Arkansas Times - August 9, 2018 by Arkansas Times

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COMMENT

Master Card

How about a new law? If you want to join a white supremacist organization, you have to take one of those complex DNA tests first. That would cut way down on the membership. But if you pass, you would be eligible for a Master Race Master Card. Money back every time you charge Tiki torches, ammo, rebel flags and the large-print edition of Soldier of Fortune magazine. David Rose Hot Springs

Rapert has no concept nor knowledge of “historical or foundation of law” because he does not know Moses copied the Code of Hammurabi, who was in that part of the world long before Moses came along and had his laws posted on stone tablets throughout his kingdom so people would know what the codes were. They are not original with Moses in spite of what Rapert and others may think. Sheesh. Cato1 In response to the Aug. 2 cover story,

From the web In response to an Arkansas Blog item about U.S. Rep. Bruce’s Westerman’s complaint about a nonprofit that advocates for the disabled getting federal money and his false claim that the director was making a six-figure salary: I believe Westerman was attacking his own self. He is paid with federal taxpayer money, and his salary is well north of the six-figure threshold. I am sure he will apologize once he realizes he was accidentally addressing the asshole in his mirror. Arbiter of All Things AOAT Westerman — perhaps the best example of Arkansans continuing to vote against their own best interests (unless you’re the Chamber of Commerce). Any of us, including the congressman, could get hit by a bus tomorrow and be disabled. Westerman no doubt could afford the best of care for the rest of his life. How many Arkansans can say the same? And the arrogant Westerman could not care less. Kate In response to an Arkansas Blog item on raises handed out at the state attorney general’s Office: So the director of Arkansas Department of Correction probation and parole gets fired for asking for increase in budget to hire more officers to handle their workload but the AG can hand out this enormous amount in salary increases for her staff? After all, I am sure what they do is much more important than monitoring those individuals on probation and parole!

“Blight-buster,” about lawyer Richard Mays’ environmental litigation:

Comment in an open line on the Arkansas Blog:

Elected officials and bureaucrats always think they have the best solutions to public policy issues. When the people actually have better solutions, we often have to go to court to force the deciders there is indeed a better mousetrap out there. Elected officials and bureaucrats aren’t very good at listening to better alternatives. Our system of governance shouldn’t work that way. Sound Policy

I find it very disheartening to see American citizens side with a president who regularly attacks our institutions, our freedoms, our citizens, our allies, and so on. In a nutshell, such people are also attacking America along with Trump. For me, I’ve had enough of Trump treading on our freedoms, our rights, our institutions, our friends and our system. Those siding with him are joining a traitorous and treasonous man bent in taking our country apart because some folks don’t like him doing such. It’s a death spiral feeding on its own insanity and nurtured by the gullible, the ignorant and the selfish. Jake da Snake In response to the Arkansas Blog’s notice of an observance of the 73rd anniversary of the nuclear bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A terrible occasion and loss of life, but unfortunately necessary to stop a fanatical enemy who placed no value on human life as they demonstrated time and again in committing atrocities against civilian populations. It also saved thousands of American military lives by bringing an end to the war without having to invade the homeland islands. Razorblade Although the old (and highly publicized by the government) trope about how ’Murica was “forced” to use the bomb is popular with the Archie Bunker set, the truth is that the unnecessary use of atomic bombs against primarily civilian targets of a beaten Japan had nothing to do with shortening the war OR “saving” American GIs, whose lives, prior to dropping the bombs, had been spent quite freely, but continuing to do so might have presented a PR problem after Germany’s surrender and the public pressure to “get the boys home.” The rush to use the bombs before Japan would be ALLOWED to surrender had everything to do with demonstrating to Russia, the only other superpower to emerge from WWII, just who had power, although that wouldn’t be true for very long.

justcantbelieve

In response to an Arkansas Blog item on more fundraising by state Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) for a nonprofit foundation he runs because, he says, the “Satanic Temple, the American Atheists and the ACLU” wish to destroy the Ten Commandments monument that honors “the historical and moral foundation of law.” 4

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Now we have an ahistorical, uneducated, raving psycho of rather arrested mental development at the helm of our crazily massive, expensive and unneeded nuclear arsenal. tsallenarng

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arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

WEEK THAT WAS

Term limits makes the ballot

A proposal to roll back the term limits provision of the Arkansas Constitution has enough valid signatures to qualify for the November election ballot, according to the secretary of state’s office. The petition campaign began two years ago. The secretary of state’s office said petitions had 93,998 valid signatures out of 124,674 submitted. That was in excess of the 84,859 valid signatures needed. The proposal limits state legislators to 10 years of service, down from a minimum of 16. If approved in November, the measure could bring an upheaval in the legislature in 2021 because majorities of both houses — presuming they are the same as today — would be ineligible for further service under the proposal, which is retroactive to include past service. As it stands, legislators are limited to 16 years of total service, but two-year terms drawn by senators after redistricting every 10 years don’t count against the limit. So, for example, Sen. Cecile Bledsoe (R-Rogers) is running for a term that will give her 20 years in the Senate. Depending on the draw and the future of this amendment, Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) could serve 22 years in the Senate. The provision in effect now was disingenuously pitched as a “term limits” amendment in a legislatively referred amendment in 2014 that also gave legislators cover for a huge pay raise and provided loopholes for nominal limits on lobbyist wining and dining. It replaced a previous amendment that limited service to six years in the House and eight years in the Senate. (Again, with a lucky draw, a legislator could qualify for up to 16 years of total service.) The current limit is a godsend for the power-hungry. Accruing 16 (or 20 or 22) years in a single house is a pathway to immense power, similar to lifetime tenure for some incumbents. Added to legislative efforts to strengthen their power over the executive branch with new review powers, it’s even more fearsome. Issue 1, also on the ballot this year, would make their power even mightier by stripping the Arkansas Supreme Court of rulemaking authority while discouraging lawsuits for damages.

More fallout for PFH

Preferred Family Healthcare,

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

the scandal-plagued behavioral Those entities will divvy up PFH’s health provider suspended from the share of equity, insurance department Arkansas Medicaid program in June, spokesman Ryan James said. has withdrawn itself from one of the Arkansas announced June 29 it was state’s new provider-led managed care suspending PFH from the state’s Medorganizations for certain high-cost icaid program — thereby halting reimMedicaid enrollees. bursements to the nonprofit — and the That organization, Empower state Department of Human Services Healthcare Solutions, notified the said it would terminate its contracts Arkansas Insurance Department with PFH. That move came after the last week that PFH had voluntarily arrest of Robin Raveendran, a former withdrawn as an equity member “and PFH executive (and onetime DHS in all other respects” effective July 26. Empower is one of four recently “program integrity” official) accused created companies in the state known of masterminding a multimillion-dollar as PASSEs (Provider-led Arkansas scheme to defraud Medicaid through Shared Savings Entities), which are improper billing practices. Another intended to lower Medicaid costs former PFH executive, Rusty Cranand coordinate services for those ford, was previously accused of bribbeneficiaries with the most intensive ing multiple Arkansas legislators and behavioral health needs and/or severe — along with other leaders of PFH — developmental disabilities. (About embezzling vast sums of money from 30,000 individuals fall in this category.) the Missouri-based nonprofit. A fedPFH had roughly a 14 percent stake eral investigation into those allegations in Empower, David Ramsey reported appears to be ongoing. Before its fall from grace, PFH was in July for the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network. Empower’s remaining the largest behavioral health provider co-owners are Beacon Health Options, in Arkansas, with 47 service sites statethe Arkansas Healthcare Alliance, wide. It also does business under the Stratera, Woodruff Health Group, names Dayspring, Health Resources Independent Case Management and of Arkansas and Decision Point. Its the Arkansas Community Health many sites remain open for now, but Network.

their future is uncertain, and PFH has indicated it’s searching for a buyer for its Arkansas assets.

Rice researchers charged

The U.S. attorney’s office in Little Rock announced federal charges against two rice researchers from China who allegedly conspired to steal rice production technology, a scheme that included contacts in Arkansas. Liu Xuejun, 49, and Sun Yue, 36, were charged with conspiracy to steal trade secrets and conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of stolen property. An indictment returned last week said they were involved in the theft of rice seeds to be used in medicine. The seeds were developed by Ventria Bioscience to produce proteins used in medicine and drugs. The men allegedly stole seeds from the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart and Ventria’s rice production facility in Kansas. The government news release said Ventria, which is headquartered in Colorado, had invested $75 million in developing the intellectual property behind the rice seeds.

OPINION

People vs. corporations

ignature counting and legal chal- figure would have lenges aren’t done, but the No- been $12, but vember ballot is shaping up as a Attorney General rich opportunity to side with your choice Leslie Rutledge MAX BRANTLEY of people or corporations. scuttled that ver- maxbrantley@arktimes.com The potential ballot questions: sion of the proposal • Issue One: The legislature put in the course of trying, until the Arkanthis on the ballot at the behest of the sas Supreme Court stepped in, to block Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce, all people-oriented ballot proposals. The nursing homes, hospitals and doctors. state Chamber of Commerce will fight It devalues human life and limits trial a minimum wage increase, its memby jury by capping damages and legal bers loaded with money from President fees in negligence and malpractice suits. Trump’s windfall tax break for corporaThe amendment also strips the tions and millionaires. Arkansas Supreme Court of rulemakThe corporate lobbyists also will ing authority and puts it in the hands enjoy taxpayer subsidies in fighting proof the legislature, corporate-controlled people measures such as a wage increase. and often corrupt. Local taxpayer subsidies to chamber of • Minimum wage: An initiated act commerce employees ($300,000 worth would raise the minimum wage from in Little Rock alone) were legalized by $8.50 an hour to $11 by 2021. The top a constitutional amendment put on the

The real Q plot?

ould “they” be right that President president’s grand Trump and special counsel Robert plan to upend the S. Mueller III are not really at war political status quo but are secret collaborators who have a and send the real grand plot that will end with Hillary Clin- crooks and traitors ton and Barack Obama in striped prison — Clinton, Barack ERNEST suits and Trump as the national savior? Obama and perDUMAS Might that explain Trump’s shock- haps others — to ing reversal over the weekend when prison for life, if not to a Rosenberg fate. he again made liars of himself, his law- The theory has millions of followers on yers and his press secretary by changing social media, who follow Trump’s seemhis story and admitting that the meet- ingly brainless utterings and QAnon foling at Trump Tower of his son, son-in- low-ups for clues to the grand scheme. law and his top campaign officials with You noticed them in the cheering throngs Russian agents in June 2016 was to get at his rallies wearing Q T-shirts and wav“dirt” on Clinton from the Russians to ing Q signs. use in the campaign? The dirt — camYou must admit that the basic facts renpaign plans stolen from the digital troves der the Mueller investigation and Trump’s of the Democratic Party — was dumped obsession with it a little suspicious. All on the world through Wikileaks a few the men who seem to be Trump’s tordays later. Trump seems to be getting mentors in the Russian investigation are in sync with Mueller, who has been col- actually dedicated Republicans, although lecting evidence on the famous gather- the president keeps screaming about the ing with four Russians with links to the “17” Democrats who are out to get him. Kremlin. Why would he be doing it if he Mueller is a lifelong Republican. So is and Mueller don’t have something clever James Comey, the FBI director and former up their sleeves? high Bush administration official whom “They” are the conspiracists on social Trump fired. So is Attorney General Jeff media known as QAnon who claim to be Sessions, whom Trump keeps savaging high federal agents with the top-secret in hopes he will resign. So is Rod RosenQ security clearance. They posit that all stein, the deputy attorney general whom the lies and stupid snafus of the presi- Trump appointed and then castigated and dent actually are cover for the genius who was part of Kenneth Starr’s team of

ballot under false pretenses in 2014 (eco- response to the legislature’s dishonest nomic development!) by the corporate- term limits-loosening amendment in friendly legislature. 2014, which hugely increased incum• Voter ID: This latest ballot obstacle bent power with the ability to serve 16 amendment is a national Republican years in a single chamber. But it also device to suppress Democratic votes would serve as a check on the legislaamong the poor and minorities. The ture’s steady encroachment on execuRepublican-majority legislature likes tive (review power) and judicial power it. Thus the corporate lobby that con- (rulemaking). We now have a full-time, trols the Republican-majority legisla- well-paid legislature, including many ture likes it. members who have no other visible • Casino expansion: Oaklawn Park means of support. It’s a far cry from and Southland Park, existing casinos, the part-time citizen legislature envihave signaled support for this amend- sioned by founders. ment, which would solidify their shaky The state Chamber of Commerce legal status and give them expanded doesn’t like this term limits measure. bookmaking power while permitting It likes the current collection of puppets. two new casinos in Jefferson and Pope Grooming replacements is expensive counties. Both racinos are major finan- and sometimes unreliable. cial supporters of the Arkansas State Hypocrisy note: The Republicans Chamber of Commerce. Need I say once led the charge for term limits. No more? more. GOP Party Chairman Doyle Webb • Term limits: A people-initiated leg- announced his opposition to term limits. islative term limits amendment qualified He liked them when they promised to for the ballot last week. It would limit unseat majority Democrats. legislators to 10 years in office, not the Will the people rule in November? current range of 16 to 22 years. It’s a Or the corporations?

Republican prosecutors who investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton for seven years. So is, or was, Andrew McCabe, briefly the acting FBI director after Comey’s firing. So is Christopher A. Wray, the former Bush official whom Trump appointed FBI director and who directs the FBI team assigned to the Mueller investigation. So is the avid politico Brett Kavanaugh, who twice worked on Starr’s team, first to try to prosecute the Clintons for the suicide of their friend Vince Foster and then President Clinton for his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky. Kavanaugh will be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice this fall in time to cast a decisive vote to protect Trump if it’s needed. The FBI has always, at least in modern times, been sort of a Republican police force, directed by partisan Republicans. Remember that the FBI chief who directed the FBI probes of the Clintons for Kenneth Starr and other special prosecutors for eight years was Louis Freeh, the Reagan and Bush acolyte who Clinton wanted to fire but never did. But there may be a more rational explanation than the Q conspiracy for Trump’s about-face on the Russian meeting and his need to reach an accommodation with Mueller. Aside from the matter of colluding with Russians to interfere in an election — a criminal violation of the federal code in spite of Trump’s and his lawyers’ assertions that collusion is legal — Mueller is

confronted with overwhelming circumstantial evidence from Trump’s mouth, tweets and executive actions that he tried to obstruct justice in the investigation of the Russian interference. Bill Clinton was charged with obstruction by Starr and the Republican House of Representatives for not admitting to his family and the country that he had oral sex with Monica Lewinsky and thus encouraging her to lie. Mueller, one can surmise, dreads still another constitutional crisis like those that followed the Nixon and Clinton impeachment efforts, the latter of which proved to be enormously unpopular with the American people. There will be numerous convictions and guilty pleas by Trump campaign and perhaps family members, but Mueller needs to avoid charging the president himself with trying to stop or influence the Russian investigation. He needs to be able to conclude that there is not enough evidence that Trump purposely obstructed the probe. To do so, he needs to hear it from Trump’s own lips. Trump courtier Rudy Giuliani sent a letter to Mueller this week begging him to agree in advance not to ask Trump those questions if Trump sits down with him. Even while trying to assert his naïeveté, Trump could get caught in provable perjury for which, like Kenneth Starr, Mueller would have to prosecute him. That is the mating dance.

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arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

He won’t testify

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AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

an’t we please, please put one piece of Fake News to bed? Spare us the interviews with Rudy Giuliani and the endless debates among cable TV lawyers about the terms and conditions of Donald Trump’s testimony to special counsel Robert Mueller. There’s never going to be any testimony. It’s all a charade. Come what may, Trump will never appear under oath in the Russia investigation. No defense attorney worth his law license would allow it. Those tales The New York Times reporters pass along about how the president’s confident he can talk his way out of anything? He’s stalling, playing for time. If push comes to shove, Trump will plead the Fifth Amendment, political consequences be damned. He’ll just keep calling the Mueller probe a partisan witch-hunt, invoke the privilege against self-incrimination and brazen it out. Short of provoking a constitutional crisis, it’s his only real play. But I doubt it will come to that. Mueller can issue all the subpoenas he wants, if he wants. But what for? He’d actually be doing Trump a favor, helping him to stall with tedious Supreme Court theater. Already, The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent is warning us to “Get ready for this nightmare scenario involving Trump, Mueller and [Supreme Court nominee Brett] Kavanaugh.” Far better for Mueller to let the question of the president’s testimony simmer on the back burner while proceeding with widely anticipated indictments of Trump campaign officials for “conspiracy to defraud the United States” along with Russian military hackers. Maybe the president could be persuaded to testify in defense of his son Donald Jr., although I doubt it. The president basically convicted himself as an accessory after the fact on Twitter last weekend anyway. He condemned as “Fake News” a report that he was “concerned about the meeting my wonderful son, Donald, had in Trump Tower. This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics — and it went nowhere. I did not know about it!” In short, virtually everything Trump has previously stated about the ill-fated June 2016 meeting between Donald Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and a passel of Kremlin-connected Russians was a lie. Supposedly, it was about Russian adoptions, remember? That was the gist of the scripted denial Trump dictated aboard

Air Force One and falsely attributed to his son. A few weeks later, The New York Times GENE obtained a series LYONS of emails between Donald Jr. and Rob Goldstone, the Britishborn publicist who helped arrange the Trump Tower get together by promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump.” “If it’s what you say,” Donald Jr. replied, “I love it.” No mention of Russian orphans. Meanwhile, two days before the illfated meeting that Trump insists he knew nothing about, he promised a “major speech” on June 13 regarding “all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons.” Evidently because the Russian “dirt” was of low quality, that speech was never delivered. Nevertheless, it’s clear that an offer had been made and a price agreed upon. The Russians wanted repeal of the Magnitsky Act, a law making it hard for Kremlin oligarchs to launder money. U.S. election law makes it a crime to receive from foreigners “a contribution or donation of money or other thing of value … in connection with a Federal, State, or local election.” “Dirt,” aka opposition research, can be an expensive commodity. (Also contrary to Trump, hiring an agent like Christopher Steele to do opposition research is perfectly legal. It’s a question of who’s paying: the candidate or a hostile foreign government.) Former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum puts it succinctly as possible: “They knew they would be meeting with representatives of the Russian State. “They knew they were being offered Russian state intelligence. “They intended to use Russian intelligence offered by Russian agents against American opponents. “They did not alert the FBI.” Even former Trump sidekick Steve Bannon, scourge of the “Deep State,” thought meeting Russian agents inside Trump Tower was at best deeply stupid. “Even if you thought that this was not treasonous, or unpatriotic, or bad s***,” he said, “and I happen to think it’s all of that, you should have called the FBI immediately.” And if it weren’t all those things, the White House wouldn’t have had to lie about it for so long. So, no, Trump will never testify.

Breaking a bond

will get right to the point: It is becoming way too easy to lock people up. Our jails and prisons are overcrowded. Our criminal justice system is bursting at the seams. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Arkansas leads the pack for the highest number of children with an incarcerated parent. You’d think we would be looking for ways to help these children visit their parents, but, instead, many of our jails are making it harder and harder for incarcerated parents to maintain a bond with their families. The Benton County sheriff recently announced a new policy to do away with in-person visits at the Benton County Jail, where inmates and visitors are separated by glass, and substitute that with a pay-per-minute remote video visitation system. After some outcry about the costs, the sheriff announced there would be a free terminal at the jail. Benton County is not the first to do away with in-person visits. Washington County went to video visitation only when the jail opened in 2005. It’s a sorry system. Jails are built of concrete and steel. There is often an unwritten code that requires toughness and frowns upon displays of emotion. They are not places designed to foster humanity. That’s why taking away the in-person visits is cruel and short-sighted. It hurts the incarcerated individual and the visiting family, especially the children. It’s a mistake to believe that just because someone is incarcerated, he or she is a bad parent. What many seem to forget is that our county jails are full of people who are disproportionately poor, have not been convicted of a crime, and are only incarcerated because they can’t afford to make bail. Video visitation is not completely bad. It can help families who cannot travel stay in touch with their incarcerated loved ones. It is a nice supplement to inperson visitation, but should never be a substitute. It is impersonal. Sometimes it is hard to hear and see the person on the other end. It takes away an important human connection to the outside world. Most of the inmates in the county jail will be released at some point. One of the best ways to reduce recidivism is to help families maintain strong bonds. Families provide stability upon release. Human contact helps prevent inmates from being institutionalized so they can better adapt upon release. The move to video visitation is part of a larger and troubling trend to automate

and streamline the criminal justice system. Video court is becoming more and more common and is AUTUMN now being used TOLBERT for individuals charged with felonies. Some probationers report checking in at kiosks instead of seeing an actual probation officer. Gone is the gravity of standing in front of a judge in a courtroom and receiving a sentence. Gone is the important face-toface contact between a probation officer and probationer. The changes are being done in the name of safety and efficiency. This flies in the face of our founding principles. Taking someone’s liberty should be difficult. It should not be convenient for us as a people to deprive someone of his freedom. This automated, conveyor-belt style of justice should concern us all. In all the noise about the proper interpretations of the First and Second amendments, we’ve completely forgotten about the Fifth and the 14th. Due process requires a process. We should be wary of every single policy or law designed to ease that process. I understand the county budgets are strained. It requires a lot of money and officers to transport inmates to and from court and to facilitate inperson visitations. But this is a problem of our own making. We are locking too many people up for nonviolent, drug and financial offenses. We are overloading our probation officers with people who don’t need supervision while those who do are not offered the attention or services they need to succeed. Our jails are full of poor people who cannot come up with the money to bond out. And now we are taking away in-person visits from county inmates and charging them to see their families. How will this help us in the long run? Thank goodness Arkansas prisons still allow in-person visitations for most inmates. However, I’m afraid it is only a matter of time before some legislator or prison official decides to end the visits and allow yet another private company to profit off our inmates and their families. Progress is good. Progress that sacrifices liberty, family connections and lower recidivism rates for the sake of savings and convenience is not. Sure, video visitation and other measures designed to make it easier to lock people up will save some bucks, but at what cost to our children and our future? arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

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AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

More season preview

hen we last left our beloved featured three bitter Razorbacks of 2018, they overtime losses in had meandered through a Arlington. The Hogs BEAU WILCOX slightly atypical nonconference slate embrace the opporof three games unscathed, per Pearls’ tunity from the outset with a 21-0 firstannual prediction. With anticipated quarter blitz anchored by a long scorvictories over largely unfamiliar foes ing run from Devwah Whaley and a (Eastern Illinois, Colorado State and De’Vion Warren end-around. Knowing North Texas) in the rear view, the Hogs that Alabama looms the following week end the season’s opening month and and that an 0-3 start in the SEC would start October with a much more chal- be damaging, Chad Morris doesn’t let lenging barrage of foes, bookended by up even as the Aggies try to nudge their the two powers from the Yellowham- way back into the game in the third mer State. quarter. The first clash between Morris One thing that bodes well for the and A&M’s overpaid Tallahassee refuHogs as they enter conference play in gee Jimbo Fisher goes decisively, and 2018 is the fact that, historically, low- perhaps surprisingly, for the former. ered expectations lead to decent results. Cole Kelley plays an efficient game at Arkansas wasn’t supposed to be a con- quarterback and gets 100-yard rushing tender when Houston Nutt took the efforts from both Whaley and Chase helm in 1998 but Morris clearly will Hayden in a long-awaited victory in borrow from that team’s example 20 Jerry Jones’ self-aggrandizing temyears after it went 9-3 and pushed even- ple. Arkansas 38, Texas A&M 23. tual national champ Tennessee to the Alabama, Oct. 6: Alabama’s secondbrink in Knoxville. Bobby Petrino’s ary is being retooled this fall, which first team was woefully short on expe- means that somehow three of these rience and depth, but managed to win unknown, untested defensive backs five games despite numerous early sea- will end up being by-God All-Amerison blowouts, and came up just shy of cans by the time it’s all said and done bowl eligibility thanks to three narrow for 2018. With that said, the Hogs losses in SEC play. unleash an early attack on the back At Auburn, Sept. 22: The Tigers end of the Tide’s vaunted defense, and are a chic pick this year to upset Ala- Kelley, given nice protection from the bama’s proverbial apple cart, and with Tide’s almost relentless rush, throws fairly good reason, as quarterback two pretty first-half touchdown passes, Jarrett Stidham returns after settling one each to Jared Cornelius and Jonainto a groove as the field general last than Nance. Arkansas has had a couple fall. Auburn is going to be a slightly of near-misses against the Tide in Fayunknown commodity on the defensive etteville (2010, 2014) and this one will, side, and that’s something that Hog unfortunately, go down as another one offensive coordinator Joe Craddock as the power running of Damien Harris can exploit. This could end up being after halftime is simply too much for a a shootout but ultimately the Tigers worn-down Arkansas defense to resist. hang a loss on the Hogs with a big final As with the Auburn game, Arkansas quarter, though the outcome is some- plays with guts and composure despite what encouraging to Razorback fans being outmanned, but the talent disparwho have watched the Tigers steamroll ity wins out in the end and the Hogs the Hogs by a combined 108-23 mar- drop to 4-2, 1-2 after the first half of gin the past two seasons. Stidham’s the schedule is behind them. Alabama second-half accuracy and a couple of 31, Arkansas 20. ill-timed Razorback turnovers fell the Next week’s Pearls will dig into the visitors, but it’s a loss that pays imme- third quarter of the Razorback scheddiate dividends the following week, ule, and it’s a segment of the campaign too. Auburn 44, Arkansas 31. that seems to offer a chance to really Texas A&M, Sept. 29: Feeling a bit fight back after having this tough secof swagger after showing some fight ond stretch behind the team. We’re against a consensus Top 10 Auburn projecting a quality first year for Morris team, the Hogs are primed to put an and the overhauled Razorback defense, end to six seasons of agony against so stay tuned and, even if it counters the Aggies, the last four of which have all possible logic, maintain hope.

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Big secrets

he Observer, like a lot of Americans, has got our secrets, but for the most part they’re so boring they couldn’t even excite the senses or loins of one of those housebound, horngry Incels we’ve heard so much about on the news of late. Our personal trove of secrets ain’t nothing to write home about for the most part, but —again like a lot of Americans — we do have quite a few culinary secrets that we keep close to the vest, never writing them down lest they fall into enemy hands. With nothing going on around The Observatory but the rent this week, though, we’re hurting to fill this space, still a follower of that rumpled god of journalists Phil D. Hole after all these years. So, we thought we’d drop a few secrets from our family cookbook. Here’s one that you’re not going to believe until you try it. When making a grilled cheese, don’t use butter. Instead, use a thin but thorough schmear of real Duke’s mayonnaise. You’re thinking your old pal has gone slap-ass crazy right now, but try it and report back. Best grilled cheese of your life, sons and daughters, and creamy mayo is a hell of a lot easier to spread on bread than cold butter from the fridge. Just take your two slices of bread, put your frommage of choice between them, lightly frost the outsides with a very thin layer of mayo, then fry in a hot pan. We’ve got no idea about the science behind it (as is our general scientific ignorance about most things, from electricity to why our cat insists on knocking shit off tables), but the result is an ooey, gooey, altogether perfect grilled cheese. Doesn’t even taste like mayo. Promise. Here’s another from the vaults: Unless the grill is going, our preferred method of hot dog preparation has long been to boil those suckers like the proper white trash glitterati we are. Here’s the trick: While you’re boiling your dogs, open the buns and pull ’em out of the bag, then — once your weiners have plumped to moist and glistening perfection — put them

on the buns and then stuff the whole shootin’ match back into the bun bag. Twist-tie the top closed, and let them steam in the bag like that for five minutes. After that, enjoy the best hot dog you’ve ever had outside the ballpark, the bun steamed and flavorful. If you’re worried about plastic CFCs or PCPs or PFCs or whatever chemical people online are doomshouting about this week, we suppose you could do this trick with any small, sealed container, but the bag is right there and handy, and we ain’t dead yet. Besides: It’s a hot dog. It’s probably already shaving a month or two off your life. This last one is something that tastes great and it’s literally three ingredients. Take your slow cooker (you DO have a slow cooker, right? If not, how do you call yourself an Arkansan?) and into it introduce about three to four pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts, along with two smaller cans or one big ol’ can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (you can find them stashed in the Hispanic food section of pretty much any grocery store), plus about a cup of water to rinse out all the nuclear-red goo from the cans. Dump that in, too. Finally, drop in a whole stick of real butter, then salt and pepper to taste. Cook on low all day while you’re at work, and by the time you get home, those boring boneless bird breasts will have transformed into something amazing. Pull the breasts out of the primordial soup, shred them in a big bowl with two forks and then ladle a few cups of juice from the slow cooker over them to keep things nice and moist. Our go-to for The Devil’s Chicken is to make tacos and burritos with cheese, cilantro, onions and salsa, but it’s also delicious on salads, tasty with pasta and a revelation in homemade soup or chili. The recipe makes a ton and keeps for at least a few days. How can something with three ingredients be worth a damn? Here’s how: There’s magic in those adobo pepper cans, kids. Trust us.

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arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

Arkansas Reporter

Majority: Red-light 30 Crossing But ARDOT’s project to widen the interstate is preordained, some believe. BY LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

ublic comment on the Arkan- drivers exiting into downtown Little sas Department of Transpor- Rock, and is highly contentious among tation’s draft Environmental residents of the River Market district Assessment of its planned wid- because of traffic and the disappearening of Interstate 30 to 10 lanes (and ance of parking. Dale Pekar, a former more in places) produced 1,092 pages U.S. Army Corps of Engineers analyst, of documents and roughly 65 percent said the split diamond exit at Fourth nays to 35 percent yeas. Street, as is now envisioned, would People in opposition to the $631.7 eliminate the “seamless transition” million project described ARDOT’s plan of the current cloverleaf, which has as “dismal,” “boondoggle,” “monstrous,” “effectively only one stoplight between “ridiculous,” “overdesigned,” a “colossal Cantrell and I-30,” and put in its place mistake” and “idiotic,” and accused the an alternative that will include “four to department of “egregious steamrolling.” six lights … a violation of basic urban CHECKING OUT ARDOT’S DESIGN FOR 30 CROSSING: During the public comment On the other side of the coin — where planning standards.” period on the highway department’s Environmental Assessment of the plan to widen I-30, proponents made use of three versions Comments from people opposed ARDOT held an event in North Little Rock to illustrate the project with “roll maps” and of boilerplate (long, shorter and short) to the plan ranged from brief emailed videos. — the project was described in less col- sentences (“ABSOLUTELY 100% orful language, as “increasing vehicular AGAINST WIDENING I-30”) to mulsafety” and providing “better pedestrian tiple-page, footnoted documents. Those But the Army Corps of Engineers, which detail the measures ARDOT has taken to connectivity.” documents challenged ARDOT’s traffic has not made much of a splash at public avoid or minimize impact on wetlands. Supporters of the highway widen- models, its plans for the project in case meetings, also found fault with the EnviThe Corps also asked ARDOT to “vering, which would move the exit into of a shortfall in funds and expressed con- ronmental Assessment. ify that the statement, ‘Therefore the Little Rock from the current cloverleaf cerns with the PEL (planning and enviIn its comment, the Corps asked 1) for historic decline in water resources is not south of Second Street to Fourth Street, ronmental linkages) process; described a change in one of the structural elements likely to continue and is not a concern showed a surprising interest into the clo- the Environmental Assessment as lack- of the I-30 bridge and that ARDOT pro- due to the large amounts of wetlands verleaf’s unwanted “incentive” to draw ing in its failure to address public transit, vide its changes for review and approval and floodplains present in the project people downtown. Their boilerplate new technology, and more; and called for by the Corps; 2) that ARDOT include watershed,’ is accurate since many publiread: “Removing this interchange will for the agency to conduct an Environ- “discussion” on the impact of the project cations state that there is actually a slow also shift traffic patterns since, without mental Impact Statement, a more thor- on a residential development north of and steady decline of water resources direct access to Highway 10, there will ough analysis. One person noted that a Dark Hollow; 3) that ARDOT elucidate due to development.” be less of an incentive to exit downtown federal court required an Environmental how Level of Service and peak traffic Examples, taken in whole or part if your ultimate destination is a point Impact Statement be performed for the are related “since they are considered from comments, regarding a variety of further west.” proposed (and unsuccessful) extension in the analysis and are used to develop concerns: ARDOT’s preferred configuration for of Rebsamen Park Road west along the the purpose and need”; 4) that ARDOT “Please do not turn ‘the City of Roses’ a widened I-30 would add four “connec- Arkansas River, a tiny project compared address minority population impacts into ‘The City of Concrete.’ Why are you tor-distributer lanes” on either side of to 30 Crossing. more clearly and include “historical dis- willing to ruin downtown Little Rock six “through lanes” to funnel traffic off Much of the opposition came from cussion regarding the disproportionate to eliminate 15 minutes drive time for a and on to the highway in what is known parties who have made their stand well impacts of transportation on minority commuter who lives and pays taxes in as a “split diamond” pattern. The design known over the past couple of years populations”; and 5) that the Environ- another county?” requires hard right or hard left turns at of debate over the project: residents, mental Assessment be reworded to more “We would be paying twice for this stoplights (with the exception of one neighborhood associations, architects clearly define wetlands, include informa- in public health expenditures on top of “Texas turnaround”) for southbound and potential litigants, including Pekar. tion of the importance of wetlands and to the costs of widening itself. It is a gross 12

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

THE

Tune in to our “Week In Review” podcast each Friday. Available on iTunes & arktimes.com

misallocation of tax dollars.” “You are using a 20th century mindset, where cars were king, that is not true of younger generations. We need more walkable, bikeable neighborhoods and better mass transit for the 21st century.” “Go to Europe and look at a real city! They encourage bikes, don’t run giant expressways right through the city center.” “I just moved to downtown Little Rock because it is very walkable and safe to walk. This project will completely change that safety. … I think lots of young people like me will end up moving away from LR.” “I am filled with disgust and near fury at the adamant stupidity of the plan proposed for I-30 through Little Rock. Apparently the state Highway and Transportation Department has somewhat the same mentality that the U.S. Corps of Engineers demonstrated some years ago when they wanted to dam the Buffalo: ‘If the money is there, we gotta spend it.’ ” “While I seriously doubt whether anyone reads these submittals (I have provided several in the past and have never gotten any acknowledgement of receipt or a reply), I would again like to express my strong disapproval for the conversion of Third Street into a major artery leading into Interstate 30. … Tree-lined, quiet and pedestrian/pet oriented should be the appropriate goal to be realized by the state highway department.” There was a p.s. on one comment: “And it won’t work. This expansion will not solve congestion by ARDOT’s own admission.” Some of the comments in favor of the highway widening — a number emanating from an advertising agency downtown — suggested that those who submitted them believe the project includes the development of parks (while the plan does allow for acres of greenspace on either side of a new Second Street, ARDOT will not build any parks): A writer from Bryant wrote, “After the concrete walls are taken down and green spaces added, our downtown will feel like a more fun, safe place to be. I know I will frequent it more often.” Another person commented, “Having more greenspace and the ability to hold community events such as Yoga on the green deck, concerts, art festivals, etc. would be a huge benefit.” The 4,000page Environmental Assessment makes no mention of yoga, so it’s unclear what the writer is referring to.

THE

BIG PICTURE

Inconsequential News Quiz:

Make ‘The Matrix’ Great Again! Edition

Play at home while studying your Methimatics flash cards!

1) Trey Lane, an architect from Rogers, recently learned that he and his team of designers won a plum assignment, beating out 18 other teams from around the world. What were Mr. Lane and Co. designing? A) A prison cell to hold disgraced former President Donald J. Trump at some point in the near future, if there is a just God in heaven. B) A Tornado O’ Lobbyist Bucks! chamber for the Arkansas Republican Party headquarters. C) A proposed robotic lander and equipment to 3D-print habitable structures during a future NASA mission to Mars. D) A “Matrix”-like virtual reality where Trump supporters can be just as racist, ignorant and homophobic as they like without losing the respect of every decent person in their lives.

2) The Network for Public Education recently gave Arkansas an F in a survey grading all 50 states on a certain subject. In what subject did we flunk? A) Defense Against the Dark Sharts. B) Backyard Wrasslin’. C) Our level of support for public schools over charter schools and other education privatization efforts. D) Methimatics.

3) Van Buren police say an officer in that department is lucky to be alive after being shot by a man during a disturbance, thanks to an item that deflected the bullet. What was the item? A) The blanket he was wrapped in when he fell to earth as an infant, before being found by a kindly old farm couple. B) 100,000,000th Donut Sold! pin from Dunkin Donuts, which he’d been awarded the day before. C) A pen-sized steel handcuff key, which the officer was carrying in his shirt pocket. D) The sterling silver codpiece that is a required uniform item for officers with the Van Buren PD.

4) As we reported recently, The Satanic Temple is raising funds to bring a 7½-foot statue of the pagan god Baphomet to Arkansas in coming weeks to protest the installation of the Ten Commandments monument on the state Capitol grounds, a development that sent state Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Matthew 6:5) in a tizzy. Which of the following did Rapert write in a fundraising post to his faithful flock? A) That even though an online crowdfunding effort had already raised around $85,000 for the monument at the time Rapert’s post was made, people should donate even more. B) That the Ten Commandments monument “is under assault from the Satanic Temple, Satanists, the American Atheists and the ACLU.” C) That “they” — apparently meaning Satanists, atheists and the ACLU — “destroyed the first monument,” as opposed to a mentally ill man named Michael T. Reed, who ran it over with his Dodge Dart. D) All of the above.

5) The feds recently announced charges against two Chinese researchers who were stopped as they allegedly attempted to leave the country with something potentially worth millions. What, according to investigators, were they trying to sneak out of the U.S.? A) The severed hand of the Fouke Monster. B) A large rolling suitcase containing Donald Trump Jr., two steps ahead of Robert Mueller. C) Seeds from rice with potential biomedical applications, allegedly taken from the Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center in Stuttgart and another research facility in Kansas. D) The secret ingredient in Granny Jenkins’ famous tater salad.

Answers: C, C, C, D, C

LISTEN UP

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

BRIAN CHILSON

ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN: Brittany Keeland says she’s amassed medical bills due to repeated Medicaid coverage lapses for herself and her children.

SCRUBBED FROM THE SYSTEM Why Medicaid enrollment has dropped by almost 60,000 people in 18 months. BY BENJI HARDY ARKANSAS NONPROFIT NEWS NETWORK

ast September, a few months after she was diagnosed with multiple scle-

rosis, Kyla Brakebill’s insurance coverage was canceled by the Arkansas

Department of Human Services. Almost a year later, she remains uninsured.

Brakebill, 43, first began having headaches and dizzy spells in November 2016. After an especially intense episode, she was taken to the emergency room at Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock, where a doctor ordered a series of tests. “She thought at first I might have had a stroke, because she tested that,” Brakebill said in an interview. “They were going to see about an aneurysm, but that came back negative. … After my MRI, she came in and said, ‘I can tell you don’t have this, this 14

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

or that, but I’m worried.’ ” The doctor told Brakebill the scan showed “that my brain was like the brain of a 64-yearold woman.” Frightening as the news was, Brakebill thought she at least wouldn’t have to worry about paying for medical care: She was on Arkansas Works, the state’s Medicaid-funded insurance program for low-income adults established under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. (Arkansas Works is also sometimes called “Medicaid expansion” or “the

private option.”) Like most on the program, her policy was provided through a private carrier, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “It covered everything, and that was great,” Brakebill said. The hospital helped her find a primary care doctor, who gave her a probable MS diagnosis and sent her to a neurologist, who in turn scheduled Brakebill for another round of brain scans. Brakebill never had the scans performed. Late last summer, while taking out the trash at her house, she lost her

balance on a rough patch of earth at the edge of the carport. “All of my weight went on my right big toe, and I broke my toe,” she recalled. “And when that happened, my body swung around and my mouth hit the post that holds the carport up and knocked one of my front teeth out. It was horrible.” A dentist prescribed antibiotics to stave off an infection, and shortly thereafter, Brakebill attempted to fill it. “I was in Memphis for work and my mouth was hurt really bad,” she said. “I get to Walgreens and I find out they

LOCKED OUT: After Kyla Brakebill lost Arkansas Works coverage last September, she was unable to get treatment for multiple sclerosis.

won’t fill my prescription because my insurance had ended.” Baffled, she called Blue Cross and DHS as soon as she returned home. “After a million phone calls and finally getting to talk to someone, they said it was because I didn’t send a change of address.” Brakebill had recently lost her home to a foreclosure and had moved several times. However, she had filled out a change of address form at the post office and had her mail forwarded to a P.O. box. She had no idea, she said, that DHS required beneficiaries to directly notify the agency of any physical address change. And because her insurance was provided through Blue Cross rather than directly through the state — a feature born of Arkansas’s unusual privatized approach to Medicaid expansion — she wasn’t used to communicating with DHS about her coverage. “I never had another conversation with DHS about insurance after that initial application,” she said. DHS requires beneficiaries to notify it of any address change within 10 days of a move, agency spokeswoman Amy Webb said. If mail sent to a beneficiary

is returned to DHS and the agency hasn’t received notification of an address change, it will close that person’s case. ***

Though such coverage would likely The fact that Arkansas’s 18-month cost more than Arkansas Works (which decline in Medicaid enrollment outcosts little to nothing for beneficiaries), paced most other states also suggests more people moving up the income lad- there’s more at play than economic facder would be clearly positive news. tors. Arkansas’s unemployment rate is “I would emphasize that this is not a low, but so are those of other states change in services,” Hutchinson said at that haven’t seen a similarly steep dip a recent session with the press at which in Medicaid rolls. And while Medicaid he touted savings in the Medicaid budget. enrollment has fallen fairly steadily from “This is simply the result of people that January 2017 to June 2018, the unemare working. … If they got a better job and ployment rate over that period ticked they just don’t bother telling us about it, slightly upward, from 3.7 percent to 3.8 and they no longer qualify, that’s a good percent. The Arkansas jobless rate in thing, because nobody’s losing services. June ranked 21st in the nation, according It’s just that they no longer qualify and to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. we’re not wasting our taxpayers’ money. In July, DHS released a graph breakIf it’s because their spouse got insurance ing down the reasons behind the approxand they no longer need Arkansas Works, imately 14,000 Arkansas Works case then that’s a good thing as well.” closures the previous month. Only 11 Jennifer Wagner, a senior policy ana- percent of the cases closed in June were lyst at the Center for Budget and Policy attributed to an increase in household Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank in income. However, Wagner said that figWashington, D.C., said the picture was ure likely understates the percentage of more complicated. people who left the program because of “I’m sure some portion is attribut- rising wages. Many beneficiaries who able to the improving economy,” Wag- no longer need Arkansas Works may ner said. “The thing that we tend to see, simply stop corresponding with DHS, though, is that even when people are rather than contacting the agency to able to find employment, often their explicitly request closure. income does not go up high enough to The governor’s second explanamake them no longer eligible. And often tion for the reduced enrollment is an the low-wage work they get does not improved effort at DHS to “scrub” the include health insurance. As we know, Medicaid rolls by removing people who a lot of people on Medicaid are work- are no longer eligible. That includes ing families — they’re just not making many situations: individuals who are enough [money] and they’re not get- making too much money, who have ting employer-sponsored insurance. So, moved out of state, who are incarcerI wouldn’t assume that all drop-off is ated, who have turned 65 (and are therebecause of that.” fore receiving Medicare) or who are

Over the past 18 months, Arkansas Works enrollment decreased by almost 60,000 people, DHS numbers show. Enrollment peaked near 330,000 sometime in January 2017. By July 1 of this year, it had fallen to 271,000 — a 15 percent drop. The state is shedding beneficiaries at a faster rate than any other state that chose to expand Medicaid, according to data from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Arkansas saw a 6 percent decline in its overall Medicaid enrollment between January 2017 and May 2018. The shrinking Arkansas Works program evidently accounted for most of the drop. (The CMS data combines the expansion population and the larger, more expensive “traditional” Medicaid population, which includes children on ARKids, elderly people, disabled people and other groups.) Only three non-expansion states — Texas, Idaho and Tennessee — saw a larger percentage decrease in Medicaid overall. Arkansas has lately come under national scrutiny for its new work requirement for some Arkansas Works enrollees, with many health researchers and advocates warning the policy could lead to thousands losing coverage. Yet little attention has been paid to the steady monthly reduction SOURCE: ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES in Medicaid enrollment figures predating the work requirement, which began in June. The work rule won’t trigger terminations of coverage until September at the earliest. That means the almost 60,000 people pared from Arkansas Works over the last year and a half dropped away for other reasons. Governor Hutchinson has given two explanations. The first is a strong economy. Because Medicaid expansion is open only to those whose incomes fall below 138 percent of the federal poverty line (in 2018, that’s $16,753 for an individual or $34,638 for a family of four), getting a better job often makes a beneficiary ineligible for Arkansas Works. He or she might then gain insurance through an CHURN: In June, DHS closed 14,140 Arkansas Works cases for various reasons. Many of employer — or, if that’s not an those individuals have likely reapplied for coverage and will re-enter the program. DHS option, purchase a plan on the provided the above chart in a July report on work requirements. individual marketplace with the help of a federal subsidy.

arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

dead. But it also includes many people such as Kyla Brakebill, who lost coverage because of a problem communicating with DHS. DHS figures suggest that changes of address and communications issues are a major reason for coverage losses. Sixty percent of cases closed in June were terminated for one of two reasons: “failed to return requested information” or “unable to locate client or moved out-of-state.” The latter category includes cases in which DHS receives any piece of

wrote in an email that “if the information is not returned by the deadline, the case is closed. Many of these closures are automated, and there is an extra 5 days built in to our automated process to make sure that any information that is received has been logged into the system.” Wagner said, “I don’t know that other states would necessarily take action to close a case just because of returned mail. That’s concerning, especially because this population often moves a lot … staying with friends or family or things like

*** Many Arkansas Works beneficiaries who lose coverage quickly regain it. Brakebill did not, seemingly due to a combination of bad timing and bad information. She said she thought she had to wait until November to reapply for coverage. That’s likely because of widespread public confusion about the difference between Arkansas Works (which can be applied for at any point during the

DOWNWARD TRAJECTORY: Figures are for the last day of the month, before monthly closures occur. First-of-month figures can be significantly lower due to closures. July 1 enrollment was 270,676.

returned mail, agency spokeswoman that. So that’s kind of a lot to expect — for year) and the individual insurance marWebb said in an email. Webb said the it to be constantly updated.” The state ketplace (which can typically only be agency couldn’t distinguish between could take more proactive steps to find a accessed during a brief open enrollment clients who moved out of state and those beneficiary, Wagner added, such as cross- period at the end of the year). People who moved within the state. checking with the postal service’s National whose income is above 138 percent of Wagner, who studies Medicaid pol- Change of Address system. Franklin said poverty can get coverage on the maricy across the country, said the DHS DHS does not check that database before ketplace subsidized by the federal govapproach to returned mail was “a very closing a case. ernment. aggressive stance for the state to take.” “Federal regulations do require MedicIt’s not clear which group Brakebill It’s not uncommon, she said, for Med- aid recipients to report changes that affect should have been in at that point in time, icaid recipients in all states to lose cov- eligibility,” Wagner acknowledged, “and because her income fluctuated signifierage at “recertification,” the annual I’m sure Arkansas could make an argu- cantly from month to month. (In January update of personal information man- ment that they don’t know if someone has 2017, she started working as a marketdated for every beneficiary. “People moved out of state if they didn’t report an ing manager for a home improvement are often sent a letter and are required address change. But that is an aggressive company that sets up booths at public to send that back. They may also be stance, and I wonder how frequently mail- events. She earns a few hundred dollars required to send additional verification, ings are going out over the year.” each week in base pay and — depending like pay stubs,” Wagner said. “No matter In fact, DHS has been sending out fre- on the season — an additional amount in what, there’s going to be some degree quent mailings to many Arkansas Works commissions.) It may be that Brakebill of fall-off at recertification.” recipients to inform them of the new could have simply re-enrolled in ArkanIn Arkansas, though, any returned work requirement. Webb said DHS didn’t sas Works last fall. It’s also possible her mail — not just at recertification — auto- have information on how many Arkansas annual income had exceeded the threshmatically triggers a closure. That creates Works closures occurred at annual recer- old for a single-person household, in more opportunities for a beneficiary to tification and could not provide a break- which case she should have transitioned lose coverage. Mary Franklin, director down of the reasons for closures during onto the marketplace. Assuming this was of DHS’ Division of County Operations, previous months. so, however, she shouldn’t have had to 16

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ARKANSAS TIMES

wait for open enrollment: The individual marketplace allows for a 60-day “special enrollment” period after a person loses coverage from a different source. When Brakebill finally went online to buy insurance at the end of the year, she said, she hit another snag: The marketplace website asked her for employer information she didn’t have. That was right before open enrollment ended on Dec. 15. In 2018, based on the income information she provided a reporter, it appears Brakebill makes slightly too much to qualify for Arkansas Works — but she can’t sign up for insurance on the marketplace until 2018 open enrollment begins again this November. In the meantime, she’s in limbo. “Just to know that I can’t go in and see a doctor — it worries me,” Brakebill said. Her multiple sclerosis symptoms come and go, but on bad days she finds it hard to function. “Like this week, my MS is pretty bad. Yesterday, I did everything backwards. Like my job, everything. … So if I’m talking in circles, that’s what’s wrong with me. Sometimes I have a really great conversation, and sometimes I can’t even speak.” In addition to MS, she suffers from high blood pressure and polycystic ovary syndrome, a hormonal disorder that causes weight gain and facial hair growth and has been linked to diabetes. Both conditions are controllable with drugs, but she does not have prescriptions for either. She’d like to find a better job, she said, but she feels constrained by her medical problems. “I’m in my 40s, but I can’t have a breast exam or a colonoscopy or anything like that. I can’t go for my yearly pap smear,” she said. “Until I get the insurance to do all that again, I guess I’ll just try to live until I don’t live anymore.” The governor has praised DHS for taking steps to scrub the Medicaid rolls more aggressively and pushed back against the idea that the agency’s rules may be stricter than necessary. “That’s called responsible management,” he said at the recent press conference. “I don’t think very many in Arkansas would want our taxpayer dollars paying for insurance for those that may be living out of state, may have moved, may have income that exceeds the limits. And if they are not giving us the information to verify that, then that’s the responsible thing to do for the taxpayers.” Hutchinson suggested Arkansas Works enrollment in January 2017 was inflated with many thousands of people who weren’t actually eligible. He pointed out the Medicaid expansion was originally predicted to serve about

HOLDING THE LINE: Governor Hutchinson says DHS’ strict policies are a matter of “responsible management.”

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The question is whether Brakebill is an outlier or part of a trend. Is Arkansas Works enrollment shrinking mostly because people have moved up the income ladder and found coverage elsewhere? Or has DHS’ zealous approach to rules enforcement resulted in a growing number of lowincome Arkansans going without insurance or experiencing periodic lapses in coverage? Arkansas cut its uninsured rate in half in the three years after it first expanded Medicaid

ARKANSAS TIMES

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BRIAN CHILSON

250,000 people when Arkansas policy- in 2013 — one of the largest percentage makers first considered implementing reductions in the country. If many of the program in 2013. the 60,000 people scrubbed from the “I think you’re seeing numbers now Arkansas Works rolls since last Januthat are where they should be, based on ary are now uninsured, that metric may the economy that we have and based rebound. But the U.S. Census Bureau on the management we have,” he said. has yet to publish information on stateThe governor prefers to empha- level uninsured rates in 2017. size a different figure: the zero perAnecdotally, many Arkansas health cent growth rate in Medicaid expen- care advocates say the address change ditures in the fiscal year that ended issue hasn’t been on their radar. Kevin in June. Combined state and federal De Liban, a lawyer for Legal Aid of spending on Arkansas Medicaid (both Arkansas, is familiar with fighting DHS Arkansas Works and traditional) was over Medicaid. (He represents a group $7.105 billion in FY 2018, or $22 million of disabled beneficiaries engaged in less than the previous year. Because a long-running lawsuit against the health care costs typically grow year agency.) De Liban said Legal Aid has over year, however, flat growth is effec- fielded calls from a handful of Arkansas tively a reduction when compared to Works beneficiaries who complained projected expenses. of losing coverage due to returned mail Some of the savings resulted from or an alleged failure to send in informa“transformation” efforts by DHS to tion, but the group hasn’t heard back impose discipline on especially high- from those individuals. cost Medicaid program areas. But the Still, he was critical of the agency’s majority of the savings (around 55 per- strict rules for correspondence. “DHS cent) was attributable to the decline in sends them a letter and gives them enrollment. In any case, holding Med- 10 days to respond,” he said. “It gets icaid costs flat is a major achievement to them Day 8 … and many times the for a conservative governor, and the client provides it timely, or close to reduced costs will help pay for tax cuts timely, and DHS does not process it on high-income earners that Hutchin- quickly enough.” son and Republican legislators intend Lainey Morrow is a grassroots advoto pass in 2019. It also helps the gover- cate who founded a popular Facebook nor defend his decision to continue the group, “Medicaid Saves Lives,” to help Arkansas Works program, which some beneficiaries and their families navigate hardline conservatives want to see defunded entirely.

arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

condition called lamellar ichthyosis. the paperwork and submitted it to DHS at the recertification point to make it In late July, Keeland received a on July 26. She called on Monday, July go better,” she continued. For example, notice from DHS that said her insur- 30, to make sure everything had been rather than putting the burden on benance, and her children’s, would soon processed. eficiaries, the state can use its own data be terminated due to a failure to report “I asked if my stuff was going to be sources to determine if a person appears additional income. In a recent interview, shut off, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, because to continue to be eligible. “They just Keeland said DHS was mistaken. She you didn’t turn in all your paperwork,’ send them a notice saying, ‘We’re going didn’t have any new income. She was ” she said. “I told them that I turned to renew you based on this information. continuing to work as a home health everything in … so y’all did something If any of it’s incorrect, contact us.’ ” aide at the same company where she’d with it, and we kind of got in an arguInstead, most of Arkansas’s efforts worked for the past three years. The ment.” seem to run in the opposite direction. “Well, Tuesday or so, I got a letter While DHS doesn’t check the National in the mail saying all of our stuff was Change of Address database, it does canceled due to lack of turning infor- check state wage data to look for unremation in. And then Wednesday they ported income and scans for the receipt called me and said they’d found my of public benefits in other states. Also, paperwork, that it was put in a different a subset of Arkansas Works beneficiaprogram and they’re sorry they lost it ries are now subject to the new work and everything, and I asked them about requirement, which adds another layer my benefits being shut off.” Keeland of bureaucracy to an already complex said she was told she’d have to wait set of requirements. Unlike with many on an action from her caseworker to of the aforementioned situations, not resolve the issue. complying with the work rule may “I still don’t know if it’s going to be on eventually result in a beneficiary actuor not,” Keeland said when she spoke ally being locked out of coverage for a to a reporter on Saturday. “I got a letter period of time. In June, about 10,000 in the mail saying it was pending, so I people were required to submit addidon’t know.” As of this week, she was tional information to DHS proving still unsure. In a text message Monday, they were working or qualified for an she wrote, “I tried calling today sat on exemption. Of those, about 7,000 did hold forever so I just hung up.” She’s not. also concerned her food stamps will Many of those who lost Arkansas be cut off. Works coverage in the past year and a Last fall, Keeland said, she tempo- half surely did so because they failed rarily lost insurance coverage due to to follow one rule or another. But some another DHS paperwork issue. Though human error is a part of any program. her insurance was reinstated, doctors’ One point of frustrations for beneficiaWAITING FOR WORD: Keeland remains unsure whether her Medicaid coverage and food bills piled up in the interim. If her Med- ries is that while DHS seems to give stamps will be preserved after what she said was an administrative error at DHS. icaid is shut off again, she worries she’ll so little leeway to their oversights and accumulate more debt. “That’s mainly mistakes, the state’s own oversights what’s on my credit, is medical bills I and mistakes must be accepted as a don’t have money to pay … and they part of life. go to a provider, and the provider says misunderstanding arose because Kee- get turned over to collection agencies,” Like many on Arkansas Works, Keetheir Medicaid number is inactive, and land’s pay stubs contained a different she said. land is fed up with jumping through then they start trying to track it down.” corporate name than the one she listed Keeland’s family needs insurance. hoops. “I don’t know what’s going on She’s also heard of many people who lost as her employer. (The company that Her sister has appointments at Arkan- up there and half the time they don’t coverage but were unsure of the reason directly employs her, she explained, is sas Children’s Hospital twice a month either,” she said. “Whenever you ask why because they didn’t understand the owned by a parent company that cuts for her skin condition. Her daughter, to talk to your caseworker, they give letter they received from DHS. her checks.) Someone at DHS saw the who is developmentally delayed and you a voicemail and then they never Many who unexpectedly lose their difference in names and assumed Kee- has multiple food allergies, also regu- call you back. Or you say, ‘Hey, I’m insurance simply begin the process of land was missing information. larly visits Children’s, she said. Her son working [but] I’m free at this time.’ And re-enrollment. But even when a benIronically, the mistake occurred only has hearing problems, and both chil- then they call you while you’re at work eficiary regains her insurance, tempo- after Keeland notified the agency of dren see therapists. Keeland herself has and then you miss it and it’s your fault.” rary coverage gaps can cause hardships: an address change. In March, Kee- prescriptions, too. “And then, regular “They act as if we have no life prescriptions unfilled, bills left unpaid, land moved her family from Craw- doctors appointments and stuff. We use outside their office,” she said. appointments missed and hours spent ford County to an apartment in Fort it almost every other day, it seems like, on the phone. Smith. She updated her address and for at least one of us,” she said. This reporting is made possible in part Brittany Keeland, 22, is a single other personal information with DHS, Wagner, the policy analyst, said by a yearlong fellowship sponsored by the mother of two and the legal guardian enclosing her recent pay stubs with states can take steps to minimize dis- Association of Health Care Journalists of her 16-year-old sister. Her four-per- the mailing. All was well for several ruptions in Medicaid coverage. “How and supported by The Commonwealth son household contains three different months, but then, in July, she received many documents the client is required Fund. It is published here courtesy of categories of Medicaid: Keeland is on a notice that she needed to get a letter to send in can make a difference. If the the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, Arkansas Works; her children, ages 1 from her employer and that it had to be state is using their data sources well, an independent, nonpartisan project and 2, are on ARKids; and Keeland’s sis- turned in by July 27 to maintain cover- they shouldn’t have to ask for a lot of dedicated to producing journalism that ter has disability Medicaid for a severe, age for her family. pay stubs and other things,” she said. matters to Arkansans. Find out more at exceedingly rare genetically based skin Keeland gritted her teeth, gathered “There’s a lot that the state can do arknews.org. BRIAN CHILSON

the system. (It had over 3,600 members as of Aug. 6.) Morrow said she hadn’t heard many complaints of lost coverage explicitly due to an address change. But, she pointed out that people who are terminated for such a reason would never receive a letter explaining why they were cut off. “I don’t think people know why, if that is why,” Morrow said, “They may in some roundabout manner find out: They

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ARKANSAS TIMES

Rapert’s posture

e must not allow state Sen. sion and religious Jason Rapert (R-Conway) to liberty. Having frame the lawsuits generated accepted Rapert’s against his placement of a Ten Command- monument as a priments monument on the state Capitol vate donation, the grounds as an assault upon Christianity state of Arkansas LUCIEN GREAVES itself — or, as he does when he’s pretend- thus opened the Guest Columnist ing that the monument serves a secular Capitol to private function, an assault upon American “heri- donations from representatives of any tage and history.” Nor can we allow Rapert and all religious denominations. To quote to posture as a defender of the Christian from the Arkansas Constitution, “no preffaith in the face of these alleged assaults. erence shall ever be given, by law, to any The reality is Rapert attempts to rally religious establishment, denomination the support of the faithful while at the or mode of worship, above any other.” same time reducing what they hold sacred While the idea of our Satanic monuto the status of merely “historical.” Hypo- ment residing upon the Capitol grounds critically, the evangelist minister/sena- is undeniably disturbing to some, we tor declares the United States a “Chris- would hope that most of the citizens tian nation” from the pulpit, decrying the of Arkansas would be at least equally “myth” of church/state separation, while disturbed that their government has tacitly acknowledging this legal standard now taken it upon itself to try and act in his artlessly de-Christianized excuses as arbiter of what is or is not an approfor his Capitol monument crusade. priate religious or political viewpoint. While the senator’s claim that the Dec- Regardless of whether you agree with alogue serves a secular, historical function one’s decision to choose one religious is surely thought to be a clever legalistic path or another, the United States was ploy to nullify an Establishment Clause predicated upon the freedom to follow claim against it, the attorney general’s one’s own conscience, to reach one’s office, on behalf of Secretary of State own spiritual, agnostic or atheistic deterMark Martin — who must now defend minations as one sees fit, without govagainst Ten Commandment monument- ernment coercion or interference. This targeted litigation — is clearly clueless that is what religious liberty means, and it this was the tactic of choice. In response is religious liberty that is under assault to The Satanic Temple’s discrimination by Rapert in his Ten Commandments suit against the state for refusing our mon- crusade. ument, Martin has argued that SatanFrom 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Aug. 16 on the ism is not a “legitimate religion,” which state Capitol grounds in Little Rock, The should lead anybody seeking coherence Satanic Temple is hosting an interfaith to ask how religious legitimacy became a rally, to which we will bring our monuquestion in defense of a monument that is ment, in an effort to show that we will allegedly only meant to celebrate Ameri- not be silenced into allowing such flacan heritage. grant assaults upon our freedoms to pass Martin’s response to our lawsuit not unopposed. Christian ministers, secular only implies a complete ignorance of the humanists and speakers of widely varylegal arguments for and against the exclu- ing cultural and religious backgrounds sive placement of Rapert’s Ten Com- have agreed to stand with us in unity, and mandments monument, it also exhibits in defense of the First Amendment freea complete and total ignorance of consti- doms we all hold sacred. As I explained tutional law and a fundamental disregard in a press release announcing the event, for basic American values. The govern- “This isn’t a rally of secularists versus ment is not in the business of determin- people of faith, Satanists versus Chrising whose religion is authentic, or which tians, or outsiders versus Arkansas. This religious voices are deserving of First is a rally for all people who hold sacred Amendment protections. Religious lib- the founding Constitutional principles of erty depends upon government viewpoint Religious Freedom and Free Expression neutrality. This is what we seek to defend. that have fallen under assault by irreThe Satanic Temple is conveniently sponsible politicians like Senator Rapert. maligned as an aggressor against the We welcome people of all backgrounds Ten Commandments, but the reality is and religious beliefs to stand with us.” that we are not litigating to have that We hope to see you there. monument taken down; we’ve merely asked to donate a monument of our own Lucien Greaves is co-founder of The as an homage to pluralism, free expres- Satanic Temple.

UPCOMING EVENTS AUG

1012

The Weekend Theater Bare

AUG

La Terraza Rum & Lounge National Rum Day!

AUG

17 & 19

The Studio Theatre Opera In The Rock presents SOUVENIR: a Fantasia on the Life of Florence Foster Jenkins

AUG

Turner-Ledbetter House QQA Summer Suppers: Turner-Ledbetter House

AUG

Albert Pike Masonic Center Dames, Dems and Drinks

AUG

Curran Hall Preservation Conversations: Quapaw Treaty of 1818

23 24 13

CALS Darragh Center Preservation Conversations: The Adaptive Imagineering of Main Street, Little Rock

SEPT

Community Theatre of Little Rock Mel Brooks’ The Producers

SEPT

1430

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Arts Entertainment AND

FILMS ‘BIG AND LOUD’ Kaleidoscope brings treasures of LGBT cinema to Argenta. BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

usually only in films that played exclusively in big cities. The glory of “Moonlight” was that people everywhere could see it, and on a big screen. We have to make these films available to people. That’s our responsibility as programmers, distributors and producers. They should be played big and loud. The 13 films in this year’s lineup are treasures, and in Arkansas, Kaleidoscope may be your only chance of seeing them as they should be seen.

“Obscuro Barocco,” one of the films I understand you’re particularly excited about screening, centers on the life of a Brazilian transgender activist, Luana Muniz. The mesmerizing trailer’s through-line is a voiceover about selfA LAND OF EXTREMES: Evangelia Kranioti’s “Obscuro Barroco” is among the films screened this weekend at the fourth annual Kaleidoscope Film Festival. creation and self-discovery, and it occurred to me that those ideas are, in a way, mirrored t their worst, film festivals are of the festival’s fourth year. Kaleidoscope in this idea of representation — seeing exercises in an echo chamber of kicks off Friday, Aug. 10, and concludes people on screen that give us permisself-congratulation and manu- Saturday, Aug. 18. sion to become more like our real selves. factured prestige. At their best, What, for you, will be a sign that the neethey’re immersive marathons of transYou, as Kaleidoscope Film Festival’s dle has really moved in the film industry formative observation and conversation. programmer, along with Tony Taylor as regards representation? What vicIn the three-year tenure of Film Society and William Moon and others, have tory would you long for or celebrate? of Little Rock’s Kaleidoscope Film Festi- shown a dogged devotion not only to That’s a really lovely observation, and val, organizers have kept their compasses films that are visually memorable, but yes, “Obscuro Barroco” and also “Bixa pointed toward that latter North Star, act- films that represent women and people Travesty” are films that describe the body ing as conduits for engaging pieces of art of color, both on and off the camera. as a beautiful work in progress, one that is to be seen the way they were meant to be Why, for you, does this matter? constantly changing. And it’s also true that seen. They’ve programmed Annalise OphFirst, as a filmmaker, many of my heroes films and popular culture in general shape elian’s “Major!”, Cheryl Dunye’s “Water- are women: Claire Denis, Catherine Breillat, the way so many people present themselves melon Woman,” João Pedro Rodrigues’ Lucrecia Martel, Kelly Reichardt. They are — the way we cut our hair, the clothes we “The Ornithologist,” Jay Dockendorf’s “Naz the best of the best, period. They reshaped wear. Seeing proud characters who exist & Maalik” and a host of other films that the way I think and work, and any system outside of the worlds we usually see in movtraversed the wide ground between social that might potentially stop audiences from ies is a kind of affirmation. It suggests that justice commentary, lowbrow camp, inci- seeing work like theirs is not acceptable. we are all cinematic in some way, which sive documentary, interfamilial drama and I remember seeing “Moonlight” on is really beautiful. soundtracked revolution. We talked with the big screen back in 2016. That movie It seems to me that the industry is movfilmmaker Mark Thiedeman, who serves meant so much to African Americans in ing in the right direction, at least on the as Kaleidoscope’s artistic director/direc- the LGBT community. Their story had independent level. The diversity of this tor of feature film programming, ahead so rarely been told (it still is [rare]), and year’s lineup really speaks to a sudden surge

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

of amazing work being made by women and people of color. That means, to me, that these filmmakers are beginning to find more support to create films and get them seen. That said, I’m not sure I’m qualified to set a standard or a particular victory I’d like to see accomplished. I would prefer to ask our audience that question. What victory do the women in our audience hope for? The people of color in our audience? Our transgender audience? Every year, those conversations are my favorite part of the festival. Passes are a pittance and the nineday lineup is stacked. Can you name a few other films you think people will be talking about this year? Or two or three things people should make a point to catch if they’re new to the festival? I hope they talk about all of them, but I’m particularly excited to hear people’s response to Leilah Weinraub’s “Shakedown,” which is a mind-blowing work of art. I’m also thrilled that we are showing “Bixa Travesty,” a film about a Brazilian transwoman whose music is an assault on many social problems, not least of which is chauvinism within the gay male community. I love “Skate Kitchen,” a film in which young women talk at length about things that young women never talk about in movies. And “Good Manners” is sure to delight everyone — in fact, I can’t tell you anything about it, because I don’t want to spoil anything. Outside of films, I can’t wait for this year’s Queer Arts Street Fair, which takes place from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 11, and will be a great place to meet people and celebrate. Finally, every year we try to focus on an art form outside of filmmaking, and this year’s focus is fashion. At the Argenta Gallery, running through the festival, there will be two shows. One explores the interplay of fashion and the movies, and includes an installation of experimental fashion advertisements that are as cool as any movies in the festival. The other is “1681,” the new show by Michael Shaeffer and Andrea Bolen, which combines illustration and the construction and design of garments. I cannot wait to see what they’ve created.

See kaleidoscopefilmfestival.com for passes, $6-$100, and a festival schedule.

ROCK CANDY Check out the Times’ A&E blog arktimes.com

A&E NEWS LITTLE ROCK WRITER AND PRODUCER GRAHAM GORDY (“Rectify,” “Quarry,” “Antiquities”) is behind the script of another television show, Deadline.com announced this week. “One Dollar,” a mystery series co-written by Gordy and executive produced by Gordy, Crzaig Zobel, Matt DeRoss, Alexandre Dauman and Jason Mosberg, premieres on CBS’ All Access Thursday, Aug. 30. The title refers to a one-dollar bill that “connects a group of characters involved in a shocking multiple murder,” and depicting “a modern American town with deep class and cultural divides that spill into the open as the town’s secrets get revealed.” Country rocker/ rabblerouser Sturgill Simpson appears in a recurring role alongside cast members John Carroll Lynch (“Fargo,” “The Founder”), Philip Ettinger (“Compliance”), Arkansas native Ashlie Atkinson (“Compliance,” “Inside Man”), Christopher Denham (“Argo”), Nathaniel Martello-White (“Cla’am”) and others. LEVON HELM’S BOYHOOD HOME in Marvell (Phillips County) was added to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places, which “recognizes historically significant properties that do not meet National Register requirements,” a press release from the Department of Arkansas Heritage’s Arkansas Historic Preservation Program states. Helm, who died in 2012 of throat cancer, was a longtime singer, drummer and mandolin player for The Band, the iconic rock quintet that long outlasted its run as Bob Dylan’s backing group with hits like “The Weight,” “Up On Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Originally located in Turkey Scratch, Helms’ home was relocated to Marvell “where it is more easily accessible from its once remote location,” the memorial website says. Restoration efforts are underway; see levonhelmmemorial.org for details. HOT SPRINGS’ LOW KEY ARTS announced the lineup for its annual Hot Water Hills Music & Arts Festival, to take place Oct. 5-6. Performers include Broncho, Larkin Poe, JD Wilkes (of the Legendary Shack Shakers), Lola Marsh, Bas Clas, Sea Moya, Rah Howard, Move Orchestra, Brian Martin (of Sad Daddy), Miles Francis, the Spa City Youngbloods and The Violet Ultras. For details and $20 Early Bird Weekend passes, see hotwaterhills.com. BENTONVILLE’S MUSEUM OF NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY has announced new acquisitions: an Ojibwe wolf war club, circa 1820; a Plains trade blanket coat attributed to famed Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull, circa late 1800s; and a 1903 Ute painting attributed to Louis Fenno. For museum details, visit monah.us.

ARKANSAS TIMES

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TOUR I S M I S ONE O F A R K A N SAS ' S L A R G E ST I ND U ST R I E S . T L AT E S T I N D U S T R Y R E P O R T S H O W S I N 2 0 1 6 , T H E N AT U R A L S HOSTED 29 MILLION VISITORS, BRINGING IN $ 7. 8 B I L L I O N I N TO U R I S M D O L L A R S . T H E R E I S S O M U C H T SEE AND DO IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS, AND THE 2018-19 EDIT O F T H E VI S I TO R S G UI DE WI L L E X P LO R E T H E A R E A’ S HOT T E T O U R I S M I SN EOI N ST SE . W T H RE E S T A U R A N G EH BOOFR A HR OKOADNSS, ABSI 'GSGLEASRTG AE TS TT R IANCDTUI O NRSI, E N L AT E S T I N D U S T R Y R E PB OO RU T TSI Q HO W S I N 2 0 1 6 , T H E N A T U R A L S TE U E S , U P C O M I N G E V E N T S A N D TMAO RE. HOSTED 29 MILLION VISITORS, BRINGING IN $ 7. 8 B I L L I O N I N TO U R I S M D O L L A R S . T H E R E I S S O M U C H TO SEE AND DO IN CENTRAL ARKANSAS, AND THE 2018-19 EDITION O F T H E VI S I TO R S G UI DE WI L L E X P LO R E T H E A R E A’ S HOT T E S T NE I G H B O R H O O D S , B I G G E S T AT T R A C T I O N S , NE W R E S TA U R A N T S , BOUTIQUES, UPCOMING EVENTS AND MORE.

THE

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SPACE DEADLINE: JUNE 20, 2018 • ISSUE DATE: JULY 20, 2018

ISSUE DATE, AUGUST 2018 201 E. MARKHAM, SUITE 200 LITTLE ROCK, AR 72203 arktimes.com Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies (501) 375-2985

arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK

THURSDAY 8/9

FRIDAY 8/10

TELEKINETIC YETI

STEPHEN CHOPEK

9 p.m. White Water Tavern. $8.

8 p.m. The Undercroft.

The duo Telekinetic Yeti is a medley of unlikely juxtapositions: It’s just not that often that the word “duo” accompanies anything described as “stoner doom metal,” let alone with the geographical qualifier “from Dubuque, Iowa.” Check out album closer “Himalayan Hymn” from 2017’s “Abominable” for a good example of how much sonic territory two dudes from The Hawkeye State can cover in 5 1/2 minutes. They’re on tour with Kansas City heavy-rock barn-burners Hyborian, and joined on the bill by locals Fred and Shoe. SS

The first thing that caught my ear about Stephen Chopek wasn’t so much what he’d done as who he’d done it with — as drummer for a few faves: Pimps of Joytime, Shannon McNally, Amy LaVere. In “Radio Caroline,” those percussion propers reveal themselves in the perfect chug of his strumming, but the text — a true tale of an off-shore pirate radio station that broadcast from the open seas in the early 1960s to thwart BBC’s regulations and broadcast monopoly — sounds more like a Pete Seeger tune than a Pimps jam, and it’s well tailored for a tiny, underground listening room like The Undercroft. Bring along some cash to throw in for the Undercroft-brewed beer on hand, or for the 45 RPM vinyl with Chopek’s “Radio Caroline” opposite “The Ballad of Cash & Dean.” SS

STARGAZING: Find a dark spot to catch the Perseids meteor shower this weekend, or join one of several stargazing groups around the state to view the phenomenon.

THURSDAY 8/9-MONDAY 8/13

PERSEIDS METEOR SHOWER Arkansas State Parks (and anywhere else it’s dark).

It’s August, and that means it’s time again ganized a Perseids Meteor Shower Palooza: to look up and see the Perseids. The meteor In Central Arkansas, see the stars from the shower is one of the most satisfying star show middle of Lake Maumelle with a guided boat of the year, with around 100 shooting stars cruise from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday depart(and double that at times in this “outburst” ing from Jolly Roger’s Marina ($12 adults, $6 year). Peak viewing time for folks who’ve children), and there will be free viewing from found a dark spot away from light pollution is the beach 10 p.m.-midnight Monday at Woolly between midnight and dawn Sunday, Aug. 12, Hollow State Park in Greenbrier. In Southwest according to NASA, but the Perseids put on a Arkansas, DeGray Lake State Park has schedshow up to and after that peak. As a plus, the uled a number of family events: kayak viewing moon will be new this weekend, thus provid- from the lake from 7:30 p.m.-9:45 p.m. Thursing a darker sky. Arkansas State Parks has or- day-Sunday ($15 adults, $10 children); a Perse-

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

ids Meteor Safari on the golf course from 8:45 p.m.-9:45 p.m. Saturday and Sunday ($10 adults, $5 children); and the Night Owl Perseids Prowl Cruise from 10:30 p.m.-11:45 p.m. Saturday ($12 adults, $6 children). Check the State Parks calendar for other nighttime hikes this weekend, too. So what’s a meteor? We’re glad you asked. They’re icy space rocks from the Comet SwiftTuttle that burn up when they hit our atmosphere, making for lovely streaks of light across the heavens. Reserve for Maumelle at 868-5806 and DeGray Lake at 865-5850. LNP

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 8/9

FRIDAY 8/10

2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT 5-8 p.m., downtown galleries.

The Butler Center galleries have adopted a new name: his gravity-defying video piece in the “Delta des Refuses” show. They’ll now be called the Galleries at Library Square, so you’ll Over at the Historic Arkansas Museum, which is still the Hisknow they’re part of the Central Arkansas Library System. Now toric Arkansas Museum, 2nd Friday will open “Space Between we’ve got that squared away, let’s move on to the art: The new Teeth: Linda Lopez + Marc Mitchell” and MarQuis & Mood will show there is from the Butler Center’s collection of artworks provide the music. By making a donation to The Van, the nonand artifacts from the WWII Japanese-American internment profit group that helps the unsheltered, Bella Vita will knock camps at Rohwer and Jerome. “A Matter of Mind and Heart: 20 percent off anything purchased at the artisan jewelry shop Portraits of Japanese American Identity” will feature Henry at 523 S. Louisiana St., and there will be beer from Lost Forty Sugimoto’s “Arrival at Jerome,” on loan from Hendrix College as encouragement. See art made live at Gallery 221, where artin Conway. (Sugimoto was still interned when, with the help of ists and patrons will create a 60-by-60-inch triptych, “Healing Hendrix art professor Louis Freund, he first exhibited his work Hands,” and hold an auction to benefit the Children’s Advocacy at Hendrix.) Also at the Galleries at Library Square is an exhibi- Centers of Arkansas. The Courtyard by Marriott will feature tion of work by the Brewer art dynasty: Nicholas, Adrian and works by the members of the Art Group, Matt McLeod Fine Edward. River Market Books and Gifts (nee the Cox Creative Art is showing the Arkansas League of Artists “Members Show,” Center), has also gotten a new name: It’s now The Bookstore and it’s Movie Night at the Old State House Museum, with free at Library Square. There, David Carpenter will perform live popcorn, candy, soft drinks, beer and wine. LNP

FRIDAY 8/10

TIFFANY 7 p.m. Park Plaza Mall. Donations of two canned goods.

In July 1988, pop singer Tiffany Darwish had a piano power ballad, “Could’ve Been,” in heavy rotation on the radio. What it could’ve been, at least chronologically speaking, was the denouement of the star-crossed love story that she sang about the year before, with a drum machine-heavy remake of Tommy James and the Shondells’ 1967 charttopper “I Think We’re Alone Now.” Also in July 1988: What was once an open-air shopping center reopened as Park Plaza Mall in midtown Little Rock, bolstered and bookended by a double dose of Dillard’s, the department store headquartered here in Little Rock. To celebrate the anniversary, Darwish — better known by her first-name mononym Tiffany — will put on a free concert in the mall parking lot near the corner of Markham Street and University Avenue. Organizers are steadfastly committed to the theme; a Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle (Michelangelo, specifically — the Miss Congeniality and self-identifying “party dude” of the TMNT personality quadrant) and a Hello Kitty character will be in attendance, and the mall’s Sephora is booking appointments for full-face ’80s makeovers. See Park Plaza Mall’s Facebook page for the details, and bring along two canned goods for a drive called CANstruction, benefiting the Arkansas Foodbank. SS

The Old State House Museum leads Arkie Pub Trivia at Stone’s Throw Brewing, 6:30 p.m., free. A.J. Marlin’s Comedy Bowl pits four comedians — Wan Morgan, Lucas Smith, Patrick Nolan and J.P. Ford — against each other at The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse, 8 p.m., $5. Southern rockers The Steel Woods take the stage at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, with The Great Whiskey Rendezvous, 9:30 p.m., $10-$12. Memphis Yahoos play for the happy hour crowd at Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m., free; catch Nerd Eye Blind after dinner, 9 p.m., $5. Caroline & Bonnie Earleywine perform for Poetry Night at Guillermo’s Coffee, Tea & Roastery, 6:30 p.m., free. Comedian Matt Sadler goes for laughs at The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $8-$12. Crush Wine Bar’s Classics on the Patio screens “9 to 5,” 8 p.m.

FRIDAY 8/10 The Inner Party and White Mansion launch album releases with a show at Smoke & Barrel Tavern in Fayetteville, with a set from Crash Blossom, 9:30 p.m., $5. “Konichiwa: A Robyn Party” pays homage to the Swedish pop icon at Sway, 9 p.m. Missouri quintet Ha Ha Tonka takes its straight-ahead anthemic rock to the stage at Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $10-$13. The Arkansas Travelers face off against the Midland Rockhounds at Dickey-Stephens Park, 7:10 p.m. Fri., 6:10 p.m. Sat., 2:10 p.m. Sun., $7-$13. Deltaphonic shares a bill with Dazz & Brie at Maxine’s, 9 p.m., $7. Danny Dozier, Tim Crouch, Irl Hess, Ken Loggains and Gary Gazaway play works by Jimmy Driftwood, Bob Wills, Stevie Wonder, Robert Johnson and others for Arkansas Sounds’ “The Roots of American Music,” 7 p.m., CALS Ron Robinson Theater, $10. The Josh Parks Band goes live at Markham Street Grill and Pub, 8:30 p.m., free. Lame Johnny, Tribe Alive and Awkward Peach share a bill at Vino’s, 8 p.m., $7. Andy Tanas kicks off the weekend with a free show at Cajun’s, 5:30 p.m., free; catch Memphis Yahoos at 9 p.m., $5. The Squarshers take the stage at Kings Live Music in Conway, with an opening set from The Going Jessies, 8:30 p.m., $5. Mayday By Midnight entertains at Oaklawn Racing & Gaming’s Silks Bar & Grill, 10 p.m. Fri-Sat., free.

SATURDAY 8/11

I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW: Pop star Tiffany helps ring in Park Plaza Mall’s 30th anniversary Friday evening.

Miss Gay Arkansas crowns a new queen for 2018 at Discovery Nightclub, 8 p.m., $20. “Good Girls Gone Bad” holds sway for the evening’s drag show at Sway, 9 p.m. En Vogue revives girl group harmonies at Magic Springs Theme & Water Park’s Timberwood Amphitheater, 7 p.m., see magicsprings. com for details. Calliope Musicals blend neon visuals, xylosynth and Devo dead-

CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

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arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK SARA REEVES

THE

FRIDAY 8/10

AMASA HINES, DOT, OR: BENEFIT FOR CYSTIC FIBROSIS FOUNDATION

9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern. $10.

What connects the three bands on this fundraising bill isn’t essentially musical — they’re as sonically disparate as the summer days are long — but kinetic. Amasa Hines’ slow builds, alternately sparse and urgent; Or’s mechanized, trance-like foreboding; and DOT’s driving, beachy punk rock are all energies used for good here, benefiting the Arkansas chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This one will sell out. Get tickets at lastchancerecords.us. SS

TRIPLE BILL: DOT joins Amasa Hines and Or at the White Water Tavern on Friday night for a show benefiting the Arkansas chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

SATURDAY 8/11

RICKY SKAGGS 7 p.m. Pulaski Technical College, Center for Humanities and Arts. $35-$120.

They played it like a gag in 1961, scripting a 7-year-old kid to come up and tug on the hem of Lester Flatt’s suit jacket in the middle of the Martha White-sponsored Flatt & Scruggs variety show. Instead of a punchline, though, a dapper Ricky Skaggs approached the microphone and peeled out “Foggy Mountain Special” on the mandolin, following it up with “Ruby” in his west Kentucky drawl, singing lyrics he was too young to embody: “I was sittin’ in the shade/with a shovel and my spade/diggin’ in the ground gold mine/Ruby, Ruby/Honey, are you mad at your man?” His stagecraft has assuredly caught up to his virtuosity; back then, he ran out of camera frame before the audience had a chance to applaud him. Now, he’s accustomed to multiple standing ovations like the ones he and his band Kentucky Thunder got

at the Ryman Auditorium last week. He’s been a bluegrass traditionalist when it was cool, he’s been a bluegrass traditionalist when it wasn’t, and he’s been a bluegrass traditionalist in some unlikely collaborations, throwing his mandolin into the mix with Phish, Ry Cooder, on Arkansas native Erin Enderlin’s 2017 record “Whiskeytown Crier.” He also lent his talents to a campaign event for Jason Rapert in 2014 — why, Ricky, why? Earlier this year, Skaggs was honored with an induction to the Country Music Hall of Fame — years too late, Garth Brooks and others would claim. He’ll play at UAPTC just a few weeks before accepting yet another title as an inductee to the 2018 International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame. Get tickets at uaptc.edu/charts. SS

SATURDAY 8/11

‘MADE’ reception 6-9 p.m. Boswell Mourot Fine Art.

Four great Arkansas artists in one place: That’s what Boswell Mourot has going through Sept. 1. Matthew Lopas, associate professor of art at Hendrix College, sees the world through a fisheye lens, his interiors and landscapes distorted into swirling panoramas. Alice Andrews paints the waterfalls and rocky outcrops of her Ozarks home with soft shapes of blue-greens and warm browns. In this show, Dennis McCann, a retired firefighter and winner of multiple awards for his pastels, uses complementary shades of orange and aquamarine to capture abstract underpinnings in representation. Eleanor Dickinson is an artist whose work we just don’t see enough of: Gorgeous washes combined with drawing and abstracted architectural features, her take, perhaps Paul Kleeinspired, on places she’s been. Matthew, Alice, Dennis and Eleanor — MADE of special stuff. LNP MADE: Dennis McCann’s “Sloss Furnaces” (right) joins works by Matthew Lopas, Alice Andrews and Eleanor Dickinson in the exhibition “MADE” at Boswell Mourot Fine Art. The show opens with a 6 p.m. reception Saturday.

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

TUESDAY 8/14

GODSMACK, SHINEDOWN

7 p.m. Verizon Arena. $40-$100.

If you hated Godsmack for sounding too much like Metallica or Alice in Chains: Good news! They sound different now. That is to say, new tunes like “Bulletproof” have more of a “commercial aspect,” lead singer Sully Erna told the video series FaceCulture last year. He’s right, in a way; there’s more melody and less of the tortured guitar crunch that became synonymous with the words “nu metal” during the band’s mid-’90s rise. Then again, can anybody who penned a soundtrack for a slice of “The Mummy” franchise claim he didn’t have a commercial aspect to begin with? Erna and his crew mix that new sound with the stuff that’s been the bread and butter of KDJE-FM, 100.3 (“The Edge”), for at least a decade, and they’re here with fellow hard rock radio staples Shinedown who, despite anthems like “45,” never took to the “nu metal” vibe wholeheartedly enough to have trouble shaking it off. SS

IN BRIEF, CONT.

SATURDAY 8/11

FOUL PLAY CABARET 10 p.m. White Water Tavern. $10.

Two weeks ago, when Foul Play Cabaret brought “The Modern Show” to a one-time brothel on Bathhouse Row in downtown Hot Springs called Maxine’s, a young man apologized to me for having stopped so suddenly in my direct sight lines, frozen and presumably stultified by the magnetism between Violet D’Vine and Rosa Lee Bloom during a particularly intense duet. He’d come to hang out and maybe throw some darts and, I think, was surprised to find a burlesque show going on — and surprised at its thrust. “I thought cabaret was, like, the girls in the line kicking their legs up,” he explained later on, mimicking a Rockettes routine with his fingers. That night, eschewing the tried-and-true Alberto Vargas pin-up incarnate aesthetic the burlesque troupe channels beautifully and often, Foul Play’s dancers twirled and somersaulted instead to FKA Twigs and Katy Perry. Ruby Lead did an entire act using only a crimson swath of fabric and her jet black locks to create mesmerizing geometry, Jezebelle Jaxx revived an entire audience’s commitment to yoga class and Doris Night opened the evening with a magnificently technicolor Sally Rand, her wrists twirling two enormous feather fans in time with the throbbing bass beats. It’s artful and sex-positive and immaculately prepared and rehearsed, and the cost of admission is a fraction of what lounges in metropoli like Vegas and Paris are charging for shows of the same rank. If you can’t catch them in this Capitol View/Stifft Station legend of a bar, consider attending the ensemble’s return to Maxine’s in Hot Springs on Saturday, Aug. 18, when they’ll put up “Foul Play Loves the ’80s,” complete with hair scrunchies, leg warmers, a spandex routine called “Aerobics with Violet” and a guest appearance from Dallas dancer Vivienne Vermuth. SS

pan for a rock party at Stickyz, 8:30 p.m., $8. Gil Franklin plays a set at Hibernia Irish Tavern, 7:30 p.m. Vino’s hosts a triple threat of a bill with sets from Colour Design, Sumokem and I Was Afraid, 8 p.m., $7. Book nerds, take note: the Arkansas Book & Paper Show showcases first editions, rarities and collectible books, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sun.), Jacksonville Community Center, 5 Municipal Drive, $5. Oakland, Calif., rapper and Gemini embodied G-Eazy gives a concert at the Walmart AMP in Rogers, 6:30 p.m., $85-$189. Night Ranger and Dennis DeYoung: The Music of Styx perform at Oaklawn’s Finish Line Theater, 7 p.m., $55-$70. King’s in Conway hosts a show from Dawson Hollow, with Chris Tarkington and Sean Dixon, 8:30 p.m., $5. Local celebrities face off in the Lip Sync Battle benefiting the Make-A-Wish Mid-South Foundation, 7 p.m., Robinson Center Performance Hall, $30. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s Forest Concert Series features concerts from 1 Oz. Jig and Jamie Lou Connolly and friends, 7 p.m., $10. Greg Madden plays Cajun’s for happy hour, 5:30 p.m., free, and after dinner, Just Sayin’ takes the stage, 9 p.m., $5.

SUNDAY 8/12

OPERA IN THE ROCK PRESENTS

FRI, AUG 17, 7:30PM • SUN, AUG 19, 2:30PM AT THE STUDIO THEATRE • 320 W 7TH STREET • LITTLE ROCK Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com

Tyrannosaurus Chicken takes its tranceinducing “psychedelta” to the Rev Room for Nightflying’s “Cabin Fever 4,” with sets from Hooker Red, Crash Meadows, Andy Tanas, Westbound Revival and Soulstice, 7 p.m., $10. Murphy Arts District’s Gen-X Summer Tour features sets from Buckcherry, P.O.D., LIT and Alien Ant Farm, 8 p.m., $30-$40. The Boomers perform at the Faulkner County Library in Conway, 2 p.m., free.

MONDAY 8/13 Lamb of God, Anthrax, Testament and Napalm Death get loud at the Walmart AMP in Rogers, 5 p.m., $50-$90. Newly revived Nashville rock trio The Pink Spiders spins catchy hooks and crunchy guitar at Stickyz, with Dangerous Idiots, 8 p.m., $10-$12.

TUESDAY 8/14 Singer-songwriter Micah Schnabel returns to the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. Brian Nahlen entertains at Fletcher Library for CALS’ “Sounds in the Stacks” series, 6:30 p.m., free.

WEDNESDAY 8/15 Frontman Joseph Settine charms at Stickyz with soulful falsetto and backing outfit The Brook & The Bluff, 8 p.m., $10. Guitarist and country superstar Keith Urban gives a concert at the Walmart AMP in Rogers, with Lindsay Ell, 7:30 p.m., $39-$225.

The Roots of American Music Friday • Aug. 10 • 7 p.m. • $10

Ron Robinson Theater An acoustic band of Danny Dozier, Tim Crouch, Irl Hess, Ken Loggains, and Gary Gazaway trace the roots and branches of American music. Tickets available at ArkansasSounds.org.

FernGully (G)

Saturday • Aug. 11 • 1 p.m. • Free

Ron Robinson Theater The magical inhabitants of a rainforest fight to save their home from logging and pollution.

Poetry & Drama Sale August 1-31

The Bookstore at Library Square Enjoy half off all poetry and drama books all month. Ron Robinson Theater and The Bookstore at Library Square are located at Library Square, 100 Rock St.

CALS.org Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’

LR IS OK WITH POKE! Yet another poke restaurant is joining the raw fish craze, this one in the River Market’s Ottenheimer food hall. Mordecai Lee of Fresh Bowl and Roll Bar, which will serve poke, sushi and salads (with and without poke toppings) signed a lease Monday, and will rehab the space formerly occupied by Rivershore Eatery and should be open in a month, market operations director Diana Long says. ALREADY OPEN IN OTTENHEIMER HALL: Blue Sage Vegan, owned by Shambala Mobile Vegan Kitchen owners Phoebe Glass and Amir Salem. Blue Sage will host the Vegan Dinner Club, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 10. The dinner club was created to inspire more restaurant to serve vegan dishes. Blue Sage is where Mason’s Deli used to be. ON SATURDAY, Aug. 11, at the River Market, the Farmers Market will celebrate National Farmers Market Week with a Fresh Food Drive Booth (8 a.m.-2 p.m.), talks by Master Gardeners (8 a.m.-1 p.m.), a petting zoo (9 a.m.-1 p.m.) and a talk by Kat Robinson and book-signing of her latest, “Another Slice of Arkansas Pie” (9 a.m.-11 a.m., inside Ottenheimer Hall), and more. THE FOLKS AT Cromwell Architect Engineers at 1300 E. Sixth St. in what is now known as the East Village have drawn up plans to truck in chow to the neighborhood on Mondays “while weather permits.”Serving from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. will be: Cypress Knee on Aug. 13, followed by The Clean Eatery on Aug. 20, Native Eats on Aug. 27 and Sept. 24, and Nach’yo Nachos Sept. 10, Oct. 8 and Oct. 22. The trucks will be in front of Cromwell’s building in The Paint Factory. The firm will keep the schedule updated on its Facebook page. Food-truck operators interested in joining the party may contact Victoria Gross at vgross@cromwell.com. Meanwhile, the owners of The Rail Yard, an “urban beer garden” with food trucks and more, say they’re shooting for a late August opening. TICKETS HAVE GONE ON SALE for the second annual Wingstock, which is like Woodstock except all the performers are restaurants, their talent the chicken wing and the event is at Verizon Arena instead of Max Yasgur’s farm. The event starts at noon Saturday, Aug. 18, and tickets are $20 plus fees. That twenty bucks will get you all the wings you can eat from Dugan’s Pub, Twin Peaks, Bar Louie, Boudreaux’s Bar and Grill, Beef O’Brady’s, Lost Forty, The Flying Saucer, Forte’s Wings, Town Pump, Verizon staff (not competing), Buffalo Wild Wings, La’Changes (2017 Golden Wing Winner), Prospect Bar and Grill, Bragg’s Big Bites, Willy D’s, Core Brewing, Four Quarter Bar, Foghorn Express, Great American Wings, Wingstop, Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom, Simply the Best Catering, Grand Kibb’s BBQ, The Tavern, Black Swan Catering Co., JJ’s Grill, Jacob’s Wings and Grill, Peppermill Café, Hall Bros2Go and Chicken Wangs. There will, of course, be lots of beer and live music.. 26

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

WILD ABOUT ‘HARRY’: The “beast” of a sandwich is made with ham, bacon and charred sausage. The onion rings are crispy, but few.

Beyond Bonnerdale

to make the sun tolerable whatever the time of day, but it was a beautiful Arkansas summer evening. Bubba’s already had us in the palm of its hand. Bubba’s Brews docks at Lake Hamilton. Our waiter appeared in a muscle tee and a backwards white visor, addressf we were to announce to some make a sharp turn downward off Air- ing one of us as “boss.” Suddenly we visiting out-of-towners that port Road at the bridge to get there; wished we’d donned some crimped we’d be taking them to dinner the parking lot is in tiers, staggered hair and two-tone eyeshadow, or at at “Bubba’s Brews of Bonnerd- against the rocky lake banks. (Con- least pushed-up jacket sleeves. ale,” we imagine they’d picture a dimly struction took a looong time, and is As befits a sports pub, scores lit dive, walls lined with autographed an engineering feat in itself.) Bubba’s scrolled across a ticker on the woodpublicity posters of NASCAR drivers logo glows in neon, two B’s with the paneled wall, Wall Street-style. A Cotand John Michael Montgomery’s “I round bits of each letter facing each ton Bowl Classic 2012 poster hung on Swear” on the satellite radio. Or at other. Their mascot, a cigar-chomping the wall. In a far-off room, a giant neon least someplace more akin to the origi- shark — Bubba, is that you? — looks sign glowed for something called “The nal Bubba’s location — a log cabin affair like Jabberjaws’ gangster uncle. A fine Bubba-Tron.” We always consider a in a field in the middle of nowhere, mist tempered the 92-degree temps restaurant’s bathrooms the window with Razorback flags hanging from when we visited, spraying down upon into its soul, and Bubba’s are immacthe wooden rafters. What started in a spacious, bifurcated patio — which ulately clean. Whimsical, functional, Hot Spring County didn’t stay in Hot we soon discovered was one of three full-circle and zen, the men’s urinals Spring County, though, and the Bon- floors — with smokers thankfully seg- are made out of old beer kegs. nerdale mothership soon grew alter regated and dogs thankfully welcome. Balancing the calm serenity of the egos: a lakeside spot in Maynardville, Barges and boats drifted in and out lake was a huge table of people having Tenn.; the stately taproom branch in as the sun set, and uplit banana trees a spirited event and being served garan old bank building on Hot Springs’ dotted the landscape. Tan women in gantuan electric blue cocktails, along Bathhouse Row; and now, a dockside off-the-shoulder peasant blouses and with Bubba’s Brew Nacho Do-Si-Do Bubba’s Brews on Lake Hamilton. tiny shorts sauntered by. A string of ($16), served in a party-sized bowl The new location is in Garland Christmas lights framed the shoreline meant to serve 2 to 4 diners, with a County (14.4 miles up U.S. Highway and condos opposite this particular crater in the middle for dip. 70 from the Bonnerdale brewery), but finger of the lake, and wind from the We’d chosen Bubba’s on a whim, when we strolled onto the patio, what fans blew our hair around constantly, and it was still fairly full on a balmy we saw looked more like the set of an but lightly, like we were in a music Wednesday night half an hour before episode of “Miami Vice.” You have to video. Angular tarps appeared poised sunset. But we found out the count-

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BELLY UP

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Bubba’s Brews Sports Pub & Grill 1252 Airport Road Hot Springs 501-547-3186 bubbabrewsbrewingco.com Quick bite

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Visit on Wednesday for karaoke night; Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” and Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract” rang down the winding stairs from the patio to the roadside third floor when we visited. Should the booze and brews threaten takeover, consult the “House Rules” section of the Bubba’s menu to make sure you’re not breaking etiquette.

1619 REBSAMEN PARK RD. 501.838.3888 thefadedrose.com

Hours

11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday (closed Tuesday), 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Wed.Thu., 11 a.m.-midnight Fri.-Sat.

Other info

Handcrafted beer is on tap, with seasonal rotating brews like the Southern Eclipse black lager and an Irish red called Mog’s Ol’ Red Ale, as well as margaritas, mules, several oversized “Mason Jar Drinks” and a selection of wines.

down was on, as the kitchen closes an hour before Bubba’s actual advertised closing time. So we quickly started with the Stuffed Shrimp ($9.95): butterflied, breaded and fried shrimp stuffed with jalapenos, Monterey jack cheese and cream cheese. We found the (almost suspiciously uniform) flattened shrimp more heavily reliant on cream cheese notes than the intriguing jalapeno twist, but these quibbles were quickly forgiven and forgotten; after all, it was still fried shrimp stuffed with cheese. Our desired Kung Pow sliders (“a clean and spicy Asian twist on chicken salad,” $9) had sold out two hours earlier. So we switched gears to the “Dirty Harry” ($12), a sandwich our server called “a beast.” He was right. It’s a towering stack of ham AND bacon AND beautifully charred sausage links cut lengthwise with Thousand Island dressing, spring greens, sauerkraut dotted with red pepper, all teetering on a toasted rye tightrope. Harry had almost too much going on, but the messiness of the sandwich worked in its favor; we collared escaping individual morsels that would have been otherwise lost in the chorus of meats. (We didn’t miss the waters we’d ordered until right about Dirty Harry

o’ clock.) Most of Bubba’s sandwiches are served with chips and salsa; adding fries costs an extra dollar. We sprang for the onion rings ($2 surcharge), and they were crispy but scant, leaving us fry-curious. On the other side of the table, we ordered “The Miss Rodriguez” ($11) from the salad portion of the menu. It was fresh, concave leaves of butter lettuce in a ring and a generous pile of sweet pulled pork in the center, garnished with cilantro lime cream, wontons (billed as “tortilla strips”), red cabbage and red onion. But the brews are ostensibly what makes Bubba’s, and the Arkansas Times Craft Beer Festival is, in fact, how we first came across the brand in 2016. The Sandbar Pilsner (4.9 ABV) was light-bodied and unobjectionable — exactly what we wanted on a summer night. The 4.0 ABV Bubba’s SupaLight was also supremely (OK, OK, we’ll call it “supa”) delicate and weather-appropriate, but more flavorful than the pilsner. Either would be a great lakeside companion, and they complemented the heavy bar food well. Bubba’s Brews gets a lot of the details right — down to the check that arrives in a cute metal box so as not to blow away. And while the dockside setting may be posh, even gorgeous at sunset, Bubba’s Brews Sports Pub & Grill is bar food to the max — heck, it’s right in the name. But it’s inventive and done right, and we’re happy to report that the list of eateries you can get to by boat in Hot Springs — Sam’s Pizza Pub & Restaurant, Fisherman’s Wharf and Cajun Boilers among them — is now a little longer. .

Please join us for an exciting evening as Community Health Centers of Arkansas recognizes honorees Senator John Boozman, Muskie Harris, Delta Dental of Arkansas and Forevercare, at our inaugural masked ball. Proceeds from this benefit formal will help support the Franklin Community Health Complex. Tickets may be purchased thru Eventbrite. Event details to follow.

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AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

PUNK ROCK ROOTS: National Book Award-winning Nate Powell was in attendance with “Come Again,” “Swallow Me Whole” and the “March” trilogy.

he back room of Vino’s was and Minutemen’s Mike Watt. est mantis that crawled around and recently turned into a minStephen Koch was there with his reclined in a jar next to Jones and her iature conference hall for graphic novel “S.O.S.: The Tijuana husband, Luke. “Papercutz,” aka “Zine Night,” Bible,” an homage to the DepressionAnother table featured the “VOV an event for creators of 2D storytell- era predecessor of today’s DIY graphic Zine,” a community zine from Hot ing, from graphic novels to limited-run novel, known for its adult content and Springs’ Low Key Arts. The zine funcpersonal projects showcasing photog- unauthorized use of popular comic tions as a printed program for the Valraphy or writing. strip characters. Also at Koch’s table ley of the Vapors and Hot Water Hills The event, organized for the past was “Join Me in L.A.,” the story of a music and art festivals (a sister zine two years by artist Matthew Castel- friend’s ill-fated move to Los Angeles included the song lyrics of bands who lano, was designed to create a space to pursue a career as a rock star. played at VOV 2018 earlier this year), where Little Rock zine artists could Wynne native and Easter Seals art as well as an open-submission zine swap materials and ideas. instructor Laura K. Terry brought for the Hot Springs art community. Little Rock native and National “Saint Normal: Thoughts and Images” Sisters Claire and Camille Comeaux Book Award winner Nate Powell on display, her second book. (Her first of Lafayette, La., had a table to pitch brought his graphic novels “Come was an adult coloring book). Each “Images on Film,” a glossy portfoAgain,” “March” (Powell’s collabora- page of “Saint Normal” is a depiction lio of film photography by Camille. tion with Democratic U.S. Rep. John of someone Terry feels is overlooked Claire produced a zine called “The Lewis of Georgia and Andrew Aydin) in society — cashiers, service workers Lex-Zine,” which she called “just a and “Swallow Me Whole.” Repre- and others — all done in the reverent document of a creative friendship” senting the early ’90s punk scene — a portraiture style of a Catholic saint. with her friend, Little Rock photogmovement whose roots can be traced Jenna Jones, a fifth-grade teacher rapher Lexi Adams, whose own zine, back to that very room in Vino’s — was at Baseline Elementary School, cre- “Toast” (with Travis Kish), was also Nick Castleberry, manning the table ated her first zine to educate kids featured at their table. for his friend Matthew Thompson’s about insects and arthropods native to Tommy Tanner’s whimsical zine “Fluke.” Thompson’s zine was the Arkansas. Each page of “Pest” features “Tummy Tickles,” the second volume preeminent punk rock fanzine from a colorful illustration of various crit- in a comic series, was an eleventhLittle Rock’s Towncraft era, and the ters: a spider, a mantis, a centipede, a hour display, put together in the three “Fluke” table had a reprinting of its first cockroach. “Pest” is just an anagram days leading up to the event. issue as well as the most recent, Issue for “Pets,” the back cover reads, and Keep an eye out for Zine Night next No. 15: “Lust for Life,” which features just to prove that point, Jones brought year, especially if you’d love to own interviews with Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye with her Chloe, an elegant rainfor- a unique piece of DIY literature.

THEATER

ALSO IN THE ARTS

“Birthday From Hell.” The Main Thing’s summer production, a two-act “Fertle Family” comedy. 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., through Aug. 31. $24. The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse. 301 Main St., NLR. 501372-0205. “Grease.” Murry’s Dinner Theater takes on the ’70s-by-way-of-the-’50s stage musical. 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat., dinner at 6 p.m.; 12:45 p.m. and 6:45 p.m. Sun., dinner at 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., through Aug. 25. $15-$37. 6323 Colonel Glenn Road. 501-562-3131. “Bare: A Pop Opera.” The Weekend Theater stages Jon Harmere and Damon Intrabartolo’s rock musical. 7:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 2:30 p.m. Sun., through Aug. 12. $22. 1001 W. 7th St. 501-374-3761.

FINE ART, HISTORY EXHIBITS

MAJOR VENUES

ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, MacArthur Park: “Robert Baines: Living Treasure and Fabulous Follies,” jewelry, through Oct. 7; “Delta Through the Decades Deux: Selections from the Collection,” through Nov. 4; “Through Our Eyes,” works by students, through Nov. 11; “Art of Fashion: Dallas Shaw,” 5:30 p.m. reception, 6 p.m. talk Aug. 9; 60th annual “Delta Exhibition,” works by artists from Arkansas and contiguous states, through Aug. 26. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sun. 372-4000. ARTS & SCIENCE CENTER FOR SOUTHEAST ARKANSAS, 701 S. Main St.: “Small but Mighty,” works from the permanent collection, Aug. 9-Oct. 27; “UAPB & ASC: Five Decades of Collaboration,” work by Tarrence Corbin, Earnest Davidson, Fred Schmidt, Dr. William Detmers and others from UA Pine Bluff in the ASC permanent collection, through Nov. 3; “Imaginate,” STEAM exhibit in the International Paper Gallery. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 870-5363375. ARTS CENTER OF THE OZARKS, 214 S. Main St., Springdale: “Our Natural State,” photography by Gary Cawood, Beverly Conley, Mike Disfarmer, Jim Dow, Rebecca Drolen, Ron Evans, Matthew Genitempo, Don House, Tim Hursley, Kris Johnson, Margaret LeJeune, Maxine Payne, Donna Pinckley, Sabine Schmidt, Jim Simmons, Alec Soth and Geoff Winningham, through Aug. 17, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 479-751-5441. CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL MUSEUM VISITOR CENTER, Bates and Park: Exhibits on the 1957 desegregation of Central and the civil rights movement. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. 374-1957. CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CENTER, 1200 President Clinton Ave.: Permanent exhibits on the Clinton administration. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 adults, $8 seniors, retired military and college students, $6 youth 6-17, free to active military and children under 6. 374-4242. CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, One Museum Way,

Bentonville: “The Beyond: Georgia O’Keeffe & Contemporary Art,” through Sept. 3; “The Garden,” works from the collection, through Oct. 8; “How Do You Figure?” figurative work, through Aug. 20; American masterworks spanning four centuries in the permanent collection. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon., Thu.; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Wed., Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.-Sun., closed Tue. 479-418-5700. DELTA CULTURAL CENTER, 141 Cherry St., Helena/West Helena: “Over Here and There: the Sons and Daughters of Arkansas’s Delta at War,” commemorating the centennial of World War I. 870338-4350. ESSE PURSE MUSEUM & STORE, 1510 S. Main St.: “You May Kiss the Bride,” vintage wedding dresses and accessories, through Aug. 19; “What’s Inside: A Century of Women and Handbags,” permanent exhibit. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sun. $10, $8 for students, seniors and military. 916-9022. FORT SMITH REGIONAL ART MUSEUM, 1601 Rogers Ave.: “Todd Gray: Pop Geometry,” sculpture, through Nov. 18. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 479-784-2787. HISTORIC ARKANSAS MUSEUM, 200 E. 3rd St.: “Space Between Teeth: Linda Lopez + Marc Mitchell,” Aug. 10-Nov. 4, opens with reception 5-8 p.m. Aug. 10, 2nd Friday Art Night, with music by MarQuis & Mood and beer brewed by The Water Buffalo; “Justin Bryant: That Survival Apparatus,” through Oct. 7; ticketed tours of renovated and replicated 19th century structures from original city, guided Monday and Tuesday on the hour, self-guided Wednesday through Sunday, $2.50 adults, $1 under 18, free to 65 and over. (Galleries free.) 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9351.

AUGUST 18th • NOON - 3pm $20 all you can eat wings! ($25 day of event) Tickets available at the Verizon Arena Box Office charge by phone at 800.745.3000 or online at Ticketmaster.com

THE GOLDEN WING AWARD

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

presents

GALLERIES AT LIBRARY SQUARE, Arkansas Studies Institute, 401 President Clinton Ave.: “A Matter of Mind and Heart: Portraits of Japanese American Identity,” “A Legacy of Brewers: The Paintings of Nicholas, Adrian and Edwin Brewer,” through Oct. 27; “Delta des Refuses,” works in all media, through Aug. 25; “Andrew Rogerson: Landscapes,” through Aug. 25, open 5-8 p.m. Aug. 10, 2nd Friday Art Night. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 320-5790. MacARTHUR MUSEUM OF ARKANSAS MILITARY HISTORY, 503 E. 9th St. (MacArthur Park): Closed through August for renovation. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-4 p.m. Sun. 376-4602. MOSAIC TEMPLARS CULTURAL CENTER, 9th and Broadway: “Don’t Touch My Crown,” artifacts that tell the story of the aesthetics and cultural impact of African-American hair, curated by Stephanie Sims; permanent exhibits on AfricanAmerican entrepreneurship in Arkansas. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 683-3593.

2018

RUNNER-UP

MUSEUM OF DISCOVERY, 500 President Clinton Ave.: Interactive science exhibits and activities for children and teenagers. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun., $10 ages 13 and older, $8 ages 1-12, free to members and children under 1. 396-7050. arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

OLD STATE HOUSE MUSEUM, 300 W. Markham St.: “Movie Night at the Museum,” 5-8 p.m. Aug. 10, 2nd Friday Art Night; “A Piece of My Soul: Quilts by Black Arkansans,” through fall 2019; “Cabinet of Curiosities: Treasures from the University of Arkansas Museum Collection”; “True Faith, True Light: The Devotional Art of Ed Stilley,” musical instruments, through 2017; “First Families: Mingling of Politics and Culture” permanent exhibit including first ladies’ gowns. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. 324-9685. SOUTH ARKANSAS ARTS CENTER, 110 E. 5th St.: 2018 “Small Works on Paper,” Aug. 13-28, reception 6-8 p.m. Aug. 18. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 870862-5474. UA LITTLE ROCK, Windgate Gallery of Art and Design: “Memory / Commitment / Aspiration,” works about oppression in Southeast Asia and India, through Sept. 28, Cushman Gallery; “Water Memory,” installation by Jowita Wyszomirska, through Sept. 28, Small Gallery. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. 5698977. UA LITTLE ROCK, Fine Arts Building: “Mauricio Silerio: Los Demonios de mi Terra,” underwater photographs, Maners-Pappas Gallery, Aug. 15-Sept. 30. 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri.t UA PINE BLUFF, 1200 University Drive: “Live or Not to Live, That Is the Question,” paintings by Markeith Woods, John Brown Watson Memorial Library, through August. 870-575-8896. UA PULASKI TECH, 3000 W. Scenic Drive: “American Perspectives on Modernism,” Aug. 13-Oct. 19, reception 6-8 p.m. Aug. 17 with gallery talk by Jen Padgett of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and music by Dr. Barry McVinney and Tom Cox, Center for Humanities and the Arts. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Thu., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fri., 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sat. 812-2715.

CANTRELL GALLERY, 8208 Cantrell Road: “The Value of Light,” recent paintings by Megan Lewis, through Sept. 1. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 2241335. CHRIST CHURCH, 509 Scott St.: Small paintings, mixed media by area artists. 375-2342. CORE BREWERY, 411 Main St., NLR: “Pop Art,” group show by artists in the Latino Art Project. FENIX GALLERY, 16 W. Center St., Fayetteville: “Wishful Misgivings,” work by Kevin Arnold, through Sept. 30. GALLERY 221, 2nd and Center Sts.: “Wet Paint in Progress,” live art event to benefit Children’s Advocacy Center, 5-8 p.m. Aug. 10, 2nd Friday Art Night. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 801-0211. GALLERY CENTRAL, 800 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Live painting demonstration by Amy Hill Imler and Sandy Fleming Newberg, 5-9 p.m. Aug. 3, also work by James Hayes, Paige Morehead, Janice Higdon and Polly Cook.10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 3184278.

Maysey Craddock, Leonardo Drew, Lauren Fensterstock and Judy Pfaff, through Oct. 7, Joy Pratt Markham Gallery. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., noon-4 p.m. Sat. 479-443-5600.

HEARNE FINE ART, 1001 Wright Ave.: “Identity Theft,” mixed media and fired clay by Chukes, through Sept. 1. 9 a.m.5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. 372-6822.

ARTISTS WORKSHOP GALLERY, 610A Central Ave., Hot Springs: Paintings by Michael Preble and Teresa Widdifield. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun. 623-6401. THE AVENUE in THE WATERS HOTEL, 240 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Work by Rayshaun McNary, through August. BARRY THOMAS FINE ART & STUDIO, 711 Main St., NLR: Impressionist paintARKANSAS TIMES

BOSWELL MOUROT FINE ART, 5815 Kavanaugh Blvd.: “MADE,” paintings and pastels by Matthew Lopas, Alice Andrews, Dennis McCann and Eleanor Dickinson, opens with reception 6-9 p.m. Aug. 11, show through Sept. 1. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sat. 664-0030.

WALTON ARTS CENTER, 495 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville: “The Bleak and the Burgeoning,” installation by Amber Cowan,

ARGENTA GALLERY, 413 Main St., NLR: “Midlife Crisis — the First 60 Years,” photography by Don Bryam. 416-0973.

AUGUST 9, 2018

BOOKSTORE AT LIBRARY SQUARE, 120 River Market Ave.: “Delta des Refuses,” works in all media, through Aug. 25, performance art by David Carpenter during 2nd Friday Art Night, 5-8 p.m. Aug. 10. 918-3013.

GREG THOMPSON FINE ART, 429 Main St., NLR: “Summer Show,” work by Robyn Horn, Richard Jolley, Dolores Justus, Kendall Stallings and others, through Aug. 11. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 664-2787.

SMALLER VENUES

ings. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 912-6302.

JUSTUS FINE ART GALLERY, 827 A Central Ave.: “Fourteener,” anniversary exhibition featuring work by Dustyn Bork, Taimur Cleary, Matthew Hasty, Robyn Horn, Dolores Justus, Jill Kyong, Charles Peer, Sandra Sell, Gene Sparling, Dan Thornhill and others, through August. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sat. 321-2335. L&L BECK ART GALLERY, 5705 Kavanaugh Blvd: “Impersonating the Impressionists,” work by Louis Beck, giclee giveaway 5:30 p.m. Aug. 30. 660-4006. LAMAN LIBRARY ARGENTA BRANCH, 420 Main St., NLR: “Echelon,” work by Matthew Castellano, through mid-August. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sat. 687-1061.

AR REPORTER, CONT. Not all commenters took a stand town, don’t matter, then we have no either way. One person who commented democracy and no state or local governsuggested the new bridge be named for ment that respects or responds to our Maya Angelou. Another asked that the concerns and needs.” bridge be painted blue. Another advo“Scott Bennett also seems to have a cated for ARDOT, Little Rock and the personal dislike for Little Rock … . Here state to build a park over the interstate. is just one example from his Twitter feed There were also expressions of con- in response to the following comment … cern from landowners in North Little : ‘Are you telling me this concrete disasRock, including Shorter College, whose ter can’t be stopped. That Little Rock is property will be affected by the road. Sev- powerless to prevent its destruction by eral expressed skepticism that ARDOT’s you? Scott Bennett (@AHTDSCOTT): decision would be in any way affected ‘would it be better if it were asphalt?’ ” by public opinion in opposition to the The department will submit the doubling of the width of I-30 through Environmental Assessment, public Little Rock and North Little Rock: comments and replies to those com“At one of the first public meetings ments, which were not yet available that I attended, [ARDOT Director] Scott at press time, to the Federal Highway Bennett assured all of us in attendance Administration. It hopes to get a Findthat ARDOT ‘would not shove this down ing of No Significant Impact (a FONSI) our throats.’ Yes, ARDOT, for those of us so it can go forward. If the highway who live downtown and will be impacted administration does issue a FONSI, litithe most, this is exactly what you are gation to force the agency to conduct doing. If the people of Little Rock, and an Environmental Impact Statement particularly those of us who live down- is expected.

ALSO IN THE ARTS CONT.

LANDMARK BUILDING, 201 Market St.: “Teachers are Artists Too,” work by art faculty at Henderson State University, National Park College, Arkansas School for Mathematics and the Arts.

LEGACY FINE ART, 804 Central Ave., Hot Springs: Blown glass chandeliers by Ed Pennington, paintings by Carole Katchen. 762-0840. LOCAL COLOUR GALLERY, 5811 Kavanaugh Blvd.: Artists collective. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 265-0422. M2 GALLERY, 11525 Cantrell Road: “Ink,” printmaking by Evan Lindquist, Warren Criswell and Neal Harrington, with photographs by Linda Harding and Austin printmaker Annalise Gratovich. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Mon. 225-6257. MATT MCLEOD FINE ART, 106 W. 6th St.: “Arkansas League of Artists Members Show,” juried show of drawings, watercolors, oils, mixed media and pastels, through Aug. 24, open 5-8 p.m. Aug. 10, 2nd Friday Art Night. 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tue.-Fri., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat. 725-8508. PEEL MANSION, 400 S. Walton Blvd., Bentonville: “Forms, Past and Present,” glass work by Ed Pennebaker, through August. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tue.-Sat. 745-2449. THEA FOUNDATION, 401 Main St., NLR: “Carmen Alexandria Thompson: The Mind Unveiled,” part of The Art Department series, through August. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (closed noon-1 p.m.) weekdays.

tory. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $3 adults; $2 seniors, military; $1 students. 501-241-1943.

LAKEPORT PLANTATION, 601 Hwy. 142, Lake Village: Antebellum mansion; exhibits on plantation life from before, during and after the Civil War. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays. $5 general admission. 870-265-6031 MUSEUM OF AUTOMOBILES, Petit Jean Mountain: Permanent exhibition of more than 50 cars from 1904-1967 depicting the evolution of the automobile. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 7 days. 501-727-5427. MUSEUM OF NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY, 202 SW O St., Bentonville: Native American artifacts. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat. 479-273-2456. PLANTATION AGRICULTURE MUSEUM, Scott, U.S. Hwy. 165 and state Hwy. 161: Permanent exhibits on historic agriculture. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1-5 p.m. Sun. $4 adults, $3 children. 961-1409. POTTS INN, 25 E. Ash St., Pottsville: Preserved 1850s stagecoach station on the Butterfield Overland Mail Route, with period furnishings, log structures, hat museum, doll museum, doctor’s office, antique farm equipment. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wed.-Sat. $5 adults, $2 students, 5 and under free. 479-968-9369.

OTHER MUSEUMS

SCOTT PLANTATION SETTLEMENT, Scott: 1840s log cabin, one-room schoolhouse, tenant houses, smokehouse and artifacts on plantation life. 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Fri.-Sat. 351-0300. www.scottconnections. org.

JACKSONVILLE MUSEUM OF MILITARY HISTORY, 100 Veterans Circle, Jacksonville: Exhibits on D-Day; F-105, Vietnam era plane (“The Thud”); the Civil War Battle of Reed’s Bridge, Arkansas Ordnance Plant (AOP) and other military his-

TOLTEC MOUNDS STATE PARK, U.S. Hwy. 165, England: Major prehistoric Indian site with visitors’ center and museum. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. Sun., closed Mon. $4 for adults, $3 for ages 6-12, $14 for family. 961-9442.

ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE TO ADVERTISE IN THIS SECTION, CALL LUIS AT 501.375.2985

KNOLLWOOD OWEN CREEK MOBILE HOME PARKS

MOVE IN SPECIALS: 6 MONTHS FREE RENT OR UP TO $1000 TOWARDS THE COST TO MOVE YOUR HOME. Call 501-407-9000 for more information

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arktimes.com AUGUST 9, 2018

IT’S THE PARTY TO THE PARTY! 6 . T C O

Y T R ! A Y P T E R H A T P 'S THE y r O a s r e iv AND DAVE MASON R STEVE CROPPE

S U B a S n E e l U e L B H s n i e m tival i T s s a e s F n s a e rk u l A B t e i u th c s ! e i s d B i u R g h n i t i K r w e e n n Y h i t l t n d to A par ea $99 PER TICKET

INCLUDES: Transp ortation provided by Cline Tours (let’ go in style y’all), En s trance to the Blue s Festival, Lunch by Boulevard Bread, Live Music, and ad ult beverages.

ble on Tickets availa astickets.com s n a rk la a tr n ce

BUS TRANSPORTATION PROVIDED BY CLINE BUS TOURS.

AUGUST 9, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES