Monday, April 24, 2006
Monday Movin' On ...
The deadline to register to vote in the Arkansas Primary Election on May 23 is today.
Starting this week, mobile disaster units will be open in four of the Arkansas counties hit by the recent storms. The centers will be set up by state and federal agencies in Lawrence, Fulton, Randolph, and Greene counties beginning Monday. More than $500,000 has been approved for disaster relief.
A new mental health policy for Arkansas prison inmates, unanimously approved by the Board of Corrections on Friday, will make it less likely that they will be held in sensory-deprived environments like the Varner Supermax Unit. The administrative regulation came about a month after prison officials, acting on the advice of a prison psychiatrist, removed “about eight” inmates from the supermax program at the prison in Lincoln County.
The Arkansas General Assembly has overridden Gov. Mike Huckabee’s veto of a $570,303 appropriation for specialists to improve science education in the elementary schools. Huckabee had urged the lawmakers not to override, saying he supported the program but the funds would be taken from an account that would be better reserved for future college scholarships. He said it would have been better to take the money from surplus state revenues.
Unemployment in Arkansas inched up to 4.8 percent in March, slightly higher than the 4.7 percent rate in February, according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
First Bank Corp. pledged $1 million to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s College of Business last week.
Julian English of Pine Bluff, who allegedly shot another man at the Tyson processing plant on Jefferson Parkway Wednesday night and was then shot by police, will be held on a $1 million cash only bond, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge ruled Friday. He is presently being treated at UAMS.
Authorities are investigating at least four white men for their alleged involvement in a cross burning last summer. Christopher Baird of Fouke pleaded guilty in federal district court in Texarkana to one count of conspiracy to interfere with the right to occupy a dwelling free from intimidation and interference based on race and color. The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is looking into the Aug. 5, 2005, incident.
Little Rock notched its’ 22nd homicide of 2006 over the weekend.
A recently completed study shows the city of Cabot could collect $2.3 million annually in impact fees attached to new construction. If the city council approves the plan as drafted, the new revenue would be earmarked for roads, wastewater, parks and fire protection.
One of the state's most outspoken attorneys has had his law license suspended. The Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct voted 4-3 on Friday to suspend Oscar Stilley's license for six months. The committee said the Fort Smith attorney used "strident" language in a 2002 brief. Stilley said he plans to appeal.
Linda Caillouet reports in today’s Paper Trails in the Democrat-Gazette that somebody in the upper crust Hillcrest neighborhood in Little Rock is taking direct measures on the “cat problem.” Autopsies on two of the cats by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory reveal they were killed with.22-caliber bullets. Another cat was beaten, and a fourth one poisoned. A private investigator has been hired. The shootings apparently occurred within a block of Holy Souls School.
Starting this week, mobile disaster units will be open in four of the Arkansas counties hit by the recent storms. The centers will be set up by state and federal agencies in Lawrence, Fulton, Randolph, and Greene counties beginning Monday. More than $500,000 has been approved for disaster relief.
A new mental health policy for Arkansas prison inmates, unanimously approved by the Board of Corrections on Friday, will make it less likely that they will be held in sensory-deprived environments like the Varner Supermax Unit. The administrative regulation came about a month after prison officials, acting on the advice of a prison psychiatrist, removed “about eight” inmates from the supermax program at the prison in Lincoln County.
The Arkansas General Assembly has overridden Gov. Mike Huckabee’s veto of a $570,303 appropriation for specialists to improve science education in the elementary schools. Huckabee had urged the lawmakers not to override, saying he supported the program but the funds would be taken from an account that would be better reserved for future college scholarships. He said it would have been better to take the money from surplus state revenues.
Unemployment in Arkansas inched up to 4.8 percent in March, slightly higher than the 4.7 percent rate in February, according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
First Bank Corp. pledged $1 million to the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith’s College of Business last week.
Julian English of Pine Bluff, who allegedly shot another man at the Tyson processing plant on Jefferson Parkway Wednesday night and was then shot by police, will be held on a $1 million cash only bond, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge ruled Friday. He is presently being treated at UAMS.
Authorities are investigating at least four white men for their alleged involvement in a cross burning last summer. Christopher Baird of Fouke pleaded guilty in federal district court in Texarkana to one count of conspiracy to interfere with the right to occupy a dwelling free from intimidation and interference based on race and color. The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division is looking into the Aug. 5, 2005, incident.
Little Rock notched its’ 22nd homicide of 2006 over the weekend.
A recently completed study shows the city of Cabot could collect $2.3 million annually in impact fees attached to new construction. If the city council approves the plan as drafted, the new revenue would be earmarked for roads, wastewater, parks and fire protection.
One of the state's most outspoken attorneys has had his law license suspended. The Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct voted 4-3 on Friday to suspend Oscar Stilley's license for six months. The committee said the Fort Smith attorney used "strident" language in a 2002 brief. Stilley said he plans to appeal.
Linda Caillouet reports in today’s Paper Trails in the Democrat-Gazette that somebody in the upper crust Hillcrest neighborhood in Little Rock is taking direct measures on the “cat problem.” Autopsies on two of the cats by the Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory reveal they were killed with.22-caliber bullets. Another cat was beaten, and a fourth one poisoned. A private investigator has been hired. The shootings apparently occurred within a block of Holy Souls School.
