Opinion

State Capitol Week in Review

In the 2025 Regular Session, the Arkansas House of Representatives passed a series of impactful laws to improve education statewide, prioritizing students, teachers, and school communities.

May 1, 1975

This is Arkansas Tourism Week, May 3-9, which reminds me of the one and only vacation that our family ever took. We never had the money for such things and most of the time didn’t have a car that was capable of making much of a trip. But, even if we had been able to afford a trip every year and had owned the finest vehicle made, one trip would have still been enough for our folks. We nearly drove them out of their minds, and we only went up to Southern Illinois… a trip that can be made between suns in today’s high-speed automobiles.

Part 7: Calves in the Butcher Shop. Killing Clayton is a limited weekly column about a corrupt election, the assassination of possible Clay County namesake John Clayton, and the shadow it cast on Arkansas history.

During the 2025 Regular Session, the Arkansas House of Representatives approved a set of laws designed to strengthen the state’s leading industry—agriculture— through tax relief, land protections, food-security measures, and streamlined regulation.

The legislature agreed on three proposed amendments to the state Constitution.

The other day we were talking about school children selling things and I confessed that if I have the money on me and… if they take the trouble to come knock on my door… I will likely buy whatever it is that they are selling whether I need it or not. But if they try to sell over the telephone or have their mothers doing all the work, I’m really not too interested. I never did much selling when I was in the Elementary grades, mainly because I couldn’t be trusted. See, I had this habit of selling only until something better would come along, then I would just quit and spend what money I had collected. When the teacher started tallying up, I would be in big trouble because I would be out of Cloverine salve or packets of garden seeds but have no money to account for them. About two or three instances like that at school and after a week of threats to call Pistol Pete to come lock me up, mama would convince me that I was traveling on borrowed time and that she better never again find items to be sold in my book satchel. I also got in pretty well over my head one Summer on a punch board acquired from a woman down the street. The deal was to take the punch board around town asking people to punch. They would pay so much (anywhere from one to 29 cents per punch) and after the board was all punched out, the golden seal would be removed to see who had won the grand prize, Shucks, after a couple of days my curiosity took over and I sneaked off alone and raised that golden seal. Then I had to do away with the punch board. On this deal it was different, very different! I didn’t even get into too much trouble. Mama and the woman who let me have the punch board had it round and round and mama even threatened to call the law to come take her away to the calaboose because at that time punch board had been outlawed for children under a certain age, even though we still sneaked off to Clyde Lasater’s Grocery Store every time we go our hands on a penny, trying to win the chocolate rabbit or whatever was the grand prize at that time. We always took a delegation of witnesses along and here we would be all ganged around the candy counter with maybe one or two pennies, trying to decide which might be the lucky punch.

The Corning School Board met at 5:00 p.m. on April 21 with four members present. Chris Shourd was unable to attend. The board approved the minutes followed by the approval of the financial report as presented. The board approved the 2024 Legislative Audit followed by the approval of certified and classified salary schedules for 20252026. Next the board approved the renewal of student insurance from Monarch Management/

The legislature completed the 2025 regular session after approving a balanced budget, increasing public school funding, making higher education more accessible and improving maternal health care.