Boozman on mend,
visits office on Hill
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. John Boozman is continuing to improve after his Aug. 15 surgery, a staff member said.
The lawmaker's "recovery is proceeding well," his spokesman, Patrick Creamer, said Wednesday. "In fact, he came by his Capitol Hill office [last week] and visited with his staff. He continues to follow his doctor's advice and rest to ensure that his recovery remains on track so he can be back at work when Senate business resumes."
The Republican from Rogers, who underwent surgery in 2014 to repair a torn aorta, had a followup procedure that his doctors had recommended.
The Senate, which is completing its annual August recess, is scheduled to convene at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Polygraph spending
earns Fleece award
U.S. Rep. French Hill bestowed his Golden Fleece Award to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, saying the agency had wasted millions of dollars administering unnecessary polygraph tests to unsuitable job applicants.
In a report released in August, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General faulted the agency for giving polygraphs to applicants who should have been screened out ahead of time.
More than 2,300 people were given the tests, at a cost of about $5.1 million, even though they had acknowledged drug use or criminal histories that made them ineligible for employment.
"The inability of the CBP to stop spending money on people they are never going to hire is just one more example of inefficient government bureaucracy," Hill said. "Hardworking Arkansans and Americans across the nation should not have their tax dollars spent on this kind of waste. This is the kind of oversight and accountability I am proud to deliver for my constituents."
The late U.S. Sen. William Proxmire, D-Wis., was the original creator of the Golden Fleece Award, using it to highlight government spending that he considered wasteful.
After his election to Congress in 2014, Hill resurrected the award.
Violinist fine-tunes
in summer program
A Mayflower violinist attended the National Symphony Orchestra's Summer Music Institute this year, honing his talents and performing at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
This is the second year that Lawrence Edward Barnes III was selected for the program, which enables promising young musicians to receive coaching from orchestra members.
Participants had two side-by-side rehearsals with the National Symphony Orchestra.
Barnes, 21, a junior at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., said the program was "wonderful" and "life changing."
"I'm pretty confident that it changed the trajectory of my musical career. It's really inspiring to be immersed in such a collaborative environment and to share the Kennedy Center space with so many world-class musicians," he said.
The Stella Boyle Smith Trust of Little Rock provided funding. Smith, who died in 1994 at age 100, was a philanthropist and the founder of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
Crawford in group's
cross hairs for 2018
A left-leaning group is targeting seven Republicans in seats it considers vulnerable, plus U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican from Jonesboro.
The ads, sponsored by Not One Penny, call on the lawmakers to object to any tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
President Donald Trump has urged lawmakers to overhaul the nation's tax code and the organization predicts poor people won't benefit from the changes.
In addition to Arkansas' 1st Congressional District, Not One Penny is running ads in two Iowa districts, as well as single districts in Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Texas and California.
"Except for Crawford, all of them are in competitive districts," Politico reported.
Democrats didn't field a challenger to Crawford in 2016 but are promising to do so in 2018.
Asked why Not One Penny would run ads in a district that leaned so heavily Republican in November, the campaign's spokesman, Tim Hogan, said: "Voters in Arkansas' 1st Congressional District picked Donald Trump in 2016, but they did not vote for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. Polls show strong backlash against so-called tax reform that is actually tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and major corporations, including in districts like Arkansas' 1st. If Rep. Rick Crawford talks to his constituents, he'll find there is no appetite for tax cuts for the rich and well-connected."
Huckabee, daughter
to take TV hot seat
White House spokesman Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, are scheduled to appear Wednesday on ABC's The View.
With an average audience of 2.8 million viewers, The View's audience is predominantly women.
The program's hosts were critical of Huckabee during his 2016 presidential race, arguing that he doesn't respect the separation of church and state.
And they mocked Sanders in May for saying that fired FBI Director James Comey had committed " atrocities."
"Here's some real atrocities, like the Holocaust. Atrocity. 9/11 attacks, Rwanda genocide, Armenian genocide, Sandy Hook shooting, Darfur, those are atrocities. Overstepping your bounds, not so much," moderator Whoopi Goldberg said.
The weekday morning show begins its 21st season on Tuesday, and officials say it will feature "a star-studded September of headline makers and celebrities."
Planning to visit the nation's capital? Know something happening in Washington, D.C.? Please contact Frank Lockwood at (202) 662-7690 or [email protected]. Want the latest from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Washington bureau? It's available on Twitter, @LockwoodFrank
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