Friday, December 22, 2006
Festive Friday summary
A trust set up by the late Rollie Boreham Jr. presented gifts totaling $24 million Thursday to six Fort Smith area organizations and institutions that touched Boreham’s life. Boreham, who built Fort Smith-based Baldor Electric Co. into an international corporation, died in February at age 81.
Thomas Eakins’ masterpiece The Gross Clinic will remain in Philadelphia after a fundraising drive matched a joint $68 million offer by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
This week’s Sports Illustrated will be a hot item in the Lepanto, Tyronza and Hughes areas. The Game of the Year issue is ready for newsstands. The winner? East Poinsett County 73, Hughes 72. The high school football battle of the Warriors and Blue Devils, both winless going in, was honored with a 9-page spread in this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated.
State Sen. Bobby Glover has proposed legislation that would set up a procedure to recall the state’s constitutional officers, lawmakers and judges from office. The Carlisle Democrat’s Senate Bill 13 was filed 19 days after the state Supreme Court ruled that it will keep jurisdiction over the Lake View school-funding case, but he said he would have filed the bill no matter how the court ruled in that case. Judges “are part of the political process, and they shouldn’t be any different than anyone else,” Glover said.
Several lawmakers unveiled legislation Thursday that would authorize a $300 fine for anyone convicted of knowingly charging an annual interest rate above 17 percent in a transaction involving a consumer loan.
State Rep. Sharon Dobbins on Thursday introduced a bill that would discourage state prisons from shackling pregnant inmates while they’re in labor, and require that soft shackles rather than metal manacles be used if restraints are necessary.
A legislative panel has balked at recommending increasing the $133,290-a-year maximum-authorized salary for the executive director of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System to $145,000 in the next fiscal year.
Rep.-elect Dan Greenberg, RLittle Rock, filed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit buildings paid for with public money from being named after living people.
The state’s chief information officer, Doug Elkins, informed his employees late Wednesday that he’s leaving state government in the next few weeks. Gov.-elect Mike Beebe told Elkins during a meeting earlier in the day that he wouldn’t be reappointed.
Citing “significant” service problems in Northwest Arkansas unless soaring electricity demand is met, the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. told state regulators Thursday that it plans to build a $30 million power plant near Elkins, southeast of Fayetteville
International Paper Co. has agreed to sell five wood-products mills - including its plywood and lumber complex in Gurdon - to Georgia-Pacific for approximately $237 million.
Defense contractor Raytheon Co. plans to sell its aircraft business for $3.3 billion to Hawker Beechcraft Corp., a new company formed by an affiliate of Goldman Sachs and Onex Partners. In October, Raytheon announced a $16.3 million expansion plan for the aircraft finishing plant at Little Rock National Airport. The facility employs 645 people.
A Benton man shot and killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday and then turned the pistol on himself, taking his own life. Police identified the gunman as Steven Potter, who went to the house of his ex-wife, Jessica Morgan near Haskell and waited outside until she returned home. When Morgan arrived with her boyfriend, Brad Abercrombie of Conway, Potter walked up and shot Morgan as she got out of her Jeep Cherokee. Potter then shot Abercrombie, who was still inside the vehicle.
A Monticello man is under arrest after doctors at Arkansas Children’s Hospital found the man’s 4-month-old twin sons suffering from a number of new and healing injuries, including fractured bones. Jeffery Roehm likely will be charged with two counts of first-degree battery,
Authorities charged a Mountain Home man with two counts of negligent homicide in a Dec. 3 traffic accident that killed a Gassville couple. Christopher Maclin was “severely intoxicated” when his car collided head-on with John and Ann Whitfield. Maclin’s blood alcohol level was recorded at .20 percent, more than double the legal limit.
An incident that occurred in the area between Ward and Wallace streets in Marvell was similar to an old West shoot out. Police Chief Charles Walker reported that several gunshots were exchanged between several parties, and the incident has lead to the arrest of six individuals with an anticipated four more in the works.
Synthetic turf is scheduled to be installed at Blakemore Field in the Van Buren School District by February, according toSuperintendent Merle Dickerson. The school board voted unanimously to accept a bid of $618,885 from Hellas Construction of Austin, Texas.
The Jonesboro Sun reports Craighead Electric Cooperative customers can expect a pleasant surprise in the mail this month. The not-for-profit electric cooperative is refunding nearly $700,000 to individuals who were electric co-op customers in 1976-77. A statement released by the cooperative indicates $679,728 in capital credits are being returned to its members.
CareLink, the nonprofit organization that operates Meals-On-Wheels in central Arkansas, is warning the elderly to be wary of scam artists claiming to raise money for the program.
Linda Cailouet reports in the Democrat-Gazette that Socks, the Clintons’ famous cat, who has lived in both the Arkansas governor’s mansion and the White House and who once served as grand marshal of the Little Rock Holiday parade, is still alive and well at 15, living with Clinton’s former executive assistant Betty Currie at her home in suburban Maryland.
Thomas Eakins’ masterpiece The Gross Clinic will remain in Philadelphia after a fundraising drive matched a joint $68 million offer by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
This week’s Sports Illustrated will be a hot item in the Lepanto, Tyronza and Hughes areas. The Game of the Year issue is ready for newsstands. The winner? East Poinsett County 73, Hughes 72. The high school football battle of the Warriors and Blue Devils, both winless going in, was honored with a 9-page spread in this week’s issue of Sports Illustrated.
State Sen. Bobby Glover has proposed legislation that would set up a procedure to recall the state’s constitutional officers, lawmakers and judges from office. The Carlisle Democrat’s Senate Bill 13 was filed 19 days after the state Supreme Court ruled that it will keep jurisdiction over the Lake View school-funding case, but he said he would have filed the bill no matter how the court ruled in that case. Judges “are part of the political process, and they shouldn’t be any different than anyone else,” Glover said.
Several lawmakers unveiled legislation Thursday that would authorize a $300 fine for anyone convicted of knowingly charging an annual interest rate above 17 percent in a transaction involving a consumer loan.
State Rep. Sharon Dobbins on Thursday introduced a bill that would discourage state prisons from shackling pregnant inmates while they’re in labor, and require that soft shackles rather than metal manacles be used if restraints are necessary.
A legislative panel has balked at recommending increasing the $133,290-a-year maximum-authorized salary for the executive director of the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System to $145,000 in the next fiscal year.
Rep.-elect Dan Greenberg, RLittle Rock, filed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit buildings paid for with public money from being named after living people.
The state’s chief information officer, Doug Elkins, informed his employees late Wednesday that he’s leaving state government in the next few weeks. Gov.-elect Mike Beebe told Elkins during a meeting earlier in the day that he wouldn’t be reappointed.
Citing “significant” service problems in Northwest Arkansas unless soaring electricity demand is met, the Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. told state regulators Thursday that it plans to build a $30 million power plant near Elkins, southeast of Fayetteville
International Paper Co. has agreed to sell five wood-products mills - including its plywood and lumber complex in Gurdon - to Georgia-Pacific for approximately $237 million.
Defense contractor Raytheon Co. plans to sell its aircraft business for $3.3 billion to Hawker Beechcraft Corp., a new company formed by an affiliate of Goldman Sachs and Onex Partners. In October, Raytheon announced a $16.3 million expansion plan for the aircraft finishing plant at Little Rock National Airport. The facility employs 645 people.
A Benton man shot and killed his ex-wife and her boyfriend about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday and then turned the pistol on himself, taking his own life. Police identified the gunman as Steven Potter, who went to the house of his ex-wife, Jessica Morgan near Haskell and waited outside until she returned home. When Morgan arrived with her boyfriend, Brad Abercrombie of Conway, Potter walked up and shot Morgan as she got out of her Jeep Cherokee. Potter then shot Abercrombie, who was still inside the vehicle.
A Monticello man is under arrest after doctors at Arkansas Children’s Hospital found the man’s 4-month-old twin sons suffering from a number of new and healing injuries, including fractured bones. Jeffery Roehm likely will be charged with two counts of first-degree battery,
Authorities charged a Mountain Home man with two counts of negligent homicide in a Dec. 3 traffic accident that killed a Gassville couple. Christopher Maclin was “severely intoxicated” when his car collided head-on with John and Ann Whitfield. Maclin’s blood alcohol level was recorded at .20 percent, more than double the legal limit.
An incident that occurred in the area between Ward and Wallace streets in Marvell was similar to an old West shoot out. Police Chief Charles Walker reported that several gunshots were exchanged between several parties, and the incident has lead to the arrest of six individuals with an anticipated four more in the works.
Synthetic turf is scheduled to be installed at Blakemore Field in the Van Buren School District by February, according toSuperintendent Merle Dickerson. The school board voted unanimously to accept a bid of $618,885 from Hellas Construction of Austin, Texas.
The Jonesboro Sun reports Craighead Electric Cooperative customers can expect a pleasant surprise in the mail this month. The not-for-profit electric cooperative is refunding nearly $700,000 to individuals who were electric co-op customers in 1976-77. A statement released by the cooperative indicates $679,728 in capital credits are being returned to its members.
CareLink, the nonprofit organization that operates Meals-On-Wheels in central Arkansas, is warning the elderly to be wary of scam artists claiming to raise money for the program.
Linda Cailouet reports in the Democrat-Gazette that Socks, the Clintons’ famous cat, who has lived in both the Arkansas governor’s mansion and the White House and who once served as grand marshal of the Little Rock Holiday parade, is still alive and well at 15, living with Clinton’s former executive assistant Betty Currie at her home in suburban Maryland.
