Monday, October 16, 2006
Monday soaked summary
The state’s two largest airports plan to ask the Legislature to allow them and other Arkansas airports to tap new sources of state money to help finance capital improvements. In addition to tapping the projected $700 million surplus, airports want to share the existing tax on jet fuel, and creating a new sales tax on aviation fuel, parking, and concessions.
International Paper Co. has entered into an agreement to sell its Pine Bluff pulp and paper mill to an affiliate of New Zealand-based Carter Holt Harvey Ltd. The Pine Bluff mill employs 1,150 and produces coated paper for magazines and a significant portion of the world’s liquidpackaging board for juice and milk cartons. A sale price has yet to be negotiated.
Heifer International expects to scale back plans for its global village in Little Rock after some of the charity’s donors balked at the project’s $64 million price tag.
The number of independently run, open-enrollment charter schools in Arkansas will more than double in 2007-08 if all 11 applications submitted to the state Department of Education are approved.
A New York jury will resume deliberating today whether to convict an Arkansas man of murder. He is accused of driving the wrong way down a Long Island parkway - with his alcohol blood level allegedly three times the legal limit - and slamming head-on into a wedding limousine, killing the chauffeur and a 7-year-old flower girl. Martin Heidgen was charged with murder after prosecutors said he showed a “depraved indifference to human life” by allegedly ignoring drivers on the highway who flashed their headlights and honked their horns trying to alert him he was driving the wrong way in July 2005.
The state medical examiner is investigating the death of a 46-year-old homeless man who had been hospitalized since late July, when he was severely beaten and discovered lying in the front yard of a Little Rock home, bleeding from his nose and mouth. William Wesley died at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of an infection acquired while staying at the hospital. Jonathan Brown of Little Rock is charged with first-degree battery.
The Legislative Audit Committee will investigate a possible illegal transfer of funds from the Saline County Sheriff's Department's commissary fund into the bank account of the Saline County Deputy Sheriffs Association. The request for assistance in the investigation from Saline County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Herzfeld cites “the suspicion of theft” within the deputies association and seeks “a formal investigation by the Legislative Audit and the Arkansas State Police” into the deputies association and “the Saline County Sheriff's Office
The former treasurer of the Walnut Ridge School District misappropriated nearly $67,000 through unauthorized payroll disbursements and not depositing fees, according to a state audit.
Assistant Springdale Police Chief Ken Watson is currently suspended without pay from the police force. Watson was suspended for 10 days, according to Kathy O'Kelley, police chief. Watson has appealed to the Civil Service Commission and neither Watson or O’Kelly are discussing the circumstances of the suspension.
A former Arkansas Rehabilitation Services manager improperly gave himself a raise and authorized bonuses to himself and six coworkers, according to a state audit. The former personnel manager for the agency, Kevin Lewis, raised his annual salary by more than $10,400 late last summer. Agency managers caught the raise soon after, and Lewis resigned in October 2005.
After spending the past 42 years of his life in prison for the 1964 rape of a Pope County woman, a former Russellville man is now asking for executive clemency. Early next month, Gov. Mike Huckabee will review the Arkansas Parole Board’s recommendation to allow 82 year-old Phillip Henson, a.k.a. Robert Scheick, to be released early from the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Passengers on Jonesboro Economical Transit System buses should have an added sense of security after the installation of surveillance cameras last week. Each bus has three digital cameras which provide a rear-to-front view of the bus, a view of the door and the wheelchair lift.
State Sen. Tracy Steele says that he’ll resign as executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, effective Nov. 17, to pursue business interests, including launching a monthly publication aimed at blacks.
The Cleveland, Mississippi High School celebrated it’s 100th anniversary last weekend.
International Paper Co. has entered into an agreement to sell its Pine Bluff pulp and paper mill to an affiliate of New Zealand-based Carter Holt Harvey Ltd. The Pine Bluff mill employs 1,150 and produces coated paper for magazines and a significant portion of the world’s liquidpackaging board for juice and milk cartons. A sale price has yet to be negotiated.
Heifer International expects to scale back plans for its global village in Little Rock after some of the charity’s donors balked at the project’s $64 million price tag.
The number of independently run, open-enrollment charter schools in Arkansas will more than double in 2007-08 if all 11 applications submitted to the state Department of Education are approved.
A New York jury will resume deliberating today whether to convict an Arkansas man of murder. He is accused of driving the wrong way down a Long Island parkway - with his alcohol blood level allegedly three times the legal limit - and slamming head-on into a wedding limousine, killing the chauffeur and a 7-year-old flower girl. Martin Heidgen was charged with murder after prosecutors said he showed a “depraved indifference to human life” by allegedly ignoring drivers on the highway who flashed their headlights and honked their horns trying to alert him he was driving the wrong way in July 2005.
The state medical examiner is investigating the death of a 46-year-old homeless man who had been hospitalized since late July, when he was severely beaten and discovered lying in the front yard of a Little Rock home, bleeding from his nose and mouth. William Wesley died at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences of an infection acquired while staying at the hospital. Jonathan Brown of Little Rock is charged with first-degree battery.
The Legislative Audit Committee will investigate a possible illegal transfer of funds from the Saline County Sheriff's Department's commissary fund into the bank account of the Saline County Deputy Sheriffs Association. The request for assistance in the investigation from Saline County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Herzfeld cites “the suspicion of theft” within the deputies association and seeks “a formal investigation by the Legislative Audit and the Arkansas State Police” into the deputies association and “the Saline County Sheriff's Office
The former treasurer of the Walnut Ridge School District misappropriated nearly $67,000 through unauthorized payroll disbursements and not depositing fees, according to a state audit.
Assistant Springdale Police Chief Ken Watson is currently suspended without pay from the police force. Watson was suspended for 10 days, according to Kathy O'Kelley, police chief. Watson has appealed to the Civil Service Commission and neither Watson or O’Kelly are discussing the circumstances of the suspension.
A former Arkansas Rehabilitation Services manager improperly gave himself a raise and authorized bonuses to himself and six coworkers, according to a state audit. The former personnel manager for the agency, Kevin Lewis, raised his annual salary by more than $10,400 late last summer. Agency managers caught the raise soon after, and Lewis resigned in October 2005.
After spending the past 42 years of his life in prison for the 1964 rape of a Pope County woman, a former Russellville man is now asking for executive clemency. Early next month, Gov. Mike Huckabee will review the Arkansas Parole Board’s recommendation to allow 82 year-old Phillip Henson, a.k.a. Robert Scheick, to be released early from the Arkansas Department of Correction.
Passengers on Jonesboro Economical Transit System buses should have an added sense of security after the installation of surveillance cameras last week. Each bus has three digital cameras which provide a rear-to-front view of the bus, a view of the door and the wheelchair lift.
State Sen. Tracy Steele says that he’ll resign as executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, effective Nov. 17, to pursue business interests, including launching a monthly publication aimed at blacks.
The Cleveland, Mississippi High School celebrated it’s 100th anniversary last weekend.
