RUST COMMENTARY: GOP MAKES SOME INROADS IN ARKANSAS, BUT NOT IN DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED STATEHOUSE

Some Arkansas news you might have missed ... courtesy of our Blytheville/Osceola newspaper connections.

1. WAL-MART, for the first time within its home state, is facing major zoning obstacles with two proposed super centers (Conway and Jonesboro). They love the retailer but not proposed sites near subdivisions.

2. Arkansas now has a Republican governor, ala Mike Huckaby, and Republican lieutenant governor, namely Winthrop Paul Rockefeller, a Republican U.S. senator ... Tim Hutchison, and a Republican U.S. representative, Asa Hutchison.

However, Republicans made no inroads in the overwhelming Democrat Arkansas House and Senate.

This is another illustration of the Democrat Party leaving the view of the local Democrat on national issues.

3. Even after an expenditure of an estimated $10 million ... the only gambling amendment to make the 1996 ballot (at least three others were declared unconstitutional) was defeated by a 61-39 percent margin.

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Be Careful What You Wish For. In a campaign year that featured penniless Buddhist monks forking over tens of thousands of campaign dollars, the phenomenon of minimum-wage earners voting themselves a raise added an additional touch of surrealism to the election pageantry. Guided by union swamis who promised that higher labor costs would inspire companies to rush out and hire more people, supporters pulled the lever with altruistic gusto.

Now that the fairy dust has settled, a large question remains: Will these mandatory wage increases really help entry-level workers? The answer, as always, is absolutely not -- and then some. In fact, no policy could be more harmful or more poorly timed. With a large number of unskilled and illiterate people about to be forced off welfare and into an entry market already suffering the effect of the federal wage hike, we have before us the prospect of a very bloody train wreck. ...

And there is one more train streaking toward this bloody crossroads: According to a 1995 Department of Education study, fully 38 percent of adults receiving food stamps are functionally illiterate. -- Richard Berman, The Wall Street Journal.

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Congratulations to JIM WENTE, president of Southeast Missouri Hospital, on his selection as chairman-elect of the Missouri Hospital Association. Quite a rare achievement and a major honor from his peers.

As incoming board chairman of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce, Wente will have a busy two years.

Part of the Missouri Hospital Association duties will have Wente making two trips per year to Washington, D.C., to sit in on higher level national health care discussions ... one of the biggest (if not the biggest) problem Congress is facing.

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Urging states, churches and local businesses to embrace provisions of the new welfare law, Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., joined forces with the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise to urge that grass-roots organizations take part in the statute's "charitable choice" option.

Ashcroft is the author of the provision, which allows states to pay businesses, charities and churches to provide day care and employment to welfare recipients. "It will add another potentially powerful tool to the social service arsenal," Ashcroft told a conference on implementation of the welfare reform law (HR3734-PL104-193).

Jeremy Ben-Ami, a domestic policy adviser to President Clinton, told the conference that the administration supports Ashcroft's provision but will ask the 105th Congress to amend the law, which he said cuts too deeply into programs such as food stamps and aid to legal immigrants. Clinton made that vow when he announced he would sign the bill, a mostly Republican initiative.

Gov. George Allen, R-Va., came to the conference to tout the success of the welfare program implemented in his state a year ago, which is tougher than the new federal law. He said the welfare rolls have been cut by 16 percent, and more than 30 percent of the 63,000 welfare recipients are in a program in which they are winning benefits by working. Under the Virginia plan, able-bodied recipients must find work within 90 days of being eligible for benefits, are limited to two years of benefits and are denied additional benefits when they have more children while on welfare.

"We are beginning to restore fabric of a prosperous society based on individual responsibility," Allen said. -- Anthony L. Porretta, Congressional Monitor.

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The annual YOUNG LIFE fund-raising banquet was held last night at the Holiday Inn Convention Center.

This is one of the best groups in town dealing with high school young people. Additional contributions are needed and can be mailed to:

YOUNG LIFE, 101 N. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701.

This is a low-budget but high-results-oriented group under the Christian direction of DAVID GOSS.

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SEMO BASKETBALL kicks off this week with the Otahkian women's first exhibition game Wednesday night at the Show Me Center vs. Finland. Coach Ed Arnzen's in his 14th year, with 267-111 in 13 years.

Coach Ron Shumate (294-153) starts his 16th year with an Indians men's team exhibition game against CROATIA Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. He's not smiling ear to ear ... but Shumate has been quite positive in talking about the potential of this year's squad. He now can build it towards the year-end conference tournament as the Indians are finally eligible after the new member Division I restructure has been lifted.

~Gary Rust is the president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.