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.