Legislative news -- Tuesday/Wednesday

Rep. Bryan King (R-Berryville) announced Tuesday that he was considering involving the state Attorney General and legislature in his opposition to the new domestic partnership registry in Eureka Springs. [Harrison Daily Times]

The Arkansas County Clerk's Association is speaking out against a newly-enacted law that they believe revises the minimum age for marriage in Arkansas to allow children to marry at any age with parental consent. This was a bill in the Judicial Council's package and addressed another issue within the existing statute. According to Jack McNulty, prior law required a female under 16 and a male under 17 to have consent of the parents in order to marry, and that if anything, this bill improves the minimum age to marry to 18. This bill just made it consistent for the sexes at 18, he says, and if parental consent is now allowed at any age, then it was allowed at any age prior to the enactment of Act 441 of 2007. Specifically, read the language beginning at Page 1, line 30. A fix may be in order in the next session (or before). [Arkadelphia Daily Siftings Herald]

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Here's an article about the 39 governors who have created a facebook.com page (registration req'd.), a site that boasts 12 million users under the age of 24. Governor Beebe is among them but is chided alongside Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter for listing his old campaign contact info on his page and for talking in the present tense about serving as attorney general. From a previous scan of the site, it looks like most candidates for statewide office in Arkansas had a page created for the campaign. [Stateline.org]