GREG HARTON: Is city ready to turn back on officers?
Most of the time, when 71 percent of voters approve $37 million for a construction project, the city leaders who asked for that approval have the good sense not to backtrack on the project.
This week...
August 2, 2020
GREG HARTON: Barbara knew how to write a good letter
I heard the news last from a fellow editor the day before her obituary appeared.
Barbara Foreman died at 88.
Longtime readers of our letters to the editor submissions may recognize her name. From he...
July 19, 2020
GREG HARTON: Court guards religion as central to U.S. freedoms
Growing up, I had heard about Al Capone, the high-profile, Chicago-based crime boss who violently capitalized on bootlegging during Prohibition.
When I became a reporter in Hot Springs, I became awar...
July 12, 2020
Easier voting a step closer in Arkansas
Secretaries of state in Arkansas mostly function without a lot of public attention, unless and until the officeholder sets his or her sights on higher — or at least lateral — office.
The most memorab...
July 5, 2020
GREG HARTON: Got fever? Get tested, then wait
Last week, my family had a long wait to determine whether covid-19 had invaded our household.
Well, it seemed like a long wait. Waiting with the dark cloud of what seems a modern-day plague looming i...
June 28, 2020
GREG HARTON: Making sure a win really is progress
I've never been a wheeler-dealer on things like buying a car. When it comes time to buy, I'll think about tactics we've perhaps all heard about to broker the best deal.
Don't fall in love with any ca...
June 21, 2020
GREG HARTON: Do as we're told or as we're asked?
Gov. Asa Hutchinson's daily covid-19 press conference on Friday delivered the eye-popping figure of 731 new positive test results in the state since the day before. It was the largest single-day growt...
June 14, 2020
GREG HARTON: Riots reveal the divisions that linger
The turmoil in Minneapolis and other cities is astonishing, not so much because it's unique, but because in 2020 we're right back where we've been before.
Add Minneapolis to the list that includes pla...
May 31, 2020
GREG HARTON: Tech tests maturity of users
There was a time in which people went about their lives less digitally connected but more dialed into humanity.
At 55, I'm at the age of having experienced what life was like before cell phones, "smar...
May 24, 2020
GREG HARTON: Will covid-19 be 'person of the year?'
A few random thoughts after another week in covid-19's alternative universe:
• Do you think Dr. Anthony Fauci might be Time's Person of the Year for 2020? He's certainly a name most of us didn't...
May 17, 2020
GREG HARTON: Does the Hog Call spread covid-19?
If Arkansas keeps trending the way it is in terms of its number of covid-19 cases, recoveries, hospitalizations and other data points, Gov. Asa Hutchinson says we can all expect a chance to have footb...
May 10, 2020
GREG HARTON: What will 'normal' look like?
The "new normal" is the phrase I've grown most tired of in the midst of this virus response.
Once upon a time, I liked the phrase. It reflected the semi-permanent
nature of changes arising from some d...
May 3, 2020
GREG HARTON: Placing bets on casinos? Not just yet
If I were the coronavirus, whose goal is to be the best stalker it can be before committing assault and battery on any unprotected victim it can find, I'd hang out at a casino.
Casinos are full of exc...
April 26, 2020
GREG HARTON: Who's in charge? It depends
In the foxhole, there are no Federalists.
Wait. Maybe I've got that observation about combatants in wartime a little confused. I'm borrowing the imagery to show what's been rattling around in my head ...
April 19, 2020
GREG HARTON: Whole lotta shakin' not going on these days
Most of us -- the smart ones, anyway -- have severely
limited our direct contact with people, from the folks we used to share offices with every workday to the extended family members we love enough t...
April 12, 2020