Friday, September 15, 2006
Friday finals
The state Crime Lab has completed the processing and testing of a “vehicle of interest” in the Casey Crowder abduction and murder case. Desha County Sheriff-elect Jim Snyder says he doesn’t know if the crime lab found any evidence that would link the white Chevrolet pickup truck to the 17-year-old Pine Bluff girl. Snyder said police believe they may know why Casey was killed but declined to disclose the possible motive.
Dr. Patrick Chan, until recently the only neurosurgeon at White County Medical Center, remains in the Pulaski County jail after being arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Chan is charged with taking kickbacks for medical equipment paid for by Medicare and Medicaid. During a detention hearing in the federal courthouse in Little Rock Thursday, Chan said he was worth $10 million and made $200,000 a month.
Today’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports on the tape recording of a conversation between a Russellville police officer and a dispatcher after a fight that led to the death of 61 year-old Bobby Rylee. Officer Bobby Stevens told dispatcher Denise Robinson “He needs an ass kicking worse than we gave him …We split his head open …All the people from Waffle House and Exxon started filing out, so we had to lay off a little bit.” The FBI is investigating.
The Arkansas Claims Commission will recommend the state pay Dylan Beeson’s family $125,000. Beeson crawled into a bathroom and drowned in his foster parents’ hot tub on Feb. 2, 2003 - one day before his first birthday and on the day he was to be reunited with his biological mother. State caseworkers began monitoring the family in February 2002 after Dylan’s mother brought the baby to the emergency room at the Medical Center of South Arkansas because of a bruise on his head. Although authorities found no evidence that parents had harmed the infant, it was removed from the home in April because a caseworker found the father had taken a motor apart on the living room floor.
Frustrated with a lack of progress in the 23-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation case, legislators have directed the state education commissioner to prod all the parties in the litigation toward resolution. Ken James, commissioner of the state Department of Education, said that within a month he plans to confer a meeting that will include leaders of the three school districts as well as the Joshua Intervenors, which represents black students countywide.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has refused state Court of Appeals Judge Wendell L. Griffen’s request to open a meeting today of the state body that is investigating his public statements.
Saying he was “selectively prosecuted” on felony theft charges because he is black, former West Helena Mayor Johnny Weaver has filed a federal lawsuit against Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long of Forrest City. Long charged Weaver, along with the former West Helena city clerk and five ex-aldermen, with felony theft of property in March. The charges arose from actions taken by the West Helena City Council in late 2005, when the aldermen voted to pay themselves for service in 2006 even though they would no longer hold office because their city would no longer exist. Weaver cashed checks for over $20,000.
Senate leaders Thursday stopped the latest effort to provide new disaster payments for farmers, leading Sen. Blanche Lincoln to blame the Bush administration. Senate Republicans thwarted an attempt to add about $6.5 billion in disaster relief as an amendment to a port security bill.
Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services officials say they need another $4.2 million a year to more than double the number of people tasked with protecting the elderly from abuse and neglect
Several legislators say that they expect the General Assembly will significantly cut the state sales tax on groceries in the legislative session that starts Jan. 8. The state sales tax rate is 6 percent. It raises about $2.5 billion a year, including about $270 million a year on the sale of groceries.
June through August was the second-hottest summer on record for the continental United States, with an average temperature of 74.5 degrees, according to a report released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only during the height of the Dust Bowl era, when the nation’s average summer temperature reached 74.7 degrees in 1936, has it ever been hotter since national record keeping began in 1895.
A Van Buren man pleaded not guilty in Crawford County Circuit Court to charges he raped and abused children at a day-care center he operated with his wife. Larry Akins is charged with 11 counts of rape and nine counts of second-degree sexual assault.
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis faces new lawsuits charging sexual abuse by priests, and additional suits are likely to follow. In separate suits filed in Circuit Court Thursday morning, plaintiffs listed simply as Jane Doe and John Doe alleged multiple counts of sexual abuse by two local priests dating back to the mid-1980s. Miami lawyer Jeffrey Herman, whose firm represents both plaintiffs, promised this is only the first "wave of suits" from other abuse victims.
Any hope of approving gambling restrictions this year in Congress may have died Wednesday when the House failed to pass a bill to require Indian casinos to be located on tribal lands.
Wal-Mart says that it will end its purchase layaway program that dates back to the company’s early days under founder Sam Walton
Delta State University has officially announced its headcount enrollment for the fall 2006 semester at 4,216 students, the most in the university's history.
Dr. Patrick Chan, until recently the only neurosurgeon at White County Medical Center, remains in the Pulaski County jail after being arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Chan is charged with taking kickbacks for medical equipment paid for by Medicare and Medicaid. During a detention hearing in the federal courthouse in Little Rock Thursday, Chan said he was worth $10 million and made $200,000 a month.
Today’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports on the tape recording of a conversation between a Russellville police officer and a dispatcher after a fight that led to the death of 61 year-old Bobby Rylee. Officer Bobby Stevens told dispatcher Denise Robinson “He needs an ass kicking worse than we gave him …We split his head open …All the people from Waffle House and Exxon started filing out, so we had to lay off a little bit.” The FBI is investigating.
The Arkansas Claims Commission will recommend the state pay Dylan Beeson’s family $125,000. Beeson crawled into a bathroom and drowned in his foster parents’ hot tub on Feb. 2, 2003 - one day before his first birthday and on the day he was to be reunited with his biological mother. State caseworkers began monitoring the family in February 2002 after Dylan’s mother brought the baby to the emergency room at the Medical Center of South Arkansas because of a bruise on his head. Although authorities found no evidence that parents had harmed the infant, it was removed from the home in April because a caseworker found the father had taken a motor apart on the living room floor.
Frustrated with a lack of progress in the 23-year-old Pulaski County school desegregation case, legislators have directed the state education commissioner to prod all the parties in the litigation toward resolution. Ken James, commissioner of the state Department of Education, said that within a month he plans to confer a meeting that will include leaders of the three school districts as well as the Joshua Intervenors, which represents black students countywide.
The Arkansas Supreme Court has refused state Court of Appeals Judge Wendell L. Griffen’s request to open a meeting today of the state body that is investigating his public statements.
Saying he was “selectively prosecuted” on felony theft charges because he is black, former West Helena Mayor Johnny Weaver has filed a federal lawsuit against Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long of Forrest City. Long charged Weaver, along with the former West Helena city clerk and five ex-aldermen, with felony theft of property in March. The charges arose from actions taken by the West Helena City Council in late 2005, when the aldermen voted to pay themselves for service in 2006 even though they would no longer hold office because their city would no longer exist. Weaver cashed checks for over $20,000.
Senate leaders Thursday stopped the latest effort to provide new disaster payments for farmers, leading Sen. Blanche Lincoln to blame the Bush administration. Senate Republicans thwarted an attempt to add about $6.5 billion in disaster relief as an amendment to a port security bill.
Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services officials say they need another $4.2 million a year to more than double the number of people tasked with protecting the elderly from abuse and neglect
Several legislators say that they expect the General Assembly will significantly cut the state sales tax on groceries in the legislative session that starts Jan. 8. The state sales tax rate is 6 percent. It raises about $2.5 billion a year, including about $270 million a year on the sale of groceries.
June through August was the second-hottest summer on record for the continental United States, with an average temperature of 74.5 degrees, according to a report released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Only during the height of the Dust Bowl era, when the nation’s average summer temperature reached 74.7 degrees in 1936, has it ever been hotter since national record keeping began in 1895.
A Van Buren man pleaded not guilty in Crawford County Circuit Court to charges he raped and abused children at a day-care center he operated with his wife. Larry Akins is charged with 11 counts of rape and nine counts of second-degree sexual assault.
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis faces new lawsuits charging sexual abuse by priests, and additional suits are likely to follow. In separate suits filed in Circuit Court Thursday morning, plaintiffs listed simply as Jane Doe and John Doe alleged multiple counts of sexual abuse by two local priests dating back to the mid-1980s. Miami lawyer Jeffrey Herman, whose firm represents both plaintiffs, promised this is only the first "wave of suits" from other abuse victims.
Any hope of approving gambling restrictions this year in Congress may have died Wednesday when the House failed to pass a bill to require Indian casinos to be located on tribal lands.
Wal-Mart says that it will end its purchase layaway program that dates back to the company’s early days under founder Sam Walton
Delta State University has officially announced its headcount enrollment for the fall 2006 semester at 4,216 students, the most in the university's history.
