Arkansas Times - May 10, 2018 by Arkansas Times

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BATTLING TO RETAKE THE 2ND A crowded field — Gwen Combs, Jonathan Dunkley, Paul Spencer and state Rep. Clarke Tucker — seeks the Democratic nomination to take on vulnerable incumbent U.S. Rep. French Hill BY LINDSEY MILLAR

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arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

WEEK THAT WAS

Bring ID Early voting in this year’s primary elections began May 7; Election Day is May 22. You’ll have to show your ID card, thanks to the Arkansas Supreme Court’s stay of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Alice Gray’s recent injunction blocking the state Voter ID law from going into effect. Secretary of State Mark Martin had asked the state high court to grant the stay. The vote was 6-1 to grant the stay. Chief Justice Dan Kemp dissented. The court gave no explanation for the order. Gray’s ruling came in response to a public interest lawsuit brought by plaintiff Barry Haas. The state Supreme Court held in a 2014 case (also argued by Haas’ attorney, Jeff Priebe) that a previous version of the law was unconstitutional. The 2017 legislature passed the law again with slightly altered language and a procedural process aimed to answer problems raised by some of the justices in the 2014 decision.

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola will not seek re-election this year, citing a serious health diagnosis of one of his immediate family members. He’s finishing his third term. This leaves state Rep. Warwick Sabin (D-Little Rock) and banker Frank Scott in the race. After Stodola’s announcement, former Little Rock School District Superintendent Baker Kurrus said he was considering running and expected to make a decision before June 1. Rev. Benny Johnson, founder of Arkansas Stop the Violence, also said he was considering entering the race. City directors Dean Kumpuris and Lance Hines have been named as possible candidates in the past.

Guilty Former state Sen. Jon Woods was 4

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Shakeups at UAMS

BRIAN CHILSON

Stodola won’t seek re-election

found guilty on 15 of 17 counts in his conspirator in both schemes before the UAMS leadership has been in negofederal corruption trial in Fayetteville. trial started and cooperated with the tiations with surgeons to replace Consultant Randell Shelton Jr., on trial government. Oren Paris III, president Tobler but has not been able to comon related charges, was found guilty of the college, pleaded guilty to being a plete a deal. The decision to suspend on 12 of 15 counts. Each faces up to co-conspirator in the Ecclesia scheme its heart surgery program was made 20 years in prison on each charge of less than a week before the trial began, “in the interest of safety for patients,” fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud; cooperating with the government. interim College of Medicine Dean Woods was also found guilty on one Shelton stood accused of partici- Christopher Westfall told the staff. count of money laundering, which car- pating in the Ecclesia scheme, with UAMS will direct patients needing ries a maximum sentence of 10 years the kickback payments disguised as heart surgery to the Arkansas Heart in prison. Woods and Shelton could payments to his consulting company. Hospital or Baptist Health. also be forced to forfeit any money or Then on Monday it was revealed property they acquired through illethat Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer gal activities. Institute Director Dr. Peter Emanuel Woods stood accused of participatThe University of Arkansas for had submitted his resignation from ing in a kickback scheme in exchange Medical Sciences shocked the medi- UAMS, which will take effect July 31. for guiding state money to a small cal community last Friday when Emanuel has directed the institute Christian college in Springit announced it was sus- since 2007 and oversaw its move to dale, Ecclesia College, and pending its cardiotho- the 12-story research and treatment to a nonprofit under racic surgery program tower in 2010. He was paid $500,000 the umbrella until a replacement a year; interim College of Medicine of Preferred Famfor retiring heart Dean Christopher Westfall and incomily Healthcare, a surgeon Dr. Gareth ing Chancellor Dr. Cam Patterson will major provider Tobler could be initiate a nationwide search to replace o f Me d i c a i d found. Tobler retired Emanuel. Patterson arrives June 1. funded services in a week ago; the state. Former state Rep. Micah Neal pleaded guilty GUILTY TIMES 12: Former Sen. Jon Woods. to being a co-

OPINION

Trump under oath? No.

he ongoing made-for-TV spectacle of the Trump administration has more shocks and plot reverses than the most elaborate professional wrestling extravaganza. The endless parade of louche, comic-opera figures out of New York tabloids — Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, The Mooch! — keeps millions of Americans awake at night wondering what absurdities President Trump will bring us next. That said, exactly how the Trump Show will end is impossible to predict. Suffice it to say that Trump seems unlikely to exit the White House under anything resembling normal conditions. But here’s something that’s almost certain NOT to happen: Trump will never testify under oath in the Russia investigation. Ace counsel Rudy Giuliani is surely right about that. No attorney capable of passing the bar exam would let a client like Trump testify. He’s an epically bad liar. That seems to have been the purpose of the 49 questions leaked to the press, almost certainly by Trump’s own legal

team after they crafted them following a meeting with special counsel Robert Mueller. That is, to persuade the president himself that being grilled by an experienced prosecutor is nothing like doing a call-in GENE LYONS on “Fox & Friends.” Writing in The New Yorker, former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin cites just two examples: “ ‘What did you mean in your interview with Lester Holt about Mr. Comey and Russia?’ one asks. ‘What did you mean when you told Russian diplomats on May 10, 2017, that firing Mr. Comey had taken the pressure off?’ another asks. For Trump, there are no good — that is, non-incriminating — answers to these questions.” Indeed, there are not. Only Trump, thanks to the credulous cult of personality surrounding him, could think he could get away with firing the FBI director and then inviting his Russian comrades into the White House to gloat

Politics rule in court

ne of the privileges of a columnist is to beat a dead horse, and a recurring liberty of this one is to mourn the decline of the rule of law, which, like nearly everything in the public sphere, is now displaced by politics. Just a few days ago, I took the exceptional occasion to praise Attorney General Jeff Sessions and all the lawyers President Trump had put in charge at the Justice Department for standing up to the president and insisting that the course of law be followed, wherever it went. At some point soon, he may fire one or all of them, and we shall have a true constitutional crisis. The contrast then was with the Arkansas attorney general, who, almost every day of the week, flouts the rule of law in favor of the rule of politics. Leslie Rutledge is an elected politician, and the U.S. attorney general is a political appointee, but they are required to interpret and enforce the law impartially, without regard to politics. Rutledge was back at it this week, refusing for the 63rd time this election cycle to let sponsors of constitutional amendments and initiated acts that offend powerful constituencies — employers, religionists, industries, the Republican Party — gain

access to the ballot through the initiative and referendum process. No other attorney general in Arkansas history has tried to do that. She always says a word here or there confuses her. Now it’s the Arkansas Supreme Court, which voted 6-1 last week to ignore precedent and the Constitution and permit the state to discourage many ERNEST poor, black, aged DUMAS or infirm voters from trying to vote this month in the primaries and judicial election. They will be threatened with prosecution and jail if they can’t or won’t show a government-issued photo identification, even though they may have long been registered to vote and sign their names in exactly the same script they have penned on the voter affidavit for many years. Only the chief justice, Dan Kemp, did his duty under the law. Like 18 other Republican legislatures, Arkansas’s in 2013 passed a law requiring voters to show a government photo ID when they vote. Photo ID laws have been shown to depress voting by certain groups, particularly blacks and

about it. In comparison, try to imagine the uproar if, say, Hillary Clinton had been credibly accused of forging a letter boasting perfect health and then twisting her doctor’s arm to sign it. Her political career would have ended within 48 hours. Ditto Al Gore, John Kerry or any Democratic presidential candidate. But thanks to his fact-resistant political base, Trump operates under a different dispensation. Or has, at least until Americans started focusing upon the oft-broadcast image of Stormy Daniels’ prodigious bust emerging from a chauffeured limo, immediately followed by the actress herself. Remarkably, Rudy Giuliani’s confused accounts of where Trump fixer Michael Cohen found the cash to pay for Stormy’s temporary silence have induced doubts among even faithful Trumpists. See, if they follow nothing else, people follow sex scandals. ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Giuliani if Cohen controlled a slush fund to pay off other naughty girls. “I have no knowledge of that. But I — I — I — would think if it was necessary, yes.” Seriously, Giuliani said that. On national TV.

Here’s an editorial comment from Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal: “Mr. Trump is compiling a record that increases the likelihood that few will believe him during a genuine crisis — say, a dispute over speaking with special counsel Robert Mueller or a nuclear showdown with Kim Jong Un. Mr. Trump should worry that Americans will stop believing anything he says.” But back to the ticklish question of Trump’s testimony in Mueller’s Russia investigation. Rudy claims that the president can claim executive privilege and refuse, but nobody’s ever done it. When Richard Nixon tried, the Supreme Court shot him down unanimously, effectively ending his presidency. Even so, no way can Trump testify under oath. So assuming that the special counsel does issue a grand jury subpoena — and it could be a more ominous sign if he doesn’t — the president has just one viable option. Well, two. He can resign the office, or he can take the Fifth Amendment. Toobin thinks Trump can ride it out, and probably he can. That is until Mueller files his report, which promises to be devastating.

poor whites who do not drive or travel Gray issued a careful 57-page ruling abroad or otherwise have a need for a reaffirming the Supreme Court declagovernment photo ID. ration that a statutory photo ID requireBut the Republican Party has con- ment violated the Constitution, but in vinced many people that thousands of far more detail than the now departed crooks crowd into the precincts every Supremes. She illuminated Secretary of election, pretend they are someone else State Mark Martin’s incompetence in who is registered to vote but is absent preparing election officials and voters that day and cast those people’s votes for the new voting requirements. for Democrats. Many states have had Judge Gray, like the Supreme Court, problems with election fraud, but it’s by was required to stop the ID procedures people running the elections, not people from being used in the primaries and trying to vote. The photo ID won’t cur- judicial election if it would cause permatail the usual election fraud. nent harm to any voter and if she either A trial judge and the Arkansas thought the lawsuit had a reasonable Supreme Court in 2014 struck down the chance of success or if she went ahead legislature’s photo ID act. The justices and ruled that the requirement was pointed out that the photo ID require- unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ment violated the strict terms of both the had the same duty, but it declined to rule original Constitution and the permanent on the constitutionality of the statute registration that was amended into the (it will hold a hearing on Judge Gray’s Constitution in 1964. The Constitution ruling this summer) and told Martin says people must be allowed to vote if they the unconstitutional ID requirements are a U.S. citizen, an Arkansas resident, at could be applied in this month’s election. least 18 years old and lawfully registered. Rutledge issued a statement claiming So the Republicans last year wrote the justices had upheld the photo ID law an amendment to the Constitution to and praising them for saying it “helps add the photo-ID barrier, and it will be ensure free and fair elections.” They on the ballot in November. They also had done no such thing. The court had enacted a statute to reinstate the photo supinely ducked the issues and wrote ID for this year’s election, in the hope no opinion at all, other than to say “stay that the now reconstituted and submis- … granted.” sive Supreme Court would let it go. That is the status of the rule of law After hearings in March, Judge Alice in Arkansas. Follow Arkansas Blog on Twitter: @ArkansasBlog

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

Ways to serve

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MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

ast Friday, the statewide newspaper included two prominent headlines about former Arkansas state senators. On the front page was the story of former Sen. Jon Woods’ conviction on 15 of 17 counts in a federal public corruption case in Fayetteville, a trial masterfully reported throughout by the veteran Arkansas journalist Doug Thompson. On the front of the Arkansas section was a celebratory obituary observing the death of former Sen. Jim Argue (D-Little Rock) from an aggressive kidney cancer. Two very different headlines about two very different men who happened to hold the same public office. At the heart of the Woods case was his use of state General Improvement Fund appropriations as a mechanism for personal enrichment via kickbacks from the program’s payees. (The most telling moment of the trial, as reported by Thompson, came in testimony from former Sen. Micah Neal (like Woods, a Springdale Republican), who remembered bemoaning his own financial challenges to Woods in advance of getting in on the game “because he observed Woods had a nicely furnished Little Rock apartment with sports memorabilia such as a baseball bat signed by Pete Rose and a signed photograph of Michael Jordan.”) At its heart, the Woods case was about a criminal combination of a self-serving government official and governmental opaqueness to hide those sins. My own interactions with Woods were fairly fleeting. The one I remember best centered on him bragging about his skill in drafting titles for legislatively referred ballot measures that would resonate with the state’s voters. Woods’ particular pride and joy was the 2014 constitutional amendment that hid state officials’ pay raises and term limits extensions within what was termed an “ethics” measure. As a political scientist who researches direct democracy, I was fascinated by the power of language on a ballot to determine major issues of public policy. But, I also found myself unsettled by the sense that the unprincipled Woods saw the people of the state as his playthings. While we were a generation apart, I had the fortune of interacting in a much more profound way with Argue, as we served as fellow board member for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families for the last seven years. Of course, I am most thankful for his

dedicated leadership on educational reform in the aftermath of the state Supreme Court’s Lake View decision that has been much noted in recent days. The moment in Argue’s public life that I remember most fondly, however, was an exchange with then-Sen. (and current state Supreme Court Justice) Shawn Womack as Womack presented his legislation to bar gays and lesbians from serving as foster or adoptive parents in 2007. I watched from the state Senate gallery. JAY BARTH Below on the Senate floor, Argue — who knew he’d lose the vote — asked Womack, “Are you gay or are you heterosexual?” A startled Womack replied, “Excuse me?” After Womack replied that he was, indeed, straight, Argue asked, “Can you prove that to me?” Womack haltingly said, “I certainly would, yes.” “How would you go about offering up proof?” Argue continued. “I’m not sure that’s a conversation that we would have in mixed company,” Womack responded. Argue then extended his argument to Womack’s legislation. Womack admitted it would be up to the state to prove a prospective parent’s being gay or lesbian. Argue asked, “How would the state prove that someone’s homosexual?” Womack admitted it could be difficult, particularly if individuals were closeted. Going in for the kill, Argue asked: “We’re not going to install a camera in the bedroom, are we?” Womack won the day as his legislation passed the Senate, but Argue helped set it up for defeat on the other end of the Capitol. While quite hilarious, the exchange also showed Argue’s combination of wily smarts and a dedication to stand up for those who did not have a voice in that chamber. In sharp contrast with Woods, it showed a principled stand against those trying to play political games with the disenfranchised. Former U.S. Sen. and Gov. Dale Bumpers regularly recounted his father’s lesson that service in the public arena is a “noble profession.” Argue’s life of service was a great example of that nobility. But, as Woods’ use of the office for personal gain shows, the other side of that coin is the politician who goes awry, doing intense harm to the public that puts its trust in the legislature in the process.

GUEST COLUMN

A new centrism

s early voting began this week, economic issues remained the top concern among Arkansas voters. Nearly 40 percent of respondents to University of Arkansas Professor Janine Parry’s Arkansas Poll listed the economy as the most important issue. Health care, in the low-to-mid-20th percentile, and crime, in the high-teens, rounded out the most pressing issues for Arkansas voters this spring. In an analysis developed by John Ray, Jesse Bacon and me, we found that these three issues — the economy, health care and crime, in that order — topped the list for likely voters in all four congressional districts. Of course, drawing lines between the economy and health care — or between the economy and issues like LGBT rights, immigration and gun control that didn’t register very important in the Arkansas poll — is an arbitrary exercise. A central lesson — perhaps the central lesson — of the 2016 election is that issues of race, class, economy, gender and justice can’t be separated from one another. As scholars and activists have long noted, American politics are intersectional. No voter, candidate or movement can be defined by a single issue. This lesson sometimes seems lost on Arkansas’s chattering class. The pundits, columnists and lobbyists who’ve proclaimed themselves the arbiters of which issues are important and moderate, which candidates are electable and qualified and which messages move voters, still seem enamored with the idea that the performance of the stock market is essentially a proxy for “the economy” in campaigns. Yet, most Arkansans don’t own any stock and only about one-fifth of all Americans own enough stock to notice a gain or loss in their portfolio. The stock market is important to the chattering class because they’re part of that onefifth. They aren’t the center. That title belongs somewhere within the other four-fifths of the state. Candidates who came from, still live in, or work in that center have an opportunity to redefine Arkansas’s economic issues as something greater and more universal than the NASDAQ or Dow indices. This is particularly true for state legislative candidates. Already, activiststurned-candidates like Nicole Clowney, Tippi McCullough and state Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock) are doing it. In 2016, Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, a Democrat, outperformed

Hillary Clinton by 16 points in Missouri in a U.S. Senate challenge to Republican incumbent Sen. Roy Blunt, which Blunt won narrowly. Kander’s campaign was rooted in economic populism. He railed against a corrupt Missouri Republican Party and spoke out in favor of a statewide minimum wage hike. In Arkansas, where median income is the second lowest in the nation and a kickback scheme from the now-defunct General Improvement (slush) Fund has ensnared RepubliBILLY FLEMING can legislators and Guest Columnist lobbyists in federal indictments and convictions, Kander’s approach is a useful starting point for Arkansas’s 2018 slate of candidates. But they can and should do more. Ideas like a jobs guarantee, universal health care, investments in public education and free postsecondary schooling are obvious economic issues that have a much larger constituency in Arkansas than more conventional measures. Thanks to the slash-and-burn tax policy being pushed by Governor Hutchinson and the Republican supermajority in the state legislature, a populist economic message is primed to bolster the state Democratic Party. Despite a steady stream of positive press releases, the state is quietly facing a budget crisis. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences — the state’s largest hospital, academic institution and public employer — is being decimated by budget cuts. In the last few months, UAMS has been forced to suspend its cardiac surgery department, lost its top oncologist and cut more than 600 positions — all while the governor and his legislative cabal continue pushing for more tax cuts that will inevitably lead to a more dysfunctional healthcare system throughout the state. In failing to adequately fund UAMS, they are placing the health and wellbeing of most Arkansans at unnecessary risk. Democratic candidates can and should hold them accountable for their failure. When coupled with the president’s shocking and unnecessary fight with China — a fight that’s projected to cost Arkansas farmers nearly $400 million in new tariffs on their products — the economic argument for Democrats writes itself.

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THE OBSERVER NOTES ON THE PASSING SCENE

Mystery

he Observer’s pal Mr. Photographer is the hardest working man in show business, a oneman operation who handles photography for not only the Arkansas Times but several other publications publicated by the Arkansas Times, plus freelancing and concerts and product photography and probably a secret trove of brilliant and soon-to-beworld-renowned mime portraits that will only be discovered when they lay him in the clay. Thing is, the dude is busy as a company store on payday — click, click, click, smile!, click, click, hold it, click — and it has been like that the whole 15 years he’s been at the paper. Recently, our pal took to Dr. Zuckerberg’s Electric Tome of Faces to share the story of a cat that recently intruded on one of his busy days. The Observer gets up to sharing dog stories around here all the time. What’s the verbal equivalent of being photogenic? Whatever it is, dogs are more of it than cats, easier to tell a quaint and charming story about than those moody, stoic and emotionally self-sufficient creatures that seem to tolerate human existence at best. But we digress. Before we run our pal off the page with our bloviating, it’s best to let Ol’ Shutterbug take it from here: “Yesterday was crazy. Had two candidates to chase around for a cover story, had a weird car problem in the middle of it, was trying to get to the office to edit and scan some film and digital images. Really wanted to try to squeeze lunch in somewhere. Wound up getting a hotdog at the gas station, both candidates changed times on me and then I ran home to walk the dog. “We have a stool for a lawn chair on our porch. I was in a hurry and almost didn’t notice, but under the stool was a grey plastic basin. Inside was a pillowcase wrapped around a maybe 1-week-old kitten. It was significantly smaller than my hand. Next to it was a baby bottle, for a human baby,

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with some milk in it. It was frantic for food. It was getting really hot out and I have no idea how long it had been there, but it had to have been at least a couple of hours. “There are several strays around, but there were no other kittens and no mother cat anywhere I could see. I knew it needed food, so I tried to use a dropper to get some of the milk in him while I figured out what to do. If left there, our neighborhood has many predators around and it would never be safe. This thing was too little to last the rest of the day on its own. So I picked up the basin and put it in the car and headed to some friends’ house in Cabot. It was a long shot, but their cat just had kittens this week and the mother was nursing. “On the drive up, he became more vocal and frantic so I stroked his back and head with my free hand while I talked to him to calm him down. I pulled over when I could to try to give him a little milk. “When I got to Cabot we walked into the room with the mother cat and she immediately sat up, alert to the sound of the kitten’s cry. We sat him next to her and she went straight to him and licked his head and back and lay down to feed him. Good golly, he was hungry and weak. Gotta admit: choked me up a little. How do you thank a momma cat?” We’re pretty sure you’re doing it right now, pal. Ain’t that a man? What’s that they say about character, that it’s doing the right thing even when nobody is looking? Mr. Photographer clearly has character in spades, and that dear kitten is the beneficiary today. Word around the digital campfire is that Ol’ Shutterbug and his lovely spouse are planning to take in the wayward feline when Surrogate Momma gets him healthy, strong and old enough to be adopted. We hear they’re planning on calling him “Mystery.” Pretty damn fitting for a cat, if you ask us. They’re a mysterious lot, on the whole.

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Four-way showdown Combs, Dunkley, Tucker and Spencer battle to take on Republican incumbent French Hill in Arkansas’s 2nd Congressional District. BY LINDSEY MILLAR

BRIAN CHILSON

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

THE DEMOCRATIC FIELD: (From left) State Rep. Clarke Tucker, Jonathan Dunkley, Gwen Combs and Paul Spencer at a recent debate at Philander Smith College.

he much-touted blue wave expected nationally is unlikely to hit Arkansas

this election cycle. Republicans have supermajorities in the state House and Senate and hold all seven constitutional offices and the state’s six

congressional seats. Democrats are expected to make gains in the state legisla-

ture, but not even the most hopeful party faithful expect Dems to retake control of either chamber. All the Democratic candidates running for constitutional office are seen as long shots. Ditto for most of the congressional races. There’s pretty much one realistic shot for Arkansas to offer its own ripple in the blue wave: the 2nd Congressional District. There, both national and local party leaders and members of the insurgent populist wing of the party see a golden opportunity to return the district to Democratic control for the first time in almost a decade. Odds still favor U.S. Rep. French Hill of Little Rock, the two-term Republican incumbent, but national prognosticators like the Cook Political Report have moved the seat from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican” in recent months. That’s partly because Democrats

have performed better than expected 21 points. in special elections in similarly red The president’s party is typically districts across the country. In March, vulnerable during midterm elections, Pennsylvania Democrat Conor Lamb and the toxicity of Trump’s personal scored a narrow upset in a Rust Belt brand among Democrats and many congressional district that President independents may motivate high turnTrump won by almost 20 percentage out among voters opposed to the prespoints in 2016. In April, a race in a ident. Trump remains very popular reliably red House district in subur- among Republicans, but he’s not on ban Phoenix, Ariz., turned out to be the 2018 ballot. The same politics of surprisingly close: Though Republi- division and resentment that Trump can Debbie Lesko won by five points, exploited to win the White House is Trump’s margin of victory in 2016 was now fueling intense enthusiasm within

the Democratic base — as evidenced by the crowded primary field in Arkansas’s 2nd District. Four Democrats are running for the chance to take on Hill (Libertarian Joe Swafford of Maumelle is also running for the seat). State Rep. Clarke Tucker, who was recruited by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which identified the district as one the party could flip, is the clear frontrunner. The other three candidates — Paul Spencer, a teacher and activist; Gwen Combs, a teacher and activist; and Jonathan Dunkley, director of operations at the Clinton School of Public Service — each peg themselves as more progressive than Tucker and brand him as an “establishment” candidate. They also speak disparagingly about the DCCC, which has taken licks in progressive circles for forcefully inserting itself in Democratic primary contests. A victory in the primary for Tucker will end the same way it did for Conner Eldridge, Pat Hays, Mark Pryor, Mike Ross and other recent moderate Democratic candidates, they say — with a loss in the November general election. A May 6 poll from Talk Business/ Hendrix College found Tucker favored by 41 percent of the likely Democratic primary voters. Trailing him were arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

BRIAN CHILSON

Combs with 11 percent, Spencer with earned 50 percent in the county. Politi- he doesn’t know why Hill, who was darity very early in life. When you come 10 percent and Dunkley with 6 percent. cal scientist Jay Barth, who writes a opposed to Trump in the presidential from that labor kind of background, a That left 32 percent who did not know. column for the Arkansas Times, has primary, “drank the Kool-Aid” and sup- lot of time that’s all you have.” The big question ahead is whether imagined a narrow potential pathway ported the president’s agenda. Spencer said his father, a mechanic Tucker can grab enough undecided vot- to victory for the successful Demo“To say, ‘Go ahead and repeal and in a small diesel garage, used to send ers to top 50 percent and avoid a run-off cratic candidate. It would take a massive replace [the Affordable Care Act],’ and him out to the highway with a fiveon June 19. Early voting began May 7. Democratic turnout in Pulaski County, pass this crazy tax plan and don’t say gallon bucket to pick up coal that fell Election day for the primary is May 22. which might be helped by interest in a anything about the travel ban? … The off trucks headed to the mills to use Like many other Democratic pri- crowded Little Rock mayoral race, and only thing I can assume is the promise to heat the family’s house. “We didn’t maries across the country, the 2nd Dis- successfully peeling away suburban vot- of greener pastures.” Hill, who was a live in good straits growing up. No one trict contest echoes the 2016 matchup ers in places like Conway, Bryant and banker before joining Congress, had really did in that town. We didn’t realbetween Hillary Clinton and Sen. Ber- Searcy who’ve grown disillusioned with been rumored to be under consider- ize we were poor until someone around nie Sanders (D-Vt.). But the four-way a party led by Trump. ation for deputy secretary of the trea- us pointed it out.” nature of the race somewhat compliCombs, Tucker, Dunkley and Spen- sury and a spot on the board of govDrumming was his escape. Spencates the “establishment vs. outsider” cer each say they’re the candidate who ernors of the Federal Reserve System. cer spent years as a professional sesnarrative seen in other sion musician in Boston places. The Sandersand Pittsburgh, makleaning wing of the ing more than he does party has so far failed to now as a teacher. But coalesce around a sinhe longed to be a progle alternative to Tucker. fessor and got his B.S. Maybe that’s because in anthropology from many Democrats in Franciscan University in Arkansas are still ClinSteubenville, where he ton loyalists and favor a met his wife, an Arkanmore moderate candisas native. They moved date, or maybe it’s simto Arkansas in what was ply because progressive supposed to be a quick activists are less wellstopover. That was 19 organized here than years ago. Spencer and other places. his wife have three teenWhoever prevails age sons. They live on 15 will face a candidate in acres in Scott, in a house Hill who is likely to have they built together. They a massive campaign war grow pecan trees and chest, but also one who raise honeybees. has done nothing to This is Spencer’s first separate himself from bid for office, but he’s an unpopular presibeen an activist since dent. Hill voted to end 2010, when the U.S. the Affordable Care Act, Supreme Court ruled supported the tax plan that political spending PUSHING A PROGRESSIVE MESSAGE: Paul Spencer (left) talks to campaign manager Greg Deckelman (right) at the that provided an income is protected under the Spencer campaign headquarters in North Little Rock. tax cut bonanza to corFirst Amendment in the porate America and Citizens United case. voted against supporting disaster aid can chart that course in November. Spencer is running for Congress “I remember I woke up after the for Puerto Rico. That won’t hurt him because he believes big money has cor- Citizens United decision and said to with the Republican base, but it could rupted American politics. Every major myself, ‘This is a real piece of shit.’ If Money is the root of all be a different story with independents. issue today can be viewed through you cut your teeth on the Constitution, political evil An April poll from Public Policy Polling that lens, he said. Take the Republi- you know how it’s supposed to work. — a Democratic firm — showed Hill’s PAUL SPENCER AND French Hill cans’ attempts to repeal the Affordable Then you see the potential for unfetmargin of support fell slightly when attend the same church. They’ve known Care Act: “That’s not an insurance issue, tered spending in elections, and you voters were presented with informa- each other for 18 years, the amount of it’s a money in politics issue,” Spencer wake up in this cold sweat.” tion about the failed attempt to repeal time Spencer has taught history and said. “If you want clean water, you got Spencer said he “never made a conthe Affordable Care Act and the GOP American government at Little Rock to get the money out. If you want clean scious effort to get involved [in activtax cut bill. Catholic High School for Boys. Hill is elections, you got to get the money out.” ism]. It’s just like you see someone In two elections, Hill has never won an alumnus of Catholic, and he and Spencer, 51, grew up in Steubenville, drowning, you jump in and save them.” his home county. Pat Hays, the former Spencer each have sons who are seniors Ohio, where the steel industry domi- He became involved in the Occupy Wall mayor of North Little Rock, received 54 at the school. (Spencer doesn’t teach nated the local economy. “Everything Street movement in Little Rock in 2011, percent of the vote in Pulaski County either boy.) was unionized — AFL-CIO, United lecturing the group on the same topics in his race against Hill in 2014. In 2016, Spencer said he’d always thought Mine Workers,” Spencer said. “When he teaches in American government despite having little name recognition of Hill as “sensible in a lot of ways. But mills would go on strike, the bus drivers classes — “the Constitution and corpoand money, former Little Rock School after he got elected, I think a lot of his would go on strike, the schools would rate personhood and things like that.” District board president Dianne Curry sensibilities went away.” Spencer said go on strike. I learned the value of soliHis time with the Occupy movement

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

BRIAN CHILSON

led him to chair Regnat Populus, a ballot question committee named after the state’s motto, “the people rule.” It sought to put a wide-ranging ethics law on the ballot that would have limited the effects of money on politics. It failed to make the ballot after a paid canvassing firm did not gather the number of signatures needed to place the measure before voters. Spencer later worked to influence the passage of Amendment 94 to the Arkansas Constitution, which banned direct corporate contributions to state candidates and extended the amount of time former legislators must wait to serve as lobbyists. (The law left a few massive loopholes, which Spencer has been critical of.) Spencer also worked with primary opponent Tucker on an ethics package Tucker sponsored in the General Assembly. Spencer said he admires Tucker, but believes that by accepting money from political action committees and by working with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he’s abandoned important values. “What I teach my kids is that anybody who wants to serve their country can do it,” Spencer said. “It shouldn’t be predicated on the small nucleus of insiders from Washington, or the Heights for that matter, who anoint you. We shouldn’t have to go through the tollgate of democracy to do what we want to do to serve our communities, and I think that’s what the DCCC has become, unfortunately.” Spencer, whose website is cantbuypaul.com, has made the refusal to accept donations from PACs a centerpiece of his campaign. So far he’s raised $251,479 from more than 4,000 donors across the country, according to the most recent campaign finance records, filed March 31. He’s spent $131,155 and has $120,324 cash on hand. Spencer’s fundraising has been substantially helped by his inclusion in the Great Slate, a fundraising campaign start by Tech Solidarity, a 501(c)4 organization of tech workers, largely from the San Francisco Bay Area. The Great Slate includes 10 first-time “progressive” candidates with day jobs, “an excellent campaign team, and a clear path to victory in a poor, rural district.” In the first quarter of 2018, the Great Slate raised $753,865 for the candidates. David Simon, the creator of HBO’s “The Wire” and “The Deuce,” also hosted a fundraiser for Spencer and a few other like-minded candidates in New York

and has contributed $4,000 to Spencer’s campaign. Spencer had never heard of Simon before. That fundraising haul has allowed him to hire a campaign staff of 17 and pay canvassers $15 per hour, in keeping with his call for a $15 federal minimum wage. Spencer has advertised widely online and in print, but spokesman Reed Brewer said the campaign would not run TV ads. “The effectiveness of television ads in recent elections — especially primaries — has been proven to be marginal at best, and a waste of funds at worst,” he said. MARCHING: Combs (second from left) leacing the Women’s March for Arkansas in 2017. Spencer has rolled out extensive additional policy proposals. He supports Sanders’ Medicare for qualifying. work here.” He said he’s encountered a All bill, universal housing vouchers for Spencer is pro-life. “I believe that lot of Democrats outside Pulaski County households with income of less than human life begins at conception and I in the 2nd District who are pro-life. $54,000, the elimination of $1.4 trillion believe that an unborn child is a human in student debt and establishing a sys- being,” he said. Poverty is responsible Marching on tem of banking within the U.S. Postal for some 40 percent of abortions, he Service to reach the 88 million Ameri- said. “I can work to fight poverty; I have GWEN COMBS SAID she’s running cans who lack the minimum amount no desire to fight against the law that for Congress because she believes we of money to open an account at a tra- is already on the books now in regard need to return to a more representaditional bank to abortion.” tive democracy. All of those proposals would stimuSpencer said he supports the Hyde “I believe in government of the peolate the economy and pay for them- Amendment, which prevents federal ple, for the people, and we just don’t selves, Spencer said. Eliminating the funds from being spent on abortion have that in Washington now. I’m the layers of profiteers that siphon away except to save the life of a woman or only woman, the only veteran and the Americans’ health care dollars before in cases of rape or incest. He also said only [public school] teacher running they reach medical providers — includ- he supports banning abortion at fetal for this seat, and I think that gives me ing insurance companies, lawyers, lob- viability, wherever “medicine deter- the ability to relate to almost everyone.” byists, pharmacy benefit managers and mines.” (The viability threshold is Combs, 43, of Little Rock, is a gifted advertising agencies — and moving to a almost inevitablity a political deter- and talented teacher at Stephens Elesingle-payer health care system would mination as well as a medical and sci- mentary School in the Little Rock especially be a boon, Spencer said, sav- entific one. Courts have generally deter- School District. The school is 93 pering the country, by his estimate, around mined viability to be between 24 and 28 cent black, 2.2 percent Latino and 87 $500 billion annually. weeks, though some state legislatures, percent low-income. Questions her stuSpencer has pledged that, if elected, including Arkansas’s, have successfully dents asked her during the 2016 presihe would only serve for three terms defined viability at 20 weeks.) Spencer dential campaign compelled her into and then return to teaching and farm- said he supports Planned Parenthood activism, she said. ing. That he doesn’t have further politi- and would not vote to deny it Medic“Leading up to the election, one cal ambitions makes it easier for him aid funding. [of my students] asked me, ‘If Donald to advocate for average Arkansans Spencer said Democrats in Arkan- Trump is elected, will I be deported?’ through policies that, while uncon- sas understand his position. Some have And another asked me, if Donald Trump ventional, would dramatically improve said, “You can’t have any opposition to was elected, would he be murdered. their lives, he said. abortion, or you’re dead in the water,” That was the point when I said, ‘I really Meanwhile, Combs and Dunkley cite Spencer said. “That [attitude] might have to be noisy about this.’ ” Spencer’s position on abortion as dis- work in Brooklyn, but it’s not going to After the election, Combs read about

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

education from pre-K to employability, moving toward debt-free college, establishing a $15 minimum wage, closing gun loopholes, repealing the Dickey Amendment that prevents the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from studying the health impacts of guns and providing a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers. Combs said she might not have entered the race if Spencer wasn’t prolife and in support of the Hyde Amendment. She said she would work to repeal it and preserve abortion rights. “When you talk about Medicare for All but maintaining the Hyde Amendment instead of working to repeal it, you have a situation where you might have health care for all, but not for women,” she said. How would she pay for the progressive policies she’s advocated on behalf of? One idea: “Our expenses for nuclear armament are absurd. We could pull back on that and put money into areas that help people instead of endangering people,” Combs said.

The frontrunner

BRIAN CHILSON

the planned Women’s March in Washington, D.C. “I was inspired by it, but it was something I knew I couldn’t do as a teacher. I don’t have the money [to travel] and couldn’t take the time off.” From there, she created a Facebook event for a Women’s March in Arkansas, which an estimated 7,000 people attended. The success of the Little Rock march inspired Combs to work to sustain the movement. She created a Facebook group, originally called Be the Change Alliance and later March on Arkansas. It was meant to be a clearinghouse for progressive Arkansas activists. That effort connected Combs to a trainer from Housing Works, a New York-based nonprofit that fights AIDS and homelessness, who taught Combs and others how to “bird dog,” or as Combs explained it, “when you pester your legislator, and you do it with intense focus and with a direct ask.” During the health care debate last year, Combs traveled with a small group to Washington to meet with Republican Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton. She only got face time with Cotton, who lectured the group on his positions, Combs said, before she interrupted him to say, “We really want you to listen to us.” “We laid it out and tried to make it real to him because I don’t think he has a clue about what it’s like to be a regular, everyday person,” Combs said of Cotton. On July 28, shortly after Boozman and Cotton voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act without replacing it on, Combs filed to run for Congress. Politics is something Combs “never saw coming,” she said. She grew up in southwestern Ohio, born to a teenage mother and a machinist father, both of whom were first-generation high school graduates. Combs left Ohio on a full-ride scholarship to New Mexico State, but she said she didn’t have the support system to be successful in college at that point in her life and her scholarship funding ran out. So, she decided to follow both of her grandfathers’ examples and join the military. In the Air Force, she was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, where she was a communications and navigation systems specialist. While in the Air Force, she married and became a first-generation college graduate, earning two associate degrees. After she was honorably discharged, and with a young son in tow, the Air Force sent her family to

RALLYING THE TROOPS: Clarke Tucker speaks to canvassers outside his Little Rock campaign headquarters.

the Little Rock Air Force Base. Once there, she earned a master’s degree in gifted education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She’s taught for 11 years, 10 in the LRSD. Even though Combs declared around the same time as Spencer, she’s been far less successful at raising money. She had raised $25,760, spent $18,172 and had $7,587 cash on hand as of March 31. “We can’t compete financially,” she acknowledged. “That’s almost more golden to me because I think the amount of money that’s spent on political campaigns is obscene, and it’s offensive to the communities we live in and we’re purporting to serve.” But Combs said she’s used to working on a shoestring: “I’m a teacher, I’m used to not having much of a budget. I grew up poor. I’m used to not having much of

a personal budget. I can get stuff done.” Her staff is made up of all volunteers, all of whom have full-time jobs. That’s what representative democracy should look like, she said. Combs has life experience that looks like the average voter, she said. “I had a family member struggle with addiction. I had a family member die of suicide. I’ve had a family member homeless. I’ve had a family member unemployed and injured on the job. Those are things that really give me some perspective and allow me to relate and allow me to have some deep, deep empathy for people. If you’re removed from a scenario, you can hear about it all day, but you can’t understand what it’s like.” Combs supports Medicare for All, expanding federal funding to ensure that all Americans get top-quality

STATE REP. CLARKE TUCKER said he first started thinking about running for Congress when the House passed the American Health Care Act last summer. Then he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. “The prospect of having access to care with a preexisting condition without dying or going bankrupt became a lot less abstract,” he said. Tucker said he’s also running because he wants to restore “courage, heart and decency” to the political process. “It takes courage to stand up to special interests when you’re in office when they’re trying to put pressure on you, to party leadership and your colleagues when they want you to vote in a certain way. … It also takes heart, because you have to really care about the people you represent and have compassion and loyalty for them. And decency is just totally gone from the political process.” Tucker, 37, is a seventh-generation Arkansan. He’s married with two children. Tucker’s father, Rett Tucker, is a longtime downtown developer. Tucker graduated from Central High School, where he was student body president, and later received degrees from Harvard University and the University of Arkansas School of Law. He practiced law at Quattlebaum Grooms & Tull

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until February, when he quit to focus on this congressional run. After winning a hard-fought state House campaign for District 35 against Republican Stacy Hurst in 2014, Tucker emerged as a rising star in the state Democratic Party over the course of his two terms in the House, even though the party was in the decided minority. Though much of his legislation was stymied by Republicans — including a broad ethics and campaign finance package and a bill that would have made a spouse or dating partner convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence ineligible to own or purchase a firearm — he can still point to significant accomplishments.In 2016, he helped craft the legal language in a complicated legislative gambit to convince hold-out senators to reauthorize Medicaid expansion, which provides health coverage for nearly 300,000 Arkansans. During the last session, he was the House sponsor of the most significant package of criminal justice reform legislation in years. Tucker focused on a provision that established Crisis Stabilization Units, where people experiencing behavioral health problems could go, rather than to jail. Thanks to the law, Arkansas will soon have five CSUs throughout the state. Tucker said his experience differentiates him from his primary opponents. “I have a demonstrated ability to get things done in a meaningful way for the people I represent in difficult political circumstances. I also have demonstrated an ability to win a difficult race in a tough political climate.” His opponents, in turn, brand him the establishment candidate and say he’s too much of a centrist. “I think there’s a false choice right now between people who are willing to work with the other side of the aisle to get things done and people who are passionate,” Tucker said, perhaps looking ahead to a general election battle with Hill for moderate voters. “I think you can be passionate and willing to work with the other side of the aisle. That’s how I would describe myself. I think a lot of times [Democrats and Republicans] have common goals, and it’s just a matter of getting them together.” If elected, Tucker said, he would not support U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi as party leader. “I’ve been frustrated with the leadership in both parties. I think we need to move in a different direction,” he said. He sees plenty of common

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

BRIAN CHILSON

ground to be found between the par- his opponents for not fully embracing from individuals,” Tucker said. “People colleges (and helped him pay off his ties. Two examples, he cited: infrastruc- Medicare for All, but he said he believes are excited about our campaign. That’s own college loans). He also interned ture, including increased rural access to “health care is a right.” Instead of the what’s driving it. My focus is on the 2nd in the office of Democratic Gov. Mike high-speed internet, and immigration. single-payer plan, Tucker supports a District in Arkansas.” Beebe and earned a master’s degree Of the latter, he said, “I think most plan from Senate Democrats Michael in public service from the Clinton Americans want to have a secure border, Bennet (D-Co.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) School. His service project at the Clin‘It’s not enough’ and they want to have an immigration dubbed Medicare X, which would leave ton School was with the Ministry of process that does not pose a security existing health care sources in place JONATHAN DUNKLEY’S CALL to run Education in Belize, with which he has threat to people who live here. … I think while phasing in a public option. for Congress came from his 9-year- continued to work on service-learnthe overwhelming majority of Ameri“Everyone has the right to access old daughter. As he was doing her hair ing projects for undergraduates. After cans recognize that DREAMers are just quality, affordable health care. I think one day, she challenged him: What graduating from the Clinton School, he as American as anyone who was born there is a lot of value in providing Medi- are you doing to make the world bet- returned to the Beebe administration, here. They have a lot to contribute to care as an option. That helps close the ter? Dunkley said he reminded her where he helped administer American the country, and we need to have a path accessibility gap. But where we are of his extensive volunteer work, the Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds. to citizenship for them and keep their today, I have trouble forcing people nonprofit he founded aimed at North From there, he spent five years headfamilies together.” into that route. We have, depending Little Rock’s high school students ing the John H. Chafee Foster Care to Tucker would like to close gun loop- on the estimate you look at, between in living in poverty and his work for Independence program for youth and holes and extend federal background 150 and 170 million who get insurance the Clinton School of Public Ser- young adults leaving the state foster checks on gun purchases. He wants to from their employer. I think it’s fair to vice, but she said, “It’s not enough, care system, which was part of the state see federal support for expanded pre-K say that some, maybe not all, of those Dad, Trump is president!” Dunk- Department of Human Services. and after-school and I n 2 0 1 3, h e summer programs. founded InternaHe supports tuition tional Development relief for those who Services Inc., the enter public sernonprofit that targets vice and wants ConNorth Little Rock gress to pass a law to High School kids allow people to refiwho receive free or nance college debt. reduced lunch. The “There’s no legit reanonprofit works to son” for it to be the help youth plan for only kind of debt you their future and think can’t refinance in the in a global context. U.S., he said. Dunkley stepped S t u d i e s h av e away from day-toshown that high qualday operations of the ity pre-K reduces the organization last year. likelihood of becomDunkley pitches ing a teen parent by himself as the most 40 percent, Tucker progressive candisaid. That ties in to date in the race. He his position on aborsaid he admires Bertion. “I believe most nie Sanders and supof us want there to ports the Medicare be as few abortions for All framework in our society as posfor which Sanders sible,” he said. “The has advocated. “Makevidence shows that SPREADING THE WORD: Jonathan Dunkley visits with the members of Fairview Christian Church in North Little Rock. ing money shouldn’t making access to care be the goal of health illegal or more difficare; the goal should cult does not actube access to quality, ally reduce the number of abortions, people like their health care plan. I like ley announced his candidacy Feb. 20. affordable care,” he said. He wants it just makes them more dangerous for the approach of phasing this in, espeto increase federal funding for Pell the mother. I believe that care should cially with rural areas. We can learn Dunkley, 38, works as director of opera- Grants and work-study programs to always be safe for the mother and that as we go. Giving people more choices tions at the Clinton School. He lives in move toward debt-free higher educaLittle Rock and is married with two tion. Raising the minimum wage to $15 the better approach to reducing the drives down cost.” number of terminated pregnancies is Tucker downplays the role of the daughters. Born in Independence, La., per hour is another goal. to reduce their cause, and that is unin- DCCC in recruiting him to run and he grew up in Kissimmee, Fla., just To pay for those initiatives, he tended pregnancies. … At the end of the helping him raise funds, something south of Orlando. He started college supports legalizing cannabis for recday, this is the most intensely personal he’s been successful at doing: Despite at Louisiana State University, but reational use and taxing it. A tax on transferred to Philander Smith Coland difficult decision a person could not entering the race until February, he marijuana could generate billions of lege, where he was student governever make, and so it’s one that should had raised $505,412 as of March 31. He dollars, he said. He doesn’t want to ment president. be made between a woman, her doc- had spent $60,574 and had $444,838 legalize other drugs, but said he would tor, her family and her God — not the cash on hand. So far, Tucker is the only After college, he worked at ITT Tech, like to see the country move away from United States Congress.” candidate to run television ads. which he said gave him an insight into criminalizing addiction. Targeting govTucker has drawn criticism from “Over 90 percent of our dollars came the predatory practices of for-profit ernment waste is another way he envi16

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

THE

Inconsequential News Quiz:

BIG Eureka Murderama PICTURE

Edition

Play at home, before taking your $6,501.33 drug test! 1) The Eureka Springs City Council has been considering banning something from town. What are they thinking of giving the heave-ho? A) Weed. Good luck with that. B) Plastic shopping bags. C) Poonicorns. D) The annual “Murderama,” when all crimes are legal for 24 hours. 2) The website Think Progress recently released a report about a rather shocking waste of taxpayer funds in Arkansas. What did Think Progress report? A) A 2-year-old program to feed Arkansas Razorback football players smoothies made of liquefied $100 bills has resulted in a net gain of 1.2 touchdowns per game! Money well spent! B) That under a new state law, Arkansas spent $32,506.65 last year to drug test to five applicants for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare program, or $6,501.33 per drug test. C) To fully protect the Ten Commandments Monument on the state Capitol lawn from further vandalism, taxpayers will be forced to fund a series of concrete protectors, protector protectors and protector-protector protectors that will eventually dwarf the size of the Capitol dome. D) Inspectors found that the new $7.1 million bridge on Interstate 40 over the White River between Little Rock and Memphis is made entirely of used hot glue and Popsicle sticks. 3) Something historic happened the other day in Mississippi County. What was it? A) Johnny Cash’s boyhood home, near the small town of Dyess, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. B) Somebody correctly spelled “Mississippi County” on the first try. C) It kept on rainin’, but the levee was actually pretty good, to be honest. D) Criminal spraying of the banned herbicide dicamba led to an epic, 19-tractor battle royale. 4) Police responded to a patient’s room at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and found something that probably shouldn’t be allowed in a hospital. What did police say they found? A) A colonoscopy being performed with a iPhone on a “selfie stick,” due to massive budget cuts. B) Enough Oxycontin to choke a horse, which had, in fact, choked a Faulkner County man. C) Reasonably affordable health care. D) A Hot Springs man who police said had a full 10 pounds of marijuana secreted on his person. 5) For a limited time, the Arkansas Times is offering something pretty sweet to those who buy a $110-per-year subscription or renew their subscription for a year. What is it? A) A plastic cat litter box with Sen. Jason Rapert’s portrait shellacked to the bottom. B) Arkansas Times Senior Editor Max Brantley will come to your house for one hour per week and gripe about the topic of your choice. C) A signed copy of Times contributor Benji Hardy’s conceptual album: “I Made Rep. Justin Harris (R-West Fork) Quit the Legislature In Shame and All I Got Was the Blues.” D) A one-year concert membership to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, six tickets to the Museum of Discovery, four tickets to the Little Rock Zoo and two tickets to the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre.

Answers: B, B, A, D, D

sions paying for new programs. Although Dunkley is critical of the Republican tax bill passed last year, he said he would not push to restore corporate tax rates to previous levels. “I think it’s inappropriate [that Congress lowered the rate to 21 percent], but I’m not shocked. When we elect bankers and corporate leaders to Congress, who else are they going to look after but their buddies? But I don’t see it beneficial in the primary for me to have that as my big issue.” Dunkley supports abortion rights. “My mother was 17 when she conceived me. I’m thankful she carried me to term, but I’m also thankful she had a choice to make and it was her decision. These folks who refer to themselves as pro-life, they care about the birth of the child, but talk to them about feeding the kid, talk to them about educating the kid, talk to them about housing the kid, you hear a whole different narrative [from them]: ‘That’s the parent’s responsibility.’ ” If elected, Dunkley would be Arkansas’s first black congressman, but he said he hasn’t made race an issue in the campaign. “I’m hopeful that people will see me over my skin.” Dunkley has lagged in fundraising. His campaign staff is made up of all volunteers. He had raised $19,845, according to the most recent campaign finance records. That includes a $10,000 loan he made to the campaign. He has spent $19,124 and has $970 cash on hand. “We’re on a shoestring budget,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of my effort is getting out the vote.” He said he tells people, “If you vote and get me through May, we’ll get all the money we need” because his candidacy would be a national story. Dunkley said he’s running for Congress rather than a local office because the national Democratic Party is badly in need of young rising stars. He looks up to Sanders and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), but notes Sanders is 76 and Warren is 68. “Republican-lite is going to lose in November,” Dunkley said. Establishment politics don’t excite the Democratic base, Dunkley said, and he views Tucker as “establishment as it gets. … I just don’t see him in tune with the average Arkansan.” Dunkley sees himself as part of a movement. “We’re the future of American politics. If it’s not me, it’s the next generation of young people coming behind me with the same message. They understand we have emerging industries we have to tap into. They understand we’re saddled with student loan debt. They understand that health care costs are unsustainable and outrageous for most.”

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

Arts Entertainment AND

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EclipseCrossword.com

From ‘Treemonisha’ to ‘I Scare Myself’ An Arkansas jazz crossword puzzle. BY STEPHANIE SMITTLE

hen it comes to Central Arkansas’s musical bragging rights, where they come from depends on who you ask. Ask a metalhead and they’ll regale you with playlists chock-full of tracks from Living Sacrifice, Rwake and Pallbearer. Ask a classical musician, and they’ll point to the legacies of Florence Price and William Grant Still. The country musician beside them will cue up “Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Blues.” Anyone, though, privy to Pharoah Sanders’ February performance at Pulaski Tech or hip to Louis Jordan’s pioneering work in swing, jump blues and “soundies” — a sort of prototype for the music video — will point to the jazz music born on Arkansas soil. Here’s a brush-up (or a primer) on a handful of the state’s loudest horns and best beboppers.

EclipseCrossword.com

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

A&E NEWS

Across 5. “Treemonisha” composer, Scott _____. 7. Two words, bebop master of “Schoolhouse Rock.” 8. Namesake state for the former gangster hangout on Bathhouse Row, now home to Thursday night jazz. 9. And his Hot Licks (two words). 10. Bandleader, trumpeter and music store owner David _____. 14. Seven-stringed staple at Capital Hotel Bar, first name. 15. Louis Jordan & His Tympany ____. 17. Kavanaugh Boulevard’s jazz mainstay, currently shuttered. 19. Formed from the pit of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre orchestra, The ____ Band are regulars at The Lobby Bar. 20. Saxophonist ___ ______ JR. (two words); inspired an eponymous law.

Down 1. Late teacher and trumpeter; subject of the film “Keep On Keepin’ On” (two words). 2. Rodney Block and the Real Music ______. 3. The secret weapon jazz siren of the Rodney Block Collective. 4. The ___ ___ Horns; shares its name with a bridge. 6. This historic hotel is home to sounds from the Stardust Big Band. 11. Two words; composer Chris Parker’s suite inspired by Melba Patillo memoir. 12. Ballroom inside Taborian Hall, remnant of Little Rock’s historic West Ninth Street. 13. Two words; Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s place of birth. 16. Swing and Big Band revivalists, The Bob ____ Sounds. 18. Avant-garde tenor saxophonist, Pharoah _______.

AFTER ANNOUNCING A suspension of operations in April, the Arkansas Repertory Theatre has received two “challenge grants” to bolster “Our Next Act,” The Rep’s fundraising campaign. The Windgate Foundation has pledged a matching grant of $1,000,000, $75,000 of which was paid immediately for “operating needs,” and the John & Robyn Horn Foundation pledged a challenge grant of $25,000 for “general support.” “With these gifts,” Ruth Shepherd, chairwoman-elect of The Rep’s board of directors, said in a press release that “the Windgate and John & Robyn Horn Foundations have said loud and clear, ‘We believe in the future of a re-designed Rep.’ So now we need everyone to help us earn that match.” THE OXFORD AMERICAN magazine announced the 2018-19 lineup for its annual concert series last week. The series, which takes place at the Oxford American’s neighbor, South on Main, is broken into Americana, “Archetypes & Troubadours” and jazz categories, and will feature Josh Ritter; Aug. 23; Mwenso & The Shakes, Sept. 13; Amythyst Kiah & Her Chest of Glass, Sept. 27; Robert Finley, Oct. 18; the Fabian Almazan Trio, Nov. 1; Mandolin Orange, Dec. 6; the Sarah Elizabeth Charles Quintet, Jan. 31; Dom Flemons, Feb. 21; Bonerama, March 7; Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings and Bill Stewart, March 14; Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer, April 11; and Joe Purdy and The Boundary, April 18. Multiple-show packages are on sale now and single tickets will be available May 28 at metrotix.com or by calling 800-293-5949.

$20 Early Bird Tickets available up to May 11, tickets are $30 beginning on May 12 for Tour on Saturday, May 12 from 1-4 and Tour on Sunday, May 13 from 1-5. Mother’s Day Brunch, Sunday, May 13, is 11-1 at Curran Hall ($50 ticket includes tour ticket). Candlelight Tour, Saturday, May 12, ($150 per ticket) is 5-7, followed by dinner at 7:30 at Philander Smith.

Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com

QQA_2018_Spring_Tour_Poster_PR.indd 1

EISNER AWARD-WINNING graphic novelist Nate Powell is to release “Come Again” in July, a 272-page, fullcolor tale of a hilltop “intentional community” in the Ozarks. Powell, a North Little Rock native, became the first cartoonist to win the National Book Award in 2016 for his work on “March: Book Three,” the third part of an illustrated memoir on the life of civil rights icon U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.). DUANE JACKSON IS The Weekend Theater’s third and newest artistic director. Jackson succeeds Jamie Scott Blakey, who stepped down in March and who called Jackson “the perfect choice. … He has the heart and compassion for TWT and what we stand for, the theater knowledge and experience that is needed, and the respect of many theaters in Central Arkansas.” Jackson’s history with The Weekend Theater reaches back to 1997, and includes over 75 plays as an actor and 13 productions as director.

feature concert

2/27/18 8:46 AM

JT TRAWICK MAY

11 • 7

P.M.

Known for his smooth, clear voice and authentic phrasing, Jonathan “JT” Trawick continues a rich tradition of singing from deep within the Ozark hills.

OzarkFolkCenter.com TICKET INFO:

870-269-3851

CABIN RESERVATIONS: 877-879-2741

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arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

THE

TO-DO

LIST

BY J.T. TARPLEY, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND LINDSEY MILLAR

THURSDAY 5/10

ARKANSAS TIMES MARGARITA FESTIVAL 6 p.m.-9 p.m. River Market Pavilions. $25.

Margarita mavens, now’s the time to strut your salt, at the second annual Arkansas Times Margarita Festival, with tequila by Don Julio. Mixologists from The Pizzeria, 109 & Co., O’Looney’s & Loblolly Creamery, Taco Mama, Revolution Taco & Tequila Lounge, Cache, Doubletree-Bridges, La Terraza, the Ohio Club, Bleu Monkey Grill, Samantha’s Tap Room and Wood Grill, Big Whiskey’s and Ernie Biggs will put their own twist on tequila in the potent competition for Best Margarita, offering up

ROLLIN’, ROLLIN’, ROLLIN’: Holly Laws’ work in rawhide will be on display at the Historic Arkansas Museum on 2nd Friday Art Night.

2ND FRIDAY ART NIGHT 5-8 p.m. Galleries and other downtown venues.

A lively May after-hours gal- with works by LGBTQ artists and lery cruise is on tap this Friday as allies, and the Marriott Little Rock, Lost Forty serves samples of its with work by The Art Group Galcraft brews to folks who take the lery members. Living history is the rubber-wheeled trolley between lure to the Old State House Muart venues. Those who choose to seum, where there will be music walk will also be rewarded: There from Michael Carenbauer, demwill be outdoor visual and per- onstrations of WWI life on the forming artists on the plazas on ei- home front, Army camp life, Red ther side of the Main Street bridge. Cross activities and more: Rally for All travelers will find new exhi- women’s suffrage! Gallery 221 feabitions at the Historic Arkansas tures a “Round Robin” show with Museum (“Secret Stories: Anais work by the gallery’s second-floor Dasse and Holly Laws,” with live artists (Mike Gaines, Michael Darr music by Sad Daddy); the Butler and Larry Crane), and Bella Vita Center Galleries (“Andrew Roger- Jewelry will be a shopping destison: Landscapes”); River Market nation with harvest and gift items Books and Gifts (“46,” by John from Boggy Creek Beehives and Kushmaul); and Matt McLeod Bell Urban Farm, set to the tunes Fine Art Gallery (new work by of The Creek Rocks. The trolley Henry James). Returning to the will run continuously from 5 p.m. lineup are the Antigallery at Sway, to 8 p.m. LNP

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

THURSDAY 5/10

AUSTIN LUCAS 9 p.m. White Water Tavern.

FRIDAY 5/11

samples of more than 20 varieties of the concoction. There will beer to cleanse the palate and Capt. Morgan Rum drinks, too, for sale, and Taco Mama and La Terraza will sell food to sponge up the spirits. Because you want your friends to see you having a good time, Colonial Wine & Spirits will provide a photo booth in which to set up your selfies; Latin ballroom Club 27 will provide music to move to. Those still standing can get into after-parties at Willy D’s and Prost free with their wristbands. LM

It’s a well-trod and beerdank barroom floor, that intersection in the Venn diagram of country, punk, folk and rock. Austin Lucas’ last album, “Between the Moon and the Midwest,” sits as close to the sweet spot right in the middle as any you’re likely to find this side of Uncle Tupelo or Rank & File. That 2016 album, inspired by a weed brownie-induced sleepless night, Cormac McCarthy and ’60s psych-pop like Zombies and Os Mutantes, is a lovely collection of music, layered and textured with Lucas’ twangy vibrato on counterpoint to an ever-present pedal-steel swooping and a chorus of guest spots from names familiar to the Arkansas Times’ To-Do List: John Moreland, Lydia Loveless,

Cory Branan, et al. Lucas’ new commitment to strong production continues on his upcoming album, “Immortal Americans,” which will be guided under the jumpsuited auspices of none other than Steve Albini. And that, y’all, is cooler’n hell and probably fuzzier’n anything else we’re used to. But those acoustically inclined fans are in luck: Reports are that Lucas will be releasing a second album this year, “Field Recordings,” a slab of strippeddown, acoustic recordings released by Last Chance Records. Fans at the White Water Tavern (his website calls it “our favorite bar in the world”) surely will get a heaping helping of material from both. JT

IN BRIEF

THURSDAY 5/10

FRIDAY 5/11

JUSTIN MOORE 7:30 p.m. First Security Amphitheater, River Market. $23-$50.

JASON MEYERS

Poyen’s favorite son is maybe also the most famous current resident of Saline County. Right now, Justin Moore is 4x platinum, with three albums posting at No. 1 on the country charts, and one single that has the funniest title in years, “You Look Like I Need a Drink.” His last album, 2016’s “Kinda Don’t Care,” turned down the achy heart nostalgia and turned up the, well, it just straight up turned up. Suddenly, the minor key longing turned into major key songs of drinking and defiance (“Stuff like that makes me wish I had more middle fingers!”) with the occasional synth wobble thrown in for good measure. It’s a sort of triumphant move away from emo-country of “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” to a buzzed exasperation with the jackasses of the world that reminds you why country moved out to the sticks to begin with. Going back home is one of the most time-tested themes of country music, and this hometown gig from a country superstar is likely going to be a Jack-hoisting, hatwaving celebration local country fans won’t want to miss. JT

‘YOU LOOK LIKE I NEED A DRINK’: Poyen native Justin Moore returns to Arkansas for a show at First Security Amphitheater.

FRIDAY 5/11

KELLER WILLIAMS 8:30 p.m. Rev Room. $20.

Keller Williams? Like the real collaborating with String Cheese estate company? No! Wait, Keller Incident, pairing up with Leo Kottke, Williams, like the guy who — if you the progenitor to his own 12-string squint real hard — kinda looks and funk (“Freeker by the Speaker” is the sounds like Jack Black? Yes, that grandson of “June Bug,” no doubt), and one! But Keller Williams, to me, is an adherent of the greatest American like a jam scene Bert from “Mary band ever as a member of bluegrass Poppins,” a whirling dervish of a one- Dead act Grateful Grass and leader of man band that’s all loop pedals and Grateful Gospel. That’s only the tip like half a dozen guitars strapped of it. Williams is maybe the hardest around his back, flitting back and working man on the circuit and his forth onstage, from a Theremin on projects seem to multiply by the day. one side to a drum machine on the Where does he get the time? And other. It’s really a sight to behold. He’s where does he get the extra fingers? also a jam journeyman extraordinaire, No 10-digited person should be able

to play like that. He defines his solo sound as ADM: acoustic dance music. No doubt, if your butt is inclined to shake to slaps, thumps, pops, scrapes and fingerpicking, this is the place to be. Recommended starting place: the aforementioned “Freeker By the Speaker,” his 2002 diss track to the crusty, wook-ish twirlers and dusty ravers that congregate like king rats at shows. It’s a jam classic now, but 16 years ago it was the mind-blowing song of my own summer and still gets me psyched. JT

Argenta’s The Main Thing celebrates its sixth anniversary with a catered meal, drinks and a one-night-only performance of the comedy trio’s best-loved sketches and songs, 6 p.m., $50, see Eventbrite for tickets. Yuni Wa, Desi Doom, Cool Chris, MVKLXUIS, Klubhouse, Hector Slash and others present “Night in the Woods 3,” a concert at Stickyz Rock ’n’ Roll Chicken Shack, 9 p.m., $8. Dunbar Garden’s “Music in the Garden” series kicks off with a meal from Low Ivy Catering and music from Dazz & Brie, 6 p.m., $5. The Arkansas Travelers take on the Springfield Cardinals, 7:10 p.m. Thu., 5:10 p.m. Fri., 6:10 p.m. Sat., 2:10 p.m. Sun., $7-$13. Soprano Mary Ann Robinson, English hornist Beth Wheeler and organist David Glaze play works by Cherubini, Piazzolla and Conte for “Songs of Love and Remembrance — Music to Celebrate Mother’s Day,” 7 p.m., Trinity Presbyterian Church, 4501 Rahling Road, free. Comedian Cash Levy takes the stage at The Loony Bin, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 10 p.m. Fri.Sat., $8-$12.

FRIDAY 5/11 “Come Early Morning,” the 2006 film written and directed by Arkansas daughter Joey Lauren Adams, screens at Argenta Community Theater as part of the Dogtown Film Series, 8 p.m., $5. Lydia R. Diamond’s “Stick Fly” opens at The Weekend Theater, 7:30 p.m. Thu.-Sat., 2:30 p.m. Sun. through May 26, $12-$16. Big Silver returns to the White Water Tavern, 9 p.m. Oklahoma songwriter and longtime Hayes Carll sideman Travis Linville brings “Wishes” and other stories to Four Quarter Bar, 11 p.m., $7. Dazz & Brie take their “rock ’n’ soul” to Gigi’s Soul Cafe & Lounge, 9 p.m., $15-$20. Harrisong performs at Bar Louie in West Little Rock, 8 p.m. Rich Aucoin shares a bill with Pissin’ Comets and The Chemtrails at E.J.’s Eats & Drinks, 9:30 p.m., $5. The Creek Rocks bring their musicological string band set to Kings Live Music in Conway, 8:30 p.m., $5. Hard rockers Stone Sour play the Clear Channel Metroplex with Palaye Royale and ’68, 7:30 p.m., $35. Howard & Skye duet at Cregeen’s Irish Pub, 8 p.m. Southern rockers The Shotgun Billies take the stage at Oaklawn Racing & Gaming’s Silks Bar & Grill, 10 p.m. Fri.Sat. Mayday By Midnight performs at Stickyz, 9 p.m., $8. Tan the Terrible takes his rhymes to Vino’s Brewpub, 8 p.m., $8. Raising Grey kicks off the weekend with happy hour at Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m., free, or stay later and catch dance tunes from The Electric 5, 9 p.m., $5. Splendid Chaos plays a set at West End Smokehouse, 10 p.m., $7.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 23

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arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

THE

TO-DO

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BY J.T. TARPLEY, LESLIE NEWELL PEACOCK, STEPHANIE SMITTLE AND LINDSEY MILLAR

SATURDAY 5/12

RELIVE YOUR PROM 2018 7:30 p.m. Robinson Center. $69/singles, $99/couples.

You know, I honestly can’t re- fun, dancing and drinks, and want to member anything about my prom. I experience them for one more night, was primed for a great night, but it sort oh, brother, do I have an event for you. of bleeds together with my equally pa- “Relive Your Prom 2018” offers adults thetic graduation night. Seems like my the chance to party the night away favorite part of prom must have been downtown at Robinson Center with my friend Brad, who shaved his beard music, “mature beverages” and other into a Doc Holliday mustache for the adults turning back the clock. “Relive occasion. You get promised some sort Your Prom” isn’t just for folks who of color and magic through all the ’90s loved it the first time around, it’s for teen movies you were raised on and people who want to take a mulligan on end up getting Brad’s mustache in- their old, disappointing prom nights: stead. Ain’t that life. Me, I revile — I “Redeem Your Prom,” if you will. mean, relive — those years enough Sounds fun. Groups of 12 get in for the while searching for a scrap of meaning discounted rate of $499, couples tickon my therapist’s couch. But if you as- ets are $99, and singles tickets are the sociate your teen years and prom with very nice price of $69. JT

SATURDAY 5/12

QUAPAW QUARTER SPRING TOUR OF HOMES 1 p.m. Sat., 11 a.m. Sun. $20-$150. MAKERS’ SHOW AND TELL: Photographer, videographer and musician Rah Howard is among the creators at the North Little Rock Mini Maker Faire this Saturday.

SATURDAY 5/12

NORTH LITTLE ROCK MINI MAKER FAIRE, DELTAMADE 10 a.m.-4 p.m. North Shore Riverwalk. Free.

What greater testament to Toolkit; German-inspired fare the human spirit is there than from The Wunderbus; tabletop our knack for taking the stuff games from Little Rock Games; around us and make cool shit Drew Lovell’s “Short Circuit”out of it? In one set of hands, inspired design for a real-life a plank of cedar morphs into “Johnny Five” robot; handmade bevel siding for a log cabin; in Bluetooth speakers from Rock another, it becomes a vehicle City Thumps; hand-stamped for imbuing a side of wild- jewelry from City Chick; denim caught salmon with earthy from Raiz Apparel; music from flavor. The North Little Rock Big Piph, John D Neal, MonMini Maker Faire celebrates sterboy and Rah Howard; maccreators in all their forms — cu- rame wall hangings from The linary, musical, technical, me- Earth Divine; and a ton more. chanical and otherwise. Stop Stick around afterward for Delby the north shore of the Ar- taMade, a mini-festival (also kansas River on Saturday to free) featuring performances check out vibrant handbags from Delta Region artists Big from Ofaolain Leather; pendant Piph, Charlotte Taylor and crystals from Lane’s Arcanum Dazz & Brie. SS

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

It’s a big year for this Little Rock springtime mainstay. The Quapaw Quarter Association is celebrating its silver 50th anniversary, and this, the 54th annual spring tour of homes, is honoring the 60th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High by focusing on some of the greatest homes in the Central High School Neighborhood Historical District. This year features six homes on Schiller, Summit and Battery streets, including the incredible Martin A. Sharp House, a Queen Anne-style home that marked the first construction on the block when it was purchased in 1899. It’s one

of our city’s greatest neck-craners, and here’s your chance to finally explore its interior, along with five other grand old Little Rock homes in this celebrated, architecturally significant neighborhood. The QQA takes to Philander Smith College on Saturday night for a candlelight dinner and silent auction staring at 5 p.m., followed by a private tour. Those tickets are available for $150. Sunday morning brings an 11 a.m. Mother’s Day brunch to Curran Hall, to be followed by an early afternoon tour of homes. Those tickets are $50 per person, and include the aftermeal tour. JT

SATURDAY 5/12

45TH ANNUAL TERRITORIAL FAIR 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Historic Arkansas Museum. Free.

There’s new fare at this year’s fair, thanks to free ice cream custom-made for the day by Loblolly Creamery and homemade root beer from Diamond Bear Brewing Co., but that’s just part of the attraction of celebrating a day in May the way folks did a couple of hun-

dred years ago. Weaver Louise Halsey, the Arts Council’s 2017 Living Treasure, will demonstrate rag rug weaving, and master bladesmith Lin Rhea will be laboring over a hot fire in the blacksmith shop. There also will be Mother’s Day card-making in the Old Print

IN BRIEF, CONT.

SATURDAY 5/12

Shop with blocks made by Russellville woodcut artist Neal Harrington. Animals from Heifer International will lend a bit of woolly authenticity to the pre-statehood agrarian way of life and there will be demonstrations of natural dye making and cooking. Pioneer games involving zero need for screens or cellphone towers will return, along with performances by the Arkansas Country Dance Society and live music. The custom ice cream will take its inspiration from territorial days; you can vote on a name for the new flavor through the week on HAM’s Facebook page. For heartier sustenance, Cypress Knee Food will have lunch for sale, including a territorial-themed specialty. LNP

SUNDAY 5/13

CHICAGO 7:30 p.m. Verizon Arena. $50-$90.

Few bands draw a range of response like Chicago. Now entering its 51st year as a touring unit, with 24 studio albums under its belt, “the rock band with horns” has guided itself, in name at least, through virtually the entirety of contemporary rock history. Line up Chicago’s albums and you’ll get a pretty uneven oeuvre, but one album seems to stand out as an exemplary classic. 1970’s “Chicago II,” which the band will perform in its entirety Sunday night, is a proggy, bigband jazz-rock monster full of threepart harmonies, a DuPaul-trained horn section and some truly wild guitar moves by the late, great Terry Kath. Folks who were there may remember the album for “Ballet for a Girl In Buchannon” and “It Better End Soon,” the two song cycles that occupy the bulk of the album. Younger heads will know it from Chicago’s greatest song, “25 or 6 to 4” — still an unparalleled headbanger, as far as dad rock goes. (And, it just occurred to me, it’s a riff bit clean off by Green Day on “Brain Stew.”) The show’s second half, which the band calls “the world’s longest encore,” runs down the group’s greatest hits. Classic rockers, you know what to do. JT

Tacos & Tianguis 2018 benefits El Zocalo Immigrant Resource Center, 6 p.m., The Bernice Garden. Geoffrey Robson conducts the music of John Williams for Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark: In Concert,” 7:30 p.m. Sat., 3 p.m. Sun., Robinson Center, $15-$68. DOT, Or and Kami Renee play a show at Capitol View Studio for the benefit of Trust Tree Songwriting Camp for Girls, 9 p.m., $10. The Flatland Funk Donors keep it funky at Four Quarter Bar, 10 p.m., $7. Elsewhere in North Little Rock, Chris Tomlin presents “Worship Night in America” with guests Kim Walker-Smith, Matt Maher, Christine D’Clario, Tauren Wells and Pat Barrett, 7 p.m., Verizon Arena, $15-$130; and Argenta Community Theater hosts a screening of “Top Gun,” 8 p.m., $5. The Salty Dogs and Cherry Red team up for a country and boogie show at White Water, 9 p.m. Primus and Mastodon team up for a loud, weird bill at the Walmart AMP in Rogers, 7 p.m., $43-$57. CALS’ Ron Robinson Theater screens “The Organizer,” a film depicting the story of ACORN founder Wade Rathke, 1 p.m., free. ESSE Purse Museum hosts a bridal show with vendors from small businesses and a fashion show, 11 a.m., Bernice Garden. Amity Road performs at the Rev Room, 8 p.m., $8-$21. Alex Summerlin performs for happy hour at Cajun’s Wharf, 5:30 p.m., free, or stay later for a show from Canvas, 9 p.m., $5. Jet Black Alley Cat brings its crisp arrangements and bubblegum harmonies to Stickyz, with opening sets from Quiet, Please and The Rios, 8:30 p.m., $8-$10.

MONDAY 5/14 Los Angeles punk rockers Spanish Love Songs perform at White Water, with Attagirl and Pancho Casanova, 9 p.m., $7.

CHRONIC CELLARS WINE DINNER Join us Tuesday, May 15th at 6pm

ENJOY 4 MAGNIFICENT WINES AND1 SPARKLING PAIRED WITH CHEF CARLOS’ UNIQUE ITALIAN CREATIONS FOR $80 PER PERSON CHRONIC CELLARS representatives will personally be presenting five of their unique creations from the Paso Robles Vineyard. Guests will enjoy four Chronic red blends and one delightful Sparkling. The menu will consist of traditionally prepared Italian cuisine.

TUESDAY 5/15 Claire Denis’ “White Material” is next up in the Arkansas Times Film Series, 7 p.m., Riverdale 10 Cinema, $9. Jazz guitarist Isaac Helgestad plays at CALS’ Esther D. Nixon Library in Jacksonville as part of its “Sounds in the Stacks” series, 6:30 p.m., free.

WEDNESDAY 5/16 The Creek Rocks play for a benefit for the Democratic Party of Arkansas at White Water, 6 p.m., $10. Author, activist and Rev. John Dear speaks about his book “They Will Inherit the Earth: Peace & Nonviolence in a Time of Climate Change,” 7 p.m., St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, 12415 Cantrell Road.

PRIVATE PARTY ROOM AVAILABLE 7811 Cantrell Rd #6 • Little Rock (501) 224-9079 • www.littlerockgraffitis.net

Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com

Follow Rock Candy on Twitter: @RockCandies

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

Dining WHAT’S WHAT’S COOKIN’ COOKIN’

YOU KNOW HOW some people dream big but the ideas never pan out? Well, the aluminum flues and paneling spilling out of Gusano’s, 313 President Ave., is proof that owner Tim Chappell is making good on his announcement in February that he was bringing back the venerable Shack Bar-B-Q. Chappell has the recipes for the original Shack (est. 1934) from partners Jenny and Bruce Slaughter, descendants of the original Shack owners. In February, Chappell was working with the city to get its approval for the smoker; now, with the smoker equipment going in and the new construction, it looks like it won’t be long until barbecue is available in the River Market district and Gusano’s will become The Shack. Chappell is hoping to bring in blues music, too. MEANWHILE, JIMMY’S SERIOUS Sandwiches, home of the prize-winning Garden Sandwich, continues its renovation of the kitchen and dining area of the Cox Creative Center gallery and bookstore operated by the Central Arkansas Library System at 120 River Market Ave. PIZZA BY THE SLICE from Raduno Brick Oven and Barroom, beer from Stone’s Throw Brewing and music by the Buh Jones Band are turning an alley off the northwest corner of Main Street and Daisy Bates Drive into a party scene. The event, Thursday, May 17, is the Downtown Little Rock Partnership’s first Alley Party of the season, presented by the Lasiter Group. The event runs from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. LOST FORTY BREWING found its way to the winners’ table at the 2018 World Beer Cup competition, earning two bronze medals at the May 3 event in Nashville, Tenn. Its Wild Barrels Project No. 5, a sour beer based on its Day Drinker Belgian Blonde and brewed in collaboration with home brewers, won in the “Experimental Beer” category, and its Double Love Honey Doppelbock won in the “GermanStyle Doppelbock or Eisbock” category. There were 8,234 beers entered from 2,515 brewers from the U.S. and abroad in the three-day biennial event. To try the brews, head to the brewery at 501 Byrd St. in the East Village. Lost Forty was the sole Arkansas medalist. THE UPSCALE RESTAURANT Vault at 723 opened last week at 723 Central Ave. in Hot Springs with a ribbon-cutting ceremony sponsored by the city’s Chamber of Commerce. The menu features such high falutin’ items as lamb belly, conch fritters and roasted oyster go-befores and beef, lamb, pork chops, trout, scallop, salmon, duck, and seafood and grits entrees. “The C.E.O” is a four-pound Tomahawk that will set you back $95 (it comes with fries). The restaurant is located in the former Citizens Bank, hence the name. 24

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

PACKED WITH TASTE: The pierogis, which in come in so many varieties they fill a page on Alexa’s menu.

Special in Spa City Alexa’s answers the call forpierogis, crepes.

ometimes the building a restaurant is in can tell you something about what’s inside. Maybe it’s a renovated version of an old downtown haunt, built with hipster care. Maybe columns or hoity-toity decor hint at a level of undeserved pretension. And sometimes you can find a one-of-akind place in a nondescript strip mall. Alexa’s Creperie is one such restaurant, found a good distance away from the often-congested Central Avenue. On the Sunday morning we visited, three warm, friendly hosts wearing matching red Alexa’s T-shirts greeted us in this bright, clean and cheerful space, its decor on the charming side of kitschy. Large murals provide sea views from a lush Mediterranean-style courtyard with 3D paper butterflies flittering about. It’s obvious that the owners and staff take pride in their Follow Eat Arkansas on Twitter: @EatArkansas

restaurant. That pride extends to the food. An entire page of the menu is dedicated to pierogies, so we figured they must be special. We opted for the pork version ($7.49 for six, $9.49 for 12). Six prim and perfectly crimped golf-ball-sized pouches came huddled together, brushed with garlic butter and sprinkled with lightly fried minced garlic. Sour cream and balsamic vinegar for dipping came on the side. We recommend having a little of both with each bite, though the pork filling enveloped in a hearty, elastic dough is tasty on its own. Like the pierogies, the fresh crepes were everything we wanted them to be. They’re not complicated or fussy, but attention has been given to every detail. The crepe batter is a neutral backdrop that allows the fresh ingredients, sweet

or savory, to shine. The No. 1 ($9.95) comes with sauteed mushrooms and onions, Swiss cheese and scrambled eggs. We added prosciutto and spinach ($1.45 each). The No. 3 ($9.99) is filled with sauteed green peppers and onions, tomatoes, spinach and cheddar cheese with two slices of bacon on top. Each comes with a choice of sauce — Mediterranean or Hollandaise. We opted for the former. It’s sour cream-based with basil, garlic, olive oil and fresh herbs, and came highly recommended. The sauce was nice, although the crepes were so good we kept forgetting to use it. The crepes were as good as those we’ve had across the pond — satisfying and filling, but not heavy. And that’s good because you’ll want to try a sweet one for dessert. We had Alexa’s favorite ($9.25), which is highlighted on the menu and pictured on the cover. It’s a folded and plump triangle stuffed with fresh strawberries, blackberries and lightly sweetened whipped cream, and topped with fresh blueberries, a dusting of

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AMERICANOS AND MORE: Alexa’s has a good coffee menu.

powdered sugar and sugar crystals, with a drizzle of strawberry compote. Even with a large group that came in for lunch, our server was attentive and helpful. The owner checked in on

us a couple of times throughout our meal. It’s a real family affair at Alexa’s. We had both a meal and an experience of a culture and food that the Polyakov family takes pleasure in sharing.

Alexa’s Creperie 173 Marion Anderson Road Hot Springs 501-760-4799 alexascreperie.com Quick bite

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The pierogies come in a vegetarian version filled with buttery mashed potatoes, onions and sauteed mushrooms ($6.49 for six, $8.49 for 12). They’re hearty and good. If you like coffee, there’s a great coffee menu as well. An Americano ($3.50) gave us just the jolt we needed. Tuna and ham sandwiches available as well.

Hours

9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Other info

Credit cards accepted, no alcohol.

North Little Rock | Conway | HideawayPizza.com

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

Enjoy an Over the Top Hollywood Inspired Night as the Arkansas Times Honors the Winners and Finalists Of the Best of Arkansas Readers Poll.

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSASâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;TIMES

LOCAL RECREATION Place to Swim Cheap Date Park Resort Golf course Weekend Getaway Gym/Place to Work Out Hiking trail Place to mountain bike Place to canoe/kayak/tube Marina LOCAL ENTERTAINMENT Rock band or artist Country band or artist Hip-hop artist or group Jazz band or artist DJ Live music venue Dance club Karaoke Trivia Live music festival Local actor/actress Local theater Artist Author Poet Photographer Comedian Filmmaker Neighborhood festival Late-night spot Gay bar Sports bar Bowling alley Movie theater Museum Performing arts group Place to gamble LOCAL FOOD AND DRINK Food festival French fries Onion rings Cheese Dip Ribs Wine list Arkansas-brewed beer Liquor store Sushi Salad Business lunch Brunch Happy hour Cocktail Baked goods

Milkshake Vegetarian Caterer Outdoor dining LOCAL PEOPLE AND POLITICS Politician Athlete Liberal Conservative Best Arkansan Worst Arkansan Best Little Rocker Worst Little Rocker Best Little Rock City Board Member Worst Little Rock City Board Member Charity Charity event Philanthropist Misuse of taxpayer funds/property LOCAL MEDIA Radio station Radio personality TV station TV personality TV meteorologist TV sports Newspaper writer Blog Website Podcast Twitter feed Instagram feed LOCAL GOODS AND SERVICES Grocery store Women’s clothing Men’s clothing Hip clothing Children’s clothing Vintage clothing Lingerie Shoes Antiques Furniture Garden store or nursery Landscaper Hardware/home improvement Eyewear shop Farmers market Outdoor store Bicycle shop Gun store Commercial art gallery Mobile phone provider Internet service provider

Residential real estate agency Commercial real estate agency Pest control and termite service Auto service Auto stereo Travel agency Hotel Private school Public school Apartment complex Bank Home, Life, Car Insurance company Commercial insurance agency Lawyer Barbershop Hair Salon Nail salon Spa Diet/Weight Loss Center Jeweler Pharmacy Physical therapist Massage therapist Med spa Cosmetic dentist Auto dealer RV/camper dealer Motorcycle dealer Home entertainment store Sporting goods Toys Florist Plumber HVAC Repair Gift shop Veterinarian Dry cleaners Artisan Designer/decorator Hobby shop Music store Bookstore Pawn shop Landscape design Funeral home Retirement community Yoga studio Chiropractor Tattoo shop Vape shop Investment adviser Company to work for

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

A&E FEATURE

of Arkansas

TREE POSE WITH PIGSKIN: Wendy Cook welcomes all who want to tackle the practice of yoga to join her on the 50-yard line for fun, food and cocktails in this benefit for Our House.

presents…

Mary Flower Thursday May 17 7:30 p.m. The Joint

301 Main Street North Little Rock

Tickets $25

Wooooo, pranayama! “Marries acoustic blues with touches of ragtime, folk, and jazz…the interplay is always interesting, often provocative…” — Living Blues

Available at the door or online at www.argentaacoustic.com

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSAS TIMES

Arkansas Times kicks off ‘Yoga on the Field.’

he action on the field at War House, presented by Baptist Health. Memorial Stadium on Saturday, The event, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., will May 26, won’t involve shoulder open with 60 minutes of flowing poses pads and tackles, but it will involve “ending with a deep rest on the 30th, holding, if just for a moment, a pose 40th or 50th yard line,” Cook said. Food, for the Arkansas Times’ first “Yoga on cocktails and Smirnoff Spiked Sparkling the Field” with yogini Wendy Cook. Seltzer will follow in the south end zone. Cook, who attended many a foot- Tickets are $20 and may be purchased ball game at the stadium when she was at centralarkansastickets.com. growing up, said she’s excited to bring All folks need is a mat; Cook will taipeople together for a “different type lor the classes for all comers, from folks of movement” in this benefit for Our who think downward dog involves a

Claire Denis’s

“WHITE MATERIAL” 7 P.M. TUESDAY, MAY 15

$9.00

RIVERDALE 10 VIP CINEMA, 2600 CANTRELL RD

501.296.9955 | RIVERDALE10.COM ELECTRIC RECLINER SEATS AND RESERVED SEATING

Yoga at Rodney Parham and Interstate 430, and holds classes at the Downtown YMCA at Sixth and Broadway. She also has a corporate practice, teaching yoga and mindfulness at The Bridgeway, Woodland International and Simmons Bank. The happiness you feel on the mat “follows you out into life,” Cook said. Especially when there’s nosh and a cold Spiked Seltzer Orange Mango waiting for you on the same turf that Darren McFadden and the Rolling Stones once trod. The beneficiary, Our House, provides shelter and job assistance to previously homeless or near-homeless individuals and families.

Rebecca Miller Stalcup, artistic director, p r e s e n t s

May 18-20 Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre T I C K E T S

A r k a n s a s D a n c e . o r g

501-227-5320 • info@arkansasdance.org

BRIAN CHILSON

canine to people who can twist themselves into pretzels. The idea is not to score ashtanga touchdowns, but to come together “in community,” Cook said, and engage in activity that is healing, empowering and fun. Cook suffered from ankylosing spondylitis, arthritis of the spine, but said her yoga practice has put the disease in remission, freeing her from the “aches and pains I used to have.” She said yoga is “good for everything,” from lowering cholesterol to lessening stress, which would come in handy for Razorback football fans. Be in the moment! Don’t worry about the last game’s score! Or the next! Cook teaches at her studio, Big Rock

A R K A N S A S F E S T I VA L B A L L E T

Get tickets at centralarkansastickets.com

arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

Sip LOCAL ARKANSAS TIMES

MAY 10, 2018

ARKANSASâ&#x20AC;&#x2C6;TIMES

B U RG

WE R E

ROCK(

JUNE 9-17

(2 WEEKENDS!) WHO DOESN’T LOVE A GOOD BURGER? From beef or turkey to portabella or veggie—or even with a gluten-free bun!—we really know how to ROCK burger week in central Arkansas. This event gives readers a chance to taste all of the best burgers that the Rock has to offer. THE BEST PART? Optional burger pricing: $10 or under (sides are an additional cost).

WHAT ELSE DO READERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BURGER WEEK ROCK(S)? ¶ Restaurants WILL be busy, so: get there early, have a backup plan and maybe try again the next day. ¶ There will be a wait, since we’ve been talking about delicious burgers since May. ¶ You will tip as though the burger is regular price. This should go without saying, but step up to the plate with a 20% tip, and say “Thank you” for the sweet deal. ¶ Buy a beverage and maybe some other delectable food to enjoy with your burger. So, when appropriate, have a beer or cocktail. ¶ Stay updated with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and (of course) arktimes.com

ARKANSAS TIMES MARKETPLACE MIZAR

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JOIN THESE FINE RESTAURANTS FOR THIS EXCITING EVENT!

Doe’s Eat Place • Stickyz Rock-n-Roll Chicken Shack Grumpy’s Too Neighborhood Bar & Grill Black Angus • Lazy Pete’s • Ciao Baci AND MORE TO COME!

PUBLIC NOTICE– DTLRS_007C

AT&T Mobility, LLC is proposing to collocate an antenna on new 31-foot utility pole at 1809 15th Street, Little Rock, Pulaski County, AR. Public comments regarding the potential effects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30-days from the date of this publication to: Courtney Gaskill – CBRE, 70 West Red Oak Lane, White Plains, NY 10604, whiteplainsculturalresources@cbre.com or (914) 694-9600.

You’re Invited!

Four page section in the JUNE 7 ISSUE. The event is limited to 30 participating restaurants. Posters and social media promotional materials will be provided.

DEADLINE IS MAY 30.

Let’s show off that delicious burger.

Sat. May 12, 2018 • 6-9pm Food • Drinks • Crafts • Music

Thank you to ou

*Created by and benefiting immigrant families served by El Zócalo Immigrant Resource Center

Free Admission!

Thank you to our Supporters! WWW.ARKTIMES.COM • 201 E. MARKHAM, SUITE 200 • (501) 492-3994

Free adm

Thank you

Support is provided, in part, by the Ark Support is provided in part by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment of the Arts. Support is Heritage, provided, in part, Department of Arkansas andb Department of Arkansas Her arktimes.com MAY 10, 2018

MAY 10, 2018

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