Friday morning summary

A Northwest Arkansas television station and a weekly news magazine’s Web site reported Thursday night that Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville will be named the next head football coach at Arkansas. Meanwhile, despite multiple reports, Arkansas officials have not reached an agreement for Tommy Tuberville to be the school’s next football coach, several sources told The Morning News on Thursday.

 

The longtime Pulaski County Judge, Buddy Villines, who earned $80,605 last year, neglected to list his county income for the past eight years when filling out statements of financial interest that ask elected officials about income, stocks,gifts and business interests. He has been cited by the state ethics commission. Villines originally reported among his wife’s 2006 income, a plane ticket to Italy and hotel room paid for by a member of Sister Cities International.

 

Farmers and ranchers need to confront animal-welfare activists head on, said Steve Kopperud, a senior vice president at Policy Directions Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based anti-animal lobbying firm. “We have to take back the debate,” Kopperud told cattle producers Thursday during Arkansas Farm Bureau’s convention. Animal agriculture’s “greatest threat,” Kopperud said, is Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive officer of The Humane Society of the United States.

 

A former pet store owner entered not guilty pleas to 50 counts of animal cruelty and one count of nuisance against public health in Craighead County District Court.  James Murphy of Harrisburg, entered the not guilty pleas. Three officers were overcome with a strong odor of ammonia at Best Pets, and had to be treated for injuries, said Larry Rogers, Jonesboro Police Department Animal Control Division supervisor.

 

Mike Beebe says he probably won’t know until next fall whether the state can afford to eliminate the remainder of its sales tax on groceries, but said it’ll be tougher to do without a $1 billion surplus.

 

Gov. Mike Beebe announced Thursday his appointment of Heath Abshure of Little Rock as commissioner of the Arkansas Securities Department.

 

The president of an anti-death penalty coalition in Arkansas says the group would push for a ballot initiatives next year to establish a committee to study the death penalty if Gov. Mike Beebe does not establish a panel on his own. “If the governor is not will to appoint a study commission without some help, we are going to go out and get 100,000 signatures next year to show him there is a great deal of interest on all sides of the political spectrum,” David Rickard, president of the Arkansas Coalition for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, said Thursday.

 

The driver of the commercial bus that crossed Interstate 40 and collided with a tractor-trailer Sunday evening near Forrest City, resulting in three deaths, was cited for speeding four times in the past six years. Felix Badillo Tapia, 28, of Brownsville, the driver of the Tornado Bus Co. bus that crashed 12 miles east of Forrest City, was also once ticketed for having defective brakes. The offenses are not considered serious.

 

The joint trial of a former Helena-West Helena School Board member and a painter accused of theft from the School District was delayed after the last witness for the prosecution never appeared. Former state Rep. Arnell Willis was on the steps of the state Capitol for a noon rally where he complained about delays in the hearing of his own lawsuit challenging the results of a June 2006 runoff for the District 16 state Senate seat.

 

State Sen. Denny Altes apologized for writing an e-mail saying Arkansas is overrun with illegal aliens and that “we are being out populated by blacks also.” Altes, the Fort Smith senator who serves as Republican leader of the Senate, tearfully apologized in an interview with The Associated Press but said he doesn’t consider what he said to be a racially biased remark.

 

One out of every 11 Arkansans belongs to a family that will spend more than 25 percent of its pretax earnings on health care next year, a new study shows.

The study by Families USA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group shows nearly 28 percent of Arkansans will see their families spend more than 10 percent of their earnings on health care not covered by insurance in 2008.

 

Fort Smith Police Chief Kevin Lindsey told the city’s civil service commission that the department doesn’t have room for an officer who lies, while explaining his decision to fire former Sgt. Jeff Morgan. Lindsey also admitted there was no “smoking gun” evidence that Morgan lied to investigators.

 

A woman accused of using the automated teller machine card of a Sherwood man the night he was shot to death has been arrested on charges of fraudulent use of a debit card. Toni Deann Boggs of Jacksonville is also a “person of interest” in the death of 66-yearold Ray Hart, whose body was found the morning of Nov. 22 in his home in the Brookwood Village mobile home park.

Filed under: Arkansas