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Your thoughts here. And thanks to Roger Head for tonight's photo feature -- an albino squirrel roaming the mean streets of El Dorado.

UCA President Lu Hardin today told college Board members of a recurrence of his eye cancer, which will require surgery in August.

The letter was included in a document dump by UCA in response to FOI requests for recent communications between Hardin and the Board and others during the recent imbroglio over the president's pay and benefits. Mostly routine stuff, but a few items of interest, including the fact that the state is doing an in-depth survey of pay, benefits and deferred comp for all state college leaders in the state.

Here's the first group of papers.

Here's the second. Read and report.

Another abduction reported by gunmen seeking to get someone to tap an ATM. This note is going around to UAMS employees today from Chancellor Dodd Wilson:

I wanted to let you know of a situation that occurred this morning involving one of our employees who works at the Westmark Building on Markham Street across from the main campus.
 
The employee was abducted at gunpoint from the parking lot when she arrived at work at 5:30 a.m., and was taken to two ATM machines where she withdrew money. She was returned unharmed to the Westmark Building.
 
We are thankful that she was returned safely. UAMS police have stepped up patrols of campus parking areas and are looking at other ways to increase safety.
 
We ask all employees and students to be aware of their surroundings and to call UAMS police at 686-7777 if they see any suspicious activity. You may also call 911. Also, please remember that if you are on campus after dark or feel for any reason that you would like an escort to your car, the UAMS police are happy to assist you. If you arrive for work early and the building in which you work is locked and you don't have a key, please call UAMS police to unlock the door for you so you can go inside rather than waiting on the parking lot.
 
We want UAMS to be a safe environment and for everyone to feel secure. Our employees and students are very important to us.

A reader yesterday commented on improper handling of one of the anti-adoption petitions at a church. The group working to challenge that initiative would like to hear more. Call 280-0082 if you have any information about the conduct of that petition drive.

Westbound I-30 traffic was detoured at North Little Rock, just before the river bridge, for almost three hours this morning after a body was found on the westbound lanes of the highway about 3:45 a.m. The man was idenitfied as Kavontae Anderson, 31, of Little Rock and his death is being treated as a homicide, though the cause of his death hasn't been determined. The road was blocked until 6:30 a.m. for a crime scene investigation. State Police asked witnesses to call Troop A at 618-8400.

UPDATE: Janese Lee, 23, of Little Rock, was charged Thursday evening with first-degree murder in the death of Anderson, described as her former boyfriend. A vehicle believed used to dump his body was seized at her South State Street home. Still no details on the place and manner of death.

Remember "The Queen," the hit movie about the British royal family starring Helen Mirren?

Peter Morgan, the screenwriter of that movie and "The Deal," depicting Tony Blair's rise to power, is planning a trip to Little Rock to brainstorm a third film in the trilogy, "The Special Relationship," about Blair's relationship with Bill Clinton.

He insists that he doesn't have any casting ideas for Bill Clinton, saying that's always a director's prerogative. But Morgan promises that the gauzy portrayal of Blair in "The Queen" will not be repeated, intimating that Clinton, especially the Clinton in the last years of his presidency, won't get off easily either. "You have to remember," he told me, " 'The Queen' was set in that honeymoon period when Blair had just taken over the country and didn't have to be especially devious."

He laughs. "I can assure you there's plenty of deviousness in the new film." 

Could Helen Mirren portray Hillary? She's only two years older. And pretty darn fit.

Refrains from giving unsolicited back rub. Behaves, instead, like credible world leader. Counting the days.