Red Wing Daily: April 10, 2025
State
Watching the Capitol: Arkansas citizens won as SB227, a very good FOI bill defining a “public meeting” — lauded by the Arkansas Press Association, independents, and MAGA voters alike — is now sitting on the Governor’s desk awaiting her signature and SB376 (Senator Alan Clark’s “replacement” end-run around the entire FOIA) was defeated in the House State Agencies Committee on Wednesday.
Another vote today on that $750 Million prison for Governor Sanders: Looks like the Senate will vote again today (vote #6?) on SB354 — after taking a day or so off from the public voting bonanza. Wondering who got compromised and what was offered in the last couple of days??
Weaponized drones: The state House defeated another bill, HB1504, Rep. Stephen Meek’s try at creating a legal framework around “robotic devices and uncrewed aircraft equipped with weapons.” The lopsided vote was 14-65, with 12 non-voting (same as a “no” vote).
Republicans killed that good bill: After Senator Dan Sullivan’s bill SB536 to abolish the State Library & Board barely cleared the Senate on April 2, it was killed in the House State Agencies Committee on Wednesday evening after five Republicans voted “no.” Republican Reps. Jeff Wardlaw, Stan Berry, Mark McElroy, Howard Beaty and Jeremy Wooldridge joined Democrats Andrew Collins, Denise Ennett and Nicole Clowney to take out the bill.
What about those pharmacies? The Legislature passed HB1150 that bans pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from owning retail pharmacies while also “managing” prescription drug programs and setting prices; the bill is on the Governor’s desk. However, this is just one of several issues the Governor has not weighed in on, despite garnering strong reactions from Arkansas voters, so there’s no indication of whether it will be signed into law.
Yep, it was a cyberattack: “Pulaski County and Circuit Clerk Terri Hollingsworth acknowledged … that a cybersecurity incident led to a system outage at the office. The Pulaski County system went offline on Jan. 16 and remained offline into February” and “could not process licenses, voter registrations and real estate documents.” (The Legislature has passed several cybersecurity-related bills, including HB1548, HB1549 - Arkansas Cybersecurity Act, and HB1557.)
National
Proved us wrong (thankfully): Despite our skepticism, Senator Tom Cotton joined his Republican colleagues to approve Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of Defense for Policy in a 54-45 vote. Turns out, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was the only Republican opposing Colby’s confirmation, based on his disagreements with Colby’s stances on Europe, Ukraine, and the Middle East.
Some “Agri Senators” want to stop: Seven Senate Republicans are backing “legislation that would force Congress to take an up-or-down vote on the president’s new tariffs.” The Trade Review Act of 2025 by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democrat Senator Maria Cantwell “would limit Trump’s ability to impose unilateral tariffs without the approval of Congress.” (Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska has said he’d introduce a companion bill in the House.) Signing on with Grassley (Senate pro tem) are Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Todd Young of Indiana, and Susan Collins of Maine. Moran, Tillis, and Young come from states with large agriculture sectors. Where does Senator John Boozman, Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, stand?
And all the people said… President Donald Trump is “more popular now than before he sent the global markets into a frenzy by enacting sweeping new tariffs.” A new poll of over 1,000 registered voters conducted from March 31 to April 3 says the President’s approval rating rose to 53 percent, a 4-point increase over last week when it was 49 percent.”
Tech
FBI warning: Ever searched for a free online file converter, say to convert a Word file or document to a .pdf format? It’s a risky proposition, says the FBI Denver Field Office. They warn users that “scammy websites offering free online file converter services” are increasingly “actually loading malware onto victims’ computers” that can cause ransomware attacks, adware, and other unwanted, difficult, and possibly expensive problems. Any easy way to avoid these issues? Just say “no” and don’t use “free” online services like this.
Amazon & privacy: In mid-March, “Amazon announced its Echo devices will no longer have the option to store and process requests on the device itself, meaning your voice recordings will now be sent to the cloud for processing” … the feature “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” has been removed. “Amazon promises the recordings will be deleted after Alexa processes your requests if you enable the “Don’t Save Recordings” setting (we recommend you do this).”
A.F. Branco, Townhall, April 9, 2025
