High court race
Voters will choose a justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court at the general election, and it is hard to see how they can go wrong.  Judge Karen Baker of the Arkansas Court of Appeals and Judge Tim Fox, a circuit judge in Pulaski County, are splendid judges with such deep experience on both ends of the gavel that they should not diminish the quality of judgment by the state’s highest court. [FULL TEXT]

Another term
for Gov. Beebe
Arkansas at rare times has had a visionary governor, a brilliant governor or a governor passionately committed to reform, and it has had three dozen chief executives of whom it could be said simply that they served their time and moved on. [FULL TEXT]

O'Brien gets Leader's vote
Sometimes the local boy really is the superlative candidate, not just the favorite son for whom support is obligatory. Pat O’Brien has about the best credentials one could have for secretary of state, and he also is lucky in his opponent, perhaps the state legislature’s leading abuser of the public trust. [FULL TEXT]

Why it's Joyce Elliott
Tim Griffin, the Republican candidate for the U. S. House of Representatives, deflects questions about what he has done the past 15 years by saying that he wants to talk about the future, not the past. It is a clever riposte. Who does not prefer to talk about the future? [FULL TEXT]

A fun-filled weekend
You could go to a half-dozen places last weekend and still not catch all the excitement around the state, and that’s not counting the Razorbacks football game against Texas A&M in Cowboys Stadium. [FULL TEXT]

Limiting state cars
Is Mike Beebe a good governor or a just a good politician, or is there a difference? He turns every controversy into a good-government lesson. [FULL TEXT]

Reassessing exemptions
The state Constitution says you can’t do it. A 60-year-old statute says you can’t do it. A good case can be made that the U. S. Constitution prohibits it.[FULL TEXT]

Webb files stupid suit
Here is some surprising but wholesome news. Republicans are upset with the head of their party, Doyle Webb, for filing a lawsuit last week against the statewide officers — all Democrats — to make them repay the state for the expense of using a state car going back and forth to work and for personal uses. The suit does not name Mike Huckabee, a Republican, only Democrats, so he would not have to repay the state for his use of state conveyance for 10 years. [FULL TEXT]

Flood study on hold
Sherwood choked on a gnat at its city council meeting Monday night. [FULL TEXT]

Mark Martin a deadbeat
Although he profits from the name, Mark Martin, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, is not the world-class stock-car driver from Batesville. [FULL TEXT]

Comparing pardons
by governor
Did you see Gov. Beebe’s latest list of pardons? Last week, he announced his intent to pardon a handful of small-time criminals, emphasis on small-time. [FULL TEXT]

POWs recall their
World War ordeal
The former POWs who were shot down over Romania during the Second World War arrived at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History in their tour bus a little after 11 a.m. Thursday. [FULL TEXT]

Annexation plan: Many in area say they're against it
People who live north of Jacksonville near Hwy. 67/167 met at a church Monday evening to fight the city’s plan to annex the area.[FULL TEXT]

Lighthouse plans to build middle and high schools
The headline in Saturday’s Leader: “Cabot schools about to hit 10,000.”[FULL TEXT]

J’Accuse: Smearing
of general
Air Force Gen. John D. Lavelle, who died more than 30 years ago, after he was falsely accused of insubordination, is a four-star general again. [FULL TEXT]

Petraeus salutes
camp liberators
It was 65 years ago Monday that Beryl Wolfson helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in southeastern Germany.
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Marker recalls fire at Twist
There's finally a marker honoring B.B. King in Twist in Cross County, where the great blues singer escaped from a fire at nightclub with his guitar and named it Lucille.
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Justice Jim fought tough final battle
Arkansas bloggers were the first with the news of Justice Jim Johnson’s suicide over the weekend. The local TV news on Sunday ignored his passing, probably because no one in the newsroom knew who he was. [FULL TEXT]

Cabot man in raid
on POW camp in 1970
Mst. Sgt. Paul Poole, who helped to liberate Americans from a Vietnamese prison camp, died last week. [FULL TEXT]

Trial could get Muhammad
his death wish
Last June, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad killed a soldier from Conway and injured another soldier from Jacksonville in front of a recruiting station in Little Rock.
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What a little girl asked
from Santa
When my friend Jack Sallee was with the Jaycees in Fayetteville, they'd put an ad in the paper at Christmastime, saying that for $2 you could have Santa come to your place.
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Tuskegee legend
at holiday reception
A tall elderly man stood in a far corner in a large banquet room at Little Rock Air Force Base on Sunday afternoon during the holiday reception hosted by the wing commanders.
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Gas shut off
as hospital bills pile up
A couple in Beebe have been without heat for several months after the natural-gas company took out their meter because they were not paying their bills.
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Huckabee our worst governor?
Who is Arkansas’ worst governor? Is it Orval Faubus, who defied federal authorities i in 1957, when he wouldn’t allow nine black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock? He brought shame and ridicule on the whole state, but at least no one was killed. Or is Mike Huckabee our worst governor ever?
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