I give no credibility to those unaudited statements, and neither does the marketplace. Regarding the progressiveness of our local civic leaders, yes, they do have a democratic bias, but no, they don't demonstrate a history of promoting private business interests. In fact, we recently elected our first black mayor, and if things weren't already in the toilet, they damn sure are now. Local politics has been pretty much a series of scandals, with graft, corruption, city council votes for sale, and wholesale malfeasance to the point that it hardly even makes the news anymore. The biggest racket going on in downtown Pine Bluff anymore is getting state and federal grants for this and that urban renewal project or other social welfare boondoggle, and putting up more government buildings used to facilitate the disbursement of government monies. People who don't live here just can't imagine how "democratic" it is. It's about like East Berlin before the Reagan administration. More like Haiti, though.