Thursday morning headlines

Gov. Mike Beebe gave a vote of confidence to the state prison director and Board of Correction, a day after members of a legislative panel questioned the leadership of the prison system.

The state lottery commission has approves Powerball.

U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that more than $297 million is now available for Arkansas under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Arkansas will be eligible to apply for another $146 million this fall.

Judge Andree Roaf, who’d served by appointment to the Arkansas Supreme Court as its first black woman, died in her Little Rock office. She was 68. She had been serving as director of the federal court office that monitors the Pulaski County desegregation case.

Failing to comply with reporting requirements for sex offenders is not an offense that can be punished with an order of restitution, the state Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

A judge declined to dismiss a lawsuit claiming that Arkansas child-welfare officials infringed on the religious freedoms of members of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries.

The president and chief executive officer of St. Vincent Health System states that the hospital has fired more people for illegally accessing the medical records of Anne Pressly than those who were charged in federal court Monday.

An East Camden flare manufacturing plant will remain closed until company officials complete their investigation into an explosion that sent six employees to the hospital.

Sale of 13 Golden Living nursing homes and an assisted living center won’t affect the Fort Smith corporate headquarters,

A survey of business leaders in nine Midwestern and Plains states, including Arkansas, suggests that the region’s economy continues to show signs of improvement, but job losses persist.

Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle set bail at $1 million Wednesday morning for each of the three young adults charged in the shooting death of a southwest Little Rock man during a robbery inside his home.

A Russellville man was arrested after allegedly breaking into two rail cars at the Tyson Foods Distribution Center and stealing two boxes of chicken,

Legendary actor Karl Malden is dead at 97. In addition to his lengthy film credits is a basketball scholarship to Arkansas Teachers College. That would have been before WWII.

Filed under: Arkansas

Early Wednesday happenings

The FBI is taking over the investigation into a prank call that caused $50,000 in damage to a Conway hotel and is believed to be part of a national scheme

Upset over guards’ lapses that allowed two convicted murderers to escape and caused an inmate’s near death, Arkansas lawmakers are calling for a subpoena-powered inquiry in the state prison system. Director Larry Norris says the incidents are not part of any larger pattern.

The head of the state lottery and Gov. Mike Beebe met for the first time Monday, but didn’t talk much about their differences on keno.

Arkansas’ Martin Luther King Commission is about to undergo an overhaul. A new law that takes effect today cuts the size of the commission in half, from 26 members to 13, and gives the governor the authority to hire and fire the executive director.

An Army Reserve brigade headquartered in North Little Rock has received notice it is being activated to Afghanistan. The 90th Sustainment Brigade is scheduled to hold a deployment ceremony next week.

Lu Hardin, who resigned under mounting pressure as president from the University of Central Arkansas almost one year ago, was named today as the next president of a private college in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Act 308 of 2009, which changes the state’s seat belt law from a secondary to a primary offense, goes into effect today. The change means that law enforcement officers can stop and ticket you specifically for not wearing a belt.

Ken James, who is resigning effective today as Arkansas’ education commissioner, will become executive vice president and chief operating officer for America’s Choice, a national school improvement company based in Washington, D.C.

The first medical students are to start next week at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus in northwest Arkansas.

Wal-Mart has staked out a partial position in the looming debate on federal health care reform – a position that includes an employer mandate for coverage.

A Little Rock physician, Dr. Jay Holland, and two former employees of St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center are charged in federal court with illegally accessing the records of Anne Pressly, a morning news anchor for KATVTV, Channel 7, who died Oct. 25 from injuries stemming from an attack at her home.

Two people were hospitalized and a third person was treated after chlorine leaked from a tanker truck on U.S. 82 near El Dorado.

Filed under: Arkansas