President Clinton to Speak at 8:30 a..m., Friday, May 6, at Delta Conference in the Clinton Library

President Clinton's superb presentations are always a highlight of these conferences so we encourage everbody to be there bright and early on Friday morning, May 6. We will have coffee and tea there to help everybody get moving at 8 a.m. when the doors open and we will begin with a panel on regional economic development.

We are getting hideous reports about the disasters all across the region. Martha Ellen Black and others in southeast Missouri are evacuating today because they are blowing a levee to save Cairo, Illinois. Our colleague Brad Cole, now an aide to US Senator Kirk of Illinois, will be working on flooded areas there all week and of course can't make the conference either. We have a partner from Tuscaloosa who was not hurt in the tornado, thank God. Almost all of the eastern half of Arkansas counties are now disaster areas. The White River levee in east Arkansas is also under tremendous stress and they are concerned that it may break.

I saw terrible tornado damage in driving down from the Washington, DC area. One storm I drove through nearly blew my van off the road, but I got to Little Rock fine. We will have former FEMA Associate Director Kay Goss, an internationally recognized disaster relief expert, Gov. Beebe, Members of Congress, DRA Federal Cochairman Chris Masingill and others who can help with various phases of disaster relief at the conference.

Here we would like to provide contact information for disaster relief, and below we will give the updated agenda for the May 5-6 Delta conference:

For information on how to locate and apply for disaster relief, go to DisasterAssistance.gov

For the Disaster Recovery Center Locator, type in asd.fema.gov/inter/locator/drcLocator.jsp

For state emergency agencies, type in the following to reach the websites:

ALABAMA:  ema.alabama.gov

ARKANSAS:  www.adem.arkansas.gov

ILLINOIS:  www.state.il.us/iema

KENTUCKY:  www.kyem.ky.gov

LOUISIANA:  www.ohsep.louisiana.gov

MISSISSIPPI:  www.msema.org

MISSOURI:  sema.dps.mo.gov

TENNESSEE:  www.tnema.gov

KEY ISSUES: The storms and flooding are obviously the most pressing issue right now. Job creation/economic recovery is the top issue, with almost all other issues being related to it. Key issues will be commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Delta Regional Authority and the Clinton administration's bipartisan Delta Regional Initiative, looking at what has worked thus far and where we still have serious issues for the present and future. We want to focus on energy policy, including renewable energy like biomass and biofuels, improved energy efficiency and green jobs. We will have a debate with advocates pro and con as to whether development of lignite can be done in an environmentally friendly way.

Health care issues like expansion of the Community Health House Network, hunger and nutrition, rural development, transportation and other infrastructure, education improvements, broadband, disaster relief and other FEMA-related issues, tourism initiatives with examples like the Japanese American Relocation Site, Visitors & Interpretive Center in southeast Arkansas, promising initiatives like Arkansas Baptist College, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Delta Citizens Alliance, and other innovations. We will have a panel focusing on regionalism and why it makes sense to take a regional approach to economic development.

Below is the latest draft of the agenda, which may have last-minute changes. Thanks--Lee Powell, MDGC (202) 360-6347

Agenda

"At the Crossroads: 10th Anniversary of the Delta Regional Initiative and the DRA's Creation"

Annual Conference, May 5-6, 2011

Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock, Arkansas

OPENING SESSION: THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2011, 5 P.M. TO 8 P.M.

AT THE CLINTON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE

5 p.m. to 5:25 p.m.--RECEPTION

Introduction--Lee Powell, Executive Director, Delta Grassroots Caucus

5:30 to 5:45 p.m.--Forum on Issues Regarding Development of Lignite in the Delta:

Rep. Garry Smith, AR, advocating for lignite development conducted in an environmentally friendly way to create jobs and reduce dependence on foreign oil

Former US Assistant Secretary of the Interior Ken Smith, environmental and energy expert, expressing concerns about environmental impact of lignite

5:45 to 5:50--James "Skip" Rutherford, Dean of the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and Clinton School Graduate Student

5:50 to 6:20 p.m.--Federal Cochairman Chris Masingill of the Delta Regional Authority--Presentation and then Questions and Answers--the DRA at its 10th anniversary, its accomplishments, remaining challenges for the future

Note: There will be question and answer periods here and at several other sessions. We are glad to have Dr. Elizabeth Hood, Distinguished Professor at the Arkansas State University Biosciences Institute, an expert in biomass, at the conference and we plan for her to take part in these discussion sessions to make sure renewable energy is included in the dialogue.

6:20 to 6:28 p.m.--Robert Cole, East Arkansas Enterprise Community, on the value of regional approaches to economic development

6:28 to 6:36--Mayor Jack May, McGehee, Arkansas, on the new Japanese American Relocation Site, Visitors & Interpretive Center in southeast Arkansas commemorating the story of Japanese Americans held in southeast Arkansas during World War II--an excellent example of Delta heritage-related tourism

6:36 to 6:40 p.m.--Mayor May presents Inspire Hope Institute Award to a distinguished grassroots leader in the Delta for his decades of service to economic development in the Delta; this is only the second time the Inspire Hope Institute Award has ever been given (it is jointly awarded by the Delta Grassroots Caucus and the Inspire Hope Institute of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Chair, Laymon Jones) 

6:40 p.m. to 8 p.m.--Best Practices and Models for Development in the Greater Mississippi Delta region

1. Obadiah Simmons, Grambling State University, Louisiana, Moderator and Speaker

2. Bill Ransdall, Missouri Department of Economic Development, Governor Jay Nixon's DRA Designee for Missouri (Governor Nixon is the state cochairman of the DRA)

3. Mayor James Sanders, Blytheville, Arkansas

4. Mississippi County (AR) Judge Randy Carney

5. Charita Johnson Burgess, Shiloh Distribution Center, Lexington, Tennessee

6. Loretta Daniel, Murray State University, Director, Regional Business & Innovation Center, Murray, Kentucky

FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2011, GREAT HALL OF THE CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY

8 A.M. TO 4:30 P.M.

8 a.m. to 10 a.m.--Big Picture Panel on Regional Economic Development

1. Johnnie Bolin, Moderator and speaker, executive director, Arkansas Good Roads Transportation Council (Mr. Bolin is from Crossett in Ashley County)

2. J. William McFarland, Alabama, Director of the Center for Business and Economic Services, University of West Alabama College of Business, Livingston, Alabama

PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON 8:30 A.M.-- Introduced by a Clinton School of Public Service graduate student. President Clinton has given superb live presentations over the audio system the last three years in a row, and we look forward to hearing his comments about disaster recovery from the storms and flooding in the Delta; renewable energy policy and green jobs; and his thoughts both in reflection and looking to the future about the 10th anniversary of the Clinton administration's Delta Regional Initiative and the creation of the Delta Regional Authority.

3. Joe Black, Southern Bancorp, Helena-West Helena, AR (Southern Bancorp conducts extensive development activities in many locations across the Delta)

4. Mayor Jo Anne Bush, Lake Village, Arkansas

5. James Stapleton, Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Southeast Missouri State University, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

10 A.M. TO 10:30 A.M.--Congressman Mike Ross

Introduction by Chicot County Judge Mack Ball

10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.--Governor Mike Beebe

Introduction by Speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, Rep. Robert Moore of Arkansas City

11 A.M. TO 12:15 P.M.--PANEL ON REGIONALISM--WHY SHOULD WE TAKE A REGIONAL APPROACH TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?

1. Lee Powell, Executive Director, Delta Grassroots Caucus, based in Washington, DC

2. Larry Williams, CEO, Delta Citizens Alliance, based in Greenville, Mississippi, active in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi

3. Mike Marshall, Alternate Federal Cochairman, Delta Regional Authority, Sikeston, Missouri

4. Kevin Smith, former aide to US Senator Dale Bumpers and then Gov. Bill Clinton, former state senator, now a businessman in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas

5. Jerry Smith, Arkansas State University economic development center

LUNCHEON--12:15 P.M. TO 1:30 P.M.

12:15--Showing of a video regarding the Delta Regional Authority (seven minutes)

1. Kay Goss, SRA Corp., Associate Director of FEMA in the Clinton administration

2. The Hon. Rodney Slater, US Secretary of Transportation in the Clinton administration, now parter, Patton Boggs, Washington, DC

3. CONGRESSMAN RICK CRAWFORD

Introduction by Rex Nelson, President, Arkansas Independent Colleges and Universities and former DRA Alternate Federal Cochairman

1:30 p.m. 2:50 p.m. to HEALTH CARE AND NUTRITION PANEL

1. James Miller, manager of Community Health House Network, Oxford International Development Group, Oxford, Mississippi

2. Tamidra Marable, Heifer International

3. State Senator Jack Crumbly, east Arkansas

4. Vivian Fry--Greer, Shiloh Distribution Center, Lexington, Tennessee

5. Natalie Jayroe, CEO, Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana, Louisiana; Mike Kantor, public policy coordinator, Second Harvest Food Food Bank of Greater New Orleans

2:50 p.m. to 4:20 p.m.--ARKANSAS BAPTIST COLLEGE AND COOPERATIVE BAPTIST FELLOWSHIP SESSION

1. President Fitzgerald Hill, Arkansas Baptist College

2. Anitha Kobusingye, Arkansas Baptist College student from Rwanda

3. Arkansas Baptist College student or staff--speaker of President Hill's choosing

4. Catherine Bahn, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship project, Helena-West Helena, AR

5. Terrance Clark, nonprofit THRIVE organization, manager for Phillips County Small Business incubator project

6. Alan Gumbel, Memphis, Tennessee, Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association

Sponsors for the Delta Grassroots Caucus, May 5-6, 2011

Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock Arkansas

We would like to express our deep appreciation to J.D. "Doc" Bilberry, President of the McGehee Industrial Foundation, 2011 recipient of the Inspire Hope Award, for his many decades of distinguished service to the Delta's economic development.

Lead Sponsor

Delta Regional Authority

Major Co-Sponsors

Nucor Yamato Steel and Nucor                         Southeast Arkansas Delta

Steel of Arkansas, Blytheville, Arkansas             Grassroots Partners

Inspire Hope Institute, Chairman,                       National Housing Assistance

Laymon Jones                                                   Council, Washington, DC

Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Arkansas        Heifer International

Delta Citizens Alliance, Greenville, MS               Grambling State University,

(Active in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas)   Louisiana

Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center,                      McGehee Industrial Foundation,

Southeast Missouri                                                        Arkansas

University of Arkansas Clinton School                          Mississippi County Economic

of Public Service                                                           Opportunity Commission

Sponsors

Desha County Judge Mark McElroy              Southeast Missouri Delta   

                                                                                       Grassroots Partners

East Arkansas Enterprise Community           Shiloh Distribution Center

                                                                                       Lexington, Tennessee

Northeast Arkansas Delta Grassroots Partners   American Agriculture Movement

                                                                                              of Arkansas

Delta Grassroots Caucus Partners

Last but not least, we would like to thank the hundreds of people and organizations who made smaller contributions in the range of $50 and $85 in the form of annual membership dues, registration fees and other contributions. For a grassroots regional coalition, we need to have a diversified, broad base of financial support from large numbers of relatively small contributions. The large number of these contributions really adds up to a major part of our budget, and we could not do our work without these donations.