Red Wing Daily: March 4, 2024
"the more you know ...."
State
Please take a moment today to remember our dear friend Pamela Boyd Shields and pray for her family. This review of “Power Women of 2023” is spot on about her life and how she influenced us all. To honor her, “Be always sure you’re right, then go ahead!”
The Arkansas Board of Corrections is a hot mess of conflicts and problems with the Governor. Late in February, Governor Sanders joined in to try to force Board member Alonzo Jiles to resign after sexual abuse lawsuits against the Lord’s Ranch Church Camp alleged that Jiles as a staff member there covered up for the abuse. So far, Jiles has refused to step down. The Lord’s Ranch was owned by a major donor to Governor Mike Huckabee, Ted Suhl, who was convicted in 2016 of paying state officials bribes for inside information.
In early February, Board member (and Parole Board Chair) Jamol Jones resigned about a week after Sanders appointed him once it became public that he was fired from the Benton Police Department in 2018 after admitting sexual encounters with a minor. Jones was a Sanders appointee. Back in December, Sanders demanded that BoC Chair Benny Magness resign, which he also refused to do, and she recently sparred with the Board over her hand-picked Secretary of Corrections Joe Profiri.
AG Tim Griffin wants to “remind you” about his Election Integrity Unit, established in 2023. "It's really important that voters have confidence in our election system and the integrity of voting in Arkansas. The good news is, we have a great track record in Arkansas of secure elections and that's because we have numerous officials at the county level. and at the state level," Griffin said.
National
After hearing oral arguments in February, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide if the First Amendment should block a pair of laws created to help conservatives tackle Big Tech censorship. At issue are the Texas and Florida laws that prohibit social media companies from suspending political candidates and media publications.
Tech companies, represented by the trade group NetChoice, argue the laws give the government too much control over online speech in violation of the First Amendment and have the potential to usher in a patchwork of different internet laws rooted in political whims of state leaders.
Speaker Mike Johnson appointed Congressman French Hill as one of 24 bipartisan congressional task force members who will study artificial intelligence. California GOP Congressman Jay Obernolte co-chairs the task force with California Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu… The Task Force will “produce a comprehensive report that will include guiding principles, forward-looking recommendations and bipartisan policy proposals developed in consultation with committees of jurisdiction.”
A lawsuit brought by the RNC in New York saw an appellate court rule “that no, non-U.S. citizens cannot vote in our elections,” a case that could have allowed some 900,000 non-citizens to cast votes in New York’s municipal elections.