On Watch from Last Week
Fraud in Arkansas, lawsuits, GDP Wow, "safeguarding democracy," EKO LOVES YOU, and more
Lots of updates from last week to keep on the radar:
Conway
Tax and spend/borrow and spend: The Conway City Council apparently just can’t help itself — still promising voters one thing for new taxes, only to turn around and spend that revenue on something else. Really?! What did they just do at December’s 2026 budget meeting - 1 month after voters passed that last tax?
Harris “asleep at the wheel”? Conway’s pain is palpable after two twenty-somethings were murdered in cold blood and nine injured at a 5th Avenue Park event last April. What did Police Chief Chris Harris and others know about that “spontaneous,” social-media-promoted get-together ahead of time? Could things have been different? Was he “asleep at the wheel”?
Arkansas
Lawsuit challenge: Secretary of State candidate Bryan Norris last week filed a federal lawsuit against AG Tim Griffin and Secretary of State Cole Jester that challenges an Arkansas polling place law. You’ll remember the Republican-led AG’s office charged paper ballot proponent Colonel Conrad Reynolds with violating the law Norris’s lawsuit cites. That law says non-voters cannot remain “within 100 feet of a polling place” — a restriction (originally passed by Norris’ Secretary of State opponent Senator Kim Hammer) that Norris says is long-recognized as “protected political speech under the First Amendment.” Norris visits on Talk Business & Politics this Sunday. (A February 5 hearing is Reynolds’ next court date.)
Fraud by Arkansas state employees? The Department of Human Services has investigated employees who “receive any type of benefit the department administers” and immediately found 13 employees who allegedly stole almost $8,000 from temporary food assistance (Disaster SNAP) — funds marked for relief from the March 2023 Pulaski County tornado. DHS officials don’t know if any of the 13 “who received food assistance benefits were also receiving Medicaid benefits.”
About those mailers: After last year’s FOI fight with the Republican Governor and Arkansas Legislature brought free speech advocates together from both sides of the aisle, some folks ramped up their fact-finding and research on state government corruption… See here WHO may be behind last fall’s pushy mailers touting Governor Sanders and the GOP-majority state legislature.
Runoff in District 26 — it’s all about that prison: Republicans Wade Dunn and Brad Simon face off in a February 3 primary to determine the GOP nominee to run against Independent Adam Watson in the March primary special election to fill the late Senator Gary Stubblefield’s state Senate seat. Meanwhile, Stubblefield’s son and brother endorse Simon while his widow Kathi and daughter Amber Sullivan … support Dunn.
More missiles, faster: Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon sealed a 7-year contract to more than triple the production in Camden, Arkansas of advanced Patriot-system missiles from around 600 to 2,000 a year by 2030. This, as President Trump last week called for a stop to dividends and stock buybacks for defense companies and a $5 million limit on executive pay; he says military equipment production, maintenance, and repair is not fast enough. The money, he says, should instead be spent on new, modern production plants and “building the latest models of future military equipment.”
National
Rats on the sinking ship: “A whopping 44 U.S. House members (25 Republicans, 19 Democrats)” are retiring or running for another office, a larger number now than any federal election cycle since 1974. “This record-setting figure likely connects at least in part to the dissatisfaction commonly heard from sitting members about their experiences serving in the House…” It’s not just House members who are dissatisfied! What if, once elected, lawmakers actually DID what they promised to do during their campaigns?
GOPers don’t back our President: By extension, they are not promoting my values, as I am a solid Trump voter. Five Republican Senators voted with Democrats last week to successfully prevent President Trump from using federal money for actions in Venezuela — essentially ignoring Section 2 of the Constitution. Fortunately (I hope!) it doesn’t look like the Senate will approve; it seems Trump would veto if this motion were to pass. And, look at 17 House Republicans who voted to support the Democrats’ “clean” discharge petition to extend Obamacare subsidies for 3 more years, even though Senate leader Thune says there’s “no appetite” to pass it in the Senate in its current form… With “friends” like this, who needs enemies!?
Stopping fraud, get ‘er done: The Trump Administration’s newly created assistant AG position in the DOJ is specifically aimed at investigating fraud against the federal government and focuses first on Minnesota, VP Vance said.
“Safeguarding public media” by shutting down? The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is shut down after Congress last summer clawed back $9 billion from public broadcasting/foreign aid, forcing many public-funds-dependent PBS networks to also close. CPB’s CEO said dissolution was “preferable to allowing CPB to exist without federal support and become vulnerable to further political pressure.” She said it’s “a final act intended to safeguard the integrity of the public media system and the democratic values it supports.” Ahem… I heartily agree with Congress on this one. Along with the easy-to-digest, lovely arts/music programming they’ve been serving up a steady stream of more and more Leftist propaganda with no promised balance of conservative viewpoints. Taxpayers should not support NPR/PBS. (Former state Rep. Carlton Wing is leading the transition as Arkansas TV moves forward on its own.)
Just dropping this here: The Atlanta Fed released its estimate for the 4th quarter GDP — a whopping 5.4% (up from 2.9% just a day before!).
And this:
Freeing the Republic: If you’re NOT reading EKO LOVES YOU on Substack you’re missing out big time. EKO details in The Insurrection Proclamation how President Trump and the military close the trap that will free our Republic:
Ya can’t undermine our troops: War Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a formal censure of Democrat Senator insurrectionist Mark Kelly, citing “reckless misconduct” for that ridiculous video where he encouraged military members to “disobey illegal orders.” Kelly may still face court-martial, per the Pentagon.
Didn’t take long: Our illegals-loving media whines about Somalians “being harassed” because of the massive daycare fraud apparently going on all over the country . Gosh, the hypocrisy coming from these people who villainized half the country for putting President Trump back in office! Meanwhile, Somalia holds the January UN Presidency; Somalia’s Ambassador is associated with an Ohio home health agency HHS previously targeted for Medicaid fraud.
About the oil: “In 12 hours, the United States secured control of energy reserves worth 4 times the GDP of Japan. Reserves worth more than the entire economy of almost every nation on Earth.”
It’s been FIVE YEARS:
