Monday summary

If any decision is made about Houston Nutt’s future as head football coach at the University of Arkansas, both retiring athletic director Frank Broyles and his successor, Jeff Long, will be involved, University of Arkansas System President B. Alan Sugg says. In an interview with the Arkansas News Bureau Sugg said any decision on Nutt’s future would be UA Chancellor John White’s to make, but he said White told the board during an executive session he would consult with Broyles and Long before acting.

Recent progress on the Shoppes at North Hills and Bass Pro Shop has North Little Rock focusing on how to get shoppers in and out of the center built on irreplaceable wetlands. The Shoppes complex, subsidized with funds diverted from North Little Rock public schools, will be built in the Dark Hollow area south of Interstate 40 and adjacent to North Hills Boulevard. The City of North Little Rock will provide $8 million to provide highway access to a project which will result in the closure of countless locally owned businesses.

Vice President Dick Cheney visited Arkansas for less than two hours Friday, limiting his time to a gathering of about 125 elite Republicans who paid $250 each to hear him. A large white tent, allowing the vice president to walk into the back door of the exclusive Junior League of Little Rock from his limousine without being seen by ordinary taxpaying citizens, shielded his secretive entrance into the fundraiser.

An Arkansas lawmaker has urged Congress to give the Federal Emergency Management Agency an ultimatum to move thousands of unused trailers from Hope. Sen. Mark Pryor introduced legislation giving FEMA nine months to put together a plan to use, store, sell or trash the nearly 20,000 mobile homes and travel trailers.

Former state economic development chief Larry Walther has a new gig. Walther was appointed by President Bush on Friday to head the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA). The independent federal agency provides grants and other financial assistance to developing countries. His appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

Several companies with ties to state legislators have contracts with the state. The deals were disclosed to lawmakers because of a law enacted this year. Sen. Percy Malone is the majority owner of Allcare Pharmacy, which has a $25,000-a-year pharmacy services contract with the Department of Human Services’ Alexander, Arkadelphia and Jonesboro Human Development Centers. Allcare also has had a contract for the Arkansas Health Center at Benton. That’s for $200,000 a year.

Arnell Willis will have his day in court on Nov. 26, according to a court order from Judge L.T. Simes. Simes issued the order just hours after a decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court to reverse a ruling from December of last year when Simes dismissed a lawsuit alleging voter fraud against Jack Crumbly and the St. Francis County Election Commission.

A propane pipeline leak early Sunday prompted firefighters to evacuate about 150 homes, including the entire community of Egypt, authorities said. Propane began leaking from the Texas Eastern Products Pipeline Co. pumping station in southeastern Lawrence County about 3:45 a.m. The pipeline carries propane and gasoline from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest and Northeast.

A cleanup is under way at a transformer manufacturing plant in Pine Bluff after a hazardous chemical was found seeping from the ground. The effort is the latest in a series of cleanups that have taken place over the years at the Central Moloney plant. Officials with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality are investigating and say there are still many “unknowns.”

Murphy Oil is gearing up to sell ethanol in northeast Arkansas. A mandate in Missouri set to take effect in January and the rising cost of diesel fuel are contributing to the push.

A quorum court’s vote to grant bonuses to its members may be viewed with “disfavor” by their constituents, but it’s allowed under state law. The Arkansas Ethics Commission issued its opinion to Roy Cooper of Concord, who had raised a question after the Cleburne County Quorum Court approved an ordinance to grant the bonuses to Quorum Court members, county employees and county elected officials.

Mayor Carl Redus Jr. wants to increase taxes for almost 70 percent of Pine Bluff businesses to fund a 3 percent raise for city employees, who haven’t seen a bump in pay in six years. The mayor’s proposal, which may come up for discussion at today’s Pine Bluff City Council meeting, calls for a 60 percent tax increase for businesses that pay flat-rate occupational taxes, which account for about two-thirds of the companies in the city.

Two school playgrounds have been closed after equipment on them tested positive for arsenic. The tests were done on samples from pressure-treated wood used in structures at the Koala Community Playground at Northside Elementary School and the playground at Southside Elementary School.

The Har-Ber High School booster club wants to replace the grass-covered football practice field at the school with artificial turf. The project could be the beginning of a long-term project to get a stadium and other athletic facilities at the three-year-old high school. The Springdale School Board is considering a $250,000 contribution after booster club officials met with the board a week ago.

Increased traffic counts over the two Mississippi River bridges in West Memphis and the resulting longer delays for motorists traversing the two spans have local officials studying the possibility of constructing a third interstate bridge. It’s not the first time people have discussed building another river bridge. They’ve been bandying that idea about for nearly 30 years, just after the Hernando De Soto bridge opened on Interstate 40 in 1972.

The Environmental Protection Agency targeted new construction and animal-breeding operations in Arkansas over the past year. To keep Arkansas’ waterways “clean and pristine,” the EPA required 25 businesses – mostly developers – to create storm water plans to prevent rainwater from washing sediment and other pollutants from construction sites into lakes and rivers.

Two more liquor licenses have been approved for Faulkner County restaurants. La Huerta Mexican restaurant received 888 signatures in support of the permit and no objections. Gusano’s Chicago-Style Pizzeria recorded no objections or support from the state ABC board.

A Columbia County prosecutor committed “egregious and flagrant” misconduct by allowing the county’s coroner to serve as a juror in a 1998 capital murder trial that ended in a life sentence for the defendant, according to a petition filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court. Attorney Craig Lambert  filed the “error coram nobis” petition asking the Supreme Court to order the Columbia County Circuit Court to give Corey Sanders, now 30, a hearing.

A 33-year-old North Little Rock murder suspect should have stopped talking to police if he wanted to invoke his constitutional rights, a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled Friday.

A Judsonia man is accused of killing a childhood friend while hunting. The 911 call came in as a hunting accident, and the man arrested for the shooting wasn’t even allowed to have a gun. Justin Bennett thought he was shooting at deer. Investigators say that rifle bullet hit Bennett’s childhood friend, Leif Harris in the neck. They think Harris, also from Judsonia, was on a separate hunting trip in the same woods.

A homeless man’s motive behind torching a $1.5 million Bentonville hotel was because he couldn’t find work. Robert Ray Miller, admitted to Bentonville police he started the fire at the construction site for the Suburban Extended Stay hotel on Oct. 27 because “he had seen several Hispanics working at the job site and this made him angry because he was unable to find work.”

A former treasurer of a Eureka Springs church faces charges she stole more than $20,000 while managing its accounts. Cora Charise “Chari” Jones served as treasurer of the Metropolitan Community Church from 2003 until last month. Officers say Jones told them she suffered injuries in 2003 accident and started taking church funds to pay her bills.

A Saline County man convicted of Internet stalking of a child on Oct. 31 is under house arrest in Benton because of lack of bed space in the Department of Correction. Jeremy Claude Lewis, who formerly taught music at Daisy Bates Elementary school in Little Rock reportedly has attended Northside Church of Christ in Benton. However, an elder of that congregation reported that Lewis will not be back in church because of the regulations of his house arrest.

A judge gave three Waldo residents convicted of misdemeanor dogfighting charges 30-day suspended jail sentences and fined each of them $580. Darren Lamond Wilson, Sandra C. York, and Dedrick Philson must give up any pit bulls they own, and they may not own others for one year. The three were accused of watching a dogfight in Waldo last month.

Filed under: Arkansas