Radio - Print - Web

1168 Hwy 71S

Mena, AR 71953

Phone: 479-243-9600

Fax: 479-243-9603

Email: news@mypulsenews.com

KENA 104.1 - KQOR 105.3

MyPulseNews.com

Our Team:

Ashley Moore - General Manager

Ethan Nahté - Production Manager/Editor

Patrick Massey - Contributing Reporter

John Russell - Graphic Design

Josh Barker - Account Executive

Alexis James - Account Executive

Curt Teasdale - Programmer / On-Air Personality

Trey Youngdahl - Reporter / Photographer / On-Air Personality

Ariel Varner - Receptionist/On-Air Personality

Distribution & Insertion Staff:

Edward Werkhoven, Danielle Stewart & Chaz Welch

The Polk County Pulse is the area’s premiere and fastest growing news publication. The Polk County Pulse is FREE and published weekly on Wednesdays, with a distribution of 8,000 and an estimated readership of 10,000. MyPulseNews.com has hundreds of visitors daily and KENA and KQOR have thousands of listeners hourly.

POLICY: The publisher reserves the right to reject or cancel any advertisement at any time. All property rights, including any copyright interest, in any advertisement produced by Pulse Multi-Media and/or The Polk County Pulse using art work and/or typography furnished or arranged by Pulse Multi-Media and/or The Polk County Pulse shall be the property of Pulse Multi-Media and/or The Polk County Pulse. No such advertisement or any part thereof may be reproduced without the prior written consent of Pulse Multi-Media and The Polk County Pulse.

POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements of a political nature must be prepaid and must also include the name of the entity paying for the advertisement. If an entity other than the candidate the advertisement is endorsing is paying for the ad, a statement must be signed by the candidate verifying the candidate has seen and approved the advertisement.

To the Editor:

In my inbox today (0121-2023) was an email from Representative Bruce Westerman. The main topic was our debt ceiling. We have reached our debt limit and there is frantic activity to move money around to pay our bills to keep us from default on our loans, something that would be devastating globally in the financial markets, and would affect our credit rating, ability to borrow money, and interest we pay on our loans.

This is not new but rather the result of wild and reckless spending for a long time by both parties. Failure to have a budget and stick to it has only worsened the problem. I have heard the innocent sounding phrase of “ kick the can down the road” many times. Not funny and somewhere we need to start living within our means. If you did not know, the national debt is in excess of $31.42 TRILLION as of December of 2022.

We cannot print money to get out of this hole. That only makes things worse and lessens the value of money in circulation now. To put things in perspective every citizen of the US has a share of this debt to the tune of $ 93,870. To cover our share of the debt would require our household to sell our home and withdraw our retirement savings and still be short. Sooner or later, you will tire of my reference to illegal immigrants and the toll they take on us, but it is real and cannot be ignored, and makes a bad situation worse for them and us.

I thought that China held the biggest chunk of our debt, but my

Want to share your opinion?

research showed that Japan holds $1.3 Trillion as opposed to China at $972 Billion. I am not trying to demonize either country for our debt. We asked and they provided. We are at fault here and need to come to terms with where we are, how we got here, and what we need to do to turn around the catastrophe that looms on the horizon.

Think about what you buy and where is comes from. Again, I am not trying to make the Japanese or Chinese the bad guys here. I blame, for a large part, American companies that moved factories overseas for cheap labor, and we the consumers, for buying what they make and ship back.

Our government is not without blame and could have stopped this greed but did not. If we stop our spending on foreign goods, it cannot help but reverse our trade deficit with these countries and force our greedy corporations to bring jobs and manufacturing facilities back home. You are either part of the problem or part of the solution. Read labels, not just nutritional values and calories, but where things come from.

As always, I thank you for a forum to express my thoughts, though we may peacefully disagree.

With respect and kindest regards, Ronald Goss, retired, Mena

The Polk County Pulse welcomes letters to the Editor addressing any topic of interest to our readers. To be published, letters must not contain obscene or libelous language. Letters do not reflect the viewpoints or opinions of Pulse Multi-Media.

The letter must include a signature to be considered for publication. Signatures will NOT be held out by request. Letters will be restricted to 500 words. Any letters longer than 500 words will require purchase of advertising space.

The following contact information is required when the letter is submitted: NAME, AGE, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER.

Letters are published at the discretion of the Editor and Publisher.

Letters may be submitted by e-mail to news@mypulsenews.com; mailed to P.O. Box 1450, Mena, AR 71953 or dropped off at 1168 Hwy. 71 South, Mena, AR. A drop-box is provided by the front door for after-hour convenience.

TO SUBMIT: NEWS ITEMS / ANNOUNCEMENTS / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR / SPORTS UPDATES / CALENDAR ITEMS / CLASSIFIED ADS

Email: NEWS@MYPULSENEWS.COM

On the 5th week of the Regular Session, the House passed legislation addressing substance abuse, teen pregnancy, public assistance, and transportation.

The House passed HB1144. This bill creates the Arkansas Family Treatment Specialty Court Act.

The bill states that there is a critical need for judicial intervention and support for effective treatment programs to reduce the number of family separations due to substance use disorders and mental health disorders.

HB1144 address that by creating a specialized court within the court system, similar to our current drug courts.

The House also passed the Support for Pregnant and Parenting Students Act.

HB1161 allows pregnant and parenting students to have an additional 10 days of excused absence after the birth of their child. This bill also ensures adequate nursing facilities are provided by schools to parenting students.

The House passed two bills this week regarding qualifications for public assistance.

HB1197 would disqualify a person from collecting unemployment compensation for any week he or she fails to respond to a job offer or fails to appear for a job interview.

HB1196 would require an able-bodied person to work, train, or volunteer in order to qualify for and receive public housing. Several exceptions are outlined in the bill.

In addition, the House passed HB1182. This bill aims to address the state’s shortage of large animal veterinarians by providing clarity regarding the certification of a veterinary technician specialist and defines a collaborative agreement between a veterinarian and a specialist.

The House passed SB43 which defines an adult-oriented performance and adds certain restrictions.

And the House passed a couple of transportation bills.

HB1324 would allow law enforcement officers to pull over a driver who does not have their headlights on when it is raining, snowing, or any time the windshield wipers are being used.

SB47 repeals a law that prohibits leaving a running vehicle unattended.

The deadline to file proposed constitutional amendments was Wednesday of this week.

In all, 33 proposals were filed. Constitutional amendments are typically one of the last items to be addressed in the session. You can review the proposals at arkansashouse.org.

LITTLE ROCK –Backed by a host of legislators, the governor revealed details of her education package. The proposed changes in public school funding would be numerous and far reaching.

They include large increases in teacher pay and the expansion of literacy programs for young children.

A point of focus is the governor’s proposal to greatly expand school choice. Parents would be more able to afford private or parochial schools for their children, with subsidies from the state to help pay for tuition.

The governor’s proposal would allow parents to create Education Freedom Accounts, which they could use to pay for tuition at private or parochial schools. The accounts would receive an amount equal to 90 percent of state per pupil expenditures. This year, foundation funding is $7,413 per pupil.

The state Education Secretary said that details are being finalized, but key legislators said that the accounts would be phased in over three years.

In the first year, families would be eligible if their children attended schools rated “F” in school report cards. Also eligible the first year would be children of active duty military parents, children in foster care, children with special needs and children in low-income families would be eligible.

In the second year, children would become eligible if they attended a “D” rated school. In the third year, all children would be eligible.

The education package includes a repeal of the cap on the number of open enrollment charter schools allowed in Arkansas. The cap is now at 34 charters. There are 22 open enroll- ment charters, although several of those operate multiple campuses. Under current law, when the number of charters increases to within two of the cap, the cap automatically increases by five.

The governor’s plan would repeal limits on transfers.

High schools would offer career education for students who want to enter the work force after graduation, rather than going to college.

Teacher salaries in Arkansas would jump from 48th to fourth in the country, under the governor’s plan. Now, the minimum teacher salary is $36,000 a year and it would go to $50,000. There are more than 15,000 teachers who now earn more than $36,000 but less than $50,000, and they would get raises to bring them up to the minimum.

The proposals include hiring 120 literacy coaches to work throughout the state. Students in kindergarten through the third grade who struggle with learning to read would qualify for a $500 stipend to pay for a tutor.

Students would have to read at a third grade level before advancing to the fourth grade, under the governor’s plan. According to standardized assessments, only 35 percent of third graders in Arkansas can read at grade level.

Good teachers could get a bonus of $10,000 under the governor’s plan, and they could get 12 weeks of maternity leave. The plan would repeal the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act.

The package includes school safety measures. The governor mentioned crisis response training and mental health awareness training.

Under the governor’s plan, students would have to complete 75 hours of community service in order to graduate.

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service accepting 2023 EQIP-High Tunnel applications

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 6, 2023

–The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Arkansas will provide at least $1 million in fiscal year 2023 for the utilization and implementation of high tunnels on agricultural land through the Environment Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

High Tunnels are designed to help producers extend the growing season, increase productivity, keep plants at a steady temperature, and conserve water and energy. The EQIP high tunnel sign-up will be administered through the ACT NOW approach, which is a targeted, rapid, and streamlined application and contract approval process.

The EQIP-High Tunnel application deadline is March 13, 2023, however through the streamlined application and contract approval approach, applications will be assessed and ranked as they are submitted to the USDA Field Service Center. Based on funds availability, application assessments with a ranking score of 100 points or greater will be pre-approved immediately for the first batch of funding. Producers are encouraged to apply for the High Tunnel funds at their earliest convenience. Additional sign-up batches may be announced at a later date, subject to the availability of funding.

All USDA Service Centers are open for business. Visitors wishing to conduct business with NRCS should call ahead and schedule an appointment. To locate a local field office, visit https://offices.sc.egov. usda.gov/locator/app.

Beef production meetings

The U of A Division of Agriculture Research and Extension office will hold a beef production meeting at 6 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Extension Education Building, 211 Dequeen St., Mena. A meal will be provided, so please call 479-394-6018 to register. Topics will include herd health, parasite control, understanding cattle markets and what controls them, and farm management apps.

More beef

A separate organization, the