Giant Killer Takes On Arkansas Lottery Director for Refusing To Conduct Audit

Dr. Bill Smith (Ozark Guru): With the pending change in Lt Governor in Arkansas, the present Lottery Director has a vested interest. It was the current and outgoing Lt. Governor Bill Halter who rose to power in Arkansas after being funded by out-of-state gambling and pornography interests. Then as Lt. Governor, Halter submitted a proposed lottery bill to the Arkansas legislature which was rebuffed by even his fellow democrats.

Underwritten by gambling interests, Halter then opted to force the issue in a manner not done in the past. As an Arkansas constitutional officer, he introduced a Constitutional Amendment to establish a State run lottery using the deception that the lottery would fund scholarships. He never mentioned the cost of running the Lottery, the personal loss to many people, or the potential corruption experienced with lotteries in other states. The out-of-state sources funded Halter's efforts to collect signatures to get the amendment on the ballot and then to pay the advertising costs to promote the lottery amendment. In the long run, these backers were themselves gambling on Halter being around longer in Arkansas politics.

However, Halter, a liberal's liberal elitist wanted to be Governor of Arkansas. But he found himself rebuffed in the state and his chances declining to run for governor. He also noticed an announced challenge by an Republican conservative who was not afraid of his large war chest. So, Halter "rolled the dice" and decided to run for U.S. Senate against the incumbent Democratic senator whose star is falling. But even with enormous funding from Halter's previous dubious financial supporters and unions, Halter was defeated for his own party's nomination.

Reflecting back to the "announced challenger."  Long before Halter's decision to run for US Senate, Halter appeared safe with no one opposing challenger to re-election as Lt. Governor. However, a lone conservative literally asked God to give him the strength of "David" as a "Giant killer" to bring down the most liberal incumbent in Little Rock. This "David" set his sights on Bill Halter when no one else would oppose Halter.  This "David" who was willing to take on the Giants was Mark Darr a jovial Christian "Mad" pizza business owner. He had a trusting spirit, a TEA Party heart and the gumption to be bold. Mark Darr boldly announced that he would run against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in 2010. He then started traveling the state sharing his call for greater government transparency and accountability in government.

While leading members of his own party, questioned taking on Halter. As detailed previously, Halter opted not to run again as Lt. Governor. After Halter's decision, another Republican candidate did opt to run against Mark Darr for Lt. Governor instead of for one of the other unopposed seats. But by then enough people had noted this new Giant killer, and Mark Darr won the GOP primary. It has been very clear as Mark Darr has crossed the state that he is willing to stand boldly for good government and to work with the elected Governor on seeking to expand jobs in the private sector.

Now, Mark Darr has responded to the Arkansas State Lottery Director Ernie Passailaigue's refusal to conduct an audit to show that Arkansas revenue is being spent as it is supposed to be. Makes one wonder what Mr. Passailaigue is seeking to hide. By the way, Passailaigue's annual salary is $324,000. Passailaigue's is the third highest paid lottery director nationally.  His two VPs, Ernestine Middleton Middleton and David Barden, each will earn $225,000 a year and worked for Passailaigue at the South Carolina lottery. The lottery security chief, Lance Huey gets $115,644 a year; IT gaming director Mike Smith at $150,000; Mary VanLeer as IT infrastructure director, Julie Baldridge as Exec. Assist., Bridgette Frazier as Staff attorney and Bishop Woosley Procurement Director each gets $105,000; and the sales director Robert Stebbins $92,518.  Which totals $1,552,162 before benefits and or the cost of facilities, material costs, operational costs, advertising, office and communication costs, etc.

By comparison, the Arkansas Governor gets a $80,848 salary (yes he get to live in the mansion) which is less than 25% of what the Lottery Director makes and the Governor makes less than all of the key Lottery staff. And the Arkansas Lottery Director does not want an audit! Are you concerned with what Mr. Passailaigue is seeking to hide? Well Mark Darr is concerned!

Consider that Passailaigue's prime elected Little Rock supporter, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, is on the way out of office in six short months. Passailaigue's refusal directly contradicts the intent of the legislature, the conservative values of Arkansans and the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery website which clearly states "The Lottery will be operated with integrity and dignity in a manner that provides entertainment to the public, maximizes revenue and accounts to the public and General Assembly through regular reports and audits."

Mark Darr responded to the Lottery Directors unwillingness to provide transparency: "As Lieutenant Governor I will have a direct working relationship with the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery staff and I pledge to the citizens of Arkansas that I will fight passionately to ensure accountability and transparency. When I entered the Lieutenant Governor’s race I committed myself to fighting for these very values, which are desperately lacking in our state government. To this day I maintain that commitment because the future and prosperity of our great state is at stake."

Mark Darr could have stopped right there with that one statement. But because he places Arkansas first, he challenged his Democrat opponent for Lt Governor to join him "in fighting for the citizens of Arkansas as they deserve better than this." Arkansas voters would do very well to elect as Lt. Governor this "Giant killer" who will take on wasteful government spending and the lack of transparency and accountability.  And with his experience, Mark Darr will be a natural at supporting job creation and defending small business in Arkansas.
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About Mark: Mark Darr is a lifelong resident of Arkansas and is a graduate of Mansfield High School in Mansfield and Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia. Mark is an experienced businessman er who knows what it means to creat jobs and sign the front of a paycheck. He is a licensed insurance agent and is the owner of MAD Pizza Company in Rogers. Mark and his wife Kim and two children live in Springdale Arkansas where they are active members of First Baptist Church of Springdale.

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Tags: Bill Halter, Mark Darr, Lieutenant Governor, Lottery audit, transparency, accountability, Arkansas, Ernie Passailaigue, Lottery Director To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Congress Must End Chain Migration And The Visa Lottery Program

by Printus LeBlanc: On Monday, there was yet another terrorist attack in New York City. Luckily the incompetence of the extremist led to only five injuries, with many speculating it could have been much worse. This attack comes on the heels of another attack on Halloween day that left eight dead and 11 injured. Both attackers were brought to the country legally, thanks to an outdated immigration system. Congress knows what the problem is, why have they not fixed it?

The Department of Homeland Security has confirmed Akayed Ullah, the zealot from Monday’s attack, came to the U.S. in 2011 via an F43 “fourth preference” family immigration visa, also known as chain migration. F43 means he was in the most distant family-relationship eligibility category, i.e., the brother or sister of an adult citizen. It gets worse, the sibling that allowed Ullah to immigrate entered the U.S. via the Visa Lottery program. The Visa Lottery program is the same program that brought Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov to the U.S. In case you don’t remember; he is the terrorist from the Halloween day attack.

Why has Congress failed to act on chain migration and the Visa Lottery?

The latest immigration numbers show more than 60 percent of new legal arrivals to the U.S. since 1981 came here via chain migration. These are people who came here because they knew someone, not because they were a doctor, engineer, or scientist, but because they were related to someone else. At a time when Silicon Valley is screaming for higher skilled workers, does it make sense to prioritize loose family connections instead of labor market needs?

Amnesty advocates and the mainstream media will tell you there is no problem with chain migration or the Visa Lottery. It could be because they are too busy reporting on the diet coke habit of the President to notice, but if they opened their eyes, they would see a problem:

• In 2002, Imran Mandhai pled guilty to conspiring to bomb a National Guard Armory and electrical power substations near Miami. Mandhai was in the country because his parents were Visa Lottery winners from Pakistan.
• Syed Haris Ahmed was convicted of terrorism-related activities in the United States and abroad in 2009. Ahmed was another winner of the Visa Lottery system in Pakistan.
• A few days before Sayfullo Habibullaevich Saipov’s truck attack on Halloween day in New York City, another Visa Lottery winner, Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State terrorists.
• In one of the more egregious examples of poor immigration management, a leader of Hamas, Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, received a Green Card through the predecessor program to the Visa Lottery. He was finally deported for terrorist activities in 1997.
• In July 2002, Egyptian national, Hesham Mohamed Ali Hedayet, opened fire at the El Al Airlines ticket counter at LAX airport, murdering two ticket agents and wounding three others. He came here via tourist visa in 1992, claimed political asylum, then granted Lawful Permanent Resident status after his wife won the Visa Lottery in 1997. This happened despite being arrested in Egypt for being a member of Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya, a group supported by Al-Qaeda.

Another falsehood spread by amnesty radicals is the economic argument. Activists will often argue that immigration legal and illegal is a net positive for the economy. When you look at the data, the case doesn’t hold up.

Illegal immigration alone is costing the U.S. taxpayer $135 billion a year in medical care, education, and law enforcement costs. A 2012 study found that 51 percent of households headed by an immigrant used welfare. The federal government spent almost $500 billion on welfare programs in the same year the study was done. How much of that went to immigrant households?

Despite the glaring need to end chain migration and the Visa Lottery program, Congress has yet to act. The Democrat Party is happy with the status quo because they get to import people that need government assistance, and people that need government assistance are more likely to vote Democrat. Republican leadership is in love with the 2012 election autopsy report, even though Trump proved everything in the report wrong with his election.

However, thanks to the election of President Trump the idea of a common-sense immigration policy that puts the needs of Americans first is on the horizon. While the pro-amnesty crowd want the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to be made into law, President Trump is standing firm. Any deal that includes DACA must include the elimination of chain migration, the Visa Lottery, and a border wall.

In an interview with Laura Ingraham, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seemed to be coming around to the idea also stating, “I agree with Cotton and Perdue…Chain Migration, doing something about the Diversity Visa Lottery, there are plenty of changes to the legal immigration system that should be added to any kind of a DACA fix that we do.”

McConnell was referring to the RAISE Act. Legislation introduced earlier this year by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) that would slash chain migration, eliminate the Visa Lottery program, and return the U.S. to a merit-based immigration system.

Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning has long been a proponent of overhauling the failing immigration system stating, “Yesterday’s horrific attempt at mass murder by a person who came from Bangladesh via chain migration underscores the importance of ending both the visa lottery system and chain migration. It is absurd that when one member of a family wins the lottery to be able to legally come to the U.S. that every extended relative is put to the front of the line for future immigration. It is in both U.S. national security and economic interests to have an immigration system that prioritizes those with needed skills and experience. Any discussion of immigration law changes must begin with ending chain migration, building the wall and securing the border before any other considerations.”

Chain Migration and the Visa Lottery program, two pieces of a broken immigration system coming together to put American lives in danger. U.S. immigration policy must be based on what is best for the U.S., not what is best for the incoming immigrant. Local, state, and federal resources are stretched too thin as it is. It makes no sense economically to import people that cannot support themselves and are going to depend on a system on the verge of collapse. President Trump won the election with a message of putting Americans first, it is time for Congress to live up to their end of the deal.
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Printus LeBlanc is a contributing editor for Americans for Limited Government.

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Tags: Printus LeBlanc, Americans for Limited Government, Congress, Must End, Chain Migration, Visa Lottery Program To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Give the Kids a Chance

Curtis Coleman, Contributing Author: Setting aside, for a moment, whether you believe the lottery in your state is effective, efficient, moral, or counter-productive and immoral, is the money from your state’s lottery being used where it’s most needed or productive? Or is time to make a drastic and desperately needed change in how education is funded? This article’s focus is on Arkansas’s scholarship lottery program (Arkansas is the home of The Institute for Constitutional Policy), but it is intended to be applicable to education in all 50 states.

$420 Million per Year

Arkansans are gambling about $35 million per month on lottery tickets and games, approximately $420 million per year or about $144 per year for every adult and child in Arkansas. However, the highest estimates for the percentage of Arkansans who actually play the lottery is 65%[1], which means those who gamble on the lottery gamble approximately $224 per person per year. Of the $420 million Arkansans gamble on the lottery, only about 22% (third worst percentage in the nation) actually goes for college scholarships. That 22% helped to fund 28,000 college scholarships in the lottery’s first year, $4,500 per year for university students and $2,500 per year for students who attend community colleges.

A closer look at the Arkansas lottery’s revenues can be more troubling. In one sample month (August, 2010), Pulaski County, the state’s most populous county, produced the the lottery’s highest per county revenue, approximately $7 million, or approximately $73 per month per household (approximately 1.9% of household income). In 2008 the Pulaski Co. median household income was $45,215 and 16.5% were below the 2008 poverty level.

Jefferson County produced the second highest income for the lottery in August, approximately $1.6 million, or approximately $81 per month per household, (approximately 2.1% of household income). The median household income in 2008 was $38,018 and 20.6% lived below the 2008 poverty level in Jefferson County.

In Lee County, a fairly typical Arkansas Delta region county, the 2008 median per household income was $25,178 and 38.6% lived below the 2008 poverty level. Lee County households gambled approximately $43 per household per month on the lottery, 2% of their income. The minority population of Lee County is approximately 58%.

According to the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research’s 2010 report on remediation rates and costs in Arkansas colleges, English and math remediation rates from Lee County were between 75% and 100%. Less than 18% of Lee County School District students scored 19 or higher on the ACT for math, according to the Bureau’s report. Less than 56% scored 19 or higher for literacy and less than 50% scored 19 or higher for science. The Arkansas lottery scholarship program requires an ACT score of 19 or higher to qualify for a college scholarship.

Less Than Half Can Qualify
Lee County residents, with one of the lowest per household incomes in the state with significantly less discretionary income, are nevertheless gambling approximately the same percentage of their income on the lottery, yet less than half of their students can qualify for a lottery scholarship. And of those who gain entrance to college classes, at least three out of every four students had to go through some remediation classes.

Financial inefficiencies aside, this incredibly poor educational performance does not account for the human toll nor the long-term poverty with its related liabilities for students who not only cannot achieve a college degree, but who graduate from high school without the proficiency to function productively in society.

According to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education, remediation at Arkansas’s institutions of higher education increased from 51.3 percent in 2008 to 54.6 percent in 2009 – a rise of 3.3 percentage points in one year. The cost of remediation for 2008 was $65 million, which is approximately 10 percent of the total general revenue funding for institutions of higher education. The percentage at four-year institutions was 40.4 percent and 75.8 percent at two-year institutions.

Sixty-five million dollars is roughly equal to 65% of the money available for 2009 scholarships in the Arkansas scholarship lottery program. The data clearly suggest that a significant percentage of Arkansas’s lottery proceeds would be much more productively invested in P-12 education, with a concentrated focus on schools with the lowest ACT scores and highest rates of required remediation. The long-term benefit to Arkansas would be enormous.

Of course, the problems that need to be solved are not that simple, nor are the solutions.

“Public Education is Disadvantageous to Black Students”
I had the recent privilege of visiting for several hours with Cheryl Washington, Ed.D., the Chief Administrator for the Word of Outreach Christian Academy (WOOCA) on Asher Avenue in Little Rock. Dr. Washington, a former captain in the Air Force who also holds a Masters degree in Education, has been the administrator for WOOCA for 22 years.

Dr. Washington served for six years on the Governor’s Council for Gifted and Talented education. “Arkansas does an outstanding job in this [gifted and talented] area,” Dr. Washington said, “ranking 2rd or 3rd in the nation. But 40% of all public schools in Arkansas did not even meet progress requirements for the state benchmark last year."
She said the state needs to put more money into more ACT prep courses and that every child needs to go through ACT preparation. But she was quick to point out that didn’t solve the real problem.

“Public education forces the perpetuation of a culture that has not been advantageous to black students,” she explained. “The public school is an extension of the culture where it’s not cool to be smart, not cool to obey authority, where entitlement and ‘free stuff’ is the goal.”

“Education has become a tool to change our society; education has become a political platform,” she continued. “It’s not about the students, it’s no longer a ministry, it’s about money.”

“How do we fix it?” I asked.

We Have to Change the Model
“We have to change the model,” she answered. “God never intended a child to be a ward of the state. Teachers used to work for parents; now we have it the other way around. Parents report to teachers.”

“The system will have to become accountable to parents again,” she continued. “That means school choice, but not choice only within the system. It has to be true school choice, where the money follows the student. We can’t continue to just try to involve parents. We must empower parents, and that means that the money must follow the child. When we make that critical change, the system will have to become accountable to parents once again.”

“We’ve got to eliminate the bureaucracy,” she said. “When we add love, add structure, and add Christ to education, we dramatically improve the environment. We have scientific studies which conclusively demonstrate that when we eliminate stress from drugs and gangs and replace those destructive forces with love, structure, uniforms, prayer, God, and make education a ministry, we create an environment that actually changes the brain. And we see a 97% academically proficient graduation rate from that kind of education.”

“When we give parents a choice,” Washington emphatically insisted, “then we give kids a chance.”

Legislation to Give Parents a Choice, Kids a Chance

Arkansas State Representative Jon Hubbard of Jonesboro had planned to introduce a bill that would require at least of portion of available public school funding to follow the student during P-12 school years. Rep. Hubbard was advised by the Arkansas Bureau of Legislative Research that such a bill would likely be unconstitutional according to the Arkansas Constitution. “We’re looking at the possibility of amending the Arkansas Constitution to provide for the idea,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard has taught and coached in both public and private schools, including Little Rock’s Catholic High School. “Although I realize that there are still some well-performing public school districts, I also realize that the overwhelming majority of educating students in Arkansas, and everywhere else for that matter, is being done in home schools and private schools,” Hubbard said. “The clear and present danger concerning public schools is that until we return discipline back to the classroom, the educational atmosphere in public schools will continue to dissipate each and every year.”

“I am passionate about protecting and preserving the education of our young people,” he continued. “One of the greatest fears I have is that, with the way our public schools are continuing to self-destruct, we have but a small window of time in which to turn this around, or any hope that our young people will have access to a real education will be lost.”

Hubbard also said that he will support (and is willing to submit) a “Tim Tebow” bill during this session of the Arkansas legislature. The legislation would allow home-schooled students to participate in extra-curricular activities in public schools, including sports and music. The bill derives it’s name from Tim Tebow, a home-schooled student who played football for a public high school team in Florida, leading Neese High School to the 2005 Florida state championship. As the Gators’ starting quarterback, Tebow won the Heisman Trophy, earned the Maxwell Award as the nation’s top football player, the Davey O’Brien Award as the nation’s best quarterback, and the James E. Sullivan Award as the nation’s most outstanding amateur athlete in any sport.

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The Word of Outreach Christian Academy is raising funds to send some of its students on their first trip to Washington, D.C. If you would like to help with this worthy project, please contact Dr. Cheryl Washington at 501-663-0500.
[1]The assumption that 65% of Arkansans gamble on the lottery will be used in all related calculations from this point forward.

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Curtis Coleman is the President of The Curtis Coleman Institute for Constitutional Policy and contributing author to the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Arkansas, Arkansas scholarship, Cheryl Washington, Jon Hubbard, Lottery, lottery program, Tim Tebow, bill, Word of Outreach Christian Academy, Education, Lottery, scholarships, Curtis Coleman To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Arkansas Lottery Continues Pulling the Plug on Scratch-Off Tickets With Millions in Prizes Outstanding

by Jerry Cox: We have written before about how the Arkansas Lottery discontinues lineups of scratch-off tickets while millions of dollars in prizes are still outstanding.

The Arkansas Lottery relies heavily on scratch-off tickets and rolls out new sets of instant tickets every month.

However, the Arkansas Lottery also routinely discontinues scratch-off tickets — some of which may still have a million dollars or more in outstanding prize money.

Just last week the Arkansas Lottery quit letting people redeem winning tickets for its $20 Ultimate Millions scratch-off — even though the Lottery’s website indicates there is still a million dollar jackpot ticket out there somewhere along with about $500,000 in other winning tickets.

These winning tickets either were never sold or — if they were sold — have not been redeemed yet.

By discontinuing the game before all the winning scratch-off tickets were sold or redeemed, the Arkansas Lottery avoids paying out more than $1.5 million in prizes.

Last week was the deadline to redeem winning tickets for at least three other scratch-off games at the Arkansas Lottery besides Ultimate Millions: Hot $200’s, $20K Blast, and 200X Payout. Altogether, nearly $1.5 million in prize money remains outstanding from these three games.

In other states, lotteries have drawn flak for discontinuing scratch-off games before selling all or most of the winning tickets.

Some have questioned whether those lotteries simply did not want to pay money for big prizes.

The Arkansas Lottery already spends more money on prizes than most state lotteries. That high prize budget presumably helps entice people to play the lottery.

But many people may be surprised to learn that a state-run lottery can avoid paying prizes to players simply by cancelling lottery games before all the winning tickets are sold.
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Jerry Cox is the founder and president of Family Council and the Education Alliance and a contributing author to the ARRA News Service.
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Tags: Jerry Cox, Arkansas Lottery, Continues Pulling the Plug, on Scratch-Off Tickets, Millions in Prizes, Outstanding To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter & Cronies Continue to Push Lottery Amendment

Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: During the last election cycle, I heard members of both parties advance the idea that the Lt. Governor position can't "really" impact legislation or change and that the Lt. Governor only chairs the Senate, breaks tie votes, and fills in for the Governor when he is out of State. Regardless, the ARRA and others spoke out about liberal Bill Halter and his past association with business with ties to pornography and gambling. But, Halter was elected and he has continued to press for increased gambling in Arkansas even after the legislature let HJR1005 lottery proposal die in committee.

Halter working with his gaming cronies have put forth a proposed amendment for a State Lottery. They plan to entice voters by tying the lottery to funding college scholarships. In September, they had a setback when their proposed amendment was rejected by Attorney General Dustin McDaniel because of "unclear language."

However, that didn't stop Halter and his cronies. On Thursday, Halter submitted a revised version of his ballot proposal for a state lottery to the attorney general's office. Now the ball is back in play. Thursday in a news release, Halter said, "I am delighted that we have taken another step closer towards allowing Arkansans to decide for themselves if our state deserves its own scholarship lottery. Every day, Arkansans cross state lines to play lotteries that benefit others. Given a choice, I believe our state will vote to establish our own scholarship lottery that keeps our money here at home helping Arkansans."

If Attorney General McDaniel approves the new wording, Halter's campaign group will have to collect 78,000 signatures to put the amendment on the 2008 general election ballot. However, I would expect they already have the support in place to collect the signatures from both supporters and unsuspecting voters. Their effort to obtain signatures will be much easier than the work and expense that will be required by family values voters to overcome the impact of the professional advertising that will be used to promote Halter's lottery.

Does it matter who is Lt Governor? Yes it does. We miss the affability and honesty of the former Lt. Governor Win Rockefeller. Now, we are faced with a Lt. Governor who is dead set on Arkansas becoming the next "lottery state." Halter and his cohorts, Bud Jackson, et.al., have named their project "Hope for Arkansas Lottery Campaign." I guess the devil is in the details after all. If the AG approves Halter's amendment, the ARRA is prepared to do battle. We have already put forth "Eight Reason to Oppose a State Lottery."

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Tags: Arkansas, Bill Halter, gambling, lottery, Lt Governor To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

ARRA Issues Pamphlet: Eight Reason to Oppose a State Lottery

Dr. Pat Briney, President of the Arkansas Republican Assembly has issued a pamphlet detailing "Eight reasons to oppose a state lottery." The document was released in response to limited number of Arkansas lawmakers who are proposing a state lottery.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter previously announced a proposed constitutional amendment to create a state sponsored lottery in Arkansas. Presently, the state’s constitution bans lotteries. Halter hopes the Legislature will approve the constitutional amendment in time for the November 2008 general election. Arkansas Rep. Will Bond (D-Jacksonville) filed HJR 1005 an bill to refer to voters an amendment to establish a State Lottery.

Is a state lottery a good source of revenue for Arkansas, and will it promote well being of Arkansans? The facts says no. Read the "Eight reasons to oppose a state lottery." It is critical that voters understand the pitfalls and problems associated with a lottery. After reviewing the info, please contact your Arkansas State Representatives and Senators about the proposed lottery amendment and share the following link with your friends and family:
- Eight reasons to oppose a state lottery
- Search summary of the ARRA Blog postings addressing the lottery

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Tags: Arkansas, Arkansas Republican Assembly, ARRA, Bill Halter, HJR1005, lottery, Patrick Briney To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

Arkansas Legistlative Alert - State Lottery

by Larry L. Page, Executive Director, Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council: An article in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette disclosed that Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter will push the legislature to refer to the voters a proposed constitutional amendment to establish a state lottery. In each regular session of the General Assembly, legislators may submit up to three constitutional amendments for the voters’ consideration in the following general election. Over the last couple of decades, proponents of a state lottery have encouraged the legislators to refer a lottery amendment to the state’s voters. Conservative family-value Arkansans have always been able to deter those attempts to establish a state lottery through the legislative referral procedure. (Arkansas voters have also defeated at the polls lottery proposals that were qualified for the ballot by the initiative process.)

It looks as if we will again need to step up and block yet another run at a state lottery. We are one of only eight states that have resisted the urge to adopt a lottery. Lottery gambling is a notoriously poor economic tool. It is a regressive tax that hits members of the lower socioeconomic classes the hardest, often making them even more dependent on state services and assistance. In addition, revenue from lotteries does not provide a boon to education and in many instances it even proves harmful to the educational system. The bottom line: A lottery makes the state an economic predator of its weakest citizens. It inverts the role of government, so that instead of looking after the best interests of vulnerable people, it manipulates and exploits them for crass economic gain. Arkansans are better than that, as we have demonstrated time and time again at the ballot box and in the halls of the capitol.

The issue is out there and will probably be in the legislative mix soon. It is time to contact your state senator and state representative (or leave them a message) and advise them that you would appreciate their opposition to any attempts to refer a state lottery amendment to the voters.

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Tags: Arkansas, Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council, Bill Halter, Larry Page, lottery To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!

AR Lottery Scholarship Funding Nears Five-Year Low

Jerry Cox, Contributing Author: Last week the Arkansas Lottery released its financial statements for the month of July.

The report shows the Lottery took in over $41.2 million last month, but gave only $4.5 million to college scholarships — 11% of the Lottery’s total revenue for the month.

The Lottery’s scholarship budget for a single month hasn’t been this bad since February of 2016, when the Arkansas Lottery paid less than $4.5 million to scholarships.

As far as we can tell, July was the Arkansas Lottery’s third-worst month in the past five years when it came to scholarship funding.

The Arkansas Lottery made, on average, over $1.3 million every day last month. There’s simply no good reason the Lottery can’t give students more than 11 cents out  of every dollar.

Below is a breakdown of Arkansas Lottery revenue and scholarship funding from the past five years.

Month	Gross Lottery Revenue	Paid to Scholarships	% Gross Revenue
July, 2014	30,925,067.43	5,928,447.99	19.2%
August	31,571,412.10	5,296,965.80	16.8%
September	30,710,493.31	4,317,227.10	14.1%
October	32,959,739.29	5,939,625.59	18.0%
November	30,617,278.28	5,577,035.16	18.2%
December	34,507,731.54	5,474,318.77	15.9%
January,	35,433,619.67	7,287,773.28	20.6%
2015 February	41,770,314.46	6,161,343.01	14.8%
March	37,367,453.25	6,898,524.35	18.5%
April	33,866,970.54	5,881,005.95	17.4%
May	35,689,036.10	5,409,050.48	15.2%
June	33,815,559.59	8,278,928.14	24.5%
July	31,665,651.14	5,784,683.09	18.3%
August	31,265,177.55	5,490,094.00	17.6%
September	36,134,389.63	6,624,967.11	18.3%
October	35,261,533.80	6,020,642.32	17.1%
November	32,226,599.28	5,725,139.09	17.8%
December	38,670,746.09	6,425,754.66	16.6%
January, 2016	58,746,249.00	13,831,359.75	23.5%
February	40,790,144.05	4,474,356.06	11.0%
March	40,579,421.05	5,758,892.84	14.2%
April	37,516,802.47	7,392,837.00	19.7%
May	38,485,146.05	6,606,164.94	17.2%
June	34,983,951.24	11,249,220.37	32.2%
July	38,237,293.92	8,714,386.39	22.8%
August	35,091,022.09	5,498,714.86	15.7%
September	33,113,391.64	5,773,076.42	17.4%
October	34,061,993.14	5,165,040.54	15.2%
November	37,042,079.72	6,570,979.51	17.7%
December	35,352,159.35	4,596,532.22	13.0%
January, 2017	37,062,291.39	7,947,546.21	21.4%
February	41,176,854.60	6,698,099.62	16.3%
March	43,405,541.56	6,204,704.75	14.3%
April	38,671,617.14	7,845,827.56	20.3%
May	38,185,263.61	7,068,770.18	18.5%
June	38,517,227.85	13,193,652.18	34.3%
July	36,885,396.81	6,661,762.99	18.1%
August	49,320,459.23	8,912,741.54	18.1%
September	36,405,731.14	6,755,333.93	18.6%
October	39,802,740.53	5,667,305.74	14.2%
November	36,186,107.78	6,691,228.00	18.5%
December	44,716,219.32	6,583,355.77	14.7%
January, 2018	44,063,056.11	8,230,861.00	18.7%
February	39,389,927.57	5,947,647.50	15.1%
March	53,523,320.61	7,945,570.02	14.8%
April	42,064,194.78	7,192,997.10	17.1%
May	40,447,182.69	8,037,624.80	19.9%
June	37,685,874.97	13,364,612.64	35.5%
July	42,413,352.70	5,066,628.73	11.9%
August	40,343,279.62	6,175,998.40	15.3%
September	35,198,809.72	7,783,450.82	22.1%
October	57,575,285.62	11,259,040.31	19.6%
November	37,700,016.00	6,821,411.01	18.1%
December	45,859,642.73	6,650,791.54	14.5%
January, 2019	40,574,813.28	7,848,495.62	19.3%
February	41,060,111.75	8,198,257.31	20.0%
March	51,988,380.67	8,552,307.04	16.5%
April	43,951,257.94	8,176,383.34	18.6%
May	41,158,346.08	8,396,193.42	20.4%
June	38,413,526.87	13,482,789.59	35.1%
July	41,239,173.79	4,523,930.75	11.0%

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Jerry Cox is the founder and president of Family Council and the Education Alliance and a contributing author to the ARRA News Service.

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ISIS Wins The Lottery, Religion Of Peace Strikes Again, Other News

CBS News:  Who is Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov?

by Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: ISIS Wins The Lottery -  Yesterday afternoon, Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov drove a rented truck down a Manhattan bicycle path near Ground Zero while yelling "Allahu Akbar." By the time this jihadist, who had pledged his allegiance to ISIS, was stopped by courageous New York City law enforcement personnel, eight people were dead and nearly a dozen were seriously injured.

Saipov came into the country from Uzbekistan under a diversity visa lottery program. This program has been repeatedly cited by security experts as a magnet for jihadi exploitation.

Fifty thousand people a year are allowed into America through this lottery. Once you are in, you can bring in family members too. After Saipov "won the lottery" seven years ago, several families lost the lottery of life last night in New York.

What purpose does this "diversity lottery" serve today? There are tens of millions of foreign born residents living in America. In fact, we are so diverse, that English is not spoken in 45% of California households and more than 20% of homes nationwide.

The diversity lottery is yet another example of the left's belief that America is flawed and must be "fundamentally transformed" by bringing in people from Third World nations. The name -- diversity lottery -- says it all. This is not a skills-based program.

By the way, Saipov is not a lone wolf, but yet another "known wolf." Saipov was also interviewed by federal agents in 2015 about his ties to Islamic extremists. And the Paterson, New Jersey, mosque he attended had been monitored by the New York Police Department. But left-wing Mayor Bill de Blasio canceled the surveillance program.

Reacting to news of this attack, President Trump said he was ordering the Department of Homeland Security to "step up" the "Extreme Vetting program." That's a good start. But more must be done.

Thankfully, conservatives in Congress are trying to end the diversity lottery and enact common sense immigration policies that put our national security and our economic needs first.

If progressives had any common sense, they would immediately join congressional conservatives in suspending the diversity lottery. But I am not holding my breath.

Meanwhile, every left-wing Obama-appointed judge who is trying to make it harder for President Trump to secure our borders and prevent tougher immigration screening should be offered a free ticket to New York to visit the morgue and see the bodies of Saipov's victims.

The Religion Of Peace Strikes Again - After Saipov mowed down bicyclists and pedestrians in what became a "corridor of death," he aimed his truck at a school bus for special needs kids. Two children and two adults on the bus are among those injured.

Saipov, like all jihadists, is a real monster. Police sources have described him as "pleased" with the attack, bragging about it and "unapologetic."

One of the earliest incidents that shocked me about the reality of radical Islam was the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut. I remember the Marine guards saying that they would be haunted for the rest of their lives by the face of the suicide truck bomber. As they fired at him in a desperate attempt to stop the attack, the jihadi driver was laughing the entire time.

Christians often smile and rejoice at baptisms because they know they will spend eternity in heaven. Jihadists laugh when they kill us because they believe that is their ticket to eternity in heaven.

Last night on Fox News, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), hardly a "right-wing extremist," said this: "The one thing I like about President Trump, he understands that we're in a religious war. We're fighting people who are compelled by their religious views to kill us all. They kill fellow Muslims who don't agree with their view of Islam. . ."

Graham is absolutely right. Any politician who can't grasp this obvious fact should be voted out of office.

But within hours of the attack, Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour tweeted, "Every believing Muslim says Allahu Akbar every day during prayers. . . Prosecute the criminal not the faith." She also tweeted, "Acts of terror don't belong to any faith."

Tell that to the JIHADISTS, Linda!

Tell that to the Islamic State and the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's leading state-sponsor of terrorism. Tell that to Hamas, Hezbollah, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab and Al Qaeda.

What do all these groups have in common? They are all co-religionists of one faith.

And since no one runs down strangers yelling, "Jesus Saves," even the most dimwitted among us can figure out that it DOES have something to do with religion.

Good News - As we told you yesterday, leftists in Virginia ran a vicious ad this week portraying a conservative, Caucasian Tea-Party supporter trying to drive over minority children, including a Muslim girl.

I am pleased to report that the organization sponsoring the ad has pulled it off the air "given recent events," referring to yesterday's terrorist attack in New York City.

And that is the sad irony here. There is a force in the world that has proudly announced that its fighters should use trucks to mow down innocent people, including children. It has done this France, England, Germany, Sweden. One of them did it again yesterday in New York City.

That force is not political conservatives. It is radical Islamic supremacists.

But I'm willing to bet that if somebody produced an ad showing a Muslim truck driver trying to run down little children on the street and used the ad to attack progressive politicians who support open borders, no TV station in America would dare run that ad.

Russia News - A hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday produced some important news, but it was overshadowed by the events in New York.

According to Politico, executives from Facebook and Twitter told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that a Russian internet troll farm focused its efforts AFTER the election on "fomenting discord about the validity of [Trump's] election."

If Russia's goal was to elect Trump, why did they continue meddling after the election?

Once again, the narrative of Russian collusion has completely changed. Russia's meddling in the election wasn't about Clinton or Trump. They were simply meddling and trying to divide us.

As one cybersecurity expert explained: "[Russia's] goal is to create confusion and dissent. The target is the U.S. and NATO, not any particular candidate. . . It went from being a grudge match against Clinton to what they thought was a priceless opportunity to inflict harm."

Sadly, it is the progressive left that is buying into Putin's propaganda and doing the most harm to America. More on that later this week.
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Gary Bauer is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families

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Day in the Life of a Republican Arkansas Legislator

by Rep. Dan Greenberg: In the Arkansas state legislature, we deal with issues of policy for only a few months every two years. Because our end-of-session deadline is imminent, we're trying to get everything wrapped up in the next two weeks. At this point, every workday seems about the same.

My day usually begins at around 6 a.m. I used to need an alarm clock, but because my 3-year-old and 6-year-old have recently decided that waking their parents up by bouncing on our bed is extremely fun, mechanical assistance is no longer required.

The time before our morning committee meeting starts is almost the only time of day that I am free to return phone calls and emails. I typically receive 100 emails a day during the legislative session and attempt to give appropriate consideration to them all. Generally, I give the most weight to email with (1) a signature with (2) an address in or near my district (3) that contains no insults, obscenities, or offers to let me be the middleman in a complex international financial scheme. Surprisingly, many emails fail these simple tests. I try to eat a decent breakfast and read the paper before dropping the kids off at school and going to our morning meeting.

When the session started, our committee meetings were under an hour. Now they can stretch to two or three hours. Bills can't get considered on the floor until the committee approves them. After committee meetings end, I usually run across the street for lunch. Some sort of group or trade association usually provides a meal; there's a different group every day. I try not to pay too much attention to what group is picking up the tab. I figure that if I can't remember who is providing lunch, there's no possibility of undue influence.

After lunch, legislators run the gauntlet by walking up the marble stairs that lead to the entrance to the House floor. This is where the lobbyists congregate. This was the place where a constituent tracked me down and forcefully told me that I should write a bill that would benefit his child by creating a new program that would cost taxpayers about $50 million yearly. When I told him I wouldn't do it because I couldn't get it passed, he got very upset with me. I think he thought we had $50 million just lying around someplace.

The main focus of the day is our afternoon session in Room 350, when all 100 House members meet to vote legislation up or down. Earlier today, we considered, discussed, and voted on over a hundred separate bills in the span of two hours. During that time, we make a lot of decisions really fast. Legislators confer with each other about the best way to vote. Pages dart up and down the aisles with pieces of paper. Staffers bring us notes from lobbyists or constituents who await us just outside.

Frequently, we interrupt our work to recognize a group in the gallery. The Speaker will ask us to applaud a group of seventh graders from one town or a Chamber of Commerce group from another. I am honored to applaud a veteran or a community leader, but at times we are a bit promiscuous with our standing ovations to tour groups.

Yesterday, the House passed bills written by Democrats to create higher taxes on milk and to make it easier for government to seize property via eminent domain. I voted against these and spoke against the property seizure bill. This was not appreciated by the sponsor; in the legislature it is thought to be not very nice to speak against someone else's bill. My own view is that it is not very nice to the people we represent to let bad bills go through without criticizing them, but sometimes it seems like this is a minority opinion.

At the end of the day, I go home and try to read the bills that will be presented on the House floor the next day. They can be found on the legislature's public website. As the kids race around the house, my wife sometimes pointedly notes that I am spending way too much time on the Internet. She's right, too.

Here's a more detailed account of what we did this week, written by House staff:

LITTLE ROCK – The first state lottery tickets could be sold this fall now that legislation implementing the games has been approved by the 87th General Assembly and signed into law. The first scholarships funded by lottery revenues will be awarded for the fall semester of 2010.

The final passage and signing of identical lottery bills – House Bill 1002 by Speaker of the House Robbie Wills of Conway and Senate Bill 26 by Sen. Terry Smith of Hot Springs – were among the highlights of the 11th week of the session. Within the next two weeks, Gov. Mike Beebe, Speaker Wills, and Sen. Bob Johnson, the Senate president pro tempore, each will have appointed three members to the newly established Lottery Commission.

The commission’s responsibilities include hiring a lottery director and deciding what games the lottery will involve. Those and other duties will determine when Arkansas has its first sales and joins 42 other states with a lottery, including neighboring Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Legislative leaders also will appoint a legislative oversight committee in the coming days.

Estimates on yearly revenues from the lottery range from $55 million to $100 million. Because of that uncertainty, the dollar amounts of the scholarships funded by lottery proceeds have been set on a sliding scale, depending on revenue generated and whether a particular award is for attendance at a two-year state college or university (from $1,250 a year to $3,000) or at the more expensive four-year schools (from $2,500 a year to $6,000 a year). Lawmakers hope to set specific amounts next February during their budget session, with the first scholarships good for the 2010-2011 school year.

Also during the week, the Joint Budget Committee received a revised revenue forecast for the fiscal year that starts July 1. The new forecast is more clouded than one received early in the year by lawmakers and used by them to approve tax cuts and other appropriation bills the past several weeks. The main effect of the revised forecast could be to move another $40 million, for a total of $100 million, from the state surplus to plug holes in the budget and establish a “rainy day fund” for the governor. The state has a surplus of about $300 million this year. The $200 million left in the surplus could go into the General Improvement Fund, to help rural fire departments, senior citizen centers, sewer and water projects, and community centers throughout the state.

Members of the committee also learned that the recent tax increases on tobacco will bring in nearly $15 million less than expected – from $86 million a year to $71 million. The administration had offered the tobacco tax increase, plus federal money, as a way to pay for a state trauma network, a new medical campus in Northwest Arkansas and about two dozen other health initiatives. State finance officials told skeptical lawmakers that a federal tax increase on tobacco brought about the lower numbers.

Meanwhile, meeting separately, the House and Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committees have sent out their preferences for proposed constitutional amendments that could be referred to voters during the 2010 general election. Twenty-four proposed amendments were filed; the two committees sent out 10 recommendations. They will meet jointly to decide which ones to send to the House and Senate floors. The General Assembly can refer up to three proposed amendments on general topics every two years.

Also during the week, the House approved: [Editorial Note: Listing of bills does not mean endorsement of final action by Rep. Greenberg or ARRA News]
· HB 1985, by Rep. Rick Saunders of Hot Springs, to have the state pay for the costs of holding the general elections now being borne by counties. The bill also requires each county to hire an election coordinator. The bill goes to the Senate.
· HB 1929, by Rep. Bruce Maloch of Magnolia, requiring signed, and witnessed, parental consent for those younger than 18 to use a tanning bed at apartment buildings, tanning salons or spas. There is no penalty for a violation, according to the bill’s sponsor, who said the measure was more of an effort to raise awareness about the dangers of skin cancer. The bill goes to the Senate.
· Senate Bill 192 to make it a felony for a person to possess more than 10 absentee ballots issued to another person or to assist more than six voters in marking and casting ballots. Only a poll worker, county clerk or deputy clerk can provide such assistance. A violation is a Class D felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. The bill goes to the governor. Saunders, of Hot Springs, presented the bill in the House.
· HB 1860, by Rep. Bill Sample of Hot Springs, to ensure that a driver’s license or official I.D. card issued by the state to a person who is not a U.S. citizen expires on or before the date that person is to leave the country. The bill goes to the Senate.
· HB 1895, by Rep. Allen Kerr of Little Rock, to prohibit “crash taxes,” a nickname given to invoices seeking hundreds of dollars from motorists involved in traffic accidents. The invoices are sent by private vendors seeking money – plus a cut -- to pay the costs of officers and other rescue personnel who respond to the accident scene. While there’s only been anecdotal evidence of such incidents in Arkansas, supporters say they want to make sure it doesn’t happen anymore. Cash-strapped cities and counties in at least 15 states have entered into such collection practices, aimed primarily at out-of-town motorists who pay no taxes to support the emergency response. The bill prohibits Arkansas counties and municipalities from entering into agreements with those vendors. The bill goes to the Senate.
· HB 1894, by Rep. Nancy Duffy Blount of Marianna, to allow the state to contract with private entities and colleges and universities to provide an education to prison inmates. Inmates or their families will pay for the service, just as they already do in existing education programs. The bill goes to the Senate.
· SB 493 and SB 494 requiring the state Department of Human Services to place a notice on its Web site within three days of a report of a death or near death of a child in state custody. The agency also would have to make available to the public non-identifying information from child abuse hotline reports and children’s death reports, and release regular reports on deaths, near deaths and abuse of children in state care. Rep. Steve Harrelson of Texarkana presented the bills in the House. The bills go to the governor.
· SB 780 to prohibit public servants convicted of a felony related to their job from holding a position in government again. Sample, of Hot Springs, presented the bill. It goes to the governor.
· HB 2251, by Rep. John Lowery of El Dorado, to give cities and counties the power of eminent domain over industrial plants in limited circumstances, giving local authorities to market the property to other industrial prospects. The bill goes to the Senate.
· Approved Senate amendments to HB 1451, by Rep. Johnny Hoyt of Morrilton, which aims to help struggling dairy farmers by imposing a wholesale fee of 30 cents per 12 gallons of milk sold. The bill goes to the governor. A related bill, SB 934, sets up a subsidy program to help Arkansas dairies. It goes back to the Senate for concurrence on a House amendment.
· Approved HB 2086, by Rep. Butch Wilkins of Bono, to make committing identity fraud to gain employment a felony. The bill goes to the Senate.
· Approved HB 2004, by Rep. Karen Hopper of Mountain Home, to eliminate the requirement that members of the National Guard or Army Reserves who also are teachers or school administrators pay the cost of hiring a substitute when the teacher-soldier is on military leave. The bill goes to the Senate.
· Approved HB 1378, by Rep. Allen Maxwell of Monticello, to give income-tax relief to head-of-household taxpayers with two or more dependents. Those taxpayers were inadvertently left out the last two times lawmakers approved tax relief. The bill goes to the Senate.

Dan Greenberg is an Attorney-at-Law and State Representative (District 31), Arkansas General Assembly. Although he directly represents northern Saline County, he also represents all Arkansans with public stands for limited, transparent and responsible government.

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Arkansas Lottery Scholarships Get Only 16-17 Cents of Every Dollar

Jerry Cox, Contributing Author: The Arkansas Lottery was established to fund college scholarships, but only 16-17 cents of every dollar the Lottery makes actually goes to students.

Watch this video to find out more.

Related posts:
Updated: Lottery Official Says Machines Could Clean Her House
10 Lottery Predictions That Came True
Lottery Lowers Scholarship Goal, Shows Evidence of Poor Management
Lottery Consistently 8% – 9% Below National Average on Education
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Jerry Cox is the founder and president of Family Council and the Education Alliance and a contributing author to the ARRA News Service.

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Tags: Jerry Cox, Family Council, Arkansas Lottery Scholarships, Get Only, 16-17 Cents of Every Dollar To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

How Trump Can Win a Govt Shutdown Over DACA, The Wall & Ending Chain Migration

by Robert Romano: There is a good chance that Senate Democrats will attempt to filibuster whatever 2018 spending bill comes up next week, with funding running out on Jan. 19. The result will be a partial government shutdown.

Congressional Democrats complain that President Donald Trump is not playing along with their desire to permanently legalize illegal immigrants from former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

Democrats still want amnesty, and expect to get it in return for almost nothing.

President Trump, for his part, has been adamant on his terms for a deal, calling for an end to chain migration, the visa lottery and he wants long-term funding for the southern border wall. At a Jan. 8 speech to the American Farm Bureau in Nashville, Tenn. Trump promised, “We are going to end chain migration. We are going to end the lottery system, and we are going to build the wall.”

These battle lines were more than on display at a bipartisan meeting at the White House with members of the House and Senate on Jan. 9.

So far, Trump is sticking to his guns. And he should. The President has the upper hand.

Democrats possess no majorities in the House or Senate, but they can deny cloture in the Senate since spending bills still take 60 votes to get across the finish line. Then, if the bill doesn’t pass, the shutdown occurs, and Democrats just refuse to offer votes until they get everything they want.

But Trump does not have to play along. Trump can turn the tables by issuing a simple warning that this time is different.

President Trump and Republican Congressional leaders can lay down the law that there will be no back-pay for non-essential federal employees after the shutdown ends. No paid vacation.

Immediately, self-preservation would kick and every federal employee with bills to pay would suddenly be the biggest advocate of resolving the shutdown in Trump’s favor.

It’s that simple.

As far as the legislation that is coming forward, Trump deferred to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), whooutlined what the House would be putting forward: “It’s going to address DACA in a permanent way, not a temporary short-term thing. We’re going to address border enforcement and security and the wall. We’re going to address… interior enforcement… We’re going to address chain migration. We’re going to end the visa lottery program. We’re going to address sanctuary cities and Kate’s Law. We think it is a good bill…”

House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) outlined what he saw being negotiated: “DACA, ‘cause we all – we’re all in the room [and] want to do it; border security, so we’re not back out here; and chain migration… and then everything else that’s comprehensive is kind of moved to the side.”

To which, President Trump added, “and lottery, by the way.” And McCarthy repeated, “and lottery.”

At the White House press briefing after the meeting, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders summarized the meeting, saying, “During the closed-door session, the leadership agreed to negotiate and narrow the focus to four issues: border security, chain migration, visa lottery and DACA.”

Also, per Sanders, border security does include the wall: “We certainly believe that the wall is part of border security, that’s one component of it. We firmly again believe that border security be part of this negotiation and part of the deal.”

At the meeting, Trump was emphatic as he clarified, “If you don’t have the wall, you don’t have security.”

Now, although what Trump and Congressional Republicans are offering as a compromise likely sounds reasonable to most Americans — and it is a compromise since it includes DACA, which Trump campaigned against, but also the wall, restricting chain migration and ending the visa lottery — it was absolutely a non-starter for the Democrat leaders who were in that room.

They want “comprehensive” immigration reform, which means legalizing not just DACA, but every one of the millions of illegal immigrants across the country. Then they’ll talk border security. Later. And that’s it. No ending chain migration or the visa lottery. Democrats would rather do DACA now with nothing else attached and put all of Trump’s reform items off to later, which means never.

Meaning, Democrats in the Senate still intend to shut down the government over the issues they disagree with.

Which is fine, but for a change, there should be consequences for such a shutdown. If Democrats will not accept the very reasonable compromise being offered, Trump needs to change the terms of the debate. It’s time to play hardball. Which is, that non-essential employees should not get paid in any shutdown scenario.
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Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

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Tags: Robert Romano, Americans For Limited Government, Donald Trump, Government Shutdown, DACA, The Wall, Ending Chain Migration To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!

McDaniel approves language of lottery ballot initiative - The Battle Begins Again!

by Jason Wiest, Arkansas News Bureau: The language of Lt. Gov. Bill Halter's proposed constitutional amendment to create a state-run lottery to fund college scholarships received Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's approval Thursday. The attorney general's certification of the popular name and ballot title of the lottery proposal clears the way for supporters to begin gathering the 78,000 signatures needed to place the measure on the 2008 general election ballot. . . .

The definition of a lottery in the second version was satisfactory, but still questionable, McDaniel said."I should point out, however, an argument exists that the term 'state lotteries' in the ballot title is unclear, and that the title is incomplete for failing to reveal the amendment's full effect," McDaniel wrote in an opinion issued by his office. "Nevertheless, because the text of the amendment contains no specifics as to the term 'state lotteries,' no corresponding summary can be substituted in the ballot title."

The head of a conservative Christian group in Arkansas that opposes the proposal said Thursday that not specifically defining a state lottery would confuse voters. Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council, said the proposal was so broad that it could open the door for multiple state-run lotteries, instant-win tickets "or almost any game of chance in which people gamble." . . . Opponents say a state lottery would cause poor families to spend money on lottery tickets when the money would be better spent on essentials, while supporters say Arkansans are already spending money on lotteries in nearby states and that the money might as well fund scholarships in Arkansas. . . . [Read More] [ARRA Note: As noted in the past: Lt. Gov. Bill Halter's is "hell bent" on bringing sin, gambling and we expect "increased pornography" to Arkansas. So far what we predicted before he was elected is coming true. Looks like the Lt Gov.'s office has more power than people gave it credit for in the past.]

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Arkansas Lawmakers Push For Lottery - HJR1005

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter (D) and 15 state representatives want to bring the lottery the natural state. Arkansas Rep. Will Bond (D-Jacksonville) filed HJR 1005 an bill to refer an amendment to establish a State Lottery the voters. Joining Bond as Sponsors of the bill are Arkansas State Rep.s Reep, Harrelson, Dunn, Wills, Cook, Davis, Gaskill, House, Hyde, Kidd, Moore, Saunders, Shelby, L. Smith, Wood

Opponents express concern that once lottery money starts coming in, funds already earmarked for education are often re-routed, leaving the schools with the same budget they had before the lottery. Another concern is a lottery making money at the expense of the poor. HJR1005 has been read the second time and referred to the Arkansas House Committee on State Agencies & Governmental Affairs. Currently it is not scheduled on any agenda.

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Intellectual Dishonesty

Dr. Walter E. Williams

by Dr. Walter E. Williams: President Barack Obama’s stance, expressed in his 2014 State of the Union address, is that the debate is settled and climate change is a fact. Obama is by no means unique in that view. Former Vice President Al Gore declared that "the science is settled.” This “settled science” vision about climate is held by many, including those in academia. To call any science settled is sheer idiocy. Had mankind acted as though any science could possibly be settled, we’d be living in caves, as opposed to having the standard of living we enjoy today. That higher standard of living stems from challenges to what might have been seen as “scientific fact.”

According to mathematician Samuel Arbesman’s book, “The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date,” many ideas taken as facts today will be shown to be wrong as early as five years from now. Arbesman argues that a study published in a physics journal will lose half its value in 10 years.

Many academics know that to call any science settled is nonsense. But their leftist political sentiments and lack of academic integrity prevent them from criticizing public officials and the media for misleading a gullible public about global warming.

The concept of white privilege, along with diversity and multiculturalism, is part of today’s campus craze. Millions of dollars are spent on conferences and other forums teaching students about the horrors of white privilege. A Vanderbilt University sociology professor said white privilege is to blame for the Baltimore riots and looting.

I wonder how one goes about determining whether a person is privileged. White privilege can’t be based on median income. Why? It turns out that Asian-American households had the highest median income ($68,636) in 2012. Median income for white households was $57,000. Maybe our academic elite should condemn Asian privilege instead of white privilege. But there’s another problem. My income puts me in America’s top 5 percent. If those who condemn white privilege could not see my dark brown skin color, they would also condemn me for white privilege. The bottom line to this campus nonsense is that "privilege" has become the new word for "personal achievement."

President Obama has often said the wealthiest Americans must make sacrifices to better the lives of poor people. At Georgetown University’s May 12 poverty summit, Obama said, “If we can’t ask from society’s lottery winners to just make that modest investment, then really this conversation is for show.” Let’s look at this "lottery winner" nonsense.

A lottery is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as “a process or thing whose success or outcome is governed by chance.” The question before us is whether wealth is something that is obtained by chance. Did Bill Gates acquire his wealth by luck or chance? Or did he produce something that benefited his fellow man, causing people to voluntarily reach in their pockets to pay?

Gayle Cook and her late husband, William Cook, founded a medical device company using a spare bedroom in their apartment as a factory. Their company specializes in stents and antibiotic catheters. Now Gayle Cook has a net worth in the billions of dollars. Was she a winner in the lottery of life, or did she have to do something like serve her fellow man?
Are those who work hard, take risks, make life better for others and become wealthy in the process the people who should be held up to ridicule and scorn? And should we make mascots out of social parasites?

Obama talked about asking “from society’s lottery winners to just make that modest investment.” Congress doesn’t ask people for money. Through intimidation, threats and coercion, it takes people’s earnings. If people don’t comply, the agents of Congress will imprison them.

Most instructive for us is that Obama’s remarks were made at a university. Not a single professor has said anything about his suggestion that people accumulate great wealth by winning life’s lottery. That is just more evidence about the level of corruption among today’s academics.
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Walter Williams  is an American economist, social commentator, and author of over 150 publications. He has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Economics from the UCLA and B.A. in economics from California State University. He also holds a Doctor of Humane Letters from Virginia Union University and Grove City College, Doctor of Laws from Washington and Jefferson College. He has served on the faculty of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, since 1980. Visit his website: walterewilliams.com and view a list of other articles and works.

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