Arkansas Times - July 05, 2018 by Arkansas Times

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THE

V I S I NEIGHBORHOODS TO R S LOVE T O B E I N VI T E D MADE IN ARKANSAS FAMILY FRIENDLY TGreater O Little LO CandA L B ULittle S Rock I NisEgreat S fun S for E the S ! The Natural State is Rock

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

JULY 05, 2018

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COMMENT

Outraged

School safety

As an advocate for children left behind by parental incarceration and by deportation for 30-plus years, I am acutely outraged by what has happened at our southern border due to initiatives by the president and the attorney general. The damage to these innocent children has been done and will last throughout their lifetimes. The officials, Trump and Sessions, have cavalierly created toxic stress that will affect the lives of these children into adulthood. Indeed, such stress will shorten their lifespan and create physical damage. Adverse Childhood Experiences are well documented in our CDC research. Three or more ACEs steal healthy lives from children, including separation by parental incarceration, and physical and mental abuse. These officials are offenders of the worst sort, blithely inflicting harm on children and teenagers. I attended the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Children: Decision Day for Children of the Incarcerated held in Geneva. I could not vote because my country and Somalia have never signed this international treaty. Please, write and call the officials who are implementing such offenses to stop. This is not the nation we want to be, and it will be long remembered by the world as the nation without compassion or any understanding of the developmental harms created by such actions. Please. Dee Ann Newell Director, Arkansas Voices for the Children Left Behind

explored had shafts inside that were several hundred feet deep, into which the dug debris could be dumped and Re: Governor Hutchinson’s recently the work would never be detected. Fly appointed School Safety Commission. Google Earth along that border and you Ask most teachers: Bullets aren’t what see how rugged it is. There are places teachers use to save children. As a public where the wall cannot be built, but peo- high school teacher, I find it outrageous ple can climb the mountains and walk this School Safety Commission is recomacross. mending arming teachers and staff. Not George Gatliff only because placing more guns in our Little Rock school increases the risk of gun violence, but because Governor Hutchinson’s newly appointed commission refuses to look at proactive solutions.

WE SPEAK SPANISH, DO YOU NEED HELP?

From the web In response to the June 28 story about a firing at the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and the director’s claim that the agency’s 50 percent drop in penalties on polluters doesn’t represent a reduced commitment to compliance with regulations:

Our sister paper El Latino is Arkansas’s only weekly – audited Spanish language newspaper.

Well, horse manure. Penalties are for infractions that have in fact occurred. ADEQ is the poster child for ineffective, if not actually corrupt, efforts to protect the environment in the Natural State. Vincent Robertson

Arkansas has the second fastest growing Latino population in the country and smart businesses are targeting this market as they develop business relationships with these new consumers. AD U N ID I S CO M T TR A m GR A S E o U s a s .c DE N

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In response to Gene Lyons’ June 28 column, “Sociopath-in-chief”:

Other antisocial traits are condescending sarcasm, smear campaigns, name-calling, deliberately misrepresenting your thoughts and feelings to the point of absurdity, blanket statements and generalizations. Sound familiar? Thomas Pope

The wall I can’t keep from smiling every time I hear or read about the wall. During the 1980s and ’90s, my dad and I spent a lot of time exploring the desert south of Tucson, Ariz., with special interest in the 35-mile Arizona-Mexico border lands between Sasabe and Nogales. It was interesting because of the ghost towns, adobe ruins and especially the many abandoned mines. Some of the mines were old, but most were mined by “Americanos” from the mid1800s to the mid-1900s. The Spanish mines crossed the border, but the Americano mines are on the north side of the border and stop at or near the border. The point of all this is to say it would be a simple matter to clean out the Spanish mines and extend all the other mines to across the border for easy access if the wall is erected. And every mine we 4

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Proactive policies like Red Flag Laws, which would give law enforcement and families the ability to remove firearms from those showing dangerous behavior. Or safe storage laws, that would keep kids from being able to access loaded unsecure guns in their homes. These laws could prevent school shootings like what we have seen this year in Parkland and Santa Fe. Groups like Moms Demand Action are supporting these common sense policies, but we need your help. Use your voice, join the movement, and make sure you let Governor Hutchinson and the school safety commission know, arming our teachers is not an option. Mike Bishop Conway

L! AL” A R T N E S C DO NATUR A S N A K AR EL “ESTA A S O D NI RE ¡BIENVREMACIÓN SOBPÁG. 4 INisFOa free publication available at E El U Latino A Í G 185 pickup locations in Central Arkansas.

Accurate description of a sociopath. But Trump is just the symbol of the underbelly of American values — ethnocentric/nationalistic/entitled/inseNOS cure “treasures” that have been with MEXICA ON LA YA NO S DE LOS ÍA MAYOR MENTADOS us since 1619. Recent events may bring U INDOC in compassion and a sense of shared PÁG. 13 www.ellatinoarkansas.com L DAY: S IA humanity (also a vital part of American R O O M ME TIN DOS LA 9 SOLDA IERON EN Facebook.com/ellatinoarkansas 1 values), but the shadow continues to T A S g COMB AS GUERRA L . Pá lurk within us all. S TODAS O PÁG. 2 ENT Contact Luis Garcia today for more information! JRougle E EV .e lla www

D 201 E. Markham suite 200 • Little NALRock AR A M (501) 374-0853 • luis@arktimes.com SE O

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In response to an Arkansas Blog post on the Trump administration’s direction to the Department of Justice to halt its defense of the Affordable Care Act’s ban on denial of coverage for people with preexisting health conditions. (Attorney Gen-

eral Leslie Rutledge and other Republican attorneys general filed the suit against the ACA): I have a solution! Would Trump and Asa and Leslie please send home suicide kits to us less productive people? I’m ready to die so the 1 percent can have their tax cuts, but I don’t want a long, drawn-out process. Since we got our new Blue Cross Health Savings Account in order to afford the monthly premium, I’ve found I can’t afford to see my doctor. He sees I’m still able to stand up and then orders the same old blood tests, sends me down to extra expense Quest Testing and then a month later I get a bill for $130. So I laugh at Trump and his effort to reintroduce insurance ending preexisting conditions. Too late you, big Orange crook, I’m already on the way out. But really, a quick death kit would be ever so helpful and humane. Hah, I know Trump and Asa don’t know the meaning of the word humane. It sucks to be an American ... sad. Deathbyinches Right up at the top of the worst people to serve Arkansas is that scum-sucker Looney tunes Leslie Rutledge. Why we elect people to oppose benefits to the citizens that need help is beyond me. The appeal of the Republicans to those that oppose mammon and support the religious tenets is unbelievable. These people are supporting a government that only supports monied interests. A guess is they can use their guns to end the misery of pain and suffering from lack of care and treatment. The NRA will be so proud, and so will looneyleslie. Going for the record In response to an Arkansas Blog post on an investigation of a report that a member of the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission was offered a bribe: Who would have ever thought that bribes would be offered in the awarding of licenses to make potentially millions of dollars?

got a boost. Clearly our crooked legislators weren’t tuning in. Muslim groups should apply for a grant and, when inevitably turned down in Late Roman messiah-cult soaked rKen$aw, sue, sue, sue. The OBVIOUS (or not, apparently) solution of NOT funding ANY religion is of course not even on the table in this land of lamb’s blood, inert blocks of rock, tongue-speaking and snake-handling. tsallenarng

Hallelujah, I’m beginning to catch the spirit, and I’d respectfully, nay, reverently ask for some lucre for the congregation at the Tailgate Bar, a tangent of the Slightly Illegal Mobile Adult Beverage Emporium. Louie In response to an Arkansas Blog post about Teach for America’s hiring of lobbyist Rusty Cranford to win $3 million in General Improvement Fund grants, an allocation approved by Governor Hutchinson to a program then headed by his Democratic opposition for governor, Jared Henderson: Jared, I’m for ya because you’re not a Republican and you’re not Asa! But you need to get straight on education and start pulling hard for public schools. Now. We’re there for all students all the time without any extra financial shenanigans from the governor or folks there at Teach for A Little While. I don’t think this will work against you in the campaign, but you sure better show remorse and get behind the folks doing the heavy lifting day in and day out. Yellowdogdaughter1

PRAISE THE LORD: Quality of broadcasts of St. Mark Baptist services

Come to South on Main in downtown Little Rock TUESDAY, JULY 10TH at 6 PM to find out who is coming to the 31st Annual Music Fest. Giveaways and Refreshments!

In response to Gene Lyon’s column prompted by the death of Philip Roth: Roth will quickly disappear from the literary world and contemporary canon. He’s old, well, dead, white, heterosexual, patriarchal and guilty of many other affronts I’m not privy to, I’m sure. Lisbeth S

plainjim

In response to an Arkansas Blog post about tax dollars being directed to Little Rock area churches and church programs, including St. Mark Baptist, St. Luke’s Baptist and Mosaic Church’s Vine and Village project, through the General Improvement Fund:

ANNOUNCES

Yes, dead, white, straight and “patriarchal.” Like Mark Twain, Herman Melville, William Faulkner and others one suspects Lisbeth S is also not privy to. Aloysius

Send letters or comments to arktimes@arktimes.com.

3 DAYS OF MUSIC, FOOD AND FUN! WWW.ELDOMAD.COM arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

WEEK THAT WAS

Safety commission makes recommendations

Photo of the week The Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol got a special covering June 30 as demonstrators gathered to protest President Trump’s treatment of immigrant families seeking asylum.

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

The Arkansas School Safety Commission has released its draft recommendations to Governor Hutchinson and they include a recommendation for armed security at every campus. Members of the commission have said local districts would still retain autonomy on decisions about the recommendations. The draft gives these strategies for more security on campus: • Recruit retired police officers as auxiliary officers or commissioned school security officers in schools. The CSSOs could be volunteers to save money. • Allocate office space for law enforcement to use during the day. • Use working or retired officers as substitute teachers. • Schools should collaborate with local law enforcement and seek ways to increase officer traffic on campus. • Exclude persons who are not psychologically fit for service as a CSSO.

State lawmaker arrested State Rep. Michael “Mickey” Gates (R-Hot Springs), 58, surrendered last week at the Garland County Jail on felony charges that he’d failed to pay state taxes for six years.

The State Police arrested Gates on division will have two investigators, six Class D felony charges for failure to salaried at around $58,000. The new file state income tax returns. The case division will join the Ark Trust Pubwas put together by the state Depart- lic Corruption Task Force, formed in ment of Finance and Administration, 2013 by the state’s U.S. attorneys, the state Special Prosecutor Jack McQuary Arkansas State Police, the FBI and local and the State Police. Gates is said to police agencies after the arrest of forowe $259,841.95 in taxes, penalties and mer State Treasurer Martha Shoffner. interest. Bond was set at $1,500. She was convicted of bribery and extorGates, who’s served two terms in tion in 2015. the House, has a Democratic opponent Rutledge is amid a re-election camthis year, Kevin Rogers. paign. She faces Democrat Mike Lee “Representative Gates had been fully in November. cooperating with the agencies in the Former State Rep. Micah Neal audits and in trying to pay the back (R-Springdale) pleaded guilty to fraud taxes, and the criminal charges came in a kickback case involving General to him as a complete surprise. We will Improvement Funds in January 2017. continue to cooperate and hopefully There have, of course, been several have a resolution soon,” his attorney, other guilty pleas and convictions Joe Churchwell, said in a statement. involving GIF money since then. So The arrest warrant indicates Gates why, Rutledge was asked at a news conhadn’t filed tax returns since 2003, but ference, did it take so long for the attorstatute of limitations limited the num- ney general’s office to get involved? ber of charges to six years. “This is a project I’ve been working on for some time to ensure that we have the resources in place,” she said. Rutledge said she didn’t regret defending the state in an ultimately successful lawsuit brought by former Attorney General Leslie Rutledge state Rep. Mike Wilson (D-Jacksonannounced last week the creation of ville) to declare the state’s scheme to a Public Integrity Division within her deploy General Improvement Funds office’s existing Special Investiga- through regional planning districts tions Department. That department unconstitutional. “It’s my job as the was created in 2009 to investigate attorney general to defend the laws of cybercrimes and metal theft. The new Arkansas,” she said.

Time to battle public corruption, Rutledge says

OPINION

Corrupt Arkansas

rkansas jail blotters last week added a couple more names of so-called public servants. First came state Rep. Mickey Gates (R-Hot Springs), charged with six felony counts of failing to file a state income tax return. He hasn’t filed a state income tax return in 15 years. Gates’ status as a tax scofflaw wasn’t exactly a surprise. The state has been filing tax liens against him periodically for years. In the latest felony counts, he’s said to owe the state $250,000 or so in unpaid taxes, interest and penalties. Alone among Republican leaders, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said Gates should resign. Republican Chairman Chair Doyle Webb and Governor Hutchinson said the judicial process should run its course first. Nonsense. Gates is entitled to due process on his criminal charges. But he doesn’t dispute that he hasn’t filed state income tax returns. He doesn’t dispute that he’s a tax deadbeat, though he has dog-atethe-homework excuses.

Should Gates be in a position to pass tax laws that he doesn’t obey? His protest of ignorance rings hollow MAX when you know he BRANTLEY introduced legis- maxbrantley@arktimes.com lation in 2017 that would have reduced his exposure to unpaid tax recovery. Hutchinson, who extends no due process in his new Medicaid work rules to working poor who might not be able to find a computer to stay eligible, should be ashamed for covering for Gates. Then came the indictment in Batesville of Robin Raveendran, a former executive of Preferred Family Healthcare. He allegedly oversaw a fraudulent billing scheme to enhance payments PFH received for community mental health services under the state Medicaid program. He knew the tricks. He had been director of Medicaid integrity at one point during a long career at the Department of Human Services.

Supreme Republicans

very day’s developments produce plenty of cause for hysterics, but I’m afraid the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy will not prove to be much cause for either the woe or jubilation of the past week. In its immediate post-Kennedy incarnation, the Supreme Court will continue along the path it has trod for 30 years, which is to solidify and expand the power of corporations and concentrated wealth in all matters both civil and governmental, which is to say that it will nearly always take the Republican position if there is one, whatever it may be at the time. It must be remembered that Anthony Kennedy, while laudably the occasional protector of the speech and privacy rights of flag burners, women and sexual minorities, authored one of the worst decisions of the past two decades: Citizens United v. FEC (2009), which declared that the deep coffers of corporations and other monied interests were a form of corporate speech and that the owners could not be restrained from using their bounty limitlessly to elect or defeat politicians of their choosing. Kennedy joined the court’s other Republicans last week in sanctifying President Trump’s travel ban on Mus-

lims. Most courts had found that it was a ban on Muslims — which violated the Constitution’s establishment clause — because the president repeatedly said it was. But Kennedy and his confederates ruled that just because ERNEST Trump said banDUMAS ning Muslims was his purpose didn’t make it so. Besides, they said, because Trump said he was protecting national security, that concern overrode the establishment clause. What the president’s travel order does is allow travel to the U.S. from Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates) that had sent terrorist assassins to the United States and where he had business interests, but ban travel from Muslim countries that had not sent terrorists and where he had no commercial ties. We are supposed to miss a justice who follows such reasoning? On labor relations and arbitration, voting rights, consumer interests and antitrust matters, Kennedy was a reliable ally of power and money. Of course, there are the fields of abortion and gay rights, where Kennedy’s loss and Trump’s promises raise fanati-

The prosecutor put the fraudulent charges the Times’ David Ramsey). Four state at more than $2 million. legislators had pleaded guilty or been The state’s Medicaid inspector gen- convicted of crimes related to PFH. The eral had some questions several years PFH pay sheet includes at least three ago about PFH billing, but was driven other legislators, and numerous legisinto submission by lobbyists and legislators helped money flow to the outfit. lators that we now know to be crooked. Relatives of high executives larded the The attorney general’s Medicaid fraud company payroll. Yet PFH remained division ultimately made this case, but protected until Friday of last week. only after being delivered information by Jon Comstock, a Democrat who’s the federal public corruption task force. challenging Sen. Cecile Bledsoe (R-RogFor the longest, Hutchinson and his ers), has called for creation of an explicit DHS refused to act against PFH. Raveen- online accounting of every grant doled dran’s case forced suspension of the out by every legislator from the scandalcompany, which draws $43 million a ridden General Improvement Fund. year in taxpayer money. This will creWhere’s the state official calling for ate hardships for 4,000 employees and recovery of the taxpayer money sent, after thousands of clients. But it was an out- kickbacks, to a little church in Springdale rage that an organization that had grown that operates as the tiny Ecclesia College? fat off illegal activities was able to hold A full audit of GIF and PFH would draw onto its state contract, unwitting though needed attention to all the legislators many employees might have been. involved in shoveling money to outfits It’s not like funny business at PFH like Preferred Family Healthcare. was a surprise. Two lobbyists and one Close attention might discourage othaccountant for the company had pleaded ers (including players from the bloodguilty to illegal use of money flowing sucking nursing home industry) from from the enterprise. Three top execu- excessive profiteering on the lucrative tives had been fired and one had been business of Medicaid-financed mental suspended (belatedly, after reporting by health care.

cal hopes and fears that Roe v. Wade and equality for sexual minorities will be reversed. To be sure, nothing helpful for the rights of women, gays, lesbians or transgendered people will come out of any Trump-suffused court, but neither will the court outlaw abortion or rescind the protection of homosexuals, including same-sex marriage. They are settled law now, supported by most Americans, and most Republicans in power, including Trump, will not want the law summarily reversed. All that Trump wants on abortion and gay rights, as well as on matters like North Korea, is just to be seen as doing something his base wants. As soon as he appoints his justice, he will proclaim abortion finished and that will suffice. That is not to say that the Trump court will not embroider on the edges of the law, perhaps by allowing some state-imposed restrictions that do not flagrantly deny a woman’s right to an abortion. That is to say, the legal war will continue, with some encouragement to the handful of Arkansas legislators whose reason for existence is to make it a crime for women to get an abortion. Trump was the first candidate for president — briefly, for the Reform Party nomination in 1999 — to vow eternal opposition to outlawing even partialbirth abortions. “I am very pro-choice,” he declared. He had no problem with

homosexuality or gay marriage. Although Trump had promised that he would appoint only justices who were committed to overturning Roe v. Wade, he promised Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) last week he would not ask any candidate how they felt about it. Then he proffered his own solution for the court: Leave abortion to the states. Then women who could afford it could visit a state where abortion was legal and only the poor would have to endure unwanted pregnancies. That, of course, would require the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Remember that, like Trumpism, Republicanism is a shifting target. Roe v. Wade is Republican jurisprudence. Five of the seven justices who decreed in 1973 that the Constitution gave women the right to have a medical procedure they needed for their physical and mental health were Republican appointees. One Democrat and one Republican voted no. Before Reagan, the liberal and libertarian quotient in the Republican congressional branch was about as strong as Democratic progressivism. The party only recently adopted abortion and homosexuality as wedge issues to pry religion-motivated voters away from Democrats. Every candidate for justice knows that with Trump, the posturing is all that counts and that, like the chief justice, they had better not flout the will of a majority of voting Americans.

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Love vs. womp, womp

s the “womp, womp” moment decline, yet when we are united we are pithily captures the casual strong – invincible!” For Booker, love meanness of the political times should be seen as America’s empowin which we find ourselves, I sense that ering glue. But, in the “womp, womp” former Trump campaign manager Corey moment, it feels charmingly antiquated. Lewandowski’s response to the separaBut, as the excellent new documention of a girl with Down’s syndrome tary about Fred from her parent as part of the adminis- Rogers — “Won’t tration’s “zero tolerance” policy at our You Be My Neighsouthern border will regularly pop up bor?” —reminded on documentaries about the Trump era me a few weeks for decades. (That the exchange took b a c k , t h e r e ’s place on Fox News, and the reason that something very JAY Lewandowski finds himself a television right about recBARTH commentator rather than a member of ognizing the role the Trump administration goes back to of love in the public arena. Because I his physical attack on a female reporter watched too much television, I literearly in the campaign, only makes it ally grew up with Mr. Rogers, whose a richer synopsis of the political era.) national public television version of While telling, the Lewandowski the show debuted when I was a todexchange is only a relatively superficial dler. As the documentary shows, Fred example of meanness both rhetorical Rogers combined his preparation to be (“I think there is blame on both sides,” a Presbyterian minister, his training in as the president said in response to the the newest research on early childhood events in Charlottesville, Va., last year) learning and his awareness of the power and tangible (from denying transgender of mass communication (for good or troops to serve their county to a vari- ill) to create a decades-long television ety of aspects of Trump immigration “ministry.” policies). However, it appears that it is At the heart of this ministry was becoming something of a catchphrase. that love must triumph over the darker At an Alabama rally opposing the separa- forces in life and that kids need to love tion policy this past weekend, a man was themselves so that they can be most arrested after he shouted “womp, womp” successful in loving their neighbors as and pulled a gun on the protesters. themselves. Many will say, immediately, We also know that anger-filled “Well, that was a different era.” It was, statements and actions are not limited but it was a distinctly brutal moment to one side of the political spectrum. as well. The program came on the air The shaming of Trump administra- in early 1968 and, within months, took tion officials at restaurants in recent on directly the political violence of that weeks because of policies they have year as well as the war in Vietnam. Kids supported or defended is indicative of were seeing those events on television a left that, out of frustration with its and Mr. Rogers took responsibility for absent political power, seeks to “pay helping them grapple with the scariness back” the GOP for its actions. And, of their childhoods. based on evidence from my home, epiI left the theater convinced again that thets about the Trump administration love really can trump hate. Indeed, it yelled at televisions often include quite may be the only path to a better America. creative imagery but are not exactly First, while hate is a potent fuel, like jet grounded in compassion. In this week fuel it burns itself out quickly. Compasin which the country is celebrated, it’s sion fueled by love burns more slowly, not a pretty time in America. more evenly, more cleanly. Indeed, it A key theme regularly employed by actually is a fuel that regenerates itself. the Clinton campaign in 2016 was “Love Second, because lasting social change Trumps Hate.” As New Jersey Sen. Cory only arrives through cooperation and Booker said at the Democratic National coordination, there must be genuine Convention two summers ago: “Patrio- trust between individuals to produce tism is love of country. But you can’t great works of social change. Love is at love your country without loving your the heart of that crucial social trust that countrymen and countrywomen … . We guides change in a liberal democracy. are called to be a nation of love. Love At the most challenging political recognizes that we need each other, that moment many of us have ever seen, I we as a nation are better together, that chose the path of Mr. Rogers rather than when we are divided we are weak, we that of Mr. Lewandowski.

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This one stings W

e Arkansas Razorback fans Campbell, to be clear, was pretty have such a jaded and fatalis- well locked in, throwing a lot of efforttic view of the world that this less mid-90s heat and coaxing numercolumn was both painfully rote and fore- ous ground balls. Trouble is, in the first told. Within literal inches of being able to inning, a couple of those grounders author a magical moment that would ce- snuck by for hits, and the Beavers got a ment Razorback baseball and Dave Van 2-0 lead. As someone who has watched Horn in championship lore, Arkansas Campbell operate at was thrust into a 24-hour horror movie his best and worst that more or less played out in a fash- all season, I recogion we’ve seen before, be it in the 1969 nized this was not Game of the Century or the 1998 clash the best scenario: with Tennessee in football, or the 1995 The Hogs quietly NCAA men’s basketball championship went in the top BEAU game and then a particularly enraging of the first when WILCOX 2017 NCAA second-round game against they needed to test eventual champion North Carolina. Abel’s moxie, and Campbell let the BeaArkansas scraped together a win vers put it in play, but on two notable Tuesday after the expected Monday occasions Oregon State’s patient and opener against Oregon State, the indis- disciplined hitters found a way to move putable class of the Pac-12, was rained the ball past the first line of defense for out. The Hogs did very little to win that key hits. game, which should have been an arbiter The game wasn’t decided simply of sorts: In a series in which the vaunted because Oregon State won the first Razorback offense squeezed out only round of the bout, though. Rather, in seven combined runs and suffered its the third inning, the Hogs mounted their first shutout in 100 games ranging back charge. Grant Koch, truthfully the only to a season ago, a 98-home run pow- guy in the lineup who seemed to have a erhouse simply waved futilely, up and plan when he went to the plate, stroked down the lineup, at a lot of off-speed a leadoff double off the left-field fence stuff that danced inside and outside the to get a moribund, heavily depleted Hog strike zone. It wasn’t necessarily a func- crowd back to its feet for a moment. One tion of outright impatience, because the out later, the Hogs had loaded the bases Hogs did work some deep counts against thanks to a walk and an infield hit. some pitchers who have precise control, Abel wasn’t fazed. He worked his way and yes the umpiring was a moving tar- through Heston Kjerstad, who frankly get all week, but the Razorbacks were looked like a true frosh for the first time simply inept at the plate: zero homers in 2018, and then retired Luke Bonfield in three games for a team that blistered on a looping flyout to right. Arkansas a school-record 98 bombs, a mere three fans felt the sting: This was the fourth extra-base hits (a double in each game, time in the three-game set that, despite all of which ended up being meaning- being so frustratingly unproductive on less), and 38 strikeouts over three games the hole, the Razorbacks had left the by a lineup that wasn’t exactly a bunch bases full. This time, with the Hogs of reckless hackers. trailing in the decisive game, it felt like In fact, as Oregon State freshman a much more withering blow to their Kevin Abel, fresh off throwing a pile confidence at the time, and the next two of pitches to fend off Mississippi State hours validated that. Abel started getseveral days prior and then throwing 23 ting the Hogs to press as the lead ticked more to earn the miracle win on Wednes- upward to 3-0, 4-0, and a bunch of really day night, took the hill again Thursday, strong hitters ended up fishing for low it looked like a matchup Arkansas could 80s changeups that dived into and out of exploit. Abel had an effective inning of the zone. He was racking up an unprecwork against the Hogs to earn the relief edented pitch count, but Abel was also win as the Razorbacks imploded in the not being tested at all, and when OSU top of the ninth, but it felt like Pat Casey added those solitary runs in the middle would only be able to rely on this kid for innings, they might as well have been three or four innings while Dave Van grand slams rather than routine RBI Horn would seemingly be able to ride hits or sacrifice flies, because the Hog his third starter, a fresh Isaiah Camp- offense was so out of rhythm, deflated bell, far longer. The first inning altered and impatient that the outcome started that altogether. looking inevitable very quickly.

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THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

After midnight F or the past two years, The Observer has lain awake in bed at least one or two nights a week and wondered if I have failed to prepare my son, as my father prepared me, for what could reasonably be coming in this terrible new age. I have not taught my son how to shoot. I have not taught him to sight a rifle. I have not taught him how to exhale slowly and then pull the trigger, to aim for the lungs and heart. I have not taught him to wait so the deer has time to run out the last of its energy and lie down, to follow the trail of shining blood. I have not taught him how to dress and cook to safe and edible anything that walks, flies, slithers or crawls. I have not taught him how to clean a catfish with a sharp knife and a pair of pliers, and the cruel efficiency it takes to peel that slick, storm-cloud gray skin. I have not taught him how to find the jugular of a shot and terrified doe with the tip of a knife. I have not taught him how to run trotlines and jugs in the dark, how to gig bullfrogs, how to fix a sheared pin on a boat motor prop, how to clean a rifle or a carburetor or a wound, how to spotlight a rabbit in the dark, how to build a leanto from branches and sticks, how to start a fire without a lighter, how to sharpen a knife or build a simple snare or hotwire any car made before 1980, like my father taught me. My son is gentle and kind. He is, I worry in the dark, not ready for the future we are seeing made right now. My mind is caught up these days with the maybes. Perhaps too much. America, after all, is very good at approaching the cliff and then veering away at the last second. It’s one of this country’s gifts: a thirst for self-destruction, with a counterbalancing sense of self-preservation. But watching Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) smiling like the cat who ate the canary the other day when he spoke of the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, all I could think of was the cruelty of these men whom we have chosen to lead us. When Justice Antonin Scalia died, and President Obama had a chance to pick another justice, he chose Merrick Garland, a moder-

ate and level-headed centrist. Obama did so because he’s probably one of the smartest presidents we’ve ever had, up to and including guys like Jefferson and Madison and Lincoln. He knew that if this country is to have anything other than chaos, the courts have to work for everybody, not just “our side.” But guys like McConnell and President Trump, in their thirst for lasting legacy and enduring supremacy at any cost, can’t see or don’t care what it will do to this country to have a court system that dead-ends before a bench that always, always, always narrowly rules for one side over the other. The SCOTUS that included Justice Kennedy was a frustrating exercise for both left and right, with Kennedy seeming to blow one way or the other with no real, discernible sense of where he might land until he did. Without him, with another justice in the mold of Neal Gorsuch or Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas, the highest court in this country will become a rock on which the hopes and dreams of all but the most wealthy and powerful and privileged and male and Christian will be broken to bits again and again, for years. For decades. The Observer is a student of people. As a reporter, I spent 15 years wading through the septic tank of what human beings can do to other human beings given the opportunity and motive. And if there’s one thing I know about people, it’s this: If they begin to believe that they can get justice no other way, some of them will make their own. I know that. I also know that with a few simple turns toward darkness, that way lies rage and ruin. That is the way of the torch. That is the way of the guillotine. That way could lay another Gettysburg, without the steadying father of Lincoln this time. And so, I lie awake and worry about the unlikely but entirely possible maybes of this track we are on. In daylight, it always seems pretty foolish. But deep down in the dark, when the monsters emerge from closets, it’s all too real. And I think: Have I failed to prepare my son?

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arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

Arkansas Reporter

THE

State yanks PFH funds Another former executive with scandal-plagued mental health provider arrested. BY DAVID RAMSEY AND BENJAMIN HARDY

he Arkansas Department of sas lawmakers of both parties. Of the “a former Arkansas state employee” Human Services and the Office PFH executives listed above, only Cran- and “employed Cranford as a lobbyist of Medicaid Inspector General ford has been named outright by federal to represent the interests of health sersuspended Medicaid payments prosecutors, but the others match the vice providers.” Raveendran formerly to one of the state’s largest behavioral descriptions of unnamed individuals worked for DHS; it is not clear whether health providers Friday, June 29, hours who “devised and executed multiple he employed Cranford, though the two after the arrest of a former executive schemes to embezzle, steal, and unjustly men lobbied the legislature on mental vice president. enrich themselves at the expense of health issues during the time period Preferred Family Healthcare, a [PFH],” according to the criminal infor- covered by the information. nonprofit based in Springfield, Mo., mation attached to Cranford’s plea. Shortly after Cranford’s plea, on that employs some 4,000 people at Cranford, who was also a lobbyist, June 11, Raveendran was contacted by a RAVEENDRAN: Former Preferred Family 47 locations across Arkansas, said admitted to paying former state Sens. reporter to ask whether he was “Person Healthcare executive arrested; he had it would appeal the state’s decision. Henry “Hank” Wilkins IV (D-Pine 9.” Raveendran said that he was heading worked for DHS as well. Robin Raveendran, 62, was charged Bluff) and Jon Woods (R-Springdale) in to a meeting and would call back. June 28 with two counts of felony Med- exchange for their support of legislative The following day, an attorney rep- Cranford, Hutchinson and Person 9 all icaid fraud in Independence County dis- action favorable to his lobbying clients resenting Raveendran, Jordan Tinsley, received a percentage of the membertrict court after an investigation by the and PFH, his employer. In April, Wilkins returned the call. “Mr. Raveendran has ship dues in exchange for their work state attorney general’s office. The affi- pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from no comment on any of the ongoing mat- for Entity I — income that came directly davit for his arrest alleges Raveendran Cranford; in May, Woods was convicted ters related to Mr. Cranford or Mr. [Jer- from these provider dues, according and others conspired to illegally charge on separate corruption charges, some emy] Hutchinson at this time,” Tinsley to the federal information. HutchinMedicaid for almost $2.3 million from connected to Cranford. The criminal stated. “I can neither confirm nor deny son was paid $8,125 by Entity I in early 2015 to 2017 by exploiting weaknesses in information attached to Cranford’s plea the identity of Person No. 9. The iden- 2015. Around the same time, Hutchinson the program. Raveendran was uniquely also implicates at least one sitting legis- tity of various people that had business began receiving payments as an attorney positioned to navigate Medicaid’s com- lator, Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson (R-Little relationships with Mr. Cranford have from PFH affiliates. plex billing rules: Before joining PFH in Rock), who matches the description of not been publicly revealed by prosecuOn March 4, 2015, Person 9 sent an March 2014, he worked for 28 years at an unnamed “Senator A.” Hutchinson tors, and the reason for that is that these email to Hutchinson and Cranford about DHS and served as chief administrator has denied wrongdoing. people are uncharged and their reputa- a statute regarding the legal definition of for the agency’s Program Integrity Unit The affidavit in Raveendran’s arrest tions are at stake and they’re deserving “independent contractor” and “employee” from 2004 to 2014. does not accuse him of bribing public of privacy.” Tinsley did not return calls in Arkansas, the information states. The Raveendran’s arrest was first officials. However, it says that the inves- following Raveendran’s arrest. email suggested a specific revision that reported in the Batesville Guard. tigation into his alleged Medicaid fraud would have been favorable to health care Raveendran is only the latest former scheme was itself initiated when the A PLAYER AT THE CAPITOL providers. “We need to file a shell bill to PFH executive to be entangled in a crim- state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit take care of this issue,” the email said. inal investigation. Three members of the was tipped by the FBI as part of “an erson 9 is not explicitly accused Hutchinson filed a shell bill in March nonprofit’s top leadership team — for- ongoing public corruption investigation.” of criminal wrongdoing in the 2015 titled “An Act to Amend the Law mer Chief Financial Officer Tom Goss, It notes that Raveendran was “one of Cranford information, but, Concerning the Definition of ‘Indepenformer Chief Operating Officer Bontiea Cranford’s closest associates” and that according to the government, dent Contractor.’ ” He later voted for a Goss and former Chief Executive Officer Raveendran was hired at PFH “on the he was involved in Cranford’s efforts separate bill that enacted the requested Marilyn Nolan — were fired in January recommendation of Cranford.” to seek policies that benefited PFH and change — “the same specific revision to after being implicated by federal prosRaveendran also appears to match other behavioral health providers. The Arkansas law as that forwarded to him ecutors in an alleged kickback scheme the description of an unnamed “Per- information says Person 9 received by Person 9 and Entity I,” according to involving Arkansas legislators. A fourth, son 9” who appears in the Cranford income directly from the dues charged the federal information. Chief Clinical Officer Keith Noble, was plea information. The information says to an advocacy organization for health The affidavit for Raveendran’s arrest placed on administrative leave June 13 Person 9 worked for PFH from March providers, along with Cranford and Sen. Friday also says he worked in concert after a reporter with the Arkansas Times 23, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2017. That matches, Hutchinson. This group is identified with Cranford at the state Capitol “to inquired as to his continued employ- within one day, Raveendran’s employ- only as “Entity I” in the information. keep the Medicaid vulnerabilities ment at PFH. ment with PFH: According to the affiThe government depicts examples he exploited in place.” Raveendran’s At the center of the FBI’s investiga- davit for his arrest warrant, he worked of how Person 9 worked with Cranford method of allegedly gaming the Medtion is yet another former PFH employee, at PFH from March 24, 2014, through and Hutchinson to influence policy in icaid system involved billing for certain Milton “Rusty” Cranford, who on June 7 Dec. 1, 2017. PFH confirmed that these ways that would benefit providers. Pro- so-called “dual-eligible” beneficiaries pleaded guilty to funneling hundreds of dates were accurate. viders paid dues of $5,000 and $10,000 who are covered by both Medicaid and thousands of dollars in bribes to ArkanThe information says Person 9 was per year for membership into Entity I. Medicare. Typically, the two govern-

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

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ment-run systems should split the cost of these claims in such a way that Medicare would pay the majority of the cost. However, Raveendran allegedly manipulated the billing such that dual-eligible beneficiaries were billed almost entirely to Medicaid and instructed PFH employees to do the same. This was advantageous to PFH both because Medicaid reimbursement rates were higher than Medicare’s and because its program rules were more lenient. “In 2014, an internal report revealed a significant vulnerability created by the rate and credential defenses within the Medicaid and Medicare programs,” the affidavit says. “Both Cranford and Raveendran fought proposed changes. This event occurred near the time when Raveendran initiated the billing fraud at PFH.” DHS must now find a way to avoid gaps in essential services in rural Arkansas where PFH operates. “In most locations, providers have been identified who can expand services into these areas, and it is DHS’s intent to work with those providers to transition existing beneficiaries. DHS anticipates that the transition of services and termination of current PFH contracts will be completed within a 30-60 day time period,” DHS said in a statement Friday. The agency said it may allow certain PFH sites to keep receiving Medicaid reimbursements “for a short-term limited duration.” A PFH spokesman said wrongdoing was limited to certain former employees. “The allegations against our former employees are egregious and not a reflection of PFH values,” spokesman Reginald McElhannon wrote Friday. “For some time, we have worked in a cooperative manner to assist in identifying and addressing areas of concern and will continue to do so, while we work through the appeal process.” PFH also does business under the names Health Resources of Arkansas and Dayspring Behavioral Health Services. It received about $36.2 million in Medicaid funds in 2017 in Arkansas. It also operates in five other states. This reporting is courtesy of the Arkansas Nonprofit News Network, an independent, nonpartisan project dedicated to producing journalism that matters to Arkansans. Find out more at arknews.org.

THE

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Inconsequential News Quiz:

Jesus Called Shotgun Edition

Play at home, while not stealing children and putting them in cages! 1) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released the results of the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which polled teens in grades 9-12 nationwide about risky behaviors and habits. Which of the following is NOT a category in which Arkansas students scored No. 1 spot among all states surveyed? A) Percentage who have been physically forced to have intercourse. B) Percentage who had been forced to participate in sexual activity in the past year, including kissing, fondling and intercourse. C) Percentage who have been bullied at school. D) Percentage who have been diagnosed with asthma. E) Percentage who had suffered a concussion while playing sports in the past year. F) Percentage who had seriously considered committing suicide in the past year. G) Percentage who had driven while drinking in the past month. H) Percentage who are considered obese. I) Percentage of sexually active teens who did not use a condom or any other form of birth control or disease prevention the last time they had sex. 2) Someone screwed with the controversial Ten Commandments monument on the state Capitol grounds during the “Keep Families Together” protest last weekend. What was it this time? A) Good Samaritan aliens concerned about wanton dumbassery potentially messing up our pending application to join The Galactic Federation of Planets swooped down in their flying saucer and hauled it away. B) Someone added an 11th commandment: “Thou Shalt Not Read Too Much Into Jason Rapert Erecting This Clearly Phallic Monument” in handwriting that looked suspiciously like Rapert’s. C) Someone covered the monument with a black cloth tarp on which had been printed “Jesus Said: Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbour as Thyself.” D) Someone painted photorealistic graffiti depicting Trump’s neckfat roll on it. 3) Traffic was halted for a while along Interstate 30 near Benton recently. What was the cause of the jam? A) A horde of fornicating teenagers tumbled onto the roadway while locking down the top spot in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey category of: “sexually active teens who did not use a condom or any other form of birth control or disease prevention the last time they had sex.” In your FACE, Alabama! B) Temperatures got so hot that the pavement briefly liquified, swallowing a Buick and two minivans. C) A wayward bull was trotting up and down the westbound lanes after having escaped a crashed trailer. D) A dump truck full of bribes and kickback money on its way to the Arkansas Legislature overturned. 4) Speaking of the interstate, a spokesman for the Arkansas State Police recently told a local TV station that troopers have pulled over more than 1,100 drivers in the past year for the same offense on Arkansas’s freeways. What were drivers doing that got the Smokeys salty? A) Driving with their nipples. B) Turning on the cruise control, then retiring to the backseat for a nice nap. C) Stubbornly refusing to let Jesus take the wheel. D) Impeding traffic by driving too slowly in the left hand lane, which the ASP said could potentially block emergency vehicles. Answers: I, C, C, D

LISTEN UP

arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL In exchange for anonymity, Arkansas college students talk about what it’s really like at their schools. Read on for the straight dirt on partying, managing stress, Greek life and the ubiquity of Tinder, as told to Tom Coulter. 19-YEAR-OLD MALE Hendrix College Freshman

y first year, I was immediately surrounded by people who loved to party. Because I came from a top 10 high school in the country, my expectations going in were I would crush it. Honestly, I was aiming for an Ivy League [school] but didn’t get it, so I thought I would be one of the top students. I worked really hard in high school, but at soon as I came here, my life just really revolved around drugs and alcohol. I was already really big on it in high school … then I go to college and kind of found the friends that smoked pot and drank a lot. It’s really easy to reach out and smoke with people. It’s kind of something I noticed definitely at the beginning of the year as a way to break barriers and make a lot of friends. Pretty much most of the people that I was around smoked pot, so that was a way we all came to know

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ARKANSAS TIMES

each other and build our friendships. That’s how I know a lot of my great friends. Procrastination is pretty big in college. You find so many people awake at 4 a.m., doing homework and recovering from smoking and stuff. I kinda messed up my freshman year, to be honest. I did a lot of drugs … that’s really how we handle anything. I think it’s something that most people do, and for people that haven’t, I’ve seen so many people try their first time. Something I noticed was that I played sports in high school, and I didn’t play sports while I smoked pot. After school every day in middle school and high school, I would go straight to practice, come home tired, eat, do homework and sleep, like all my friends did that played sports. Then we discovered this entire world of people who didn’t play sports and went home and instead hung out and smoked pot and all this stuff. The athletes discovered it, and so all these different cultures meshed and were brought together by smoking.

I can definitely say Hendrix has taken a lot of steps to raise awareness about sexual assault. Just by doing that, it’s helping us out. The scene at parties, since it’s a lot of people in tight spaces, a lot of the times it gets really intimate and people tend to overestimate their alcohol tolerance. I can’t say with certainty that there’s no sexual assault happening. I’ve definitely talked to girls who say they don’t feel safe … . For me, I’ve never found myself in a bad situation where I didn’t want to be there anymore. I would say dating is really just up to friend groups. I know a lot of guy groups that are way too scared to talk to girls and went their entire freshman year single with no attempt. There are other guys who meet up with people at parties, and a few of my friends have met their girlfriends at parties just hanging and dancing together. So that’s one way, but another way is through athletics. The volleyball girls always

talk to the football guys, and the soccer guys only talk to the soccer girls. Experiencing the amount of substances that I consumed and abused, which I never would think that I’d even consider doing before this past August … I feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself, but at the same time, I’m ashamed. I’m worried for this entire generation, because people who do substances as often as me are out there. There’s so many people that I know, so many groups in my generation doing drugs like this and deprioritizing academics. It’s just so common and available everywhere. I’m really curious and nervous as to what’s gonna happen when we’re all going forward. Hopefully maturity plays into it and throws me out of this freshman-in-college mindset. My GPA is definitely salvageable.

21-YEAR-OLD MALE

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Junior

really expected UALR to be a pretty dead campus. Not many people know about the opportunities that are here. I ended up going Greek, and that completely changed my life. I did it my first semester … now they’ve pushed the dates back, but for me, our bid day was like three weeks into school. You’re just kinda thrown right into recruitment and everything. I didn’t think I was going to. I never saw myself as a fraternity guy, and no one else really did either. A lot of people were surprised I got a bid at that point. One of my roommates was a member already, and he introduced me to a lot of the guys. I saw it as an opportunity to better myself and have something to do on a campus that didn’t seem to have a lot. The campus has a lot of individual communities, and I’d say Greek Life is one of the bigger ones. Everyone in Greek Life is pretty close together. Because we’re a smaller community, I think our school is 2 percent Greek, where you have other schools that are 60, 70 percent and all the chapter sizes are smaller. Most chapters are 20 people. You definitely have a closer connection with all the individuals, but with smaller numbers it makes events and finances a lot tougher. We can’t do some of these big-scale things that, even though we have members who are just as passionate or more than big schools, we can’t fulfill everyone’s dreams. The people I hang out with do a lot of studying, so it helps that the people I surround myself with are trying to achieve the same goals. I don’t get stressed out working harder than I have to, but there’s a lot of events that campus throws that are fun and a good away time from studying. Last year was the first year that Greek Life has had to follow all the rules for registering parties for a few years. There was a huge transition last year. Before then, you would have these huge 500-people parties, which for a big school isn’t huge but for UALR it is. You would have these parties with 40 gallons of punch there. Starting last year, we registered all of our parties, with the school’s police force at our parties helping with security. Now it’s a really fun, safe environment. I haven’t seen any sexual misconduct or heard of any reported cases

around my group of people. For our fraternities, we all have sober monitors, so per so many people, we have them watching parties and ensuring nothing happens. I haven’t known there to be a big use of anything more than marijuana on campus. There’s probably more, but the people I associate with … . I haven’t heard anything beyond that. I do see a lot of Adderall [a stimulant] deals in the library. There’s a lot of serious relationships on campus, and probably because there are such small circles. Once you date someone and y’all break up, there goes a fourth of the people you know that are just off the market because they’re close friends. It can become difficult to date on campus, just because everyone knows everyone. A lot of people use Tinder and Bumble as a joke … well, not really as a joke, but a “let’s mess around and see who’s on here” kind of thing. I definitely don’t think people use dating apps for trying to find their next husband or wife. When I was coming here, I was honestly dreading it. This was my last-choice school, and I just didn’t get the money from everywhere else. They gave me money here. I kinda went with it, and then I fell in love. I’m glad I went here. I wouldn’t have chosen anywhere else.

22-YEAR-OLD FEMALE Harding University Recent graduate

oing to a private school was a bit of a different experience. I went to a really big high school, so it was kind of a culture shock going from this massive high school that’s bigger than my college and coming to a small, private, Church of Christ school. I lived in a dorm my freshman and sophomore year, and the dorm life was fun. It was interesting, because Harding has these rules. Like, your freshman year in your dorm, you have curfew, which is midnight on weekdays and 1 a.m. on weekends. I wasn’t normally one in high school to stay out super late, so I didn’t think the curfew was a big deal when I heard about it. But it was kinda just the idea of it being enforced. I was never used to having to be home at a certain time, because I never came home late. Now knowing that I was in college and had to come home at a certain time, that was the most interesting part. Because your RAs come in every night and make sure you’re in your bed. Growing up in California, I wanted to go somewhere else and experience a different culture, and so I came in contact with my coach at Harding and went on a visit and fell in love with the campus. I thought it was beautiful, and I loved the people. I love Arkansas culture. I think people are super friendly, and that’s honestly what hit me like a ton

of bricks. Whenever I come home, I’ll hold doors open for people, and they don’t say thank you. No one’s nice. When I go to Arkansas, people are so friendly. That’s one of the reasons I really loved Harding. I got a full scholarship to Harding, and one of the other main reasons I picked it was because it was one of the few schools where I had the ability to graduate in three years and get an MBA from the same university while being able to still play. I cleared that with my coach right off the bat, so having a master’s degree paid for was very nice. Harding is kind of its own little bubble, and I think my perspective changed a lot on going back and forth from home to Harding. They call Harding the marriage factory, because … like two weekends ago I knew eight people getting married that I had gone to college with. It feels completely different from reality, and having to go back and forth between friends at state schools that party and do this and that, then I go back to Harding and have three wedding invitations on my fridge. Dating is different for an athlete than it is for a regular student. I’m not Church of Christ, so I didn’t come in with the idea of “I’m gonna leave Harding married.” It sounds extreme … but if you don’t leave Harding engaged, I know girls who are just distraught over it, just devastated. I distinctly remember having a conversation with one

arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

and I don’t even ing is just a college like anywhere else know if it’s from … and we want girls to feel like they the university or can come forward and say something. from peers, but That’s everywhere, too. Girls are afraid I’ve never seen to come forward because they’re afraid that anywhere of being judged and won’t be listened else. to. I think Harding did a good job of I’ve been on saying they’ll listen. Tinder once in I feel sometimes Harding from an my Harding expe- outside perspective can get a bit of a bad rience, and it is rap. Everybody has a different experihilarious. I’ve ence. I wouldn’t rate my Harding expematched with a rience as being extremely positive or few people who extremely negative, but I think being in are like, “You’re such a unique environment was incredin my Bible class, ible. There’s not a lot of places where don’t tell any- you can pray with your professor or one.” I feel like coach or confide … like I had a female Tinder has such professor I was really close to who one a bad connotation time I was just having a bad day, and with it. One of my she came and picked me up and took me good friends at for a ride in her convertible and rolled Harding actually the top down and was like, “Sometimes met her now-hus- people just need this.” I think you can’t band on Tinder, get that everywhere, that that’s kind of but they will not a Harding thing. tell anybody that’s how they met. So, yeah, people defi21-YEAR-OLD FEMALE nitely use it. HardUniversity of Arkansas ing students just at Fayetteville try to stay on the Junior down-low about it. There’s defi’m from a really small town, so nitely still a party I definitely wanted to get away scene; it’s just very from home like most college stuquiet, because if dents do. UA was far enough away you party, you get that my parents wouldn’t bug me so kicked out. You much, but also close enough so I could have any sexual still be close to them and go home when contact of any I wanted to. My first impression of the kind that they campus, I was very impressed. It was find out about, a really big campus, very clean, very you get kicked pretty. I kinda wanted to see what the out. Harding’s like big-city feel was. Well, it’s bigger than any other school, my little town of 700 people. So, defigirls are going to nitely a big change. Mostly I just wanted get assaulted. Any- to get away and see what was out there. body can. I think Academically, college was much it was bad for a harder than high school. I expected it while because to be harder, but I didn’t expect it to girls couldn’t be a punch in the face. Eventually I got come forward the hang of it. It was definitely a time of about it, because learning how to manage my time betthey were so ter and be more responsible. I lived in afraid of getting the Honors freshman dorm on campus. kicked out of The rooms were small, but it was one school. But about of the most recently renovated dorms. a year ago, they Very modern, had tons of study rooms, did change the handbook so if you’ve TV, community bathrooms, which I been assaulted, you can go and report it was hesitant of at first, but it was fine. to the university without fear of being It all turned out great … my dorm was kicked out. I commend the university a good place to meet people since we for that. We had a chapel specifically were all freshmen. talking about it. I don’t remember who I didn’t join Greek Life. Outside of led it, but he was just saying that Hard- Greek Life, the Honors College helped

of my suitemates after we graduated. She and her boyfriend had been together for about six months, and she’s like, “If he doesn’t propose soon, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.” And I was like, “Well, you’ve just been dating for six months.” And it’s just that pressure, 16

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me a lot since it helps to find other people to socialize with. A lot of people in the Honors College are also in Greek Life, so my friends are kind of a mixture of those in Greek Life and those involved in other things. All of us are under a lot of stress pretty consistently. In my opinion, we handle it well. I will take a night off from studying and just have a night to myself and watch Netflix or read a book or something I want to do for myself. That helps me deal with my stress. Oddly enough, I work well under pressure and under stress, so my academics don’t suffer very much from that, only my mental state. I would say there’s a good support system on campus. We have counseling and psychological services for anyone who needs someone to talk to. I think most students on campus just talk to their friends. We’re all in the same boat, so we kind of understand each other and understand what we’re stressing about. I think just talking to different friend groups is how most of my friends and I deal with our stress. Out-of-state tuition was definitely a consideration when I chose Fayetteville. I knew it would be cheaper, and I didn’t want the financial burden. Luckily, I have scholarships that pay for pretty much all of my college, so my situation isn’t as stressful as others’ may be. I did have one friend freshman year who had to transfer to a different college because he was running out of money to stay at Fayetteville. Really, that’s the only time I’ve seen money be a barrier. Of course, we’re all poor college students trying to save every dollar we can. Everyone has a job they’re working to help with finances. There’s a pretty good mixture of serious relationships and hook-ups. Tinder is wildly popular. … I actually don’t have it, because I recently just got out of a long-term relationship. A lot of my friends use it and think it’s hilarious. I’ve also seen people my age get engaged, which surprised me, honestly. Makes me feel old! But there’s a good mixture of both. Going to Fayetteville has definitely made me more liberal politically. I wouldn’t say I was a conservative before, but I was more conservative than I am now. It was mainly because my friends … . My time at Fayetteville has been great. It’s been some of the best years of my life and given me a lot of growth.

22-YEAR-OLD FEMALE University of Central Arkansas Recent graduate

y first semester I actually went to U of A. I’m from a small town and I ended up going there mostly just because I wanted that bigschool feel. It ended up not being really what I wanted. I felt kind of lost. I had a couple of friends who went to UCA, and UCA was my second option anyway, so I went to tour it and ended up really liking the feel of it. I transferred second semester, and I guess as a freshman you’re still trying to figure out where you fit in, kinda like starting high school all over again. But, yeah, it’s tough to figure out friend groups, organizations I wanted to get involved with. I didn’t have to deal with a whole lot my freshman year. I hung out with those two friends from high school every now and then, and mostly just focused on school. I ended up going home probably more than I should have, I guess, but it wasn’t bad, and I felt a lot more comfortable at UCA, just kinda that homey feel. But trying to figure out the campus, especially as a new student transfer, I just kinda felt like, “Dang it, everybody already knows each other,” even though no one really does, you know? One of my friends from high school was in a sorority, so she had met people through that and would introduce me every now and then, like, “Hey, you guys would probably get along.” I would also try to branch out in classes, which I always found kinda hard for some reason. Being in a sorority was probably a big thing, too. I ended up rushing my sophomore year, and so that was like you’re around so many people all at the same time and they all want to be friends super fast. That’s how I met a lot of my really close friends. Greek Life is a lot different from Fayetteville or a big school like that. I think if I’d stayed in Fayetteville or another school like that, I don’t think I would have rushed. It’s kinda hard to explain. It’s … I guess more welcoming is a good word. Of course, everyone at first wants that certain [sorority] because of maybe something you hear. There’s always gonna be those stereotypes, but then once you’re in it, it’s like you’ve made your friends and it doesn’t really matter which one you’re in. And even if you’re not in it, I think the big thing is that it doesn’t really control

the campus. You may not be in it, but you don’t feel excluded as much as at other schools. I was in other organizations, and I felt like I didn’t even have to mention being in Greek Life at all to anyone in my classes to feel like I had to fit in. Late junior year [of high school], all I thought was I wanted to go out of state for sure. But then, I was just, like, realistically for undergrad I might as well be smart about it and go to an instate school. And I definitely looked at scholarships and things like that, grants so that I wouldn’t have any loans. Just being more realistic about it and my situation, but now I just graduated, and I can go out of state. I’m debt-free, and so now for grad school, if I do have to get loaned out at least it’ll be the first time. I can see race being something that maybe divides us into groups. The Panhellenic and fraternity associations are mostly white. We just got a Latino sorority and fraternity on campus, so we’ve been trying to provide more options. It’s very diverse, but I can still see there being division. Freshman year and sophomore year, frat parties are kinda the big thing everyone does. Then once you get a bit older and figure out your friend group, you don’t have to go to big parties. It’s more house parties, things like that, or there’s this bar right off campus and everyone goes to that. It’s kind of a cool thing, because Conway isn’t that big and there are not a whole lot of options, so everyone is forced to go to this bar. It’s cool because you see everyone, and everybody is always like, “Hey, glad you’re 21 now and can get in.” I’ve always felt pretty safe. It’s always a little bit unsafe. It’s unfortunate, I think, you get into college and might not know your exact limit of drinking. You’re new to the campus and may not have the closest friends yet or know anyone at these houses yet. It’s just a bad situation to be in. It’s sucks you have to feel like that, too. As I got older, it was nicer because I knew a lot of the people at these houses, but it was never my favorite thing. I’ve noticed a lot of freshmen come in with high school boyfriends or girlfriends, and then it doesn’t really work out for the most part. I made friends with some freshman girls this past year, and they would either go home all the time or not want to go out at all. I was like, “You’re missing out on a lot of things.” With dating in general, there’s a lot of dating in the organi-

zations that you’re in because you’re around the people the most. Honestly, just meeting people at parties [is how people start dating], which is kinda interesting, because you’re probably all drinking. It’s just funny you’re gonna meet people like that. I haven’t noticed many people meeting who start dating in class. People just go in, get their notes, and leave, and that’s it.

I don’t know if I could start a real job right now. I have several friends who are teachers now and starting their jobs in the fall. Props to them, that’s awesome. I need to learn how to adult a lot better. I feel like grad school is gonna be a lot harder in a good way, so I’m excited for that and being really on my own and figuring things out by myself.

arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

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Arts Entertainment AND

A FOLK TALE, ELEVATED Nate Powell’s ‘Come Again’ is startling. BY SAM EIFLING

he name Nate Powell ought to be familiar to any Arkansan who appreciates the stroke of a brush across a page. For his illustrations on the “March” trilogy of graphic novels about Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia) and the U.S. civil rights movement, the Little Rock native won a slew of awards, including an Eisner (think: Oscar for comics) and a National Book Award, the first bestowed on a cartoonist. Living in Indiana now, Powell reps his home state in his Twitter bio (“Early riser, Arkansan, dad, aging punk”) and has the Ozarks on his mind in his forthcoming graphic novel “Come Again,” due out in July from Top Shelf. The local boy made good has made another good one, it turns out. “Folks already think of the South like it’s another country,” the opening pages explain. “But even to Arkansans, the Ozarks are remote.” It’s the ’70s, in a place “where the telephone lines stop,” set in areas not so unfamiliar to Arkansans (the nuclear cooling tower outside Russellville makes a cameo). Up past Hallelujah Springs (which bears a striking resemblance to Eureka) you’ll find a fictional community called Haven Station, home to a handful of families and announced by a butterfly-shaped welcome sign to anyone making the walk up the grassy hill. By my count the word “hippie” appears just once in the book, as someone mutters it derisively in a town square, but they’re what Powell’s evoking here: back-tothe-landers growing their own beans and selling dreamcatchers (and little WHERE THE TELEPHONE LINES STOP: That’s where “Come Again” takes place, the new book bags of weed) at the farmers market from self-proclaimed ‘early riser, Arkansan, dad, aging punk’ Nate Powell. to make ends meet. But a free-love oasis this isn’t. We see the world through the eyes of to “go downhill,” to live closer to town. and Adrian, parents of Shane. The boys Hal, the caring mother of Jake and ex of The couple goes back at least to ’71 with are about 6; from the look of flashbacks Gus, an affable dad who by 1979 has left another Haven Station couple, Whitney to ’71, before the kids arrived, every20

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

one was already paired off — yet Hal and Adrian were stealing glances and small touches. They discover in the woods a Hobbit-sized door, obscured from others, that leads to a curious cavern where they consummate their affections. Powell uses their trysts to build a genuine tension in Hal’s life. She feels the guilt of her friendship with Whitney, yet she relishes the sex and the attention and the nourishment of something approaching a private life in a tiny village where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Then a narrative twist tugs the story into a realm that blends dreams and folklore in a way that feels distinctly Southern, if not a touch Appalachian. The very secret between Hal and Adrian carries a sort of magical charge that attracts a strange other presence best left underexplained here. In this telling, Powell succeeds in elevating the elements of a folk tale (and a tale about folks) into a haunting piece of literature. In “Come Again” he displays a cinematographer’s deft touch in framing, and leverages color to move us through time and other, more subtle changes. The overall effect is somewhere between a Stanley Kubrick movie and a John Denver album, and even that is only going to get you into the ballpark, because Powell’s sense of pacing and knack for gentle misdirection — over 272 pages, he has time and the patience to bake in some real foreboding — sets up a mood and a payoff unique to the medium. Powell’s talent, or one of them anyway, is building in such tactile sensations as a breeze swirling, or an amp blaring, or the feeling of a lover’s mud-covered fingers squishing between your own. It’s moving, it’s startling and it’s very much of its time and place. Get your copy in August. Share it with your neighbors.

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

Find great events and buy tickets at CentralArkansasTickets.com

A&E NEWS IN ACCORDANCE WITH HB 2179, sponsored by Rep. Chris Richey (D) and passed in 2017, the Arkansas Department of Transportation will unveil a sign on state Highway 49 dedicating a stretch of road from Brinkley to Marvel as the Louis Jordan Memorial Highway. The ceremony will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, July 9, on Hwy. 49 just past its intersection with U.S. Hwy. 238. Jordan, a Brinkley native whose work as a saxophonist, singer and bandleader with pre-R&B/rock-style combo The Tympany Five charted in the top 10 over 50 times between 1942 and 1951, is credited with steering the Big Band-era sound of the 1940s ever closer to rock ’n’ roll. Stephen Koch, author of “Louis Jordan: Son of Arkansas, Father of R&B,” will be in attendance, and has dedicated the July episodes of his weekly KUAR-FM, 89.1, radio program “Arkansongs” to Jordan’s legacy. For more, visit ualrpublicradio.org/programs/arkansongs or arkansongs.org. LOW KEY ARTS has announced part of the lineup for the Hot Water Hills Music & Arts Festival, the organization’s annual family-friendly celebration, set for Oct. 5-6 at Hill Wheatley Plaza in downtown Hot Springs. Acts include Nashville-based blues sibling duo Larkin Poe; J.D. Wilkes, frontman for the Legendary Shack Shakers; South Louisiana rockers Bas Clas; Israeli pop rockers Lola Marsh; Amsterdam psych pop outfit Blue Crime; and Kraut Beat purveyors Sea Moya. Tickets, $20, are available at hotwaterhills.com. OPERA IN THE ROCK has named Louis Menendez its new artistic and musical director for the 2018-19 season. Menendez is music director of the graduate opera program at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and a senior vocal coach at Opera in the Ozarks in Eureka Springs. He has also served on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Academy of Vocal Arts and has lent his talents to over 150 opera productions. Menendez replaces former OITR Artistic Director Arlene Biebesheimer. For more, visit oitr.org/about. POWER 92 JAMS’ Hot Summer Jam Block Party came to an abrupt end Saturday night when fans left Riverfront Park before seeing a scheduled performance from headliner Keyshia Cole. City Manager Bruce Moore said Monday that both the city noise ordinance and the contractual agreement with the concert promoter required an 11 p.m. end to the outdoor performances. See the Arkansas Blog at arktimes.com for more.

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arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND STEPHEN KOCH

FRIDAY 7/6

SANDWICHING IN HISTORY TOUR Noon. Woodruff House, 1017 E. Eighth St. Free.

William Woodruff is not just the originator of the Arkansas Gazette (whose demise begat this newspaper’s weekly format), but also the publisher of the first newspaper west of the Mississippi River. OK, they’re one in the same, but still, this guy Woodruff helped tame the wilds of this state when it was still merely a territory. He’s also the namesake of Woodruff County — that’s how respected the press once was. Woodruff’s home

on Eighth Street here in the Rock is a pretty awesome structure, though perhaps slightly less so than the man’s stature as an Arkansawyer. How amazing is it that this man’s house still stands in the city? Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, this house is in the historic Hangar Hill neighbood — an area, that like Woodruff himself, is ripe for a renewed appreciation. SK

FRIDAY 7/6

HEATH SANDERS 8 p.m. Kings Live Music, Conway. $10.

Here’s a wild one: Southwestern performs in front of a panel of Music Energy field operator Heath Sanders City gatekeepers, and decides to put — a songwriter by night — posted a oilfield work on hold for a while to try video of himself singing Chris Staple- out this country music thing. Expect ton’s “Either Way” earlier this year. to hear the original tune that elicited a The internet goes apeshit for it, fellow “You need to do this for a living” from Arkansas native and nationally syndi- Sugarland’s Kristian Baker — “Bloodcated radio host Bobby Bones invites line” — and likely a few of the covers Sanders up to Nashville to perform that got Sanders his big break. SS on “The Bobby Bones Show,” Sanders

SATURDAY 7/7

‘SUMMER SOLSTICE 7: MARVIN EVER AFTER’ 9 p.m. South on Main.

Anybody privy to Joshua Asante wasn’t ready for, with prescient resisand The Funkanites’ ode to Otis Red- tance against war and police brutality ding for a Winter Soulstice knows inspired by the time Marvin’s own its summer counterpart is a sure bet. brother, Frankie, spent in Vietnam. And, anybody privy to Marvin Gaye’s Whether that 1971 track — or other storied soul catalogue knows that re- radio staples like “I Heard It Through ducing it to a punchline by way of the the Grapevine” and “Sexual Healing” first four notes of “Let’s Get It On” is — make the cut for this show, bet that a crime and a crying shame. Gaye had Asante and the Velvet Kente Arkestra a ridiculously octave-spanning range (Jamaal Lee, Norman Williamson, that bordered on operatic, and he Ryan Hitt, Judson Spillyards, Ryan knew how to use it. Before Pulitzer D. Davis, Dazzmin Murray) are Prize winner Kendrick Lamar, there fully equipped to bring Gaye’s passion was Marvin, with a soul concept al- and intensity to the forefront of their bum “What’s Goin On?” that Motown sound, capped off with DJ sets from (and most of the rest of the world) Baldego and Asante. SS 22

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

FRESH LIES: Multi-instrumentalist Mobley takes the first episode of a new “song cycle” to Maxine’s Friday night, with an opening set from Dazz & Brie.

FRIDAY 7/6

MOBLEY, DAZZ & BRIE 9 p.m. Maxine’s, Hot Springs.

Consider Mobley’s 2018 release “Fresh Lies, Vol. I” unfinished business. “Themes of nationhood and identity and alienation are ones that I’ll need decades to explore personally, let alone artistically,” the Austin-based one-man band said on a January blog post accompanying the release. “I’m hardly equipped to make an album-sized statement about them right now. I want a place to work with those ideas, but I also want the freedom to put them down, imperfect and incomplete, to go chase other concepts.” That said, Mobley’s single “Young Adult Fiction” reads as anything but unpolished. In the song’s “Read-Along Video,” Mobley strolls into what looks like a set from a 1965 talk show, complete with a potted palm and a wooden stereo cabinet; the only apparent anachronism is the stack of books by Audre Lorde and Dorothy Roberts, and the “[R.I.P. Fred Rogers]” note that appears with the lyrical captions in an interlude between verses. “Young Adult Fiction” is a pop anthem and a single continuous crescendo, its plaintive tone countered by a hefty bass bounce with Mobley’s enormous and supple voice at the core. And, on a week in which we’re to celebrate the ennobled ideas our forefathers espoused when this whole America project kicked off, I can’t think of any better inspiration/required reading for that jubilee than Mobley’s recent work, which he describes as “love songs that use romantic interplay as a metaphor to explore my relationship, as a black man especially, with my country.” He returns to Maxine’s with Little Rock’s own “rock and soul” girl gang, Dazz & Brie. SS

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 7/5 Comedian Mike Paramore turns pet peeves into the stuff of monologues at The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., $8-$12. Torch singer Sylvia Stems joins the Foul Play Cabaret burlesque troupe at The Joint Theater & Coffeehouse, 8 p.m., $10. Levelle Davison croons at the White Water Tavern, 8:30 p.m. Saxophonist, flautist and jazz instructor Barry McVinney sits in with the Clyde Pound Trio at the Ohio Club in Hot Springs, 7 p.m., free. Stephan James and Big Swoll host Indie Music Night at the Rev Room with sets from DJ Don D, OneWay Tray, Bobby Racksmith, Spaid GotIt, 4NO, Phatte 400 and others, 9 p.m., $10-$12. Raven’s Nest performs at Maxine’s in Hot Springs, 9 p.m. Dauber Hill gets a post-holiday show going at JJ’s Grill in Little Rock, 6 p.m. Stone’s Throw Brewing’s spot at PopUp Stifft Station hosts an Adult Spelling Bee, 7 p.m.

FRIDAY 7/6

KALENDA: The Lost Bayou Ramblers channel South Louisiana in a concert at the White Water Tavern Friday night.

FRIDAY 7/6

LOST BAYOU RAMBLERS 9:30 p.m. White Water Tavern. $15.

With all due respect to the likes of Antoine’s cordion, swampy Acadiana. Grammy win notwithand Cafe du Monde, mainstream Mardi Gras cer- standing, the group had planned to take a hiatus tainly wasn’t in the cards for Anthony Bourdain this year, making this White Water Tavern engagewhen the TV star went to capture Cajun Louisi- ment likely to be one of the group’s last romps in ana culture for his travel show “Parts Unknown.” Central Arkansas for a while, in a perfect setting to In a posthumously released episode, Bourdain is recapture some of the magic from Bourdain’s/Lost dropped into a madhouse scene of flying chick- Bayou Ramblers’ party that day in Grand Coteau. ens, rural residents in full costume who have been “The mud that was flying from the boots sloshing blitzed on wine for the better part of a week, “the on the dance floor, which had turned into swamp thundering hooves of many horses, the sound of from the heavy Mardi Gras rains,” the group said a thousand beer cans popping open. And music. on its Facebook page, “can still be found in the Always music.” That music came from the Lost cracks of our instruments, and on the speakers of Bayou Ramblers, a 19-year-old outfit that makes our amps. This is a memory that will last; mud and it their business to channel and reinvent the deep music, food and friends.” Get there. SS South Louisiana sound — Cajun French, rowdy ac-

SATURDAY 7/7

JOURNEY, DEF LEPPARD

7 p.m. Verizon Arena. $50-$180.

Perhaps at one time in America, Journey and Def Leppard fans would not have been able to find common ground. The Lep started out metalleaning, you see, while Journey trended pop. We’ll discuss the folly of such

distinctions after enjoying these dual prolific hit machines of the decades of the last century, when stereos and institutions were solid state. Precious few are the souls reading these words whose lives haven’t been touched by one of these bands, probably both. In fact, the challenge might be to find someone who hasn’t heard a single song by Journey or Def Leppard, no

matter how young or old. Both Journey (est. 1973) and Def Leppard (est. 1977) have managed to mine gold through the years — decades, even — and both have had their sounds evolve with the times. See inspiring legends in action and view a future unencumbered by minor genre distinctions that are so Century 20. SK

Jamie Lou & The Hullabaloo charm the crowd at Kings Live Music in Conway, with an opening set from Xander James, 8:30 p.m., $5. DJ Nick Hud spins tunes for Rooftop Grown & Sexy, 9 p.m., Agasi 7 Rooftop Bar, 322 Rock St., $20. CosmOcean takes its funk-forward set to Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m., $7. The North Little Rock Community Concert Band caps off its “Concerts in the Park” series with “Just for Fun,” a program of works by Leroy Anderson, Karl King and others, 7 p.m., Lakewood Village Shopping Center canopy, free. Tragikly White kicks off a set at West End Smokehouse at 10 p.m., $7. Randall Shreve and The Devilles bring rock with a Vaudeville-gothic aesthetic to the Rev Room, with Couch Jackets, 9 p.m., $8-$10. Still Married and Friends jam at Hibernia Irish Tavern, 7:30 p.m. Dirty Red and the Soulshakers bring a raucous blues harp blend to Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 7 p.m., $5. Fire and Brimstone kick off a post-holiday weekend at Cajun’s, 5:30 p.m., free, followed by a late-night set from Riverbilly, 9 p.m., $5. Brian Ramsey & Carey Griffith share a bill at Markham Street Grill and Pub, 8:30 p.m., free. Smoke & Barrel Tavern in Fayetteville hosts a show from The Red Clay Strays, 10 p.m., free. Elsewhere in Fayetteville, heavy rockers Helmet play a show at George’s Majestic Lounge, 9:30 p.m., $15-$17.

SATURDAY 7/7 String band Sad Daddy holds jamboree court at White Water, 9 p.m., $10. The Dead Deads return with their bombastic rock show, for the “dead corps” and the uninitiated alike, 9 p.m., Stickyz, $8-$10. Dirtfoot gets CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

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arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND STEPHEN KOCH

COSMIC QUEENS: Denton, Texas, rockers Pearl Earl land at Maxine’s on Saturday night.

SATURDAY 7/7

PEARL EARL

9 p.m. Maxine’s, Hot Springs.

The city of Denton, Texas, has acted as a low-key hip northern cousin to Austin for a while now, and it’d be a mistake to assume

the scene there is homogenously country. Exhibit A: the kinky, spacey pop riffs of Pearl Earl. They’re the B-52s of the DFW metro area, with silver jumpsuits and songs about exorcisms and Ouija board fonts and the postelection Bizarro World we currently occupy,

as on “Meet Your Maker”: “Why do they keep shooting to kill and rainbow love is seen as mentally ill?/Well I wanna meet your maker/I wanna meet your maker and ask him/How could they even vote for a man who paid a million for his tan?” SS

SUNDAY 7/8

TUESDAY 7/10

‘FIELD NOTES FROM MOTHER EARTH’

‘HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL’

7 p.m. 21c Museum Hotel, Bentonville. $5 suggested donation.

6 p.m. CALS Ron Robinson Theater. $2.

Playwright Ashley Edwards is anthropologists, but their conversathe theater department coordinator tion about the field notes they’ve colat Northwest Arkansas Community lected as part of their work reveals College and co-founder/playwright- another anthropological phenomin-residence of the LatinX Theatre enon — the way women all over the Project, a coalition launched in 2016 world pass ideas and artifacts down to represent the voices of young peo- to one another across generations. ple in Northwest Arkansas’s Latin “I’ve known Ashley as a playwright for American and minority communities. over 10 years now,” ArkansasStaged ArkansasStaged’s reading of “Field Director Jenny Guy said in a press reNotes from Mother Earth,” Edwards’ lease. “I’ve always adored the way she latest and a “work in progress,” is a writes women, and ‘Field Notes’ is a two-woman show. It also unfolds as a perfect example. This play is a beausort of meta-anthropological exercise: tiful exploration of female friendship, Not only are the mentor and protegee with its ebbs and flows and natural at the center of the story both cultural evolution over time.” SS

Just forget that whole 1999 mess of a “House on Haunted Hill” remake ever happened. Even Geoffrey Rush couldn’t save it with what was essentially a lukewarm portrayal of the same “Casanova Frankenstein” villain he embodied that same year in the unjustly maligned “Mystery Men.” Instead, go dig this, William Castle’s 1959 “House on Haunted Hill,” screened as part of the Central Arkansas Library System’s “Terror Tuesday” series. (And kudos to CALS for doing this; roast turkey and dressing is too delicious to be relegated to November and spooky movies on the big screen

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

are too delicious to be trotted out solely on Halloween.) With exterior shots of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House and a quintessentially creepy performance by spookmaster Vincent Price as a weirdo millionaire, the film is thought to have inspired Alfred Hitchcock to create his own lowbudget-y horror flick “Psycho” — no doubt because of a stunt Castle pulled in some theaters during the initial release, in which a prop skeleton was wheeled over the crowd at a specific moment in the film via a system of pulleys. (Does the Ron Robinson Theater have ceiling-mounted beams?) SS

IN BRIEF, CONT.

WEDNESDAY 7/11

JENNY LEWIS 8:30 p.m. George’s Majestic Lounge, Fayetteville. $25-$30.

The fact that Jenny Lewis isn’t considered America’s sweetheart represents everything that’s wrong with this country. Lewis rose up through the ranks of child stardom through the Britney era, but kept it more real musically and otherwise. Lyrically, Lewis focuses often and deftly on the consequences of bad decisions, as well as the freedom to make them. George’s hosted a show from the Rilo Kiley frontwoman nearly a decade ago and, like Lewis herself, represents a combination of beauty and unblinking brilliance. We’re glad to report these institutions are still here, doing what they need to be doing – supplying their unique comfort to the Arkansas masses. Lewis is joined by The Cactus Blossoms, an Everly Brothersesque duo with ethereal sibling harmonies. SK

rowdy at Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m., $8. Boom Kinetic takes its anthemic, falsetto-laden rock riffs to the Rev Room, 9:30 p.m., $10. Christian hip-hop singer TobyMac performs at Timberwood Amphitheater at Magic Springs Theme & Water Park, see magicsprings.com for details. It’s A Man’s World teams up with The On Call Band for a bill at Gigi’s Soul Cafe & Lounge, Maumelle, 9 p.m., $15-$20. Songster, musicologist and Carolina Chocolate Drops co-founder Dom Flemons entertains for Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s annual Lightning Bug Hunt in Bentonville, 7 p.m., $10. Alan Lowe’s “The Trial of David Owen Dodd” screens at CALS Ron Robinson Theater, 5 p.m. Ben Byers plays for the happy hour crowd at Cajun’s, 5:30 p.m., free, and later, catch Big Shane Thornton in action, 9 p.m., $5. The Whole Famn Damily takes the stage at Kings Live Music, with Awkward Peach, 8:30 p.m., $5.

SUNDAY 7/8 Jared Leto’s rock outfit Thirty Seconds to Mars takes the stage at the Walmart AMP in Rogers, with Walk the Moon, K. Flay and Welshly Arms, 6 p.m., $15-$105. LP enthusiasts: Stone’s Throw Brewing and Arkansas Record & CD Exchange host a Vinyl Brunch with eats from Aphrosense, 11 a.m.

MONDAY 7/9

AUTUMN DE WILDE

The American Taekwondo Association World Expo kicks off at the Statehouse Convention Center, see ataworldexpo.com for details and registration. Tomes + Tea Book Club discusses Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ “Women Who Run with the Wolves,” 6:30 p.m., Arkansas Yoga Collective.

UPCOMING EVENTS JUL

The Weekend Theater Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

JUL

Damgoode Pies UCP Trivia Night

5-8

10 12

Mosaic State Templars Building Preservation Conversations: Mosaic State Temple Building

JUL 12-15 19-22 26-29

The Studio Theatre The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

JUL

The Root Cafe QQA Summer Suppers: Urban Dining in SoMa

JUL

15 JUL

TUESDAY 7/10 The Diamond Empire Band brings “Moves Like Jagger” and other highenergy covers to Stickyz for a weeknight dance party, with an opening set from Brae Leni & The Evergreen Groove Machine, 8 p.m., free. Pianist Tim Anthony unleashes his tunes in the McMath Library as part of the Central Arkansas Library System’s “Sounds in the Stacks” series (2100 John Barrow Road), 6:30 p.m., free.

WEDNESDAY 7/11

THE VOYAGER: Jenny Lewis shares a bill with The Cactus Blossoms at George’s in Fayetteville on Wednesday night.

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” screens at First Security Amphitheater in Riverfront Park as part of the Movies in the Park series, sunset (8:24 p.m.), free. GGOOLLDD takes infectious riffs and extravagant costumes to the stage at Stickyz, 8 p.m., $12. The Springfield Cardinals take on the Arkansas Travelers at Dickey-Stephens Park, 7:10 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 6:10 Sat., $7-$13.

Argenta Community Theater Big River: A Night at Argenta Community Theatre for Wolfe Street

JUL

Albert Pike Masonic Center Best Of Arkansas 2018: Hollywood Nights

AUG

Four Quarter Bar The Reverend Horton Heat

26 6

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arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

Dining WHAT’S COOKIN’

A GROUP IN Hot Springs Village is working toward opening the Dolce Vita Italian Ristorante at 111 Ponderosa Lane. Owner/manager Christina Minden said the opening would be announced after all the licenses and permits are in hand, which she expects to be this week. The restaurant will serve both Northern and Southern Italian cuisine and other European dishes — perhaps schnitzel, Minden said. Minden’s husband, Bruno Beqiri, is chef. The restaurant’s Facebook page lists hours as 5-9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 5-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.

A FRANCHISE OF Freshii, a Canadian chain restaurant with a mantra (“Let’s eat without regret. Let’s love kale. Let’s embrace quinoa.” etc.), is coming July 17 to 1335 S. Main St. in Bentonville. Paul Hardin of Springdale, a partner in the restaurant, announced the opening date and said there would be a BOGO (buy one, get one) offer that day. Freshii serves up a health-conscious menu of “superfoods” — the aforementioned vegetables and others — vegetarian burritos, soups, noodle bowls and dishes with brown rice. Frozen yogurt, too. The restaurant will be open daily: 6 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. WHOLE HOG HAS closed its Highway 10 satellite, which was at the apparently snake-bit location of 14524 Cantrell Road, where The Main Cheese, Sai Gon and Gina’s Sushi also failed to bring in business. The Highway 10 site had no smokers; the barbecue was transported there from midtown. Whole Hog restaurants at 12111 W. Markham St., 2516 Cantrell Road, and on state Hwy. 5 in Bryant, all of which share owners, remain open. There are also Whole Hog franchises in North Little Rock, Conway and Bentonville. IRA’S RESTAURANT IN the historic Rose Building at 311 Main St. will open for dinner Monday, July 9, owner Ira Mittelman has posted on Facebook. Ira’s will serve lunch in a couple of weeks. The bar will open at 4 p.m. and dinner service starts at 5 p.m. Reserve at 902-4911. 26

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

PERSONAL PAN LASAGNA: Delightful, and available with or without meat.

Pizza problems

What should have been a runny, smokey blob of Italian buffalo milk cheese atop a salad of kale and pistachios with bread But Sauced shows promise. was in fact a stark white blob of sickly sweet cheese (that definitely was not t can be said with a fair amount of of its parts. burrata) over a quickly blended mash certainty that within the next few This is a review based on two visits, of kale and pistachios, no bread in sight. years, the pizza parlor-to-person roughly two weeks apart. Our reason for The meatball “in purgatory” arrived ratio of Little Rock will eventually going twice was twofold: No restaurant in its own small skillet, and while the reach 1:1. While that might sound like deserves to be judged based on a single ball itself was rather flavorless, the Little Rock has become an earthly para- night’s service, especially if that single surrounding marinara was delicious dise, the reality is that it makes opening night is during its first week, and sec- and one of the best things to grace the a new pizzeria hard. Little Rock diners ondly, on the first night we visited, the table at all of our visits. The gnocchi and have come to expect a lot from pizza, kitchen ran out of pizza before we could cheese, advertised as “mac & cheese, all and any foray into the food group has put in an order. grown up,” arrived to the table covered high standards to live up to. On our first visit, we found a restau- in bacon (for only $2 more!) and sat When Sauced Bar and Oven, styl- rant being put through its paces: Servers largely uneaten for the rest of the night. ized as Sauce(d), was first announced, looking hurried but happy, excited to In a meal that was full of incredible lows it seemed like everything was in place finally be able to do their job for the first and, eventually, incredible highs it was for a sure success: a rockstar team in the time. After learning that the kitchen had not memorable aside from its resemkitchen and behind the bar, including already run out of pizza (and chicken), blance to powdered cheese sauce. The Gwen Jones (Rebel Kettle), Amanda Ivy we decided to stay and take our chances final appetizer, though here they’re (a veteran of Yellow Rocket Concepts) with the non-pizza and non-chicken called “tapas” on the menu because and Georges Launet (Raduno); a spot options the menu afforded us. tapas makes it sound like you’re supin the epicenter of West Little Rock’s We opted for a round of appetizers: posed to order more of them, was the dining scene; and a proven concept in a the pecan-smoked burrata ($9), the Italian wedding soup. It was salty to the high-end pizza kitchen. All of this then meatball in purgatory ($9), gnocchi and point of inedibility. begs the question of why the restaurant cheese ($9) and a bowl of Italian wedAt this point in the meal, we had two seems to somehow be less than the sum ding soup ($8). The burrata arrived first. options: order an entree or cut our losses

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and leave. Being the gluttons for punishment that we are, we opted for entrees. We ordered the Pinnacle Pastrami ($15) and the lasagna al forno ($9) with a side of pasta salad ($3). The pasta salad arrived first and, though it was tasteless, the pasta was perfectly cooked. The lasagna, however, was delightful. Perfectly portioned, it came in its own skillet, and though it can be make with meat, we ordered it vegetarian, hoping to savor the flavors of what the menu billed as “local vegetables.” It was a dish that went a long way to erasing the memory of the misfires that came before it. Our second entree, the open-faced pastrami sandwich, was the highlight of this night as well as our second visit. It came piled high with french fries and slaw, and the pastrami had been dusted with what we all agreed must have been cinnamon. As unconventional as it was, we’d happily list it as a contender for the best sandwich in Little Rock. We left unhappy but unsure if the cause of our unhappiness was a rough night in the kitchen or a restaurant with serious problems. Before sitting down to write this review, we decided it would benefit everyone to visit Sauced for a second time. Twice we called ahead to make sure there would be pizza and on both nights we were told that the kitchen had already run out. We tried one final time (early on a Wednesday) and were finally able to snag a few pies of our own. We ordered two pizzas along with the smoked burrata tapas, hoping that our first visit’s rendition was a fluke. When we asked our server for a wine list, we were directed to the large screen televisions that were hung throughout the restaurant. They featured a revolving slideshow of drinks, which had been fine on our first visit.

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Unfortunately, this time we were seated near the open kitchen and the only way to view a screen was to look through a mesh scrim that separated different areas of the dining room and wait the few minutes for each page of the drinks list to flash on the screen again. Our server was able to bring a list of beers on tap, though it was one of only a few printed lists in the building. Throughout the night, servers would visit our table to see the list to refresh their memories. Our smoked burrata arrived and we instantly knew that something was different. We’d finally gotten what we’d ordered: The cheese, though we still question whether it was authentic burrata, had not been smoked on our first visit. Now, with the presence of pecan smoke the odd sweetness of the cheese was more muted and the flavors of the kale and pistachios enhanced the whole. The two pizzas we ordered arrived one after the other. The chorizo ($14) featured its signature spicy sausage along with mozzarella and goat cheese, mushrooms and a smattering of herbs. The Rosa Dama ($15), our server’s recommendation, featured prosciutto, sausage, mushrooms and a fried egg. Both pizzas tasted fine, though they both featured an overly charred crust with a still raw center. It’s clear that Sauced has had some stumbles out of the gate, but we don’t judge a racehorse based on how it learned to walk. Instead, we’re optimistic about Sauced’s future and, if the team behind the scenes is any indication, they’ll be quick to right the ship. We’ll return in a few months to see how things have changed. We’re rooting for Sauced to work, even if it takes a little while to fall in step.

TOAST TOWN OF THE

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arktimes.com JULY 05, 2018

MOVIE REVIEW

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REYNOLDS PERFORMANCE HALL 28

JULY 05, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

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Not exactly make-believe Biopic shows us Fred Rogers was an open book.

BY SAM EIFLING

n the long history of television, a don’t spend money and don’t vote and medium of mostly interchange- often don’t even get to pick the chanable sameness, there has never nel they’re watching. If you’re going to been another creature quite like marginalize a group of television viewFred Rogers. No one else built such an ers, it would be kids. Yet from 1968 to empire on kindness, on slowness and 2001, there was Fred Rogers, inviting on a fundamental respect for young every little kid with access to PBS to be children — people who, by definition, a part of “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” a

THE UNIQUE NEIGHBORHOODS OF CENTRAL ARKANSAS was exactly the man you saw earnestly guiding small children through the perils of growing up. There’s a comfort in knowing that Fred Rogers lived up to the character he played on TV. Rogers was no doubt an eccentric, in hindsight, and one who Neville tacitly argues tended to hit a wall when he tried to talk to adults, both in person and on other television shows. Something about the grown-up world seemed to wear him out. And past the age of maybe 7 or so, it was easy to leave Mr. Rogers behind, in turn. I saw the film with a friend from Pittsburgh who admitted to disliking the show as a kid; she intuited, even as a little kid, that Mr. Rogers’ messages of kindness and love and care weren’t actually preparing her for the real world. That line of thinking struck me as a canny one: Pretty early on, you could feel like Fred Rogers wasn’t going to make you sufficiently tough. Pushed around as a kid (he kept his baby fat well into adolescence) and at times bedridden with childhood illnesses, Rogers knew what it was like to be bullied. His advice to kids sort of accepted this as an inevitability, perhaps, rather than a call to other action. Don’t let them define you, he implored kids. In certain real-world neighborhoods, kids might be better admonished to learn how to deliver a right hook. It’s not 1968 anymore, or even 2001, and we’re deeply into a world where bully politics have become a national crisis. The real world may have worn Rogers down, and this version of it would no doubt make him feel like his life’s work came to naught, as overtly cruel people now have more control over government than at any time at least since the Civil War. Mr. Rogers might have an opinion different from yours or mine on the ethics of, oh, say, whether to punch a Nazi. But this he would say, and this is worth remembering: You should also be telling the people you love that you love them, and sticking up for them. Gloriously screwed though it is, we’re all in this neighborhood together.

Payment: CHECK OR CREDIT CARD Order by Mail: ARKANSAS TIMES BOOKS 201 E. MARKHAM ST., STE. 200, LITTLE ROCK, AR 72201 Phone: 501-375-2985 Fax: 501-375-3623 Email: ANITRA@ARKTIMES.COM Send _______ book(s) of The Unique Neighborhoods of Central Arkansas @ $19.95 Send _______ book(s) of A History Of Arkansas @ $10.95

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low-budget program out of Pittsburgh that for a staggering 912 episodes was America’s most reliable universal pre-K education. If you were born in the second half of the 20th century you probably saw it plenty, and likely at an age when you didn’t quite realize what a truly bizarre feat it was. Overdue, then, is “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” It’s a charming and not overly sentimental documentary about Rogers by Morgan Neville, whose feature doc subjects include other such singular characters as Johnny Cash and Keith Richards. It didn’t occur to me as a kid when watching “Mr. Rogers” just how strange the show was — humbly produced and plotted, obviously, a world where a grown man sings to you, changes his shoes, talks about your worth as a person, hangs out with a few other adult characters, and then yields the floor to a make-believe world of hand puppets that he predominantly controlled and voiced. The people who knew Rogers attest in the doc that each of these dozen or so characters, and in particular a sensitive little tiger named Daniel, were all manifestations of some part of Rogers’ personality, acted out for kids over, yes, more than 30 years of TV. It amounted to an amazing run of psychological self-confession, and, in a sense, Rogers himself makes for a challenging documentary subject because he was, in practically every regard, an open book. The guy he was on screen, even as he inhabited King Friday XIII and Queen Sara Saturday and X the Owl and Henrietta Pussycat, really was him. If you’re looking for dirt, this ain’t going to be your biopic. The closest thing we get to a dark reveal is that he at least one time used the word “ass” in conversation, and did, for a time in the ’70s, forbid a gay cast member from revealing his sexuality out of fear that corporate sponsors would pull funding from the show. That’s about it. Otherwise the piano-playing ordained minister, married to the same woman for nearly 50 years till his death, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, lover of cardigans and feeder of fish,

Full of interesting voices and colorful portraits of 17 Little Rock and North Little Rock neighborhoods, this book gives an intimate, block-by-block, native’s view of the place more than 250,000 Arkansans call home. Created from interviews with residents and largely written by writers who actually live in the neighborhoods they’re writing about, the book features over 90 full color photos by Little Rock photographer Brian Chilson.

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NEIGHBORLY: Mr. Rogers and his hand puppets bore a message of love and kindness, an amazing decades-long run of psychological self-confession.

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