Between Editions

Well, it’s nice to know he cares. He really cares. Hey, who we gonna bail out next?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush says he shares the American people’s concern about the situation in U.S. financial markets and the economy.

Bush says the markets are adjusting to “extraordinary measures” the government has taken to stabilize the economy.

The president delivered a statement to the America people from just outside the Oval Office. He said that he and his advisers are working to promote stability in the markets. But Bush did not announce any new policy moves.

The president scrapped an out-of-town trip to monitor the situation and will meet later Thursday with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

It took a special session of the Arkansas Legislature, $200 million, and a quick-thinking group of Las Vegas entrepreneurs to pull it off, but El Dorado will soon be home to Arkansas’ first casino resort — The Promise Pleasure Palace.

“One-armed bandit lovers, get ready, this is your day!” El Dorado Mayor Mike Dumas screamed into a microphone on Wednesday as he stood on the lawn of the old Federal Building downtown. He threw dozens of casino tokens, each stamped with the El Dorado Promise logo, out into the crowd. “This is it! This is the day we’ve all been waiting for!”

City leaders have been wondering for weeks what would become of the old Federal Building after it was put on sale by the government in August. Last week, local businessman Richard Mason announced that his friends in Las Vegas were interested in operating a new casino somewhere in the the South, possibly Arkansas.

For weeks, state and local officials have worked behind the scenes to craft a proposal that would allow the city to legally operate a casino.

An agreement was finally reached Wednesday.

The Arkansas Legislature met in a special session to approve a resolution legalizing casino gambling only on one acre of land in Arkansas — the address of the Federal Building in El Dorado.

Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe said he pushed for the approval because “El Dorado has such a bright future, and with all those casino lights that will be installed on the building, it will only shed more light on how amazing we feel El Dorado really is.”

The El Dorado City Council on Thursday is expected to approve an ordinance legalizing gambling on the Federal Building site. Judging from the reaction of council members present at Wednesday’s announcement — each of whom sported Promise Pleasure Palace T-shirts — that vote is likely to be unanimous.

“Of course it will be,” said alderman Matt Thomas. “Screw the conference center, we got free cocktails and roulette now!”

Dumas said that he and other city leaders are currently in the process of creating a casino task force to monitor funds going to and streaming from the new Promise Pleasure Palace. More than $200 million of El Dorado Forward money will be used to renovate the Federal Building into a gambling resort.

Plans call for using the top two floors as hotel space, while the bottom floors will be renovated for gambling and entertaining.

Calion resident Jasper Hickenbotham, like hundreds of others Wednesday who lined Main Street in front of the Federal Building, said he thought the idea was just what El Dorado needed.

“This is fantastic, now I won’t have to drive to Shreveport to gamble,” said Hickenbotham. “Now if they’d just legalize prostitution, I’d never have to leave home!”

El Dorado Chamber of Commerce President Don Wales said that the entrepreneurship task force is already working with local residents on ways they can make money from the new casino.

“I have talked to a guy in Reno, and he washes casino tokens,” Wales said. “He’s sending me material on a machine that will do that, and we feel like it will be a winner.”

The machine clips to a fanny pack and holds a cleaning solution. Gamblers dip their chips or tokens in the solution, and they come out “crystal clean,” Wales said. “We’re excited about it.”

How do you feel about this one? More than $80 billion of our money — taxpayers — is going to help bail out insurance giant AIG.

If you or I were in financial trouble, think the government would give a hoot?

The claim: AIG is so large that a complete shutdown or bankruptcy of the firm would be catastrophic to the global economy. I find that a bit out of skew, personally.

Click here for the latest.

Also, the Arkansas Insurance Commissioner discusses AIG’s bailout with the Talk Business Blog in Little Rock. Click here.

**UPDATE** Meanwhile, the market continues to tank. Click here for more.

Day and Nite Stores, with nine stores in England, Camden, Sheridan and El Dorado, are among 10 other gas station companies being targeted today by Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel for alleged price gouging, according to a report on the Arkansas Times blog.

The subpoenas will go to businesses that charged prices ranging from $4.29 to $4.64 a gallon. They follow thousands of reports of big prices increases to his office.

Click here for more.

We survived rumors last week that gas prices would rise to $5 or $6 a gallon. They didn’t. We saw increases, but nothing that should have warranted a mad panic like the one seen just before Hurricane Ike made landfall.

Gas prices rose to gouge levels because of the panic. It fed station owners’ pockets. It didn’t help a single person who idled for 30 minutes then pulled up to the pump to top off their tank.

I found a great analysis of what I like to call The Great Panic of 2008 on, of all places, CNN. Click here for access.

By the way, if anything like this ever happens again, please forward this story, along with the one on the jump, to everyone you know. Perhaps we can avoid another panic.

Below are charts of gas prices around the state today, courtesy of Arkansasgasprices.com.

Here’s a sampling of the morning papers in New York City:

No one is for sure what this all means yet. Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers tanked. That’s a given. Lynch has been snapped up by Bank of America, which, according to some, was a wise move. The two will make one mega-power once the “crisis” blows over. Lehman is history.

Now reports are that insurance giant AIG must raise more than 70 billion today to avoid bankruptcy. The company had insured many of the mortgage banks and other companies that haven’t done well this year. It needs cash now.

Meanwhile, stocks dove yesterday as news of all this broke. Some even called it the most significant event since the Great Depression. Keep your eyes peeled today. It could get rough.

For an Arkansas point of view, click here to access Roby Brock’s business blog out of Little Rock.

**UPDATE** Click here for an AP story reporting that the U.S. government may help bail out the insurance company AIG. Also, stocks are looking up, somewhat, today.

OK, I know this isn’t a sports blog, and I swear I won’t make this a habit, but did you see that game last night? Whew. Former Hog Felix Jones ran more than 95 yards for a touchdown. He’s gonna be a star. Heck, he’s already a star.

The above photo is part of the front cover of today’s Dallas Morning News. That’s not Felix. It’s Marion Barber, another of the Cowboys’ jewels.

Cowboys and Eagles battle on Monday Night Football tonight. It’ll be a good one. Having grown up near Dallas, I have to say, How ‘Bout Them Cowboys! Kick off at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.

By the way, the Boys are about to move into a new stadium — next year, Texas Stadium will no longer be their home.

Click here for an in-depth look at what will become the most expensive stadium in all of sports.

Yeah, it’s over the top; yeah it’s too extravagant; yeah it’s probably a little gaudy. But it’s Dallas. Price tag: $1 billion.

The company now reports 292 customers without power in Union County, as of 2:15 p.m. today.

Click here for an updated state outage map.

**UPDATE** Entergy now reports, as of 4:08 p.m. today, that 193 customers in Union County are still without power. They’re making progress, folks.

**UPDATE 2** As of 8:16 p.m. tonight, all but 87 customers in Union County had electricity, according to the Entergy Arkansas Web site.

**UPDATE 3** All but 15 customers in Union County have power as of 10:39 p.m. Tuesday.

If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to attend “Touch The Names” at the South Arkansas Arts Center.

“Touch The Names” features actual letters retrieved from the Vietnam Wall in Washington, D.C. Local actors and veterans read them on stage, and local musician Chris Loggins plays his guitar and sings throughout the performance.

I saw a dress rehearsal and was impressed. Thanks to the actors and vets who allowed me to interview them.

As an aside, we are very lucky to have the arts center here in El Dorado. It’s one of the few cultural gems available in this part of the state. I invite everyone to support it if you can.

For SAAC online, click here.

This column by Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert has been making the rounds lately. He presents some interesting points regarding Sarah Palin. Click here for more.

I’m sure you probably saw this, but it’s too good not to watch again. Former Saturday Night Live star Tina Fey IS Sarah Palin. Fey made a guest appearance — as Palin — Saturday in the opening sequence.

Michael Phelps, who played host on the show, bombed. Not so much because he flubbed anything. He just wasn’t that inviting as a host, in my opinion.

Let’s walk outside today, take a deep breath of cool, humidity-free air, and be grateful that we’re not damaged beyond recognition like so many are along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Things in Texas are rough — millions without power, thousands without running water or sewer service, and thousands of homes destroyed.

Click here for the latest.

Nearly 600 Entergy Arkansas customers in Union County are still without power, according to the company’s web site. This after a peak of approximately 2,000. Thunderstorms related to Tropical Storm Ike are to blame. No word on when the outages will be repaired, but crews are working, we’re told.

UPDATE 2 — Entergy Arkansas is reporting that 476 are without power in Union County, down from 600 earlier today. More than 1,200 are still in the dark in Ouachita County, and nearly 2,000 customers are without power in Columbia County.

Personally, I have never seen a panic quite like this. Hurricane Ike is causing a frenzy over much of the mid and eastern parts of the nation, as gas prices are ranging from $5 to $7 a gallon. Attorneys general in many different states are reporting gouging. Click here for reports of $5 a gallon gas in Florida.

Look no further than the Blytheville, Ark., area for $5 a gallon gas in Arkansas. Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s office Friday afternoon assured me that they are catching and stopping gougers who are charging exorbitant amounts for gasoline.

Has anyone seen gouging in South Arkansas? The AG office said Friday that they are investigating gouging in this area. Gouging needs to be stopped. Now.

Meanwhile, Hurricane Ike continues to churn in the Gulf tonight. It looks bad. Galveston, Texas, could see record flooding.

Let’s hope this one isn’t as bad as weather forecasters say it could be.

I urge everyone to remain calm and take a deep breath.

CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST ON HURRICANE IKE.

REPORT GAS PRICE GOUGING TO THE ARKANSAS ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE:

Arkansas Atorney General Dustin McDaniel encourages citizens to use their cell phone cameras to document evidence of price gouging. Take photos and email them to gas@arkansasag.gov, or text photos to (501) 539-0969. Call (800) 482-8982 to report gouging.