Arkansas

What do you do when the news becomes unbearable? – Arkansas Times

Published

12 months ago

April 22, 2025

What do you do when the news becomes unbearable? – Arkansas Times

For years, my girlfriend, Suzanne, has enjoyed me reading to her. She’s Swiss and she says she likes my Southern voice. A history of the Comanche in Central Texas, Ukraine, chicken recipes, excerpts from “The 1619 Project,” a tropical fruit I’ve never heard of … it’s a random choice of stories, the product of a wandering liberal arts education, I guess. There is an intimacy, scrolling early mornings through The New York Times or evenings with bourbon and book talk, that we treasure.

Lately, though, our reading time has become dark. New York Times headlines have turned into a litany of political absurdity, lies and betrayal. Reading aloud the words and fulminations of this president is like walking knee-deep in sewage. Former Arkansas Times columnist and author Gene Lyons recently retired, saying that in the limited time he had left on Earth, he was done thinking about Donald Trump.

A few months ago, Suzanne and I rented a vacation house for a few days surrounded by green and purple mountains, long, deserted beaches and a multicolored sea. It was pure tranquility. Yet every day I would open my phone and begin to recite aloud the utterances and actions of unserious sycophants strutting and bellowing across the national stage. One morning we looked at one another and I asked, “Why are we doing this?”

Now I read the paper and turn on NPR out of a sense of duty, not because I expect to be inspired or lifted up. It’s like being an Arkansas Democrat: You vote because you are a citizen, not because you expect anything good to come of it.

Several weeks ago our country, along with North Korea, Belarus and Russia, voted against a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Then the president attacked the Ukrainian president during their meeting at the White House, blaming Ukrainians for Russia’s invasion of their country. Then JD Vance, with all the gravitas of a barking chihuahua, went after Zelensky. At that point, Brian Glenn, a reporter for the fringe TV outlet Real America’s Voice, demanded to know if Zelensky owned a suit. The place had gone batshit. My country has lost its moorings and no one will stand up.

I keep my dad’s funeral flag folded on the mantle in my living room. The VA gave it to us at his funeral in recognition of his service during World War II. He didn’t put up with bullies or wannabe dictators; he had seen more than his share. That morning the White House room was full of bullies and dictators, but on the American side this time.

I live in Trumpland in northern Pulaski County and pass several blue Trump flags on Batesville Pike every day on my way to work. Most of my neighbors support Trump but, for the most part, we are respectful and civil. I don’t want to descend into crankdom. But the idea we were buddying up to a man like Putin stank of betrayal and treason. I felt my dad was with me when I unfolded his flag, went out to the street and hung it upside down, fastened with zip ties to our big farm gate. There it hung for the next three weeks until I noticed mud starting to splatter and took it down for cleaning.

I am old enough to remember Orval Faubus, the Capital Citizens’ Council and the raft of misogynistic bigots (all Southern Democrats) that populated our Legislature in the ’50s and ’60s. I also watched as our state transitioned to Rockefeller, Bumpers, Pryor and Clinton. The pendulum does swing and I believe this will happen again, both in Arkansas and America. Eventually, I hope, the American people will have had enough of Trump’s stupid economic policies, his tariffs, his scapegoating, his narcissism, his opportunistic othering of immigrants, gay people and any other helpless group that catches his eye. Eventually, Trump will take his rightful place alongside Joseph McCarthy, and our country will awake, as from a long sleep. And if I am still here, I will go back to reading to Suzanne in the mornings and evenings, never to think of Trump again.

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Arkansas

Effort to cut former Arkansas corrections secretary’s position as adviser to governor fails – Arkansas Times

Published

3 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

Effort to cut former Arkansas corrections secretary’s position as adviser to governor fails – Arkansas Times

A legislative panel rejected a proposal Tuesday that would have eliminated former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri’s job as an adviser to Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

A top lawmaker also suggested that Profiri may return to his job overseeing the state prison system, two years after he was fired by the state Board of Corrections as part of a dispute with Sanders.

The proposal rejected by the Joint Budget Committee’s personnel subcommittee would have written into the appropriation for Sanders’ office language eliminating Profiri’s position from the Republican governor’s staff. Subcommittee members voted 9-6 against the amendment, with Rep. Lane Jean not casting a vote.

Republican Sen. Terry Rice introduced the proposal last week, a little over six months after Profiri didn’t appear at a hearing on the now-stalled Franklin County prison project before a committee that Rice co-chairs.

Rice called this a “major trust-breaker.”

“The Board of Corrections members asked Mr. Profiri to share his intended plans as secretary, and they would work with him. He ignored multiple attempts,” Rice said. “I was told during that meeting, he was in the Capitol, had been seen in the hall at the same time. He didn’t even reply and chose to snub legislators’ questions.”

Profiri was fired by the Arkansas Board of Corrections as the leader of the state’s prison agency in 2024, following months of increasing tensions between the constitutionally-independent board and Sanders over opening new beds when the Department of Corrections already struggled to find sufficient staffing. Those tensions eventually resulted in lawsuits, which are still unresolved, and Profiri’s firing.

After he was fired, the Republican governor hired Profiri as a senior advisor, making him the highest paid staffer in her office. Profiri is paid $183,699.98 a year, according to the Arkansas transparency portal.

Jean, a Republican from Magnolia who co-chairs the Joint Budget Committee, asked Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Jim Hudson and Board of Corrections member Lee Watson “what the timeline was” for Sanders to rehire Profiri as corrections secretary, pointing to the new makeup of the board.

“I don’t think there’s any objection to the board, or certainly a majority of the board, to hire him (again). What are we waiting on?” Jean asked.

“What I can say is Secretary (Lindsay) Wallace, she is the secretary, and she will continue as secretary until the governor decides she’s not secretary,” Hudson said. “In the interim, (Profiri) continues to do his job as an adviser to the governor.”

The ongoing lawsuit between the Board of Corrections and Sanders centers on who has the authority to fire the corrections secretary. A Pulaski County Circuit Court judge ruled last year that the board does. Sanders appealed the ruling.

The board’s new Sanders-appointed majority voted to accept a settlement agreement accepting her position that she is the one with firing authority earlier this month, though the lower court order remains in force until the Arkansas Supreme Court rules on the matter.

Sam Dubke, Sanders’ spokesperson, referred the Advocate to Hudson’s remarks when asked for comment on whether Profiri would be rehired as corrections secretary.

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Arkansas

TST Images: Tulsa Drillers defeat the Arkansas Travelers, 11-3, in Tulsa

Published

15 hours ago

April 21, 2026

Press Room

TST Images: Tulsa Drillers defeat the Arkansas Travelers, 11-3, in Tulsa

TULSA, Okla –The Tulsa Drillers defeat the Arkansas Travelers, 11-3, on April 19, 2026 at ONEOK Field and The Sporting Tribune’s Robert Sloter was there to capture the following TST Images.

Luke Fox #15 of the Tulsa Drillers throws a pitch during a game against the Arkansas Travelers at ONEOK Field on April 19, 2026 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.