Thursday, July 27, 2006
FINALLY, Thursday!
School districts across Arkansas are shredding thousands of pages of mathematics testing data from the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the Iowa Test of Educational Development after an error produced inaccurate final scores. More than two-thirds of the more than 300,00 students who took the tests in grades 3 through 9 are affected.
The Arkansas Department of Education says allegations accusing the agency of due process and equal-protection violations are “completely without merit” in seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed last month by parents and students in the Elaine School District who want to halt a merger with Marvell schools.
Monday is the deadline to file a letter of intent to start a new Charter School to open in the 2007 school year. The letter is non-binding but must be filed with the State Department of Education. The Arkansas Charter School Resource Center at the U. of A. can help interested parties draft the application.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has asked for $316 million more in state funding over the next two fiscal years, part of a budget request that would see the agency’s spending grow to $5.58 billion in fiscal 2009. The bulk of the agency’s request would be for Medicaid, a program of health-care assistance that serves about 750,000 people in the state.
Noel Oman reports in today’s Democrat-Gazette that tougher driving restrictions may be in the works for teen drivers. While many states have noted decreased deaths of young people after imposing graduated license requirements, Arkansas has seen just the opposite occur. In 2004, 101 teen drivers died in traffic crashes, the highest total recorded since the state’s graduated driver’s license law was passed in 2001, when 99 teen traffic deaths were recorded.
Acxiom Corp., fighting a hostile investor trying to place three new directors on its board, almost tripled its earnings in the quarter that ended June 30, the Little Rock data management firm said Wednesday.
An Atlanta-based real estate investment firm on Wednesday announced a proposal to build ethanol and biodiesel plants on a severely contaminated chemical plant site in Helena-West Helena. MLH Investments has submitted a plan with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to buy for $1 million a 48-acre site previously occupied by the Cedar Chemical Co., which went bankrupt in 2002.
19-year-old Thomas Felton of Lonoke County man has been arrested after a four-year-old boy told his parents that the man sexually assaulted him, while he was being baby-sat by the man's mother. Felton, whose mother was babysitting the child at the time of the alleged incident, faces a charge of second degree sexual assault.
Local and federal officials are investigating the robbery of Citizens State Bank in Bald Knob. Three black males reportedly stole an undetermined amount of cash, left through the back door, and were seen escaping on foot down Hickory St.
Springdale police arrested Charles Hammons after Hammons led four area police agencies on a high-speed chase through two counties Tuesday morning.
A bankruptcy judge spared Tommy Robinson from a criminal contempt finding but issued an injunction prohibiting the former congressman from “interfering in any way” with the distribution of his seized property. Meanwhile, Robinson said he would begin serving a five-day sentence next Sunday for a scuffle at a local restaurant.
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission officials were not prepared Wednesday to say whether a two-day count of Little Rock’s deer population will lead them to recommend its reduction, but workers said they saw signs of overpopulation in at least one area.
An unofficial report from the U. S. Census Bureau shows that the town of Pottsville has doubled in the past 5 years. Population is now expected to be about 2,500. Increased state turnback money will pay for the special census in about four months, according to the Russellville Courier.
The Arkansas Department of Education says allegations accusing the agency of due process and equal-protection violations are “completely without merit” in seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed last month by parents and students in the Elaine School District who want to halt a merger with Marvell schools.
Monday is the deadline to file a letter of intent to start a new Charter School to open in the 2007 school year. The letter is non-binding but must be filed with the State Department of Education. The Arkansas Charter School Resource Center at the U. of A. can help interested parties draft the application.
The state Department of Health and Human Services has asked for $316 million more in state funding over the next two fiscal years, part of a budget request that would see the agency’s spending grow to $5.58 billion in fiscal 2009. The bulk of the agency’s request would be for Medicaid, a program of health-care assistance that serves about 750,000 people in the state.
Noel Oman reports in today’s Democrat-Gazette that tougher driving restrictions may be in the works for teen drivers. While many states have noted decreased deaths of young people after imposing graduated license requirements, Arkansas has seen just the opposite occur. In 2004, 101 teen drivers died in traffic crashes, the highest total recorded since the state’s graduated driver’s license law was passed in 2001, when 99 teen traffic deaths were recorded.
Acxiom Corp., fighting a hostile investor trying to place three new directors on its board, almost tripled its earnings in the quarter that ended June 30, the Little Rock data management firm said Wednesday.
An Atlanta-based real estate investment firm on Wednesday announced a proposal to build ethanol and biodiesel plants on a severely contaminated chemical plant site in Helena-West Helena. MLH Investments has submitted a plan with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality to buy for $1 million a 48-acre site previously occupied by the Cedar Chemical Co., which went bankrupt in 2002.
19-year-old Thomas Felton of Lonoke County man has been arrested after a four-year-old boy told his parents that the man sexually assaulted him, while he was being baby-sat by the man's mother. Felton, whose mother was babysitting the child at the time of the alleged incident, faces a charge of second degree sexual assault.
Local and federal officials are investigating the robbery of Citizens State Bank in Bald Knob. Three black males reportedly stole an undetermined amount of cash, left through the back door, and were seen escaping on foot down Hickory St.
Springdale police arrested Charles Hammons after Hammons led four area police agencies on a high-speed chase through two counties Tuesday morning.
A bankruptcy judge spared Tommy Robinson from a criminal contempt finding but issued an injunction prohibiting the former congressman from “interfering in any way” with the distribution of his seized property. Meanwhile, Robinson said he would begin serving a five-day sentence next Sunday for a scuffle at a local restaurant.
Arkansas Game and Fish Commission officials were not prepared Wednesday to say whether a two-day count of Little Rock’s deer population will lead them to recommend its reduction, but workers said they saw signs of overpopulation in at least one area.
An unofficial report from the U. S. Census Bureau shows that the town of Pottsville has doubled in the past 5 years. Population is now expected to be about 2,500. Increased state turnback money will pay for the special census in about four months, according to the Russellville Courier.
