Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Wednesday Happenings
Aaron Sadler of the Stephens Media Group reports the new “adequacy” report from the same consultants who prepared the state's first such study in 2003 calls for the state to "re-engineer" its schools with tougher curriculum, smaller class sizes and schools with between 400 and 600 students. The consultants renewed their recommendation that the state's teachers be paid depending on their knowledge and skill levels, instead of a seniority-based system. The report recommends that bonuses be given collectively to teachers in high-performing schools.
Nearly 72 percent of Arkansas public school students finish high school, a graduation rate better than the national average. A report released Tuesday showed 71.8 percent of Arkansas students completed high school, compared to 69.6 percent nationwide.
A task force created to review apparent failures in the state's protective services system that allowed an elderly Bentonville woman to turn away state assistance just days before she died recommended sweeping changes, including hiring dozens of new state workers at a cost of $1.7 million. Other proposals would require extensive assessments of elderly patients living a home, broaden the state's authority to remove patients from their homes when a judge is not available and add to the list of those required to report suspected adult abuse.
Today’s Democrat-Gazette reports Acxiom has taken the rare corporate step of asking the Federal Aviation Administration to stop publishing flight information for its two jets. The move comes after the Democrat-Gazette and The New York Times published stories in May examining personal flights that chief executive Charles Morgan made to his private golf club in Mexico. ValueAct Capital Partners had begun to combine flight information with other public records in the hedge fund’s effort to oust board members at Acxiom’s annual meeting in August.
The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas reports The Rev. Ronnie Floyd cried "foul" when learning beer would be sold at a proposed $33 million baseball stadium in Springdale. Floyd, who leads 16,000 members of the First Baptist Church in Springdale and the Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, originally endorsed the project in a video that was shown at a Springdale Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center last week.
U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln will be on CNN’s Larry King Live tonight to discuss the legislative priorities of the nine Democratic women serving as senators. The show airs at 8 p.m. CDT.
The Nature Conservancy and Game and Fish Commission have announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads one of their biologists to an ivorybilled woodpecker nest, roost cavity or feeding site in Arkansas.
A Bentonville jury recommended Tuesday that Darra Barritt serve 15 years in prison for shaking her 2-month-old baby and leaving the child severely brain injured and blind. Kira, now 17 months old, suffered bleeding to her brain and eyes that doctors said could be caused only by repeated violent shaking.
Six inmates, including a man accused of capital murder, escaped through holes cut in the ceiling of the Van Buren County jail early Tuesday, and some of them were later believed to have stolen a newspaper carrier’s car.
The Scott County Quorum Court authorized its attorney and bond underwriter to prepare to sell $6.5 million in bonds for a new county jail, although there is presently no funding guaranteed to operate such a facility.
Conway’s third annual Gay Pride Parade is scheduled for Sunday with no protests announced so far. The first parade was marked by the arrest of two employees of Signal Media’s KABZ Radio Station, 103.7 “The Buzz”, on felony charges of distributing pornography to a minor. Those charges were eventually reduced to misdemeanors.
Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Frank Melton has reiterated his pledge to declare a state of emergency and impose a curfew if a spate of violent crime continues in the city.
Longtime Hot Springs resident Sarah French was recently crowned Miss Missouri and will go on to compete in the Miss America pageant.
Nearly 72 percent of Arkansas public school students finish high school, a graduation rate better than the national average. A report released Tuesday showed 71.8 percent of Arkansas students completed high school, compared to 69.6 percent nationwide.
A task force created to review apparent failures in the state's protective services system that allowed an elderly Bentonville woman to turn away state assistance just days before she died recommended sweeping changes, including hiring dozens of new state workers at a cost of $1.7 million. Other proposals would require extensive assessments of elderly patients living a home, broaden the state's authority to remove patients from their homes when a judge is not available and add to the list of those required to report suspected adult abuse.
Today’s Democrat-Gazette reports Acxiom has taken the rare corporate step of asking the Federal Aviation Administration to stop publishing flight information for its two jets. The move comes after the Democrat-Gazette and The New York Times published stories in May examining personal flights that chief executive Charles Morgan made to his private golf club in Mexico. ValueAct Capital Partners had begun to combine flight information with other public records in the hedge fund’s effort to oust board members at Acxiom’s annual meeting in August.
The Morning News of Northwest Arkansas reports The Rev. Ronnie Floyd cried "foul" when learning beer would be sold at a proposed $33 million baseball stadium in Springdale. Floyd, who leads 16,000 members of the First Baptist Church in Springdale and the Church at Pinnacle Hills in Rogers, originally endorsed the project in a video that was shown at a Springdale Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the Northwest Arkansas Convention Center last week.
U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln will be on CNN’s Larry King Live tonight to discuss the legislative priorities of the nine Democratic women serving as senators. The show airs at 8 p.m. CDT.
The Nature Conservancy and Game and Fish Commission have announced a $10,000 reward for information that leads one of their biologists to an ivorybilled woodpecker nest, roost cavity or feeding site in Arkansas.
A Bentonville jury recommended Tuesday that Darra Barritt serve 15 years in prison for shaking her 2-month-old baby and leaving the child severely brain injured and blind. Kira, now 17 months old, suffered bleeding to her brain and eyes that doctors said could be caused only by repeated violent shaking.
Six inmates, including a man accused of capital murder, escaped through holes cut in the ceiling of the Van Buren County jail early Tuesday, and some of them were later believed to have stolen a newspaper carrier’s car.
The Scott County Quorum Court authorized its attorney and bond underwriter to prepare to sell $6.5 million in bonds for a new county jail, although there is presently no funding guaranteed to operate such a facility.
Conway’s third annual Gay Pride Parade is scheduled for Sunday with no protests announced so far. The first parade was marked by the arrest of two employees of Signal Media’s KABZ Radio Station, 103.7 “The Buzz”, on felony charges of distributing pornography to a minor. Those charges were eventually reduced to misdemeanors.
Jackson, Mississippi Mayor Frank Melton has reiterated his pledge to declare a state of emergency and impose a curfew if a spate of violent crime continues in the city.
Longtime Hot Springs resident Sarah French was recently crowned Miss Missouri and will go on to compete in the Miss America pageant.
