OPINION | NWA EDITORIAL: Thursday's thumbs

It's Thursday and another chance to fire off a few up or down thumbs about some of news developments in our neck of the woods and elsewhere:

[THUMBS UP] What can be better than to hear from medical professionals and the family of a police officer shot in the line of duty that the officer is "wide awake" and recovering nicely? Not much. Prairie Grove police officer Tyler Franks, one of the town's 15 full-time officers, was shot three times May 4 in the midst of responding to a domestic disturbance call. The tragic circumstances easily could have taken someone's life, including Franks. Nobody died, though, and the man accused of shooting the officer is in custody. It's almost incomprehensible, the dedication to public service and protection demonstrated by Franks, another Prairie Grove officer and two Farmington officers who responded to a call of distress in a home.

[THUMBS UP] Speaking of that second officer, Andrew Gibson is credited with getting Franks out of the house and delivering first aid that kept Franks alive and gave him time to get to the hospital. Without the tourniquets Gibson applied, this would have ended much differently. We applaud the bravery and quick thinking of Officer Gibson in protecting his colleague and the public.

[THUMBS DOWN] The statement from Sen. Tom Cotton's office, we're sure, elicited more than one eye role. The statement earlier this week said Cotton had introduced something he calls the Ivory Tower Tax Act. It would impose a 1 percent tax on the value of endowments at the nation's wealthiest private colleges and use the funding received to support vocational education and training. It would also require the colleges draw down the endowments by 5 percent each year. Cotton declared the universities are guilty of "indoctrinating our youth with un-American ideas." Why the eye roll? Because this is the kind of legislation that creates conversation -- much of it featuring Arkansas' junior senator -- on national news and talk shows, but has little to no chance of ever becoming law. The senator will get plenty of attention as he declares his war on what he considers the leftist world of academia, and he'll be able to convert that into raising money for future ambitions. It's certainly not about Arkansas.

[THUMBS UP] Softball coach Courtney Deifel and her team have joined a number of other University of Arkansas sports programs excelling in ways that make Arkansas proud. The team shared the Southeastern Conference regular season title, Deifel was named the conference's coach of the year this week, and several team members earned SEC recognition for exemplary efforts. All their work led the team to its highest national ranking in school history. Deifel credits her coaching staff, which certainly deserves praise, but we can't let the coach deflect what she's earned. What an outstanding job. Congratulations to all involved.

[THUMBS UP] We can't pass up the opportunity to echo the high praise recently articulated for Brenda Blagg, the longtime Northwest Arkansas journalist who writes a weekly column for the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and other publications in the state. She was recently inducted into the Great Plains Journalism Hall of Honor by the Tulsa Press Club, which recognizes exceptional works of journalism in an eight-state area. Blagg's career features a dedication to transparency in government, including Arkansas' adoption of its Freedom of Information Act, and she's been among the act's chief defenders for decades. She also covered local and state government. Congratulations, Brenda.