Video: Arkansas Spend Millions on Marijuana Amid Pandemic
Arkansans have spent millions of dollars on so-called “medical” marijuana amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Watch this video to learn more.
Lottery Budgets Little for Scholarships Despite Best Month All Year
On Monday the Arkansas Lottery released its financial report for the month of April.
The report shows the Arkansas Lottery took in more than $49.5 million last month — the best month the Arkansas Lottery has had since March of 2019.
In spite of this, the Lottery budgeted only $8.3 million for college scholarships — less than 17 cents of every dollar the Lottery made.
For perspective, the typical state lottery budgets about 30 cents out of every dollar for education.
The report also reveals the Arkansas Lottery spent 71.5% of its revenue on prizes last month.
That’s one of the highest prize budgets of any lottery in the nation.
There’s a very real possibility that the COVID-19 economic stimulus was part of the reason the Arkansas Lottery saw such an uptick in sales.
The Arkansas Lottery’s instant ticket sales were up by $2 million in April compared to March and $9 million compared to February.
As we wrote last week, it seems like more than a coincidence that the Lottery’s scratch-off ticket sales would surge at about the same time that Arkansans started receiving economic stimulus checks from the federal government.
Right now the Arkansas Lottery is on track to pay out about $80 – $85 million for college scholarships this fiscal year — far less than the $100 million per year that Arkansans were promised in 2008.
Below is a breakdown of Arkansas Lottery ticket sales and scholarship funding so far this fiscal year.
| Month | Gross Lottery Revenue | Paid to Scholarships | % Gross Revenue |
| July | $41,239,173.79 | $4,523,930.75 | 11.0% |
| August | 40,899,086.75 | 4,942,736.97 | 12.1% |
| September | 36,202,677.79 | 6,565,973.32 | 18.1% |
| October | 38,932,640.23 | 6,318,099.21 | 16.2% |
| November | 36,118,641.12 | 5,947,177.45 | 16.5% |
| December | 46,134,469.21 | 6,371,983.49 | 13.8% |
| January, 2020 | 40,802,067.75 | 8,239,083.77 | 20.2% |
| February | 40,670,746.71 | 7,233,556.77 | 17.8% |
| March | 47,876,969.85 | 7,386,497.30 | 15.4% |
| April | 49,549,754.16 | 8,318,312.64 | 16.8% |
| Total | $418,426,227.36 | $65,847,351.67 | 15.7% |
Photo Credit: Powerball and Mega Millions Lottery Billboard in Missouri by Tony Webster, on Flickr.
Challenging the “New Normal” on Commercial Surrogacy
Last week we published a blog post about New York’s recent decision to legalize commercial surrogacy.
On Friday, John Stonestreet at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview released a column about CNN host Anderson Cooper’s decision to hire a commercial surrogate.
This story demonstrates that commercial surrogacy, including cases in which the child is intentionally deprived of its mother, is now fully normal. . . .
Behind Anderson Cooper’s money and these headlines is this baby’s mom. No matter what we tell ourselves about how willing she was or how better off she is now, she is harmed and so is her son – who somehow knew from the moment he was born to look for her. Unfortunately, he won’t find her. Shame on us.
Stonestreet points out several of the ethical problems with commercial surrogacy, such as:
- Commercial surrogacy assumes “children” are a right that God never promised
- It denies children the opportunity to be raised by their biological mom and a dad
- It treats children as products
- It poses a significant risk of financial exploitation for women
As we keep saying, being pro-life means believing that human life is sacred from conception until natural death.
It means treating human life with respect at every stage of development.
It also means recognizing that human beings are not products that can be bought or sold. That’s why Family Council opposes commercial surrogacy — and will continue to oppose it.