Lynch at Large

Runoffs in local races will be decided in elections across Arkansas today.

Attorney General and Governor-elect Mike Beebe has told the state Supreme Court that school districts waited too long to petition for more court supervision in the long-running Lake View school funding lawsuit. He also questioned financial concerns of districts, contending that the Rogers district planned to spend taxpayer dollars on “club seating” at high school football stadiums. Rogers attorney David Matthews contends that Rogers never planned to spend public money on luxury seating and that such misinformation underscores why a thorough study of school-funding legislation is needed before the court relinquishes control of the lawsuit

Clarksville High School is one of 14 schools in Arkansas that has significantly narrowed the achievement gap between higher- and lower-performing student groups during the 2003-04 and 2004-05 school years, according to a report by Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission contends in a lawsuit that the agency is exempt from the state pay scale and should be allowed to pay its employees whatever it wants.

Natural gas companies are ramping up production in the Fayetteville Shale formation. As of mid-October, Southwestern Energy Co. had 14 drilling rigs operating in the formation, extracting about 70 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The company said it will have 19 rigs operating by the end of the year.

The average North Little Rock homeowner will pay 38 percent more on his monthly electric bills next year to help the city pay twice its current cost to buy that power, according to a proposal presented to the City Council on Monday.

With the state’s prison population approaching an all-time high of 14,000, the state Board of Corrections authorized the release of 687 inmates Monday.

Authorities report that as many as 50 counterfeit tickets to the Arkansas-LSU game were discovered at War Memorial Stadium Friday.

Police have arrested Brandon Gail Stringer of Texarkana on warrants charging him with two counts of capital murder in the Sunday deaths of a Texarkana man and woman. The bodies were discovered in a burning home

Crossett police have arrested a man in a shooting at a party last week that left seven people injured. Myron Anderson of Malvern was arrested on charges of first-degree battery, aggravated assault and committing a terroristic act,

Benton Rollins, a former Ouachita County deputy prosecutor and Camden city attorney, faces two counts of manslaughter in the March 22 traffic deaths of a Yell County couple.

A former Pulaski County sheriff ’s deputy has pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree sexual assault involving three women he was guarding at the Pulaski County jail. Larry James Lambert Jr. was sentenced to 90 days in jail, five years probation, a fine of $750 and ordered to register as a sex offender. Lambert will be allowed to serve his time on the weekends.

Jury selection is underway in the trial of a West Memphis man who is blamed for the death of an Arkansas State Trooper who died after he was struck by another trooper’s police car. Attorneys questioned several potential jurors Monday morning and seated two in the opening day of the trial being held in St. Francis County Circuit Court. Prosecutors are trying to get a capital murder conviction.

A former tax preparer for H&R Block of Little Rock pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Little Rock to a felony charge of assisting in the preparation of a false income tax return, admitting that she inflated deductions and credits to create a larger refund for a client. Tina Hampton faces up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

A new judge could be named today to oversee the trial of Jackson, Mississipi Mayor Frank Melton and his two former bodyguards. Judge Tomie Green stepped down from presiding over the case, citing "improper and inappropriate contact with the trial judge and members of her family." In her order, Green said she could become "a potential witness in subsequent proceedings" involving the mayor and his ex-bodyguards.

Robert Lockwood Jr., a pioneering Mississippi Delta blues guitarist and singer who was born in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, has died. He was 91.

79 year-old Cleo Perry has been playing golf for 65 years. Sunday, at Forrest City Country Club, Perry hit his second ever hole-in-one. Perry, using a 7-wood, aced the par 3 No. 5 hole.