It was a good week for ...
Celebrity visits to Arkansas.Chelsea Clinton came to Arkansas to be honored by Ballet Arkansas and to moderate a panel for Global Youth Service Day, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, talked about the value of education at Hot Springs High School and the Clinton Presidential Center. House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi will be in Little Rock on Thursday at the Clinton School of Public Service to talk about current affairs.
De-ducktions. The Peabody Hotel ducks' days were numbered as the hotel was to officially become a Marriott on May 1, with a new reservation system, signage, linens and televisions. A larger renovation is still in the design phase.
It was a bad week for ...
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor. Criticism and a bit of ridicule continued to rain down on the Arkansas Democrat for standing with the NRA and his Republican colleagues against expanding buyer background checks to gun show sales.
Lottery reporting. Net revenue from sales of lottery tickets is down 10 percent from its peak this year, the Lottery Commission reported. The scholarships the sales fund have dropped from $5,000 in the initial year of the lottery to $2,000 this year for entering freshmen. Arkansans are wising up to the odds. Sure bet: While lottery sales will keep sliding, college tuition will continue to go up.
Animal survival in an oiled marsh. Exxon reports that the number of animals suffocated and poisoned by the Mayflower oil spill is about 700. That's just the bodies the company can account for, of course; the number of animals living in the despoiled Lake Conway cove is exponentially larger. None of the former human inhabitants of the Mayflower subdivision slick have chosen to return home, no matter the cosmetic changes made to the neighborhood.
Breaking into cars. Police fatally shot an 18-year-old suspected of stealing from cars near Forest Heights Middle School after the suspect opened fire on an officer pursuing him on foot, a police spokesperson. Two accomplices were arrested and charged with capital murder, theft by receiving, auto breaking and entering and fleeing.