Coverage of Pressly funeral

Here is the link to the KATV report. A large number of people came to what was obviously a beautiful outpouring of love and grief.

Filed under: Arkansas

DOJ approves Vorizon takeover of Alltel

Roby Brock at TalkBusiness.net has added this to his BizBlog.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Verizon Communications Corp. to divest assets in 100 areas in 22 states in order to proceed with its $28 billion acquisition of Alltel Corp. 

Filed under: Arkansas, Economy

LRPD makes arrest in Ratliff murder

Nice to have Terry Hastings back on the job. Here is the latest on the crime beat and a heinous murder of a woman in front of her three children..

Officers responded to a shooting just occurred call at 5209 Holly Springs and located Sonya Ratliff dead in her bathroom from multiple gunshot wounds.   Ratliff’s former boyfriend, John Wesley Jackson, broke into the residence and shot her. Jackson then fled the area in an unknown direction.  It was learned that Ratliff was a Corrections Officer with the Arkansas Department of Corrections and Sgt. Glasgow, who is with the Arkansas Department of Corrections, was notified of the incident.  A warrant was obtained for Jackson’s arrest.

On 10-29-2008, officers located Jackson at 36^th and Barrow and transported him to the Downtown Detective Division. Jackson was charged with Murder 1^st Degree and then transported to the Pulaski County Regional Jail.

Filed under: Arkansas

Arkansas Supreme Court hears case on payday lenders

Arkansas Business carries the AP report on this mornings actions.

Opponents of a state law that regulates payday lenders are asking Arkansas’ highest court to strike down the 1999 act as unconstitutional.

The Arkansas Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments Thursday in a lawsuit challenging the 1999 Check Cashers Act, which opponents say violates the state constitution by allowing payday lenders to make consumer loans with interest rates of more than 17 percent annually.

Filed under: Arkansas

Beauty is only skin deep, but stupidity runs to the core: 23% of Texans think Obama is a Muslin

Of course, folks in Arkansas are a whole bunch smarter than this. Here is the latest report on the dumbing down of America from the Houston Chronicle.

The Obama-is-a-Muslim confusion is caused by fallacious Internet rumors and radio talk-show gossip. McCain went so far at one of his town hall meetings to grab a microphone from a woman who claimed that Obama was an Arab.

The Texas numbers are unusual because most national polls show that just 5 to 10 percent of Americans still believe Obama is a Muslim — less than half the number of Texans who buy into the debunked theories.

 

Wrong, oh pundit breath. The cause is not “misunderstanding” or “gossip” on radio talk shows. It is a deliberate scheme by right wing sociopaths.

Filed under: Commentary, National politics, Obama

Thursday first news stuff

Yesterday had some personal business that took up a lot of my time, nonetheless, you will find some appropriate entries below. Check that out, and always feel free to leave a coment. It is a busy morning around Arkansas. Here’s the latest.

 

A crew from America’s Most Wanted is in the capitol city filing a segment on the Anne Pressly murder. It will run this Sunday evening. Pressly’s funeral is this morning at 11 at St. Andrews Anglican Church on Kanis Road.

 

UCA police say they’ve found a gun they believe was used in the slaying of two students on campus Sunday night. It was found at an undisclosed place in the city of Conway. Four men accused of killing two University of Central Arkansas students and injuring a third person pleaded not guilty Wednesday in their first court appearance since the Sunday shootings.

 

Legislators on Wednesday rapped University of Arkansas Chancellor David Gearhart’s request for state dollars for botanical gardens and criticized him for the university’s $50 parking tickets.

 

The Lonoke County sheriff’s office has been barred from having state prison inmates work at its jail after an investigation found that an inmate had “sexual contact” with female inmates at the jail and worked on privately owned cars, including a car owned by the sheriff’s daughter.

This week’s Arkansas Times reports the state has “designated for closure” 13 foster homes because of suspected abuse or neglect over the last two weeks. All foster and biological children have been removed from the homes during the agency’s investigation.

 

The National Weather Service says a tornado that struck Stuttgart in May will be featured next month on the Discovery Channel’s “Storm Chasers.”

 

Citing strong gains in its exploration and production business and rising oil prices, Murphy Oil Corp. announced that net income in the third quarter of 2008 was $584.4 million, more than double quarterly profits of one year ago.

 

The mayor of Fort Smith threatens to veto a renewal of Cox Communications’ franchise agreement with the city if the cable company insists on charging extra for religious stations.

 

Pine Bluff Transit is receiving five used buses from the Houston Transit in a federal transfer program in which the buses are sold for $100 each.

 

John Daly allegedly got so intoxicated at a North Carolina Hooters cops had to haul him off to the local hoosegow. According to the Winston-Salem police report, Daly passed out at a Hooters on Sunday. Medics tended to him but Daly refused to go to the hospital. Cops took him to the station for his own safety.

 

One man was burned and a woman suffered minor injuries when an explosion, which firefighters suspect was caused by apropane leak, leveled house on Garrison Road. The explosion, which happened at 8:44 p.m., blew debris about 60 yards away and could be felt as far away as the western Pulaski County fire station more than 2 miles away at Arkansas 10and the Ferndale cutoff.

 

Tonight’s varsity football game between the Little Rock Central High Tigers and the Catholic High School Rockets will be played without Central’s cheerleading squad performing on the sidelines. The 7 p.m. game at War Memorial Stadium is an “away game” for Central, it’s off limits for the Central cheerleaders after the squad’s sponsors that shut down all practices and performances at away games “until further notice” because of a confrontation between adults and cheerleaders which resulted in a call to police.

 

Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola has asked the Advertising and Promotion Commission to cover the River Market’s advertising costs for a second year in a row, but the tourism agency is leaning toward taking over the entire operation.

 

Southern Business and Development magazine’s most recent issue names the metro Little Rock area atop a list of regions that are thriving in a tough economy.  

 

South Carolina’s game with Arkansas on Nov. 8 has been switched to 1 p.m. and will not be televised.

J.D. Felice, a senior flanker from Rose Bud caught 24 passes for 421 yards and had six touchdowns (one of them running) in a 64-55 loss to England. The yards are a national record that is being verified by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

 

Filed under: Arkansas