Nothing to celebrate
Re "Bear hunting for 2023 sets record": Crops are "harvested." Animals are killed. And a "record" number of black bears killed is nothing to celebrate.
Black bear populations are already threatened by wildfires, drought, and loss of habitat and food sources. Even without these substantial challenges, bears don't need trophy hunters to "manage" them. Black bears reproduce very slowly. Females don't reach breeding age until about 4 years old and then only have cubs every two to three years. And that's dependent upon available food resources. Trophy hunters target these breeding-age bears, so it's likely that those they killed weren't the only victims. Since hunters slaughtered a high number of females, an untold number of orphaned cubs undoubtedly starved to death.
Bears are vital for healthy ecosystems, and the vast majority of Americans strongly oppose trophy hunting and bear baiting. The Democrat-Gazette should allow both sides to be represented in future articles instead of giving an open platform to the small minority that takes pleasure in luring these animals to a convenient location and blasting them with bullets and arrows.
FELICIA TIDY-COYLE
Bentonville
Terrible mess online
I cannot understand why it was decided that the online Arkansas Democrat-Gazette would be changed to the terrible mess it is now. My husband and I have been subscribers to this paper for over 40 years, and switched to the online version as soon as we had to in order to keep reading it. And everything was great until y'all decided to fix something that wasn't broke.
I use a laptop and mouse to navigate and I was told by someone at your call center that those people who also use laptop/mouse were the ones who were having problems. Please consider either going back to the original version, or fixing the new one.
JUDY MACHEN
Forrest City
Makes things difficult
Your new digital format for Windows makes it very difficult to read the paper. It also makes it difficult to highlight and print articles. I can no longer easily print the crossword and sudoku. What are your programmers thinking?
If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Please go back to the old version.
TAPPAN JENNINGS
Helena
On Israel-Hamas war
After our "successes" in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, where do we get off telling Israel how to fight a war? Give them ammo and let them do their thing. As soon as they pulled those troops out of southern Gaza, Hamas immediately started shooting rockets into Israel again. When the Palestinians get tired of being caught in a war, they should throw out Hamas.
JOE CROMWELL
White Hall
Oh dear, Marjorie ...
Womanhood comes with agency. If only Marjorie Taylor Greene could spit like a man!
JOE ROGERS
Maumelle
Free lunches for all
Arkansas lawmakers began meeting for the fiscal session Wednesday. This session will be the start of finalizing the budget for the fiscal year 2025 which starts July 1. The budget reflects our priorities and values.
In the budget year 2024, we allocated $31.7 million to vouchers and now our 2025 budget proposes spending $97.5 million. Vouchers take taxpayer money from public schools and fund private schools. In 2026, vouchers will be opened completely, although not all students are guaranteed a voucher.
One in five kids face hunger in Arkansas, according to the Arkansas Foodbank. Our governor and Education Director Jacob Oliva acknowledged this as they recently partnered with the federal government to expand Summer EBT. Oliva said, "Food insecurity affects students not just during the school year, but also during the summer months." Therefore, we all know this problem exists and affects student learning abilities.
Universal free lunches would fix this issue, and provide much relief to middle-class families who do not qualify for free or reduced lunches. Children should not worry about affording lunch or being lunch-shamed at a place they're legally obligated to be for 178 days. Middle-class families in eight states have already experienced relief by passing such policies, to the savings of around $1,000 for households with two students.
Let's fund free lunches for all before vouchers for some.
Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.
TYLER DRAPER
Malvern
People have no voice
The citizens of Arkansas have been set back by the Arkansas Legislature's requiring 90,000-plus signatures from 50 counties in order to put a citizen initiative on the ballot for voting. Now our governor is doing everything in her power to defeat any citizen initiative by assigning some of her best troops to oppose political operations of citizens.
This governor is supposed to help the people of the state she governs, but she apparently does not care what the people of Arkansas want to do; she will fight them to get her way, not the people's way.
Very sad that we have no say in what our state does. Talk about indoctrination.
WILLIAM WYATT
Cabot