Wednesday morning summary

Arkansas chancellor John White gave Jeff Long an ultimatum: He wants the Razorbacks’ incoming athletic director to have the school’s next football coach in place by Sunday. Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville’s name is being mentioned in regards to Arkansas’ vacant head coaching position, sources close to the search told the Democrat-Gazette. A source familiar with the situation tells the Morning News of Northwest Arkansas that Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin could be a good fit for the Razorbacks. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kiffin has wanted to coach at the college level.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says he will join a brief to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of gun ownership rights for individuals. The nation’s highest court has agreed to hear an appeal in a lawsuit challenging the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns. McDaniel said his office would join a Texas brief arguing in favor of individuals’ gun rights.

While promising to work for new economic projects, Gov. Mike Beebe said Tuesday the state cannot forget existing facilities, including the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Jefferson County. The facility is systematically disposing of the stockpile at an on-site incinerator. Beebe said Tuesday in a speech to the Rotary Club of Pine Bluff that he met with 4th District Congressman Mike Ross and U.S. Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and the arsenal was one of the subjects discussed.

Arkansas’ 1st District congressman, Marion Berry, is the 2007 March of Dimes Citizen of the Year for Northeast Arkansas. Rep. Berry was recognized at a formal dinner Monday evening at the Holiday Inn in JonesboroThe honorees represent a great degree of community involvement, said March of Dimes state director Clay Mercer, and each stands out as having made a difference in the lives of Arkansans.

Pulaski County Planning Commission officials have approved a six-month moratorium on any development in the Lake Maumelle watershed. Maumelle developer John “Jay” DeHaven is developing Canterbury Park, a 965-acre subdivision that lies mainly along the Maumelle River in the watershed which, if built, would poison Little Rock’s only source of drinking water.

Former prosecutor and attorney general candidate Robert Herzfeld announced Tuesday he’s running for a newly created circuit judgeship in the 22nd Judicial District of Saline County.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality needs more inspectors in the Fayetteville Shale, representatives of environmental and sportsmen’s groups told lawmakers. Department Director Teresa Marks says the department has 16 inspectors in its water division, eight of them in the Fayetteville Shale area, who also have responsibility for storm water and waste water complaints and inspections.

Ann Loomis, a tennis enthusiast who opened Little Rock’s first store devoted to the sport, died of a head injury she suffered when a Chevrolet Blazer struck her shopping cartin a Kroger parking lot and she fell. The Blazer’s driver, Louvenia Lewis of Little Rock, was cited for careless and prohibited driving.

A Springdale man has claimed a $200,000 Powerball prize with a winning ticket he bought in Oklahoma. Edward Proctor of Springdale bought the ticket that matches the first five numbers in Saturday’s Powerball drawing but missed the Powerball.

Condemned murderer Rickey Dale Newman lacks intelligence but he was mentally competent to waive his rights to appeal his conviction and death sentence, a State Hospital forensic psychologist testified in federal court Tuesday.

Federal Judge Susan Webber Wright entered a sealed order postponing the start of the jury trial of Dr. Patrick Chan of Searcy until Jan. 14. No details have been released of plea agreement negotiations -or whether any are ongoing with Chan and his attorney – and no further indictments of other neurosurgeons have been announced.

A southeast Arkansas judge on Tuesday granted a new sentencing hearing for a convicted drug dealer after concluding that his attorney made “major mistakes” during the sentencing phase of the man’s April 2006 trial. Leon Harden was sentenced to 80 years in prison for the crime of possession of more than 400 grams of cocaine with intent to distribute.

A man who beat a child to death with an electrical cord for wetting the bed was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday. Cornelius Dawson of Forrest City was arrested on a capital murder charge in January for the death of four-year-old Lamont Hurd. He pled guilty Monday to a reduced charge of manslaughter.

Fort Smith police have arrested a man for sexual indecency with a child for an alleged incident with a 6-year-old at a local school. Police say 21-year-old Bradley Stacy assaulted the child at Cook School. The child became frightened during the incident and fled. Stacy left the area but was recognized by teachers, who knew him as a former student.

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