Thursday morning summary

A Whidbey Island Naval Air Station petty officer from Arkansas is the sixth member of a bomb disposal unit to be killed in Iraq. Kevin Bewley of Hector, Ark. died of wounds from a bomb that detonated in Sala ad Din Province. He was on his second deployment to Iraq.

Despite a foreign company’s broken promise to pay Arkansas workers prevailing wages in manufacturing, Gov. Mike Beebe intervened to get free road work for the project, records obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette show. The work will cost the state about $63,000, down from an initial estimate of $200,000. This is the first time since the 1980s that the department has provided work on behalf of a company the state is recruiting.

DeAuntae Farrow’s civil rights were not “willfully abused” by police when the 12-year-old boy was fatally shot by a West Memphis police officer, the federal Justice Department says in a letter to Police Chief Robert Paudert.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel OK’d the latest wording of a proposed initiated act to ban unmarried couples from adopting or becoming foster parents. His opinion issued clears the way for the Little Rock-based Family Council to gather signatures to qualify their initiative for the 2008 ballot. This time, McDaniel certified the wording as submitted, complete with a declaration that it’s in the best interest of adoptive and foster children to be reared in homes in which people aren’t living together outside marriage.

The state Agriculture Department is taking applications for more than $16 million in state incentives for producing or distributing alternative fuels. Firms have until Feb. 28 to apply for funding. Currently, the alternative fuels industry in Arkansas consists of two soybean-based biodiesel plants, 54 service stations that sell biodiesel and six more that sell both biodiesel and ethanol.

The Arkansas Ethics Commission has issued a “public letter of caution” to Little Rock School Board President Katherine Mitchell, advising her not to commit any further violations of a state ethics law that requires elected officials to publicly disclose their financial interests.

Possible changes in fishing regulations for the Bull Shoals and Norfork tailwaters drew mixed reviews this week from fishermen, resort owners and river guides. About 80 people attended a workshop in Mountain Home to review management options for the two popular trout fisheries in northern Arkansas.

Washington County officials are expected to decide today if zoning should apply countywide. Today’s vote comes a year after an emergency ordinance was narrowly approved that zoned areas on the outskirts of the county’s cities and towns.

A fire at the General Dynamics building in East Camden off of Highway 79 forced 160 employees to be evacuated. Officials say they are going to let the fire burn itself out, which means the building will be a total loss.

The deaths of seven greyhounds at a West Memphis track this summer prompted Arkansas racing officials to call for a review of the rules for handling racing dogs. Members of the Arkansas Racing Commission say they are concerned about an Aug. 9 fight that erupted among a group of greyhounds at Southland track. A state veterinarian told commissioners that one dog was dead when she arrived at the track. The others had to be euthanized.

Shane Bolender, Southland’s racing director, told the commission the fight broke out among the dogs during 100-plus degree heat that afternoon when the dogs were in a “turnout pen.”

Arkansas and baseball history goes on-sale today.  Everything that isn’t bolted down is yours for the taking at the Ray Winder Field yard sale. Banners, old chairs from the press box, seats from the 1940’s.  Generations of Arkansans went to games at the old home of the Travelers for 75 years. If you want to grab a little piece of the past for nostalgia come out and see what’s for sale.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has released the name of the hiker found dead Monday, but a definite cause of death remains undetermined. Investigators have learned that John Adelsberger III, a 31-year-old St. Louis area resident, died on the Ozark Highland Trail while taking a rest during a lengthy excursion into the West Central Arkansas nature trails. “He was hiking,” Sheriff Reed Haynes said. “He has been planning this hiking trip for a couple years.”

A Fort Smith child was kidnaped by a convicted felon, but quickly located by two of several police officers who saturated the area, according to police. Daneal Nichols, a Russellville resident on parole with burglary and weapons charges, was arrested when officers Waymon Parker and David Hendrickson found him carrying a 5-year-old boy, who was reported missing by his family several blocks away, according to officials with the Fort Smith Police Department.

Filed under: Arkansas