By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Arkansas Travelers broadcaster Phil Elson has seen the ridiculous and the sublime from his press-box perch. He has seen triumph and tragedy.
Elson has called Arkansas Travelers games since 2001 and more recently has been the man behind the microphone for the UALR women’s basketball team.
Elson’s friendly voice and flair for description were recognized by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, which recently voted him Arkansas sports broadcaster of the year for 2009.
“It’s a great award, I think, because people who are in the industry and are members of this organization are the ones who voted on it,” Elson said.
Elson’s award puts him in the company of Arkansas broadcast legends like the late Jim Elder and Paul Eells.
Elder, who died in 1998, was the long-time voice of the Travelers and one of the last to do road-game recreations and Eells, killed in a car accident in 2006, was the beloved television and radio sportscaster noted for his “Touchdown Arkansas” call when describing Razorbacks games.
“I’ve always been honored to follow in the footsteps of Jim Elder, as far as the Travelers are concerned,” Elson said. “And being mentioned in the same class, I guess, as Paul Eells means a lot as well.”
Elson became the first Travelers radio man to travel with the team and broadcast road games live. He became the voice of UALR women’s basketball in 2005.
“It’s good to show a little bit of versatility as a broadcaster,” Elson said. “I got into broadcasting for baseball, first and foremost, and I’m going to ride that as long as I can, but I really get a lot of joy and pride in being part of the UALR program.”
Elson, 33, was an all-city league catcher at Pittsburgh’s Taylor Allderdice High School. He grew up listening to Pirates baseball and Penguins hockey on 50,000-watt KDKA-AM 1020, and his father hosted a weekend sports talk show on the station.
Elson tagged along and was quickly entranced by the workings of a real radio station.
“I listened to baseball as a kid,” Elson said. “From the time I was 6 or 7 years old I knew what I liked to do, at least at night — watch baseball as much as I could and if it was too late then you’d listen to baseball.”
Not long before taking his first job, Elson was in a New York bar with a friend when legendary Penguins broadcaster Mike Lange, in town for a game, walked in. Elson sent Lange a drink, the two hit it off, and Elson recalls the advice he was given: “For the first five years, you won’t know what you’re doing.”
In 1995, when he was 18, Elson interned for the Class A South Atlantic League team in Fayetteville, N.C. His first on-air job was at Helena, Mont., in the Rookie Pioneer League, then he moved to Stockton, of the Class A California League and finally, in 2001, to Arkansas and the Class AA Texas League.
“I had such an excitement level out of being here in 2001,” Elson said. “And then looking down the road at some of the names that were going to be on that team: John Lackey, Bobby Jenks.”
Elson got a chance to work for the legendary Bill Valentine, the former American League umpire who lost his job for trying to organize a union in 1968 and, with his wacky promotions and giveaways, revived Travelers attendance after taking over as general manager in 1976.
Valentine retired in 2009.
“I knew that this was what I always wanted to do; I just didn’t quite know where it would take me,” Elson said.
Elson’s toughest day on the job was July 22, 2007 when Tulsa first base coach Mike Coolbaugh was struck and killed by a foul ball while in the coaches box at Dickey-Stephens Park.
Elson will also never forget opening day last year, April 9, when Los Angeles Angels pitcher and 2007 Traveler Nick Adenhart was killed in a car accident in California.
In 2001, Elson was on the road with the Travelers at Round Rock, Texas, during the Texas League Championship Series, when on Sept. 11 terrorists struck in New York and Washington D.C. The series was eventually called off and the Travelers were named champions by virtue of their 2-0 series lead without playing a TLCS game before their home fans.
In what was perhaps his most famous call, at least as far as Travelers fans are concerned, Elson was forced to describe the last out of the 2005 TLCS, when umpire Steve Fritzoni lost track of the count and failed to award a ninth-inning, two-out walk to Travelers batter Jason Aspito.
Aspito then struck out on what was essentially a 4-2 count, and the Midland RockHounds took a 5-4 victory and the series.
But it hasn’t all been tragedy and frustration. The 2008 Travelers rallied to win the Texas League first-half clincher over Springfield, 7-6 in 11 innings, then beat Northwest Arkansas and Frisco, Texas, in the playoffs to take the championship.
Elson’s job has also allowed him to hobnob with hall-of-famers like Yogi Berra, George Kell, Jim Palmer and Ferguson Jenkins.
“I hope you can tell I’m having fun; you better have fun if you have people like that with you,” Elson said.
But if Elson is asked what was his best day at the ballpark, it’s no contest.
While scanning the crowd from the press box at old Ray Winder Field during the 2001 season, Elson spied a vivacious brunette apparently signaling her phone number. Elson hastily scribbled down the digits, and got them wrong, but the young woman fortunately made a return visit to the ballpark and the two hit it off.
Elson and Julie Polsky were married in 2005 and the couple welcomed their first child, Sadie Grace, late last summer.
“It makes a lot of sense that I found the love of my life while I was doing something that I loved,” Elson said. “That’s the best way that I can put it.”
Friday, January 22, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
EDITORIAL >> This isn’t a fair tax
Beware of propositions that sound too good to be true. They nearly always are. A business group headquartered at Fort Smith is circulating petitions for a constitutional amendment that merits far more skepticism than that. The attorney general cleared the popular name and ballot title a week ago.
It is presently called the AR One Tax, although the sponsors will surely find a catchier and more appealing name, like the Fair Tax, which is what a national group calls a similar proposition that it has been pushing for about a decade. The Arkansas sponsors advertise the amendment as a way to simplify the state tax system, treat taxpayers fairly, finance government bountifully and give the state a robust economy. Truthful advertising would proclaim exactly the opposite.
You’ll likely be asked to sign one of the petitions this spring, probably at the May primaries when you go to vote. Find out what it does first.
The popular name that would appear on the ballot is “A Constitutional Amendment to Repeal All State Taxes and Establish a Flat Rate Sales Tax.” If voters approved the amendment, the legislature would set a sales-tax rate high enough to make up for all the revenue that would be lost by the repeal of all the other taxes from businesses and individuals. The state sales tax now is 6.5 percent. It could go up to 20 percent, 25 percent or 30 percent — no one really has a clue. But this should give you a hint: The present sales-tax rate produces about $2.2 billion a year. To replace all existing taxes, the new tax would need to produce about $8 billion a year. You do the figures.
The text of the amendment, which would not appear on the ballot, is so vague and contradictory that it would take many state Supreme Court decisions to settle exactly what taxes would be repealed and what sales would be taxed under the new single tax on consumers.
We have identified a few problems with the amendment and its popular name and ballot title. Get a copy. You’ll find more.
First, the popular name seems to be a lie. It says “all state taxes” would be repealed. But when you read the amendment, all state taxes are defined, either by design or ineptness, as only some state taxes — those codified in Title 26 of the Arkansas Code and the Constitution. That covers most of the big taxes, but a hundred or so taxes are codified in other titles. The amendment says that it would specifically repeal “payroll taxes” but Arkansas voters cannot repeal the taxes that are commonly known as payroll taxes, Social Security and Medicare, because they are federal taxes. The courts might presume that it was trying to repeal employment security taxes, which constitute the Arkansas unemployment trust fund although it is not codified in Title 26.
But here is the nastiest little detail about the amendment. When the legislature fixed the new sales-tax rate, businesses would not pay any of it. Not only would they no longer pay income, franchise or any of the small imposts for certain business activities, they wouldn’t pay any of the taxes you would pay. The electricity, gas and water they bought wouldn’t be subject to the sales tax. Neither would the motor fuel for their vehicles or any other commodity or service they bought. Your cars, clothing and groceries (yes, groceries would be taxed at the full rate) would be taxed at a rate high enough to compensate for the lost tax revenues from business activity. ExxonMobil, Walmart and all the big multi-state corporations wouldn’t pay a penny of tax in Arkansas. You would pick up the slack.
The sponsors say the sales-tax rate would not have to be very high because everything that is now exempt from the sales tax would be taxed, including doctor and hospital bills. Fair enough, but the amendment says specifically that services of every kind would NOT be taxed.
So the amendment might at first glance be appealing to businessmen throughout Arkansas because it would shift part of their cost of doing business to consumers, including their employees.
But think about this: If the state requires consumers to pay a tax of 25 percent — or even 10 percent — on everything you sell them, how competitive will your business be? No car dealership would be left in the state. Businesses within 100 miles of the border in every direction would go out of business. Internet sales would skyrocket.
The amendment seems to prohibit collection of a compensating use tax for items bought outside the state for use in the state, which would restore some competitiveness if the state had a large enough tax agency to enforce it.
On the other hand, the amendment does not seem to prohibit the legislature from re-enacting any tax that it desires once all those taxes are repealed. Eventually you could have the giant sales tax and every other kind of tax, too.
The AR One Tax, the Fair Tax, or whatever they call it is a recipe for economic disaster. Don’t sign those petitions until you have a chance to read the full amendment.
It is presently called the AR One Tax, although the sponsors will surely find a catchier and more appealing name, like the Fair Tax, which is what a national group calls a similar proposition that it has been pushing for about a decade. The Arkansas sponsors advertise the amendment as a way to simplify the state tax system, treat taxpayers fairly, finance government bountifully and give the state a robust economy. Truthful advertising would proclaim exactly the opposite.
You’ll likely be asked to sign one of the petitions this spring, probably at the May primaries when you go to vote. Find out what it does first.
The popular name that would appear on the ballot is “A Constitutional Amendment to Repeal All State Taxes and Establish a Flat Rate Sales Tax.” If voters approved the amendment, the legislature would set a sales-tax rate high enough to make up for all the revenue that would be lost by the repeal of all the other taxes from businesses and individuals. The state sales tax now is 6.5 percent. It could go up to 20 percent, 25 percent or 30 percent — no one really has a clue. But this should give you a hint: The present sales-tax rate produces about $2.2 billion a year. To replace all existing taxes, the new tax would need to produce about $8 billion a year. You do the figures.
The text of the amendment, which would not appear on the ballot, is so vague and contradictory that it would take many state Supreme Court decisions to settle exactly what taxes would be repealed and what sales would be taxed under the new single tax on consumers.
We have identified a few problems with the amendment and its popular name and ballot title. Get a copy. You’ll find more.
First, the popular name seems to be a lie. It says “all state taxes” would be repealed. But when you read the amendment, all state taxes are defined, either by design or ineptness, as only some state taxes — those codified in Title 26 of the Arkansas Code and the Constitution. That covers most of the big taxes, but a hundred or so taxes are codified in other titles. The amendment says that it would specifically repeal “payroll taxes” but Arkansas voters cannot repeal the taxes that are commonly known as payroll taxes, Social Security and Medicare, because they are federal taxes. The courts might presume that it was trying to repeal employment security taxes, which constitute the Arkansas unemployment trust fund although it is not codified in Title 26.
But here is the nastiest little detail about the amendment. When the legislature fixed the new sales-tax rate, businesses would not pay any of it. Not only would they no longer pay income, franchise or any of the small imposts for certain business activities, they wouldn’t pay any of the taxes you would pay. The electricity, gas and water they bought wouldn’t be subject to the sales tax. Neither would the motor fuel for their vehicles or any other commodity or service they bought. Your cars, clothing and groceries (yes, groceries would be taxed at the full rate) would be taxed at a rate high enough to compensate for the lost tax revenues from business activity. ExxonMobil, Walmart and all the big multi-state corporations wouldn’t pay a penny of tax in Arkansas. You would pick up the slack.
The sponsors say the sales-tax rate would not have to be very high because everything that is now exempt from the sales tax would be taxed, including doctor and hospital bills. Fair enough, but the amendment says specifically that services of every kind would NOT be taxed.
So the amendment might at first glance be appealing to businessmen throughout Arkansas because it would shift part of their cost of doing business to consumers, including their employees.
But think about this: If the state requires consumers to pay a tax of 25 percent — or even 10 percent — on everything you sell them, how competitive will your business be? No car dealership would be left in the state. Businesses within 100 miles of the border in every direction would go out of business. Internet sales would skyrocket.
The amendment seems to prohibit collection of a compensating use tax for items bought outside the state for use in the state, which would restore some competitiveness if the state had a large enough tax agency to enforce it.
On the other hand, the amendment does not seem to prohibit the legislature from re-enacting any tax that it desires once all those taxes are repealed. Eventually you could have the giant sales tax and every other kind of tax, too.
The AR One Tax, the Fair Tax, or whatever they call it is a recipe for economic disaster. Don’t sign those petitions until you have a chance to read the full amendment.
TOP STORY >> Group is told landfill didn’t cause floods
By JONATHAN FELDMAN
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville’s branch of the NAACP held its first community forum at the community center on Friday and discussed the possible connection between the Two Pine Landfill and flooding of the Bayou Meto.
David Conrad, spokesman for Waste Management, which operates the landfill, told a crowd of about two dozen people that Two Pine is not the culprit behind the recent floods.
“I truly don’t believe we were the cause of the increase in flooding recently,” Conrad insisted.
Instead, he attributed the flood problems to a combination of unprecedented rainfall and an increase in building near the Bayou Meto. He said eight inches of rain fell between Dec. 22 and Dec. 25. He even speculated that beaver dams might be responsible for some of the high water.
To understand the causes of flooding, he said, “It’s got to take a comprehensive look at flood data.”
Conrad cited figures from the rain-gauging station on Hwy. 31 in Lonoke as being 17 feet above normal last month.
“It’s hard to tell these people who had their homes flooded that (the dump) is not the problem,” an audience member told Conrad.
“If anyone in the audience had problems, I’m very sympathetic. We’ve been suffering from it also,” he said. Conrad said that it is difficult for workers at the landfill to do their jobs when it is muddy.
Rizelle Aaron, chairman of the chapter’s legal-redress committee, asked Conrad if runoff from the landfill has any effect on the safety of the city’s drinking water.
“All of the trash at the site is covered with dirt,” he said. He sees no danger with water runoff.
Alderman Reedie Ray, who attended the meeting, said, “Jacksonville’s water is groundwater. It’s not surface water, and the water comes from Maumelle.”
But Conrad acknowledged the landfill’s area once held more than 3.4 million gallons of water, and some of it now has to go elsewhere.
“We’ve dug 43 acres of wetlands,” to help with Bayou Meto overflow, he said. “I know when I got here four years ago there was a drought.”
Conrad also explained how the landfill works.
The landfill includes 144 acres, which are divided into 16 sections that average nine acres. Each section is like a clay bathtub lined with plastic sheeting, he said. When trash is placed into a section, dirt is placed on top of it.
“After you are done with all of these landfills, what will you do with them?” someone asked.
Conrad estimated that the landfill will be used through 2048. But Waste Management will be responsible for maintaining the land through 2078.
“I don’t ever see houses being built on them” because of the way trash settles, he said.
“We want to be a recreation area for people to do birding activities. We’re proud of partnering with Audubon Arkansas on designing the best way to provide open space,” Conrad said.
“We are doing things to enhance wildlife such as planting native plants,” he said.
The forum also included a discussion about child support and expunging criminal records.
“Prisons are getting full of people who have not paid child support. But you can’t pay child support in jail,” Aaron said.
He said that when it comes to paying child support and expunging criminal records, “One of the biggest disappointments is not just a lack of understanding, but a lack of follow through.”
But he said expunging and sealing criminal records “falls along racial lines because there are more African Americans in jail than anyone else.”
“When you are talking about the NAACP, (we) work for all people not just black people,” Aaron said.
Leader staff writer
Jacksonville’s branch of the NAACP held its first community forum at the community center on Friday and discussed the possible connection between the Two Pine Landfill and flooding of the Bayou Meto.
David Conrad, spokesman for Waste Management, which operates the landfill, told a crowd of about two dozen people that Two Pine is not the culprit behind the recent floods.
“I truly don’t believe we were the cause of the increase in flooding recently,” Conrad insisted.
Instead, he attributed the flood problems to a combination of unprecedented rainfall and an increase in building near the Bayou Meto. He said eight inches of rain fell between Dec. 22 and Dec. 25. He even speculated that beaver dams might be responsible for some of the high water.
To understand the causes of flooding, he said, “It’s got to take a comprehensive look at flood data.”
Conrad cited figures from the rain-gauging station on Hwy. 31 in Lonoke as being 17 feet above normal last month.
“It’s hard to tell these people who had their homes flooded that (the dump) is not the problem,” an audience member told Conrad.
“If anyone in the audience had problems, I’m very sympathetic. We’ve been suffering from it also,” he said. Conrad said that it is difficult for workers at the landfill to do their jobs when it is muddy.
Rizelle Aaron, chairman of the chapter’s legal-redress committee, asked Conrad if runoff from the landfill has any effect on the safety of the city’s drinking water.
“All of the trash at the site is covered with dirt,” he said. He sees no danger with water runoff.
Alderman Reedie Ray, who attended the meeting, said, “Jacksonville’s water is groundwater. It’s not surface water, and the water comes from Maumelle.”
But Conrad acknowledged the landfill’s area once held more than 3.4 million gallons of water, and some of it now has to go elsewhere.
“We’ve dug 43 acres of wetlands,” to help with Bayou Meto overflow, he said. “I know when I got here four years ago there was a drought.”
Conrad also explained how the landfill works.
The landfill includes 144 acres, which are divided into 16 sections that average nine acres. Each section is like a clay bathtub lined with plastic sheeting, he said. When trash is placed into a section, dirt is placed on top of it.
“After you are done with all of these landfills, what will you do with them?” someone asked.
Conrad estimated that the landfill will be used through 2048. But Waste Management will be responsible for maintaining the land through 2078.
“I don’t ever see houses being built on them” because of the way trash settles, he said.
“We want to be a recreation area for people to do birding activities. We’re proud of partnering with Audubon Arkansas on designing the best way to provide open space,” Conrad said.
“We are doing things to enhance wildlife such as planting native plants,” he said.
The forum also included a discussion about child support and expunging criminal records.
“Prisons are getting full of people who have not paid child support. But you can’t pay child support in jail,” Aaron said.
He said that when it comes to paying child support and expunging criminal records, “One of the biggest disappointments is not just a lack of understanding, but a lack of follow through.”
But he said expunging and sealing criminal records “falls along racial lines because there are more African Americans in jail than anyone else.”
“When you are talking about the NAACP, (we) work for all people not just black people,” Aaron said.
TOP STORY >> Landlords wrestle with city proposal
By JONATHAN FELDMAN
Leader staff writer
The Jacksonville Landlord Association meeting at the Esther Nixon library Thursday was a contentious one with several members criticizing the organization’s support for Mayor Gary Fletcher’s plan to create a citywide landlord registry.
The registry would compile information from a tenant’s payment history to how many times the police are called to a tenant’s home.
Presumably, the ordinance would also ban problematic tenants — those who have had numerous police calls to their homes — from living in the city. Many association members found out about the plan from news reports.
“There is no ordinance yet,” association board member Kevin Smith said.
But at the city council’s Jan. 7 meeting, a document with the header “Jacksonville Landlord Ordinance” was distributed to council members.
Board members apologized for not communicating better with the association’s members and said they instead acted a bit over-zealously in their desire to clean up the city.
“In 30 years in Jacksonville, nothing has changed,” board member Mike Wilson said in a conciliatory tone.
“We want property values to go up. We want to make more money on our rental properties,” Wilson said.
“The process has got to start somewhere, and luckily we have an administration that wants to work with us,” he said.
“I think the issue is ‘who are you representing’ — the city of Jacksonville or the Jacksonville Landlords Association,” Mike Corker of Sherwood, who owns 250 apartments in Jacksonville, asked board members.
“The thing says ‘Jacksonville Landlord Ordinance.’ You can call it whatever you want, but that’s what it says,” Corker said as he held up the paper that was presented to the city council.
But that was a nonbinding initial proposal, too incomplete to even be called a draft, according to members of the board and city officials.
The document was culled from information from the Internet by Alderman Bob Stroud, and it was intended to be more of a conversation starter than a draft proposal.
“Good people are moving out, and bad people are moving in,” Fletcher said.
He wants to reverse that trend and more.
“I want them out of town,” the mayor said.
The mayor said that when landlords manage to evict trouble-making tenants, those same troublemakers rent another house in town, often in the same neighborhood, which the mayor called a “shell game of bad tenants.”
City administrator Jim Durham, who also attended the meeting, said, “There’s a lot of good people who live in Sunnyside but a lot of them belong in the penitentiary. Let them go live in North Little Rock or the county. They’re human beings, they’ve got to live somewhere, but I want them out of town.
“Police are getting bogged down in a certain area and that’s got to stop,” Durham said.
Fletcher made it clear that Sunnyside was not the only problem neighborhood in Jacksonville.
“We get police calls all over. There was a shooting in a nice neighborhood the other day,” he said.
But Sunnyside poses tough challenges for landlords and police.
The mayor displayed a chart of Sunnyside, which highlighted homes that have received multiple police calls. The mayor said he found 37 homes, which policemen were called to in the last six months; 25 of them were rentals.
“One house, I’ve counted nine calls in the last six months,” Fletcher said.
Since he took office, Fletcher has counted 1,032 police calls to Sunnyside. At that rate, approximately 200 per month, the police department will respond to 2,400 calls this year.
“You’re wanting landlords to replace the role of the police. I cannot control the people that I rent to,” said an audience member.
But Police Chief Gary Sipes disagreed. “I’m a landlord myself. I make sure I know what’s going on on my property,” he said.
“You can’t rent to decent people over there with what’s available. The police are the only ones who can take care of it. You get tired of putting money into a property there,” another audience member said.
Alderman Terry Sansing asked the audience to consider the benefits of a database. Sansing was especially supportive of a database’s potential to track rent jumpers, which he said would be of value to landlords. In theory, landlords could turn down prospective renters with a history of delinquent payments.
The mayor sees the group as having the potential to positively transform the city, and he asked for its members’ cooperation.
“I’m not going to ram an ordinance through, but I’m not going to have my hands tied by an individual or a group. I want to stay true to my commitment to clean up this city,” he said.
“We, as an association, can step up or we can step back, and let someone else draft the ordinance and take what we get,” Wilson said.
The landlords will meet again at 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28 at the Nixon Library to figure that out.
For more information, e-mail jaxllassoc@gmail.com.
Leader staff writer
The Jacksonville Landlord Association meeting at the Esther Nixon library Thursday was a contentious one with several members criticizing the organization’s support for Mayor Gary Fletcher’s plan to create a citywide landlord registry.
The registry would compile information from a tenant’s payment history to how many times the police are called to a tenant’s home.
Presumably, the ordinance would also ban problematic tenants — those who have had numerous police calls to their homes — from living in the city. Many association members found out about the plan from news reports.
“There is no ordinance yet,” association board member Kevin Smith said.
But at the city council’s Jan. 7 meeting, a document with the header “Jacksonville Landlord Ordinance” was distributed to council members.
Board members apologized for not communicating better with the association’s members and said they instead acted a bit over-zealously in their desire to clean up the city.
“In 30 years in Jacksonville, nothing has changed,” board member Mike Wilson said in a conciliatory tone.
“We want property values to go up. We want to make more money on our rental properties,” Wilson said.
“The process has got to start somewhere, and luckily we have an administration that wants to work with us,” he said.
“I think the issue is ‘who are you representing’ — the city of Jacksonville or the Jacksonville Landlords Association,” Mike Corker of Sherwood, who owns 250 apartments in Jacksonville, asked board members.
“The thing says ‘Jacksonville Landlord Ordinance.’ You can call it whatever you want, but that’s what it says,” Corker said as he held up the paper that was presented to the city council.
But that was a nonbinding initial proposal, too incomplete to even be called a draft, according to members of the board and city officials.
The document was culled from information from the Internet by Alderman Bob Stroud, and it was intended to be more of a conversation starter than a draft proposal.
“Good people are moving out, and bad people are moving in,” Fletcher said.
He wants to reverse that trend and more.
“I want them out of town,” the mayor said.
The mayor said that when landlords manage to evict trouble-making tenants, those same troublemakers rent another house in town, often in the same neighborhood, which the mayor called a “shell game of bad tenants.”
City administrator Jim Durham, who also attended the meeting, said, “There’s a lot of good people who live in Sunnyside but a lot of them belong in the penitentiary. Let them go live in North Little Rock or the county. They’re human beings, they’ve got to live somewhere, but I want them out of town.
“Police are getting bogged down in a certain area and that’s got to stop,” Durham said.
Fletcher made it clear that Sunnyside was not the only problem neighborhood in Jacksonville.
“We get police calls all over. There was a shooting in a nice neighborhood the other day,” he said.
But Sunnyside poses tough challenges for landlords and police.
The mayor displayed a chart of Sunnyside, which highlighted homes that have received multiple police calls. The mayor said he found 37 homes, which policemen were called to in the last six months; 25 of them were rentals.
“One house, I’ve counted nine calls in the last six months,” Fletcher said.
Since he took office, Fletcher has counted 1,032 police calls to Sunnyside. At that rate, approximately 200 per month, the police department will respond to 2,400 calls this year.
“You’re wanting landlords to replace the role of the police. I cannot control the people that I rent to,” said an audience member.
But Police Chief Gary Sipes disagreed. “I’m a landlord myself. I make sure I know what’s going on on my property,” he said.
“You can’t rent to decent people over there with what’s available. The police are the only ones who can take care of it. You get tired of putting money into a property there,” another audience member said.
Alderman Terry Sansing asked the audience to consider the benefits of a database. Sansing was especially supportive of a database’s potential to track rent jumpers, which he said would be of value to landlords. In theory, landlords could turn down prospective renters with a history of delinquent payments.
The mayor sees the group as having the potential to positively transform the city, and he asked for its members’ cooperation.
“I’m not going to ram an ordinance through, but I’m not going to have my hands tied by an individual or a group. I want to stay true to my commitment to clean up this city,” he said.
“We, as an association, can step up or we can step back, and let someone else draft the ordinance and take what we get,” Wilson said.
The landlords will meet again at 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28 at the Nixon Library to figure that out.
For more information, e-mail jaxllassoc@gmail.com.
TOP STORY >> Literacy program is volunteer driven
By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to volunteer for a cause that benefits your community, you might consider becoming a literacy tutor.
For Claire Rogers, who became executive director of the Lonoke County Literacy Council last July after only five months as a volunteer, the rewards are obvious. She hopes that others will be energized to get involved in helping increase literacy in their communities.
“One in five Arkansans don’t read at the level needed to function in society,” Rogers said, which means not having the reading skills to comprehend a newspaper article, an ingredients list on a food or drug product, a map or business contract.
With tutoring, there is the tangible satisfaction of knowing you have helped another person in a life-changing way, Rogers said.
Like the woman recently who improved her literacy skills so that she was able to fill out a job application and be hired, just as she was laid off from another job. And the man who was then able to pass a driver’s test and obtain a commercial driver’s license.
Literacy makes a difference for communities too. Individuals with poor reading and writing skills have difficulty finding work, keeping a good job or earning a promotion. They will have less money to contribute to the local economy and be less inclined to shop even if they have money to spend.
Poverty and crime are strongly linked to poor literacy. Adults who have difficulty reading and writing are likely to pass the problem on to their children.
“If we help these people now, we’ll reap the benefits later,” Rogers said.
Rogers became a volunteer tutor with the Lonoke Literacy Council after retiring a year ago from a career with the Family Readiness Center at Little Rock Air Force Base.
It seemed like a good fit, given the enjoyment she derives from helping others as well as an affinity for grammar, reading and writing. She liked her new-found avocation so much that when Roy Henderson announced his retirement as the council’s director, she decided to take her involvement a step further and apply for the job.
She has her sights set on increasing the number of individuals helped by the council; that includes those who are American born as well as the growing population of individuals for whom English is a second language.
Rogers wants to spread the word that more literacy tutors are needed to meet the need in Lonoke County. Currently, the council has 40 students and 12 tutors.
She’d like to bring the number of tutors up to 20 so that she can increase outreach to the fisheries. So far, local businesses – restaurants and hotels in particular – “have been really great about sending employees” to tutoring, Rogers said.
To be a tutor requires a weekly time commitment of two to three hours. One does not need to speak the language of ESL students in order to help them learn to read.
To keep its services going, the council depends largely on state funding, but the organization relies heavily on sales from its bookstore, the Book Nook, to pay for study materials. The cost is $110 for one year per student, which is about how long it takes to attain basic proficiency. So that no one is denied assistance because of financial difficulty, Rogers said, “I want everything to be free.”
The Book Nook is accepting donated books again but since space is limited, the store does not accept what does not sell well – hardcover books without jackets, textbooks, encyclopedias or magazines.
It’s hard to get a firm count on just how many people in Lonoke County don’t read well enough to function effectively in daily life, but it could be a substantial number.
According to 2003 U.S. Census data, about 3 percent of the county’s 64,000 residents are Hispanic and therefore may be foreign born, 12 percent live at or below the poverty level and 15 percent do not have a high school diploma, not that that is any guarantee that a person is a proficient reader. A number of those who come to the Lonoke Literacy Council for help are high school graduates.
In Arkansas, 491,000 people age 25 or older do not have a high school diploma; that is almost 25 percent. Almost 10 percent of Arkansans over age 25 have less than an eighth-grade education.
Since last October, when Rogers spoke to the Lonoke Chamber of Commerce about literacy services, the number of ESL students tutored by Lonoke County volunteers have tripled.
“Oh, my goodness, it has just mushroomed from there,” Rogers said. “Word of mouth is just wonderful.” Soon after, arrangements were made for a tutor to hold ESL classes for Hispanic housekeepers at the Holiday Inn in the evenings. In no time, students were asking if family members could join in.
WANT TO BE A LITERACY TUTOR?
Lonoke County
Literacy Council of Lonoke County:
203 Court St. in Lonoke or
114 N. First St. in Cabot
Call Claire Rogers at 501-676-7478 or e-mail her at lonokeliteracy@sbcglobal.net.
Pulaski County
Literacy Action of Central Arkansas:
100 Rock St., Suite 403 in
Little Rock
Call Clif Ford at 501-372-7323 or e-mail him at cford@cals.org.
Pulaski County Learning Center Inc.:
1900 N. Pine in North Little Rock
Call Tara Rice at 501-753-5858 or e-mail her at nlrlearn@aol.com.
White County
Literacy County of White County:
109 E. Center
Searcy, Ark. 72143
Call Ann Nieto at 501-278-5500 or e-mail: acvneato@sbcglobal.net.
Leader staff writer
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to volunteer for a cause that benefits your community, you might consider becoming a literacy tutor.
For Claire Rogers, who became executive director of the Lonoke County Literacy Council last July after only five months as a volunteer, the rewards are obvious. She hopes that others will be energized to get involved in helping increase literacy in their communities.
“One in five Arkansans don’t read at the level needed to function in society,” Rogers said, which means not having the reading skills to comprehend a newspaper article, an ingredients list on a food or drug product, a map or business contract.
With tutoring, there is the tangible satisfaction of knowing you have helped another person in a life-changing way, Rogers said.
Like the woman recently who improved her literacy skills so that she was able to fill out a job application and be hired, just as she was laid off from another job. And the man who was then able to pass a driver’s test and obtain a commercial driver’s license.
Literacy makes a difference for communities too. Individuals with poor reading and writing skills have difficulty finding work, keeping a good job or earning a promotion. They will have less money to contribute to the local economy and be less inclined to shop even if they have money to spend.
Poverty and crime are strongly linked to poor literacy. Adults who have difficulty reading and writing are likely to pass the problem on to their children.
“If we help these people now, we’ll reap the benefits later,” Rogers said.
Rogers became a volunteer tutor with the Lonoke Literacy Council after retiring a year ago from a career with the Family Readiness Center at Little Rock Air Force Base.
It seemed like a good fit, given the enjoyment she derives from helping others as well as an affinity for grammar, reading and writing. She liked her new-found avocation so much that when Roy Henderson announced his retirement as the council’s director, she decided to take her involvement a step further and apply for the job.
She has her sights set on increasing the number of individuals helped by the council; that includes those who are American born as well as the growing population of individuals for whom English is a second language.
Rogers wants to spread the word that more literacy tutors are needed to meet the need in Lonoke County. Currently, the council has 40 students and 12 tutors.
She’d like to bring the number of tutors up to 20 so that she can increase outreach to the fisheries. So far, local businesses – restaurants and hotels in particular – “have been really great about sending employees” to tutoring, Rogers said.
To be a tutor requires a weekly time commitment of two to three hours. One does not need to speak the language of ESL students in order to help them learn to read.
To keep its services going, the council depends largely on state funding, but the organization relies heavily on sales from its bookstore, the Book Nook, to pay for study materials. The cost is $110 for one year per student, which is about how long it takes to attain basic proficiency. So that no one is denied assistance because of financial difficulty, Rogers said, “I want everything to be free.”
The Book Nook is accepting donated books again but since space is limited, the store does not accept what does not sell well – hardcover books without jackets, textbooks, encyclopedias or magazines.
It’s hard to get a firm count on just how many people in Lonoke County don’t read well enough to function effectively in daily life, but it could be a substantial number.
According to 2003 U.S. Census data, about 3 percent of the county’s 64,000 residents are Hispanic and therefore may be foreign born, 12 percent live at or below the poverty level and 15 percent do not have a high school diploma, not that that is any guarantee that a person is a proficient reader. A number of those who come to the Lonoke Literacy Council for help are high school graduates.
In Arkansas, 491,000 people age 25 or older do not have a high school diploma; that is almost 25 percent. Almost 10 percent of Arkansans over age 25 have less than an eighth-grade education.
Since last October, when Rogers spoke to the Lonoke Chamber of Commerce about literacy services, the number of ESL students tutored by Lonoke County volunteers have tripled.
“Oh, my goodness, it has just mushroomed from there,” Rogers said. “Word of mouth is just wonderful.” Soon after, arrangements were made for a tutor to hold ESL classes for Hispanic housekeepers at the Holiday Inn in the evenings. In no time, students were asking if family members could join in.
WANT TO BE A LITERACY TUTOR?
Lonoke County
Literacy Council of Lonoke County:
203 Court St. in Lonoke or
114 N. First St. in Cabot
Call Claire Rogers at 501-676-7478 or e-mail her at lonokeliteracy@sbcglobal.net.
Pulaski County
Literacy Action of Central Arkansas:
100 Rock St., Suite 403 in
Little Rock
Call Clif Ford at 501-372-7323 or e-mail him at cford@cals.org.
Pulaski County Learning Center Inc.:
1900 N. Pine in North Little Rock
Call Tara Rice at 501-753-5858 or e-mail her at nlrlearn@aol.com.
White County
Literacy County of White County:
109 E. Center
Searcy, Ark. 72143
Call Ann Nieto at 501-278-5500 or e-mail: acvneato@sbcglobal.net.
TOP STORY >> To Haiti and back
Master Sgt. Patrick Drozd of Cabot signals a forklift operator to raise the forks to unload the next pallet at the Port-au-Prince Airport in Haiti on Sunday.
Staff Sgt. Jordan Cote checks a manual in flight to resolve a problem regarding a computer apparently issuing a false alert. Cote stayed late after landing at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, working on the problem. ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY
LEADER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
John Hofheimer
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — About 10,000 U.S. troops should be on the ground by now in Haiti to provide security for the enormous earthquake relief effort amidst the mounting chaos, and 46 of those soldiers deplaned at Port-au-Prince on Sunday morning from a state-of-the-art C-130J from Little Rock Air Force Base’s 41st Airlift Squadron.
The 41st, or Black Cat, Squadron, is the C-130J squadron in the 19th Airlift Wing.
This was the second of eight Little Rock C-130s committed to the relief effort by Tuesday, according to Tech Sgt. Kati Grabham, a spokesperson at LRAFB.
Crews included Capt. Sean Callahan, Master Sgt. Patrick Drozd and Tech Sgt. Evan “Elvis” Hendricks, all of Cabot, and 1st Lt. Kevin Bailey of Sherwood.
“We may have more here waiting to go,” Grabham said.
“We will support the effort to the fullest,” she said. “Providing airlift is what we do.”
Since Jan. 13, the Air Mobility Command has flown more than 260 sorties for these relief efforts and delivered nearly 1,600 tons of aid and 2,400 passengers. “We have evacuated more than 600 victims,” she said.
She said AMC had 30 aircraft at Pope Air Force Base, N.C., or en route and had processed roughly 103 tons of cargo.
For those like Callahan’s crew, details of their four-day mission shifted with conditions and in that regard, change was the only constant.
In addition to the combat-ready soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, the stretch C-130J carried two pallets of Meals Ready to Eat packets, one pallet of bottled water and a pallet of gear for the soldiers, already loaded with automatic weapons, ammo clips, knapsacks, water and rations.
The soldiers will be assigned to guard the airport or provide security for the Red Cross or other relief providers, according to one of their sergeants.
Callahan’s C-130J crew had been on a 44-hour standby at Little Rock Air Force Base when they got three-hours notice around 9:30 p.m. Friday to fly to Pope, pick up the cargo and proceed to the airport at Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
Arriving at Pope for a debriefing, however, they were instructed to sleep at the base. But upon returning to the plane to get their gear, their orders changed again. Four pallets — maybe 20,000 pounds — were loaded on and secured by the loadmasters — Drozd and Hendricks — and the soldiers from adjoining Fort Bragg filed in and strapped in.
The plane took off about 5 a.m. Saturday, arriving above Haiti at about 11 a.m. to find planes stacked up in a holding pattern from 1,000 to 15,000 feet.
After circling for about an hour, it left to land at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, at about 12:30 p.m.
Two Raven Group airmen from Pope stayed the night at the plane, guarding the relief cargo and the soldiers’ weapons.
After sleeping at a waterfront hotel, the crew arose at about 2:30 a.m. and returned to their plane, where the soldiers joined them.
The plane left at about 5:50 a.m. Sunday for Haiti, theoretically assured of a landing time at the small, overburdened airport already congested with relief supplies and mercy planes parked wingtip to wingtip.
The State Department is reportedly determining the landing order at Port-au-Prince.
The Air Force is manning the control tower and directing planes on the ground.
Turnaround is quick in order to get other planes out of the air and unloaded.
Parked next to the Little Rock AFB C-130J was a C-130 from the Ohio National Guard and nearby was another from Puerto Rico.
As quick as the C-130J parked, the soldiers departed through the crew door while the rear cargo door folded open and large forklifts arrived within minutes to offload the pallets.
Less than 30 minutes later, the plane was unloaded and could have left, but the crew awaited orders to make sure they weren’t needed to ferry the injured or U.S. residents back to Pope.
Planes of every description were parked there, including a C-17 and a 737 cargo plane from China.
On the bustling tarmac, giant forklifts, more loading and unloading equipment, Humvees, and U.N. trucks dodged and weaved between planes and storage compounds, including one in the infield run by the Air Force. Four-wheelers darted about with smaller loads.
The C-130 from Puerto Rico, taxiing to a takeoff position, had to pause while in its path a small group in civilian clothes took pictures of each other.
Word soon came that the space was needed, so the Little Rock crew buttoned up the plane and the crew, with three accompanying members of the press, took off, back to St. Croix for refueling and crew rest.
About 12 hours later, they left to return to Pope Air Force Base.
There they awaited orders, most likely a new cargo plane and a return flight to Haiti.
SPORTS >> Of robots, football and more football
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
What does a dancing, guitar-playing robot have to do with football?
That’s one of several things I wondered as I watched the NFL playoffs on television over the weekend.
The FOX network, that shelter for out-of-work politicians that also airs NFC games, seems to have fallen in love with the gladiatorial robot it uses at the outset of its broadcasts.
Apparently, the robot is named Cleatus. Apparently, he has helped FOX win an Emmy.
But explain why, during Sunday’s Minnesota Vikings-Dallas Cowboys playoff, the robot could be seen doing karate kicks, dancing and playing guitar in a corner of the screen during promos for FOX’s upcoming programming?
What, again, does this have to do with football?
All the networks are guilty of using some sort of overwrought imagery in their broadcasts, and the explosions and jets and robots and dancing girls and Hank Williams Jr. song retreads are an insult.
I can just see FOX executives in a meeting: “Football fans aren’t smart, and their attention span is short; let’s give them robots and shiny objects. It works for Palin.”
However, Fox did a neat thing by showing a clip of the 1975 Cowboys-Vikings playoff and the winning, last-ditch bomb Roger Staubach threw to Drew Pearson. It was the play that gave us the term “Hail Mary” in football, but Sunday’s clip proves again Pearson pushed off.
Just think, if the officials had called the penalty and the Cowboys lost, a Hail Mary might still be just a prayer and the Cowboys might not be America’s Team.
And by the way, when did America vote on that? I guess I missed it.
Anyway, it looks like Brett Favre’s four-touchdown performance for the Vikings has made that preseason, “Will he or won’t he?” soap opera look pretty worthwhile.
For me the highlight was seeing Tyrell Johnson of Rison and Arkansas State hit former Arkansas Razorback Felix Jones for a minimal gain just before Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo threw a second-half interception.
The meeting of the two players may be as close as we’ll ever come to an Arkansas-Arkansas State football game.
On a serious note, in the wake of the earthquake tragedy in Haiti, it was interesting and sobering to learn Sunday of the 20-plus Haitian-American players in the NFL. You would think this would have made former Monday Night Football broadcaster Rush Limbaugh more sensitive in his recent comments about U.S. aid to the stricken nation.
Then we moved on to the New York Jets-San Diego Chargers game on CBS.
Before it started, studio analyst Boomer Esiason said quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Jets had to play “a perfect football game” against the Chargers.
That’s key, since football WAS the game they were playing. If they had played a perfect football game while bowling, they would have had problems.
When quarterback Phillip Rivers led the host Chargers into battle, I shuddered with horrible memories, as I do every time I see that guy.
I covered Rivers’ first game when he was a true freshman starter for North Carolina State against Arkansas State in Raleigh, N.C., in 2000. It was a great game, played in intermittent rain and won by N.C. State in double overtime.
I left the stadium as the rain really began to come down, only to reach the parking lot to find I’d left my keys in my rental car, locked it AND left it running. Before the night was over I would also lose my satchel with my computer and airline tickets in it.
To this day I wake up expecting to find myself still stranded in Raleigh.
With the Chargers leading 7-0 at halftime, studio analyst Dan Marino said the “football teams” were similar and “can run the football.” Good, because if they were lacrosse teams trying to run the badminton shuttlecock, they would have been in trouble.
The game resumed and I learned during a commercial timeout one of the CSI shows had a sexy, golf-themed episode coming up.
Golfers and hanky panky? The public will never buy it. Not enough like real life.
Then color man Phil Simms said Jets kicker Jay Feely was “a football player,” which disabused me of my notion he was a platform diver.
The game, one of the better ones this postseason, ended in heartbreak for the Chargers as the Jets scored a 17-14 upset, but when it ended, I was left disconcerted by something I’d read online during a break in my two-day, football funfest.
The article said NFL games contain an average 11 minutes of real action.
Eleven minutes? Then what was I doing for six hours a day all weekend?
Leader sports editor
What does a dancing, guitar-playing robot have to do with football?
That’s one of several things I wondered as I watched the NFL playoffs on television over the weekend.
The FOX network, that shelter for out-of-work politicians that also airs NFC games, seems to have fallen in love with the gladiatorial robot it uses at the outset of its broadcasts.
Apparently, the robot is named Cleatus. Apparently, he has helped FOX win an Emmy.
But explain why, during Sunday’s Minnesota Vikings-Dallas Cowboys playoff, the robot could be seen doing karate kicks, dancing and playing guitar in a corner of the screen during promos for FOX’s upcoming programming?
What, again, does this have to do with football?
All the networks are guilty of using some sort of overwrought imagery in their broadcasts, and the explosions and jets and robots and dancing girls and Hank Williams Jr. song retreads are an insult.
I can just see FOX executives in a meeting: “Football fans aren’t smart, and their attention span is short; let’s give them robots and shiny objects. It works for Palin.”
However, Fox did a neat thing by showing a clip of the 1975 Cowboys-Vikings playoff and the winning, last-ditch bomb Roger Staubach threw to Drew Pearson. It was the play that gave us the term “Hail Mary” in football, but Sunday’s clip proves again Pearson pushed off.
Just think, if the officials had called the penalty and the Cowboys lost, a Hail Mary might still be just a prayer and the Cowboys might not be America’s Team.
And by the way, when did America vote on that? I guess I missed it.
Anyway, it looks like Brett Favre’s four-touchdown performance for the Vikings has made that preseason, “Will he or won’t he?” soap opera look pretty worthwhile.
For me the highlight was seeing Tyrell Johnson of Rison and Arkansas State hit former Arkansas Razorback Felix Jones for a minimal gain just before Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo threw a second-half interception.
The meeting of the two players may be as close as we’ll ever come to an Arkansas-Arkansas State football game.
On a serious note, in the wake of the earthquake tragedy in Haiti, it was interesting and sobering to learn Sunday of the 20-plus Haitian-American players in the NFL. You would think this would have made former Monday Night Football broadcaster Rush Limbaugh more sensitive in his recent comments about U.S. aid to the stricken nation.
Then we moved on to the New York Jets-San Diego Chargers game on CBS.
Before it started, studio analyst Boomer Esiason said quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Jets had to play “a perfect football game” against the Chargers.
That’s key, since football WAS the game they were playing. If they had played a perfect football game while bowling, they would have had problems.
When quarterback Phillip Rivers led the host Chargers into battle, I shuddered with horrible memories, as I do every time I see that guy.
I covered Rivers’ first game when he was a true freshman starter for North Carolina State against Arkansas State in Raleigh, N.C., in 2000. It was a great game, played in intermittent rain and won by N.C. State in double overtime.
I left the stadium as the rain really began to come down, only to reach the parking lot to find I’d left my keys in my rental car, locked it AND left it running. Before the night was over I would also lose my satchel with my computer and airline tickets in it.
To this day I wake up expecting to find myself still stranded in Raleigh.
With the Chargers leading 7-0 at halftime, studio analyst Dan Marino said the “football teams” were similar and “can run the football.” Good, because if they were lacrosse teams trying to run the badminton shuttlecock, they would have been in trouble.
The game resumed and I learned during a commercial timeout one of the CSI shows had a sexy, golf-themed episode coming up.
Golfers and hanky panky? The public will never buy it. Not enough like real life.
Then color man Phil Simms said Jets kicker Jay Feely was “a football player,” which disabused me of my notion he was a platform diver.
The game, one of the better ones this postseason, ended in heartbreak for the Chargers as the Jets scored a 17-14 upset, but when it ended, I was left disconcerted by something I’d read online during a break in my two-day, football funfest.
The article said NFL games contain an average 11 minutes of real action.
Eleven minutes? Then what was I doing for six hours a day all weekend?
SPORTS >> Lady Bears rebound to win
Ashley Johnson was one of the late keys as Sylvan Hills defeated White Hall. By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Sylvan Hills’ tenacious defense carried over into the second half, as did its control of the rebounding against visiting White Hall on Friday.
What did not carry over was the Lady Bears’ ability to hit baskets.
But Sylvan Hills still found a way to beat the Lady Bulldogs 40-32 at Sylvan Hills to stay in the early running for the 5A-Southeast Conference title.
Scrappy play by Lady Bears post Ashley Johnson and a timely basket and free throw by guard Terica Kendrick helped hold off a late charge from the Lady Bulldogs, who closed a 24-16 halftime deficit to 29-25 at the end of the third quarter.
White Hall made it a one-score game with 41 seconds left when Haley Baugh scored on a putback to make it 34-32.
“That third quarter, we didn’t even score a basket I don’t think,” Lady Bears coach Bee Rodden said. “And we had opportunities.
We missed lay-ups and we got nuts with the ball.
“To play as bad as we did at times, and as lethargic as we did and missed all the opportunities we had in the third quarter and still win, that tells me that they played with a lot of heart. That was a train wreck, man.”
The Lady Bears (9-5, 2-1) built their lead in the second quarter with the help of transition baskets off steals. They kept generating turnovers in the third quarter, but missed five wide-open lay-ups.
The only Sylvan Hills points in the third quarter were a pair of free throws by Johnson with 6:30 left to make it 26-18, and three free throws by Dee Dee Lewis.
Lewis hit both free throws after a foul with 2:10 left to extend the lead to 29-22, but Kayla Walters made a three-pointer at the end of the quarter to bring the Lady Bulldogs within four.
White Hall kept a lid on Kendrick in the second half until she got loose with 26 seconds left to play.
White Hall had the game in control and had cut Sylvan Hills’ lead to 34-32, but Kendrick beat the press when she took an assist from Lindsay Smith and drove for the score underneath the basket.
She also drew a foul and tacked on the free throw to give the Lady Bears a 37-32 lead.
Kendrick led the Lady Bears with 11 points while Johnson and Lewis scored nine each.
Johnson led against Monticello earlier in the week with a 27-point, nine-rebound performance in a 54-51 road loss in which Sylvan Hills committed 25 turnovers.
“I think the conference race is pretty even,” Rodden said. “You’re going to have to win what you can win at home and take care of yourself, and sneak one or two out on the road.
“Last week, we rode all the way on a cold bus; we didn’t have any heat, and we came out cold. We just stood around and still only got beat by three.”
Emily Grace Ruggeri led White Hall with seven points.
SPORTS >> Losses aging youthful Sylvan Hills
Sylvan Hills’ Larry Ziegler gets off a falling-away shot against White Hall.By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
The start of 5A-Southeast Conference play has put a young Sylvan Hills team in an unfamiliar position.
After a solid start, the Bears are on a losing streak.
The latest setback came when White Hall beat Sylvan Hills 58-47 on Friday at Sylvan Hills. The Bears, with a talented group of sophomores leading the way, began the season 9-2, but they have dropped their first three conference games.
“This is their first spell of adversity; they’ve always been bigger than their opponent,” Bears coach Kevin Davis said. “Now, you’ve got young 10th-graders playing against a senior-laden team, and you’re going to have some adversity in that situation.
“But young guys have to fight their way through it and these guys have a good attitude. They’re ready to get back to the gym tomorrow and get to work.”
Sylvan Hills (9-5, 0-3) did not have trouble finding open shooters, but it did struggle to get the open shots to fall. White Hall (4-8, 1-1) reaped the benefits with solid defensive rebounding and effective shooting from the inside out.
“They played extremely well and shot the ball well,” Davis said. “I thought we did the things we worked hard on in practice. The biggest thing was there seemed to be a lid on the basket.
“We had some really good looks, especially in the first half. We just couldn’t get the ball down in the hole.”
The Bulldogs had an answer for every Bears run thanks to senior point guard Evan Sidwell, who stopped a 6-0 Sylvan Hills run in its tracks when he made a 32-foot jumper to put White Hall up 35-25 with 1:25 left in the third quarter.
Sidwell and teammate Tanner Moore also came through for the Bulldogs at the free-throw line in the last four minutes. Moore went 3 of 4 at the line while Sidwell hit all four of his attempts.
Meanwhile, Bears sophomore Archie Goodwin missed four straight chances at the free-throw line in the last two minutes.
Goodwin led the Bears with 18 points, but his 7 of 16 performance at the free-throw line proved to be one of the differences in the game.
Senior Matt Cable came off the bench early in the first quarter and had several open looks from the right side of the three-point line, but all of his attempts landed off the mark.
“Matt Cable came out and played with more intensity and tenaciousness than I’ve seen him play,” Davis said. “That kind of spread throughout all our guys.”
Trey Smith nailed a pair of long three-pointers in the final minute to cut White Hall’s lead to 56-45. Goodwin added a basket before two free throws by White Hall’s Dion Young set the final margin.
“They continued to battle,” Davis said. “I’ve really been on them about our defense and our rebounding, especially defensively. Also playing hard and leaving everything out there.
“I summed it up, I said, ‘Guys, we didn’t make shots.’ And I don’t know why. They weren’t bad shots, they were quality shots.
We just couldn’t knock them down tonight for some reason.”
SPORTS >> Falcons whip Eagles
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
The mercy rule was designed to give teams like Crossett a break.
But it worked out pretty well for North Pulaski too.
North Pulaski rolled to a 66-31 victory over Crossett on Friday, triggering the mercy rule that keeps the clock running after the Falcons claimed a 30-point lead in the fourth quarter at North Pulaski.
While the rule shortened Crossett’s beating, the one-sided game also gave North Pulaski a chance to rest some players and get experience for others as the Falcons head into a critical portion of their 5A-Southeast schedule.
“I needed that one, man,” coach Ray Cooper said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
North Pulaski was at Sylvan Hills on Tuesday night, beginning a tough three-game stretch that will also take them to Monticello on Friday and put them at home against Little Rock McClellan, which is looking more and more like a state title contender, on Tuesday.
With that in mind, Cooper, who led the Falcons to last year’s state final, was pleased with Friday’s performance. He said the effort was a continuation of the hard work he had seen in recent practices.
After the Falcons’ previous victory over Beebe, Cooper, who shook up his starting lineup in that game, said he had been unhappy with his players’ intensity.
“It wasn’t the scoreboard,” Cooper said of Friday’s victory. “It was the effort level and the unselfishness that they played with tonight. That’s what we’ve been trying to get out of them. It’s just ‘Give me everything you’ve got,’ and the practices were better.
“It’s been a long time since we had good practices and guys are getting back and refocused so that’s a good sign.”
Crossett had early leads of 3-0, 5-0 and 8-6, but North Pulaski opened the game determined to pressure the Eagles, and after Crossett’s fourth turnover, Aaron Cooper made a three-pointer from the left wing for the 9-8 lead, and the Falcons never trailed again.
North Pulaski led 19-14 after the first quarter and outscored Crossett 21-4 in the second period. The Eagles committed 19 turnovers against the Falcons’ pressure in the first half.
“We knew coming in that they were very, very talented, very, very well coached,” Crossett coach Kris DeJarnette said. “And you basically have everybody back from a state finals team last year. We used this as we’re trying to get better and we’re not going to see any better personnel than we saw tonight.”
North Pulaski (11-4, 3-0) didn’t let up much in the third quarter, outscoring Crossett 19-6. DeJarnette said North Pulaski’s defense, with its traps and double-teams, was better than just about any he’d seen.
“We played El Dorado a couple weeks ago, of course they’re a 6A team,” DeJarnette said. “El Dorado is a little bigger than they are, but it’s no better than that. And they’re running guys off the bench; their depth is unbelievable.”
“That’s who we are,” Cooper said of the defense. “It’s been a grind trying to get them to go and play at that height. We’ve done it in spurts, but I’ve been trying to get them to keep doing it with some consistency and tonight was the first time that we played defensively with that kind of intensity and toughness.”
The Falcons led 59-24 on Kyron Ware’s buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the third quarter. The big lead meant the entire fourth quarter was played under the mercy rule and it wasn’t long before the teams had cleared their benches.
“What we have finally is we’ve got everybody practicing hard,” Ray Cooper said. “It was good to reward the guys that are practicing hard every day and get them out there and get them involved. It was just good for the morale of the team.”
Ware and Christian Knight led a balanced Falcons effort with 11 points each. Aaron Cooper, Daquan Bryant and I.J. Ready each scored 10.
Clarence Malcolm led Crossett with 10 points.
Cooper was also pleased to be at full strength after limiting playing time or benching certain players, like Bryant, for minor disciplinary infractions. Bryant, 6-3, 225 pounds, was a contributor Friday, but he showed a little rust when he missed an open dunk in the first half.
“He’s missed several games and so he hadn’t played a lot over the last five- or six-game stretch,” Ray Cooper said. “He still doesn’t have his legs under him but he’s a big part of who we are and we need him.”
Ray Cooper was looking forward to a free Saturday without poring over game film, thanks to the Falcons’ satisfying performance Friday. But he said he didn’t expect to have any problem maintaining the team’s new-found intensity.
“I’ll find something wrong,” he said. “When we watch the tape I guarantee you I’ll find something wrong. But I’m glad we’ve got an extra day. Normally, tomorrow morning, I’m right on it. So tomorrow I’m just going to enjoy this one and we’ll jump on it Sunday.”
Crossett ran away with a victory in the girls game, beating North Pulaski 48-22 behind 15 points from Shanae Gavan and 13 from LaDandra Robinson.
The Lady Eagles took a 12-6 lead at the end of the first quarter and pulled away in the second, outscoring the Lady Falcons 19-4.
There was no letup in the third quarter, which Crossett dominated 13-5.
Densha Shelto led North Pulaski with eight points and Laura Dortch scored seven.
Leader sports editor
The mercy rule was designed to give teams like Crossett a break.
But it worked out pretty well for North Pulaski too.
North Pulaski rolled to a 66-31 victory over Crossett on Friday, triggering the mercy rule that keeps the clock running after the Falcons claimed a 30-point lead in the fourth quarter at North Pulaski.
While the rule shortened Crossett’s beating, the one-sided game also gave North Pulaski a chance to rest some players and get experience for others as the Falcons head into a critical portion of their 5A-Southeast schedule.
“I needed that one, man,” coach Ray Cooper said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
North Pulaski was at Sylvan Hills on Tuesday night, beginning a tough three-game stretch that will also take them to Monticello on Friday and put them at home against Little Rock McClellan, which is looking more and more like a state title contender, on Tuesday.
With that in mind, Cooper, who led the Falcons to last year’s state final, was pleased with Friday’s performance. He said the effort was a continuation of the hard work he had seen in recent practices.
After the Falcons’ previous victory over Beebe, Cooper, who shook up his starting lineup in that game, said he had been unhappy with his players’ intensity.
“It wasn’t the scoreboard,” Cooper said of Friday’s victory. “It was the effort level and the unselfishness that they played with tonight. That’s what we’ve been trying to get out of them. It’s just ‘Give me everything you’ve got,’ and the practices were better.
“It’s been a long time since we had good practices and guys are getting back and refocused so that’s a good sign.”
Crossett had early leads of 3-0, 5-0 and 8-6, but North Pulaski opened the game determined to pressure the Eagles, and after Crossett’s fourth turnover, Aaron Cooper made a three-pointer from the left wing for the 9-8 lead, and the Falcons never trailed again.
North Pulaski led 19-14 after the first quarter and outscored Crossett 21-4 in the second period. The Eagles committed 19 turnovers against the Falcons’ pressure in the first half.
“We knew coming in that they were very, very talented, very, very well coached,” Crossett coach Kris DeJarnette said. “And you basically have everybody back from a state finals team last year. We used this as we’re trying to get better and we’re not going to see any better personnel than we saw tonight.”
North Pulaski (11-4, 3-0) didn’t let up much in the third quarter, outscoring Crossett 19-6. DeJarnette said North Pulaski’s defense, with its traps and double-teams, was better than just about any he’d seen.
“We played El Dorado a couple weeks ago, of course they’re a 6A team,” DeJarnette said. “El Dorado is a little bigger than they are, but it’s no better than that. And they’re running guys off the bench; their depth is unbelievable.”
“That’s who we are,” Cooper said of the defense. “It’s been a grind trying to get them to go and play at that height. We’ve done it in spurts, but I’ve been trying to get them to keep doing it with some consistency and tonight was the first time that we played defensively with that kind of intensity and toughness.”
The Falcons led 59-24 on Kyron Ware’s buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the third quarter. The big lead meant the entire fourth quarter was played under the mercy rule and it wasn’t long before the teams had cleared their benches.
“What we have finally is we’ve got everybody practicing hard,” Ray Cooper said. “It was good to reward the guys that are practicing hard every day and get them out there and get them involved. It was just good for the morale of the team.”
Ware and Christian Knight led a balanced Falcons effort with 11 points each. Aaron Cooper, Daquan Bryant and I.J. Ready each scored 10.
Clarence Malcolm led Crossett with 10 points.
Cooper was also pleased to be at full strength after limiting playing time or benching certain players, like Bryant, for minor disciplinary infractions. Bryant, 6-3, 225 pounds, was a contributor Friday, but he showed a little rust when he missed an open dunk in the first half.
“He’s missed several games and so he hadn’t played a lot over the last five- or six-game stretch,” Ray Cooper said. “He still doesn’t have his legs under him but he’s a big part of who we are and we need him.”
Ray Cooper was looking forward to a free Saturday without poring over game film, thanks to the Falcons’ satisfying performance Friday. But he said he didn’t expect to have any problem maintaining the team’s new-found intensity.
“I’ll find something wrong,” he said. “When we watch the tape I guarantee you I’ll find something wrong. But I’m glad we’ve got an extra day. Normally, tomorrow morning, I’m right on it. So tomorrow I’m just going to enjoy this one and we’ll jump on it Sunday.”
Crossett ran away with a victory in the girls game, beating North Pulaski 48-22 behind 15 points from Shanae Gavan and 13 from LaDandra Robinson.
The Lady Eagles took a 12-6 lead at the end of the first quarter and pulled away in the second, outscoring the Lady Falcons 19-4.
There was no letup in the third quarter, which Crossett dominated 13-5.
Densha Shelto led North Pulaski with eight points and Laura Dortch scored seven.
Monday, January 18, 2010
TOP STORY >> Stumbaugh to seek old job
By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer
Former Cabot Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh said Friday the official announcement that he will run again will likely come next week and if not then, the week after. But he definitely is running for a second four-year term as mayor.
“Everyone knows I’m running. I’m excited about it and I’m just elated that there are so many people who are excited about me running,” Stumbaugh said in a phone interview from the same cell phone number he had as mayor three years ago.
Now working for IESI, a waste-management company where sales commissions are a part of his salary, Stumbaugh said he would take a pay cut to serve again as mayor.
“It isn’t always about the money,” he said. “It’s about making Cabot a better place to live.”
Stumbaugh said he doesn’t see it as a disadvantage that voters likely know more about him than about the announced candidates: Alderman Eddie Cook and Bill Cypert, secretary of the water and wastewater commission.
He will be able to stand on his record, which includes building the community center and animal shelter and holding a special census that increased the city’s cut of state tax revenue.
Asked about Mayor Eddie Joe Williams’ plight when he took over the office three years ago with little money to operate on, Stumbaugh said he could have said the same thing about city finances when he took over as mayor.
“I could have made statements, but we moved forward,” he said. “I did not spend, as the mayor, anything that the city council of Cabot didn’t approve for me to spend.
“There are things I would do different, but experience is the advantage I have over my opponents,” he said.
If elected, Stumbaugh said traffic would be a priority.
Williams, who is running for the state Senate, said he would improve traffic but Stumbaugh said it is worse now than before.
“You can’t get through Cabot in the morning and afternoon. I talked to three people last week who moved out because of traffic,” he said.
He also will get rid of the automated phone system at city hall. Elected officials should be available to all residents, he said. “When you call city hall, you have to push 15 buttons to get a warm body.”
Stumbaugh is in his third two-year term as chairman of the Lonoke County Republican Committee.
He says even though he’ll have to file as an independent since Cabot’s city elections are nonpartisan, he will run as a Republican.
“All my literature will say I’m Republican,” he said. “I’m proud to be a conservative Republican who feels like less government is better government.”
If there are some things Stumbaugh would change, his buzz words aren’t on the list. Through a year of campaigning and four years in office, he talked about being progressive and proactive. And he’s still talking about those concepts.
“We’re looking at moving Cabot ahead in a forward direction in a progressive and proactive manner,” he said.
Leader staff writer
Former Cabot Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh said Friday the official announcement that he will run again will likely come next week and if not then, the week after. But he definitely is running for a second four-year term as mayor.
“Everyone knows I’m running. I’m excited about it and I’m just elated that there are so many people who are excited about me running,” Stumbaugh said in a phone interview from the same cell phone number he had as mayor three years ago.
Now working for IESI, a waste-management company where sales commissions are a part of his salary, Stumbaugh said he would take a pay cut to serve again as mayor.
“It isn’t always about the money,” he said. “It’s about making Cabot a better place to live.”
Stumbaugh said he doesn’t see it as a disadvantage that voters likely know more about him than about the announced candidates: Alderman Eddie Cook and Bill Cypert, secretary of the water and wastewater commission.
He will be able to stand on his record, which includes building the community center and animal shelter and holding a special census that increased the city’s cut of state tax revenue.
Asked about Mayor Eddie Joe Williams’ plight when he took over the office three years ago with little money to operate on, Stumbaugh said he could have said the same thing about city finances when he took over as mayor.
“I could have made statements, but we moved forward,” he said. “I did not spend, as the mayor, anything that the city council of Cabot didn’t approve for me to spend.
“There are things I would do different, but experience is the advantage I have over my opponents,” he said.
If elected, Stumbaugh said traffic would be a priority.
Williams, who is running for the state Senate, said he would improve traffic but Stumbaugh said it is worse now than before.
“You can’t get through Cabot in the morning and afternoon. I talked to three people last week who moved out because of traffic,” he said.
He also will get rid of the automated phone system at city hall. Elected officials should be available to all residents, he said. “When you call city hall, you have to push 15 buttons to get a warm body.”
Stumbaugh is in his third two-year term as chairman of the Lonoke County Republican Committee.
He says even though he’ll have to file as an independent since Cabot’s city elections are nonpartisan, he will run as a Republican.
“All my literature will say I’m Republican,” he said. “I’m proud to be a conservative Republican who feels like less government is better government.”
If there are some things Stumbaugh would change, his buzz words aren’t on the list. Through a year of campaigning and four years in office, he talked about being progressive and proactive. And he’s still talking about those concepts.
“We’re looking at moving Cabot ahead in a forward direction in a progressive and proactive manner,” he said.
Friday, January 15, 2010
EDITORIAL >> Snyder’s goodbye
U.S. Rep. Vic Snyder announced Friday that he will not run for re-election, which means that the Second Congressional District will be represented in a radically different way.
It is anybody’s guess whether Snyder’s successor will be a Democrat or a Republican, a conservative, a moderate or a liberal, but we are quite sure that central Arkansas will not again be represented by the most quixotic member of Congress. It was Snyder’s quaint insistence upon principle that we liked more than his votes and that finally became his strength with voters.
Alone among the 535 members of Congress, Snyder did not have a permanent campaign fund. When he first ran for public office, a position in the state Senate from central Little Rock, he would not seek or accept campaign contributions until he actually filed for office, two months before the primaries. He hewed to that ideal in every race thereafter. Every other member of Congress raises money year-round, so that by election year he has a daunting campaign treasury. No principle trumps the imperative of getting re-elected.
Snyder has been an anomaly in so many ways. He was a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam but refused to exploit it. More often than any member of the House, he would cast lonely and politically risky votes. He cast one of the few votes against the invasion of Iraq when the country was being stampeded by war fervor, but he fought relentlessly for better support for soldiers and veterans.
A Snyder campaign was quaint in other ways. He never demonized his opponent or his critics. He was respectful, even complimentary, of even his meanest opponents. His campaigns were, well, just odd.
He would have faced another nasty race this fall. He has a cacophony of critics for his votes to expand health insurance to everyone and for a bill to reduce climate-warming gases.
There were rumors that Snyder would quit or at least not seek re-election after the birth of triplets last year and the frail recovery of his wife, Rev. Betsy Singleton. He spent every weekend and every day that Congress was not in session back at home with his family. Friday, he said could not cheat his family any longer.
The Second District is not apt to elect anyone like him, but we can hope that he or she will be at least a reasonable facsimile.
Ernie Dumas writes editorials for The Leader.
It is anybody’s guess whether Snyder’s successor will be a Democrat or a Republican, a conservative, a moderate or a liberal, but we are quite sure that central Arkansas will not again be represented by the most quixotic member of Congress. It was Snyder’s quaint insistence upon principle that we liked more than his votes and that finally became his strength with voters.
Alone among the 535 members of Congress, Snyder did not have a permanent campaign fund. When he first ran for public office, a position in the state Senate from central Little Rock, he would not seek or accept campaign contributions until he actually filed for office, two months before the primaries. He hewed to that ideal in every race thereafter. Every other member of Congress raises money year-round, so that by election year he has a daunting campaign treasury. No principle trumps the imperative of getting re-elected.
Snyder has been an anomaly in so many ways. He was a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam but refused to exploit it. More often than any member of the House, he would cast lonely and politically risky votes. He cast one of the few votes against the invasion of Iraq when the country was being stampeded by war fervor, but he fought relentlessly for better support for soldiers and veterans.
A Snyder campaign was quaint in other ways. He never demonized his opponent or his critics. He was respectful, even complimentary, of even his meanest opponents. His campaigns were, well, just odd.
He would have faced another nasty race this fall. He has a cacophony of critics for his votes to expand health insurance to everyone and for a bill to reduce climate-warming gases.
There were rumors that Snyder would quit or at least not seek re-election after the birth of triplets last year and the frail recovery of his wife, Rev. Betsy Singleton. He spent every weekend and every day that Congress was not in session back at home with his family. Friday, he said could not cheat his family any longer.
The Second District is not apt to elect anyone like him, but we can hope that he or she will be at least a reasonable facsimile.
Ernie Dumas writes editorials for The Leader.
TOP STORY >> Jacksonville will hold two pageants
The Miss Greater Jacksonville Pageant and the Miss Greater Jacksonville Outstanding Teen Pageant will be held on Feb. 27 at the Jacksonville Community Center.
Miss Greater Jacksonville contestants must be between the ages of 17 and 24.
Outstanding Teen contestants must be at least 13 years old by the date of the state pageant or no older than 17 and must not be a senior in high school.
Other contests will include: baby miss for children under 18 months old, toddler miss for children between the ages of 19 and 35 months old, wee miss for 3 to 4 year olds, tiny miss for 5 and 6 years old, little miss for 7 to 9 year olds and petite miss for 10 to 12 year olds. Each competition includes beauty, talent and photogenic portions.
Deadline to enter is Feb. 19.
For more information, call 501-982-3898 or 501-982-2222.
Winners will go on to compete in Miss Arkansas and Miss Outstanding Teen pageants, which will take place in Hot Springs later this year.
Miss Greater Jacksonville contestants must be between the ages of 17 and 24.
Outstanding Teen contestants must be at least 13 years old by the date of the state pageant or no older than 17 and must not be a senior in high school.
Other contests will include: baby miss for children under 18 months old, toddler miss for children between the ages of 19 and 35 months old, wee miss for 3 to 4 year olds, tiny miss for 5 and 6 years old, little miss for 7 to 9 year olds and petite miss for 10 to 12 year olds. Each competition includes beauty, talent and photogenic portions.
Deadline to enter is Feb. 19.
For more information, call 501-982-3898 or 501-982-2222.
Winners will go on to compete in Miss Arkansas and Miss Outstanding Teen pageants, which will take place in Hot Springs later this year.
EDITORIAL >> Disaster in Haiti
Americans may have become a little calloused to mass suffering because there have been so many bids for our conscience from scenes of war, terrorism, hurricanes and earthquakes in Indonesia, China, Iran and our own southern coast. But we have awakened each morning this week to images of unspeakable horror from Haiti that dispel any boredom with natural disasters.
The destruction and the suffering on that little island off our gulf shores are of a magnitude that they have awakened unusual humanitarian impulses for the people of other lands, or at least we hope they have. No disaster in memory has wrought such havoc, and it is upon the poorest and most abused people of the Western Hemisphere.
The first major earthquake along the Caribbean fault in 150 years fell upon the most vulnerable people, virtually destroying that country. Fifty thousand people or perhaps twice that lie dead under the wreckage, and most of the people of the sprawling capital and its environs are homeless and beyond relief.
Getting emergency relief to the survivors, in which the resourceful folks at Little Rock Air Force Base are employed, is a daunting proposition because the infrastructure has vanished in the rubble. Even the logistics of mass burials of corpses that lie everywhere seem impossible.
President Obama promised an all-out American effort to help, and that, of course, is our history. The private philanthropy of ordinary Americans may be unprecedented for foreign assistance. It ought to be.
But there are the usual discordant notes, sounded by people who do not think Haitians deserve our help. Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio icon, says that Haitians already get far more assistance from the U.S. government than they deserve and that American citizens should avoid helping. We wonder if that is because Haitians are black. The most unfathomable rant was from Rev. Pat Robertson, the television evangelist who had declared after the 9/11 attacks that God was punishing the United States for its tolerance of homosexuals and abortion.
Robertson said the tens of thousands of Haitians who died and the others whose lives were destroyed got what was coming to them. That presumably included the Catholic bishop and the other men of God who died in the collapse of the cathedral in Port au Prince. Robertson said God was punishing Haiti for rebelling 200 years ago and winning independence from Napoleon’s imperial rule. Independence was a “pact with the devil,” the good reverend said. The message was that Americans should not try to undo the Lord’s handiwork.
The history that Robertson referenced ought to impel us in the opposite direction. Haitians are a people with whom Americans have a special bond that dates to our mutual independence from imperialist Europe. Haitians came over and fought with Americans in the Revolutionary War.
Twenty-five years later, the African slaves who made up most of the population of the island rebelled and threw off French rule, but at a cost of 100,000 lives. It was the only slave rebellion that was also a war for independence, and Haiti was the first colony in Latin America to win independence from Europe.
The tyranny did not end with independence and continued down to modern times. The dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic on the other half of Hispaniola, carried on a vendetta against the blacks on the island, systematically slaughtering those caught on the Dominican side.
Haiti was ruled for 30 years after mid-century by the brutal Duvalier family and its terrorist militias, the Tonton Macoutes, until an uprising drove “Baby Doc” Duvalier away in 1986. President Reagan arranged for him to find exile in France.
Democracy has been uncertain for Haiti — President Clinton threatened U. S. armed intervention to preserve it — and not always kind.
No, Haitians deserve misfortune no more than did the peasants of the Chinese plains or the coastal dwellers in Louisiana and Mississippi who found themselves in the path of the worst hurricane in a century. We can’t be sure but we suspect that God expects us to help.
The destruction and the suffering on that little island off our gulf shores are of a magnitude that they have awakened unusual humanitarian impulses for the people of other lands, or at least we hope they have. No disaster in memory has wrought such havoc, and it is upon the poorest and most abused people of the Western Hemisphere.
The first major earthquake along the Caribbean fault in 150 years fell upon the most vulnerable people, virtually destroying that country. Fifty thousand people or perhaps twice that lie dead under the wreckage, and most of the people of the sprawling capital and its environs are homeless and beyond relief.
Getting emergency relief to the survivors, in which the resourceful folks at Little Rock Air Force Base are employed, is a daunting proposition because the infrastructure has vanished in the rubble. Even the logistics of mass burials of corpses that lie everywhere seem impossible.
President Obama promised an all-out American effort to help, and that, of course, is our history. The private philanthropy of ordinary Americans may be unprecedented for foreign assistance. It ought to be.
But there are the usual discordant notes, sounded by people who do not think Haitians deserve our help. Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing radio icon, says that Haitians already get far more assistance from the U.S. government than they deserve and that American citizens should avoid helping. We wonder if that is because Haitians are black. The most unfathomable rant was from Rev. Pat Robertson, the television evangelist who had declared after the 9/11 attacks that God was punishing the United States for its tolerance of homosexuals and abortion.
Robertson said the tens of thousands of Haitians who died and the others whose lives were destroyed got what was coming to them. That presumably included the Catholic bishop and the other men of God who died in the collapse of the cathedral in Port au Prince. Robertson said God was punishing Haiti for rebelling 200 years ago and winning independence from Napoleon’s imperial rule. Independence was a “pact with the devil,” the good reverend said. The message was that Americans should not try to undo the Lord’s handiwork.
The history that Robertson referenced ought to impel us in the opposite direction. Haitians are a people with whom Americans have a special bond that dates to our mutual independence from imperialist Europe. Haitians came over and fought with Americans in the Revolutionary War.
Twenty-five years later, the African slaves who made up most of the population of the island rebelled and threw off French rule, but at a cost of 100,000 lives. It was the only slave rebellion that was also a war for independence, and Haiti was the first colony in Latin America to win independence from Europe.
The tyranny did not end with independence and continued down to modern times. The dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic on the other half of Hispaniola, carried on a vendetta against the blacks on the island, systematically slaughtering those caught on the Dominican side.
Haiti was ruled for 30 years after mid-century by the brutal Duvalier family and its terrorist militias, the Tonton Macoutes, until an uprising drove “Baby Doc” Duvalier away in 1986. President Reagan arranged for him to find exile in France.
Democracy has been uncertain for Haiti — President Clinton threatened U. S. armed intervention to preserve it — and not always kind.
No, Haitians deserve misfortune no more than did the peasants of the Chinese plains or the coastal dwellers in Louisiana and Mississippi who found themselves in the path of the worst hurricane in a century. We can’t be sure but we suspect that God expects us to help.
TOP STORY >> Woman goes extra mile to save pets
Joy McManus is shown with Vayle, a pit bull who had been hit by a car. The dog was transported to LaMancha Animal Rescue in Pennsylvania and found a new home.By JEFFREY SMITH
Leader staff writer
More than a dozen dogs at the Beebe Animal Shelter were recently given a second chance at finding new homes at pet-rescue centers in the eastern United States.
Joy McManus of Romance is a volunteer who organized more than 60 drivers to transport 17 homeless dogs to three rescue organizations in New York and Pennsylvania.
A team of volunteer drivers relayed the dogs from Arkansas eastward. The trip had 20 legs with three drivers for each leg.
McManus had to find overnight hosts for the dogs, including a mother dog with a litter of 5-week-old puppies, and their drivers for the two-day trip the week before Christmas.
Delayed by a snowstorm, McManus had to find temporary foster homes in the Little Rock area for the dogs until the trip was rescheduled on Dec. 26.
McManus’ involvement with shelter rescues began in August 2006, when she lived in Texas. She was a junior high school art and journalism teacher and a Web site designer. She volunteered at a shelter in Texas.
Her plan was to photograph dogs at the shelter and post them online to help increase the local pet-adoption rates.
While in Texas, she met someone who worked many years in “companion” animal-rescue work. She learned about rescuing dogs and cats scheduled for euthanasia at animal shelters with low adoption rates.
McManus moved to the Beebe area in 2007 with her boyfriend, Doug Hall. Hall was earning his bachelor’s degree and had parents who living in the area.
She received an e-mail a few weeks earlier about pets in need of rescuing at the Beebe shelter. McManus met with Beebe animal control officer Horace Taylor in February 2007 to talk about rescue work at the shelter, which is located at the city landfill off Hwy. 31.
McManus said she began managing the volunteer rescue effort at the Beebe shelter in March 2007.
According to McManus, Taylor agreed to try things out as he did not like to see the dogs euthanized.
She said, “the initial and ongoing efforts over the past years have resulted in a shift from nearly upward of 95 percent euthanizations of all unclaimed, adoptable strays to nearly zero, with the exception to a large spike in the impounded dog population during the summer of 2009, when rescue acquisition hit an all-time low due to the recession.”
In 2009, McManus moved 129 dogs from Beebe to rescue organizations across the nation. Since her work began two years ago, she has relocated nearly 400 dogs.
McManus does not find homes for the dogs staying at the Beebe shelter. She meets the dogs, takes their photos and sees how they interact over several days. She learns about the dogs’ personalities and behaviors.
She then posts an e-mail plea to nonprofit pet-rescue organizations about the dogs. The information is then posted online on discussion groups and forums.
McManus then communicates with the directors of the rescue centers. When a rescue organization agrees to take in one of the dogs from the Beebe shelter, McManus arranges for the dogs to be checked out by a vet. McManus takes the dogs to the veterinary clinic with the assistance of fellow volunteer Glenda Cranford of North Little Rock.
Then McManus works on planning the routes to rescue centers on the East Coast, Minnesota and Arizona.
To prepare the dogs for the trip, McManus makes sure the dogs have all their paperwork and health certificates so they can be transported across state lines legally. The drivers have an information sheet and a photo of each dog being transported in their vehicle.
The driver’s contact information is a record for each leg of the trip driven.
She then makes sure the dogs have collars or leashes that buckle, food and medicine if needed.
McManus is in constant communication with the dog transporters until the dogs arrive at the rescue organizations.
The transport team is a volunteer effort.
McManus said, “It is their gas money, their time and their vehicle wear and tear they are sacrificing, because they want to help companion animals get a second chance.
“They are the unsung heroes to complete the cycle from a municipal kill-shelter to rescue organizations.”
Moving 17 dogs was the largest transport McManus has undertaken.
She said, “Routine transports involve four or five dogs at a maximum. Circumstances surrounding this particular transport involved the necessity of removing all impounds from the shelter prior to the animal-control officer’s two week, holiday vacation departure coupled with several previously pulled groups of dogs that could not be transported at the time of the pull due to health reasons.”
With one group of dogs, a mother recently gave birth to puppies. The puppies could not travel to the East Coast until they were old enough to be moved from car to car safely. A second group of puppies needed two sets of booster shots over three weeks for their immune systems.
Intake coordinator Alison Abraham at LaMancha Animal Rescue in Unionville, Pa., said the organization has taken in dogs from Beebe along with dogs from other states.
She said up north, “People do not let their dogs run loose that are not spayed or neutered. A family dog would be fixed by the time they are 6 months old unless bought for breeding.
“Most dogs sleep in dog beds in the living room, bedroom or kitchen, but tied up to the dog house (outside) is very rare.”
Abraham said in the northern states there is a larger adoption rate and a lesser amount of puppies than in the South. She said people would rather adopt than purchase a dog from a breeder. People feel they are helping out an animal that didn’t have a home that would still be in a shelter.
Abraham said many families are looking for a Labrador retriever or a hound for a good family dog. She said pit bulls and pit bull mixes make up much of the populations at animal shelters in the North.
She said one of the reasons is that pit bulls are a status symbol to inner-city youth.
A majority of the dogs McManus transports from Beebe to pet rescue shelters are Labrador retriever, hound mixes, terrier mixes and stray pit bulls.
PetsAlive is a no-kill animal shelter in Middletown, N.Y. The organization takes in animals from all across the U.S. from shelters that are euthanizing dogs due to lack of space at their facilities.
Executive director Kerry Clair said the rescue center has between 60 to 80 dog adoptions a month.
“We have a 100-percent adoption rate. It is very rare to have a dog more than a month that was pulled from the South,” Clair said.
She said the dogs are adopted within a week after coming off quarantine. Five dogs from the Beebe shelter that were transported to PetsAlive during the weekend after Christmas have already found new homes.
Clair said there are more resources for pet owners in the North. Many organizations offer low-cost spay and neutering from $50 or less. She said there are more humane education programs in the school systems about pet sterilization.
She said, “If the legislatures in the South would recognize that it is cheaper to spay a female dog than to euthanize her offspring, they would offer low-cost spay and neuter clinics to the communities.”
TOP STORY >> Snyder will not run for re-election
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
Second District Cong. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, announced Friday that after seven terms, he would not seek re-election, choosing family over what was expected to be a rough-and-tumble campaign against former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin.
Although Snyder hadn’t begun campaigning or raising money, Griffin a former aide to Karl Rove, had a double-digit lead over the incumbent, according to at least one recent poll.
Snyder, 62, serves on the House Armed Services Committee, where he chairs the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, the Committee on Veterans Affairs and the Joint Economic Committee.
His style was that of a thoughtful, unruffled public servant in an era of bare-knuckle politicians hurling vitriol and invective.
Snyder and his wife, the Rev. Betsy Singleton, have four young boys, including triplets. He was active in helping to bring programs and construction projects to Little Rock Air Force Base worth millions of dollars.
Snyder said in his announcement, “2010 will be a robust election year during which great forces collide to set the direction for our country for another two years.”
“Over the last several weeks Betsy and I have had discussions with family and friends, including other members of Congress — Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and our own Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) regarding the appropriate balance between family and congressional service when a family has very young children. I have concluded that these election-year forces are no match for the persuasive and powerful attraction of our three one-year-old boys under the leadership of their three-year-old brother, and I have decided not to run for re-election.”
“Two weeks ago, my campaign manager came on board,” said Snyder, “but that first morning, I advised him to do nothing to begin the campaign because of my doubts regarding running. The onset of the new year, the time I always begin organizing my campaigns, did nothing to remove these doubts.”
Snyder’s announcement caught the Democratic Party of Arkansas by surprise, but executive director Mariah Hatta put the best face on the situation.
“We have heard from several who might be interested in running,” she said. “We will definitely have a strong nominee. I have no doubt about that. The Second District is the most Democratic in the state. It has historically sent democrats to Washington and elected Democrats on all levels.”
She declined to say who had expressed interest in the Democratic nomination for Snyder’s seat.
“We will miss him but we respect his decision,” Hatta said. “I can’t imagine raising four children.”
Griffin, the presumptive Republican candidate, issued the following statement: “I respect Rep. Snyder’s decision not to seek re-election. I thank him for his many years of service to the nation, both in uniform and in Washington.”
Griffin capped perhaps the best day of his political career, announcing that Little Rock businessman Warren Stephens had agreed to be the finance chairman of his campaign.
Snyder, who is both a lawyer and a doctor, said he hadn’t thought much about what he would do next, but that “it is clear from observing how much our four little boys eat that I will be working.”
Snyder, an Oregon native, dropped out of college and joined the Marines, working as a medic in Vietnam and reaching the rank of corporal.
He returned to college, earning a medical degree from the Oregon Health Sciences Center in 1979.
He came to Arkansas to serve his residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
He volunteered as a doctor at refugee camps in Cambodia, Thailand, El Salvador, Honduras, Ethiopia and Sudan.
He then attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School in 1988 while still operating a family medical practice.
He frequently supported traditional liberal issues, and sometimes stood up for unpopular causes, such as repealing Arkansas’ sodomy law.
In Congress, he was one of 113 representatives to vote against authorizing the invasion of Iraq. He was one of only two who voted against prosecuting Saddam Hussein.
“He is a remarkable man who has served our country in so many capacities – in the Marine Corps, as a lawyer and a doctor, and as the proud representative of Arkansas’ Second District,” said Sen. Blanche Lincoln. “He has given an incredible amount of time and energy to the people of Arkansas, and he will be missed.”
“He has built a strong reputation as a man of principle, a trait he carried while serving his nation as a U.S. Marine in combat and a member of Congress,” Pryor said. “I know that whatever the future holds for Vic, he will touch and inspire others; but most importantly, he will be able to spend precious time with his family.”
Leader senior staff writer
Second District Cong. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, announced Friday that after seven terms, he would not seek re-election, choosing family over what was expected to be a rough-and-tumble campaign against former U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin.
Although Snyder hadn’t begun campaigning or raising money, Griffin a former aide to Karl Rove, had a double-digit lead over the incumbent, according to at least one recent poll.
Snyder, 62, serves on the House Armed Services Committee, where he chairs the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, the Committee on Veterans Affairs and the Joint Economic Committee.
His style was that of a thoughtful, unruffled public servant in an era of bare-knuckle politicians hurling vitriol and invective.
Snyder and his wife, the Rev. Betsy Singleton, have four young boys, including triplets. He was active in helping to bring programs and construction projects to Little Rock Air Force Base worth millions of dollars.
Snyder said in his announcement, “2010 will be a robust election year during which great forces collide to set the direction for our country for another two years.”
“Over the last several weeks Betsy and I have had discussions with family and friends, including other members of Congress — Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and our own Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) regarding the appropriate balance between family and congressional service when a family has very young children. I have concluded that these election-year forces are no match for the persuasive and powerful attraction of our three one-year-old boys under the leadership of their three-year-old brother, and I have decided not to run for re-election.”
“Two weeks ago, my campaign manager came on board,” said Snyder, “but that first morning, I advised him to do nothing to begin the campaign because of my doubts regarding running. The onset of the new year, the time I always begin organizing my campaigns, did nothing to remove these doubts.”
Snyder’s announcement caught the Democratic Party of Arkansas by surprise, but executive director Mariah Hatta put the best face on the situation.
“We have heard from several who might be interested in running,” she said. “We will definitely have a strong nominee. I have no doubt about that. The Second District is the most Democratic in the state. It has historically sent democrats to Washington and elected Democrats on all levels.”
She declined to say who had expressed interest in the Democratic nomination for Snyder’s seat.
“We will miss him but we respect his decision,” Hatta said. “I can’t imagine raising four children.”
Griffin, the presumptive Republican candidate, issued the following statement: “I respect Rep. Snyder’s decision not to seek re-election. I thank him for his many years of service to the nation, both in uniform and in Washington.”
Griffin capped perhaps the best day of his political career, announcing that Little Rock businessman Warren Stephens had agreed to be the finance chairman of his campaign.
Snyder, who is both a lawyer and a doctor, said he hadn’t thought much about what he would do next, but that “it is clear from observing how much our four little boys eat that I will be working.”
Snyder, an Oregon native, dropped out of college and joined the Marines, working as a medic in Vietnam and reaching the rank of corporal.
He returned to college, earning a medical degree from the Oregon Health Sciences Center in 1979.
He came to Arkansas to serve his residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
He volunteered as a doctor at refugee camps in Cambodia, Thailand, El Salvador, Honduras, Ethiopia and Sudan.
He then attended the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law School in 1988 while still operating a family medical practice.
He frequently supported traditional liberal issues, and sometimes stood up for unpopular causes, such as repealing Arkansas’ sodomy law.
In Congress, he was one of 113 representatives to vote against authorizing the invasion of Iraq. He was one of only two who voted against prosecuting Saddam Hussein.
“He is a remarkable man who has served our country in so many capacities – in the Marine Corps, as a lawyer and a doctor, and as the proud representative of Arkansas’ Second District,” said Sen. Blanche Lincoln. “He has given an incredible amount of time and energy to the people of Arkansas, and he will be missed.”
“He has built a strong reputation as a man of principle, a trait he carried while serving his nation as a U.S. Marine in combat and a member of Congress,” Pryor said. “I know that whatever the future holds for Vic, he will touch and inspire others; but most importantly, he will be able to spend precious time with his family.”
SPORTS >> North Pulaski girls trip state semifinalist Beebe
Beebe’s Shayln Young takes a shot over North Pulaski guard Jaqueline Moragne in a 5A Southeast Conference game.
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
North Pulaski’s confidence grew right along with its lead in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game against the Beebe Lady Badgers.
The Lady Falcons held Beebe scoreless in the final 2:36 as North Pulaski claimed its first 5A-Southeast Conference victory of the season, 50-39, at the Falcons Nest.
North Pulaski (2-7, 1-1) led the entire game until Lady Badgers guard Alexis Miguel made a pull-up jumper to give Beebe (0-14) the 31-30 lead with 3:41 left in the third quarter. But pint-sized Lady Falcon Breanna Trent answered with two big outside shots for the three-point lead, and North Pulaski never trailed again.
“It felt good. The girls worked hard,” Lady Falcons coach Todd Romaine said. “And that’s why we get so frustrated. This is probably the first complete game that I’ve seen in a while from a North Pulaski girls basketball team. They ran every play they were asked to do; they stayed within their game and played smart.”
Foul trouble hurt Beebe’s inside game, as senior post player Danna Jackson was on the bench for much of the second half.
Jackson kept the Lady Badgers in it early with six points in the first quarter, but she picked up three fouls in the first half. She got her fourth to start the fourth quarter, which forced her to sit out until the final minutes.
The Lady Falcons went on a 7-2 run in that stretch to improve a 36-33 lead at the end of the third to 43-35 with 4:37 left in the fourth, when senior guard Laura Dortch scored off an assist following a defensive rebound by Bianca Harper.
“The balls were falling tonight,” Romaine said. “Friday night, we played over at Mills, and we couldn’t hit anything. Tonight, every shot we made seemed to go in. We had a lot of point production from several people, and that helped.”
Most of Denesha Shelton’s point production came in the first half for North Pulaski. Shelton scored all but two of her 13 points in the first two quarters, including a pair of three-pointers in the first quarter to help the Lady Falcons take an early lead.
She sank one more three-pointer in the second quarter as North Pulaski entered halftime with a 26-21 lead.
“Not having a point guard hurts us, but Laura Dortch has stepped up and done an excellent job there,” Romaine said. “Bianca, of course, any given night she’s an offensive threat. Denesha brings us a good perimeter threat when she’s shooting well. Everybody put what they had into the game tonight, and I’m proud of them.”
Harper led the way for the Lady Falcons with 14 points while Dortch finished with 12. Trent added nine points.
Harper fended off Beebe’s first second-half run with a pair of inside shots that extended a 26-25 lead to 30-25 with close to six minutes left.
Beebe followed with its best run of the game. Amanda Wheeler’s basket with 5:39 left cut it to three, and post player Kelsie Walker cut the Lady Falcons’ lead further with an inside shot to make it 30-29. Miguel followed with her shot in the lane to complete the 6-0 run and give Beebe its short-lived lead.
“One challenge we have is that they have to start believing in themselves that they can win,” Romaine said. “There are still going to be some challenges up and down, but this is the team that we have, and that’s how they can play if they’ll just get out and play.”
Wheeler led the Lady Badgers with 10 points. Jackson added nine and Shayln Young had eight.
North Pulaski played host to Crossett Friday and will play at Sylvan Hills on Tuesday. Beebe played host to Monticello Friday night.
SPORTS >> Cleanup role new position for McGwire
By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
So Mark McGwire has come clean.
And judging by his reduced size, the former St. Louis Cardinals slugger has also become clean.
The one-time, single-season home-run king finally admitted Monday to on-and-off use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs during his career with the Oakland A’s and Cardinals.
It was the confession McGwire couldn’t bring himself to make before Congress when he said, on March 17, 2005, that he wasn’t “here to talk about the past.”
So why now?
Of course, McGwire, who famously dueled the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa while hitting a then-record 70 home runs in 1998, is working on some image rehab prior to reporting to the Cardinals as their new hitting coach. Apparently he has been hired to inject some offense into the team.
Which makes one wonder if Cards manager Tony La Russa, who hired McGwire, is taking something more mind altering, given the media circus sure to ensue.
Judging by the recent Hall of Fame balloting, McGwire has a lot more rehabbing to do. In his fourth year on the ballot, McGwire received 23.7 percent of the vote.
The only player voted in, former Montreal Expos and Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson, earned 77.9 percent of the votes cast by the 10-year members of the Baseball Writers of America.
Dawson, who also played for the Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins, banged out 438 home runs and 1,591 RBI in his 20-year career. If a guy could have benefited from the recuperative powers of steroids, it would have been the creaky-kneed Dawson, who nonetheless stole 314 bases and took a blank check from the Cubs to play on the kinder natural grass of Wrigley Field.
But by all accounts and appearances, Dawson — whose career ended in 1996 — stayed clean.
McGwire hit 583 homers and has the greatest ratio of home runs to at-bats, but has never earned 25 percent of the Hall of Fame vote. The guidelines state “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team (s) on which they played.”
And let me tell you, the Baseball Writers, well-meaning soreheads that they are, take this seriously. Which is why McGwire may never be a hall of famer and the equally suspect Sosa, who finished 1998 with 66 homers, is next in line to be shunned.
McGwire is not an evil man. He has apologized to the widow of Roger Maris, who set the record McGwire broke with 61 home runs in 1961.
In my only interview with McGwire in spring training of 2000, with the steroid scandal still simmering mostly below the surface, we talked about his off-season work on behalf of sexually abused children, which proves the drugs hadn’t affected his heart.
Unfortunately, the few sportswriters who tried to out steroid users during the home run heyday were largely ignored or shouted down. In those days, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to believe the ball was juiced.
By the time I visited Cubs spring training a few years later, I was ready to ask Sosa a steroids question, after which he angrily broke off the interview.
It may be the proudest moment of my career.
People who defend McGwire say he and Sosa, with their jocular competition in 1998, brought fans back to baseball after the 1994 strike. But they left us with another mess, and there is no way they should be allowed in the Hall of Fame, just like Pete
Rose who broke the taboo of betting on baseball.
Love McGwire or hate him, you can’t signal that players can break the game’s primary ethical rules and be rewarded later as long as they put up the numbers.
But I also submit McGwire and players like him are victims of a sort, guys trying to find an edge in a demanding, highly competitive, big-money sport.
A friend in my business raised an interesting hypothetical: If there were a drug that could make you a better, more prolific, consistently award-winning sportswriter, would you take it?
I know I need all the help I can get, but the serious answer is it depends.
Would I take such a drug on general principles? No. I don’t think so.
But, what if I’m in a newsroom and I’m seeing my fellow sportswriters taking such a drug?
What if I see them banging out reams of quality copy with no letup, raking in the statewide and national awards, while I sit at my desk and know they’re doping, while also knowing I’m being left behind and not getting my share of the glory?
Then what?
I’m glad it’s a hypothetical question.
Leader sports editor
So Mark McGwire has come clean.
And judging by his reduced size, the former St. Louis Cardinals slugger has also become clean.
The one-time, single-season home-run king finally admitted Monday to on-and-off use of steroids and performance-enhancing drugs during his career with the Oakland A’s and Cardinals.
It was the confession McGwire couldn’t bring himself to make before Congress when he said, on March 17, 2005, that he wasn’t “here to talk about the past.”
So why now?
Of course, McGwire, who famously dueled the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa while hitting a then-record 70 home runs in 1998, is working on some image rehab prior to reporting to the Cardinals as their new hitting coach. Apparently he has been hired to inject some offense into the team.
Which makes one wonder if Cards manager Tony La Russa, who hired McGwire, is taking something more mind altering, given the media circus sure to ensue.
Judging by the recent Hall of Fame balloting, McGwire has a lot more rehabbing to do. In his fourth year on the ballot, McGwire received 23.7 percent of the vote.
The only player voted in, former Montreal Expos and Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson, earned 77.9 percent of the votes cast by the 10-year members of the Baseball Writers of America.
Dawson, who also played for the Boston Red Sox and Florida Marlins, banged out 438 home runs and 1,591 RBI in his 20-year career. If a guy could have benefited from the recuperative powers of steroids, it would have been the creaky-kneed Dawson, who nonetheless stole 314 bases and took a blank check from the Cubs to play on the kinder natural grass of Wrigley Field.
But by all accounts and appearances, Dawson — whose career ended in 1996 — stayed clean.
McGwire hit 583 homers and has the greatest ratio of home runs to at-bats, but has never earned 25 percent of the Hall of Fame vote. The guidelines state “Voting shall be based upon the player’s record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contribution to the team (s) on which they played.”
And let me tell you, the Baseball Writers, well-meaning soreheads that they are, take this seriously. Which is why McGwire may never be a hall of famer and the equally suspect Sosa, who finished 1998 with 66 homers, is next in line to be shunned.
McGwire is not an evil man. He has apologized to the widow of Roger Maris, who set the record McGwire broke with 61 home runs in 1961.
In my only interview with McGwire in spring training of 2000, with the steroid scandal still simmering mostly below the surface, we talked about his off-season work on behalf of sexually abused children, which proves the drugs hadn’t affected his heart.
Unfortunately, the few sportswriters who tried to out steroid users during the home run heyday were largely ignored or shouted down. In those days, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to believe the ball was juiced.
By the time I visited Cubs spring training a few years later, I was ready to ask Sosa a steroids question, after which he angrily broke off the interview.
It may be the proudest moment of my career.
People who defend McGwire say he and Sosa, with their jocular competition in 1998, brought fans back to baseball after the 1994 strike. But they left us with another mess, and there is no way they should be allowed in the Hall of Fame, just like Pete
Rose who broke the taboo of betting on baseball.
Love McGwire or hate him, you can’t signal that players can break the game’s primary ethical rules and be rewarded later as long as they put up the numbers.
But I also submit McGwire and players like him are victims of a sort, guys trying to find an edge in a demanding, highly competitive, big-money sport.
A friend in my business raised an interesting hypothetical: If there were a drug that could make you a better, more prolific, consistently award-winning sportswriter, would you take it?
I know I need all the help I can get, but the serious answer is it depends.
Would I take such a drug on general principles? No. I don’t think so.
But, what if I’m in a newsroom and I’m seeing my fellow sportswriters taking such a drug?
What if I see them banging out reams of quality copy with no letup, raking in the statewide and national awards, while I sit at my desk and know they’re doping, while also knowing I’m being left behind and not getting my share of the glory?
Then what?
I’m glad it’s a hypothetical question.
SPORTS >> Owls’ Southerland steps in and out
Abundant Life guard Mike Stramiello goes up between two Conway Christian defenders. By TODD TRAUB
Leader sports editor
Big double-zero had no problem reaching double figures Tuesday night.
Abundant Life’s 6-6 center Garrett Southerland scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Owls to a 64-36, mercy-ruled victory over Conway Christian in a 5-2A Conference game at Abundant Life.
Southerland hit from outside early and used his height to score inside late as Conway Christian struggled to find an answer all night.
“My post players are my best outside shooters,” Owls coach Tim Ballard said. “And my guards can shoot it but my post player can do that. But I think once he starts doing one thing, people forget he can do the other things too.
“He can score inside too and rebound and guard. I’ve been real proud of Garrett.”
For good reason. Southerland hit four three-pointers in the first half, including his first from the top of the key to make it 6-3 with 5:25 left in the first quarter.
Abundant Life (21-4, 6-0) never trailed again.
Southerland, and the Owls, truly got up to speed in the second quarter.
Abundant Life already led 15-9, but Southerland made three more three-pointers as the Owls outscored the Eagles 23-5 in the quarter and took a 36-14 halftime lead.
“He really hurt us out there,” Conway Christian coach Shane Davis said of Southerland. “I think he had 16 first-half points. We knew he could shoot out there but we didn’t think he could do it that much that often and we didn’t do a very good job of contesting the shot.”
Mike Stramiello added six points during the Owls’ big second quarter. The Eagles’ only points came on a three-pointer from the right corner by Zach Johnson and a basket from Kirby Powell.
But Johnson picked up his second foul on a charge with 7:10 left in the second quarter, and he committed his third in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
“Their No. 3 got in foul trouble and had a seat and that’s really when we exposed them, I think,” Ballard said.
The second quarter was just too much to overcome, Davis said.
“We have a tendency, when we get down, we kind of hold our heads down,” Davis said. “We don’t do a good job of keeping playing. Us getting down that first quarter, it was 15-9. That second quarter, it was 23-5, I believe it was, and we just couldn’t recover from that.”
The Eagles outscored the Owls 13-12 in the third quarter, but Southerland switched up his game and scored eight points, all from inside the three-point line, to help keep Conway Christian from cutting into the big lead.
After wholesale substitution by both teams with 3:40 left in the game, the Owls finally triggered the mercy rule when Clark Endy scored from inside for the 64-34 lead.
The rule requires the clock to run once a team reaches a 30-point lead any time in the fourth quarter.
As much as Southerland shone on offense, Ballard said the defense had a role in things Tuesday.
“They’re hard to figure out how to play because we usually just get out and press them like crazy and make it a rat race and go all or nothing early,” Ballard said. “We decided to just kind of guard them for awhile and see what happens and play a tight defense.”
Stramiello added 14 points for Abundant Life and George Herring scored 10.
Powell led Conway Christian with 15 points.
Ballard agreed it is a challenge to keep his team focused without letup in such a runaway victory. Especially after Abundant Life had already beaten or hung tough with teams like North Little Rock, Benton, Pulaski Oak Grove and some 7A-sized schools in a recent tournament in Tennessee.
“I tell them how bad we are every game, even when we win,” Ballard said jokingly. “That usually helps.”
Ballard said his team might have had something else on its mind Tuesday. Abundant Life was going for the regular season sweep at Conway St. Joseph on Friday night.
“They don’t need to get re-focused. They’re ready,” Ballard said. “They may have been thinking about them tonight, as much as I tried to keep that from happening.”
SPORTS >> Jacksonville fights off slow start, falls short against Hall
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
Jacksonville’s second-half comeback at Little Rock Hall fell just short on Friday, as the Warriors held off the Red Devils 59-52 in 6A-East Conference play.
Jacksonville (5-8, 1-1) found itself facing a 25-point deficit in the first half but held Hall to only free throws in the third quarter to climb back into the game.
“The first half, I don’t even think my team got off the bus,” Red Devils coach Victor Joyner said. “We sat around and watched a good basketball game and got down by 25. There’s not much you can say about that first half, but we were able to come back in the third quarter.”
Hall (13-1, 1-0), seeking a measure of revenge for last year’s loss to Jacksonville in the 6A state finals, outscored the Red Devils 21-9 in the first quarter and 19-6 in the second for a 40-15 lead at halftime.
“The deal is, we’re a young team, and you have to know that in every conference game, you have got to come out competing from the jump ball and be mentally prepared,” Joyner said.
The Red Devils stepped up their defensive intensity in the third quarter and held the Warriors without a field goal and to only four free throws. That allowed Jacksonville, scoring 18 points of its own, to reduce the large deficit to a more manageable 44-33entering the final quarter.
But Hall was able to regroup for the last eight minutes, and while the Red Devils outscored the Warriors 19-15 in the fourth quarter, it was not enough.
Senior guard Deshone McClure led Jacksonville with 16 points. Rakeem Dickerson was the only Hall player to reach double figures with 12 points, while David Rivers and Myles Taylor each added nine.
“Hall is so much bigger than us,” Joyner said. “They go 6-10, 6-7, 6-5, while we go 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, so for them to battle back like that, you’ve got to look at it in a positive light that we’re a team that can compete.
“We just have to learn that you need to go four quarters. But we jumped some big hurdles, and we’re beginning to have something that we can hang our hats on.”
Hall played at Little Rock Parkview on Friday and will play at West Memphis on Tuesday.
Leader sportswriter
Jacksonville’s second-half comeback at Little Rock Hall fell just short on Friday, as the Warriors held off the Red Devils 59-52 in 6A-East Conference play.
Jacksonville (5-8, 1-1) found itself facing a 25-point deficit in the first half but held Hall to only free throws in the third quarter to climb back into the game.
“The first half, I don’t even think my team got off the bus,” Red Devils coach Victor Joyner said. “We sat around and watched a good basketball game and got down by 25. There’s not much you can say about that first half, but we were able to come back in the third quarter.”
Hall (13-1, 1-0), seeking a measure of revenge for last year’s loss to Jacksonville in the 6A state finals, outscored the Red Devils 21-9 in the first quarter and 19-6 in the second for a 40-15 lead at halftime.
“The deal is, we’re a young team, and you have to know that in every conference game, you have got to come out competing from the jump ball and be mentally prepared,” Joyner said.
The Red Devils stepped up their defensive intensity in the third quarter and held the Warriors without a field goal and to only four free throws. That allowed Jacksonville, scoring 18 points of its own, to reduce the large deficit to a more manageable 44-33entering the final quarter.
But Hall was able to regroup for the last eight minutes, and while the Red Devils outscored the Warriors 19-15 in the fourth quarter, it was not enough.
Senior guard Deshone McClure led Jacksonville with 16 points. Rakeem Dickerson was the only Hall player to reach double figures with 12 points, while David Rivers and Myles Taylor each added nine.
“Hall is so much bigger than us,” Joyner said. “They go 6-10, 6-7, 6-5, while we go 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, so for them to battle back like that, you’ve got to look at it in a positive light that we’re a team that can compete.
“We just have to learn that you need to go four quarters. But we jumped some big hurdles, and we’re beginning to have something that we can hang our hats on.”
Hall played at Little Rock Parkview on Friday and will play at West Memphis on Tuesday.
SPORTS >> Falcons looking for groove
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
It’s not point production, upcoming opponents or even North Pulaski’s record that concerns Falcons coach Ray Cooper at this point in the season.
What does concern Cooper, after the Falcons beat the Beebe Badgers 77-61 on Tuesday, is the lack of intensity he is seeing from his team as North Pulaski prepares to enter its toughest stretch of play in the 5A-Southeast Conference.
While Tuesday’s performance was good enough to beat the Badgers, it still wasn’t exactly what Cooper was looking for from a team that reached the 5A state final last season.
“Right now, we haven’t been playing with the passion and hunger we need,” Cooper said. “Last year, we had that intensity; this year is different. We play well in spurts and then dial it back. I’m holding them accountable for that.”
The Falcons are entering a stretch of four critical 5A-Southeast match-ups against Crossett, Sylvan Hills, Monticello and finally, multi-talented Little Rock McClellan, which has proved dominant in early conference games.
But it is not the name on the schedule Cooper is concerned with.
“I don’t look at who’s next; I’m just looking at the calendar,” Cooper said. “There’s only about 5-6 weeks of basketball left.
You have to peak somewhere in that time and hit your stride. You have to get in a flow, and we haven’t been able to find it. I want us to hit a stretch where we start to see a playoff mentality.”
The first indication that Cooper was looking to make a statement came when the starting lineup was announced in the pregame and regular starters Aaron Cooper, Kyron Ware and Bryan Colson were sent to the sideline.
Seniors Joe Agee and Christian Knight, along with junior Alonte Mitchell, led the Falcons (10-4, 2-0) in the early going until Ware and company checked in midway through the first quarter.
“You can tell that how you practice carries into a game,” Ray Cooper said. “That was what led to a different starting lineup for us tonight. We went with the people who were giving us the most in practice.”
Despite the different look early, North Pulaski still established the outside game with three-point shots by Braylon Spicer and Agee. Spicer took the opening tip for a three-pointer, and Agee added his trey with 6:47 left in the quarter to give the Falcons a 6-1 lead.
The Badgers were significantly out-sized and did not have near the depth as the Falcons, but still managed to keep it competitive most of the way.
Sophomore forward Braden Jones cut North Pulaski’s lead to 14-11 with a wide-open inside shot off an assist by junior guard Devonte Young with 1:38 left in the first quarter.
Jones hit the first of two free throws to make it a two-point game with 58 seconds left before a Ware basket and an Aaron Cooper free throw extended the Falcons’ lead to five.
The margin grew very little for the Falcons in the second quarter as the Badgers battled to stay within 37-29 at halftime.
“That’s another thing,” Ray Cooper said, taking note of Beebe’s effort. “We didn’t go to the playoffs two years ago, and last year we were able to make it to the state championship game. Now, teams have got us in their sights. They play us with a greater intensity, and with more of a chip on their shoulders. We haven’t identified that yet.”
North Pulaski finally began to establish the tempo to start the third quarter. Aaron Cooper began the second half with three of his game-high 23 points with 7:35 left to give the Falcons their first double-digit lead of the night, 39-29.
Agee followed with his second three-pointer and Cooper struck from three-point range again with 4:34 left in the period to stretch the lead to 47-33.
What followed next was a bit embarrassing but mostly humorous for young sophomore Beebe guard K.J. Maples, who came out of a timeout attempting to score on the wrong end of the court.
Maples did not make either attempt and was able to laugh it off with the other players and fans once he realized his error. The only person who did not seem amused was first-year Badgers coach Chris Parker.
Beebe junior Scot Gowen, the Badgers’ quarterback in football, got the hard points inside most of the night. Gowen was not hesitant to play physically with the larger Falcons and came away with 16 points while Young led the team with 22.
Knight and Colson each added 12 points for North Pulaski while Spicer and Ware both finished with eight.
Beebe hosted Monticello Friday night and will play at McClellan on Tuesday.
Leader sportswriter
It’s not point production, upcoming opponents or even North Pulaski’s record that concerns Falcons coach Ray Cooper at this point in the season.
What does concern Cooper, after the Falcons beat the Beebe Badgers 77-61 on Tuesday, is the lack of intensity he is seeing from his team as North Pulaski prepares to enter its toughest stretch of play in the 5A-Southeast Conference.
While Tuesday’s performance was good enough to beat the Badgers, it still wasn’t exactly what Cooper was looking for from a team that reached the 5A state final last season.
“Right now, we haven’t been playing with the passion and hunger we need,” Cooper said. “Last year, we had that intensity; this year is different. We play well in spurts and then dial it back. I’m holding them accountable for that.”
The Falcons are entering a stretch of four critical 5A-Southeast match-ups against Crossett, Sylvan Hills, Monticello and finally, multi-talented Little Rock McClellan, which has proved dominant in early conference games.
But it is not the name on the schedule Cooper is concerned with.
“I don’t look at who’s next; I’m just looking at the calendar,” Cooper said. “There’s only about 5-6 weeks of basketball left.
You have to peak somewhere in that time and hit your stride. You have to get in a flow, and we haven’t been able to find it. I want us to hit a stretch where we start to see a playoff mentality.”
The first indication that Cooper was looking to make a statement came when the starting lineup was announced in the pregame and regular starters Aaron Cooper, Kyron Ware and Bryan Colson were sent to the sideline.
Seniors Joe Agee and Christian Knight, along with junior Alonte Mitchell, led the Falcons (10-4, 2-0) in the early going until Ware and company checked in midway through the first quarter.
“You can tell that how you practice carries into a game,” Ray Cooper said. “That was what led to a different starting lineup for us tonight. We went with the people who were giving us the most in practice.”
Despite the different look early, North Pulaski still established the outside game with three-point shots by Braylon Spicer and Agee. Spicer took the opening tip for a three-pointer, and Agee added his trey with 6:47 left in the quarter to give the Falcons a 6-1 lead.
The Badgers were significantly out-sized and did not have near the depth as the Falcons, but still managed to keep it competitive most of the way.
Sophomore forward Braden Jones cut North Pulaski’s lead to 14-11 with a wide-open inside shot off an assist by junior guard Devonte Young with 1:38 left in the first quarter.
Jones hit the first of two free throws to make it a two-point game with 58 seconds left before a Ware basket and an Aaron Cooper free throw extended the Falcons’ lead to five.
The margin grew very little for the Falcons in the second quarter as the Badgers battled to stay within 37-29 at halftime.
“That’s another thing,” Ray Cooper said, taking note of Beebe’s effort. “We didn’t go to the playoffs two years ago, and last year we were able to make it to the state championship game. Now, teams have got us in their sights. They play us with a greater intensity, and with more of a chip on their shoulders. We haven’t identified that yet.”
North Pulaski finally began to establish the tempo to start the third quarter. Aaron Cooper began the second half with three of his game-high 23 points with 7:35 left to give the Falcons their first double-digit lead of the night, 39-29.
Agee followed with his second three-pointer and Cooper struck from three-point range again with 4:34 left in the period to stretch the lead to 47-33.
What followed next was a bit embarrassing but mostly humorous for young sophomore Beebe guard K.J. Maples, who came out of a timeout attempting to score on the wrong end of the court.
Maples did not make either attempt and was able to laugh it off with the other players and fans once he realized his error. The only person who did not seem amused was first-year Badgers coach Chris Parker.
Beebe junior Scot Gowen, the Badgers’ quarterback in football, got the hard points inside most of the night. Gowen was not hesitant to play physically with the larger Falcons and came away with 16 points while Young led the team with 22.
Knight and Colson each added 12 points for North Pulaski while Spicer and Ware both finished with eight.
Beebe hosted Monticello Friday night and will play at McClellan on Tuesday.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
TOP STORY >> Mayor: Hold off on school
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District board member Charlie Wood, paradoxically at the request of Jacksonville’s mayor and an attorney for the Jacksonville Education Foundation, withdrew his proposal Tuesday night to issue bonds and build a new elementary school in Jacksonville.
Wood’s proposal would have allowed the district to issue bonds that would have cost PCSSD as much as $2 million a year to pay off in order to build an elementary school by August 2012 to replace both Arnold Drive and Tolleson elementary schools.
Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher and attorney Patrick Wilson both asked the matter to be considered after the U.S. District Court rules on PCSSD’s unitary status. There’s a hearing set for next month.
While Jacksonville residents do want a new school, if Jacksonville gets its own district in the near future, the state would pay 65 percent of the cost of approved construction, based on a wealth index.
But if PCSSD builds the new school and Jacksonville gets stuck with paying the bill, the state will pay less than 1 percent of the cost because PCSSD is a wealthier district than Jacksonville’s would be, according to Jacksonville school activist Daniel Gray.
A $17 million Arnold Drive/Tolleson elementary replacement school is still on the non-binding master facilities plan for completion in 2013 and a new $30 million Jacksonville Middle School for 2012-2014.
The board unanimously approved a new 10-year state master facilities plan.
It increases the cost of the new high school in Maumelle to $63 million including furnishings and also raises the new Sylvan Hills Middle School from $30 million to $37 million, an increase attributed by Wood to problems with rock and site preparation.
Including other repairs and renovations, the total for the master plan is estimated at $177.8 million, $100 million of it for the two schools under way for Maumelle and Sylvan Hills.
Other items of local interest in the plan include: $240,000 for restroom renovations at Jacksonville Elementary School this school year and $120,000 to reroof Jacksonville High School this year.
It includes $400,000 for the renovations to the Jacksonville Middle School to ready it this year for its new role as a coeducation middle school.
Gone is $1 million for design of a new Jacksonville Middle School, since that was stimulus money, which must be spent more immediately, interim Superintendent Rob McGill explained.
Also in the budget for this year was $50,000 toward completion of the Jacksonville Middle School field house with another $25,000 earmarked for next school year.
Also on the plan was $400,000 for already completed restroom renovations and another $287,000 for Northwood Middle School restroom renovations.
Also in the plan was $264,000 for restroom renovations at Sylvan Hills Elementary School and $150,000 for Murrell Taylor Elementary School restrooms.
Next year Sylvan Hills High School is slated for $112,000 to upgrade HVAC in the auditorium.
Enmity between the Pulaski County Special School District board and its teachers’ union —more particularly between school board president Tim Clark and Marty Nix, president of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers — picked up Tuesday night where it left off before Christmas, this time with Nix accusing Clark of sabotaging the teachers contract, then withdrawing recognition of the union because PACT wouldn’t pass the hat to support an election they said Clark is considering.
While he tried to rule her out of order and away from the podium microphone, Nix told a room packed with PACT supporters that Clark was going to run for state Rep. Ed Garner’s Maumelle-area seat.
After Nix and Emry Chesterfield spoke, president of the Pulaski Association of Support Staff, Clark tried to answer Nix’s remarks, but he was first shouted down by union members, about 25 of whom then got up and followed Nix and Chesterfield from the board room.
Clark said during a break in the meeting that he hadn’t decided about running for the General Assembly. Then he said, “That’s not really the position I was thinking about.”
He declined to be more specific.
Leader senior staff writer
The Pulaski County Special School District board member Charlie Wood, paradoxically at the request of Jacksonville’s mayor and an attorney for the Jacksonville Education Foundation, withdrew his proposal Tuesday night to issue bonds and build a new elementary school in Jacksonville.
Wood’s proposal would have allowed the district to issue bonds that would have cost PCSSD as much as $2 million a year to pay off in order to build an elementary school by August 2012 to replace both Arnold Drive and Tolleson elementary schools.
Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher and attorney Patrick Wilson both asked the matter to be considered after the U.S. District Court rules on PCSSD’s unitary status. There’s a hearing set for next month.
While Jacksonville residents do want a new school, if Jacksonville gets its own district in the near future, the state would pay 65 percent of the cost of approved construction, based on a wealth index.
But if PCSSD builds the new school and Jacksonville gets stuck with paying the bill, the state will pay less than 1 percent of the cost because PCSSD is a wealthier district than Jacksonville’s would be, according to Jacksonville school activist Daniel Gray.
A $17 million Arnold Drive/Tolleson elementary replacement school is still on the non-binding master facilities plan for completion in 2013 and a new $30 million Jacksonville Middle School for 2012-2014.
The board unanimously approved a new 10-year state master facilities plan.
It increases the cost of the new high school in Maumelle to $63 million including furnishings and also raises the new Sylvan Hills Middle School from $30 million to $37 million, an increase attributed by Wood to problems with rock and site preparation.
Including other repairs and renovations, the total for the master plan is estimated at $177.8 million, $100 million of it for the two schools under way for Maumelle and Sylvan Hills.
Other items of local interest in the plan include: $240,000 for restroom renovations at Jacksonville Elementary School this school year and $120,000 to reroof Jacksonville High School this year.
It includes $400,000 for the renovations to the Jacksonville Middle School to ready it this year for its new role as a coeducation middle school.
Gone is $1 million for design of a new Jacksonville Middle School, since that was stimulus money, which must be spent more immediately, interim Superintendent Rob McGill explained.
Also in the budget for this year was $50,000 toward completion of the Jacksonville Middle School field house with another $25,000 earmarked for next school year.
Also on the plan was $400,000 for already completed restroom renovations and another $287,000 for Northwood Middle School restroom renovations.
Also in the plan was $264,000 for restroom renovations at Sylvan Hills Elementary School and $150,000 for Murrell Taylor Elementary School restrooms.
Next year Sylvan Hills High School is slated for $112,000 to upgrade HVAC in the auditorium.
Enmity between the Pulaski County Special School District board and its teachers’ union —more particularly between school board president Tim Clark and Marty Nix, president of the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers — picked up Tuesday night where it left off before Christmas, this time with Nix accusing Clark of sabotaging the teachers contract, then withdrawing recognition of the union because PACT wouldn’t pass the hat to support an election they said Clark is considering.
While he tried to rule her out of order and away from the podium microphone, Nix told a room packed with PACT supporters that Clark was going to run for state Rep. Ed Garner’s Maumelle-area seat.
After Nix and Emry Chesterfield spoke, president of the Pulaski Association of Support Staff, Clark tried to answer Nix’s remarks, but he was first shouted down by union members, about 25 of whom then got up and followed Nix and Chesterfield from the board room.
Clark said during a break in the meeting that he hadn’t decided about running for the General Assembly. Then he said, “That’s not really the position I was thinking about.”
He declined to be more specific.
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