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