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For the second straight year, Arkansas Razorback fans are bemoaning how far their once great basketball program has fallen. Fans remember the glory years of the late ’80s and early ’90s — a 1994 National Championship, a 1995 NCAA Tournament second place finish, nine straight NCAA Tournament appearances — and are stunned the Razorbacks are a middling team in a middling college basketball conference.

Although Coach John Pelphrey posted a winning record in his first season in 2007-08, including a first-round NCAA Tournament victory, the Razorbacks have suffered losing overall and conference records the past two seasons, including a 14-17 overall and 7-9 conference record this year heading into today’s first round of the SEC Tournament. Pelphrey is only six games above .500 in three season at Arkansas.

So, heading into tonight’s first round SEC Tournament game against the Georgia Bulldogs, should Coach John Pelphrey return for another season with the Razorbacks?

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Bill Halter on Tuesday at The Capitol (adg photo)

On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Bill Halter filed to become a candidate in the U.S. Senate race against incumbent Blanche Lincoln. During interviews at the Capitol, Halter played down his challenge to Lincoln in the Democratic primary and instead opted to focus on his position as a Washington outsider. He was quoted in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as saying he wants to “try to put a United States senator on the side of Arkansas families and stand up to special-interest groups. I don’t view it as taking on Blanche Lincoln.”

Halter is best known for spearheading last year’s state lottery proposal that voters approved in 2008. A liberal advocacy group, MoveOn.org announced later that it has raised $848,000 since Monday for Halter’s campaign, according to the Democrat-Gazette.

On the other side of the political spectrum, Republicans who have filed for the seat include U.S. Rep. John Boozman of Rogers, Curtis Coleman of Little Rock and Fred Ramey of Searcy. Others who have said they will run are Gilbert Baker of Conway, Kim Hendren of Gravette, Randy Alexander of Springdale, Jim Holt of Springdale and Conrad Reynolds of Conway, according the Democrat-Gazette.

With all this jockeying for her position, the May 18 primary and subsequent November election may be an interesting one for Lincoln. So, considering political sentiment in the state, how do you see Lincoln’s chances for re-election?

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The U.S.A. and German teams are leading the Olympics in medals so far, much to the disappointment of countries like Canada, Russia and China. The U.S. has won 7 gold medals, 9 silver and 12 bronze and is tied with Germany for the most gold medals won, as of today.

Team U.S.A. has thus far upset Canada in ice hockey, Russia in men’s figure skating and, despite her injury, American Lindsey Vonn managed to win the gold metal in the downhill ski.

With all of this success, has it changed your opinion about this year’s games? Do you find yourself tuning in to watch more games than you expected?

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All the Buzz

Last week, Google launched its new social networking site Buzz for users of its Gmail service. Like Facebook, Buzz lets users share status updates, photos, videos and other information from within their Gmail accounts.

The problem? Gmail users were automatically included in the program and included an “autofollow” system that displayed on their profiles connections based who the users emailed the most. If your Google profile was already public, anyone coudl see it, according to an AP story. Gmail users cited privacy violations with the new system.

Google has since changed the autofollow feature to a “suggestion,” and the company also changed automatic links to sites like Picasa web albums and Google Reader.

On top of all that, the new Buzz has put Facebook (and Microsoft) on the defensive. The company issued a statement saying, “Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation.” Right now, Facebook has the upper hand with millions more users than Google, but Microsoft may still feel threatened.

Now, what do you think? How does the whole thing sit with you?

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Sarah Palin signs books during her last visit in Fayetteville.

In honor of newly-hired Fox commentator Sarah Palin’s impending visit to the central Arkansas area on Tuesday, we wonder how you feel about her political aspirations.

The fundraising dinner and speech to benefit the Republican Party of Arkansas will be held at Verizon Arena. Tickets range in price from $500, to meet and have your photo taken with Palin at a reception, to $35 for general admission. (We hear the $500 tickets are sold out.) Palin will be the event’s keynote speaker.

So, this week, we want to know, your thoughts on her presidential ambitions in today’s political climate. With Obama’s approval ratings slipping slowly and her attacks on his “hope-y, change-y” rhetoric, it’s a legitimate — if completely hypothetical — question. Plus, we thought it would be fun to ask.

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Toyota taking a hit

Though Toyota had not made a formal recall of the Prius as of Thursday morning, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened an investigation into braking problems with that specific model. This news comes on the heels of recent announcements that many of the car maker’s models have had problems with a sticking accelerator pedal. Roughly 2.3 million vehicles in eight of Toyota’s models are part of the gas pedal recall, according to the New York Daily News.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood advised Toyota owners to take their cars directly to the dealership to have the problem fixed, but that announcement caused Toyota dealerships to worry they’d be flooded with worried car owners, and most say they won’t have the parts to repair the problem until next week.

With all of these problems coming to light, Toyota’s reputation for reliability and high standards has most definitely been compromised. Now the company must wait to see how consumers will react to the brand in the future, while competitors try to capitalize on the company’s misfortunes.

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In the meantime, if you have a  Toyota, this CNN video on how to stop a car with a stuck gas pedal might be of use. Stay safe out there.

Making his point (ap photo)

Last night during President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, he outlined his vision for the future and touched on how Congress should share responsibility for governing the country now that the Democrats have lost their super majority. On NPR, Republicans called the speech a long “political tirade” and accused Obama of still “whining” about the problems he inherited from the Bush administration.

He also addressed the struggles faced by the middle class in this faltering economy and creating or saving jobs for those workers. Most Democrats agreed with the points of the speech, but as Slate points out, Obama seemed to side with the public and reinforce the idea that Congress was the problem. This might have irked a few in his own party.

Now it’s your turn to critique the president’s speech. What did you think?

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Just for fun, after voting, check out this word cloud graphic from The Guardian that compares the words used in Obama’s speech to those used by former presidents like JFK and Lincoln.

(adg photo) Mayor Mark Stodola

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Tuesday that Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola has shown an interest in the 2nd Congressional District seat that will soon be vacated by Rep. Vic Snyder. (He’s announced he won’t seek another term in order to spend more time with his family.)

The Democrat-Gazette reported that, “Stodola ran for Congress in 1996 and lost to Snyder in the Democratic primary by less than 2,000 votes.” The mayor told a reporter, “I think I’ve got one of the best jobs in the state already,” and added that “[As mayor] I can help people more quickly than Congress ever can.”

If Stodola runs, he’ll have to file in March and is still considering the idea. In the meantime, what do you think? Should Stodola run for Snyder’s seat?

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Fight for comedic control

The NBC late night battle between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien is heating up. O’Brien made his stand earlier this week in an open letter to the People of Earth saying that he believes the Tonight Show simply would not be the Tonight Show if it aired at 12:05 (eastern time) and followed Jay Leno’s show at 10:30. He said, “After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.”

Now, Jay Leno may also be threatening to leave his NBC home and counters O’Brien’s argument by saying his show was only given four months to establish itself in a primetime slot.

Now the two comedians seem to be switching their anger from NBC and taking jabs at each other. Other late night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon are also commenting on and having fun with the NBC drama. Popeater reports that David Letterman wants Conan O’Brien as a guest on his show.

So, by now you’ve probably already picked a side. It’s just time to vote in our poll and claim it. Are you ready?

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In mid-December, local attorney Jon Wesley Hall Jr. submitted to attorney general Dustin McDaniel a proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize medical marijuana in the state.Certification of the proposed name and title by McDaniel would have allowed petitioners to gather the 77,468 signatures to put the measure on the November 2010 ballot.

However, on Jan. 4, McDaniel rejected the proposal and called the popular name submission “misleading or partisan” according to a report by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. McDaniel argued that the proposal does not define medical marijuana in a way that would be understandable to voters. He was quoted in the Democrat-Gazette report as saying, “In my opinion, this term does not have a ‘general currency among the public’ such that it can be assumed most voters will readily understand what it entails.’

Attorney Hall contends that the definition of “medical marijuana” is a detail that will have to be worked out by the state legislature and accused McDaniel of “nitpicking” his proposal.

Outside of Arkansas, 13 states have legalized the use of medical marijuana even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled  that the federal government has the right to enforce federal drug laws in a state’s that have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes. However, the U.S. attorney general recently stated that the feds would not interfere with state’s that allow the use of medical marijuana.

Having said all that and knowing that the issue of medical marijuana has been complicated in states like California, how do you feel about legalizing the drug in Arkansas? What if it becomes a cash crop? Do you think the state stands to profit from spending less on locking up people for pot possession and taxing the sales of the drug? Vote in the poll and leave your thoughts in the comments.

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