Monday morning first headlines

Two members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation who helped put the breaks on legislation to reform the nation’s health care system, Congressmen Ross and Berry, say they don’t believe the reform effort should follow a timetable.

British Consul General Paul Lynch disputes Senator Mark Pryor’s contention that Europe’s cap-and-trade system has not worked as a means to reduce industrial carbon emissions.

A prosecutor investigating state audit findings from a review of  UCA’s finances will receive help from the Arkansas State Police.

Filing for school board elections continues this week.

Arkansas State University officials say the campus has two confirmed cases of swine flu.

Pinnacle Business Solutions of North Little Rock has lost a $134 million, five-year government contract that will “impact” about 320 workers.

Opening the door for U.S. rice exports to China is expected to be atop the agenda during negotiations in Shanghai on today and Tuesday between officials from U.S. and Chinese food-inspection agencies, said Greg Yielding, executive director of the Arkansas Rice Growers Association.

The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality is proposing tougher standards for drill-water storage facilities to better protect the state’s natural resources.

Arkansas officials are in the process of finalizing the paperwork that would extend the contract of men’s basketball coach John Pelphrey from 2012 to 2014,

Paul Stevens, an Arkansas State University football player, was shot after he allegedly tried to burglarize a local residence.

Mitchell Johnson, 24, who spent seven years in juvenile custody for his role in the 1998 Westside school shootings, has lost his appeal of a conviction and four-year federal sentence on marijuana and weapons possession charges.

One of five men charged in what authorities say is a plot to run a white woman and her three biracial children out of the small southwest Arkansas town of Donaldson by burning a cross in her yard admitted his role in the case in federal court.

Pine Bluff police have issued a warning that two men have scammed a local man out of a large sum of cash using what they called a “pigeon drop.”

Filed under: Arkansas