Red Wing Daily: February 8, 2025

"the more you know..."

State

• First annual fundraiser: The Gun Owners of Arkansas hosts its first annual fundraiser “devoted to helping the 4H Shooting Sports in Arkansas” is set for Saturday, February 15, with speakers Congressmen Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Bruce Westerman along with State Land Commissioner Tommy Land and the head of state and local affairs for the national Gun Owners of America, Chris Stone. (Speakers are appearing at no charge.) Land’s daughter Jamie (who’s prominent in the Young Republican National Federation, was Arkansas Best GOP 2022 Volunteer, and was Secretary of State John Thurston’s spokesperson) is Master of Ceremony. $100 prepaid tickets include your meal.

• That didn’t last long, ICYMI: Less than two weeks after he filed it and after loud and strong opposition on social media, Republican state Rep. (Dr.) Lee Johnson of Greenwood pulled his onerous HB1168 that would have “provided criminal immunity or healthcare professionals for negligent acts or omissions.” BUT, we weren’t so fortunate on HB1204 (sitting on Sanders’ desk for signing), where our lawmakers put the insurance companies' interests above the idea of penalizing those who carry health coverage.

• Arkansas going green, anyway? Total electric vehicle registrations jumped 61.57% to 58,387 in 2024 from 36,137 in 2023 says the Department of Finance & Administration. Where are they? Around 60% of them are in Pulaski, Benton and Washington counties, no surprise.

• When your JP is a state lobbyist: Faulkner County JP Tyler Lachowsky’s newest job is with Arkansas’ former ABC Director Steve Goode’s lobbying firm Natural State Consulting & Strategies. Over the last couple of election cycles, Lachowsky had also partnered with fellow Faulkner County JP Kris Kendrick to run an political consultancy group focused on electing Republicans/conservatives.

• Still going for it: J.B. Hunt is the newest addition to (and only road transportation company in) the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index, worldwide “global sustainability benchmarks: worldwide based on “corporate economic, environmental and social performance, assessing issues such as corporate governance, risk management, branding, climate change mitigation, supply chain standards, and labor practices” that “reject companies that do not operate in a sustainable and ethical manner.”

• Governor Sanders’ prison: Senator Bryan King’s suite of bills to counter Governor Sander’s boondoggle of a prison plan are sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee with “no upcoming events” (as of today)
  SB144 allowing “close-to-home” partnerships for jails for inmates from the state’s top 8 counties that account for about 2/3rds of the state’s prison inmates XXXX in the Senate Judiciary Committee today
  SB143 reallocates $100 million in sales tax revenues to a public safety fund for the State Police to coordinate with sheriffs and Division of Community Correction for “crime reduction/prevention”

  SB145 allows funds from litigation about the General Improvement Fund to be used for crime reduction programs and support services for the Division of Community Correction.

• No mandatory body cams bill? State Rep. Scott Richardson withdrew his HB1219 requiring body cams for law enforcement officers the same day last week the House Judiciary Committee was due to discuss.

• Demand is rising; watch your 2026 ballot: Arkansas’ medical marijuana sales in 2024 were down more than 2% compared to record sales in 2023, but the pounds sold were up more than 20%, says the Department of Finance & Administration.

• She’s been everywhere: Governor Sanders spent much of the week around Inaugural Day appearing at various rallies and events on behalf of President Trump, including speaking on Inaugural Day. She was at Davos for two events at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), and then hosted a White House roundtable on school choice “with top GOP governors” on January 31.

• Tightening the ballot(?) Three election bills by state Rep. David Ray and Senator Kim Hammer made it through the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday. Passing committee only on a close voice vote were HB1221 that would codify a “long-standing practice” of preventing citizen referendum initiatives from carrying over through more than one election cycle, and HB1222 that would “expand the AG’s authority to reject” a proposal if it conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or federal statutes.” HB1223 would allow “a candidate for the Arkansas Supreme Court or the Court of Appeals who is currently serving in that position as an appointee to use that position as a prefix on the ballot,” and it passed unanimously.

• Winning against selective discrimination: State Senator Dan Sullivan’s SB3, banning preferential treatment by public entities, passed the House and is on the Tuesday’s agenda for the Senate State Agencies & Governmental Affairs committee. A similar bill had failed in the 2023 legislative session.

• Watch ‘em! We urge you to keep your eyes on our state lawmakers as the 95th General Session is about halfway through. As just one example, take a look at all the interesting proposed Constitutional amendments set for discussion in that Senate State Agencies committee on Tuesday, along with state Senator Kim Hammer’s raft of “election integrity” legislation. Another totally unacceptable piece of legislation is Democrat Senator Clarke Tucker’s SJR12 that would bring rank choice voting to Arkansas.

• GOP lawmakers ignore Trump’s agenda: State Rep. Aaron Pilkington’s HJR1010 would have aligned Arkansas state entities with President Trumps executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. But it failed at the starting gate when it failed the House Management Committee this past week.

• ”Deworming,” really? Senator Alan Clark’s SB189 would legalize over-the-counter sales of ivermectin, the still-controversial-for-Democrats drug shown to be effective in treating COVID. Funny that KARK insists on defining Clark’s legislation as the “deworming” bill, in the face of what we now know is scientific proof of its effectiveness (just one example, emphasis added):

  Meta-analyses based on 18 randomized controlled treatment trials of ivermectin in COVID-19 have found large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance. Furthermore, results from numerous controlled prophylaxis trials report significantly reduced risks of contracting COVID-19 with the regular use of ivermectin

National

• What is birthright citizenship, anyway? We know what it’s NOT: It’s not in the Constitution and it’s not in our Declaration of Independence, either. Here’s what you should know about the constitutional and moral case for limiting birthright citizenship. Mark Levin took a dive into the history behind it on a recent show. Two federal judges have placed temporary blocks on President Trump’s executive order ending the practice; we’re the only country in the world that still allows!

• Shein & Temu shoppers are happy: The USPS temporarily suspended inbound packages from China and Hong Kong earlier last week after President Trump signed an Executive Order eliminating “de minimis treatment” (duty-free) handling of packages worth less than $800. However, after temporarily stopping the flood of those Shein & Temu orders (and anything else from China), the administration rescinded the stoppage after looking at likely difficult supply chain backups; the U.S. Customs & Border Protection bureau handled about 1.36 billion de minimis shipments in 2024! So, if you’re into allowing China to harvest all your personal data just to get cheap prices on cheap goods via shopping on Shein and/or Temu, you get a reprieve until “after the U.S. commerce secretary establishes a system to “fully and expediently process and collect tariff revenue.”"

• Congress blocks, Trump parries on Israel military aid: After Congress “placed a hold on the $1 billion military aid package to Israel” that President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday, the State Department “has formally told Congress that it plans to sell more than $7 billion in weapons to Israel” because Trump says “they bought them.”

• Going after ‘em all: Yes, we’re in “Trump time” now, making it difficult to keep up with all the exceptional news from our President’s White House. We’re still excited to see the D.C. acting U.S. Attorney has sent a “letter of inquiry” putting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on notice about that egregious threat he made about Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh: “You have unleashed the whirlwind and you will pay the price!” on the Roe v. Wade ruling.

• Defending life: “Trump pardoned nearly two dozen pro-life activists who were prosecuted under the FACE Act by the previous administration.” Here’s who they are.

Tech

• Careful about posting those pictures! GeoSpy, an AI tool, “can derive a person’s location by analyzing features in a photo like vegetation, buildings, and other landmarks” in just seconds — a task that used to take “quite some time of training and experience.” Developed for government and law enforcement, GeoSpy is being used by bad actors to stalk specific individuals. “This means that even the most non tech-savvy individual could find a person of interest based on pictures posted on social media, despite the fact that social media strips the metadata—which could include GPS coordinates or other useful information—from these pictures.”

• Location, location, location can determine the price you pay? “Companies are showing customers different prices for the same goods and services based what data they have on them,” including including details like precise location, demographics, browsing patterns, and/or shopping history, a tactic the FCC calls surveillance pricing.

• Trump’s tech broligarchs: From TikTok to rolling back Biden’s attacks on the AI industry, here’s a rundown on how Trump’s “first 100 days” is affecting the tech industry.