Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Tuesday two-step
An estimated throng of more than 5,000 men, women and children wearing white shirts rallied at Murphy Park in Springdale on Monday afternoon. At the state capitol, numbers were estimated in the 2,000 range as demonstrators rallied against proposed immigration legislation.
According to the Stephens Media Group, Grand jurors clustered alongside U.S. 412 on Monday afternoon and used a life-sized dummy to piece together the scene March 7 when a disabled man was fatally shot by an Arkansas State Police trooper. The Benton County grand jury was in its fourth day of investigating the death of 21-year-old Erin Hamley, whom police mistook for an 18-year-old Michigan prison escapee.
Paul Barton reports in the Business section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that an onslaught of witnesses Monday urged federal officials not to let Wal-Mart Stores Inc. into banking, warning it would do to community banks what it has done to smaller retailers: put them out of business. “Over the years, Wal-Mart, the largest retail company in the world, has become the poster child for unscrupulous corporate behavior,” testified John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
The state Board of Education on Monday scheduled a hearing next month on whether to allow Academics Plus of Maumelle, a financially troubled central Arkansas charter school, to continue operation.
The billionaire majority stockholder in American Railcar Industries Inc. will pay an undisclosed amount to ensure that the roughly 350 employees at the firm’s storm-damaged Marmaduke plant receive pay and benefits. Carl Icahn, perhaps best known as the corporate raider who engineered a hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines in the 1980s, also is the chairman of St. Charles, Mo.-based American Railcar.
Today’s Democrat-Gazette reports on the forced consolidation of the Waldo and Magnolia school districts. Waldo parents are pleased and the Magnolia system, which recently absorbed Walker schools, is concerned about having space for new “under achieving” students. Waldo is 87% black, and nearby Stephens wanted to merge, but is 77% black, and is under a desegregation order.
Gov. Mike Huckabee signed into law Monday a bill that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $6.25 an hour, giving Arkansas’ workers a higher minimum wage than is paid in any surrounding state.
The Arkansas AFL-CIO is supporting a proposed constitutional amendment to create a state lottery and authorize a private corporation to operate casinos in seven Arkansas counties, the union federation’s president said Monday.
Alltel Corp announces the name of its new wireline spinoff, Windstream Communications, and says the publicly traded company will be headquartered at the former Alltel Information Services site in west Little Rock.
A University of Arkansas student had a frightening welcome when he walked into his dorm room last week -- 12 to 15 bats. University police are investigating an apparent "prank" that will likely result in criminal charges.
Police arrested a 27-year-old Little Rock man Sunday after shots were fired outside a fraternity party at the National Guard Armory in Fayetteville. No one was injured. Naim O. Page of Little Rock was arrested in connection with a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a felony. A 9 mm semi-automatic pistol was found in his car, police said.
Fans buying tickets and concessions at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock will help pay a construction overrun for the baseball stadium, the City Council agreed Monday night. The council also accepted a $170,000 rise in the construction cost — increased to $32.69 million — to stabilize parts of the riverfront site’s foundation for construction of the ballpark.
Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees, including some in Arkansas, boarded buses and traveled to Louisiana on Monday to cast early ballots in New Orleans' storm-delayed election for mayor. The election officially is April 22, but residents scattered around the country by the storm will be able to vote all week at satellite voting centers set up in Lake Charles, Shreveport, New Orleans and seven other cities around the state.
According to the Stephens Media Group, Grand jurors clustered alongside U.S. 412 on Monday afternoon and used a life-sized dummy to piece together the scene March 7 when a disabled man was fatally shot by an Arkansas State Police trooper. The Benton County grand jury was in its fourth day of investigating the death of 21-year-old Erin Hamley, whom police mistook for an 18-year-old Michigan prison escapee.
Paul Barton reports in the Business section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that an onslaught of witnesses Monday urged federal officials not to let Wal-Mart Stores Inc. into banking, warning it would do to community banks what it has done to smaller retailers: put them out of business. “Over the years, Wal-Mart, the largest retail company in the world, has become the poster child for unscrupulous corporate behavior,” testified John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.
The state Board of Education on Monday scheduled a hearing next month on whether to allow Academics Plus of Maumelle, a financially troubled central Arkansas charter school, to continue operation.
The billionaire majority stockholder in American Railcar Industries Inc. will pay an undisclosed amount to ensure that the roughly 350 employees at the firm’s storm-damaged Marmaduke plant receive pay and benefits. Carl Icahn, perhaps best known as the corporate raider who engineered a hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines in the 1980s, also is the chairman of St. Charles, Mo.-based American Railcar.
Today’s Democrat-Gazette reports on the forced consolidation of the Waldo and Magnolia school districts. Waldo parents are pleased and the Magnolia system, which recently absorbed Walker schools, is concerned about having space for new “under achieving” students. Waldo is 87% black, and nearby Stephens wanted to merge, but is 77% black, and is under a desegregation order.
Gov. Mike Huckabee signed into law Monday a bill that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $6.25 an hour, giving Arkansas’ workers a higher minimum wage than is paid in any surrounding state.
The Arkansas AFL-CIO is supporting a proposed constitutional amendment to create a state lottery and authorize a private corporation to operate casinos in seven Arkansas counties, the union federation’s president said Monday.
Alltel Corp announces the name of its new wireline spinoff, Windstream Communications, and says the publicly traded company will be headquartered at the former Alltel Information Services site in west Little Rock.
A University of Arkansas student had a frightening welcome when he walked into his dorm room last week -- 12 to 15 bats. University police are investigating an apparent "prank" that will likely result in criminal charges.
Police arrested a 27-year-old Little Rock man Sunday after shots were fired outside a fraternity party at the National Guard Armory in Fayetteville. No one was injured. Naim O. Page of Little Rock was arrested in connection with a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a felony. A 9 mm semi-automatic pistol was found in his car, police said.
Fans buying tickets and concessions at Dickey-Stephens Park in North Little Rock will help pay a construction overrun for the baseball stadium, the City Council agreed Monday night. The council also accepted a $170,000 rise in the construction cost — increased to $32.69 million — to stabilize parts of the riverfront site’s foundation for construction of the ballpark.
Hundreds of Hurricane Katrina evacuees, including some in Arkansas, boarded buses and traveled to Louisiana on Monday to cast early ballots in New Orleans' storm-delayed election for mayor. The election officially is April 22, but residents scattered around the country by the storm will be able to vote all week at satellite voting centers set up in Lake Charles, Shreveport, New Orleans and seven other cities around the state.
