Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.

Hello again, everyone, and thanks very much for being with us.

With the end of the year only days distant, with so much of much importance, in the months passed, we thought it appropriate to use this final edition of 2024 to look back at some of those events.

They were the stories that shaped our program and our state and perhaps even helped alter the nation's agenda.

We begin at the beginning of this year with something that ended after eight years as governor of Arkansas.

Asa Hutchinson thought he saw an opening in his Republican Party, believe there might be an appetite for a mainstreet alternative to the populist former president.

A.

Eight months after declaring himself a candidate and only hours after a crushing caucus defeat in Iowa, Asa Hutchinson came home and he spoke with us about a campaign that he insisted had an impact.

I was the third candidate in the race.

I was the only one early on that said we ought to go a different direction on Donald Trump.

And then most recently, you see Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley getting very aggressive on that point.

And so I laid the foundation there as terms of warnings, but also in terms of a positive new direction that we need to go.

And I didn't get to be I was not the beneficiary of it, but I do believe it made a difference.

Well, but, Governor, the Mr. Trump went ahead and won Iowa by these enormous set a new record.

And I was a matter of fact, your party, correct me if I'm wrong, but your party would seem to be in no base on Iowa anyway.

Would seem to be in no mood to change directions.

Well, that's true at the present time.

And you have a couple of factors.

One, he's treated as an incumbent since he's a former president.

Secondly, there's a there's a disagreement on the base as to the charges.

The criminal charges have been filed against Hale and then they have bought into his purpose, you know, perpetuating lies and misinformation to him.

And so the grievance has really motivated him and escalated his campaign.

So he's strong position right now.

We'll see if that changes to New Hampshire or beyond.

It it might not.

But still, whether it changes or not, my forewarning is important.

And I believe I spoke the truth and I'll be happy to be judged on that truth in terms of history in East Arkansas.

Meantime, there was brewing an infrastructure crisis, albeit one that surprised hardly anyone.

For the second time in less than a year, many Helena west Helena residents were without water.

The collapse of an aging system meant the National Guard had to truck in drinking water, and the governor authorized a short term loan to finance repairs to the system.

While the director of the State Natural Resources Commission and a Phillips County legislator warned that the aid was merely a Band-Aid.

And it's going to take several million.

But wherever we can start, that's where we want to get started.

The well is going to be the first and foremost thing, and that's probably not all the what they're going to need for that.

But that is a good start.

Back to you.

State Senator, what are you hearing from the constituents there that this you know, this happened last summer, so this is the second time around.

And as as we're hearing, if we don't fix the problem now, it's going to happen again.

Well, what I'm hearing is that they're concerned.

And so this is a kind of a complicated situation as those this close to this know, this is a historical impact from years of neglect, just to be quite frank.

Therefore, we're put in a situation whereby we have to try to ensure that we have the confidence of the residents that going forward that whatever funds will come to our community would be properly used in accessing those funds and even getting the dollars needed, many millions that will be needed to fix the long term problem is a it's a process and the governor and myself and others are trying to come together, formulate a plan along with the state that will allow us to access funds from various organizations along with the legislature as well.

So it's going to be all hands on deck for the situation because this going to be much too large for Helena without the community.

How about all by themselves?

Spring in Arkansas, it always means green grass and blooming azaleas, but it all too often means tornadoes as well.

And in May, northwest Arkansas was raped by twisters that took ten lives.

Hardest hit was Rogers and one of the homes damaged belonged to its mayor.

I was fortunate enough to to to have an offer from a private party to go up in a helicopter Sunday morning around 930 to to to see what type of damage we're talking about.

And I accepted the offer inside my home on my cell phone.

And then I walked out the front door to to head down to the high school parking lot, which is just about four blocks away from my house to to meet the helicopter and found myself just literally crawling over and under trees that were falling across the roadways and sidewalks to make it out of there.

So, you know, kind of a helpless feeling, something that, you know, my former career is in law enforcement.

So, you know, I'm pretty risk averse and that that situation is sort of surreal when you find yourself in it.

FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Agency is often taken to task for what storm victims and their representatives regard as poor performance.

But Arkansas's emergency services director said he had no issue with FEMA.

FEMA has been been great.

They've been a great partner.

FEMA Region six, which is the region that Arkansas falls under, they're headquartered in Denton, Texas.

They actually had their staff here in Arkansas, 3 p.m. on Sunday.

So that is a very quick response.

Administrator Criswell was was in the state yesterday touring the damage and was riding with her.

So she got to see firsthand the damage there in the Rogers area.

So very pleased with FEMA.

You know, each disaster is different.

And to be able to get a federal declaration, you have to have a considerable amount of damage to do that and you have to have the data and justification to do that.

FEMA Region six has been great with getting their personnel here because they can immediately see the impact that these tornadoes had on the state of Arkansas, which makes it gives us the information that we can more quickly apply for a federal declaration.

Tragedy of a different sort would occur just weeks later in south Arkansas at Ford Ice, not a natural disaster, not this time, but a man with a gun and no known motive.

By the time the supermarket shooting stopped, he had killed four people and wounded almost a dozen others.

Mayor John McNichol shared his thoughts with Dawn Scott.

I think that is going back bring forth back.

We're going to bring unity more into our town.

I see it already happening and I know everybody's concern and I just pray to God I don't never do it again.

The defendant in the four day shootings is facing 15 counts of murder or attempted murder.

He has pleaded not guilty.

His trial is scheduled for February.

For football season is always a time of anticipation and expectation in Arkansas.

But the 2024 season was rather different.

The NCAA rules were profoundly different, redefining what we'd grown accustomed to calling amateur sport transfer portals, endorsements, imagery.

Our two resident Razorback experts came on board and did not mince words.

Push for time.

But I got to get this in here.

What kind of season?

Now you got an odd chemistry experiment up here.

Pittman and Petrino.

That was the best move you could make in the off season that gave the fanbase hope.

Now, let's hope after that they're going to be better.

Steve.

The problem is the the schedule that they play is really, really difficult.

So how many more wins does better get you?

Just don't know.

It probably could be anywhere from as low as five wins to as high as eight.

So somewhere in there we're going to see the magic of Bobby Petrino and what he can do on the offensive side of the ball.

Bo Wilcock I have said for months now that Sam Pittman's job is obviously at stake here this season.

I don't think there's any doubt about that.

But I've said for months that six and six and possibly a bowl win keeps him around, generates enough enthusiasm going into the next year.

Right now, the recruiting classes for 25 and 26 are looking strong, but we all know that will change.

But I think a seven in five season is probably the ceiling.

You win a bowl game, you go eight and five.

And I know that doesn't sound like much to get it right, But.

But, but.

Well, well, well.

That's another take it another subject that maybe maybe throw in raises around.

Is it the thing to do yet.

But I think seven and five would be good.

I'm going to say six and six with a bowl win in Memphis.

In the Bears, as we mentioned up top, there was an election last month and next month it will transfer to the Republican Party control of the US Senate.

Arkansas senior Senator John Boozman will then become chair of the Agriculture Committee, a panel of enormous importance to not only his state, but every state.

And perhaps the committee's most important task is writing a farm bill to replace the one that expired last year.

But there are differing versions, and at this hour, there is no resolution.

That is not what Mr. Bozeman had hoped for when he came aboard here in late September.

We could have emergency package to get farmers through right now.

The farm bill gives the new it would what it would provide a new insurance program, a new set of risk management tools for the farmers to use for the upcoming farm year.

So it really wouldn't pay until 2026.

But right now they're in dire straits.

So we could put one in and one of a couple of ways.

We could have two separate bills.

We could just have an emergency bill and then the farm bill or in the farm bill, we could make some of the provisions that we're doing regarding risk management, make it retro active in the this year, which would be a big help to the farmers.

So those are the kind of details that we're fleshing out right now in 2024.

There was added evidence that beneath the surface of Arkansas there was more than soybean shoots and natural gas a century ago.

Wildcatters pulled black gold from the smack over field.

Now, big energy was willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars there to access one of the world's largest deposits of lithium, a key component of a green energy future.

But how to calculate the royalties for Orlando?

State Commerce Secretary Hugh McDonald discussed that with Don Scott.

Well, it's, you know, in one word is huge.

The recent U.S. Geological Survey, which which has put a lot of it in the media here recently, said it's I think they said so it would it's large enough to serve supply the U.S. demand for the largest band for lithium production as it's projected in 2030.

So nine times that amount.

So it's a it's a huge resource for for Arkansas and frankly, North America.

It's unbelievable.

What kind of interest is Arkansas seeing?

I know other energy companies are contacting us.

Yeah, we've received lots of interest.

Of course, standard lithium has been there with the demonstration plant for a number of years, perfecting their technology for direct lithium extraction.

They have recently, within the last six months, done a joint venture with Equinor, which is a global oil and gas ENP company out of Norway.

Also, last year, ExxonMobil joined with 120,000 acres of leased mineral rights.

So we're getting a lot of traction.

When those big ENP players showed up, it really, really piqued the interest of the industry.

Exxon and Equinor or Standard Lithium wouldn't be there investing the time and effort and the dollars if they didn't believe that they could make it economics.

So it's a huge opportunity for the state.

Arkansas made a big switch this year beneath the big dome in Washington.

Each state is permitted statues and the US capitol of two of its favorite sons.

And for decades, we were represented in marble by a former senator and a prominent attorney.

Both died longer than a century ago.

In this new century and this year, a new favorite son and a favorite daughter, music idol Johnny Cash and civil rights icon Daisy Bates.

Naturally, we wanted to hear from the man who spearheaded the switch.

Former state legislator Shane Broadway.

And with him, the man who sculpted Johnny Cash and Mr. Cash's daughter, Rosanne.

And we welcome Janice Kearney, who was an assistant to Daisy Bates and who took up the mantle.

I was a tour guide 30 years ago when I was an intern for Senator David Pryor.

And so I used to talk about the other the two that were there for over 100 years.

I think it really began with some legislators who were taking a state legislators who were taking a night tour of the capital and of railroads and J.P. Clark and really they did not know a whole lot about them and wondered what the process was maybe about changing Irish, because some states were already in that process of changing their Kansas and Florida updating.

And so they came back, I think, from that tour and started that conversation.

And it began with a bill filed in 2019 by Senator Dave Wallace, who came to me and said, I want to include Johnny Cash.

I work with the university that obviously owns the Arkansas State University, owns the Johnny Cash boyhood home, and.

And so he asked if I would check with the family to make sure they would be okay.

Obviously, you know the answer.

I mean, I honestly think of all of the awards and recognitions and halls of fame and accolades he received in his life that this this is the one.

But you want that timeless qualities to come forth and humanity.

To me, he wasn't chosen to be representing Arkansas in the Statuary Hall Collection because of the number of records he sold or all the accolades he got as a musician.

To me, it was his fact that he took everything that he garnered through his success, and instead of holding on to it tightly, he used it to shine a light and raise up others who have been stepped over forgotten.

And he was just that's just part of who he was.

And that's the aspect of Johnny Cash that I really wanted to highlight.

You worked intimately with Mrs. Bates for a long time.

What would she think of this?

What would she make of this?

She would be so excited, so honored.

And she'd probably say, I deserve it because I gave my life.

I gave my life.

And so did my husband.

And we worked really hard to make Arkansas better.

So it's a deserving honor.

Yeah.

Did.

Was she bitter?

I didn't think she was bitter, but she was still she was still believing that Arkansas could do better.

She she still thought we weren't where we should have been after all the work that had been put into integrating the schools.

Right now, she and a lot of people have seen, including me and our previous guest, have seen what seem to us obvious similarities in the life of Johnny Cash and the life of Daisy Bates.

Mm hmm.

I agree.

I agree.

And I have I think I told someone on the committee that they are both kind of before their time, both kind of outcasts in a way.

And they both believed in democracy before we started talking about democracy.

The way that we talk about it today.

They believe that everybody deserved a chance, equal opportunity.

They believed in a lot of things.

You know, similarly, Arkansas PBS will have more on the new statues in the U.S. Capitol and in the New Year, we'll premiere a documentary on Mrs. Bates and Johnny Cash and the five year process to place them in Washington.

Again, it's our final edition of Arkansas Week for 2024.

As is our custom, we conclude the year by noting the men and women who left the public arena in the previous dozen months.

They were newsmakers, players and politics, or policy or business or education, or all of the above.

Others among them help cover the news.

For any omissions we apologize for, they were certainly inadvertent.

And as always, thanks for being with us and we'll see you next year.

Support for Arkansas Week provided by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, The Arkansas Times and Little Rock Public Radio.