A map and a compass

Only two stories made it on the front page of Benton County's newspaper(s) today. There was, of course, the obligatory military story mandated by Warren Stephens himself. Today was Day 8. Are they making this a month-long series that has yet to have covered anything local?
The other depended on which edition of the paper you received. In the Daily Record, it was a story about school bus safety. But that apparently wasn't important enough for the Morning News, which went with a hunting story.
So why was there only room for two stories? Because someone high up thinks you're not smart enough to find your way through the paper.

Sign of the times?

More good news for downtown Rogers, although it comes in an unlikely form. The heralded intersections are apparently causing some grief for a few of the downtown merchants, which was generally expected. But the downtown and Mayor Steve Womack are becoming even greater allies in the fight to attract more customers to the historic district.

Justifications

Northwest Arkansas Newspapers feels that it must justify Judge Jay Finch's decision to continue driving rather than pulling over for an ununiformed constable. Judge Finch did fine for himself. What this shows, however, is an inability for the paper to change directions once it sets its tone of coverage.

Flake Atalanta

There is a breath of in the city's possible Lake Atalanta plans, mostly in that there is not a two-mile water feature running from downtown Rogers to the lake. CEI Engineering, for as long as it's been involved in the Lake Atalanta "restoration" has been stricken with sky's-the-limit disease, proposing a project that would cost more than the entire parks portion of the 2011 bond issue, let alone the portion the mayor is allocating to this specific park.
But that does not mean all the superfluous expenditures are gone.

Maybe the pages should be bigger

On Friday's front page of the Daily Record, the newspaper staff was clearly forced to continue running the Stephens Media-approved salute to some other town's troops. I don't agree with the principle, but there was nothing the local folks could do. Then there was a story about a $4.9 million appropriation for the ever-controversial Benton County Juvenile Detention Center (but why didn't they include that in the headline?). Finally, the Record puts a story where it belongs.
Of course, that trend could never continue, as the third page shows us.

More conflict

I can't say that the Rogers Public Library's desire for a new heating and air-conditioning unit is important. I want people to be as comfortable as possible as they can be while paging through centuries of the written word. What I can't understand is why it's received so much coverage. From the first story on the issue — I think John Gore has written three of four, but the Morning News Web site disappeared, along with its archives — there has never been any opposition to the purchase and installation of the new unit. I wonder if editor Rusty Turner is on the Rogers Public Library Foundation Board. No, wait, no one's on that board now, but metro editor Leeanna Walker is not far removed from her term among its members. Ok, I'm not confused anymore.

Can we get one thing straight.

Northwest Arkansas Community College knew it was about to mangle the English language when it chose the abbreviation NWACC. Someone had to know, and still must, because the college is officially named (including approved capitalization) NorthWest Arkansas Community College.
Well, the Daily Record never fell for it. English is not subjective for each user. So it was surprising to see that, post-merger, the Daily Record has caved and English has lost. I'm still not sure what the official nomenclature is, though, since the educational institution was referred to as "North-West Arkansas Community College," but the hyphen, based on the placement on the page, was likely inserted to break up the word for spacing concerns. Then again, who knows.
On an unrelated note, the story in question was written by Tabatha Hunter, who has gain notoriety for her reporting on Benton County Government, reporting that was conspicuously absent from the Morning News. With Hunter gardening stories at the college, who's watching Bisbee?