Redistricting Picking Up Stream – New SoS Website | The Tolbert Report

Jason Tolbert: We are gearing up to redistrict the state representative districts based on the 2010 census. This will be exciting given the fact that growth rates for various sections of the state are markedly different.

Pat Moynihan

Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted the future of public unions and the demise of the welfare state.

Arkansas earthquakes

The Texarkana Gazette has a report on recent earthquakes in Greenbrier, Arkansas. As far as I know, experts do not think that recent earthquake activity is related to the New Madrid fault.

High-speed rail projects

Obama thinks we need to build high-speed trains. George Will explains why this is a bad idea. In fact it makes no sense at all. It's a boondoggle. Think: Amtrak does not make a profit, and cars move people more cheaply.

Frank Buckles

Frank Buckles, the last WWI veteran, has died at age 110. His story is here. George Will also tells Buckles' story.

Oscars

I watched the Oscars last night until I fell asleep. Kirk Douglas flirted, Melissa Leo dropped the F-word, Christian Bale forget his wife's name, King's Speech won, etc. Oh, well.

Duke Snider, RIP

Duke Snider, one of the Boys of Summer, is dead at 84. He helped the Brooklyn Dodgers win the World Series in 1955. I hope I got all of that right.

Voting for the national interest, not self-interest

Michael Barone: As usual he nails his topic. Why are so many modest-income white voters rejecting the Obama Democrats' policies of economic redistribution and embracing the small-government policies of the Tea Party movement?

The recoil in 2010 against the Obama Democrats' vast expansion of the size and scope of government seems to have a cultural or a moral dimension as well. It was a vote, as my Washington Examiner colleague Timothy P. Carney wrote last week, expressing "anger at those unfairly getting rich -- at the taxpayer's expense."
Those include well-connected Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs that got bailed out and giant corporations like General Electric that shape legislation so they can profit. They include the public employee unions who have bribed politicians to grant them pensions and benefits unavailable to most Americans.
A government intertwined with the private sector inevitably picks winners and losers. It allows well-positioned insiders to game the system for private gain. It bails out the improvident and sticks those who made prudent decisions with the bill.
Modest-income Americans think this is wrong. They want it fixed more than they want a few more bucks in their paychecks.

Exactly the way I feel. The old New Deal politics of sharing the wealth won't work any more, if they ever did.

Breathalyzer results: .234 and .239

Former president of MADD is arrested for DUI in Florida.

Losing the Alamo

A Texas demographer, Steve Murdock, says "it's basically over for Anglos." Texas, he says, is made up of two groups, an old and aging Anglo population and young and minority Hispanics. Thirty years from now Texas will be far different than it is today.

Sex is cheap

Slate: "Why young men have the upper hand in bed, even when they're failing in life." This is easy to understand. There is an over supply of women, especially in colleges and universities. This leads to a sexually permissive culture. See Marcia Guttentag's Too Many Women? The Sex Ratio Question.

Put them on a milk carton

The missing 14 Wisconsin legislators get their own ad.

A drink a day

BBC News: A alcoholic drink a day can help keep heart disease away. That's a moderate drink.

Robert Costrell and the sweetheart deal of Wisconsin teachers

Robert M. Costrell, professor of education reform and economics at the University of Arkansas, has an article in the WSJ entitled, "Oh, To Be a Teacher in Wisconsin." What a sweet deal! Fringe benefits cost nearly as much as their salaries. In Milwaukee, teachers get $56,500 but with benefits their total package is $100,005.

Charles on Wisconsin unions

Charles Krauthammer discusses the Wisconsin/union controversy. The issue is not collective bargaining rights but the sweetheart deals that union workers have.

Reassuring news

The Social Security trust fund may actually be worth less than zero.

Mississippi Rates as the Most Conservative U.S. State

Gallup: Mississippi Rates as the Most Conservative U.S. State

Well, Arkansas is number 10.

Shut 'er down!

Byron York: Why Republicans should not fear a government shutdown. Well, as far as I'm concerned, there's a lot of government that they can shut down and then not open back up. Let's see NPR, Department of Education, EPA...

Dermott school distress

The Dermott, Arkansas, school district is facing drastic cuts. The town lost population during the past decade, according to the 2010 census. The result has been a huge budget shortfall. Now a consultant is talking about eliminating football, cheerleading, and the yearbook. The district has only about 400 students, with, based on the ADG this morning, a 4:1 student-teacher ratio. Still, I don't believe for a minute that they will drop football.  See also here.

Jets' Ryan: 'I guarantee we'll win it this year' - FoxNews.com

Rex Ryan of the NY Jets guarantees his team will win the Super Bowl this year. Well, that worked once, I hope it does again.

$3.25 gasoline

Gasoline prices have jumped dramatically in Little Rock. I saw gas for $3.25 yesterday. You might want to check out GasBuddy for your lowest local prices.

Where's my money?

CNNMoney: Social Security checks are safe in a government shutdown. You will get your check, according to some authorities. In 1995 there was no interruption. So, I thought you'd want to know.

test

I tried a test post and surprisingly it worked.

Smoking truth

AP: The government wants cigarette ads to contain statements that correct older ads. For example, "A federal court is requiring tobacco companies to tell the truth about cigarette smoking. Here's the truth: ... Smoking kills 1,200 Americans. Every day."

Did a credit card raise your rate?

AP: "Credit card holders are facing fewer interest rate hikes and forking over sharply less in late fees." This is a lie in my experience. Doubled my rate in fact.

Pirates aren't just on the Spanish Main anymore

News reports say that Somali pirates have killed two American couples off East Africa.

From Cal to Ron

Via Ann Althouse: The Gallup Poll reports that Americans rate Ronald Reagan as the greatest president. I think he was the greatest president since Calvin Coolidge.

The ADG (subscription required) this morning reports that Pine Bluff, which fell below 50,000 in population according to the 2010 census, will lose $750,000 in state turnback funds. Pine Bluff's population dropped 11 percent in the past decade. The question has been what would happen to a MSMA if it fell below the magic 50,000 number. This is the answer. However, the city recently approved a sales tax increase, which will fill in the gap in lost state or federal funds.

CBO: Obamacare repeal will save $1 trillion.

7 Benefits of Having Sex if you really need seven reasons.

We here in Arkansas are experiencing earthquakes.

Kay Hymowitz's Manning Up: How the Rise of Women has Turned Men into Boys will likely stir up some "boys."

For another view see Not Quite Adults: Why 20-Somethings are Choosing a Slower Path to Adulthood, and Why It's Good for Everyone.

An interesting exchange between OMB Director Jacob Lew and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) on Lew's assertion that the WH budget reduces the debt over 10 years.

Las Vegas Sun: UNLV is planning for fiscal collapse.

UNLV President Neal Smatresk told a somber Faculty Senate on Tuesday that the administration was planning a kind of bankruptcy to deal with its budget crunch.
Under the "financial exigency" plan, tenured professors could be fired and whole departments and programs more easily closed down.
Earlier this month, the Board of Regents said it would be premature to consider such a move until the Legislature approved a final budget by June.
Smatresk told the faculty group that the cuts for UNLV would total $47.5 million and would need to be implemented by July 2012, so a plan for financial exigency would have to be prepared.

So is this the beginning of the collapse of higher education? 

An IBM computer wiped out its human competition on Jeopardy.

Talk Business: On August 4, Arkansas State University will hold a concert on campus in Jonesboro to support the restoration of Dyess Colony in Mississippi County. This was a government resettlement project where Johnny Cash grew up. For more see here, which includes videos of Cash and June Carter's 1969 Cummins Prison concert:

Talking about the 2010 census, the Arkansasonline site has some good interactive maps.

Today's ADG has a story (subscription required) on population losses in Pine Bluff and Jefferson County. Pine Bluff lost 10.9 percent between 2000 and 2010, putting the city's population below 50,000 people. Everyone is wondering what that does to federal money, but no one knows, because no other Arkansas city has ever fallen below 50,000 once it passed that mark. The paper claims that most of the population loss consisted of white people who moved to the towns along I-530 like White Hall, Redfield, and Sulphur Springs.

I like to look at other peoples' work places. What do they tell us about them?

Talk Business: According to John Brummett the 2010 census reflects major shifts for Arkansas. We are no longer a rural state, we are now suburban or metropolitan. Northwest Arkansas and central Arkansas are tied as leading population centers. As a result, the 2010 election was a "sea change." Arkansas is no longer a Democratic state. It may be a swing state.

These are all huge changes that will grow and dominate the decades ahead. See Brummett's column here. I like his title: "Not Your Father's Arkansas." It's not your father's Democrat party either.

What is striking too is that the population loss for eastern and southern (especially southeast) Arkansas has continued. This migration began during and after World War II as people sought jobs in northern and western states and it has not stopped yet.

I believe these population trends will more closely tie Arkansas with the culture of the Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains, leaving behind the Delta and the southern counties.

You can look over the 2010 census data on the census bureau's site.

The 2010 Arkansas population census

ADG: The 2010 census for Arkansas is out. The state gained population overall (+9.1 percent), but the trends of the past few years persist. The northwest counties and central Arkansas have gained, but the Delta counties and southern counties lost people in the past decade. Pine Bluff for the first time has fallen below 50,000, a critical cutoff for federal monies, but it's not clear what that means.

It's not clear what can turn the Delta around. After so many efforts, nothing has worked. The Delta and south Arkansas were big agricultural regions 50 years ago, but since then small farmers have disappeared. The truth is that rural Arkansas was overpopulated. Too many people were trying to farm too little land per farm. This was unsustainable, and of course here we see the result. Agricultural mechanization after World War II did not cause the population loss; it was the result of it. We could not have agriculture in the Delta today without machines. No way.

The paper has a good map showing population shifts in detail. The county with the largest loss is Monroe in eastern Arkansas, losing 20.5 percent.

Talk Business has a post with a map. See the Census Bureau's site.

Washington Times: Lincoln sought to deport freed slaves. This story is based on a new book by Phillip W. Magness and Sebastian Page called Colonization after Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement.

A new iPhone app helps you keep track of your sins. Just what I need. Let's see, I'm already using my iPhone to keep track of my car's mileage, my diet, and my blood sugar. And Google Maps keeps track of where I am.

According to the AP story, "Questions range from "Have I wished evil upon another person?" to "Have I used any method of contraception or artificial birth control in my marriage?" and users can check a box next to each sin they've committed."

I'm sure it includes "Have I coveted my neighbor's wife?" etc.

NY Post: AOL buys Huffington for $315 million and its stock loses $315 million. Obviously stockholders didn't like it.

The ADG has more on the health care/abortion controversy in the legislature. (Still looking for a link to their article.) The article deals with Rep. Jon Hubbard's email to Gov. Beebe critical of the latter's action as reported on Jason Tolbert's site. Start with Curtis Coleman's Institute for Constitutinal Policy website. You can read Hubbard's email here. Among other things he says, "I understand that this is your final term as Governor, and that you would like to see your remaining time in office be as peaceful as possible.  However, there are things that need to be done which stagnant leadership simply cannot and will not accomplish!  The people of this state sent all of us a very clear  and definite message on November 2nd, and that message shouted that they DO NOT want Obamacare forced upon us, and you have done absolutely nothing to support your fellow Arkansans to prevent this unconstitutional law from being implemented in our state."

Megan McArdle on the liberal bias in academia, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 5 to 1. This article refers to a meeting of psychologists, but try sociologists if you really like bias. With them, everything is about discrimination.

I hope Amity Shlaes runs for the Senate in New York. She is the author of The Forgotten Man, my favorite book on the Depression and the New Deal

Helen Smith has an interesting discussion of "male space," a declining phenomena apparently. I have mine and I'm not giving it up.

Edmund Morris notes five myths about Ronald Reagan. But he is the author of Dutch, a biography of Reagan that, in my opinion, contains an irritating fictional device.

Christina Agilera messed up the National Anthem at the Super Bowl.

Have you wondered about those 1099 forms you have received in the mail recently?

Happy Ronald Reagan Day

Today is officially Ronald Reagan Day in Arkansas. It's the first one.

Here's an earlier story on the vote for HB 1053, which sought to bar Arkansans from being forced to buy health insurance. The vote failed in committee.

Walter Russell Mead on the dilemmas that American administrations have faced when revolutions occurred in friendly countries.

Jason Tolbert reports on a legislative controversy over abortion. SB113 is an act that prohibits health care insurance exchange policies from offering coverage on abortion.

See here for the House version, HB1053. 

Volokh Conspiracy: Pawnshops are becoming more respectable. Everybody seems to know about Hard Core Pawn. Is there a link?

Walter Russell Mead on the role of charter schools in educational reform. He is optimistic.

Curious about the Chevy Volt? Here's an interesting review.