Monday, August 21, 2006
Back to School Monday
Classes will begin at public schools across Arkansas today, but not at Paron High School. Bryant district had planned to close Paron until a Pulaski County judge issued an order Friday. Many students had already transferred out of the district and Bryant does not know how many teachers to hire.
In Cabot, 1,200 junior high students will wait one week to begin school in portable classrooms on the high school campus. A fire destroyed the junior high building two weeks ago.
Independent candidate for governor Rod Bryan confronted Republican Asa Hutchinson at a public appearance over the weekend over how much it would cost to be a sponsor of one of the scheduled so-called debates. The gubernatorial campaigns of Democrat Mike Beebe and Republican Asa Hutchinson issued joint statements Friday announcing a debate schedule and the ground rules they will follow. Rod Bryan, an independent candidate for governor, is not included in the joint appearances.
Paul Barton, Washington correspondent for the Democrat-Gazette, reports that Jackson Stephens, head of a Little Rock biotech firm, continues to tower over other Arkansans when it comes to individual political contributions, with $283,100 so far in the 2006 federal election cycle. Most of that is a $250,000 contribution to The Club For Growth, a Section 527 political committee that aggressively supports candidates who want to cut taxes and government spending.
Arkansans have given $5.48 million to federal political candidates, parties, political-action committees and Section 527 committees so far in the 2006 election cycle, ranking it 36th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Cynthia Howell, education reporter for the Democrat-Gazette reports that the Arkansas Department of Education must prove that core academic subjects in the state’s nearly 1,100 schools are taught by “highly qualified” teachers and pay particular attention to schools that serve high numbers of poor students. The U.S. Department of Education notified Arkansas education officials last week that the state’s plan for staffing more than 120,000 classrooms “had a number of serious deficiencies,” including a lack of specific steps to ensure that poor and minority-group children are taught by the best teachers in numbers comparable to other children.
A Pulaski County circuit judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit aimed at prohibiting Arkansas winemakers from shipping their wares to consumers, paving the way for a federal judge to decide if a state ban on direct consumer sales by out-of-state wineries is legal.
Alma police investigating the 1995 abduction of a girl from a Little League ballpark say they want to know more about John Mark Karr, who was arrested in Thailand this week and held as a suspect in the death of JonBenet Ramsey in 1996.
Benton County Coroner Kimberly Scott was arrested Friday night after she told authorities that she had ingested prescription drugs confiscated from the homes of dead hospice patients
A former administrator for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith says that she was not offended by a phony ad that depicted her as an exotic dancer. Mary Beth Sudduth took the stand on the fourth day of a civil trial in former UAFS instructor Diana Payne’s federal lawsuit against the university.
A judge has set trial dates for two federal lawsuits that claim female inmates were beaten and forced to have sex with guards at the former Hancock County Jail. The suits claim the Bay St. Louis, Mississippi mayor, supervisors and sheriff failed to provide adequate supervision and will be tried in April.
Southland Park Gaming & Racing in West Memphis will make good on a campaign promise late this month with an event to fill more than 250 new positions. Southland will get $40 million in facility improvements that include a 280-seat mega-buffet, a nightclub with regular live entertainment, a 450-seat special events center, gift shop and a 30,000-square-foot electronic gaming area. Southland officials plan a soft opening by Oct. 15 and a grand opening on Nov. 1.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials worked through the weekend to change the locks on thousands of trailers used by people who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina.
Alcorn State University President Clinton Bristow, an avid runner, died Saturday night while jogging on campus. He had been president of the 3,500-student university since 1995. He was credited with improving the physical campus at Alcorn, upping the graduation rate and heavily recruiting non-black students, a goal set forth by a complicated lawsuit settled a few years ago. He was 57.
James T. "Red" Hudson, the founder of Hudson Foods and an owner of Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, died Sunday afternoon. He was 81.
In Cabot, 1,200 junior high students will wait one week to begin school in portable classrooms on the high school campus. A fire destroyed the junior high building two weeks ago.
Independent candidate for governor Rod Bryan confronted Republican Asa Hutchinson at a public appearance over the weekend over how much it would cost to be a sponsor of one of the scheduled so-called debates. The gubernatorial campaigns of Democrat Mike Beebe and Republican Asa Hutchinson issued joint statements Friday announcing a debate schedule and the ground rules they will follow. Rod Bryan, an independent candidate for governor, is not included in the joint appearances.
Paul Barton, Washington correspondent for the Democrat-Gazette, reports that Jackson Stephens, head of a Little Rock biotech firm, continues to tower over other Arkansans when it comes to individual political contributions, with $283,100 so far in the 2006 federal election cycle. Most of that is a $250,000 contribution to The Club For Growth, a Section 527 political committee that aggressively supports candidates who want to cut taxes and government spending.
Arkansans have given $5.48 million to federal political candidates, parties, political-action committees and Section 527 committees so far in the 2006 election cycle, ranking it 36th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Cynthia Howell, education reporter for the Democrat-Gazette reports that the Arkansas Department of Education must prove that core academic subjects in the state’s nearly 1,100 schools are taught by “highly qualified” teachers and pay particular attention to schools that serve high numbers of poor students. The U.S. Department of Education notified Arkansas education officials last week that the state’s plan for staffing more than 120,000 classrooms “had a number of serious deficiencies,” including a lack of specific steps to ensure that poor and minority-group children are taught by the best teachers in numbers comparable to other children.
A Pulaski County circuit judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit aimed at prohibiting Arkansas winemakers from shipping their wares to consumers, paving the way for a federal judge to decide if a state ban on direct consumer sales by out-of-state wineries is legal.
Alma police investigating the 1995 abduction of a girl from a Little League ballpark say they want to know more about John Mark Karr, who was arrested in Thailand this week and held as a suspect in the death of JonBenet Ramsey in 1996.
Benton County Coroner Kimberly Scott was arrested Friday night after she told authorities that she had ingested prescription drugs confiscated from the homes of dead hospice patients
A former administrator for the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith says that she was not offended by a phony ad that depicted her as an exotic dancer. Mary Beth Sudduth took the stand on the fourth day of a civil trial in former UAFS instructor Diana Payne’s federal lawsuit against the university.
A judge has set trial dates for two federal lawsuits that claim female inmates were beaten and forced to have sex with guards at the former Hancock County Jail. The suits claim the Bay St. Louis, Mississippi mayor, supervisors and sheriff failed to provide adequate supervision and will be tried in April.
Southland Park Gaming & Racing in West Memphis will make good on a campaign promise late this month with an event to fill more than 250 new positions. Southland will get $40 million in facility improvements that include a 280-seat mega-buffet, a nightclub with regular live entertainment, a 450-seat special events center, gift shop and a 30,000-square-foot electronic gaming area. Southland officials plan a soft opening by Oct. 15 and a grand opening on Nov. 1.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials worked through the weekend to change the locks on thousands of trailers used by people who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina.
Alcorn State University President Clinton Bristow, an avid runner, died Saturday night while jogging on campus. He had been president of the 3,500-student university since 1995. He was credited with improving the physical campus at Alcorn, upping the graduation rate and heavily recruiting non-black students, a goal set forth by a complicated lawsuit settled a few years ago. He was 57.
James T. "Red" Hudson, the founder of Hudson Foods and an owner of Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, died Sunday afternoon. He was 81.
