Arkansas’ Longest Married Couple Reception

Current Events

LITTLE ROCK, AR – For the first time ever, Arkansas Family Council is launching a search for Arkansas’ Longest Married Couple. We want couples to share their stories of a lifetime commitment to marriage and family. Family Council will be honoring the longest married couple and their family at a dessert reception at the Governor’s Mansion with Governor Asa Hutchinson and First Lady Susan Hutchinson on Tuesday, February 20, 2018.

“Sharing these couples’ lifetime stories of commitment and faithfulness to each other encourages the next generation that ‘married happily ever after’ still exists. We are blessed and honored to be able to share these stories of forever love,” Jerry Cox, president of Family Council, said. “In today’s society we are surrounded by naysayers of marriage but the married couples we find will prove them all wrong and show that marriage can last a lifetime.

“Marriage is a sacred covenant between a man and a woman,” Cox said. “It is not every day that you meet a couple married over 70 years, but when you do, there is truly something special about that relationship.”

Entries for couples married over 70 years can still be submitted by Friday, February 2, 2018, by sending contact information and marriage date to ken@familycouncil.org. For more information, please call the Family Council office at 501-375-7000.

Family Council is a conservative education and research organization based in Little Rock with a mission of promoting, protecting, and strengthening traditional family values.

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Photo Credit: By Jeff Belmonte from Cuiabá, Brazil (Flickr) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Lottery Scholarship Funding Dismal in December Despite Uptick in Revenue

Arkansas Lottery

According to a report released today by the Arkansas Lottery, December was the second-best month the Lottery has had so far this fiscal year at just over $44.7 million in revenue.

However, despite this uptick in revenue, December was the second-worst month when it came to scholarship funding.

The Arkansas Lottery set aside a little less $6.6 million for scholarships last month — about 14-15 cents out of every dollar it made. That’s worse than every other month this fiscal year, except October.

Since Fiscal Year 2018 began last July, the Arkansas Lottery has spent a paltry 17% of its total revenue on college scholarships. For perspective, the average state lottery spends 30%.

Last December the Arkansas Lottery issued a press release in which it said,

We are always looking to maximize the winning and the fun for our players — as well as the revenues for scholarships for our students here in the state.

If the Arkansas Lottery is really concerned about maximizing scholarship funding, then why doesn’t it give Arkansas’ students more than just 17 cents out of every dollar it makes?

Below is a breakdown of the Lottery’s revenue and scholarship funding so far this fiscal year.

Month Gross Lottery Revenue Paid to Scholarships % Gross Revenue
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%
Total $243,316,654.81 $41,271,727.97 17.0%

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A.G. Rejects Yet Another Recreational Marijuana Proposal

Marijuana

Last week Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge rejected a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana in Arkansas.

The proposal would have let adults and companies grow, buy sell, and use marijuana for any reason.

The A.G.’s office rejected the measure, citing “fundamental deficiencies in the proposed measure’s text and ballot title.”

Attorney General Rutledge rejected more than a dozen similar measures last year.

As we have said before, marijuana’s proponents aren’t content with “medical marijuana.” The endgame is — and always has been — full legalization.

Read the A.G.’s full opinion here.

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