Tuesday summary

Carol Dipert, the mother of slain Russellville beauty queen Nona Dirksmeyer, has told the Russellville Courier she is considering a wrongful death lawsuit. Kevin Jones was recently acquitted of that killing.

Legislators and county officials have a mixed reaction to the possibility that Gov. Mike Beebe may call a special session to address a flaw in the state minimum marriage age law.

The Arkansas Parole Board rejected convicted murderer Terrick Terrell Nooner’s request for clemency, 32 days before he is scheduled to die by lethal injection.

Sen. Hillary Clinton says she will return to Arkansas during her 2008 presidential campaign and vowed to put Arkansas “back in the winning column” for Democrats. “I need your help and your support. We’re going to win Arkansas and take back our country,” Clinton said to cheers from a friendly crowd at Gloria Jean’s Coffee on Dickson Street in Fayetteville.

Hearings that could decide the fate of Southwestern Electric Power Co.’s proposed $1.4 billion coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County are underway with the utility seeking limits on some environmental testimony. SWEPCO attorney Stephen Cuffman asked the Arkansas Public Service Commission to restrict how far plant opponents can go in arguing air quality issues under review by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.

More than 1,040 homes in Arkansas were in some stage of foreclosure in July, the 17th highest rate of foreclosures in the country, a California real estate company reports. Arkansas’ July foreclosures were up 48 percent compared with July last year but down 15.4 percent from June. Nevada had the country’s highest foreclosure rate for the seventh month in a row.

Bald Knob School District Superintendent Wayne Fawcett could not confirm a rumor that the Arkansas Department of Education will take over Bald Knob Public Schools on Wednesday during a late Monday afternoon interview with Searcy’s Daily Citizen. Patrons of District filled the bleachers of their high school gymnasium Monday, eager to hear plans to raise $2 million in hopes of saving their district from a potential merger with a neighboring district.

When Mayor Ray Baker calls the Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting to order Tuesday, it will be 40 years ago to the day since the board met for the first time.

The Fort Smith Board of Directors will consider an ordinance making English the official language of the city of Fort Smith today. The ordinance was placed on the board’s meeting agenda at the request of Ward 4 Director Bill Maddox.

The West Nile virus is being blamed for a person’s death in Arkansas, the State Department of Health said Monday.

Emergency workers assembling in the Little Rock area in case Hurricane Dean struck the Texas coast have been sent home, officials with the American Red Cross report.

A former insurance agent has been sentenced to 20 years with 10 years suspended for stealing from an elderly woman, the state insurance commissioner announced Monday. John Phillip Middleton of Van Buren pleaded guilty to five counts of theft of property, a class B felony, and was ordered to pay more than $138,000 in restitution to a woman in her mid-70s, from whom he took money for investment in his personal business ventures.

A Fort Smith man accused of negligent homicide is suspected of driving drunk and causing a crash that resulted in the death of his passenger. Kenneth Miesen was arrested at St. Edward Mercy Medical Center after crashing his Mercury Tracer into parked cars. The crash killed passenger Thomas McAlister, also a Fort Smith resident.

A teenager has been arrested on animal cruelty charges, accused of stabbing a cow and trying to run over a herd of cattle, authorities said. The youth, who was not identified because of his age, faces charges of first-degree cruelty to animals and first-degree criminal mischief, Pleasant Plains Marshal Matt Thomas said.

The fourth season for the growing Little Rock Touchdown Club begins Monday with former University of Miami coach Larry Coker as the speaker, club president David Bazzel announced Monday.

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Huckabee heats up

All well-informed people will read my column in this morning’s Democrat-Gazette. Since I wrote that last week, Mitt Romney won a beauty contest in Illinois and Mike Huckabee finished a bit further back in the pack, which matters very little.

Romney is another example of how far money will carry those of limited ability. I hit on something in today’s paper that has been eating me for some time. Voters naturally want to know what candidates really believe, so many have been very quick to tell folks exactly what they think they want to hear. It turns out to have been lies more than once. You just can’t see inside somebody’s heart.

Our government was never meant to be some sort of extension of the church. It is more than foolish to look at politicians as spiritual leaders. The best we can hope for is that they would be good people. There are some things Mike Huckabee did as governor of Arkansas that commend him as somebody who cares about human beings. Of course, his record is not perfect. I guess I am saying that, by their fruits you will know them.

(Broadcast August 20, 2007)

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Monday summary

For many Arkansans, today is the beginning of the school year. It is against the law to pass a stopped school bus. Drivers are required by law to report offenders to the superintendent within two hours.

Changing a law regarding the age of consent to marry would have to be done in a special session called by the governor or during the next legislative session in 2009, legislators said Friday. The Legislative Council voted to ask the Arkansas Code Revision Commission to reverse the clarification it made to the law last month, saying the change it made went too far and changed the meaning of the legislation.

The former executive director of the state Board of Architects, John Harris of Little Rock, has been fined $2,500 and issued a public letter of reprimand by the Arkansas Ethics Commission. Two state audits found that Harris collected about $210,000 in improper travel reimbursements from 1995-2006 and that he reimbursed about $105,000 of that to the board. The audits have been turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Seven months into Gov. Mike Beebe’s term, the state’s Washington office remains vacant, with legislative leaders saying they would leave it to the governor to decide when or if the office should reopen. The state pays about $3,000 a month rent for the five-room suite of offices on Capitol Hill. The lease runs through next year.

For the second time in less than three years, an elected Jefferson County circuit clerk has resigned her position amid allegations of mismanagement of county funds. Annette Branch, who took office Jan. 1, submitted her resignation, effective at 5 p.m. Friday. A state police investigation is underway.

A group of Little Rock School District residents challenging the constitutionality of the School Board’s plan to buy out Superintendent Roy Brooks for half a million dollars or more have taken their case to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

A judge has dismissed an amended suit over the University of Arkansas’ handling of a harassing e-mail to a former freshman quarterback.

Arkansas’ unemployment rate rose half a percentage point to 5.5 percent in July, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

Profits from Richard Branson’s travel related companies could soon go towards the development of Arkansas’ alternative fuels industry. Craig Sieben, president of Chicago-based Sieben Energy Associates says that Gov. Mike Beebe has applied for funding from Branson, who announced last September that he would invest an estimated $3 billion over the next nine years to fight global warming.

A potential landfill expansion in southwest Little Rock faces rejection from a newly empowered mayor and some of his city board colleagues if the issue reaches City Hall. The publicly stated opposition by Mayor Mark Stodola and other members of the Little Rock Board of Directors signals a likely defeat of BFI Waste Services’ plans to boost its Mabelvale Pike operation.

In a brief e-mail to Conway Mayor Tab Townsell, the FAA says that it has approved the city’s land-use plan for the proposed airport site in the less-populated Lollie Bottoms area just southwest of town and near the Arkansas River.

When given the opportunity to tell the Arkansas Board of Parole why he deserved to live, death-row inmate Terrick Terrell Nooner talked about why he wanted to die. Nooner was convicted of capital murder in 1993 for the slaying of Scot Stobaugh, 22, a college student who was shot seven times in the back at a 24-hour laundry in Little Rock. Nooner is scheduled to be executed Sept. 18.

The state wants murderer Shirley Marie Curry’s inheritance, and has sued Curry to get the money to pay for her room and board, medical care and other costs of keeping her in custody. Curry, convicted Oct. 16, 1979, of two counts of murder in Washington County inherited $58,666 from an estate. The cash is in her prison account. She is serving a life without parole.

A 15-year-old boy was shot and killed by a Pine Bluff pawnshop owner who said the teenager tried to break into his business. Taron Hopkins was found about 11:30 p.m., facedown beside a small pile of dirt inside a fenced-in area connected to Chuck Smith’s Pawn Shop. Smith, the store’s owner, told police he shot the teenager with a .38-caliber revolver as the boy and others tried to break into the store. Smith says he was in bed in his apartment at the time.

On Friday, three days after his 18th birthday, a Pope County man pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of his girlfriend’s 17-month-old daughter. Originally scheduled to stand trial Sept. 11, Harvey Lee Epperson was sentenced to serve 35 years in the Arkansas Department of Correction in connection with the death of the baby, who died of multiple blunt-force trauma. He will be eligible for parold at age 42.

A man accused of shooting and paralyzing a 19-year-old man he found hiding in his daughter’s bedroom is now charged with first-degree battery and a terroristic act. George David Reed was arrested July 31 and is free on a $150,000 bond.

The Mansfield School District’s transportation director has been removed from a Department of Human Services child maltreatment directory after he was mistakenly placed on the list. Transportation Director Larry Wagoner and Mansfield High School Principal Tina Smith were targeted in a second investigation conducted by the Division of Child and Family Services regarding the alleged mishandling of information about sex abuse by a male student on a district bus.

Former Razorbacks quarterback Clint Stoerner is returning to football in Arkansas by way of Tampa, Fla. Stoerner, along with former Hogs J.J. Jones, Chrys Chukwuma and Anthony Brown, signed contracts with Arkansas’ unnamed All American Football League franchise Saturday at War Memorial Stadium.

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Demons cast out of Pat Lynch

Now that I have your attention, Let me draw your attention to a great interview with my pastor, Philip Jones. He is at St. Andrews Anglican Church in Little Rock and we are having the big Grand Opening this Sunday. We talked about the significant place of this church in the history of Anglicanism in America. Philip and I got into several other things, including a great program for folks who would like to know more about the Christian religion. It’s ALPHA and it starts in September at St. Andrews. Better yet, it’s free. You can learn all about it in the FREE “on demand” audio section of my home page, lyncho.com.

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