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Had to happen. Democrat Joe White, challenging Sen. Gilbert Baker, Republican, comments on the controversy at UCA, first chastising him for silence on larger issues on campus but also commenting on our story about unusual housing practices at the college. On the jump.

And here, we'll pick up the Board meeting, too. The meeting opened with testimonials to President Hardin from Conway business and government officials. The head of the faculty Senate repeated earlier criticism that Hardin's actions on the self-written memo wouldn't have been tolerated from a faculty member. A student praised Hardin's openness. Barbara Anderson, a UCA official whose name was on the memo Hardin wrote and presented to the Board, said she didn't disagree with most of what was written except for the portion about evading the FOI in not disclosing his deferred compensation. Then the Board went into executive session. 

UPDATE: The Board reconvened in public and said no action would be taken. They said they'd meet again in September. Hmmm. An uneducated guess is that the Board is willing to give Hardin time to attempt to repair the self-inflicted damage. Clearly, both at the meeting and here on the blog, the friends he's accumulated over the years, are rising to his defense.

Several trustees said after the meeting that they'd be listening very carefully to the faculty in the days ahead. Hardin has a meeting scheduled with the faculty Senate Aug. 28.

Right here.

Otherwise, I'll post something from UCA when I hear from John Williams. The Board is in executive session at the moment.

Late news: Claiborne Deming will retire at the end of this year as Murphy Oil's CEO and be succeeded by executive v.p. David Wood. Murphy seems to have prospered under Deming's leadership. But Arkansas truly has prospered for his broad and generous devotion to public education. He led the creation of the El Dorado Promise scholarship, a still unique program that other cities in Arkansas should emulate wherever possible. Release on the jump.

The University of Central Arkansas situation may come to a head today.

The Board of Trustees will meet at 4 p.m. Up for discussion: Whether to "roll over" over President Lu Hardin's five-year contract -- that is add a fifth year now that the first year of the five-year pact has  been completed.

Expected: A strong statement from the UCA Faculty Senate, reportedly meeting this morning. That could range from anything from a call for censure to a call for termination.

A primary issue with the Senate will be the memorandum that Hardin wrote over the name of other administrators backing the terms of a new deferred compensation plan for the president.

But a growing issue in the community is a question about favoritism by Hardin for friends and UCA officials -- such as special housing for children and grandchildren of connected people -- Trustee Michael Stanton, Republican leader Sheffield Nelson, state Sen. Gilbert Baker -- and a favor done by UCA staff for a campaign event for Sen. Gilbert Baker.

Some of those favoritism allegations are discussed in an article in this week's edition of the Times. We've posted it early on account of today's events.

Hardin, so far, has given every indication of standing fast in the turmoil that initially arose because of a pay bonus arranged without public announcement. Pressure has been growing in some quarters for a resignation, an idea mentioned in an editorial in this week's Times as  an option the Board might welcome.

UPDATE: Sen. Gilbert Baker has sent other senators a note about our article this morning. It's on the jump. It's misleading in a number of respects, the most obvious being his assertion that single-family housing is equally available to all married students at UCA. It is also untrue that the Times didn't make an effort to call Baker. He called us back today, in fact, in response to a message left on his phone. His innuendo about our reporter hardly bears comment. But, for the record, John Williams knocked on the door, asked permission to ask questions and was invited in. Finally, no rumors were spread. Only facts. Read them and form your own opinion.

Thanks to The Iconoclast for noting the convergence of a John McCain trip to Northwest Arkansas on Friday amidst a Bentonville celebration of the 100th anniversary of the city's statue paying tribute to Confederate veterans. The snarky 'clast notes that McCain didn't attend the dedication ceremony in 1908. No word if a Miss Confederate bikini-wearing, banana-eating contest is planned in which the candidate's wife can participate.

The Coalition of Little Rock Neighborhoods has been leading the fight for protection of the Lake Maumelle watershed. This has created some small discomfort for County Judge Buddy Villines, who favors watershed protection short of what the Coalition would prefer. He faces election opposition this fall from Republican Phil Wyrick, who has made generally supportive -- if not yet fully specific -- remarks about watershed protection.

This is a big issue and, however yawn-inducing some might find it, future generations should thank those who waged the battle.

Prompting my mini-sermon is this letter from Villines responding to criticism from the Coalition. He defends his approach, naturally.

There's no budget and no campaign office here yet. But there is a YouTube from Pat O'Brien.

Texas publications are aggressively covering Chesapeake Energy's development of the Barnett shale, partly because drilling in incorporated cities is a little harder to ignore than drilling in the hinterlands.

Chesapeake, as you may know, is headed by Aubrey McClendon, one of the major Swift Boat financiers, and you can get an idea of his cynical view of media manipulation in this article. They haven't moved beyond the blanket infomercial stage here yet, but Texas has seen more media massaging.

In the wake of Chesapeake's infomercial comes Shale TV, a daily talk show about the Barnett Shale set to air this fall. The company has hired three award-winning Dallas broadcast journalists to produce the show.

Julie Wilson, Chesapeake vice president for corporate development, says she understands there's skepticism about the objectivity of Shale TV, but she insists it's no different than the rest of corporate media.

"Well, I think we pay those journalists — whether on Channel 8 or Channel 11 or the Star-Telegram — in terms of advertising support," Wilson says. "We see this as pretty much instead of running the ads on the program, we're just writing the check direct."

Chancellor Joel Anderson announced the decision today. Effective 2009.

Smokers have another year to foul the air of non-smokers.

Columnist Gene Lyons, now a Perry County country squire, writes in the Democrat-Gazette today about his adoption of a deserted Charolais calf he's named Layla. I've been in on the story from the first and it's a good one for animal lovers and those with soft hearts.

And now, in what Drudge would call a !!!!!world exclusive!!!!!, the Arkansas Blog has photo of Gene, Layla and his wife, Diane.

UPDATE: Gene has a response to the early morning crowd.

On a slow morning, here's an interesting article from Atlanta about the firing of a city arborist, perhaps for too vigorously protecting the city's trees. Developers, who pay big fees there for tree removal, aren't happy about Atlanta's reverence for trees.

It is reminiscent, of course, of some famous tree removal cases in Little Rock -- the most recent a denuding of a hillside to facilitate the view of a cheap motel. On the rare occasions when the city cracks down, the penalties are trivial, hardly a deterrent.