Red Wing Daily: April 11, 2024
"the more you know..."
State
Do your JPs just skip meetings? In Jefferson County (Pine Bluff), three duly elected Justices of the Peace refused to participate in the regularly scheduled April 2 Quorum Court meeting and another JP was absent, leading JP Danny Holcomb to immediately adjourn with no quorum. Chairman of the Court’s Human Resources committee, Holcomb says the County’s "business needs to be take care of,” and that the stunt is holding up the County Road Department. Pine Bluff’s in bad shape, and these JPs sure don’t seem to be contributing to solutions!
Entergy is accused of holding off on more robust power connections to the MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) due to — what else? — big financial incentives that’s resulted in a “chokepoint” in the amount of power flowing between MISO’s northern and southern regions that can result in “major inefficiencies on both sides” and “hurt electric customers.”
Catherine Hausman, an associate professor at the Gerald Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, says two Entergy subsidiaries, Entergy Louisiana and Entergy Arkansas, would have “seen profits lowered by $930 million in 2022 under market integration.”
Entergy says the report is “false and misleading,” while MISO declined comment, even though it plans to “upgrade the connection in the years to come…”
Yep, the Governor got her copy in late March, and her office has requested an “extension to submit its response to the audit’s findings” from the state’s legislative auditors, who have also released the requested “Podium-gate” audit report to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee co-chairs for their “inspection.” Co-chair Republican Representative Jimmy Gazaway says he “expects the report on the purchase to be released to the public within the next 10 days.”
The biennial Fiscal Session of the Arkansas Legislature began this week; a quick look at the calendar shows a pretty steady schedule of joint Budget Committee meetings on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday.
At the end of the fiscal session, members of each party in both chambers will choose their leaders for the 2025 legislative session, including Speaker of the House and Senate President Pro Tempore.
Republican Reps. Johnny Rye of Trumann, Brian Evans of Cabot and Jack Ladyman of Jonesboro are running to succeed House Speaker Matthew Shepherd, R-El Dorado, who is running for reelection but stepping down from the speakership.
Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, is seeking another two-year term and faces a challenge from Sen. Terry Rice, R-Waldron.
National
Many of us know how unexpected medical debt can ruin a family’s finances. Now the CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) will take up rules later this year “to bar medical debt from consumer credit reports,” while collection industry officials “say the agency’s efforts are misguided … ‘we’re going to sweep this problem under the rug so that people can’t see there’s this medical debt out there.’”
