Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Brisk Wednesday morning summary
Quarterback Mitch Mustain, the most heralded signee in Arkansas history, plans to leave for another school after one season with the Razorbacks.
About 400,000 homes and businesses in several states remain without electricity after a winter storm that brought ice, snow, flooding and high winds to a swath of the country from Texas to Maine. Days after a deluge of rain soaked much of the state, many Arkansas rivers remain swollen and some are not expected to crest until late this week.
A woman found her mother dead and her mother’s boyfriend seriously injured Tuesday night in the couple’s Bella Vista home, which had been without power for three days. The victims had beenn heating the house with a propane heater.
A weekend of steady rain has caused problems with the roof at the St. Francis County Courthouse. Officials and employees were greeted at the building by trash cans filled with water in several offices along with missing and soaked tile in four of the six offices occupied by elected officials.
Gov. Mike Beebe has named his campaign attorney head of the state agency that issues alcohol permits. Michael Langley of Paragould will be director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, which regulates the sale of alcohol and advises the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
A House committee Tuesday turned back legislation to bar state agencies from contracting with businesses that employ illegal immigrants.
Legislation that would give the spouses of military personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan a break on college tuition if they have to leave school sailed through the House on Tuesday.
Arkansas’ top teacher is one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year award. Justin Minkel of Fayetteville, who teaches second grade at Jones Elementary School in Springdale, will travel to Washington, D.C., for the April 23 announcement of the national award.
First Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long has moved away from private practice and is now operating as a full-time prosecutor from an office on the second floor of the St. Francis County Courthouse.
CenterPoint Energy is seeking a $50.9 million-a-year rate increase - a move partly made to compensate for lost revenue after state regulators rejected its last such request. Higher business costs are one reason the Houston-based company seeks to increase residential rates by more than 14 percent, or an average of $8.97 per month for every 5,000 cubic feet of natural gas, which approximates average household use.
Three mandatory reporters who failed to immediately notify the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services child abuse hotline of an alleged sexual assault on a Russellville school bus will not face criminal charges. Prosecutor David Gibbons called the incident a “miscommunication” and said it would never happen again.
The 18-year-old man who was arrested earlier this month in California in the Dec. 23 killing of a Little Rock bank teller is on his way back to Arkansas. Grover Evans Jr. left the Los Angeles County jail Sunday, and will arrive in Little Rock by Jan. 24. Evans faces a charge of capital murder in the shooting death of James Garison, a teller at a Metropolitan Bank branch on Rodney Parham Road who died during the robbery.
A highway worker was struck and killed in Jacksonville as he removed a dead animal Tuesday morning. Jerome Harris of College Station was struck on U.S. 67/167 by a southbound 1994 Ford pickup.
The owner of a northside Fort Smith shop was shot in the arm during a robbery Tuesday, police said. The three men police are seeking in connection with Tuesday’s robbery match the description of suspects in several recent hold-ups.
Jim Bob Steel of Nashville, a former prosecuting attorney and district court judge, faces charges of driving while intoxicated, speeding and refusing a chemical test after his arrest last week in Mineral Springs.
A contractor who built the failed Mississippi Beef Processors plant pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to mail fraud and agreed to repay $250,000 to the state. The plant opened in August 2004, but it closed three months later because of failed equipment and lack of operating capital. The plant cost Mississippi taxpayers at least $55 million.
State regulators ruled Tuesday that Entergy Arkansas failed to maintain adequate coal stockpiles at its White Bluff and Independence power plants in 2005, causing unreasonably high electric bills for its customers. To fix the problem, the Arkansas Public Service Commission ordered Entergy to cooperate with the commission’s general staff to determine refund amounts for its customers from a pair of recent fuel-rate increases.
FedEx kicked off the first operational test of an anti-missile system on a commercial carrier Tuesday when one of its planes took off from Los Angeles. The test is part of $81.4 million the company has received so far from the Department of Homeland Security to install missile defense systems on the nation's commercial carriers.
Two new Little Rock city directors have been appointed to the city’s beleaguered Advertising and Promotion Commission. In a closed session late Tuesday, the city’s Board of Directors selected Ward 2 Director Ken Richardson and At-large Director Gene Fortson to sit on the seven-member panel. Two seats remain vacant.
An escaped chimpanzee at the Little Rock Zoo raided the kitchen cupboards, scrubbed a toilet and made off with half a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread before passing out in a sedative induced stupor on top of a refrigerator.
About 400,000 homes and businesses in several states remain without electricity after a winter storm that brought ice, snow, flooding and high winds to a swath of the country from Texas to Maine. Days after a deluge of rain soaked much of the state, many Arkansas rivers remain swollen and some are not expected to crest until late this week.
A woman found her mother dead and her mother’s boyfriend seriously injured Tuesday night in the couple’s Bella Vista home, which had been without power for three days. The victims had beenn heating the house with a propane heater.
A weekend of steady rain has caused problems with the roof at the St. Francis County Courthouse. Officials and employees were greeted at the building by trash cans filled with water in several offices along with missing and soaked tile in four of the six offices occupied by elected officials.
Gov. Mike Beebe has named his campaign attorney head of the state agency that issues alcohol permits. Michael Langley of Paragould will be director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, which regulates the sale of alcohol and advises the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.
A House committee Tuesday turned back legislation to bar state agencies from contracting with businesses that employ illegal immigrants.
Legislation that would give the spouses of military personnel deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan a break on college tuition if they have to leave school sailed through the House on Tuesday.
Arkansas’ top teacher is one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year award. Justin Minkel of Fayetteville, who teaches second grade at Jones Elementary School in Springdale, will travel to Washington, D.C., for the April 23 announcement of the national award.
First Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long has moved away from private practice and is now operating as a full-time prosecutor from an office on the second floor of the St. Francis County Courthouse.
CenterPoint Energy is seeking a $50.9 million-a-year rate increase - a move partly made to compensate for lost revenue after state regulators rejected its last such request. Higher business costs are one reason the Houston-based company seeks to increase residential rates by more than 14 percent, or an average of $8.97 per month for every 5,000 cubic feet of natural gas, which approximates average household use.
Three mandatory reporters who failed to immediately notify the Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services child abuse hotline of an alleged sexual assault on a Russellville school bus will not face criminal charges. Prosecutor David Gibbons called the incident a “miscommunication” and said it would never happen again.
The 18-year-old man who was arrested earlier this month in California in the Dec. 23 killing of a Little Rock bank teller is on his way back to Arkansas. Grover Evans Jr. left the Los Angeles County jail Sunday, and will arrive in Little Rock by Jan. 24. Evans faces a charge of capital murder in the shooting death of James Garison, a teller at a Metropolitan Bank branch on Rodney Parham Road who died during the robbery.
A highway worker was struck and killed in Jacksonville as he removed a dead animal Tuesday morning. Jerome Harris of College Station was struck on U.S. 67/167 by a southbound 1994 Ford pickup.
The owner of a northside Fort Smith shop was shot in the arm during a robbery Tuesday, police said. The three men police are seeking in connection with Tuesday’s robbery match the description of suspects in several recent hold-ups.
Jim Bob Steel of Nashville, a former prosecuting attorney and district court judge, faces charges of driving while intoxicated, speeding and refusing a chemical test after his arrest last week in Mineral Springs.
A contractor who built the failed Mississippi Beef Processors plant pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to mail fraud and agreed to repay $250,000 to the state. The plant opened in August 2004, but it closed three months later because of failed equipment and lack of operating capital. The plant cost Mississippi taxpayers at least $55 million.
State regulators ruled Tuesday that Entergy Arkansas failed to maintain adequate coal stockpiles at its White Bluff and Independence power plants in 2005, causing unreasonably high electric bills for its customers. To fix the problem, the Arkansas Public Service Commission ordered Entergy to cooperate with the commission’s general staff to determine refund amounts for its customers from a pair of recent fuel-rate increases.
FedEx kicked off the first operational test of an anti-missile system on a commercial carrier Tuesday when one of its planes took off from Los Angeles. The test is part of $81.4 million the company has received so far from the Department of Homeland Security to install missile defense systems on the nation's commercial carriers.
Two new Little Rock city directors have been appointed to the city’s beleaguered Advertising and Promotion Commission. In a closed session late Tuesday, the city’s Board of Directors selected Ward 2 Director Ken Richardson and At-large Director Gene Fortson to sit on the seven-member panel. Two seats remain vacant.
An escaped chimpanzee at the Little Rock Zoo raided the kitchen cupboards, scrubbed a toilet and made off with half a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread before passing out in a sedative induced stupor on top of a refrigerator.
