The Arkansas Project

Victory For Smaller Government on Interior Design Board

By Dan Greenberg - April 6, 2009 12:59 pm

We struck a small blow for smaller government Monday morning in the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs, when we passed Senator Percy Malone’s SB 827 out of committee. This bill will combine three agencies into one. More particularly, the bill will transfer the State Board of Registered Interior Designers and the State Board of Landscape Architects to a (larger) State Board of Architects.

I have been concerned about Arkansas’ interior design registry for some time now. It is not a proper (or especially efficient) function of state government to register interior designers, and the establishment of similar bodies in other states have been the first step to licensing laws—which have then made the unlicensed practice of interior design a crime that leads to jail time. I think that is just wrong; if you agree, you’ll enjoy the following video:

The lobby to make interior designers a legally regulated occupation won’t like the video, especially the part which notes that President Obama’s Oval Office interior designer is unlicensed.

We were temporarily successful in blocking funding for the interior design registry earlier this year. However, a slick parliamentary maneuver by Rep. Barry Hyde a few weeks later allowed a revote on the board’s funding while preventing any discussion of the bill’s merits by the board’s critics—a revote that proved successful.

However, a contemporaneous agreement to merge the three boards into one was reached behind the scenes; that agreement is contained in SB 827, which shrinks that board’s power and makes it much more unlikely that we will ever make unlicensed designing a criminal offense in Arkansas.

I look forward to carrying Senator Malone’s bill on the House floor tomorrow. I know of no organized opposition to it; its passage is very likely, and it will protect consumer freedom and lower prices in Arkansas.

Stuff From Around Arkansas, April 2

By David Kinkade - April 2, 2009 9:33 am

Photo: Benton County Daily Record

Vive La Résistance: These Northwest Arkansas business leaders are valiantly fighting union-backed card check legislation, their only weapons a single tri-fold educational brochure and an Orwellian projection of Arkansas Chamber of Commerce chief Randy Zook. (Benton County Daily Record)

Heartwarming: Ha ha, everybody hates ARGOCOGLOWARM and their stupid climate change bills. (AP)

Rights Ruckus: House panel OKs states’ rights resolution, which will apparently be the signal achievement of the House GOP caucus in this session. Tremendous. (AP)

Arms and the Man: Blogger John Anderson wants to know, “Are you hoarding ammo?” Oh, my God, he got hold of my “advice for young journalists” notes for my Saturday SPJ presentation! (ARCCA Blog)

AsaWatch: Here’s an article that mentions my old boss Asa Hutchinson (see lines 11-12), but I have no idea what it’s about because I don’t speak this language, which appears to be some kind of mystical demon tongue not of this realm. (Deutsche Welle)

Central Arkansas Refresh Group Meets Tuesday

By David Kinkade - March 26, 2009 10:17 am

The next meetup of the Central Arkansas Refresh Group, a discussion/networking/education group for all you nerdy technology and new media enthusiast types, is set for Tuesday, March 31, from 6-8 p.m. at the Starbucks at 9401 N. Rodney Parham Rd. in Little Rock.

About 15-20 people showed for the inaugural meeting last month, a mix of bloggers, programmers and assorted code jockeys, marketing and advertising wizards, media mavens and more. In the meantime, group membership on our Facebook page has ballooned to 53. (Mastermind Cotton Rohrscheib and I have talked about the probable need to move to a different venue to better accommodate a larger group, which will likely be a matter for discussion Tuesday).

In related news, Cotton launched a starter website for the group a few weeks ago. He’s also been extremely busy lining up sponsors who are making free stuff available, which is really a lot more than I’ve done, which is write this blog post, so I’m starting to feel a little guilty for being such a layabout. A little. No, wait, it just passed. Whew.

Anyway, join us Tuesday night for good times. You can join up via the Facebook page, or if you’re a FB holdout, just show up.

Stuff From Around Arkansas, March 13 (Updated!)

By David Kinkade - March 13, 2009 10:37 am

Her again? Sure, why not, it's Friday.

Moneybags: Northwest Arkansas’ own Walton family is ranked on Forbes list of billionaires. In a related story, I found an unopened chalupa on the ground next to my car in the Taco Bell parking lot that must have slipped out of someone’s bag, so I’m having a pretty good day, too. (Arkansas Business)

More Twitter Stupidity: Defendant on the losing end of a $12.6 million judgment wants retrial because an idiot juror broadcast his thoughts about the trial on Twitter. Of course. (Lance Turner’s Unimaginatively Titled Blog)*

It Begins: Bored with the legislative session? Max Brantley’s rounding up a few announced candidates for state legislature in 2010. (Arkansas Times)

This Thing: Arkansas House Speaker Robert “Robbie” Wills is confident that the lottery bill will pass and…wait, seriously, this? Still? Really? Christ. (AP)

Snow Worries: Freezing rain and snow forecasts don’t worry these Arkansas officials, because they’re real men and nothing at all like you, you pussy. (AP)

*UPDATE: The Fayetteville Flyer blog lands an exclusive interview with the Tweeting Juror.

Stuff from Around Arkansas, March 5

By David Kinkade - March 5, 2009 9:38 am

Well, she's definitely carrying, but I couldn't even begin to tell you where she might conceal it.

Gun Crazy: House bill to limit public availability of concealed carry permit info hits committee today. Can we call this one “Max’s Law”? I like it! (Arkansas Times)

Oh No: In-state tuition, illegal immigrants, Arkansas colleges….aw, man, this again? (AP)

Wal-Mart Watch: More reductions looming at Wal-Mart headquarters? Blogger Mark Moore is hearing whispers. (Arkansas Watch)

Treasury Chest: Sen. Blanche Lincoln grills Obama Treasury Secretary Timothy “Tim” Geithner on fiscal responsibility. Good first step: Get Obama cabinet nominees to pay their damn taxes. (KARK)

Executive Report: OK, let’s do it this way instead: Any Young Republicans who AREN’T trying for the state GOP executive director job, raise your hands. (The Tolbert Report)

Liquor License: Expanded local options for alcohol sales on Sunday? Now we’re talkin’. More please. (Arkansas News Bureau)

Buzzkill: House bill would make it a crime to serve alcohol to someone under 21 on your property, which is totally going to ruin my big party this weekend. (Arkansas Business)

The Wal-Mart Way

By David Kinkade - February 9, 2009 11:13 am

Charles Platt (Photo: New York Post)

An interesting article in the New York Post from former Wired writer Charles Platt, who went undercover working in an Arizona Wal-Mart to get the inside story on the world’s largest retailer. His discovery? It’s not the soul-deadening hell-pit that labor unions and anti-growth activists would have you believe.

He notes that for many unskilled workers, the company offers chances for advancement, even if the starting wages are nothing to crow about:

I found myself reaching an inescapable conclusion. Low wages are not a Wal-Mart problem. They are an industry-wide problem, afflicting all unskilled entry-level jobs, and the reason should be obvious.

In our free-enterprise system, employees are valued largely in terms of what they can do. This is why teenagers fresh out of high school often go to vocational training institutes to become auto mechanics or electricians. They understand a basic principle that seems to elude social commentators, politicians and union organizers. If you want better pay, you need to learn skills that are in demand.

The blunt tools of legislation or union power can force a corporation to pay higher wages, but if employees don’t create an equal amount of additional value, there’s no net gain. All other factors remaining equal, the store will have to charge higher prices for its merchandise, and its competitive position will suffer.

This is Economics 101, but no one wants to believe it, because it tells us that a legislative or unionized quick-fix is not going to work in the long term.

Of course, the low wages Platt describes are still more than I make running this idiotic blog, so maybe I should look into this as an exciting new career opportunity. And it’d give me a chance to wear my snappy red turtleneck! Read the whole thing and form your own conclusions.

ARGOCOGLOWARM: Is It Getting Hot In Here?

By David Kinkade - January 7, 2009 8:42 am

Things I've learned this week: ArkProject readers really dig vintage Christie Brinkley photos, and they don't care what justification I use to post them, if any.

The heat is on (Ha ha ha ha! Get it? It’s a pun!) for the Arkansas Governor’s Commission on Global Warming. Or, as it shall henceforth be known, the ARGOCOGLOWARM, an elegant and not-at-all-unwieldy acronym suggested by frequent Arkansas Project visitor Cameron Bluff, and hereby adopted by me.

Columnist David Sanders, the scourge of all things ARGOCOGLOWARM, has gotten another commission member, economist Richard Ford of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, to go on the record with a critical take on the commission’s practices. As Ford tells it:

“Right here,” he said, pointing to the law’s emergency clause. “It says that ‘it is imperative that Arkansas study the scientific data … to determine whether global warming is an immediate threat to the citizens in the State of Arkansas.’ We did not do that.”

According to Ford, the only economist on the commission, the group wasn’t allowed to do what it was instructed by law to do. He explained that the commission never “studied or even debated the scientific data” on global warming.

So why would a commission set up to study and make policy recommendations about global warming not study it? It’s simple; CCS wouldn’t allow it, according to a memo entitled “Proposal to Develop an Arkansas Climate Action Plan” sent to Morril Harriman, Gov. Beebe’s chief of staff on June 27, 2007.

Under the heading “Participant Guidelines,” the memo stated, “Participants will not debate the science of climate change or the directive of the Act, but will instead provide leadership and vision for how Arkansas will rise to the challenges and opportunities of addressing climate change.”

Sanders has much more, including scans of memos detailing how the ARGOCOGLOWARM was established to shut down all that dreadful debate and exchange of ideas, because arguing is mean! Which means that there has been more discussion and argument about the issue, pro and con, from a bunch of knuckleads like me and the Arkansas Project comments crowd than was permitted among the great gathering of worthies that is the ARGOCOGLOWARM.

God, I really do love that acronym.

And noted: I meant to point this up the other day, but columnist John Brummett predicted on his blog that Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe will run from the ARGOCOGLOWARM as fast as he can in the coming legislative session, while still finding a way to declare victory over global warming. Yay! We finally beat global warming! The End.

Update: Here’s some report I stumbled across that says that “sea ice” has recovered to its 1979 levels. I have no idea what that means, because I am an idiot, but I’m going to presume it means I can continue enjoying my scotch on the rocks, rather than taking it neat.

Stuff from Around Arkansas, Jan. 5 (Updated! Twice!!)

By David Kinkade - January 5, 2009 9:27 pm

Oh, come on now, you didn't actually think I would let this image slip off the front page, did you?

Media Madness: Sharp piece from Michael Tilley about lame, stupid, out-of-touch “Top Ten Stories of 2008″ list from the AP. I agree. They don’t even touch on the Tina Sherman nude cell phone photos case, which obsessed me all of Arkansas for weeks. (The City Wire)

Job Hopping: Big jobs announcement in North Little Rock today. It reportedly will have something to do with “mini-trucks,” which I presume to mean those Tonka toys we had when we were kids. Those were awesome. (Arkansas Times)

Brummett Gets Chummy: Columnist John Brummett offers praise to his bureau colleague David Sanders by noting how much he loathes him. A regular Dale Carnegie, this Brummett guy is. (Brummett’s blog)

Update: So it’s been pointed out to me that the link in item #3 goes nowhere, or at least to an Arkansas News Bureau page with no meaningful content. I thought maybe I’d put the wrong link in there, but now I don’t see the Brummett hit piece on Sanders on the site at all. Hm. It’s like it disappeared or something. This leads to only one logical conclusion: The Internet is broken!

But fear not! The Arkansas Project, recognizing that nothing on the web ever need really disappear, has salvaged Brummett’s sneering assessment of his colleague’s work for posterity, and you can read it all below after the jump, because I am, as ever, your go-to guy, baby.

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Update II: So I’m considering a new tagline for The Arkansas Project: “Inappropriate, gratuitous and altogether tacky.” I think it really captures the essence of this blog with a certain concise elegance, don’t you?

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Balfe Out as U.S. Attorney

By David Kinkade - December 8, 2008 8:56 am

Things are looking a little slow on the news and blogging front this morning, but here’s a couple of tidbits that you might have missed:

U.S. Attorney Bob Balfe in the Western District of Arkansas is leaving his post. He’s headed to the private sector, joining the Mitchell Williams law firm, says Tim Griffin at the Griffin Room.

Asa Hutchinson, former U.S. Attorney/congressman/DEA chief/homeland security honcho/gubernatorial candidate/Kinkade employer, is at it again. He’s joining up with some other security-minded types to launch a consultancy firm to advise chemical facilities on complying with federal regulations and standards.

Update: Commenter Br549, always with a keen eye to the future, jumps to the next question: Who’s jockeying for U.S. Attorney slots under the incoming Democratic administration? Senior Senator Blanche Lincoln (another former Kinkade employer) will certainly hold some sway in the decision…Feel free to float names in the comments section if you’re so disposed.

Beebe On Labor Unions

By David Kinkade - October 24, 2008 1:23 pm

Beebe takes Manhattan

In New York to pitch Arkansas as a great place to do business, Gov. Mike Beebe lands an interview with CNBC, where the interviewer asks him about labor unions, among other things.

Specifically, the reporter notes Barack Obama’s “pro-union” stance versus Arkansas-based Wal-Mart’s general “anti-union” stance, and asks Beebe how he squares “your loyalties to Wal-Mart and your loyalties to your party.” Beebe responds:

I’m a Democrat and I have a lot of friends and a lot of supporters that have been in the union, that were extraordinarily good to me.

However, having said that, in today’s business climate, in today’s world, with what’s going on right now, we don’t need to inhibit our business opportunities to be successful. We need to make sure that they have the jobs and they create the jobs and that they give the jobs for our workers to be able to have.

So right now is not the time, I think,  to do those things that inhibit further business activity.

Hmm. That sounds loosely “anti-union” to me. Is that how it sounds to you? If so, good for Gov. Beebe.

But does this mean that Beebe will lobby Arkansas’ five Congressional Democrats to vote against the union-backed “card check” legislation that will be a priority in the coming Democratic Congress? And which will be poised to become law if Obama ascends to the White House, as appears likely? Just asking.

Arkansas News Bureau columnist David Sanders dealt with Sen. Mark Pryor’s “ideological straddling” on the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act” a few months back. Hey, did I mention I’ll be on Sanders’ AETN “Unconventional Wisdom” show tonight at 6:30 p.m.? I can’t remember if I mentioned that.

(Hat tip to Roby Brock’s BizBlog. Roby also interpreted Beebe’s remarks as a warning “against unionization efforts.”)

Forbes: Wal-Mart, Tyson Among ‘Most Generous’

By David Kinkade - October 18, 2008 4:44 pm

Forbes Magazine assesses charitable giving by major corporations, and two Arkansas companies score high marks: Wal-Mart is the most generous in terms of dollars donated, while Tyson Foods is the second most generous in terms of percentage of income donated.

Warren Stephens on the Tax Burden

By David Kinkade - October 15, 2008 5:54 am

In an unusual move, Arkansas investment banking big wheel Warren Stephens, chairman/CEO of Stephens Inc. and co-chair of the Arkansas for McCain campaign, takes to the bully pulpit to warn of the dire effects of higher taxation under a possible Barack Obama administration:

Warren Stephens

Our system could hardly be more weighted to having the wealthy pay more, yet that is precisely what Senator Obama proposes. I will reluctantly accept (for now) that in our society the top wage earners will pay more (in percentage terms) in taxes, but if Senator Obama wants to raise taxes, he should say so… Senator Obama’s plan is a redistribution of income from those who pay taxes to those who do not. It is nothing more than the granddaddy of all welfare plans and voters need to know it. For Senators Obama and Biden to couch this issue as one of fairness and a “patriotic duty” is an attempt to deceive the American public as to the facts.

Stephens points are well-taken, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and suggest that maybe a billionaire investment banker isn’t the ideal proponent for that message right now, even if he is one of our state’s leading corporate citizens.

Capsearch Joins the Arkansas Blogging Game

By David Kinkade - October 13, 2008 2:47 pm

A few weeks ago I directed your attention to Capsearch, the new web-based legislative tracking service for Arkansas spearheaded by Matt Price as some kind of joint venture with the gang at Arkansas Business Publishing.

Price e-mails today to say that the service is taking flight this week, and I’m happy to report that Capsearch will include some original content on Arkansas government, policy and politics, including “The Insiders’ Blog” run by Price and a few cronies.

And if you scroll down the page a bit, you’ll even see that one David Kinkade, that handsome devil who runs The Arkansas Project blog, will be contributing some occasional material to the Capsearch site.

I asked how much it paid, and Price said he’d give me “this bag of magic beans.” Naturally, I jumped at the chance, but the more I look at these beans, the more I think they’re not really “magic.” In fact, unless I miss my guess, they’re actually “pinto.”

Anyway, go give Capsearch some of your love and affection, and add it to your regular reading list.

Windy City

By David Kinkade - October 8, 2008 4:23 pm

The big jobs announcement I mentioned yesterday is something about alternative energy wind power 830 jobs something something something go read the AP.

Major Arkansas Jobs Announcement Wednesday?

By David Kinkade - October 7, 2008 3:55 pm

Via Roby Brock over at the Bizblog, we learn that there is a press conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce in which Gov. Mike Beebe and economic development officials will make a major jobs announcement for central Arkansas.

What could it be? So far, I’ve only been able to ascertain that it will not entail an expansion of The Arkansas Project World Headquarters and the hiring of a support staff for the blog’s operations, sorely needed though they both are. The Arkansas Economic Development Commission denied my grant application, arguing that “blogging is not a real job.” Jerks.

Wall St. Crisis Could Affect Arkansas

By David Kinkade - September 30, 2008 6:59 am

Next phase in the financial meltdown. The upside: That post-apocalyptic all-leather wardrobe is quite slimming.

Remember two weeks ago when various experts could say that the situation on Wall Street probably wouldn’t have too much effect on Arkansas? That assessment is no longer operative.

The Arkansas News Bureau’s James Jefferson and John Lyon report that the worsening situation could have significant negative impacts on the state economy, including slowing job growth, reduced access to credit, big hits to state retirement funds and a high stakes fight for survival in a “Road Warrior”-style primal desert wasteland. OK, I made that last one up, but you believed it, didn’t you?

Meanwhile, the much bally-hooed financial sector bail-out package flopped yesterday, though all four of Arkansas’ congressional reps voted for passage.

And the Jonesboro Sun rounds up response from a couple of profs who talk about what this might mean for northeast Arkansas.

Barber Nabbed on DWI

By David Kinkade - September 25, 2008 10:46 am

Brandon Barber

Get ready, because The Arkansas Project is about to go all “Smoking Gun” on your ass: It appears there’s more trouble for Northwest Arkansas bad boy real estate mogul Brandon Barber, who was reportedly picked up on a DWI charge in Fayetteville last night. Here’s the link to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office page with the arrest info, kindly passed along by a reader.

It’s not Barber’s first DWI — he was picked up in Sept. 2006 after he ran over some mailboxes and crashed into a utility pole, according to this Morning News of NWA report from last year.

Last month, the real estate hotshot’s company declared bankruptcy, which The Arkansas Project covered here. Arkansas Business has more on Barber’s business wheelings and dealings here.

Around the Arkansas ‘Sphere

By David Kinkade - September 20, 2008 10:54 am

From time to time, we like to take a look around the Arkansas blogosphere and point to some of the good work our friends and neighbors are doing:

Jason Tolbert at The Tolbert Report likes the idea of an annual sales tax holiday in Arkansas, which retailers pitched to legislators this week, and he rounds up responses from a couple of candidates in the Saline County area.

Steve Harrelson at Under the Dome takes a look at a potential legislative proposal to allow mini-trucks (off-road vehicles popular with farmers for their fuel efficiency) to be driven on Arkansas roads.

The Fayetteville Flyer launches a debate on the Arkansas lottery proposal, and readers weigh in. Meanwhile, Blake Rutherford’s Think Tank doesn’t believe that the court challenge to stop the lottery proposal will stand up.

The Griffin Room has advice for John McCain on how to deal with the current economic meltdown on the campaign trail. For a more localized approach to recent economic developments, Roby Brock’s BizBlog takes a look at how Arkansas companies’ stocks held up over the course of this week’s market roller-coaster.

The Val’s Bien blog is all behind a legislative proposal to make animal cruelty a felony in the next session of the General Assembly.

And Arkansas Project contributor Freeman Hunt, over at her home base blog, has a nice recap of recent campaign lies, exaggerations and distortions from the Barack Obama camp, which suggests that the “Hope and Change” mantra amounts to little more than a smokescreen for politics as usual.

Over at the Arkansas Times blog, Max Brantley is waxing grumpy about government bail-outs in the financial sector, and who can blame him? Max is irritable because of the effect of this week’s market activity on his retirement account, and I’ll add to the complaint: If you’re self-employed like me, you had to send a hefty check to the IRS on Monday to settle your quarterly tax obligation. I don’t usually go in for simplistic populist posturing, but somehow it makes me even less enthusiastic about paying those taxes just to know they’re going to prop up some overextended hotshots on Wall Street.

And considering that, it’s pretty clear that Democratic VP nominee Joe Biden could not have picked a worse week to lecture us on how paying more taxes is a patriotic responsibility, as noted here by the Citizens Journal blog. I think I speak for everybody when I say that it would be a great idea if someone were to kick Joe Biden in the groin.

Tourism Ads to Focus on Arkansas Destinations

By David Kinkade - September 20, 2008 5:40 am

A new  Department of Parks and Tourism advertising campaign to promote tourism in the state will focus on destinations within Arkansas, rather than promoting the state as a whole, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Laura Stevens reports. (OK, reported Friday—I meant to post this yesterday.)

Say, wasn’t this the subject of a John Brummett column, like, two weeks ago? It sure was.

But I’m guessing those greedy advertising sharpies at Cranford Johnson Robinson Woods won’t cut Brummett in on the action any time soon. They’re probably walking around in their slick suits, acting like it was all their idea and pocketing fat checks, while poor Brummett will have to keep pounding out five columns a week for a pauper’s wage at Stephens Media. There’s no justice, I tells ya.

In a related note, last night I was watching Telemundo Univision (seriously, I love it) and saw a Spanish-language ad promoting vacations in Arkansas, which I’d never seen before. What was strange about it was that, other than translating the voice-over into Spanish, it didn’t appear they had tailored the ad to target a Hispanic audience in any other way. Unless people from Mexico fantasize about going antiquing in Hot Springs, in which case I learned something today.

Wal-Mart, Dillards Push for Sales Tax Holiday

By David Kinkade - September 18, 2008 2:55 pm

Retail giant Wal-Mart and Arkansas-based department store chain Dillards both endorsed an annual sales tax holiday for Arkansas today, the AP reports. Retailers testifying before a legislative committee love the notion, and there’s some bipartisan interest from legislators—but Gov. Mike Beebe may be a sticking point.

Story notes that a proposed three day sales tax holiday would require the state to forgo an estimated $5 million in sales tax revenue, though there’s no estimate as to how that total might be offset by increased consumer purchases during the holiday.