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Andrew DeMillo's column this week takes up one of my persistent questions. If voters approve a state lottery -- and I think they will -- what form will it take once the legislature gets through with it?

There's no doubt that the constitutional amendment is broad enough to allow just about any form of gambling -- even a state casino a la Monaco, if legislators chose. Lt. Gov. Bill Halter has always said the legislature would never do that. He may be right, though the reasons might not be the ones you think. Oaklawn and Southland will hire whatever lobbyists are necessary to keep the lottery from infringing on business at their monopoly racinos.

Indeed, the legislature could severely limit the game and thus its potential for financing college scholarships. Halter favors putting the lottery in control of an appointed commission. The legislature cede its control to appointees? Hard to imagine.

The Republican State Convention today was scintillating, said Chair Dennis Milligan. Release on the jump.

I see no mention in the platform of ethics reform -- such as making it illegal to charge lobbyists to meet with Republican legislators, as at a recent GOP conference.

Eric Camp sent us a photo of Willie Nelson at last night's blockbuster pairing with B.B. King at the Riverfest Amphitheatre. Anybody go?

Interesting that the Young Republican Turks were yammering Friday about a new way of doing things -- claiming that a Newt Gingrich-aggrandizement organization was actually a do-gooding nonpartisan outfit that would help us drill our way out of $4 gas. (As if, too, drilling for oil to fatten the wallets of Exxon/Mobil was an original thought.)

Coincidentally there arrived in my mailbox a copy of an invitation mailed out a few months ago for a little Republican Party "legislative forum." Looks to me like a rent-a-legislator event. (I might have priced it by saying the more you paid the LESS time you had to spend with the Mark Martins of the world.) Maybe you're more charitable. You read it. You decide. At a minimum, the Repubs were seeking pretty stiff prices to "sponsor" meetings with a group that generally doesn't swing heavy lumber in the legislature.

I don't know how successful the event proved to be. Perhaps a Republican reader could enlighten.

John Brummett rounds up some morals from the UCA controversy. Sound stuff:

' Don't ever fail to be vigilant about public officials, even -- maybe most particularly -- the wildly successful ones. Gov. Beebe, anyone?

' There's a danger to personal branding of a public institution.

' Colleges are about learning, not counting enrollment like a football score.

If Chesapeake Energy really wanted to fully inform the citizenry about exploration of the Fayetteville shale, it would add to its new faux news website and its paid mockumentary lineup this investigative effort by the new nonprofit Pro Publica, a public interest journalism  foundation.

I make no allegations about the conduct of Chesapeake or any other producer in Arkansas. But I repeat that producers' assurances about the absence of environmental threat posed by the exploration and the give-me-the-money happiness of mineral and land owners are not sufficient protection against problems.

There's a big shale play with horizontal drilling underway in New York. The lead of the ProPublica reporting might encourage you to read more:

On May 29 New York state's top environmental officials assured state lawmakers that plans to drill for natural gas near the watershed that supplies New York City's drinking water posed little danger.

A survey of other states had found "not one instance of drinking water contamination" from the water-intensive, horizontal drilling that would take place across New York's southern tier, the officials told lawmakers in Albany.

Reassured, the legislature quickly approved a bill to speed up the permitting process for a huge influx of wells that could bring the state upwards of $1 billion in annual revenue. Gov. David Paterson has until Wednesday to decide whether he will sign the bill, and the state's Department of Environmental Conservation, or DEC, says drilling permits could be approved in as little as 12 weeks.

But a joint investigation by ProPublica and New York City public radio station WNYC found that this type of drilling has caused significant environmental harm in other states and could affect the watershed that supplies New York City's drinking water.

Your turn.

(Why do those initials always make me think of Jay Sims in a red-and-white striped rugby shirt, warmish draft beer, burgers built on English muffins and, around midnight and a goodly number of mugs into the evening, "Dueling Banjos"?  We were going to be young forever. You had to be there, I guess.)

Twas a day for apologies. UCA earlier. Here, Matt Jones, who's real sorry he got busted for snorting coke on Dickson Street.

Quick recap of the UCA Board meeting in a phone call from John Williams:

President Lu Hardin and Board Chairman Randy Sims both spoke. "Learning experience." "Transparency." Etc. They apologized all around for the recent controversies. Trustee Rush Harding also threw in an apology and lauded the press for helping remind the board of public obligatioins.

The Board said it would take future votes in public and would list the specifics of items on which it had deliberated and reached decisions in private.

The Board received a rebuke from Dr. Kurt Boniecki, president of the UCA Faculty Senate, for keeping its proceedings out of public view; for funneling money to Hardin during an economic crisis, and for not paying faculty commensurate with the president relative to comparable schools. He said the president's pay and faculty pay should be based on peer institutions, not the University of Arkansas and Ole Miss, which Hardin had cited in a letter to the Board asking for a pay increase. Boniecki also objected to the Board's hurryup of recent cuts in retirement benefits. (At the end of the meeting, the board restored supplemental healthcare payments to retirees over 65 and resolved to continue discussions about post-employment benefits for others.)

The Board took no new actions on Hardin's pay. They said they'd deal with that at some later date.

As predicted here, it was time to apologize, ask for understanding and move forward. 

PS -- Something I'd mentioned earlier was confirmed in detail at the Board meeting. Hardin, not three UCA officials named on the memo, wrote what purported to be a legal memo justifying private action and non-disclosure on deferred compensatoin payments for Hardin. He said he wrote the memo, though it was based on consultations with the three administrators. Not good.

... Lauryn Smith. You've met her before. We've got her new blog up and running with our other community bloggers. Find her right here. "Misadventures in the Dark."

Check out some of the other Times community bloggers, too. Today's recommendation: Some great old photos of forgotten Razorbacks on Razorback Expats.

The University of Central Arkansas Board of Trustees is meeting today and discussion of President Lu Hardin's pay is front and center. Unlike past board meetings, media are out in force, along with faculty and others.

I'll have a report from John Williams before long. Items of business were expected to include repeal of a rule giving the Board chairman the ability to write checks without Board votes on an auxiliary account financed by book and restaurant sales. Trustee Rush Harding also told me he planned to propose that Board executive sessions be taped in the future so there'd be no dispute about what was said.

In recent days, there's been some disagreement about what transpired in May when the Board agreed in private to accelerate payment of a $300,000 deferred compensation bonus for Hardin, who makes about $252,000 a year. Some trustees believe the Board also indicated majority support then for developing a six-year contract for Hardin that would include a new $150,000 annual deferred comp payment that would be shielded from public disclosure. The $300,000 has been repaid and Hardin's new contract was put on hold after controversy arose over the Board's action. That May action was never announced publicly, but the action leaked out in a trickle of news coverage. The stories included news of an improperly financed 2007 bonus of $100,000 that was subsequently covered by Trustee Harding's financial contributon. The controversy has wounded Hardin (until then generally viewed as a key player in UCA's recent growth), roiled the faculty and spawned a torrent of critical newspaper commentary.

MSM aren't biting on the John Edwards story in National Enquirer, but some semi-legit sites are starting to ask why. Guy hides in bathroom in wee hours at Beverly Hills hotel after a reporter confronts him and doesn't leave until security escorts him out? Curious.

UPDATE: Does Fox News count as mainstream? It appears genie is out of the bottle.

There's a simple reason why tough watershed controls are necessary to protect Lake Maumelle. Give the developers an inch and they'll take every mile they can get.

Doubt me?

Consider Beaver Lake, where support for a lakeshore buffer zone was enough to keep one civic-minded person off the Benton County Planning Board. The "property rights" crowd ("I can do what I want with my property no matter how much harm it does to my next door neighbor") wouldn't stand for it. The man had the gall to take a public position on clean water. 'Nuff said. The Iconoclast summarizes.