Former Arkansas senator gets 18 months in prison in fraud case

By Dave Hughes

Former state senator Jake Files was sentenced Monday to 18 months in federal prison and was ordered to pay more than $83,000 in restitution on wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering charges.

Files pleaded guilty in January to wire fraud and money laundering for misdirecting nearly $27,000 in state General Improvement Fund money from a baseball-softball complex project he was involved in building for Fort Smith and using the money for personal purposes.

Click here for more: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/jun/18/former-arkansas-senator-gets-18-months-prison-frau/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=midday-6-18-18&utm_content=midday-6-18-18+CID_5f9c8e1de26e968a84943385126c66f6&utm_source=Email%20Marketing%20Platform&utm_term=Former%20Arkansas%20senator%20gets%2018%20months%20in%20prison%20in%20fraud%20case

Own your actions

by Mike Masterson

Isn't it remarkable what a difference it makes when all of us are held directly accountable for our actions? Sounds like a work ethic.

Price of life

The unnecessary ballot initiative known as Issue 1 will be ballyhooed with big media buys until November. So prepare yourselves, valued readers.

I've always been against this latest move to limit jury awards for the most vulnerable victims, most certainly to include residents of nursing homes, thereby favoring those responsible for their injuries and neglect. I'm hoping the good people of our state will turn out come November to roundly defeat the idea of capping damage and contingency fees in civil suits, thereby limiting unrestricted access of our most financially disadvantaged to the halls of justice.

Some who oppose Issue 1 call it the "Price of Life Amendment." By approving this unnecessary effort, special interests hope to move the authority to create rules to the Legislature (picture former legislators' scandals regarding both nursing homes and GIF grant corruption), where the Senate and House could change or eliminate current rules in favor of their politicized versions.

A doctor removed her ovaries because they were ‘in the way.’ Her family says it led to her death.

By Marwa Eltagouri

The removal of her ovaries never came up during her surgery consultations… She asked him why. “He said he thought he’d done me a favor. And he said, ‘I thought you know, a woman of your age wouldn’t really need her ovaries,’ ” Methuen-Campbell told the BBC. “I said, ‘Why did you remove them?’ and he just said, ‘They were in the way,’ ” she said. “My life is absolutely ruined.”

Judge says Issue 1 will 'close courthouse doors'

by David Showers

Retired Supreme Court Justice Annabelle Imber Tuck said Issue 1 would allow special interests to rewrite rules of pleading, practice and procedure currently within the Supreme Court's remit...

"Rule making will become a process of political wherewithal, basically money," she told The Sentinel-Record last week. "Regular people are not going to have that power, because we're not going to contribute to campaigns in terms of big money. It would be who has the money to lobby at the Legislature for a rule.

"If you're going to make the political process the way you determine due process, the tilting of the scales of justice will grow in favor of those with resources."