WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., joined World War II veteran Floyd Brantley of Arkadelphia at a WWII victory gala Thursday at the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum. The program featured was "A Conversation with Heroes," with firsthand accounts of the conflict. Ninety-year-old former President George H.W. Bush, a pilot who fought the Japanese, was the keynote speaker.
Brantley joined the Navy at age 17 in 1942 and served in the Solomon Islands.
On Monday, before traveling to Harrison for Arkansas' former U.S. Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt's memorial service, Boozman video-chatted with Traci Smith's Advanced Placement U.S. government and world history class at Valley View High School in Jonesboro.
On Tuesday, Boozman met with Arkansas' 2015 Prudential Spirit of Community Award winners Heather Jackson of Caddo Gap in Montgomery County and Colbe Cortez of Benton.
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., spoke on the Senate floor Thursday recognizing Lt. Col. Robert L. Hite for his World War II service. Hite, a former prisoner of war and Camden native, was among the airmen who helped carry out the Doolittle Raid, a low-altitude bombing attack on Japan's home islands. Hite spent 40 months in a Japanese prison after he was captured in 1942. He died earlier this year at age 95.
On Tuesday, Cotton met with Donna McDonald and Leisha Callan from Charleston in Franklin County and Amber Gregory from Little Rock, all with the Arkansas State Library; Dr. Eugene Shelby of Hot Springs, Travis Sim of Little Rock and Komi Vovor-Dassu of Little Rock with the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Cotton sat down Wednesday with representatives from the Southern Arkansas Developmental Center for Children and Families and with Dr. Randolph Hennigar of Little Rock from the College of American Pathologists.
The Senate convened last week, but House members were in recess. Both the House and Senate are to convene this week.
U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., toured the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. distribution center in Searcy and the Searcy Fire Department on Tuesday. On Thursday, he visited the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Little Rock.
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., spoke Wednesday about the national debt at an economics class at Drew Central High School in Monticello, visited the Portland Elementary School in Portland in Ashley County, and spoke to Rotary and Kiwanis club members in Crossett.
On Tuesday, he and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., attended former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential announcement in Hope.
Crawford met with Cabot city leaders about transportation Wednesday and visited the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management offices Thursday.
2016 CAMPAIGNS
Hillary Rodham Clinton's Arkansas campaign staff is to hold organizing events at 6 p.m. Thursday in Next Level Events at 1400 W. Markham St. in Little Rock and at U.S. Pizza at 202 W. Dickson St. in Fayetteville, according to the Democratic Party of Arkansas.
After announcing his 2016 presidential bid in Arkansas on Tuesday, Huckabee made several stops in Iowa.
On Wednesday, Huckabee toured an Oskaloosa business and held a rally in Urbandale, both in Iowa. On Thursday, he held meet-and-greet events at Charlie's American Grill & Spirits in Sioux City and at Pizza Ranch in Cedar Rapids.
Huckabee is to appear on CBS' Face the Nation today. The show airs at 9:30 a.m. on KTHV, Channel 11, in central Arkansas; on KFSM, Channel 5, in Northwest Arkansas; and on WREG, Channel 3, in Memphis.
ARKANSAN RECOGNIZED
Arkansan Michael Hogrefe was recognized with the "citizen's award for bravery" by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at a ceremony Thursday for rescuing a 10-year-old girl and the girl's father from the Buffalo National River last July.
According to a Newton County sheriff's office news release at the time, Daniella Renteria and her father, Jose Renteria, 37, both of Independence, Mo., had been swimming upstream of the Ponca low-water bridge when they got into water over their heads. The current pulled them deeper and toward the bridge. The two began screaming for help and Hogrefe, a resident of London in Pope County, jumped in to help.
The three were swept under the bridge. Hogrefe pulled the father and daughter from the river and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Daniella, who had been underwater for several minutes.
ART COMPETITION
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., announced the 3rd Congressional District winner of the high school arts competition sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives. Millie Pianalto of Har-Ber High School in Springdale won with her piece Aquaphobia, which will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol for one year.
Womack received 78 entries. A panel of judges, including Manuela Well-Off-Man, curator for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, and artists Jane Weir Davidian of Fayetteville and Zeek Taylor of Eureka Springs, picked the top finalists.
4-H IN WASHINGTON
Five Arkansans attended the National 4-H Council Congressional Breakfast on Capitol Hill on April 15.
Travis Clark of Faulkner County, John Dillard of Union County, Alexandra Hunter of Clark County, Heather Jackson of Pike County and Kristin Rouse of Independence County visited with Boozman at the breakfast.
MOBILE OFFICES
Westerman's staff is to be available Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. at the Yell County Courthouse at 101 E. Fifth St. in Danville and at 2 p.m. at the Mulberry Senior Center at 406 U.S. 64 W. in Mulberry.
On Thursday, his staff is to be available at 8 a.m. in the Hot Spring County Courthouse at 210 Locust St. in Malvern; at 11:30 a.m. in the Dallas County Courthouse at 206 W. Third St. in Fordyce; at 1 p.m. in the Cleveland County Courthouse at 20 Magnolia St. in Rison; and at 3 p.m. in the Grant County Courthouse at 101 W. Center St. in Sheridan.
Planning to visit the nation's capital? Know something happening in Washington, D.C.? Contact us at (202) 662-7690 or [email protected].
SundayMonday on 05/10/2015