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Secretary of State Charlie Daniels has found, as expected, that the Family Council fell short of the number of registered voter signatures required to qualify its initiated act for the ballot. It would prohibit adoptions and foster parenting in homes with unmarried couples. It is designed to punish gay people primarily, but will have a broader impact.

The drive fell about 4,000 signatures short and the group will get 30 more days to gather additional signatures.

Challenges may yet be filed to the signatures Daniels certified by the group that opposes this initiative.

This breaking news from Stephens Media:

LITTLE ROCK - University of Central Arkansas President Lu Hardin asked the UCA board for early payment of a $300,000 bonus that Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has since said likely violated state law, according to documents obtained by the Arkansas News Bureau.

The documents show Hardin also asked, rather than increase in pay, for an additional $150,000 annually in deferred compensation and advised the board it did not have to disclose the action publicly.

Hardin says today he asked for the pay boost only after board members asked him to suggest a compensation package that would be consistent with what top officials at comparable universities receive.

Hardin returned the bonus money, less taxes, last week and said today the board did not act on his deferred compensation request. He said he regrets advising the board it could act without public disclosure and in the future will advise openness.

"Even if it's deferred compensation, it will be with total transparency," he said.

UPDATE: Here's the revised story from Stephens Media.

Most obvious question among several raised by this bulletin: Does Hardin have another $150,000 deferred comp plan in the works on top of the one paid out early? ANSWER: Apparently not now, emphasis on now.

Here's what I've found out. Board Chairman Randy Sims asked Hardin what it would take for him to commit to a long-term contract at UCA. Hardin responded in the letter, written in March, that compared his pay with those of several other collegiate leaders, including UA officials. He said he'd like early payment of the $300,000 in deferred comp and a total salary of about $400,000, about $150,000 more than the current statutory maximum payable as deferred compensation. The letter was accompanied by a memo saying that the deferred comp, if approved along with the early payment of the earlier deferred comp plan, approved in 2005, could be done in secret. The memo carried the names of three UCA administrators, but was unsigned.

Resistance arose on the Board to approving the pay raise, as well as to the early payment of the $300,000 in deferred comp. Even trustees who believe Hardin is vital to UCA's recent growth, objected to the early payment because of how it would be received by faculty, who were to receive no pay raise.

But the Board forged ahead. It approved the $300,000 bonus. It also approved the $150,000 pay, I was told, subject to its being held to be a legal payment and subject to finding a source of money to pay for it. That increase has never been paid, however. It turns out, the Board had no legal source for the $300,000 bonus to begin with, much less the additional money. It wanted to use bookstore and restaurant profits, which are public funds under the law and unusable for payment in excess of legal limits. Private funds may be used for a supplement.

The Board continued to work on a six-year contract for Hardin that also was to include some other benefits, including a year paid sabbatical. At one time, that contract was expected to be discussed at Friday's UCA Board meeting. That is not likely now.

The Stephens story was generated by a release of documents by UCA Trustee Dr. Michael Stanton, who's apparently grown weary of the drama and was a part of a Board minority that was resistant to some of the steps taken in May's closed Board meeting on the Hardin contract. This perhaps was intended as clarification and air-clearing, but smells like more smog to me.

More when I have it.

The proposal to amend House of Representatives rules to bar membership to someone who's struck a felony plea bargain has been filed. Do Like Dobbins, Don't Sit Down Rule.

Under the Dome is on top of it, naturally.

Shut up you whiners. The good times are rolling, just like Phil Gramm says, though you have to be in a fairly select group to notice it.

Wall Street Journal reports that the top 1 percent of Americans in income are pulling down the biggest share of the GDP in decades, perhaps the most since 1929. And not to worry that the government won't let them enjoy it. Their average tax rate fell to the lowest in 18 years.

Clearly, we must extend their tax breaks, lest they become whiners, too.

Just about every political candidate thinks the other guy is getting better treatment from the media than he/she is.

That said, a Media Matters columnist savages (link fixed) Ron Fournier and the AP for its perceived favoritism toward Republicans generally and John McCain extra especially.

Courtesy of Stephens Media, I have on the jump the full text of the letter UCA President Lu Hardin wrote to his Board of Trustees seeking a $150,000 pay bump in the form of deferred compensation over six years. I also have the unsigned memo, bearing the name of UCA administrators, supporting the legality of the arrangement and the legality of keeping it secret.

Well.

Some points.

1) Hardin said he'd been advised by a University of Arkansas attorney that deferred comp for university officials does not require a public vote or disclosure of deferred comp. I doubt this because we'd recently gathered UA deferred comp figures. Indeed, the UA says in this Stephens Media story that they do not hold such matters to be secret.

2) I'd like to know more about the reference to a new privately funded home for Hardin (although he said he wasn't interested.)

3) Hardin says his "total package" of $402,300 would be $50,000 -- actually $41,000 to $42,000 -- below the U of A pay. But this is only if you don't include his "catchup" $300,000 bonus, paid in May, an acceleration of $60,000 annual deferred comp payments. At least two of those years, at $60,000 per, should fairly be added to his overall compensation, making him pricier than the UA president and UAF chancellor. As a reader has noted in an earlier thread, for all its growth, UCA is not considered at the same level as the UA. (And its faculty is far below the UA in average pay.)

4) Contrary to what appears on the unsigned memo, I've been told Jack Gillean, the VP for administration, did not draft it.

Sorry Yogi. This one isn't over until it's over.

Politicos will be interested in this one on Politico:

Columnist Robert Novak -- insert favorite invective here -- has been issued a citation in Washington, D.C., for what sounds  close to hit-and-run. He ran down a 66-year-old pedestrian in his Corvette. A bicyclist forced him to stop him a block away and told him he couldn't just drive off after hitting someone. Novak claimed to be unaware he'd hit anyone, though witnesses said the victim "sort of splayed onto the windshield." He got a failure to yield citation.

Noted: Novak's history of aggressive driving.

Gov. Mike Beebe gets to pass out one of the coveted Game and Fish Commission seats today. It will be announced at 11 a.m. I haven't a clue. A white male with a big bank account and a record of contributions to the governor would be a good guess for key demos. He must also like to shoot guns at living things. Sandal-wearing birdwatchers who do their shooting with cameras need not apply.

UPDATE: Blog reader Al Fornaut thinks the appointee will be cut from slightly different mold, though a mainstream outdoors type just the same. He predicts it will be Ron Duncan, the Springdale teacher who pioneered the "Hooked on Fishing, Not on Drugs" program. Now I'll be humming that "Hooked on Fishing" jingle all day, whether it's Duncan or not.

UPDATE II: Al Fornaut wins the kewpie doll for news tip o' the week. Ron Duncan is the new commissioner. Release on the jump. He's a white male, to be sure, but, as a school counselor, not the fat cat exec. often favored for these seats. He gave a whopping $113 to Mike Beebe in 2006. In 2002 he gave $750 to the Republican Party. No other hits on followthemoney.org.

A reader from Damascus, in the heart of the Fayetteville shale zone, notes that there are other messages floating about meeting U.S. energy needs, even if they aren't supported by multi-million-dollar TV buys and new websites streaming gas drilling PR in faux news form, a la Chesapeake Energy.

He invites all to Conway this Saturday for a meeting of Faulkner County Supporters of Sustainable Communities. It's at 11 a.m. at Michaelangelo's, 1117 Oak St.  James Burke will talk about clean, non-fossil fuel energy options.

SPEAKING OF COUNTER PROGRAMMING: I got a note encouraging us to take a deeper look at environmental impact of the shale exploration from a trusted acquaintance. A portion is on the jump.

I admit it. I pay only passing attention to sports. I've paid a little more attention the last week because of the welcome combination of men's and women's athletics at the University of Arkansas. Thanks to that interest, I received an e-mail about the UA's slick new combined website, arkansasrazorbacks.com, and about a free trial offer of RazorVision, which will provide live feeds of Razorback sports and many other items of athletic interest for a monthly fee. It promises, for example, coverage of football coach Bobby Petrino's trip to the SEC football coaches gathering from "wheels up" in Fayetteville through the interview rooms in Birmingham. Be still my heart.

I gather there'd previously been a pay option for advanced sports information services from UA and that all colleges are moving aggressively to take control of their sports signals to further monetize athletics. I just haven't been following closely. Perhaps some follower of the athletic world can explain all this to me.

It does seem a tiny bit unusual for the work of public employees to be put up for sale on a monthly basis. What if I asked to see these public employees' work product -- inside dope news releases, interviews, whatever -- under the Freedom of Information Act? No-go unless I paid? Just wondering.

Ethanol as fuel suddenly isn't the completely brilliant idea it was a while back, not with what it has done to the feed business. NY Times article mentions:

O.K. Industries, a poultry company in Arkansas upset about rising feed costs, said this was the first year since the company was founded during the Great Depression that it could not afford to give its employees a wage increase.

So which lobby will talk loudest to Congress -- the grain farmers, the livestock growers, the developing fuel industry? No point in including consumers in this list. Their interests are incidental.