rural America in Independent

Film” is this year’s theme. The festival will include a series of screenings and panel discussions about the way small towns and rural areas are portrayed in independent film, including Erica Fae’s “To Keep the Light,” Kieran Valla’s “Delinquent” and Cameron Nelson’s “Some Beasts.” Also screened this year will be “Yakona,” a nearly wordless documentary that showcases the beauty of the San Marcos River in cen-

tral Texas. The so-called “hybrid documentary” will be screened with live musical accompaniment from the film score’s composer, Justin Sherburn, and Montopolis, an experimental classical ensemble from Austin. Tickets for that event only are $10 ($8 for students); the full-access “Red Eye” passes range from $20-$30. A full festival lineup can be found at ozarkfoothillsfilmfest. org. DK

FRIDAY 4/14

JUSTIN PETER KINKELSCHUSTER

MATT WHITE

8 p.m. Location disclosed upon ticket purchase. $20.

‘HEADED SOUTH’: Justin Peter KinkelSchuster (Water Liars) performs on the Undertow Music Collective’s Living Room Show series at a location disclosed to patrons upon ticket purchase, 8 p.m. Friday, April 14, $20.

In a review of “Constant Stranger,” the solo debut effort from Water Liars singer and guitarist Justin Peter KinkelSchuster, Paste magazine’s Ben Rosner cites Kinkel-Schuster’s vocals as a drag on the record, “leaning past dreary and into monotonous territory.” Monotony might be in the eye of the beholder, but as someone who feels she’s listened to enough bloodless, overaffected “Americana” voices to know, I completely disagree. The color of Kinkel-Schuster’s tone on “Brake Dust” resembles an understated Roy Orbison or Chris Isaak, and the cited influence of The Everly Brothers’ high lonesome harmonies on “Laid Low” is evident but not deriva-

The UA Little Rock Anderson Institute on Race and Ethnicity releases the results of its survey on racial attitudes in Pulaski County with “Race, Ethnicity and Religion,” a conference in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, 10:30 a.m., free. Michael Burks’ posthumously released record “I’m A Bluesman” gets a listening party at The Big Chill in Hot Springs, 8 p.m., $15. Duo Niyaz blends folk and electronica for the next installment of the Walton Arts Center’s 10x10 Arts Series, 7 p.m., Baum Walker Hall, Fayetteville, $10. Cajun’s Wharf celebrates the opening of its “big deck” overlooking the Arkansas River with a show from Brian Nahlen and Nick Devlin, 5:30 p.m., free, and Mayday by Midnight, 9 p.m., $5. Comedian Tracy Smith lands at the Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $8-$12. Justin Cody Fox gives a performance at Dogtown Sound, 7 p.m. Old State House Museum’s youth education coordinator Daniel Cockrell gives a “Brown Bag Lunch Lecture” on the events that led to the Reconstruction-era Brooks-Baxter War, noon, free.

tive. “Constant Stranger” is a quiet listen with smart, tender lyrics, and anything but Kinkel-Schuster’s tiptoeing timbre would risk steamrolling over passages like this one, from “Whose Will Be Done:” “I used to walk my black dog late at night/Without a moon it felt just like being drawn by an unseen hand into a country ancient and unplanned … I used to walk my brother down to school making like I wasn’t nobody’s fool/But fear and pride are nothing special, friend, and still we’d always end up holding hands.”) For this show, Kinkel-Schuster performs totally acoustic (as in: no sound system), so you can decide about that “monotonous” thing for yourself. As part of Undertow Music Collective’s Living Room Show series, the show’s location remains undisclosed until you purchase a ticket, which can be done at undertowtickets.com. SS

Los Lobos brings its East L.A. blend to Walton Arts Center’s Baum Walker Hall, Fayetteville, 8 p.m., $30-$60. Folk-rockers The Cons of Formant celebrate the release of “Tributaries” with a show at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $10. The Rodney Block Collective celebrates Block’s and South on Main co-owner Amy Kelley Bell’s birthdays with an “80s vs. 90s” show featuring Bijoux and DJ Hy-C, 9 p.m., South on Main, $15. New Orleans jazz-informed quintet Elysian Feel rolls into town for a show at Four Quarter Bar in Argenta, 10 p.m., $7. The Akeem Kemp Band performs at TC’s Midtown Grill in Conway, 9 p.m. The Willy D’s Rock and Roll Traveling Show brings dueling pianos to Oaklawn’s Silks Bar & Grill, 10 p.m., free. Hoodoo Blues Revue plays at Dugan’s Pub, 9 p.m. Darril Edwards plays the happy hour at Cajun’s, 5:30 p.m., free, followed by a show from Woodpeckers, 9 p.m., $5. N.C. downtempo rockers Filth join locals All Is At An End, Levels and A Fate Foretold at Vino’s, 8 p.m. “Rollin N The Rev” at the Rev Room features EDM sets from Big Brown, Sleepy Genius, Mondragon, PineappleBeatz to benefit The Van’s outreach to Arkansas’s homeless community, 9 p.m., $5 with donation of two rolls of toilet tissue, $10 without. The 30th Annual Ozark Mountain UFO Conference kicks off in Eureka Springs’ Inn of the Ozarks Convention Center, 8 a.m. Fri.-Sun., $43-$150. Mayday by Midnight plays the West End Smokehouse, 10 p.m., $7. “Riverdance” turns 20 this year, and a touring production of the Irish dance show lands at Robinson Center, 7:30 p.m. Fri.Sat., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sun., $23-$72.

Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY DAVID KOON, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, TYLER NANCE AND STEPHANIE SMITTLE

SATURDAY 4/15

MAINLAND DIVIDE, IRON TONGUE, SEAHAG 9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

In late May, hundreds of Arkansas metal enthusiasts will descend on a Greenbrier campground to take part in

the sixth iteration of Liverfest, a two-day smorgasbord of heavy riffs and drunken revelry. A sampling of what to expect from Liverfest VI will be on display at the White Water Tavern on Saturday night in the form of a festival fundraiser featuring three local heavyweights.

Doom metal stalwarts Seahag, a consistent presence in Central Arkansas’s metal scene since forming “in a barn in 2005,” will kick things off with their “tuned low, played slow” take on the genre. Following them is Iron Tongue, which boasts a veritable “who’s who” of

Little Rock musicians, with current and former members of bands from RWAKE, Brother Andy and His Big Damn Mouth, Go Fast, Jeff Coleman & the Feeders and more (also, in full disclosure, Stephanie Smittle, Arkansas Times’ arts and entertainment editor). The band crafts

SATURDAY 4/15

CHRIS MILAM

9 P.M. South on Main. $10.

As he states in his press kit, Memphis singer-songwriter Chris Milam had a very bad year leading up to the writing of his new album “Kids These Days.” An engagement was called off, leaving him with only what he could fit in his car, which was then stolen while he was on tour. So, Milam spent a year adrift saving up to record an album, for which he collaborated with producer and keyboardist Toby Vest of High/Low Recording, as well as a team of crack Memphis session players, including cellist Jana Misener and violinist Krista Wroten, both of The Memphis Dawls. “We wanted the record to feel atmospheric, dynamic and unpredictable,” Milam said. All those boxes are checked in the title track, ostensibly a breakup song. “Kids These Days” opens with a meandering guitar line, quickly joined by Milam’s haunting vocal melodies. Misener’s swelling cello teases at the edges, and slow building drums join the chorus before fading away to leave Milam just as they found him: alone again with his guitar. His earlier work led American Songwriter magazine to boldly declare that Milam “invites — and earns” comparisons to Paul Simon. Though the lyricism and vocal timbre that led to those comparisons is still present, the rich orchestration and careful arrangements more closely echo the jangly proto-alternative of “Automatic for the People”-era R.E.M. Milam will bring these songs of heartache and recovery to the South on Main stage Saturday night as he continues to search for the answer to the question he cites as the one that underlies all 12 songs on “Kids These Days”: “What now?” Call 2449660 to reserve a table for the show. TN 26

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

‘IT’S THE PICTURES THAT GOT SMALL’: Gloria Swanson stars in Billy Wilder’s 1950 noir film “Sunset Boulevard,” the next in the Arkansas Times Film Series, 7 p.m., Riverdale 10 Cinema, $8.50.

TUESDAY 4/18

ARKANSAS TIMES FILM SERIES: ‘SUNSET BOULEVARD’

7 p.m. Riverdale 10 Cinema. $8.50.

Bruce Springsteen pulled off quite a sleight-of-hand with “Glory Days,” a tune that runs afoul of its completely danceable tone the more closely you listen to the lyrics. What Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” managed to do in 1950 wasn’t dissimilar. The biting takedown of Hollywood’s narcissism and decay was also — thanks to Franz Waxman’s score, Wilder’s heavy noir lighting and compelling performances from Gloria Swanson and Erich von Stroheim — wildly entertaining. Filmed under the code name “Can of Beans” for fear it’d get the kibosh from Hollywood bigwigs with already-beleaguered

reputations to protect, “Sunset Boulevard” simultaneously garnered vehement praise (Barbara Stanwyck reportedly knelt to kiss the hem of Swanson’s skirt after a private screening) and outrage from industry moguls like Louis B. Mayer, who famously scorned Wilder for the film’s message, saying, “You have disgraced the industry that made and fed you! You should be tarred and feathered and run out of Hollywood!” And there, in the middle of one of the darkest criticisms of Hollywood’s silent film legacy, was one of the era’s big-name directors: a complicit Cecil B. DeMille, playing himself. This screening of “Sunset Boulevard” is the next in the Arkansas Times Film Series, conducted in partnership with Riverdale 10 and with Film Quotes Film. SS

WEDNESDAY 4/19

CIVIL RIGHTS AND THE ARTS IN 2017 AMERICA

7-9 p.m. Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. Free.

Grammy Award-winning jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard and New York Times op-ed columnist Charles M. Blow will discuss the state of the arts, the Black Lives Matter movement and the arts as a means to bring people together in this event, sponsored by the Clinton

IN BRIEF

SATURDAY 4/15

QC:

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Sparrowes or a more stoned Explosions in the Sky. Between the swells and stops, the band’s wall of sound is periodically pierced by the post-hardcore caterwauling of vocalist Rick Holthoff. Ear plugs come highly recommended, as this one promises to stay far, far above the recommended 85 decibels. TN

Publication: Arkansas Times

a dark and decidedly Southern style of heavy blues rock, taking cues from the likes of Blue Cheer and Deep Purple. The heavy (noticing a trend here?) rock of Mainland Divide closes out the evening. “Province of the Mind,” its latest release, features dreamy ambient soundscapes that evoke comparisons to instrumental icons like Pelican, Red

It’s Arkansas Derby Day at OakPRINT lawn in Hot Springs and the infield will be open, featuring exhibits from the Mid-America Science Museum, a beer garden, inflatables, a petting zoo and live music, 12:30 p.m. Neo-soul quartet Off the Cuff performs at 109 & Co., 9:30 p.m., free. Mountain Sprout jams at King’s Live Music in Conway with an opening set from Alex Summerlin, 8:30 p.m., $5. The House of Art hosts a Poetry Gala at its headquarters in Argenta, 108 E. 4th St., 6 p.m., $20. Candy Soul, Tonya Dyson, Tim Anthony and Twin Spirit join the Afrodesia House Band for “Goddess Fire: Yin and Yang Sessions,” part of The Sofa Series concerts, 8 p.m., Touch of Quality Event Center, 1715 S. Scott St., $15-$20. KUAR-FM 89.1 news director Michael Hibblen signs copies of his new book, “The Rock Island Railroad” at Wordsworth Books & Co., 1 p.m. Arkansas’s boxing, kickboxing and MMA stars face off for “360 Fight Club: KTFO Edition” at the Clear Channel Metroplex, 7 p.m., $10-$125. Texas “red dirt” country singer Stoney LaRue returns to the Rev Room, 9 p.m., $15-$20. Liberty Bridge returns to Hibernia Irish Tavern, 8 p.m. The Big Dam Horns descend on Stickyz, 9 p.m., $7. Richie Johnson performs at Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m., free, and later, Trey and the Droppers take the stage, 9 p.m., $5. Doug Dicharry, Youth Pastor and The Toos share an eclectic bill at Smoke & Barrel Tavern in Fayetteville, 10 p.m.

MONDAY 4/17 Jason Eady was born in Mississippi, but his music has found a place in the Texas country tradition, and he honky-tonks at the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m., $10. Comedian Ronel Williams hosts Comedy Night at Cajun’s Wharf, 7 p.m., free.

TUESDAY 4/18

‘FIRE SHUT UP IN MY BONES’: New York Times op-ed columnist Charles Blow and jazz trumpeter Terence Blanchard (above) collaborate for a discussion titled “Civil Rights and the Arts in 2017 America” at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, free admission.

School of Public Service, the Oxford American and the University of Central Arkansas. New Orleans native Blanchard has composed more than 50 soundtracks, including “Champion: An Opera in Jazz,” one of five finalists for the International Opera Award in 2014; his latest album is “Breath-

less.” Blanchard is now writing a jazz opera based on Blow’s book “Fire Shut Up in My Bones,” a memoir about the columnist and artist’s life that a New York Times reviewer called “delicately wrought and arresting in its language.” Blow will sign books after the event. LNP

The Ron Robinson Theater hosts screenings of “Hotel Rwanda,” 6 p.m. Tue.-Wed., $5. The Russian National Ballet Theatre returns to University of Central Arkansas’s Reynolds Auditorium in Conway for a performance of “Sleeping Beauty,” 7:30 p.m., $30-$40.

WEDNESDAY 4/19 ASO concertmaster Kiril Laskarov gives a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 7:30 p.m., free. Flautist, saxophonist and vocalist Tonya Leeks and her jazz-R&B ensemble perform for Jazz in the Park, 6 p.m., Riverfront Park History Pavilion, free. Adam Faucett is guitarist Judson Spillyard’s next selection for the April “Sessions” shows Spillyards is curating at South on Main, 8 p.m., $10. The UA Little Rock Trojans baseball team takes on the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at Gary Hogan Field, 6 p.m.

North Little Rock 501-945-8010 Russellville 479-890-2550 Little Rock 501-455-8500 Conway 501-329-5010

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arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

ALSO IN THE ARTS

THEATER

David will be signing books after his performance. Buy them at Wordsworth Books & Company or at the table in the Robinson Performance Hall lobby. Robinson Performance Hall

April 21st • 8PM

501.244.8800 Ticketmaster.com

APRIL 21 IN THE

5-8PM THE THIRD FRIDAY EACH MONTH

ARGENTA DISTRICT

ARGENTA ARTWALK PRESENTED BY

Rated Four Stars By Arkansas Democrat Gazette And The Arkansas Times! KATV “Rated #1 Steakhouse In Arkansas”

SPONSORED BY 2 Riverfront Place North Little Rock • 501.375.7825

Thank you! 28

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

2 Riverfront Place North Little Rock 501.374.8081 • Benihana.com

“During Wind and Rain: A Delta Family Album, 1895-1900.” With an original score by Michael Rice and librettist Margaret Bolsterli, based on Thomas Hardy’s poem of the same name. 7 p.m. Wed.-Thu., 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. Arkansas Community Theater, 405 Main St., NLR. $13-$30. 501353-1443. “Bad Seed.” The Weekend Theater’s production of Maxwell Anderson and William March’s thriller. 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2:30 p.m. Sun. $12-$16. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761. “Rough Night at the Remo Room.” The Main Thing’s two-act musical comedy. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., through June 17. $24. The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse. 301 Main St., NLR. 501-372-0210. “Jar the Floor.” Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s production of Cheryl West’s drama. 7 p.m. Thu. and Sun., 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. 601 Main St. 501-378-0405. $30-$65. “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.” Murry’s Dinner Playhouse presents the Lieber and Stoller tribute. 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 April 29. $15-$37. 6323 Colonel Glenn Rd. 501-562-3131. “Intimate Apparel.” TheatreSquared’s production of Lynn Nottage’s drama. 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. $15-$45. 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. 479-443-5600. Theatre2.org. “The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.” A touring production of Simon Stephens’ Tony Awardwinning play-within-a-play. 7 p.m. Tue.-Thu., 11 a.m. Thu., 8 p.m. Fri.Sat., 2 p.m. Sat.-Sun. through April 23. Walton Arts Center’s Baum Walker Hall, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville. $35-$65. 479-443-5600.

FINE ART, HISTORY EXHIBITS MAJOR VENUES ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Drawing on History: National Drawing Invitational Retrospective,” works from the permanent collection, through Sept. 24; “Ansel Adams: Early Works”; “Herman Maril: The Strong Forms of Our Experience” and “Seeing the Essence: William E. Davis,” photographs, all through April 16. 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 AND SCIENCE CENTER FOR SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, 701 S. Main St., Pine Bluff: “Resilience,” printmaking by Emma Amos, Vivian Browne, Camille Billops, Margaret Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Barbara Jones-Hogu, Samella Lewis, and Rosalind Jeffries, through July 8; “Bayou Bartholomew: In Focus,” juried photography exhibition, through April 22; “Dinosaurs: Fossils Exposed,” through April 22. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 1-4 p.m. Sat. 870-5363375. ARTS CENTER OF THE OZARKS, 214 Main St., Springdale: “Senior High

Art Competition,” work by students in four counties, through April 14. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 479-751-5441. BUTLER CENTER GALLERIES, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “The American Red Cross in Arkansas,” artifacts covering 100 years, April 14-July 1; “Angela Davis Johnson: Ritual II,” paintings, through April 29; “Bruce Jackson: Cummins Prison Farm,” photographs, West Gallery, through May 27, “The American Dream Deferred: Japanese American Incarceration in W WII Arkansas,” objects from the internment camps, Concordia Gallery, through June 24. Open 5-9 p.m. April 14, 2nd Friday Art Night, with music by The Accidentals. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790. 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: 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. CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way, Bentonville: “Border Cantos: Sight and Sound Explorations from the Mexican-American Border,” collaboration between photographer Richard Misrach and Mexican American sculptor and composer Guillermo Galindo, through April 24; “Roy Lichtenstein in Focus,” five large works, through July; 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.: “Reflections: Images and Objects from African American Women, 1891-1987,” through April; “What’s Inside: A Century of Women and Handbags,” permanent exhibit. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sun. $10, $8 for students, seniors and military. 916-9022. FORT SMITH REGIONAL ART MUSEUM, 1601 Rogers Ave.: “Heartbreak in Peanuts,” digital photographs of Peanuts comic strips, through April 16. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 479-784-2787. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. 3rd St.: “The Great War: Arkansas in World War I,” study gallery, booksignings by Michael Hibblin and Elizabeth Griffin Hill, music by the Delta Brass Combo and craft beer by Stone’s Throw Brewing, 5-8 p.m. April 14, 2nd Friday Art Night; “Paintings by Glenda McCune,” through May 7; “Modern Mythology: Luke Amran Knox and Grace Mikell Ramsey,” mixed media sculpture and paintings, through May 7; “All of Arkansas: Arkansas Made, County by County”; “A Diamond in the Rough: 75 Years of Historic Arkansas Museum.” Ticketed tours of renovated and replicated 19th century structures from original city, guided Monday and Tuesday

APRIL 26 THE THEATER AT THE VERIZON ARENA VERIZON ARENA BOX OFFICE • TICKETMASTER.COM • 800-745-300

BANDBOSTON.COM

19th Annual

WINE&FOOD ‘SWEET VIRGINIA’: Ira Korman’s drawing is part of the Arkansas Arts Center’s National Drawing Invitational retrospective exhibition that opened April 11.

Feastival

Friday, April 21 • 6:30 – 9pm FEED YOUR SOUL with stimulating libations and artful edibles created by central Arkansas’ finest chefs and restaurants at Wildwood Park’s 19th Annual Wine & Food Festival. This event supports The Park’s gardens, Art in the Park exhibitions, Wildwood Academy of Music & the Arts (WAMA) and Cabe Festival Theatre performances. Support the arts, and let us feed YOUR soul at Wildwood Park for the Arts.

For tickets visit wildwoodpark.org or call 501.821.7275

Bistro in Bryant Blue Cake Company Bonefish Grill Boulevard Bread Co. Bravo! Cucina Italiana Chenal Country Club Cocoa Belle Chocolates Diamond Bear Brewery Lulu’s Latin Rotisserie and Grill Nothing Bundt Cakes SŌ Restaurant and Bar Taziki’s Mediterranean Café Trio’s Restaurant Live Entertainment by Dizzy 7 Arkansas Circus Arts

2 0 919 D E N N Y R O A D

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L I T T L E R O C K 72 2 2 3 arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

AETN

MOVIE REVIEW

WEST NINTH STREET’S HEYDAY: Vocalist Bijoux (Big Piph & Tomorrow Maybe, The Rodney Block Collective) and other actors recreated scenes depicting the vibrancy of historic West Ninth Street for AETN’s “Dream Land” documentary.

High-water mark AETN’s ‘Dream Land’ doc is a celebration and a lament. BY GUY LANCASTER

t can be hard to talk about race in this country without committing the fallacy of assumptive progress. That is, we tend to view our present against a past that includes such horrors as slavery, Jim Crow and lynching, and thus assume vast improvements over the space of historical time. No matter the issues that remain (and there are plenty), the moral arc of the universe, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, may seem to bend toward justice. 30

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

However, looking a little more closely reveals that this ostensible path upward and onward is the average of both setbacks and victories. If you could live another life earlier along that timeline, you might well see your days on this earth, in the words of Hunter S. Thompson, as “the highwater mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” The new AETN documentary “Dream Land: Little Rock’s West 9th

a black fraternal organization whose Street” is a searing portrait of where that wave finally broke and rolled influence was international. At the back here in Little Rock — namely, other end, Taborian Hall, now the last the once-thriving black business remaining building from the original district along West Ninth. The story Ninth Street “line,” whose third-floor begins with the Civil War, when forDreamland ballroom attracted such mer slaves find safety in what was well-known acts as Duke Ellington, then the edge of Little Rock. From Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Reconstruction onward, Ninth Street The filmmakers capture the life became the heart of black life in the of the community through the use of 3.5” x 2.5” | Maximum Font Size: 30 pt city — and a well-known scene in the photographs, interviews with such country at large. At one end, there well-known scholars as Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch of Arkansas State Uniarose the Mosaic Templars of America,

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versity and Dr. John Graves of Henderson State University and stories told by former patrons and residents of the area, one who even gives a walking tour of the clubs that no longer exist. There is a palpable pride in what the African-American community of Little Rock once had, and sadness mixed with anger at the forces that worked slowly and deliberately to destroy it all. What happened here is part of a long American tradition of removing successful black communities. In the 1850s, New York City appropriated the Seneca Village neighborhood â&#x20AC;&#x201D; most of whose residents (two-thirds of them African American) owned the land on which they lived â&#x20AC;&#x201D; to manufacture Central Park. In 1921, white mobs attacked the people and businesses in the Greenwood community of Tulsa, even reportedly dropping bombs from a plane. The forces that destroyed Little Rockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s own answer to Harlem may not appear as violent, but they were similarly thorough and deliberate. Urban renewal programs carried out the destruction of â&#x20AC;&#x153;decrepitâ&#x20AC;? buildings, such as those along Ninth Street, and concentrated African Americans away from the city center in places like Granite Mountain. The construction of Interstate 630 during the 1970s and 1980s cut right along West Ninth, erecting a barrier between what remained and other black institutions, like Philander Smith College. And here we see one story of progress destroying another groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s memories of real progress, of real community â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the high-water mark before the bulldozers came. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dream Landâ&#x20AC;? both celebrates what was (especially through some beautiful reenactments of Dreamland ballroom nightlife) and laments its passing. This is not just a Little Rock story â&#x20AC;&#x201D; this is an American story, and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s being told again and again in this cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rush toward greater school segregation, combined with an elite craving for more and wider freeways. That better life is not just a dream â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it actually happened, once upon a time, and the waking remnants of that dream are still visible in the cracked sidewalks and empty lots along West Ninth Street. M

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Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’

BY THE TIME YOU read this, you may already have eaten at Katmandu Momo in the River Market’s Ottenheimer Hall. Nepal native Saroja Shrestha and husband Kyler Nordeck, who dish up Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese and Himalayan cuisine from their food truck, have completed the licensing red tape and planned to open Wednesday in the northeast corner of the hall. Katmandu Momo’s River Market menu will expand a bit on that of the food truck (which will keep operating) and will be open Monday through Saturday. OWNER TOMAS BOHM says give District Fare another couple of weeks before it opens. The deli had a small open house during the April 6 Hillcrest Shop ’n’ Sip, where folks could try samples of bresaola (a dried and salted beef). Bohm, who also operates The Pantry and The Pantry Crest, will offer up deli cheeses, house-cured meats, sandwiches, beer and wine at District Fare, which will echo some of the local meat philosophy of Hillcrest Artisan Meats, the former occupant of the little storefront at 2807 Kavanaugh Blvd. IRA MITTLEMAN SAYS give Ira’s in the Rose Building, 307 Main St., a couple of months. Building and electrical permits have been pulled, menus have been submitted to the Department of Health, and construction should begin this week in the historic building. JOSH ALLEY AND his father, Jim Alley, took over operations at Guillermo’s Coffee House at 10700 N. Rodney Parham Road on April 1. Josh Alley said they are “looking to keep the good coffeehouse environment with really good beans” and a friendly atmosphere. Alley said Guillermo’s has one of the biggest selections of coffee beans in town; he and his father are expanding the tea selections and tea ware. They have added pastries to the menu and expect to add other breakfast and lunch offerings. They’ve also tacked on an hour every day; the cafe is now open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. FOR THE NEXT three Thursdays in April, you can help the Humane Society of Pulaski County by chowing down at Diamond Bear Brewery, which is providing a portion of the sales of its H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Everywhere) Plate Special to the animal rescue agency. The H.O.P.E. plates support different nonprofits each month. On April 29, Diamond Bear and the Humane Society will host Brews and Barks, where you can taste craft beers with Fido at your side and hear live music, too. The event is 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Diamond Bear, 600 N. Broadway in North Little Rock. Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door. The HEART mobile adoption unit will be there, so after you’ve had a few, you may decide to add another dog to the family. 32

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

HOW OCEANS ROLLS: A little too much batter on the Firecracker, but the Red Dragon was just right.

From crest to trough An up-and-down experience at Oceans at Arthur’s.

e’ve never eaten at Arthur’s Steakhouse. Not that we’re opposed to it, we’ve just never made the plans. But we can see it in our mind: white tablecloths, low light, thin-rimmed wine glasses, dapper staff, sophisticated cocktails and outstanding food. We made some of the same assumptions about the cuisine and atmosphere of Arthur’s sister seafood establishment, Oceans at Arthur’s. That was perhaps unfair and certainly unfortunate. Though we had a good dish or two, they won’t be what we remember. When you walk into Oceans at

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Arthur’s you’re greeted by a huge Arkansas Razorbacks logo over the sushi bar that says “Woo Pig Soo-shi!” It’s bustling, tables are packed into the space, big-screen televisions dot the walls and hang above the bar, and the smell of fried fish lingers. We’d rank the atmosphere a notch above Red Lobster. If you’re hungry and looking for something on the pub-grubby side of things, start with the fried cheese sticks ($11). They were about the size of a stick of butter, rolled in a heavy layer of panko break crumbs and deepfried. They were hot, too. You can see the pepper flakes in the batter. We like

things spicy, but those with more sensitive palates might find them a little too hot. They were super-oozy, the cheese was good, the bread crumb batter added a great crunch. It was everything you want in a big ol’ cheese stick. Instead of rushing into dinner, we thought we’d have another appetizer. The Chargrilled NOLA Oysters were an insult to commerce at $16. We’ve been fortunate enough to have chargrilled oysters at a couple of places in the Big Easy, including Royal House and Acme Oyster Co. Typically, they come big, plump and juicy, swimming in hot, melted butter, dusted lightly with bread crumbs, and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. With a decent oyster and some heat, they’re very difficult to screw up. Or so we thought. These abominations came hidden in a literal slab of melted Parmesan cheese, and we think that might have been about it, though it was difficult to determine. Once excavated, the oysters were so burned they stuck to the shells. Scraping them out created a shredded consistency that

BELLY UP

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SUPER OOZY: The cheese sticks, deep fried and spicy.

was extremely unappetizing. They also gave off quite a funky odor, a pungent fog of overdone oyster slathered in cheap cheese. Our waitress picked up on what was happening and took the plate away. To Oceans’ credit, a manager swiftly apologized and offered to send out another. We politely passed. We had better luck with the sushi,

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opting for one traditional roll and one “lightly fried.” The Red Dragon ($14) included blue crab, shrimp and cucumber, with thinly sliced tuna and avocado on top, drizzled with a

sweet and spicy sauce. The rice was nice and sticky, the fish was fresh and the presentation was beautiful. This roll is light, clean, delicate and satisfying. It was easy to eat and tasted

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wonderful with a bit of soy, wasabi and ginger. When we think of a roll that is “lightly fried,” we think of a thin tempura batter or perhaps a dusting of panko crumbs and a quick roll in shallow, hot oil. The Firecracker roll ($19) was battered in a very heavy panko crumb mix — much like the cheese sticks — and apparently deep-fried. The roll housed tempura shrimp, spicy crab and cream cheese. It was topped with spicy crab and blue crab and a mixture of three sauces. It was good, but the batter was a bit too heavy for our taste and left us feeling a bit weighed down. Oceans gave us a very up-anddown experience. The cheese sticks were very good. The oysters were very bad. The sushi was made with fresh seafood that tasted incredible. The “lightly fried” roll was too fried. Will we go back? Maybe one day. At the end of dinner, we were pondering dessert when a table halfway across the room received their sentence of oysters. The smell sent us out to our car. arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

ALSO IN THE ARTS, CONT.

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ARKANSAS TIMES

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. MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 9th and Broadway: “Civil Rights and the Arts in 2017 America: A Conversation with Terence Blanchard and Charles Blow,” 7-9 p.m. April 19; permanent exhibits on African-American entrepreneurship in Arkansas. 9 a.m.5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 683-3593.

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

ARKANSAS TIMES

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Transforming Life Academy will hold a public hearing on its intended application to start an open enrollment public charter school to commence the 2018 academic year in the South End Community of Little Rock. All interested parties are encouraged to attend on April 24, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. at The Willie Hinton Center, 3805 W. 12th Street, Little Rock, Arkansas Neighborhood Programs facility does not constitute endorsement of the beliefs, viewpoints, policies or affiliations of the user by the Administration staff.

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MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: “Magnificent Me,” exhibit on the human body, through April 23. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 ages 13 and older, $8 ages 1-12, free to members and children under 1. 396-7050. OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham St.: 2nd Friday Art Night film showing “Sergeant York,” 5-9 p.m. April 14; “Cabinet of Curiosi-

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ALSO IN THE ARTS, CONT.

ties: 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. SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. 5th St., El Dorado: “Inside and Out,” watercolors and oils by Sandy Bennett, through April 27. 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: “Student Competitive,” Zina Al-Shukri juror, through April 30, Gallery I, Fine Arts Building; “Binding Communities: Cuba’s Ediciones Vigia and the Art of the Book and Entrepreneurism,” 71 artists books created by the Cuban publishing house, through April 19, with a scholar-led tour 5 p.m. April 12; closing reception with filmmaker Dr. Juanamaria Cordones Cook 4:30 p.m. April 14; and other events, Ottenheimer Library, email esfinzer@ualr.edu for workshop information. 569-8977. UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS, Conway: “Senior BA/BFA Exhibition,” through April 27. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Wed. and Fri., 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thu. 450-5793. WALTON ARTS CENTER, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville: “The Fabric of Nature,” mixed media by Andrea Packard, through April 24, Joy Pratt Markham Gallery. Noon-2 p.m. daily, one hour before performances in the Arts Center. 479-443-5600. RETAIL GALLERIES, OTHER EXHIBIT SPACES ARGENTA GALLERY, 413 N. Main St. “Dancers,” paintings by John Gaudin, portion of proceeds from sales goes to Christen Pitts dance program at North Little Rock High School, Argenta ArtWalk. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Fri., 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 258-8991. ARKANSAS CAPITAL CORP., 200 River Market Ave., Suite 400: “Together,” a panel discussion by UA Little Rock art professors Mia Hall, Joli Livaudais and Carey Roberson, 6:30 p.m. April 14, 2nd Friday Art Night. 374-9247. ARTISTS WORKSHOP GALLERY, 610 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Sheliah Halderman, landscapes and florals; Amaryllis J. Ball, expressionist paintings. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat., noon6 p.m. Sun. 623-6401. BOSWELL-MOUROT, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Works by Delita Martin, Elizabeth Weber, Anais Dasse, Kyle Boswell, Jeff Horton, Dennis McCann and Keith Runkle. 664-0030.

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8205 Cantrell Road: “The Making of an Artist: Creative Inspirations,” an exhibition of paintings by Jeffery Nodelman. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 224-1335. CHROMA GALLERY, 5707 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by Robert Reep and other Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 664-0880. COX CREATIVE CENTER, 120 River Market Ave.: “Little Golden Books,” from the collection of Jon Hughes, open 5-8 p.m. April 14, 2nd Friday Art Night. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 9183093. DRAWL GALLERY, 5208 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Work by regional and Arkansas artists. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 240-7446. FAYETTEVILLE UNDERGROUND, 101 W. Mountain St., Suite 222: “A Murder of Crows: The End Hate Collection,” installation by V.L. Cox, show through April. 10 a.m.-3 p.m., 5-8 p.m. Thu.Sat. 479-871-2772. GALLERY 221, 2nd and Center Sts.: “Sleep Studies,” mixed media paintings by Kasten McClellan Searles, through April, reception 5-8 p.m. April 14; work by William McNamara, Tyler Arnold, Amy Edgington, EMILE, Kimberly Kwee, Greg Lahti, Sean LeCrone, Mary Ann Stafford, Cedric Watson, C.B. Williams, Gino Hollander, Siri Hollander and jewelry by Rae Ann Bayless. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801-0211. GALLERY 360, 900 S. Rodney Parham Road: Third annual “IceBox,” work by Layet Johnson, Gillian Stewart, Stacy Williams, Matthew Castellano, Sulac, Woozle, Emily Parker, Tea Jackson, Ike Plumlee and Emily Clair Brown. GALLERY CENTRAL, 800 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Thoroughbred paintings by Bob Snider and Trey McCarley. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 318-4278. JUSTUS FINE ART GALLERY, 827 A Central Ave., Hot Springs: “Brotherhood,” paintings by Jason Sacran and John P. Lasater, reception 4-6 p.m. April 28, show through April. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 321-2335. L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “Spring Flowers,” paintings by Louis Beck, through April, giclee giveaway 7 p.m. April 20. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 660-4006. LAMAN LIBRARY, 2801 Orange St., NLR: 2017 “Small Works on Paper,” through April 28. 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Mon.Thu., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 225-6257. LAMAN LIBRARY ARGENTA BRANCH, 420 Main St., NLR: “Delta in Blue,” photographs by Beverly Buys, through April 13. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat. 687-1061. LEGACY FINE ART, 804 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Blown glass chandeliers by Ed Pennington, paintings by Carole Katchen. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri. 762-0840. LOCAL COLOUR GALLERY, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Artists collective. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422. M2 GALLERY, Pleasant Ridge Shopping Center, 11525 Cantrell Road:

“M2-X,” 10-year anniversary exhibit of works by gallery artists Jason Twiggy Lott, Neal Harrington, Steve Adair, Robin Tucker, Catherine Nugent, Lisa Krannichfeld, Ike Garlington, Matt Coburn, Cathy Burns, V.L. Cox and others. 944-7155. MATTHEWS FINE ART GALLERY, 909 North St.: Paintings by Pat and Tracee Matthews, glass by James Hayes, jewelry by Christie Young, knives by Tom Gwenn, kinetic sculpture by Mark White. Noon-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 831-6200. MATT McLEOD FINE ART, 108 W. 6th St.: Paintings by Angela Davis Johnson, sculpture by Bryan Massey Jr., photographs by John David Pittman, multimedia work by David Clemons, open 5-8 p.m. April 14, 2nd Friday Art Night. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 725-8508. MUGS CAFE, 515 Main St., NLR: “Outside the Lines,” graphic work by Nikki Dawes, Kirk Montgomerym, Dusty Higgins and Ron Wolfe, through May. 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 379-9101. OTHER MUSEUMS JACKSONVILLE MUSEUM OF MILITARY HISTORY, 100 Veterans Circle, Jacksonville: Exhibits on D-Day; F-105, Vietnam era plane (“The Thud”); the Civil War Battle of Reed’s Bridge, Arkansas Ordnance Plant (AOP) and other military history. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $3 adults; $2 seniors, military; $1 students. 501241-1943. MUSEUM OF AUTOMOBILES, Petit Jean Mountain: Permanent exhibition of more than 50 cars from 1904-1967 depicting the evolution of the automobile. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 7 days. 501727-5427. MUSEUM OF NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY, 202 SW O St., Bentonville: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 479-273-2456. PLANTATION AGRICULTURE MUSEUM, Scott, U.S. Hwy. 165 and state Hwy. 161: Permanent exhibits on historic agriculture. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $4 adults, $3 children. 961-1409. POTTS INN, 25 E. Ash St., Pottsville: Preserved 1850s stagecoach station on the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, with period furnishings, log structures, hat museum, doll museum, doctor’s office, antique farm equipment. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Sat. $5 adults, $2 students, 5 and under free. 479-968-9369. ROGERS HISTORICAL MUSEUM, 322 S. 2nd St.: “On Fields Far Away: Our Community During the Great War,” through Sept. 23. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 479-621-1154. SCOTT PLANTATION SETTLEMENT, Scott: 1840s log cabin, one-room school house, tenant houses, smokehouse and artifacts on plantation life. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 351-0300. www.scottconnections.org.

PRESENTS

FRESH NEW WORKS FOR THE SPRING SEASON

APRIL 21-23, 2017

AT THE ARKANSAS REPERTORY THEATRE

MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS: BALLETARKANSAS.ORG 501.378.0405 THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS Arkansas Arts Council · Arkansas Democrat Gazette · City of Little Rock · Footlights Dance Store · Little Rock Athletic Club · Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau · Parker Audi · Pollution Management, Inc.

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Konarak Reddy Thursday April 20 7:30 p.m. The Joint

A legendary guitarist from India who integrates Hindustani and Carnatic 301 Main Street styles of improvisation into North Little Rock his finger-style guitar technique…truly world music. Tickets $25 Available at the door or online at www.argentaartsacousticmusic.com or www.centralarkansastickets.com

arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

MAY

VIP Reserve Room event

Grand Tasting

for the Little Rock Zoo

Silver Anniversary Celebration Come join us in celebrating 25 years of successfully producing quality, thought-provoking, community theater in Central Arkansas!

Saturday, April 29 • 6:00 p.m. $40 per person. Dreamland Ballroom 800 W 9th St Little Rock, AR

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UPCOMING EVENTS ON CentralArkansasTickets.com

University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville

APR

16th Annual Ozark Foothills FilmFest The Joint

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Argenta Arts Acoustic Music Series presents Konarak Reddy

@ the Corner

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WE ARE TURNING 2! And it’s anything but terrible.

Arkansas Times Bus Trips

Arkansas Times Blues Bus to the Clarksdale, MS Juke Joint Festival

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22 APR

Four Quarter Bar

The Supersuckers UA - Pulaski Tech’s Center for Humanities and Arts

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Delbert McClinton Live at The Center for Humanities and Arts Go to CentralArkansasTickets.com to purchase these tickets - and more!

LOCAL TICKETS, One Place

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

From your goin’ out friends at

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS ANNOUNCEMENT

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

OVERVIEW The State of Arkansas, Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Intergovernmental Services (DFA/IGS) is pleased to announce the availability of grant funds from the Family Violence Prevention Services Act (FVPSA).

Applicants are encouraged to read this entire Application Packet thoroughly before preparing and submitting an application. The Request for Proposals (RFP) is open to all applicants meeting eligibility requirements

Applicants are encouraged to read this entire Application Packet thoroughly before preparing and submitting an application. The Request for Proposals is open to all applicants meeting eligibility requirements (see Eligibility section).

Applications will be submitted via DFAIGS’ new grants management system, called IGS Connect. All submitted applications must be complete and include all required information and documentation. Applications received with missing information may not be reviewed. Applications are due at 11:59 p.m. on May 15, 2017.

Applications will be submitted via DFAIGS’ new grant management system, called IGS Connect. All submitted applications must be complete and include all required information and documentation. Applications received with missing information may not be reviewed. Applications are due at 11:59 p.m. on May 15, 2017. AWARD PERIOD Awards will be made for a twelve (12) month period from October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018. Awards will be eligible for a one-year continuation dependent upon available funds and the previous year’s performance. APPLICATION DEADLINE Applications must be received via IGS Connect by 11:59 p.m., May 15, 2017.

AWARD PERIOD Awards will be made for a twelve (12) month period of October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018. Awards will be eligible for a one (1) year continuation dependent upon the availability of funds and the previous year’s performance. APPLICATION DEADLINE Applications must be submitted by 11:59p.m., May 15, 2017. Applicants can access IGS Connect at https://igsconnect.arkansas.gov. An agency may only submit one application per proposed project. The application is subject to public review by State Executive Order 12372; therefore, applicants must complete SF-424 and submit it with the application. Please direct all inquiries concerning this RFP to: IGS.Contact@dfa.arkansas.gov. All questions will be answered within 24 hours and posted to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document weekly. The FAQ document can be found at this link: http://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/intergovernmentalServices/grants/ pages/rfp.aspx

Applicants can access IGS Connect at https://igsconnect.arkansas.gov. An agency may only submit one application per proposed project. The application is subject to public review by State Executive Order 12372; therefore, applicants must complete SF-424 and submit it with the application. Please direct all inquiries concerning this Request For Proposal to Email: IGS.Contact@dfa.arkansas.gov. All questions will be answered within 24 hours and posted to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document weekly. The FAQ document can be found at this link: http://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/offices/ intergovernmentalServices/grants/ Pages/rfp.aspx

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ARKANSAS TIMES

ARKANSAS TIMES explore MARKETPLACE

LOCAL

PANAMERICAN CONSULTING, INC.

Follow @MovingtoMac on Twitter and Like Moving to Mac Facebook for news and deals.

Call Cindy Greene Satisfaction Always Guaranteed

MOVING TO MAC

www.movingtomac.com

cindy@movingtomac.com • 501-681-5855

MATH TEACHER (Sherwood, AR) Teach Math at secondary sch. Bachelors in Math, Math Edu. or Engineer.+1 yr exp as Math tchr at mid or high sch. Mail res.: Lisa Academy, 21 Corporate Hill Dr. Little Rock, AR 72205, Attn: HR, Refer to Ad#OS

ARKANSAS TIMES

LOCAL

TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

Interpretation and Written Translations (Spanish – Portuguese - French) Latino Cultural and Linguistic Training

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS ANNOUNCEMENT OVERVIEW The State of Arkansas, Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Intergovernmental Services (DFA-IGS) is pleased to announce the availability of grant funds from the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) program. Applicants are encouraged to read this entire Application Packet thoroughly before preparing and submitting an application. The Request for Proposals is open to all entities meeting eligibility requirements (see Eligibility section). Applications will be submitted via DFA-IGS’ new grant management system, called IGS Connect. All submitted applications must be complete and include all of the required information and documentation. Applications received with missing information may not be reviewed. Applications are due at 11:59 p.m. on May 15, 2017.

AWARD PERIOD Awards will be made for a twelve (12) month period from October 1, 2017, through September 30, 2018. Awards will be eligible for a one (1) year continuation that is dependent upon available funds and the previous year’s performance. APPLICATION DEADLINE Applications must be received via IGS Connect by 11:59 p.m., May 15, 2017. Applicants can access IGS Connect at https://igsconnect.arkansas.gov. An agency may only submit one application per proposed project. The application is subject to public review by State Executive Order 12372; therefore, applicants must complete SF-424 and submit it with the application. Please direct all inquiries concerning this Request For Proposals to: IGS.Contact@ dfa.arkansas.gov. All questions will be answered within 24 hours and posted to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document weekly. The FAQ document can be found at this link: http://www. dfa.arkansas.gov/offices/intergovernmentalServices/grants/Pages/rfp.aspx

MICHEL LEIDERMANN, President (Minority Business - AR State Vendor) mleidermann@gmail.com • Mobile: (501) 993-3572

PASTURED OLD BREED PORK Our hogs are a cross between Large Black and Berkshire, old 19th century breeds. They are raised on our pasture and forage in the forest that adjoins our fields. They are never confined like industrial hogs. We do not use any kind of routine antibiotics. Our hogs live ARKANSAS GRASS were FED LAMB like they meant to. PRICE LIST FRESH RAW HAM $7 lb.

PORK LOIN $8 lb

HAM BREAKFAST STEAKS $7 lb

BREAKFAST SAUSAGE $9 lb

We offer first quality one-year-old lamb raised on our farm in North Pulaski County. Our meat is free of steroids or any other chemicals. The only time we use antibiotics is if the animal has been injured which is extremely rare. All meat is USDA inspected.

PORK BRATWURST $10 One pound package

You can pick up your meat at our farm off Hwy 107 in North Pulaski County (about 25 miles north of downtown Little Rock) or we can meet you in downtown Little Rock weekdays. All meat is aged and then frozen.

PORK STEAKS $10 lb PRICE LIST: RIB ROAST TESTICLES contains about eight ribs (lamb chops) $17 lb.

$10 lb

WHOLE LEG OF LAMBPORK BUTTS TANNED SHEEPSKINS, $10 lb SHOULDER (about 4 to 5 lbs) $12 lb.

(bone in, cook this slow, like a pot roast. Meat falls off the bone). $11 lb.

HEARTS, LIVERS, KIDNEYS, $5 lb

$100-$150

(Our sheepskins are tanned in a Quaker Town, Pa. tannery that has specialized in sheepskins for generations.)

PORK TENDERLOIN BONELESS LOIN $12 lb TENDERLOIN $8 lb

$20 lb

LAMB BRATWURST LINK SAUSAGE

(one-lb package) $10 lb

NECKBONES

(for stew or soup) $5 lb

SPARE RIBS $9 lb BABYBACK RIBS $12 lb

India Blue F a r m

12407 Davis Ranch Rd. | Cabot, AR 72023 Call Kaytee Wright 501-607-3100 alan@arktimes.com

12407 Davis Ranch Rd. | Cabot, AR 72023 Call Kaytee Wright 501-607-3100 alan@arktimes.com arktimes.com APRIL 13, 2017

THURSDAY

Benefiting

MAY 4 | 6-9pm

Argenta Arts District

presents

river market pavilionS

Cash bar

Food Available for Purchase from

Join the fun as Don Julio, the world’s first ultra-premium tequila, presents •

Thursday, May 4 at the Little Rock River Market for the first annual Margarita Festival

•

It’s a salute to the perfection of a great margarita

•

Sample tastings on the classic cocktail from the city’s best bartenders and VOTE for your favorites and crown one margarita best of the fest

Partner Sponsor 40

APRIL 13, 2017

ARKANSAS TIMES

Competing Bars & Restaurants Agave Grill Big Whiskey Bleu Monkey Boulevard Bistro Cache Restaurant Cajun’s Wharf Copper Grill Ernie Biggs Loca Luna O’Looney’s & Loblolly The Pizzeria Revolution Taco and Tequila Bar Samantha’s Taco Mama Trio’s

Photobooth Sponsor

Wristband Sponsor

Loca Luna Taco Mama

Latin Salsa tunes & Jimmy Buffett standards from Club 27 Little Rock Salsa 60 Only s e k tic t left!

TICKETS

Current Ticket Price: $35 Ticket price includes 15 three-ounce Margarita Samples. Frio Beer For Sale.

centralarkansastickets.com

Tickets are limited. Purchase early.

Club 27

Music Sponsor

AN ES ARKANSAS TIM EVENT