There is at present only ….

There is at present only one Republican bill presently up for consideration at this time in the U.S. Senate. It has NO provisions for Medicaid, ACA, Education, Housing, Medicare or Social Security. And it does not matter which news source you use or how many times you click on it…it does not exist. Saying it does is just gross fear-mongering. [Editor’s Note: I am all for calling out fear-mongering “boogeyman” words. The Left and the Right throw them around like confetti. Words like “woke” and “fascist” and “indoctrinate” and even the word “they” are now used to evoke pearl clutching. Now, I will say, I have not seen any legislation in the U.S. Senate specifically mentioning the things you list here. I will say, though, that those items are usually generated in the House and then, if passed, moved to the Senate, so maybe Google “house budget bill” if you’re not finding the information you’re looking for. Having said that, there absolutely are plans, in this Congressional term, to address much of what you do list here. And, let’s also be clear: it has become quite apparent that the current administration prefers to simply avoid that whole pesky “Congress is the legislative branch” thing via an ever-expanding number of executive orders. And with the only thing really blocking that agenda being the judiciary, it will likely bring about a lot of lawsuits and appeals, but ultimately the Supreme Court will back Trump’s agenda nine times out of 10. That’s either awesome or horrifying, depending on your individual political leanings] —–— Just when I thought I had seen the worst of Congress I watched two congressmen – Democrats – speaking in public, yelling F— Trump and F— Musk. Unbelievable conduct from a member of Congress. They should be expelled. [Editor’s Note: I’ve got to ask, are you objecting to the use of profanity by these elected officials or to their obscenities being directed at Trump and Musk? I ask, because if it’s the dirty words themselves, you should definitely not look too far into the language that Trump and Musk are on the record as using on a regular basis. If you’re upset that the swearing is directed at Trump and Musk, well, again, you should probably not only be aware that Trump and Musk have definitely used some pretty “HBO-appropriate” language to describe their political and business rivals in the past too. At the end of the day, free speech and all, it’s all pretty juvenile] —–— Hello there. I stumbled upon an old picture I posted on Facebook years ago that featured one of the street lights that line Broadway (what the Chamber of Commerce refers to as “Main Street”), and a thought occurred to me. We need to have these street lights installed all the way down East Broadway near Pancho’s, and West Broadway near the high school. They add such beauty, charm, class, and elegance to an otherwise unattractive part of town. Before they installed those lights in the early 90s, Broadway, also known as Highway 70, was rather pitiful in appearance. Basically, it was a hot mess. But thanks to former Mayor Keith Ingram, who took the initiative to make it happen (I wrote him a letter telling him how much I liked them), Broadway, and the city overall, finally started looking a little better. I hope we can find a way to make it happen again, and along with that, make even more improvements to West Memphis. After all, we ought to want to leave things better than when we came. [Editor’s Note: I love the “Main Street” District, and when the Big River Crossing opened and there was a lot of excitement about bike paths and such, I really thought East Broadway was going to see a lot of revitalization. Sadly, it seems to have been largely pushed to the back-burner. But the new Main Street Director, Raymond Whiteside, seems like the kind of guy who can get the ball rolling again with that part of town. I don’t think it’s any big secret that this is adjacent to some pretty high-crime areas of the city, though, so it’s not just a matter of putting up some pretty streetlights. As a side note: I really wish someone would do something with Pancho’s. That is a cool old building]