Monday, September 25, 2006
Mighty fine Monday
The Democrat-Gazette has filed the second of two reports about Bobby Joe Rylee, who died five days after a July 15 altercation with Russellville police officers. Police dragged a handcuffed Rylee by his arms into the Pope County Detention Center after Rylee said that he couldn’t feel his legs and that his back and legs were broken, according to a jailer who helped pull him inside. Rylee subsequently refused medical treatment.
Sharp County authorities recovered the body of 16 year-old Christopher Bodkins, who was swept away to his death in the rushing flood waters of Martin Creek. Bodkins was among rescuers responding to a call for help from a woman and three children stranded in Saturday night’s storms and floods. The search will comtinue today for the body of another man believed drowned.
Clay, Fulton, Randolph and Sharp counties declared disasters Saturday, but had not yet requested state assistance on Sunday. Fulton County Judge Charles Willett estimates that 70 percent of his county’s 2,000 miles of dirt roads had been washed away in the downpour. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service’s North Little Rock office traveled to northern Arkansas on Sunday and confirmed that at least three tornadoes had touched down Friday evening.
The government is investigating claims of abuse inside a Butterball turkey plant in Ozark after an animal-welfare group released undercover video footage showing workers throwing and sitting on live birds.
Hot Springs, North Little Rock, Little Rock, and Pine Bluff lead the state in overall crime per-capita, according to the Arkansas Crime Information Center’s statistics for 2005.
The Arkansas Board of Parole has recommended that Gov. Mike Huckabee pardon a burglar whose 2001 clemency outraged prosecutors and made headlines after news broke that his stepmother was a member of the governor’s staff. Donald Clark has a lengthy criminal record filled with burglary, theft, hot-check and illegal-possession-of-a-firearm arrests when he was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Clark County judge in 1995 for burglary convictions in four counties.
A Morrilton man accused of stealing his mother's car and checkbook to make several fraudulent purchases in Russellville is in police custody. When asked by District Judge Don Bourne if he had any comments about a $30,000 bond, 34-year-old Cedric Criswell paused and said, "I stole from my mother; I don't think that bond's high enough." Criswell remains held at the Pope County jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond on pending forgery, theft and drug possession charges.
Arkansas Game and Fish officials say a summer count of deer in Little Rock likely underestimated the population within the city and they need to look again before recommending whether the city should thin the population.
Plans to build ethanol and biodiesel plants on the grounds of a shuttered chemical plant at Helena-West Helena have been scrapped, and state environmental regulators are moving forward with cleanup efforts at the contaminated site.
A Mayflower man has run into the long arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers while trying to expand his business' parking lot. Ken Wiles, owner of Wiles Antiques, has been required to file for a permit to build on a government-protected wetland and provide mitigation for the wetland he is already using.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums have accredited the Little Rock Zoo for another five years. Accreditation hearings are held every five years for AZA member institutions.
CSI forensics consultant Gary Telgenhoff will speak Thursday at Arkansas State University.
Area leaders are hoping to drum up support to keep Greenville, Mississippi’s federal building. A “Save Our Courthouse” rally is scheduled for today at 5 p.m. in front of the federal building at the corner of Main and Poplar streets. Officials in Cleveland have been lobbying to move the courthouse there.
Sharp County authorities recovered the body of 16 year-old Christopher Bodkins, who was swept away to his death in the rushing flood waters of Martin Creek. Bodkins was among rescuers responding to a call for help from a woman and three children stranded in Saturday night’s storms and floods. The search will comtinue today for the body of another man believed drowned.
Clay, Fulton, Randolph and Sharp counties declared disasters Saturday, but had not yet requested state assistance on Sunday. Fulton County Judge Charles Willett estimates that 70 percent of his county’s 2,000 miles of dirt roads had been washed away in the downpour. Meteorologists with the National Weather Service’s North Little Rock office traveled to northern Arkansas on Sunday and confirmed that at least three tornadoes had touched down Friday evening.
The government is investigating claims of abuse inside a Butterball turkey plant in Ozark after an animal-welfare group released undercover video footage showing workers throwing and sitting on live birds.
Hot Springs, North Little Rock, Little Rock, and Pine Bluff lead the state in overall crime per-capita, according to the Arkansas Crime Information Center’s statistics for 2005.
The Arkansas Board of Parole has recommended that Gov. Mike Huckabee pardon a burglar whose 2001 clemency outraged prosecutors and made headlines after news broke that his stepmother was a member of the governor’s staff. Donald Clark has a lengthy criminal record filled with burglary, theft, hot-check and illegal-possession-of-a-firearm arrests when he was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a Clark County judge in 1995 for burglary convictions in four counties.
A Morrilton man accused of stealing his mother's car and checkbook to make several fraudulent purchases in Russellville is in police custody. When asked by District Judge Don Bourne if he had any comments about a $30,000 bond, 34-year-old Cedric Criswell paused and said, "I stole from my mother; I don't think that bond's high enough." Criswell remains held at the Pope County jail in lieu of a $50,000 bond on pending forgery, theft and drug possession charges.
Arkansas Game and Fish officials say a summer count of deer in Little Rock likely underestimated the population within the city and they need to look again before recommending whether the city should thin the population.
Plans to build ethanol and biodiesel plants on the grounds of a shuttered chemical plant at Helena-West Helena have been scrapped, and state environmental regulators are moving forward with cleanup efforts at the contaminated site.
A Mayflower man has run into the long arm of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers while trying to expand his business' parking lot. Ken Wiles, owner of Wiles Antiques, has been required to file for a permit to build on a government-protected wetland and provide mitigation for the wetland he is already using.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums have accredited the Little Rock Zoo for another five years. Accreditation hearings are held every five years for AZA member institutions.
CSI forensics consultant Gary Telgenhoff will speak Thursday at Arkansas State University.
Area leaders are hoping to drum up support to keep Greenville, Mississippi’s federal building. A “Save Our Courthouse” rally is scheduled for today at 5 p.m. in front of the federal building at the corner of Main and Poplar streets. Officials in Cleveland have been lobbying to move the courthouse there.
