Red Wing Daily: May 14, 2024
"the more you know...."
State
Old news but not refiled (yet): Attorney Matt Campbell’s lawsuit that exposed the controversy over the $19,000 podium and First Gentleman Bryan Sanders’ travel records “was dismissed on procedural grounds because Sanders had not been served within the 120-day deadline after the suit was filed,” after Campbell’s bid to extend the deadline was denied. He says he’ll refile.
Campus unrest spurs lawsuit: Former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Jones officially filed a defamation suit against Arkansas Senate President Pro Tem Bart Hester in Pulaski County Circuit Court centered around a tweet on X about “recent protests on college campuses tied to the conflict in Palestine and the Israeli response.”
Medicaid for all? Arkansas is one of many states looking to “provide Medicaid health care coverage to incarcerated people at least a month prior to their release” from jails/prisons, an endeavor described here as “bipartisan.”
Fighting the good fight against library filth: Former state Senator Jason Rapert continues to fight against the leftist Arkansas State Library Board, losing two recent motions with 1-6 results as he tried again to withhold state funding for “any library that allows unrestricted access to books or materials that contain sexually explicit, obscene or pornographic materials to minors.” Rapert forced the Board to provide a listing of those materials earlier this year.
Wielding power: Governor Sarah Sanders appointed Maria Sullivan to a 7-year term on the AETN Commission; she’s the wife of state Senator Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro who is seeking to defund the network after a 2022 messy audit showed AETN circumventing “state laws related to contract bidding, possibly intentionally.” Meanwhile, after an NPR journalist exposed the truth about the network’s leftist-dominant staffing and content, a poll shows 44% want to cut NPR’s taxpayer funds, while 26% say keep the cash going and 31% are not sure.
National
Count “everyone” or just citizens? Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards saw his “Equal Representation Act” pass the House last week by a 206-202 partisan vote and then the measure was read for the first time in the Senate (“where Democrats have a majority and similar legislation has been introduced and parked to go nowhere”). The measure would require that apportionment for the U.S. House and Electoral College include only U.S. citizens. Currently the U.S. Census includes “all persons.”
A party to celebrate their disdain for us: The House Intel Commitee co-chairs hosted a D.C. “bipartisan celebration” dubbed FISAFest after the House approved an extension of the abused Section 702 program that allows warrantless spying of American citizens. This, after the two “worked to kill an amendment that would have forced FBI employees to get search warrants before reviewing the communications of Americans swept up by the program.” Republican Speaker Mike Johnson broke the House 212-212 tie that passed the legislation in April.
Intense backlash, do you think? The final dismantling of the Boy Scouts came last week with the name change to “Scouting America,” but public backlash was so intense the organization shut down comments when they announced their latest news on X.
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