Lynch at Large

Seth Blomeley reports in today’s Democrat-Gazette that Gov. Mike Huckabee says that he’s seriously considering a tax rebate for Arkansans and is urging people to lobby their legislators to support the idea. Most legislative leaders weren’t keen on Huckabee’s idea. They cited lingering needs for public schools, the likelihood of continued rising Medicaid costs and the possibility of another economic downturn that could lead to revenue shortfalls and budget cuts.

Developers will be able to go ahead on a planned $130 million shopping center development in North Little Rock, which includes a Bass Pro Shop. Federal Judge George Howard issued a ruling finding that a group of conservationists had no standing to halt the project with a lawsuit.

Among the emails to and from former FEMA director Michael Brown released yesterday, is an exchange with former Arkansas Senator turned lobbyist Tim Hutchinson early on the morning Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans, seeking a face-to-face meeting between brown and one of his clients, Blu-Med Response Systems.

Arkansas Business reports that Tyson Foods of Springdale s has increased its weekly tests for avian flu since last year. The meat processor now conducts 15,000 tests per week for the avian influenza, five times more often than it did last year.

The Rogers City Council voted down an ordinance banning chickens and fowl in much of the city. Instead, council members agreed to consider an ordinance regulating the keeping of poultry and fowl in residential areas.

Work should begin early this summer on part of the southern traffic corridor after the Springdale City Council approved a $2.1 million bid for construction. Work on the central traffic corridor should also begin this summer.

Shirley Comp, A 23-year-old Jacksonville mother is in the Pulaski County Jail with bail set at $250,000, on a capital murder charge stemming from the January death of one of her twin 3-month-old sons. Comp is also charged with second-degree battery regarding injuries to the other child.

A judge set bond at $500,000 for Dallas Flakes, who is accused of forcing his way into a Morrilton woman’s home over the weekend and stabbing her more than 20 times. The unnamed 50-year-old woman suffered neck, arm and upper body wounds, but none was life threatening,

A Salvadoran man living in Malvern as a woman, remains in the Sheridan Detention Center, charged with sexually assaulting a teenage boy. Hector Alfons Sapeda, who was also known as Ariel Sapeda, is charged with felony rape and accused of forcing a 16-year-old boy to have sex with him.
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A Warren youth minister has been charged with stalking a child over the Internet and attempted first-degree sexual assault of a minor. Police received information last week that Joseph G. Stephens, a youth minister at First United Methodist Church at Warren, may have been using the Internet to solicit sex with a Warren girl.

The head of the Arkansas Activities Association says high school football schedules for next season are being compiled as planned despite a lawsuit challenging the state's new "multiplier" for private schools.

A 100-year old black Baptist church in eastern Arkansas, the boyhood home of the state's most famous country music star and one of the nation's oldest minor league ballparks are now to Arkansas' "most endangered historic places" list. The Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas released its annual list to raise awareness of the importance of preserving the state's historic heritage.

Big Creek Golf & Country Club of Mountain Home once again has earned a five-star rating from Golf Digest for the magazine's list of the best public courses in the country.

Pine Bluff’s Union Station is 100 years old today. The historic structure is now a museum.