CONGRESS
Deciphering Obama’s chemistry with Congress — or lack of it
FOOTBALL
Further review: Packers rally past Cowboys
SPORTS
„ PAGE 1B
POLITICS
„ PAGE 4A
Two sections,
18 pages
Number 12, Volume 138
Seventy Five Cents
MONDAY
January 12, 2015
www.hotspringssr.com
Published daily in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, since 1877
Legislators prepare to move state forward
Senator eyes term limit amendment
CAITLIN LAFARLETTE
AND DAVID SHOWERS
The Sentinel-Record
For her first term serving District 26, Republican Rep. Laurie Rushing has
hit the ground
running since
the general election, and has
immediate plans
for certain laws
and bills, while
District 24 Rep. Rushing
Bruce Cozart,
also a Republican, is eager to leverage the institutional knowledge gleaned from
two previous regular sessions.
The 90th General Assembly
begins today in Little Rock.
“The current legislation that
I am working
on is legislation
that will make
some changes
to the real estate license law
to better protect
the public from
individuals that Cozart
try to develop
business models to circumvent
the real estate license law,” said
Rushing, who is a Realtor. “It
also clarifies both activities that
require a real estate license and
LEGISLATORS, PAGE 3A
Seminar
brings
violence
awareness
FROSTED
DAVID SHOWERS
The Sentinel-Record
EDITOR’S NOTE: These are the final
installments in a continuing series related to
the start of the 90th General Assembly, which
convenes today.
During the run up to the November
election, opponents of Issue No. 3 derided
it as a consolidation of legislative influence guised in the cloak of term limits.
The popular title of the legislatively
referred amendment included “setting
term limits for members of the General
Assembly,” but what voters approved by
almost a five-point margin increased the
time legislators can spend in office while
undoing the respective three- and twoterm House and Senate caps enshrined in
Amendment 73 of the state Constitution.
State Sen. Alan Clark, R-District 13,
said he plans on introducing an amendment that would qualify term limits, specifically Issue No. 3 language that allows
legislators to serve up to 16 years in either chamber. Clark said his amendment
would preserve the 16-year total, but limit
House members to five two-year terms
ANGELA CHARLTON AND THOMAS ADAMSON
The Associated Press
BETH BRIGHT
SEMINAR, PAGE 4A
The Sentinel-Record/Elisha Morrison
The drop in temperature Sunday partially froze the fountain at Hill Wheatley Plaza on Central
Avenue. The National Weather Service in Little Rock forecasts temperatures will warm up
today to a high around 42 with patchy fog before noon and otherwise cloudy conditions.
Experts struggle
to explain surge
in US job growth
JOSH BOAK AND
CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — This isn’t
explained in Econ 101.
Month after month, U.S. hiring keeps rising, and unemployment keeps falling. Eventually,
pay and inflation are supposed to
start surging in response.
They’re not happening.
Last month, employers added
a healthy 252,000 jobs — ending the best year of hiring since
1999 — and the unemployment
rate sank to 5.6 percent from 5.8
percent. Yet inflation isn’t managing to reach even the Federal
Reserve’s 2 percent target rate.
SENATOR, PAGE 3A
Millions rally
in Paris for unity
against terrorism
FOUNTAIN
The Sentinel-Record
Crossgate Church will host a church
safety seminar from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 7
to bring awareness to and work to prevent
violent crimes that occur on faith-based
property.
The Sheepdog Seminars for Churches
are presented by Jimmy Meeks, a police
officer with 34 years experience and
41-year Baptist minister from Hurst, Texas, who has made it his mission since
2009 to stop the violence seen in today’s
churches.
“Since 1999, 521 people have died a
violent death on church property, which
rivals that of the deaths that have taken
place in school shootings during that
same time frame,” Meeks said. “In addition to that, thousands of people have
been victims of sex crimes in Protestant
churches.”
In past generations, Meeks said
churches and faith-based organizations
were seen differently than in recent decades. These organizations are considered easy targets for criminals.
“Church members are a very trusting
people, which is admirable in that we are
looking for the good in people,” he said.
“However, these days everyone needs
to be approached with caution. A lot of
these criminals have come in and gained
the trust of these churches. We can be
loving and open while still being cautious
and aware.”
The seminars, he said are very
faith-focused, which many attendees are
surprised to find out.
“It’s a very emotional day,” Meeks said.
“We will have Carl Chinn, of New Life
and Senators to three four-year terms.
The Legislature can refer up to three
constitutional amendments to voters
during the regular session that begins
today.
“I am told by many voters they had no
idea that they were extending term limits
to 16 years in either chamber,” said Clark,
a Lonsdale resident and former justice of
the peace on the Garland County Quorum
Court who was elected to the Senate in
2012. “They were shocked to learn they
And paychecks are barely budging. In December, average hourly
pay actually fell.
Economists are struggling to
explain the phenomenon.
“I can’t find a plausible empirical or theoretical explanation
for why hourly wages would drop
when for nine months we’ve been
adding jobs at a robust pace,” said
Patrick O’Keefe, chief economist
at consulting firm CohnReznick.
Normally, with unemployment this low, the Fed would
raise its benchmark interest rate
to prevent inflation from spiking and the economy from overheating. Not this time. Though
ECONOMY, PAGE 3A
NEW HSPD
FRANCE, PAGE 5A
OFFICERS
The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn
Hot Springs Police Chief David Flory, left, congratulates new police officers Thomas Plummer, of Hot Springs, Donald Hill, of Camden, and Josh Wahls, of De Queen, during a pinning ceremony Friday afternoon at the police department. The new recruits recently
graduated a 13-week program at the Arkansas Law Enforcement Academy in Camden.
We a t h e r
CLOUDY. HIGHS IN
THE LOW 40S. LOWS
IN THE HIGH 20S.
TUESDAY:
SUNRISE: 7:19 A.M.
SUNSET: 5:21 P.M.
WEDNESDAY:
MORE ON PAGE 2A
PARIS — More than a million people surged through the
boulevards of Paris behind dozens of world leaders walking
arm-in-arm Sunday in a rally for unity described as the largest demonstration in French history. Millions more marched
around the country and the world to repudiate three days of
terror that killed 17 people and changed France.
Amid intense security and with throngs rivaling those
that followed the liberation of Paris from the Nazis, the city
became “the capital of the world” for a day, on a planet increasingly vulnerable to such cruelty.
More than 40 world leaders headed the somber procession
— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas; Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — setting
aside their differences with a common rallying cry: We stand
together against barbarity, and we are all Charlie.
At least 1.2 million to 1.6 million people streamed slowly
through the streets behind them and across France to mourn
the victims of deadly attacks on the satirical newspaper
Charlie Hebdo, a kosher supermarket and police officers —
violence that tore deep into the nation’s sense of security in a
way some compared to Sept. 11 in the United States.
“Our entire country will rise up toward something better,”
Hollande said.
Details of the attacks continued to emerge, with new
video showing one of the gunmen pledging allegiance to the
Islamic State group and detailing how the attacks were going
to unfold. That gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, was also linked to
a new shooting, two days after he and the brothers behind the
Charlie Hebdo massacre were killed in nearly simultaneous
police raids.
The attacks tested France’s proud commitment to its liberties, which authorities may now curtail to ensure greater
security. Marchers recognized this as a watershed moment.
“It’s a different world today,” said Michel Thiebault, 70.
Illustrating his point, there were cheers Sunday for police
vans that wove through the crowds — a rare sight at the many
demonstrations that the French have staged throughout their
rebellious history, when protesters and police are often at
odds.
Many shed the aloof attitude Parisians are famous for, helping strangers with directions, cheering and crying together.
Sad and angry but fiercely defending their freedom of expression, the marchers honored the dead and brandished pens or
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for 14-plus years
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