Fed Disaster Aid Coming
Red Wing Daily: May 25, 2025
President Trump has now approved federal disaster aid of various kinds for 39 Arkansas counties after the tornadoes, flooding, and storms that crossed the state between April 2 and 22, after Governor Sarah Sanders said… read more
ICYMI: The Left predictably pounced when President Trump rejected Governor Sanders’ first request for federal disaster aid after our March 14-15 bad weather, but what about the state’s record budget surpluses? Should Arkansas open its pocketbook even more to help?
State
Will they or won’t they? First, as they said they would, a spokesperson for CVS Health said on Friday they will close all 23 of their pharmacies in Arkansas by the end of 2025, after state lawmakers this spring passed HB1150/Act 624 banning pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning or operating pharmacies, making Arkansas the first state to pass such a measure. But, wait … on Saturday, per a company spokesperson, CVS says it’s “looking at all available options to stay open and continue to serve Arkansans.” ?? A January 2025 FTC report says CVS, Cigna, and UnitedHealth PBMs were charging hundreds of thousands of percent markups for many cancer and other critical specialty generic drugs. Among other findings, the report says “affiliated pharmacies generated over $7.3 billion of dispensing revenue in excess of their estimated acquisition cost” over the six-year FTC study.
Fighting back: On their fourth try, the League of Women Voters and Save AR Democracy finally got their popular name and ballot title approved as they spearhead the fight to repeal changes to the citizen initiative/referendum process sponsored by Secretary of State candidate/Senator Kim Hammer in this year’s legislative session. The next step to placing it on your 2026 ballot is gathering 90,704 valid signatures (under the Legislature’s newly passed constraints) for “An Amendment Concerning Constitutional Amendments, Initiated Acts, and Referendums.”
AG Griffin says it’s about FOI: The Arkansas Supreme Court ordered AG Tim Griffin’s “FOI lawsuit” against the Board of Corrections back to Circuit Court after Circuit Judge Tim Fox dismissed it in January, 2024, thus continuing the dispute over the Board’s hiring of its own attorney to navigate problems with Governor Sanders’ (possibly unconstitutional?) reach into the Board’s activities; meanwhile, the Governor doggedly pursues her ill-conceived plans for that 3,000-bed prison in Franklin County,
Just say NO to crypto: Vilonia did just that when the City Council, “to raucous applause,” rejected a proposed cryptomine inside city limits that’s backed by Interstate Holdings Blockchain, which is owned by Steve Landers Jr. of the well known Arkansas auto sales family.
Election season never ends: Senate Republican leader Blake Johnson announces his re-election bid for 2026, picking up endorsements from Governor Sarah Sanders, Lt. Governor Leslie Rutledge, and AG Tim Griffin. And 3rd District Congressman Steve Womack will run again in 2026 for his ninth 2-year term in Congress.
National
U.S. Steel & Nippon “deal” on GO: President Trump has announced a partnership worth nearly $14 billion for Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel to keep the company in America (and Arkansas), after the Biden Administration “had rejected Nippon's proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel under national security grounds — and Trump had also expressed opposition to an outright sale.” The President writes this deal means “US Steel will REMAIN in America…. From Pennsylvania to Arkansas .. AMERICAN MADE IS BACK.”
Split SCOTUS stops religious charter school: The Supreme Court deadlocked in a 4-4 decision this week that supports and keeps an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling barring the state from approving a Catholic-based charter school that would have been the first in the country to use public tax funds.
Just repeal the IRA! The House Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill says “technology-neutral production and investment tax credits for clean electricity [mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act] will be fully phased out” by 2028 where earlier drafts showed partial credit available through 2032. Originally estimated at $271 billion over 10 years, IRA energy subsidies cost $536 billion within a year of passing the IRA and now is at $1.2 trillion over 10 years!
Another Judge says NO to MAGA: U.S. District Judge Myong Joun agreed last week with Democrat-led states to issue a temporary injunction to block the Trump administration’s RIF (reduction-in-force) of Department of Education employees, saying the Trump Administration’s “true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute.”
Tech
Google’s deep pockets: Texas AG Ken Paxton reached a $1.375 billion arrangement with Google to settle a couple of lawsuits relating to Google’s undisclosed collection of biometric and geolocation data as well as data collected in private browsing mode. Paxton’s going after the big payouts and the Google deal is his second-largest settlement so far; Paxton pursued a $1.4 billion payment from Meta (Facebook/Instagram) last summer, also over undisclosed collection of biometric data.
Americans have—time and again—taken up arms in liberty’s defense. Knowing the ferocity of war and the immensity of sacrifice it exacts, they have nonetheless followed the spirit of our Founders who pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the support of freedom.
The debt we owe to those who have left home and family to serve this cause is beyond measure—but our greatest debt of all is to those who fell in battle. Their ranks are legion. The stories of their heroism, countless. Many of them lie beneath the soil of distant lands and many here at home. Their final bivouac may be a well-kept cemetery or an unknown, unmarked field or lane or shore, but glory guards each one well. These heroes who fought with all the faith and valor that free men can muster.
Oliver Wendell Holmes expressed a fitting thought when he said, “at the grave of a hero, we end not with sorrow at the inevitable loss, but with the contagion of his courage.” I join all of you who proudly share that spirit in your own service to our nation as you pay tribute to these brave Americans. May we always walk in the light of their memory, the light of liberty, which shines from age to age, and still illumines the way forward.
God bless you.
God bless America.
— Ronald Reagan, March 30, 1987
Great article!