Monday, January 29, 2007
Brisk Monday summary
HBO says it has officially picked up 12 Miles of Bad Road, a new hour-long comedy series by husband and wife producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason, formerly of Arkansas.
Today is the 22nd day of the 86th General Assembly and lawmakers show no signs they’re in a hurry to move on one of the major issues of the session: tax relief.
The House passed a proposal that would extend the amount of time between clemency applications for inmates serving life in prison without parole.
Another employee at the Tucker Unit has resigned and 19 inmates have been transferred to other prisons in an ongoing probe of contraband computer use and the sale of inmate transfers. Other prison units in the state also are being searched for illegal goods in a widening investigation sparked by the confiscation of contraband computers and drugs at the Tucker Unit.
Pulaski County sheriff ’s deputies arrested a 30-yearold Little Rock man charging him with three counts of rape involving a 9-year-old girl. After Billy Joe Kelley was taken to jail, he was served with a Little Rock police warrant charging him with failing to register as a sex offender. Kelley, a father of three, has been convicted twice of sex crimes and has a criminal history dating almost 13 years.
Brent Robinson of Sweet Home is under arrest on suspicion that he had poured a flammable liquid on his live-in girlfriend, Cynthia Young and set her afire. Young reportedly has severe burns over 50 percent of her body.
Michael Williams, A 20-year-old Southeast Arkansas man, was arrested Friday afternoon in connection with the Friday morning stabbing and bludgeoning death of Yolanda Jones, a Dermott florist.
Despite pleas for leniency from his attorney and about 70 letter-writing friends and family members, Little Rock businessman Warren Overton was sentenced Friday to 40 months in federal prison for defrauding OneBanc out of $1.3 million.
The Saline County prosecuting attorney’s office said Friday that it had agreed to drop the death penalty against the suspect in a 2006 double homicide in hopes that Canadian authorities will agree to his extradition.
The administrator who manages the Little Rock School District’s efforts to comply with a federal court desegregation order told a judge Saturday that the databases needed to assess different academic programs aren’t in place. Karen DeJarnette, the district’s director of planning, research and evaluation, also told U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson Jr. that her department was hindered in complying with the court order by extraneous demands placed on staff from other district supervisors.
Lee County School District officials will meet with union representatives today to try to settle a teacher strike over requested bonuses.
Members of the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission are asking why the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality hasn’t done more to stop erosion from the Overlook Estates Development in Baxter County. Dirt and rocks are flowing into a trout stream in north-central Arkansas. Director Marcus Devine says his department doesn’t have an emergency fund to pay for the $500,000 cleanup.
Gov. Mike Beebe appointed Maj. Gen. Bill Wofford as the state’s new adjutant general, one week after telling Maj. Gen. Ron Chastain that he would be replaced as commander of the state’s National Guard forces.
Gov. Mike Beebe has appointed James D. Kennedy of Russellville as circuit judge for the 5th Judicial District, 1st Division, Beebe’s office said.
Andrew Walchuck of Conway High School has scored a perfect 36 on his ACT test.
As expected, former Governor Mike Huckabee, announced over the weekend his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
Today is the 22nd day of the 86th General Assembly and lawmakers show no signs they’re in a hurry to move on one of the major issues of the session: tax relief.
The House passed a proposal that would extend the amount of time between clemency applications for inmates serving life in prison without parole.
Another employee at the Tucker Unit has resigned and 19 inmates have been transferred to other prisons in an ongoing probe of contraband computer use and the sale of inmate transfers. Other prison units in the state also are being searched for illegal goods in a widening investigation sparked by the confiscation of contraband computers and drugs at the Tucker Unit.
Pulaski County sheriff ’s deputies arrested a 30-yearold Little Rock man charging him with three counts of rape involving a 9-year-old girl. After Billy Joe Kelley was taken to jail, he was served with a Little Rock police warrant charging him with failing to register as a sex offender. Kelley, a father of three, has been convicted twice of sex crimes and has a criminal history dating almost 13 years.
Brent Robinson of Sweet Home is under arrest on suspicion that he had poured a flammable liquid on his live-in girlfriend, Cynthia Young and set her afire. Young reportedly has severe burns over 50 percent of her body.
Michael Williams, A 20-year-old Southeast Arkansas man, was arrested Friday afternoon in connection with the Friday morning stabbing and bludgeoning death of Yolanda Jones, a Dermott florist.
Despite pleas for leniency from his attorney and about 70 letter-writing friends and family members, Little Rock businessman Warren Overton was sentenced Friday to 40 months in federal prison for defrauding OneBanc out of $1.3 million.
The Saline County prosecuting attorney’s office said Friday that it had agreed to drop the death penalty against the suspect in a 2006 double homicide in hopes that Canadian authorities will agree to his extradition.
The administrator who manages the Little Rock School District’s efforts to comply with a federal court desegregation order told a judge Saturday that the databases needed to assess different academic programs aren’t in place. Karen DeJarnette, the district’s director of planning, research and evaluation, also told U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson Jr. that her department was hindered in complying with the court order by extraneous demands placed on staff from other district supervisors.
Lee County School District officials will meet with union representatives today to try to settle a teacher strike over requested bonuses.
Members of the Pollution Control and Ecology Commission are asking why the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality hasn’t done more to stop erosion from the Overlook Estates Development in Baxter County. Dirt and rocks are flowing into a trout stream in north-central Arkansas. Director Marcus Devine says his department doesn’t have an emergency fund to pay for the $500,000 cleanup.
Gov. Mike Beebe appointed Maj. Gen. Bill Wofford as the state’s new adjutant general, one week after telling Maj. Gen. Ron Chastain that he would be replaced as commander of the state’s National Guard forces.
Gov. Mike Beebe has appointed James D. Kennedy of Russellville as circuit judge for the 5th Judicial District, 1st Division, Beebe’s office said.
Andrew Walchuck of Conway High School has scored a perfect 36 on his ACT test.
As expected, former Governor Mike Huckabee, announced over the weekend his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination.
