Monday summary

Heisman Trophy voters have 321 reasons to give Darren McFadden another look. “The numbers speak for themselves,” McFadden said with a smile. “That’s the only thing I can say to them.” McFadden rushed for 321 yards Saturday night, tying an SEC record in Arkansas’ 48-36 victory over South Carolina. After falling from the spotlight during an unspectacular October, McFadden treated the home crowd to one of the top performances of the college football season.

Despite having reneged on its’ promise to pay market wages, a Danish windmill manufacturer will receive tens of million dollars in Arkansas tax subsidies. Gov. Mike Beebe gave the company $6.9 million from the Quick Action Closing Fund. LM Glasfiber has also been granted free land valued at $5.4 million courtesy of the Little Rock Port Authority, widening of two on-ramps to Interstate 440 at no charge by the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, a possible waiver from city permit fees, a 27-year exemption from the state income tax, $8 million in “economic infrastructure funds” from the Economic Development Commission, and $3,500 per worker for training, paid by the commission.

Sheffield Nelson, the former chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of the biggest gas company in the state, says that he will lead an effort to put an initiated act on the ballot next year to increase the state’s severance tax on natural gas to the level charged by Oklahoma.

Arkansas lacks the resources to “do the federal government’s job” in enforcing immigration laws, Gov. Mike Beebe says. The primary responsibility for enforcing immigration laws lies with the federal government, Beebe said. “As the governor, I can tell you I don’t have the resources, and I’m not going to raise your taxes to get the resources to do the federal government’s job. I can’t be stronger than that,” he said.

The president of a national organization that works to increase and promote school options for black children visited Little Rock to offer encouragement to proposed charter schools. Gerard Robinson of Atlanta, the president of the Black Alliance of Educational Options, told a group of about 40 that affluent families have had the ability to choose schools for their children for many years, but poor and working-class families have had far fewer school choices.

The Paragould School District’s board recently gave the nod to Superintendent Aaron Hosman and the administration to begin planning a district-wide change to its system with the introduction of “theme” schools for the upcoming school year. Theme schools, a hybrid version of charter and magnet schools already in existence in Arkansas, are currently in the infant stages of planning, but according to Hosman the project is about to be kicked into high gear.

The Pulaski County Special School District saw the biggest decline in enrollment in the state this year, an annual enrollment count taken Oct. 1 shows. The district lost 361 students, a 2 percent decline from 2006.

Student tuition at the University of Central Arkansas will not increase for the Spring 2008 semester, President Lu Hardin said Saturday. In making his financial report at Friday’s Board of Trustees meeting, Hardin said that tuition for the 2008-09 academic year will be addressed during an upcoming Board of Trustees meeting in the spring. He expects tuition for that year to increase only slightly.

Former Wal-Mart marketing exec, Julie Roehm, will not re-file her tossed lawsuit. Roehm had sued for fraud and breach of contract after an unceremonious departure from the retail giant last December. In legal filings and counter-filings, sordid details of alleged ethical breaches and improper relationships were revealed.

Producers with Ellen DeGeneres’ show plan to tape a remote segment from Janice Wolf’s Rocky Ridge animal refuge in Gassville today.The segment will feature DJ Stryker’s report from the refuge which is home to numerous animals, including Lurch, the African Watusi steer that holds the Guinness World Record for having the largest circumference (38 inches) of horns of any animal in the world.

Central Moloney, which manufactures electrical transformers and has two locations in Jefferson County, is laying off 100 workers. The company says it went to four-day weeks last months to try to avoid the move. But orders have slowed too much because of the downturn in housing.

The Times-Herald is celebrating137th continuous year in business. The newspaper, which is the oldest established business in St. Francis County, has been owned by the McCollum and Lewey families for 64 years, and is one of the few remaining family-owned daily newspapers in Arkansas.

A federal appeals court denied Thomas Coughlin’s bid to overturn a decision rejecting his original sentence of home detention as too light. It means that Wal-Mart’s former No. 2 executive could face possible prison time. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at St. Louis denied Coughlin’s appeal for a new hearing on the sentencing decision, according to court records.

An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission wildlife officer and a man believed to be hunting illegally at a city park were injured in a gunfight. Authorities say the officer was on patrol near the northwest corner of Burns Park around 9:30 Saturday morning. when he confronted Phillip Kelly for hunting in the park. Kelly had no license and reportedly was hiding the handgun behind his back. A bullet struck the wildlife officer’s bulletproof vest, while Kelly suffered an unknown number of gunshot wounds.

The Boone County sheriff’s office is holding a Bellefonte resident in the county jail after two men were found dead at his rental house in the small community southeast of Harrison. Ronald Lynn Eddings surrendered to authorities.

A day after Little Rock police identified the woman slain in a garage, they charged a man in her death. Antonio Finneyarrived at the Little Rock Police Department late Saturday morning with family members saying he hoped to clear his name, police said. Several hours later, police charged him with capital murder in the Thursday shooting death of Francis Ann Kelly, 50, of Mabelvale. Police then drove Finney to the Pulaski County jail, where he is being held without bond.

A Nettleton Schools bus driver is suspended after students reported he threatened to shoot them. School officials did not find a weapon in Ervin Franklin Bowdon’s possession or home. Bowdon was released from jail on bond Friday after being charged with terroristic threatening in the second degree, a misdemeanor. Student  Josh McGinnis reported that he was trying to stretch his knee when Bowdon threatened him. Bowdon said he should be respected because he was a former Marine and could hurt him. “I asked him how,” McGinnis wrote in a statement to police. “He said, ‘I could bring my AK-47 and shoot all of you in five seconds.’”

The Fort Smith Police Department has issued warrants for two police officers from Albuquerque, N.M., who are suspected of attacking bouncers at a local bar. Investigators obtained a warrant on for the arrest of officers Russell Carter and Kenneth Ronzone, both of the Albuquerque Police Department. Both bouncers sustained facial injuries The two were in town for duty at Fort Chaffee.

Filed under: Arkansas