The Energy Harvest - Any time that OPEC got a little too overzealous in pushing up oil prices back in the 1970 s, the legendary Saudi oil minister Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani was fond of telling his colleagues: Remember, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.What he meant was that the Stone Age ended because people invented alternative tools. The oil age is also not going to end because we run out of oil.telling his colleagues : Remember, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones.

“ The devil came here yesterday, ” - Anyone who’s ever been involved in community government — as an observer or a participant — knows that every once in a while, a village idiot takes center stage in a public forum. He makes his way to a lectern, dials the idiocy up past 10, all the way to 11, and rips the knob off.

Stooping to Torture - Today, the American people are being warned by President Bush and others that the threat to their safety — indeed, the threat to civilization itself — has become so dire that we must weaken the international ban on mistreatment of prisoners that we ourselves once insisted the world adopt.

Oddly, such a step wasn’t deemed necessary during World War II. Somehow, we managed to defeat Nazi Germany, a regime of immense cruelty, without stooping to torture as a weapon.

First of all “Don’t Panic.” - Word began spreading Monday there was a tuberculosis epidemic in Springdale. Some said as many as 100 students and teachers were infected. Another rumor placed the number of infected at more than 1,000.
The facts are far less scary. Earlier this week we reported public health officials were following up on a confirmed case of tuberculosis at Hellstern Middle School in Springdale last school year. The infected student was treated and is no longer contagious.
We also noted 55 students at the school had a positive tuberculin skin test this year with nine students and a teacher showing some early signs of tuberculosis.

A positive skin test does not mean a person has tuberculosis.

Tough Choice - Beginning this year, Arkansas students will face a tougher curriculum on the way to a high school diploma, a curriculum designed to better prepare them for university or work after graduation. State officials and educators say the harder path is necessary in today’s competitive world. But not everyone agrees and under the law parents have the option of placing their children in an easier course of study.

The new curriculum, dubbed the Smart Core, exposes students to more and higher level math and science courses.

“This debate’s fake; let Rod debate.” The most contentious debate of the evening started earlier Monday as the two candidates excluded from the event, Green Party nominee Jim Lendall and independent Rod Bryan, crisscrossed the city lamenting their opponents’ free block of airwave time later in the day. Lendall and Bryan showed up on the campus of Arkansas State University to talk to anybody who’d listen, but not many folks did.