Crackdown on Cop Porn

Cave Springs Police Chief Brian Biscamp quickly resigned last week after someone discovered 22 pornographic videos on his work computer in the police department. It must be a digital variant of "blue flu," because less than six weeks ago, former Fayetteville Police Detective Jeremy Boyd Grammer was indicted by a federal grand jury for distributing and receiving child pornography.

"I never downloaded anything. I never searched for anything," Chief Biscamp said. He admitted he previously knew about the porn on his computer and "thought" he deleted all of it before a technician discovered and reported it last Tuesday. "There was so much other stuff going on," Biscamp said, that he never found time to conduct an internal investigation to find out what mystery person might have secretly installed a Limeware computer-to-computer software package and downloaded the adult videos on his computer without his knowledge.

Thumbs up for good investigative reporting by Brandon Marcello of The Morning News, which obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. Still, I guess we'll never catch the culprit who keeps sneaking into police headquarters and downloading these art films on the computers of our dedicated law enforcement officers.

Attracting Business to Fayetteville

“Whatever environment we can provide to make your lives easier, that’s what we’re here for,” Mayor Dan Coody told Jeff Schomburger, president of the Global Wal-Mart Team for Procter & Gamble, during a discussion of bikes and trails during the tour of the corporation's new Fayetteville facility. Nearly 250 P & G employees work in the Fayetteville office, and the company has been moving toward environmental sustainability in its packaging and products since it came to Fayetteville in 1988. It is precisely the type of business that Fayetteville should welcome and encourage.

Schomburger shared some wisdom that should be instructive for those interested in economic development. He said the company's decision to locate and remain in Fayetteville was driven by several key factors. “I think schools are very good now; health care is very good. Our kids are in the school system here,” Schomburger said. “Secondly, the type of profile we tend to recruit wants to be close to Dickson Street, wants to be close to the university.” Good reasons all.

It should be clear to the Chamber of Cowbirds what was not said, that Procter & Gamble and its 250 employees were not attracted by large commercial billboards, sprawling suburban developments, strip malls, suicide lanes, cheap labor, business back-slapping and glad-handing, taxpayer subsidies, or other forms of corporate welfare. They were attracted by good schools, health care facilities, a funky Dickson Street environment, the University of Arkansas, and a community with parks and trails. That's what works for recruiting the kinds of corporate citizens we want in our community.

The Difference between Listening and Hearing

For the second time in less than a week I am impressed by the public vision embraced by the editorial writers for the Northwest Arkansas Times, especially so since their position is at odds with the commands of the Chamber of Cowbirds and the Fayetteville Economic Development Council of which they are paid up and usually compliant members.

Today's editorial takes to task Fayetteville School Board members Howard Hamilton and Steve Percival for trying to squelch public discussion and decision-making about the structure and composition of the high school, that is whether to include 9th grade and whether to have one or two high schools, asking whether they really think, "No matter what new information becomes available, no one is to question the previous decisions or discoveries?" The board previously decided those questions by a 4-3 vote, but last month's election puts them in play once again. The Times editorial noted that it might be "frustrating sometimes when the public doesn’t just snap to it and accept whatever is handed to them," but it also questions the unwelcome result of "apparent indifference to changing circumstances, all in the name of preserving a prior decision the public never entirely bought."

We have been having a robust community conversation for the better part of this year, and residents and patrons expect their views to be taken seriously. "Could it be that the school board deciding what it wants is only a small part of the process of the school district’s future plans? Maybe, just maybe, the school board is going to have to make sure its deliberations help bring the community along with it. Perhaps what it does has as much to do with leading the community as it does making a decision today, right now," noted the editorial with unusual political acumen. "If school board members don’t lead, even the best decisions will be rendered fruitless if the public doesn’t embrace them. Especially those decisions that will require a millage vote at the polls."

The editorial concludes that "To make a thorough, serious recommendation, a committee needs to be able to respond to today’s realities, not yesterday’s assumptions. And the best decision to come from all of this will be the one that isn’t boxed in by arbitrary rules about what can and can’t be reconsidered." Good point. It is also good that the majority of the school board will likely agree and move beyond the inflexible demands of Hamilton and Percival to ignore informed public opinion.

Quote of the Day

"Peace at Home Family Shelter would like to commend the OMNI Peace on Earth Music Festival for focusing on domestic violence by supporting the April Love Scholarship Fund. As many people know, Ms. Love was the victim of a domestic violence homicide in 2005. Her passing proves that even successful, popular young women are not immune to abuse. Last year, 17 domestic violence homicides occurred in Arkansas. These women are more than just statistics. They are someone’s daughter, sister or friend. According to the Bureau of Justice, women ages 16-24 have the largest rates of domestic violence. However, they don’t have to live in fear; help is out there. Last year, Peace at Home was the beneficiary of the Peace on Earth Music Festival. We’re glad to see that OMNI remembers that the path to peace begins in the home. We commend them on all their hard work for the April Love Scholarship Fund and, most importantly, for peace."

--Judith Selle, "The Path to Peace Begins at Home," Northwest Arkansas Times

It's Not That Bad

Springdale Alderman Jesse Core is once again taking the lead in making his community a better place for all residents, proposing an ordinance authorizing participation in Tree City USA, a program sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation. “It’s another way we’re trying to improve the quality of life for residents in Springdale,” Core said. Rogers, Fayetteville, and Bentonville are already participate in the program that makes cities eligible for grants from the Arkansas Forestry Commission.

The Springdale ordinance is rather minimalist, but it seems unlikely that the City Council could pass anything comprehensive as long as the business forces behind Alderman Mike Overton and his clique are in power. The proposed ordinance creates an advisory panel to oversee the tree program that includes planting and trimming of trees, but it only applies to trees on public property. The city also anticipates spending no additional local funds on its participation.

“All our major corridors need beautification,” Alderman Core said. “It’s a business decision.” He is correct in more ways than one, but he probably knows that.

Smoke and Mirrors in the Natural State

American Electric Power-Southwestern Electric Power announced last week that their new service center in Rogers will be a LEED-certified building. The building will utilize a high solar reflective index for the roof, reduced water use features for the building and landscaping and skylights. That is good.

That commitment to constructing a green building does not cover up the fact that the AEP-SWEPCO coal-fired generating plant at Gentry does not meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations or the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission requirements to comply with the federal Clean Air Act of 1970. The plant is among six facilities targeted by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality that emit more than 250 tons a year of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. Clean air compliance costs for the Flint Creek plant are estimated at more than $200 million.

Nor does announcing a green building solve the serious water quality and low stream flow issues identified by the Flint Creek Property Owners Association who live downstream from the AEP-SWEPCO plant near Gentry, which pumps out about 6 million gallons of water a day for industrial use under an expired contract.

Facing such clean air and water issues with the Flint Creek generating plant, a green building does not obscure the fact that corporate polluter AEP-SWEPCO has an application pending with the Arkansas Public Service Commission to construct an even larger pollution source, a coal generating plant near Texarkana that does not use the latest technology for carbon capture and storage to reduce greenhouse gases. They chose Arkansas as the site because they thought regulatory approval would be easier than in Texas, which recently put the kibosh on eight proposed coal generating plants.

But, it is nice that AEP-SWEPCO plans to build a LEED-certified building in Rogers.

Will Arvest Naturals Be Our Green Monster?

The left field wall at 95-year-old Fenway Park has been green only since 1947, but now the Red Sox are going green in a big way. Grist reports that under a five-year partnership with the National Resources Defense Council, the nation's oldest active ballpark may vend beer in corn-starch-based cups, serve local organic food from concession stands, add solar panels, and even initiate a new tradition: a fifth-inning recycling stretch for depositing soda and water bottles.

The Cleveland Indians and Green Energy Ohio teamed up to install a new solar electric system at Jacobs Field with 42 GE solar panels that will provide 8.4 kilowatts of clean, renewable electricity. The Washington Nationals’ new ballpark will contain the first “green roof” at a big league sports facility when it opens in April and hopes to be the first stadium in the U.S. to be certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design system. With a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, an environmental nonprofit, the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission will plant grass and other plant life on top of a 6,300-square-foot surface above a concession stand in left field, absorbing the sun’s rays and greatly reducing the amount of heat reflected back into the atmosphere.

The Washington Nationals and the Arvest Naturals are both using the same architectural firm, HOK Sport, to design their new stadiums. Maybe Josh Jenkins can get Jesse Core and Eric Edelstein together on this and make our area's new ballpark a green model for the nation. Or maybe it will be just another fireworks stand.

Applied Sustainability Makes Cents

There is a nice feature article by Adam Wallworth in today's Northwest Arkansas Times about Professor Jon Johnson of the Sam M. Walton College of Business Applied Sustainability Center at the University of Arkansas. Johnson and his staff appear to be doing good work and making some progress in getting the major corporate polluters to embrace sustainability because it saves them money.

The sustainability center was funded by a $1.5 million grant from Wal-Mart, and Professor Johnson said that move wasn’t just about public relations. "Initially, the company’s interest in the environment was purely a public relations strategy, he said, which is something Wal-Mart chief Lee Scott has admitted. Now, though, it seems that the company really takes it seriously." That's good.

Dr. Johnson says the Center's first priority is to "develop a business plan that can be used to help companies institute best practices for the environment" and that "the obvious is that reducing energy consumption means saving money." When "Johnson joked with Fayetteville Mayor Dan Coody at the Conversation on Climate Action on Thursday," I hope he told the Mayor that sustainable practices could help the city reduce its budget deficit and that spending thousands of taxpayer dollars on ornamental lights is a bad idea for both the environment and the balance sheet.

Hogwash

Terri Miller of Prairie Grove says today in a letter to the Northwest Arkansas Times, "To all of the so-called 'fans' who felt it appropriate to boo the Hogs after the loss to Kentucky — you should be ashamed of yourselves. Those young men on that field are playing a game and are not paid to do so. They came to play at the University of Arkansas because they had a dream of being a Hog and playing a sport they love. They should never have to hear ridicule from 'fans.' ...Do they deserve your derision? Many of you will say you were booing the coaches and not the players. But there isn’t a special 'boo' for coaches and another for players. It all sounds the same down on that field. Try to put aside your hatred of our coaching staff and give these guys the encouragement they need to hear. ...You have plenty of avenues to express your displeasure to the athletic administration."

Darren McFadden said something similar when a group of fans were wearing black shirts in protest of Nutt after the Razorbacks defeated North Texas State College for Women last weekend. He told the fans in black that if they don't support Nutt, they don't support the players. That's like saying if you don't support George Bush, you don't support the troops he continues to put in harm's way. Then, McFadden admitted his remark was spontaneous, somewhat like a text message I suppose, and confessed, "That was something I didn't know much about."

Pat Lynch's opinion piece in today's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette takes a different view of McFadden's "disparaging comments about the folks wearing black shirts at Razorback games. Let’s not waste a heartbeat on free speech, or any other such high-minded, completely unworkable abstractions that so consume the academic elites. There shall be none of that high-octane hoo-ha about an unfettered exchange of ideas. We wouldn’t want that on a college campus, now, would we? Yes, Mr. McFadden, it is possible to support the Hogs and be completely against the coach....Many fans, while admiring your considerable talents, also have some serious concerns about the ability of key officials at the University of Arkansas to bring an acceptable level of success to 'the program.'" Lynch condedes, however, that "Players do not deserve any of the criticism so generously heaped on our highly paid professional staff."

A letter to the editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today has a proposal to help economic development in Arkansas. "The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville is paying over $300,000 to schools such as Troy, North Texas State, Tennessee-Chattanooga and Florida International to come to Arkansas and play us in football. What happened to keeping the money within Arkansas? Why are we not saving some of this money and playing Arkansas State University in Little Rock? We would put Arkansas money into the Arkansas economy with food, lodging and travel....We have been stuck with our egos for so long that this has not been possible in the past. Now is the time for change. I urge the new UA athletic director to place Arkansas State on our future Razorback schedule."

Heck, the Razorbacks should also add Arkansas Tech, UCA, SAU, Henderson State, Ouachita, UA-Monticello, and UAPB, maybe even Hendrix, to the schedule for the same reason and quit playing those SEC teams. We are 3-0 against non-SEC cupcakes this year.

The Gridiron Show

The one we put on this weekend at the Rogers Little Theater was far better than the belly flop Houston Nutt gave us in War Memorial Stadium. And I imagine that Katherine Shurlds makes somewhat less than Nutt.

Thanks to everyone -- fellow journalists and the wonderful audience -- who made the 2007 Gridiron Show a smashing success. It is one of the few times that we can slip in a little humor and sarcasm without the the uptight copy editors taking all the fun out of a good story. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert shouldn't be the only ones getting to confront hubris with humor.