Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Arkansas newspapers:
Texarkana Gazette. April 15, 2018.
Those who attended Leadership Texarkana’s annual luncheon this month not only got to enjoy some food and fellowship, but no doubt took some inspiration home with them.
The ballroom at Texarkana Country Club was full of people from both sides of the state line who care about the Twin Cities and give their time, talent and treasure to make this a better place to live. The event spotlighted some of our fellow citizens who are going above and beyond with the annual Wilbur Awards. There were awards for an adult, a young person and an organization, with outstanding nominees narrowed to one final winner in each category - Dr. Matt Young, Arkansas High student Ali Milligan and Opportunities, Inc., respectively. The 2018 Idalee Hawkins Leader of the Year Award recognized a single individual - LeeAnne Purifoy Wright - for her contribution to our city.
People making a difference. Pretty much what Leadership Texarkana is all about.
A highlight of the luncheon was a presentation by Texarkana, Texas, City Planner David Orr on a philosophy known as Strategic Doing, which emphasizes collaboration in measurable increments toward a common goal. Leadership Texarkana is using Strategic Doing as they prepare for their 40th anniversary in two years. It’s something that works for those who want to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk.
And again, that’s what Leadership Texarkana is all about. We all know people who constantly complain about Texarkana. Lots of negative posts on Facebook and other social media. Even when they have ideas on how to make things better, they expect someone else to do the heavy lifting. All talk, no action.
Maybe you’ve been guilty of that as well. It’s not too late to change. If you care about the Twin Cities, there are opportunities open to do more and plenty of space to create and implement your own vision - if you are willing.
A good place to start is Leadership Texarkana itself. Visit their site at leadershiptexarkana.com or email them at info@leadershiptexarkana.com for more information.
A better Texarkana is up to us - all of us.
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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. April 17, 2018.
It’s an old, tried and tested axiom of supply-side economics: To increase the demand for something, increase its supply. And demand will follow suit.
Manufacturers of narcotic painkillers handed out millions of dollars to this state’s physicians between 2013 and 2016, and at least 800 people in Arkansas died from overdoses of opioids. Was that just a coincidence? Dr. Janet Cathey, an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has reached her own conclusion on this contentious matter. And she wants to know: “How do doctors get away with it? Your ethical, legitimate doctors won’t do this.”
According to public-health records, there were 79 opioid pills prescribed for each of the state’s almost 3 million people in 2016. That’s a lot of pills.
For doctors, taking cash from drug companies is (apparently) nothing new. Your statewide newspaper’s investigative team notes that most of the state’s nearly 6,100 doctors take money from drug companies to plug various medicines. But there’s a difference between promoting the latest statin and pushing an opioid.
Beware of attributing all trends in medicine or any other profession to a single cause. Let’s remember that the same companies that manufacture pain pills also turn out non-narcotic medications and pay physicians to promote those drugs, too. A complicated field, epidemiology, and not one in which amateurs should reach their too-hasty conclusions. But do note that of the more than $58 million that makers of opioids paid this nation’s physicians to conduct research from 2013 to 2016, only $8,000 went to studies specifically about opioids. Yet researchers at Harvard report that doctors who prescribe opioids most seem to get the most money from producers of opioids.
A similar outcome was reported out of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where scholars found that doctors were much more likely to prescribe a drug pushed by a pharmaceutical company. And a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association came up with similar findings.
The figures don’t lie - but liars have been known to figure. You decide, Gentle Reader, especially when your physician hands you a prescription for an expensive or addictive drug.
To quote UAMS’ Dr. Cathey, “It became just so lucrative to be a pain doctor.” And where there is lucre, there will always be those who want their share of it - for reasons beneficial to society or perhaps just to themselves. Follow the money and decide for yourself. For it’s not just your money, Gentle Reader, but your health that’s at stake.
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Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette. April 17, 2018.
Talk about your classic quarterback sneak: Arkansas State University at Jonesboro and its Red Wolves Foundation claim they don’t have to reveal any information to taxpayers about the continuing $29 million expansion of the Red Wolves’ football stadium. Why? Because the work is being paid for by the ostensibly independent foundation - even though university employees are used to raise some of the funds for the foundation.
Ain’t nobody here but us boosters, or so all of us are supposed to believe.
Appearances can be deceiving, but the connection between ASU, the foundation and all of our tax money seems more than clear. But it’s as if the powers that be at ASU had confused the FOIA with an Official Secrets Act that doesn’t allow the university’s left hand to know what its right hand is doing.
Otherwise, ASU’s officialdom and its ostensibly independent foundation would seem to enjoy an all too cozy relationship. Adam Haukap, who draws $85,000 a year from ASU to direct the foundation, has a suite of offices in the university’s basketball arena, for which the “nonprofit” pays no rent. Nor does it have any agreement to lease the space.
How generous of the university, or rather of the taxpayers who finance this dubious arrangement, to allow it to go on year after year. If everything’s really on the up-and-up, why keep it all so hushed up? Even though this state’s Freedom of Information Act declares that “all records maintained in public offices or by public employees within the scope of their employment shall be presumed to be public records.” But even the best of laws may be of no avail if they’re not respected.
Way back in November 2013, a memorandum of understanding formalized the Red Wolves Foundation’s authority to sell ads and sponsorships through ASU-owned outlets. That agreement lets the foundation collect income that these activities generate. Whether it’s through selling ads on radio and television, signs at sports fields, or concession cups. No item seems to be too small in the quest for money.
Strangely, what we do know about the relationship between ASU and the foundation - what our betters allow us to know - is brought to you by this state’s ever useful Freedom of Information Act, when it’s respected and used. So thank you, Winthrop Rockefeller and company, for leaving all of us in Arkansas with a genuine transparency law. Now if we could just get everybody to follow it.
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