State's largest earthquake since 1969 rattles Conway

A 4.7 magnitude earthquake hit last night a little after 11:00 just northeast of Greenbrier. It was felt as far away as Missouri and Mississippi.

Session finally gaining some steam

This legislative session is about halfway over, depending on how many times you think the House and Senate can put together a supermajority to extend the 88th General Assembly past the 60-day limit. Tomorrow is the deadline for filing appropriation bills, next Monday (3/7) is the deadline for filing all legislation, and the 60th day of the legislature falls on March 11. With several big issues looming, I have little doubt we'll be able to extend it to consider sentencing reform, federal and judicial redistricting, constitutional amendments, and the Revenue Stabilization Act, which maintains a balanced budget in the state.

However, the work will really get busy here this week. Here's Monday's schedule of votes on the Senate floor.

Redistricting

The 2010 census data for Arkansas has been rehashed all over the Internet, and it's no secret that the legislative districts will get larger in south and east Arkansas and smaller in northwest and the LR suburbs. Every legislator has an idea of what they want for an optimal district, and with technology today, you can plug in exactly what you'd like (ie, 52% Male, 55% of households voting in Republican primaries, etc, etc), and it will draw your district down to the street and household.

In Arkansas, reapportionment is controlled by the governor, AG and the Secretary of State, each of whom has already designated a point person to help redraw the legislative districts. The legislature will redraw the congressional districts, and for the first time, we may see a split county in the four U.S. House districts in Arkansas. Here's some more info:

Dem Party of Arkansas elects Bond as new chairman

I'm back from Hot Springs, where the party confirmed Governor Beebe's choice of former Rep. Will Bond as chairman of the Democratic Party of Arkansas. Besides the governor, remarks were made by Congressman Mike Ross, AG Dustin McDaniel, Treasurer Martha Shoffner, hosting state Rep. John Vines (D-Hot Springs), and outgoing chairman Todd Turner. Many references throughout the morning were made regarding the whipping many Dem candidates took in '10. Bond laid out his plans and goals as chairman and ended by asking "what history will we write together?"

Weekend politicking

I left my Nikon at the Capitol in Little Rock, so my iPhone camera will have to suffice for now. Weekends are the time to catch back up in the district during session*, and last night's venue was the Bradley Elementary cafeteria, where we gathered to eat catfish and raise money for the River Bend Volunteer Fire Department. Former Rep. Bruce Maloch auctioneered the event.

The newly released census data shows that Lafayette County lost the equivalent of the town of Bradley (pop. 550) over the last decade.

*- Disclosure: For the first four weeks of the session, I traveled back and forth to my district in an effort to be home at night to attend events. Well, four hours on the road daily became quite an undertaking, and an apartment came open in Capitol Hill, so I have a new address in LR where I spend three nights a week.

Firing up the blog

I've been AWOL essentially since the '10 Primary here on Under the Dome. I told the governor this morning I was firing it back up, so here we are. I'll do my best to provide some inside baseball as we start week six of the 88th General Assembly this week at the Capitol.

I'm finding the Senate much different from the regimented system of procedures in the House, which I enjoyed. It's much more laid back on the southern end of the Capitol, where several minutes of parliamentary procedure is replaced with "without objection, we're going to..." I always found the Senate committees more difficult to navigate, since a mere four votes can sink your bill. It's no different this session, where several bills are skeptically and summarily being rejected. The session is just now beginning to heat up, and I'll pick up here. Send comments or tips to steve@steveharrelson.com, and you can subscribe to my newsletter over on the right.