Monday, August 14, 2006
More Monday Madness
Former Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin avoided prison Friday after his attorneys told a federal judge he was a heart attack waiting to happen. U.S. District Judge Robert T. Dawson rejected federal prosecutors’ requests for a prison term and sentenced Coughlin to 27 months of home confinement and five years’ probation. Dawson also fined Coughlin $50,000 and ordered him to pay more than $400,000 in restitution.
Wal-Mart heir John Walton’s airplane had been heavily modified and had a loose flight control component when he crashed last summer, according to a government report released Friday. A locking collar intended to keep the flight control components aligned slid out of position because it had not been tightened properly, according to the report from the National Transportation Safety Board. Walton had also removed the fabric skin from the plane, replaced the windshield and removed a cover from the wing area, according to the report.
Supporters of tiny Paron High School will get another day in court to try and keep its doors open. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Jay Moody denied a motion by the Bryant School District to dismiss the latest lawsuit to block the school's closure and scheduled a hearing in the case for Aug. 18, just three days before the start of school.
Cabot schools officials are working to make a final decision on when and where classes will begin for students displaced by a fire which completely destroyed the junior high building Thursday. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
An Arkansas Department of Education report paints a dreary picture of the fiscal health of Arkansas’ first open-enrollment charter high school. The report, which state administrators will present at today’s state Board of Education meeting, says Haas Hall Acadeny, the Farmington-based charter school, “has very serious financial issues.” The 2-year-old college preparatory academy, which starts its school year Tuesday, is $142,774 in the red.
Lawyers for convicted killer Rickey Dale Newman say D-N-A evidence will clear their client, who is sentenced to die for the 2001 killing of a transient woman. The attorneys say in a court filing that the only physical evidence used to convict Newman - hairs found on Newman's gloves - are from someone other than the victim, 46-year-old Marie Cholette of Fort Worth, Texas. Newman was convicted in Van Buren after he admitted killing Cholette in a homeless camp, a confession he later recanted.
A federal judge soon will decide whether a state Department of Correction grooming regulation violated the religious rights of a former inmate. Michael Fegans, who recently completed his sentence in state prison on an aggravated robbery conviction and has been transferred to federal custody to serve an additional 10 years, says he spent an additional seven years locked up in Arkansas because he refused to cut his hair or trim his beard.
A former assistant manager of Rent-A-Center in Fort Smith has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the business claiming a manager exposed himself, wrote inappropriate notes and made other unwelcome advances at work. Biddle quit her job after her request for a transfer was denied.
The West Memphis Evening Times scrambled to relocate its operations after a fire Sunday morning destroyed its news offices and printing press.
Wal-Mart heir John Walton’s airplane had been heavily modified and had a loose flight control component when he crashed last summer, according to a government report released Friday. A locking collar intended to keep the flight control components aligned slid out of position because it had not been tightened properly, according to the report from the National Transportation Safety Board. Walton had also removed the fabric skin from the plane, replaced the windshield and removed a cover from the wing area, according to the report.
Supporters of tiny Paron High School will get another day in court to try and keep its doors open. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Jay Moody denied a motion by the Bryant School District to dismiss the latest lawsuit to block the school's closure and scheduled a hearing in the case for Aug. 18, just three days before the start of school.
Cabot schools officials are working to make a final decision on when and where classes will begin for students displaced by a fire which completely destroyed the junior high building Thursday. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
An Arkansas Department of Education report paints a dreary picture of the fiscal health of Arkansas’ first open-enrollment charter high school. The report, which state administrators will present at today’s state Board of Education meeting, says Haas Hall Acadeny, the Farmington-based charter school, “has very serious financial issues.” The 2-year-old college preparatory academy, which starts its school year Tuesday, is $142,774 in the red.
Lawyers for convicted killer Rickey Dale Newman say D-N-A evidence will clear their client, who is sentenced to die for the 2001 killing of a transient woman. The attorneys say in a court filing that the only physical evidence used to convict Newman - hairs found on Newman's gloves - are from someone other than the victim, 46-year-old Marie Cholette of Fort Worth, Texas. Newman was convicted in Van Buren after he admitted killing Cholette in a homeless camp, a confession he later recanted.
A federal judge soon will decide whether a state Department of Correction grooming regulation violated the religious rights of a former inmate. Michael Fegans, who recently completed his sentence in state prison on an aggravated robbery conviction and has been transferred to federal custody to serve an additional 10 years, says he spent an additional seven years locked up in Arkansas because he refused to cut his hair or trim his beard.
A former assistant manager of Rent-A-Center in Fort Smith has filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against the business claiming a manager exposed himself, wrote inappropriate notes and made other unwelcome advances at work. Biddle quit her job after her request for a transfer was denied.
The West Memphis Evening Times scrambled to relocate its operations after a fire Sunday morning destroyed its news offices and printing press.
