Statue of Johnny Cash, wielding a guitar and a Bible, ready for unveiling

NEWS AND OPINION:

A round of applause, please, for House Speaker Mike Johnson, plus House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, members of the Arkansas congressional delegation, the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission plus a host of Arkansas state officials — including Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Secretary of State John Thurston.

They will gather Tuesday in Emancipation Hall of the U.S. Capitol to unveil and dedicate an 8-foot-tall bronze statue to honor Rock & Roll Hall of Fame artist Johnny Cash.

He was a legendary artist — releasing 91 albums and 170 singles in his storied, five-decade career. Members of the Cash family will also be on hand to greet this monumental statue of a monumental singer and songwriter.

The statue features the compelling performer with a Martin D-35 guitar slung over his back and a Bible in his right hand. The statue’s creator — sculptor Kevin Kresse — also designed and produced states of other musical figures from Arkansas such as Al Green and Glen Campbell.

There’s more, though.

In June, the House unanimously passed HR 7180 — legislation sponsored by Rep. Bruce Westerman, Arkansas Republican — to officially designate the post office in Kingsland, Arkansas, as the Kingsland Johnny Cash Post Office.

“The unanimous passage of this bill is a testament to the legacy Johnny Cash left behind through service to his country, his iconic music, and the deep impact he and his family have had on the Natural State,” Mr. Westerman said in a statement at the time.

MINDING THE FORESTS

“Thanks to regulatory burdens that hinder the ability to responsibly manage federal lands, over 117 million acres of our nation’s forests are currently overgrown, fire-prone, unhealthy, and in need of active management, contributing to the growing threat of wildfires,” according to a memo from House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

There’s help on the way, though. Rep. Bruce Westerman, Arkansas Republican, has introduced the Fix Our Forests Act.

“The legislation expedites and improves forest management activities on Bureau of Land Management public lands, tribal lands, and National Forest System lands, deters frivolous litigation that delays important projects, promotes collaboration across jurisdictions, prioritizes treatments in the forests with highest risk of wildfire, and encourages active forest management,” the Louisiana Republican’s memo said.

“Additionally, this commonsense bill works to prevent destructive wildfires and improve response, such as by offering new tools and advancing technologies, cutting burdensome regulations, enhancing transparency around wildfire mitigation investments, and ensuring communities are equipped to recover after a wildfire. We must restore the health of America’s forests to reduce the number and severity of forest fires, keep our communities safe, and preserve the natural beauty of our great nation,” the memo said.

Mr. Westerman is chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, where the official motto is “Putting Conservatives back into Conservation.”

Curious about their activities? Find the committee at naturalresources.house.gov.

A MELANIA MOMENT

Mark your calendars, folks — you won’t want to miss this.

Fox News Channel’s weekday morning program “Fox & Friends” will present an exclusive interview with former first lady Melania Trump on Thursday. It will be the first television interview Mrs. Trump has done in more than two years, according to the news network.

Conducted by co-host Ainsley Earhardt, this exclusive encounter will address former President Donald Trump’s campaign strategy in the remaining weeks until the election, the two assassination attempts on him and other news of the day, Fox News said in a statement.

The popular morning show typically draws an audience of 1.2 million and has been the No. 1 morning show in cable news for over two decades, according to the network.

Mrs. Trump will also offer insight into her forthcoming book, “Melania,” which will be released Oct. 8, according to Skyhorse, the publisher.

Fox Nation — the network’s popular online outreach — will present an extended version of the interview on the same day at FoxNation.com.

A NOTABLE REVIEW

“The 45th President, Donald Trump, is riding the momentum of a historic two-week stretch, which has observed a number of extraordinary moments in a campaign that has already been replete with so many of them,” wrote Paul Ingrassia, a constitutional scholar and communications director of the National Constitutional Law Union.

“This started with a rousing debate performance that captured the national media’s attention in a way that only the master showman could. To this day, the President’s memorable line regarding Haitian migrants — ’they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats’ — has become a cultural sensation, drowning out virtually all other coverage of the debate, and even becoming a viral hit on social media platforms like TikTok,” he said.

“The public response to the debate showed that only President Trump had the memorable lines, rivaling the ‘because you’d be in jail’ haymaker that effectively sunk Hillary Clinton’s campaign in that famous verbal joust eight years ago. His performance also demonstrated that he, not Kamala Harris, was the clear victor. The ironclad law of televised presidential debates remains true: victory goes to he who has the memorable quotes and thus commands the national psyche. That Kamala Harris had no lines of significance and President Trump had at least a handful, each of which will be remembered decades from now — in the class of [Ronald] Reagan’s ‘there you go again’ and the aforementioned ‘because you’d be in jail’ line by Trump — proves that Donald Trump, the media maestro, still commands a stranglehold over news headlines like nobody else,” Mr. Ingrassia wrote.

POLL DU JOUR

• 30% of U.S. adults “strongly disapprove” of the way Congress is handling its job.

• 25% “somewhat disapprove” of the job Congress is doing.

• 20% neither approve nor disapprove of the job Congress is doing.

• 10% “somewhat approve” of the job Congress is doing.

• 4% “strongly approve” of the job Congress is doing.

• 11% are “not sure” how they feel about Congress.

SOURCE: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,592 U.S. adults conducted Sept. 15-17.

• Follow Jennifer Harper on X @HarperBulletin, on Facebook @HarperUniverse.