Trial Court Date Set for Ten Commandments Monument

Religious Freedom

Last week, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker set a trial court date for the lawsuit over Arkansas’ monument of the Ten Commandments.

The trial will begin the week of July 13, 2020.

In 2015 Sen. Jason Rapert (R – Conway) sponsored a law authorizing a monument of the Ten Commandments on the Arkansas State Capitol Grounds.

It was placed on the Capitol lawn on June 27, 2017.

Less than 24 hours later, a man plowed a vehicle into the monument, completely destroying it.

The monument was rebuilt and placed on the Capitol grounds in April of 2018.

Now the American Humanist Association, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the Satanic Temple all are part of a lawsuit to have the monument removed.

In a written statement last week, Sen. Jason Rapert said, “the Ten Commandments are an important component to the foundation of the laws and legal system of the United State of America and the State of Arkansas.”

Sen. Rapert went on to note that the monument of the Ten Commandments was not publicly funded.

“Over 800 donors gave funds to help us fulfill this project. . . . Private donations were used to rebuild the monument which was reinstalled with the addition of security bollards to protect it,” he said.

The monument is identical to one the U.S. Supreme Court ruled constitutional in Texas in 2005.

Frankly, there just shouldn’t be anything controversial about a monument honoring the significance of the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are one of the earliest examples of the rule of law in human history.

The Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are amazing documents, but the Ten Commandments are the great-great-granddaddy of them all.

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AR Lottery Discontinues 15 Scratch-Off Tickets With Millions of Dollars in Prizes Still Outstanding

Arkansas Lottery

The Arkansas Lottery has a habit of relying heavily on scratch-off tickets and routinely rolls out new lottery games — some of which cost as much as $10 or $20 per ticket.

However, something that doesn’t get talked about very much is the fact that the Arkansas Lottery also routinely discontinues scratch-off tickets — some of which may still have a million dollars or more in outstanding prize money.

For example, the Arkansas Lottery quit selling its Big Multiplier scratch-off tickets on February 5 of this year. Players have until May 5 to redeem winning tickets purchased on or before February 5.

The Arkansas Lottery decided to quit selling Big Multiplier tickets despite the fact that there are more than $1.8 million worth of prizes remaining from this line of scratch-off tickets — including one jackpot ticket worth $250,000.

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

In other words, by discontinuing the Big Multiplier game before all the winning scratch-off tickets were sold or redeemed, the Arkansas Lottery could avoid paying out as much as $1.8 million in prizes.

The Arkansas Lottery likewise decided to discontinue its Cash Time scratch-off ticket in February despite the fact that nearly 30% of its winning tickets were not sold or have not been redeemed yet.

All told, Family Council has identified more than a dozen lines of instant tickets that the Arkansas Lottery is in the process of discontinuing, with approximately $8.6 million in prize money unpaid from these lottery games.

As of last week, they are:

Lottery Game Total Prize Money Prize Money Remaining Percent Unawarded
Win 10X $2,655,804 $291,182 11.0%
Hit 100 $1,371,832 $299,051 21.8%
20X Payout $2,192,510 $630,196 28.7%
Cash Time $1,034,531 $298,666 28.9%
10X Payout $1,511,540 $410,931 27.2%
500 Loaded $8,865,180 $333,275 3.8%
5000 Taxes Paid $1,045,550 $209,281 20.0%
Big Multiplier $11,135,545 $1,841,335 16.5%
50K Blowout $22,698,830 $1,596,490 7.0%
Cash Multiplier $6,426,935 $763,520 11.9%
Fast Cash HD $6,194,695 $382,250 6.2%
10X Bonus Crossword $4,923,492 $219,994 4.5%
$50 or $100 $8,259,950 $174,900 2.1%
100,000 Taxes Paid $6,063,064 $557,565 9.2%
200,000 Taxes Paid $9,227,220 $601,785 6.5%

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 lotteries.

However, many people may be surprised to learn that a state-run lottery can avoid paying prizes to players by simply cancelling lottery games before all the winning tickets are sold.

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