BRENDA BLAGG: Term limits, again
Term limits for Arkansas legislators will once again be on statewide ballots for the Nov. 3 general election.
That has happened repeatedly in the last three decades. Arkansas voters have actually app...
October 14, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: The road to permanence
The advertising pitch is simple: Vote for roads. Vote for Issue 1.
The issue is not so simple.
And it's under consideration at a time when the lives of Arkansans are sorely complicated by this curse...
October 7, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Notorious TBA
A wisp of a woman but a giant in American law passed from this life last week, at once evoking a vast outpouring of appreciation for her life's work and triggering political tumult over the vacancy sh...
September 23, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Rough road ahead?
This was going to be the year, Arkansas highway proponents thought, when the state would secure another permanent tax to support state and local infrastructure projects.
Then covid-19 happened.
The...
September 9, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Conventional thoughts
The recently concluded Democratic and Republican conventions accomplished what their respective organizers expected, if not what they wanted.
Each party reintroduced its standard bearers and official...
September 2, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Back in the classroom
Ready or not, school is open.
Arkansas' public schools reopened this week amid the continuing pandemic. While some students have opted for some or all online instruction, many are attending on-campus...
August 26, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Pushing the envelope
Count the intentional slowdown of the U.S. Postal Service as the latest absurdity of 2020.
It has happened, of course, as the nation prepares for a general election in the midst of a pandemic, when A...
August 19, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Absent-minded
Fear of contracting covid-19 is now officially an excuse for absentee voting in Arkansas.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson underscored the point last week when he signed an executive order to that effect.
Arkans...
August 12, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Voters unmasked?
Arkansas counties got some straightforward guidance recently on how to conduct a safe election in the midst of a pandemic.
Foremost was the caution that local election officials can encourage, but no...
August 5, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Mask mandate makes sense
While a lot of folks welcomed Gov. Asa Hutchinson's turn-around decision last week to order Arkansans to wear masks in public, not all did.
The governor announced the change on Thursday, after saying...
July 22, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Daily counts rising
Covid-19 cases spiked in Arkansas over the weekend, reaching a new record on Saturday.
The one-day total hit a disconcerting 1,061 new cases in a week filled with high daily numbers.
Leading up to S...
July 15, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Making the ballot
Arkansas' general election ballot is being defined in part by covid-19.
The disease -- or, more precisely, the desire by most to avoid infection -- significantly interrupted the signature collection ...
July 8, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: A fondness for absence
Arkansas voters may be able to cast absentee ballots in the November general election after all.
It is not the kind of no-excuse, automatic vote-by-mail system available in some states. The Arkansas ...
July 1, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: Trump's surprising numbers
Recent polling showed President Donald Trump with an unexpectedly poor showing in Arkansas.
Yes, Arkansas.
The president drew a 50 percent disapproval rating and ran barely ahead of Democrat Joe Bid...
June 24, 2020
BRENDA BLAGG: No escape
Please hear the protests and join those who mourn the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis just over a week ago.
Try to understand why so many Americans have taken to the streets every day since, wh...
June 3, 2020