(rather late) Wednesday summary

A bill introduced in Congress aims to clear a way for the government to make use of more than 6,000 mobile homes sitting vacant in Hope. The bill, sponsored by Reps. Mike Ross would allow Federal Emergency Management Agency to transfer or sell the trailers and other rescue equipment to states, local government or aid groups following a disaster, even if damages are not large enough to merit an official federal disaster declaration.

Legislators from throughout Southeast Arkansas joined nearly 100 representatives of the Pine Bluff Chamber of Commerce and others to laud ground breaking for the future Interstate 530 Interchange/Interstate 69 Connector.

A slim majority of Arkansans — 53 percent — favor laws that would prohibit gays and lesbians from adopting or serving as foster parents, results of a poll conducted by University of Arkansas researchers show. The annual Arkansas Poll also shows 41 percent of Arkansans favor laws that would make it more difficult to get an abortion and 57 percent are convinced global warming is for real.

The public is entitled to see the records that led to the firing of the Argenta Community Development Corp. executive director but not to know the name of his accuser, an Argenta employee, a Pulaski County Circuit judge ruled.

The Pulaski County sheriff and treasurer stood inside the old jail Tuesday with outstretched hands asking the public not for treats, but for $131,928 in donations to repair the roof — a first step toward reopening the building.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is promoting the energy-saving features of a new $32.3 million power plant on the campus. Features at the plant, such as high-efficiency lighting, insulated windows and equipment to regulate energy consumption will save $3.5 million per year. During a power failure, the plant can provide power to all of UAMS’ patient care areas.

Six Arkansas schools, including three in Little Rock, are among 1,700 campuses nationally in which 60 percent or fewer of the students who started at a school as freshmen went on to graduate from the same school, according to an analysis by Johns Hopkins University.

Hendrix College will increase its current capital campaign goal to an unprecedented $100 million. According to Hendrix President J. Timothy Cloyd, the previous goal was $70 million and the administration hoped to reach that by the end of 2008. Now that the initial goal has been nearly met over a year early, the Board of Trustees has expanded the campaign by $30 million and lengthened it to go through 2010.

Cliff Fannin Baker will take over Jan. 1 as artistic director and chief executive officer of the Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts.

The Prime Quality Feeds mill, a North Little Rock landmark since the 1920s, will cease operations at the end of the week, introducing the possibility of more downtown redevelopment. Cargill is moving the brand’s production to a new plant in Byhalia, Miss., eliminating the need for the North Little Rock mill. There are 40 jobs at the plant.

For the second time in less than a year, Georgia-Pacific Corp. has laid off 300 workers after suspending operations at one of its two plywood mills in Crossett.

Two Little Rock Police officers are on administrative leave with pay following a Tuesday morning shooting that left one man dead, one injured and one in jail. The shooting happened when officers responded to a theft from a vehicle.

A Newport man whose pickup plowed hard into a Hardee’s restaurant in 2006 and killed two former Newport school employees pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter Tuesday and was sentenced to 42 years in prison. Gary W. Nicholson also pleaded guilty to four counts of felony second-degree battery, one count of felony criminal mischief, a misdemeanor third-degree battery charge and a driving-while-intoxicated charge in Lawrence County Circuit Court.

A 17-year-old girl apparently told police Sunday she was a victim of a sexual assault that a source indicated may have occurred on a Pottsville school bus. Pottsville police and the prosecuting attorney’s office, however, are declining to release information concerning the alleged crime despite The Russellville Courier’s Freedom of Information Act request.

A Fort Smith resident who attempted to evict a man with gunfire was arrested at his residence. Roger Dale Honea was taken into custody on a complaint of domestic aggravated assault with a firearm. Honea is suspected of brandishing a handgun and firing it at Timothy Johnson.

Police arrested one man and are seeking his son after a Trumann couple reported that someone tried to set them on fire. The couple escaped serious injury Sunday night, when a man broke into their home, doused them with gasoline and attempted to set them ablaze, Trumann Police Chief Larry Blagg said. Raoul Simpson Sr. was being held in the Poinsett County Detention Center on a $1 million cash bond.

A Forrest City teenager is charged with filing a false report after telling police someone tried to kidnap her from school last week. The 14-year-old female student told police she was at the high school when an older male driving a tan pickup pulled up to the school campus and attempted to abduct her while she was on campus.

Filed under: Arkansas

Tuesday morning summary

The investigation into the 1989 death of teenage girl who reportedly fell from a 9-inch-high porch should be made open and resolved to comfort her family, Gov. Mike Beebe said Monday. Beebe, appearing Monday night on the Arkansas Educational Television Network’s “Arkansans Ask” program, acknowledged his own curiosity in the ongoing investigation of how Olivia “Janie” Ward died. He said he’s asked officials to keep him informed about the case, only months after officials exhumed her body to conduct an extraordinary third autopsy.

Congressman Marion Berry visited Forrest City and met with constituents at the St. Francis County Courthouse. Before taking questions, Berry said he knows a lot of people are upset with the U.S. Congress. “The Congress is at an all-time low in approval rating,” said Berry. “You’d almost have to be an ax murderer to get lower ratings than members of Congress can get right now, as far as the general public thinks.”

Arkansas State is no longer among the colleges and universities subject to an executive committee policy regarding the use of American Indian mascots, nicknames and imagery. Arkansas State, which has competed in athletics as “Indians” since 1931, appeared on the original list of schools using imagery called “hostile and abusive” in August 2005 by the NCAA.

New forensic evidence shows that three West Memphis boys murdered in 1993 were mutilated by wildlife after their deaths – not by a knife during ritualistic occult killings, according to federal court documents filed Monday by attorneys representing one of the men convicted in the slayings. The petition, which contains the findings of six forensic pathologists and odontologistsfrom across the nation, contends that new DNA testing hasn’t linked any of the convicted men to either the victims or crime scene. The recent testing has, however, further connected the stepfather of one of the boys to the crime scene.

A Cabot school bus driver faces charges of drunk driving. She was stopped just moments before she was supposed to leave Little Rock with a bus full of students. This isn’t her first D.W.I. charge. It’s her third. Robin Clark has two prior convictions. Cabot’s superintendent told FOX16 he didn’t know about Clark’s convictions because the district was still waiting for her criminal background check to come back.

Circuit Judge L.T. Simes has set May 5 through May 8, of next year as the trial dates for Gordon Randall Gwathney, who is accused of capital murder in the Feb. 13 killing of three Lee County residents. Simes set the dates after Gwathney’s attorneys petitioned for the continuance, telling Simes that they needed more time to receive mental evaluations. Deputy prosecutor Blake Spears also told Simes that the state does not plan to waive the death penalty.

Acting on the encouragement of state lawmakers, the Pulaski County Special School District has asked a federal judge to declare the 17,400-student district unitary, or desegregated, and release it from further court supervision of its desegregation efforts.

Helena-West Helena will start losing half of its state funds unless city officials provide records requested by the state Division of Legislative Audit within the next few months, the co-chairmen of the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee warns. The division’s staff reviewed the Helena-West Helena’s accounting records that were available for last year and determined that the records mandated under state law haven’t been maintained.

Executives of some of Arkansas’ largest corporations joined with church representatives to announce the formation of an organization to lobby against “punitive” state and local laws they say target immigrants regardless of legal status. Members include executives from meat producer Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, investment firm Stephens Inc. of Little Rock and wireless communications company Alltel Corp. of Little Rock, as well as ministers and civic leaders.

Bill Davis Trucking Inc. of Batesville has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Bill Davis, company president, is widely known as owner of a NASCAR team.

A $2 million Wal-Mart Foundation gift will further an effort by Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville to become the first health-care provider in the region to have paperless patient records.

A controversial hearing in a road rage murder case will be open to the public. Benton County Senior Circuit Judge Tom Keith plans a hearing Dec. 13 to consider separating cases against two men accused in the May 2006 death of Daniel Francis, 32, of Rogers.

A lawyer representing Miller County said Monday that officials never investigated allegations that two jailers beat an inmate so badly last year that he had to be hospitalized at least five times before he eventually died two weeks ago. Derrick Henry of Texarkana, filed a federal lawsuit against the county on Oct. 12, five days before he died, alleging two unnamed jailers “savagely” beat him on or before Nov. 15, 2006, and then failed to get him medical treatment in a timely manner.

A man was arrested at his residence after police found him hosting cockfights in his yard, according to a Fort Smith Police Department report. Chanthaxay Siripphousavath is accused of committing cruelty to animals while conducting cockfights. Officer Cody Elliott said when he arrived at the residence, a group of people was drinking beer while sitting in a circle around four pins that contained roosters with rough appearances, as if they had been forced to fight on past occasions.

A McAlmont man found dead at a Sherwood residence last week had gunshot wounds in his right arm and abdomen, but a Sherwood Police investigation will have to help determine how Bryant Cross died, Pulaski County Coroner Mark Malcolm says.

Police arrested several dozen teenagers who skipped school to hold a beer party Monday at a closed restaurant owned by one of the teen’s parents, police said.

Seven Benton County Sheriff’s deputies and three Rogers Police officers broke up the party Monday afternoon after someone called to report suspicious activity at Prairie Creek Steak and Seafood restaurant. Police and deputies wrote 21 citations for drinking in public and medical personnel took one youth to St. Mary’s Hospital in Rogers for alcohol-related illness.

Filed under: Arkansas

Monday summary

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas will appeal a federal judge’s finding that the Watson Chapel School District’s student apparel policy is constitutional. Chief U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes has ruled that the apparel policy is constitutional because the school district supposedly didn’t intend to prohibit free speech when it created the policy. Holly Dickson, an attorney with the ACLU, however, said the policy does prohibit speech because it doesn’t permit students to express themselves.

At a  press conference scheduled for today, Citizens Protecting Maumelle Watershed will present information about a pending risk to Lake Maumelle , including aerial photographs of the risk posed by the Waterview Estates development. This private, for-profit construction is taking place now on land CPMW considers to be public land that will be vital to drinking water quality for years to come.

As Congress moves closer to adoption of the 2007 Farm Bill, Arkansas farmers are preparing to fight again a decades-long battle over subsidy payments. Midwest senators are expected to try to reduce the amount of government money eligible to farmers. Southern lawmakers are opposed, contending that crops like cotton and rice are more costly to produce and deserve the funding. Arkansas Agriculture Secretary Richard Bell say Southern growers had sacrificed enough during negotiations for this year’s version of the Farm Bill, which is typically renewed every five years.

For now, Gov. Mike Beebe doesn’t plan to hire any employees for the state’s 4-year-old office in Washington.

The opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has been delayed until sometime in 2010 because of problems encountered during foundation work.

A lawsuit against Union Pacific claims company officials pressured families of those injured or killed by trains to quickly settle for amounts lower than what they may have received with a lawyer’s help. The suit, now being argued before a Lafayette County judge, says officials came to families in emergency rooms or while they still grieved.

As the financial foundation crumbles beneath the company contracted to renovate and rebuild Little Rock Air Force Base housing, Air Force officials are shopping for a new contractor with a plan to reduce by up to half the number of homes on the base.

In-stream mining operations along portions of Crooked Creek will remain off limits after the state’s Pollution Control and Ecology Commission on Friday upheld a decision to suspend two permits held by a Mountain Home gravel miner.

The first phase of what will be an unusual multistage drawdown of lakes Hamilton and Catherine will begin soon. Entergy will initially reduce the levels of both lakes by 5 feet beginning Saturday through Nov. 9. Then, for four weeks only, beginning Nov. 18, Lake Catherine will be drawn down an additional 3 feet to accommodate maintenance work on the Carpenter Dam spillway.

The Flippin High School band will be heading to a bowl game this year. They are to depart December 26 for five days in San Antonio, including a band contest and a performance during halftime of the bowl game. Band director Joe Morris says he gets invitations to perform regularly at out-of-state events, ever since the Grammy Foundation selected the school as a Grammy Signature School in 2002.

Expanding the intake process for new prisoners in Pine Bluff is one of the ways that corrections officials are seeking to lower the growing backlog of state inmates in county jails across the state, currently estimated at neat 1000. Department of Correction officials are mulling opening a satellite intake center in the Pine Bluff complex within the next few weeks. Another option may be adding a second shift of intake processing.

The Royal Arkansas Hotel & Suites will soon be renamed the Ramada Plaza, said manager Ben Buchanan. The hotel, which is attached to the Pine Bluff Convention Center, is about one-fourth through renovations to the exterior of the building and the lobby that are meant to update its look. Ramada Plazas are the third tier of Ramada properties. They are described as being “premier properties designed for discerning travelers with a contemporary décor.”

Six reported rabid skunks this year and one rabid dog have state and Logan County Health Department officials urging residents to vaccinate their dogs and cats. The dog was reported in June.

Investigators think the killings of two women in Garland County months apart may be related, and police have cautioned residents against accepting rides from strangers. Officers described the two women as living on the margins, one often hitchhiking across the county, the other working as a prostitute. Police declined to describe how the two women died, although an initial report from sheriff’s deputies lists the weapon used in Jenkins’ slaying as a blunt object.

Six Waldo residents, including a nephew of the town’s police chief, face charges after police broke up a bloody dogfight in a field behind a house. Chief Robert Philson says that a pit bull terrier was locked onto another pit bull terrier’s throat when an officer arrived on the scene near Arkansas Highway 98 in response to a neighbor’s complaint.

A judge awarded the state money inherited by convicted multiple murderer Shirley Marie Curry to pay for her room and board in prison. Curry, convicted of two counts of murder in Washington County on Oct. 16, 1979, inherited $58,666 from an estate.

Filed under: Arkansas

Friday morning summary

Arkansas was stripped of two men’s outdoor track and field national championships and placed on three years’ probation by the NCAA for violations committed by former assistant coach Lance Brauman. The NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions also accepted Arkansas’ self-imposed penalty to reduce three scholarships from the track and field team. However, a portion of the scholarships was restored by the NCAA on Thursday.

A Senate spending bill approved Tuesday contained $1 million for the nursing school at Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff. The recently expanded school would use the money to equip new classrooms, pay for a new computer lab and obtain mannequins and other teaching aids. The money was inserted by Senatorss Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor into the annual Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill.

Mitchell Scott Johnson, who was convicted with Andrew Golden of killing four students and one teacher and injuring 10 others at Westside Middle School in March 1998 has been indicted by a federal grand jury on a felony weapons charge. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Debbie Groom said Wednesday the case against Johnson stems from a New Year’s Day traffic stop in Fayetteville by a Washington County deputy sheriff.

The Precision Industries plant in Malvern, Arkansas will close by year’s end leaving 250 workers out of a job. The aluminum die casting operation is a subsidiary of Leggett and Platt. The cuts will affect 215 production and support staff, 11 administrative staff and 24 managers. Leggett and Platt has affiliate locations in Fayetteville, Harrison and Jonesboro in Arkansas.

A lawsuit over who owns the mineral rights under more than 4,000 acres in White County can go to trial, the state Supreme Court has ruled. The high court rejected the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s petition to dismiss the lawsuit filed by family members who sold the land in White and Prairie counties to the commission in 2000.

The finances of the Searcy School District continue to be healthy, according to a report given the school board’s monthly meeting. White County Tax Assessor Debra Lang estimates income for the Searcy School District will be about $100,000. Additional funds from taxes placed on natural gas development have not yet arrived in the district’s coffers.

A preliminary audit of the Central Nutrition Center at Memphis City Schools shows myriad waste, deception and evasions of state bidding laws led to a loss of more than $3.6 million since July 2006. Among the most egregious failures: The district ordered so much frozen food that 42 truckloads — or 243 tons — spoiled. The 21-page draft, which was released to board members this week, reports that losses coincided with the arrival of James Jordan, director of nutrition services, who resigned Oct. 11.

The first night of qualifying at the Short Track Nationals is underway at the I-30 Speedway. But around 10:30 Thursday night, a driver crashed while taking a corner. Witnesses and other drivers tell FOX16 that Josh Howard couldn’t make the turn and his car flipped over several times. It came to rest on the roof, which made it impossible for Howard to pull himself out. Little Rock firefighters and police got there and pulled him out. He was able to speak, but Little Rock Police say us he wasn’t able to feel anything from the neck down.

Authorities have released little information regarding the circumstances surrounding the death of Phillip K. Price, a 45-year old black male who was found unresponsive at the Pope Count Detention Center. Price is the third inmate to die following incarceration at the center in the last 15 months. Pope County Sheriff Jay Wintersdeclined a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request for information related to the death.

A former prosecutor who killed an elderly couple in a car crash was sentenced to eight years in prison Wednesday after a Perry County jury convicted him of two counts of manslaughter. Vance Benton Rollins Jr. is responsible for the deaths of 76-year-old Lawrence Humphries and his 69-year-old wife, Nina, on March 22, 2006, when Rollinsstruck their car head-on. Rollins, a former Ouachita County deputy prosecutor and Camden city faced six to 20 years on the Class C felony charges and will be eligible for parole after serving 16 months. In May, he settled a lawsuit for $250,000over the crash that was filed by the Plainview couple’s children.

In exchange for a 30-year prison sentence, a 24-year-old Little Rock man admitted Thursday that he accidentally killed his girlfriend while playing with a pistol. Jermaine Norrise pleaded guilty to manslaughter and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the Feb. 3 shooting death of 19-year-old Liliana Cazares, whose body was found floating in the Arkansas River. She was Little Rock’s first homicide of the year. Ten years were added to Norrise’s sentence because he used a gun in the crime.

Sherwood police have arrested a man in connection with an attempted theft at a home where a body was found. Lamarcus Dunn of North Little Rock is charged with criminal trespass and attempted theft of property. The arrest is the latest development in the investigation of the death of a McAlmont man whose body was found near where police had responded to an attempted-theft report 12 hours earlier. The homeowner, Larry Staley, told police he fired several shots in the direction of one of the intruders. Staley’s wife, Erlene, found the body of Bryant Cross in Gap Creek at the edge of the family’s property.

A store surveillance video showing a wounded southwest Little Rock grocer fighting with two teenage assailants before he was fatally shot eight times in the back moved a circuit judge to cancel the $500,000 bond of one of the suspects. A Little Rock police detective described how the video shows Ghazi Hammad on July 17 getting shot in the face and grappling with his teenage assailants before he was shot as he ran from one of the gun-wielding teens, 17-year-old Marco Balderas.

Filed under: Arkansas

Thursday morning summary

Bank of America is planning to cut as many as 13,000 jobs as it completes its acquisition of FleetBoston Financial Corp., people familiar with the expense cuts told The Wall Street Journal. The job cuts would come through layoffs and attrition from the operations of both banks and will begin in April to coincide with the expected completion of Bank of America’s $48 billion purchase of Fleet. The job cuts, which range from 12,000 to 13,000, amount to about 7% of Bank of America and Fleet’s combined work force of 181,000.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in which Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Wendell Griffen challenged the rules about what a judge can say in public, finding that Griffen lost his standing to sue when the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission dropped its charges against him.

Wanting to guard against the chance of bad doctors operating on Arkansans, Gov. Mike Beebe suggested possibly allowing the state’s medical school to waive geographical quotas when judging applicants. Medical schools in other states contacted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette said later that they have no geographical quota system in law, or as a matter of policy, such as at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

Doctors and hospitals need better access to patients’ medical histories, and health care insurers and consumers need more information about who is providing good medical care, according to Arkansas’ top Medicaid official. The health care system in Arkansas and the nation is “not making good use of our resources,” said John Selig, director of the Department of Human Services, which runs the state’s Medicaid program.

A $104,000 increase in the amount Pine Bluff would pay as its share of funding for the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Association next year had Mayor Carl Redus Jr. seeing red during a MECA committee meeting.

Fayetteville Finance Director Paul Becker says the 2008 general fund budget is $2.3 million short of what it needs. Services like parks maintenance, Fayetteville’s administration, and police and fire depend on the fund. Becker proposes a 0.9 mill increase in the city’s property tax rate. The increase would raise roughly $1 million.

More than 100 educators gathered at a meeting of the Fort Smith Classroom Teachers Association, where they expressed concerns to area legislators about constant testing, special education teacher requirements and retired health insurance benefits.

A small electrical fire at Arkansas Nuclear One near Russellville prompted an alert late Tuesday, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Entergy Arkansas Inc., which owns the plant.

Murphy Oil Corp. reported an 11 percent fall in third-quarter earnings Wednesday, citing lower profitability in refining operations because of the high cost of oil.

Acxiom Corp.’s financial performance for the quarter ending Sept. 30 reflected the turmoil of a doomed attempt to be sold, the company said Wednesday. Earnings were half of what they were a year earlier and chief executive Charles Morgan conceded in a conference call with analysts that “thousands of hours of meetings and analysis certainly did nothing to help results in the first half of our fiscal year.”

A woman who suffered a severe wrist fracture in a fall at her apartment complex was awarded $200,000 last week in a jury trial ordered by the Arkansas Court of Appeals. Rachel Tennell of Tulsa, formerly of Fort Smith, brought suit against Midtown Apartments in Sebastian County Circuit Court after falling in the parking lot of the complex in August 2004. Tennell tripped over a large steel plate that had formed the base of a pole or post previously removed by apartment managers.

Two Hot Springs police officers have resigned in connection with an undisclosed occurrence that reportedly happened shortly after a high-speed pursuit ended in Garland County on Sept. 26. Officer First Class Scott Lampinen and officer Josh Heckel both submitted their resignations. An investigation continues.

A man who was arrested on suspicion of a series of misdemeanor offenses and transported to the Pope County Detention Center was later rushed to Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center after he was found unconscious in his cell by corrections officers. By nine o’clock, Price was pronounced dead, apparently the result of a cardiac arrest.

A Realtor was arrested in a sting operation, concluding an investigation into reports of prescription medications stolen from homes for sale in Crawford County. Clovis Kyle Satterfield, a 37-year-old Alma resident and Realtor for his mother’s company, Satterfield Realtors, was arrested after surveillance footage recorded him stealing prescription medication from a Van Buren residence. Satterfield is suspected of using his Realtor access code to gain entry into houses for sale in Alma and Van Buren, and stealing pain killers,

A former North Little Rock pastor’s history of defrauding his flocks in Arkansas and elsewhere caught up with him Wednesday when U.S. District Judge G. Thomas Eisele sentenced him to 50 months in federal prison. Although sentencing guidelines recommended a sentence of 33 months to 41 months, Eisele said he believed that Robert David Keith deserved more time because of his history and the position of trust that he abused to steal from members of the tiny Warren Hill Missionary Baptist Church.

A Bentonville jury found a Maysville man guilty of raping a 9-year-old girl in August 2006. The seven-woman, five-man jury will return this morning to deliberate how long Doyle Dewayne Frye, 41, should spend in prison for digitally and orally raping the girl when she visited his home.

Filed under: Arkansas

Breeder’s Cup Preview

My interview with Mark the Magician is now online at lyncho.com. He also gives some insight on the upcoming Oaklawn racing season and some news about his own HUGE personal exploits.

Filed under: Promotion

Wednesday morning summary

Rep. Marion Berry has introduced legislation that would allow the federal government to negotiate prescription-drug purchases under Medicare, the health-care insurance program for the elderly and disabled. His bill is designed to apply the buying power of the federal government to the program, which was designed to spur competition among participating insurance companies.

Lack of coordination among county officials, some of whom don’t even have e-mail, is causing problems as the state tries to determine the amount of property tax collected for schools. Legislators meeting in Hot Springs during a convention of county tax assessors learned that 19 of the 75 counties didn’t respond to requests for data from the state Assessment Coordination Department.

State Rep. Dawn Creekmore successfully guided her bill to allow Arkansans to “freeze” their credit reports to thwart identity theft through the Legislature this year, only to have Gov. Mike Beebe use his veto power to kill the measure. The option will soon be available anyway. The three credit bureaus, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax, have said they will begin allowing consumers in all 50 states to request credit freezes.

Four black residents and one Hispanic resident of Little Rock are challenging the city’s method of selecting city directors, saying the current system favors white voters and dilutes the voting strength of members of minority groups. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Little Rock, the plaintiffs advocate the dissolving of the city’s three at-large positions and the rezoning of the city from seven individually represented wards to 10.

A record 12 applications to establish independently run charter schools – six of them in Pulaski County – will be reviewed early next month by the Arkansas Board of Education. Besides Little Rock and North Little Rock, the open enrollment charter schools are proposed for Tontitown in the Springdale School District and in Fayetteville in Northwest Arkansas, as well as in Brinkley, Helena, Osceola and Humphrey in the state’s eastern half.

Wal-Mart will scale back its U.S. growth plans by 2010 to about half the new retail space it added in its fiscal year that ended Jan. 31.

Eighty year-old Phillip “Phil” Pyeatt has donated $100,000 to the Sunshine School’s effort to build a new $2 million facility on Airport Loop in Searcy. The philanthropist is the son of Ewing Pyeatt, longtime local banker with Searcy Bank, now Regions Bank. The Sunshine School began in 1964 as a kind of Mom’s-Day-Out and now serves individuals with developmental disabilities from infancy through adulthood.

Seven Pine Bluff Arsenal employees were transported to Jefferson Regional Medical Center for observation after experiencing symptoms consistent with what was described as exposure to carbon monoxide. The employees worked at the arsenal’s shipping and receiving warehouse. The facility is not associated in any way with the chemical weapons storage or destruction of the weapons at the arsenal, said Rachel Newton with the installation’s Public Affairs Office.

Emergency repairs were made on a crack in a sewage pipe carrying about two-thirds of the wastewater for the city of Pine Bluff. The repairs cost the Wastewater Utility about $25,000 in materials and overtime pay. Ken Johnson, reported. He suggested that the commission should begin setting aside money for rehabilitating the pipelines connecting the city’s 47 pumping stations to the wastewater treatment plant.

The trial of a man accused of threatening to assassinate President Bush, is being delayed after the defense filed a motion asserting an insanity defense. Ahmad Dost came to the attention of authorities after an employee of USA Truck in Van Buren reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation that Dost was threatening to assassinate the president. Dost, when interviewed by agents, said Bush is not a president, but a “gangster” and a “criminal,” and confirmed his hatred of the United States, but he denied making any threats.

A Fort Smith man accused of raping a woman in July has been linked by DNA evidence to the rape of two elderly residents at a retirement community. James Ray Stewart is suspected of raping two Nelson Hall Homes residents, a 62-year-old and another who is 92. The first suspected rape occurred on Sept. 7, the second on Sept. 9, according to the Fort Smith Police Department.

A Fayetteville man pleaded guilty to rape and child pornography charges and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Gregory Duane Phillips told the judge he is a self-employed remodeling contractor. Phillips admitting raping a 9-year-old girl and taking photographs of her.

Debbie Cain-Fitzhugh, 52, of Clarksville is being held in the Johnson County Detention Center for alleged solicitation of a double murder. The Clarksville Police Department and the Arkansas State Police arrested Cain-Fitzhugh, a therapist, but have not released the names of the alleged targets.

One of two pit bulls who charged at a Widener resident was shot and killed. The dog owner, Terry Burgess of Widener, is charged with violating a vicious dog ordinance. Laurie Jacobs told deputies she discovered the pit bulls inside her fenced-in yard where they had apparently killed one of her smaller dogs.  The deputy reported that when he arrived at Jacobs’ home, the dogs also charged at him, “growling and showing their teeth.” He reportedly shot and killed the first dog while the second ran away and hid.

A Pine Bluff woman accused of embezzling more than $20,000 from Special Olympics Arkansas claims she used some of the money to buy more than 100 cooking pots as part of an uncontrollable compulsion to spend money, according to a psychological report presented to a Pulaski County Circuit judge. “I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t tell myself to stop,” 36-year-old Angela Maria Jones told a state psychologist, according to the report.

Filed under: Arkansas

Tuesday morning summary

The Public Service Commission focused on potential cost overruns and environmental issues during closing arguments in hearings on Southwestern Electric Power Co.’s request to build a $1.4 billion coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County. The hearings took 18 days, making it the longest case before the panel in more than 20 years.

Under the approving gaze of UCA President Lu Hardin, Head Coach Clint Conque publicly suggested athletic competition among the Arkansas Razorbacks, Arkansas State Indians and Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions. Conque made those remarks to the Little Rock Touchdown Club. “We just sent [$325,000] to the state of Tennessee for one football game, and God knows we could use the money here.” Conque was referring to the amount the Razorbacks paid Tennessee-Chattanooga to play them in Fayetteville on Oct. 6.

Eighth-grade English teacher Corey Oliver, from Bob Courtway Middle School in Conway,  and Margaret Lockhart, a literacy coach and chairman of the English Department at Lingle Middle School in Rogers School District, are the state’s two winners this year of the $25000 Milken Award for excellence in teaching.

More than 300 workers will lose their jobs before Christmas when the GDX Automotive facility in Batesville closes its doors.

Arkansas rice farmers produced an estimated 160 bushels per acre in 2007, breaking the previous record set in 2004 by 4.9 bushels per acre, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture reports.

Both the men’s and women’s Sun Belt Conference basketball tournaments will be held at Summit Arena in Hot Springs for three years beginning in 2009. The arena seats 6,000 and adjoins the city’s convention center.

The famed Over the Jumps carousel, which delighted children at Little Rock’s War Memorial Midway from 1942 to 1991, twirled for the first time in its restored condition at its new home at the Little Rock Zoo.

A ticket to ride the River Rail streetcars will double in cost from 50 cents to $1 in March to bring fares more in line with other cities if CATA’s board of directors agrees with the change.

The Polk County Quorum Court will consider a request for funding from Arkansas Children’s Hospital today. According to a Sept. 17 letter from Arkansas Children’s Hospital Government Relations Coordinator Nancy Jennings to County Judge Ray Stanley, the hospital in Little Rock provided $63,173 in uncompensated care to 996 Polk County residents in fiscal 2006-07. The Quorum Court provides funding, usually $4,000, to the hospital each year.

A man charged with gunning down his estranged wife just moments after she obtained a court order of protection pleaded no-contest Monday to capital murder. Former welder Stephen McCoy of Conway was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the April 4,2006, death of Betty McCoy. The state contended he shot her shot three times as she was placing an order in the drive-through at Church’s Chicken in downtown Conway.

A former Vilonia High School teacher waived a scheduled court appearance, resulting in an innocent plea to a charge of first-degree sexual assault. Charles Samuel Harger is to appear in Faulkner County Circuit Court for a pretrial hearing Feb. 14. The Faulkner County sheriff’s office charges that Harger was a teacher in 2006 at Vilonia and apparently had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl there. At that time, Harger lived in Conway.

Filed under: Arkansas