“What New York City and the Delta have in common: If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”
— Paul Michael, founder of the Paul Michael Co. of Lake Village, a home decor business doing business in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.
– Paul Michael Has Found His Place on Earth
“He’s in Philadelphia. He’s in south Jersey. [Whispered] He needs to go away. He needs to be gone.”
— Milton R. “Rusty” Cranford, health care executive and lobbyist, according to an FBI transcript of a recorded conversation in which Cranford was allegedly trying to hire an acquaintance to kill a co-conspirator in a Medicaid fraud scheme.
“It’s been a long journey for me, and it’s time for me to deliver.”
— John Burkhalter, on bringing to fruition his Rock City Yacht Club development, a dozen years in the making along Little Rock’s riverfront.
– Rock City Yacht Club Poised to Set Sail
“If we would’ve left him on another month, I believe the school would’ve closed.”
— Richard Mays Sr., trustee at Little Rock’s Arkansas Baptist College, on the board’s decision to fire Joseph Jones after only 15 months as school president.
– After Fiscal Chaos, Arkansas Baptist Reverses 2016 Hire
“He said he started forging at 13 years old. He never got caught at that, he claims.”
— Creditor David Hoffman, recounting a prison conversation with John Rogers, serial fraudster and founder of North Little Rock’s Sports Cards Plus.
– John Rogers’ New Tale: Forgeries Hit $1 Billion
“2006-2012 — I lost a lot of sleep during those years.”
— Steve Anthony, president of Anthony Timberlands Inc. of Bearden, discussing the severe recession in the timber industry, which has since recovered.
– A Decade After Recession, Arkansas Timber Industry Reborn
“I can still see it. I had a shocked look on my face. It seemed like the whole room stopped moving.”
— Little Rock lawyer Carolyn Witherspoon, recalling a #MeToo moment in which remarks were made about her legs in front of colleagues early in her career.
– Sexual Harassment: Workplaces Must Enforce Boundaries
“I think about that a lot, and I have a lot of guilt about that, because if I hadn’t asked him to be chairman, he wouldn’t be there.”
— Former Gov. Mike Beebe, reflecting 10 years later on the August 2008 murder of Bill Gwatney in Arkansas Democratic Party headquarters on West Capitol Avenue in Little Rock.
– Bill Gwatney: What Might Have Been
“The tax law went from 70,000 to 77,000 pages of code, so it certainly hasn’t gotten any simpler.”
— George Harris, manager of 75 Jackson Hewitt tax preparation stores in Arkansas and Texas, on the 2017 tax code “simplification.”
– Higher Standard: Will New Deduction Rules Hit Arkansas Tax Pros?
“Just think of any industry weathering a 52 percent decrease in income. So this was big; putting this deal together helps us feel better about the markets right when we really needed something to give us an uplift.”
— Randy Veach, Arkansas Farm Bureau president, on a new North American trade deal following a U.S. farm income projection of $60 billion this year, down 52 percent from 2013.
– Arkansas Exporters Applaud USMCA, Trump’s ‘New NAFTA’
“I’ve seldom known him to give away copy.”
— Sarah Brooke Greenberg, answering a request for thoughts from her husband, former Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorial page editor Paul Greenberg, who wrote his last column in September.
– A Journalistic Mensch Lays Down His Pen
“They’re proud to pull their old Honda into a lot filled with late-model cars. We’re seeing a shift from conspicuous consumption to conspicuous savings.”
— Sarah Catherine Gutierrez of Aptus Financial in Little Rock, on a growing trend of extreme saving by young workers wanting early retirement options.
– Trend of Extreme Savings Catching FIRE
“I thought it was a bunch of crap.”
— Eugene Kalsky, owner of Gen-Kal Pipe & Steel Corp. of New Jersey, on why he didn’t hire a lawyer after being sued by a Russellville company for sending a fax. The result was a $12.5 million judgment.
– Single Fax to Russellville Leads to $12.5M Judgment on New Jersey Pipe Company
“When workers have ideas, we want to try them even if at first it seems they won’t work. Sometimes they will end up working well, but the bigger thing is that if you don’t try your people’s ideas, they’re going to quit giving you ideas.”
— Robert Foster, inventor and CEO of Intimidator Inc. of Batesville, manufacturer of Spartan mowers.
– Bad Boy, Spartan Turn Batesville into Mow Town
“My father always told me if you dance with the devil, you’re going to get burned. He danced with the devil, he danced with Jon Woods, and he got burned.”
— Duane “Dak” Kees, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, after former Ecclesia College President Oren Paris III pleaded guilty to honest services fraud.
– Oren Paris III Sentenced to 3 Years for Kickbacks
“Your offense conduct, at its essence, is a violation of the public trust. That is particularly and uniquely offensive. You breached that oath. That is a sacred oath. You violated the very fabric of that oath. You stole from the very people you asked for votes.”
— U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks, explaining why he was sentencing former state Sen. Jon Woods to more than 18 years in federal prison.
– Jon Woods Sentenced to 220 Months in Prison for Kickback Scheme
“Someone told me that inviting everyone to dinner is diversity, but asking them what they like for dinner is inclusion.”
— Mary Oleksiuk, chief human resources officer at Tyson Foods Inc., at a NWA Council summit for diversity and inclusion.
– Northwest Arkansas Businesses Focusing on Inclusion
“Sam offered me 33 percent of the business to be the brains behind it. So I said, ‘Sure, I’ll sign up.’ It was a sad mistake.”
— Mike Vickers on how he became involved in the now defunct John Daly Steakhouse of Conway with businessman Sam McFadin.
– Disputes Doomed John Daly Steakhouse
“The other 19 percent are about to be fired.”
— Kale Gober of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway about a report that 81 percent of university fundraisers are in a fundraising campaign or about to be in one.
– Fundraising Campaigns Fuel Higher Ed in Arkansas
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