Thursday, January 25, 2007
Early Thursday summary is happening!
Private donors have pledged at least $2 million to support the Rogers School District’s potential merit-pay program, officials said. Mark Sparks, Rogers’ deputy superintendent, confirmed the donation at a meeting of a committee charged with designing the school district’s merit-pay plan. “They have purchased the right to decide whether or not they are going to be private or public,” Sparks said. “It’s their choice, and if they choose to be public, that’s their business.”
Gov. Mike Beebe's proposal to cut the state's sales tax on groceries in half was filed Wednesday, shortly after a children's advocate group released a study saying a state earned income tax credit would help low-income workers more. An earned income tax credit is the centerpiece of a competing tax reduction package being developed by the House speaker.
Trustees of the University of Arkansas are set to meet in Fayetteville today. The agenda reportedly does not include personnel actions involving Athletic Director Frank Broyles of head football coach Houston Nutt. A peaceable protest of Razorback athletic activities was conducted by a group known as savethehogs.com.
Julie Roehm, the former Wal-Mart marketing executive whose December ouster caused a media firestorm, has filed a lawsuit against the retailer, claiming Wal-Mart breached her contract and smeared her in the press. The dismissals of Ms. Roehm and Sean Womack caused a scandal that ended up on the front pages of Advertising Age and The Wall Street Journal.
Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, lists Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor among "up-and-coming Democrats" who could play key roles in the 110th Congress. Pryor's workload this session includes membership on the commerce, homeland security, armed services, small business, ethics and rules committees.
The FBI is investigating the recent vandalism of a black family’s home in Cabot. Mayor Eddie Joe Williams painted over the racial slur spray painted across the garage door of a local family which has one member currently serving in Iraq. Williams told the Leader newspaper, “It doesn’t represent the heart of Cabot, and we are not going to tolerate it.”
Reputed Klansman James Seale will stand before a judge in Mississippi this morning to face charges he had a role in the abduction and killing of two African-American teenagers in 1964.
Two prison employees have been fired, one has resigned and four others have been suspended after investigators concluded that they traded inmate transfers for cash or used contraband computers to play games and watch pornographic movies.
All the state’s constitutional officers and two-thirds of the state House came out Wednesday in favor of belated ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen has told the state Supreme Court that the commission handling a misconduct case against him has no reason to bar the public and news media from attending a hearing because it won’t call any witnesses whose identities it would need to shield.
The organizers of this year’s count of central Arkansas’ homeless expect a larger number than in years past, although official figures from Wednesday night’s Central Arkansas Homeless Count and Survey won’t be released for several months.
FEMA plans to build a warehouse at the Hope airport and extend its $25,000-a-month lease for an additional eight to 10 years. The warehouse would be used to store emergency supplies and refurbish travel trailers, which the agency began moving in last summer. About 8,400 mobile homes and 12,000 travel trailers are on the property.
With the scheduled opening of the school district’s new junior high building less than two weeks away, Pottsville administrators will prepare for a new construction project. A $4.5 million expansion is in the works that would add about 36,000 square feet of classroom space to the district’s elementary, middle school and high school buildings.
Passenger traffic at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, fell about 2.2 percent in 2006 because fewer flights were offered by financially troubled airlines.
The third-wettest January in Fort Smith in more than 100 years — 5.97 inches so far — has raised the level of the new Lake Fort Smith to 64 percent of its capacity.
Elsijane Trimble Roy, the first Arkansas woman to be appointed as a federal judge, who thrived in the legal profession in a time when women lawyers were all but unheard of, died late Tuesday. She was 90.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will present the second Arnold Lecture at the W.H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Friday.
The University of Central Arkansas has named Kane Webb of Little Rock as its associate vice president for communications, university President Lu Hardin announced Wednesday.
Dr. Brad Teague, the athletic director at Delta State University for the last four years, is the new athletic director at the University of Central Arkansas. Teague, who graduated from Delta State in 1992, will succeed John Thompson, who resigned last week after eight months on the job to return to football coaching as defensive coordinator at the University of Mississippi.
Gov. Mike Beebe's proposal to cut the state's sales tax on groceries in half was filed Wednesday, shortly after a children's advocate group released a study saying a state earned income tax credit would help low-income workers more. An earned income tax credit is the centerpiece of a competing tax reduction package being developed by the House speaker.
Trustees of the University of Arkansas are set to meet in Fayetteville today. The agenda reportedly does not include personnel actions involving Athletic Director Frank Broyles of head football coach Houston Nutt. A peaceable protest of Razorback athletic activities was conducted by a group known as savethehogs.com.
Julie Roehm, the former Wal-Mart marketing executive whose December ouster caused a media firestorm, has filed a lawsuit against the retailer, claiming Wal-Mart breached her contract and smeared her in the press. The dismissals of Ms. Roehm and Sean Womack caused a scandal that ended up on the front pages of Advertising Age and The Wall Street Journal.
Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, lists Arkansas Senator Mark Pryor among "up-and-coming Democrats" who could play key roles in the 110th Congress. Pryor's workload this session includes membership on the commerce, homeland security, armed services, small business, ethics and rules committees.
The FBI is investigating the recent vandalism of a black family’s home in Cabot. Mayor Eddie Joe Williams painted over the racial slur spray painted across the garage door of a local family which has one member currently serving in Iraq. Williams told the Leader newspaper, “It doesn’t represent the heart of Cabot, and we are not going to tolerate it.”
Reputed Klansman James Seale will stand before a judge in Mississippi this morning to face charges he had a role in the abduction and killing of two African-American teenagers in 1964.
Two prison employees have been fired, one has resigned and four others have been suspended after investigators concluded that they traded inmate transfers for cash or used contraband computers to play games and watch pornographic movies.
All the state’s constitutional officers and two-thirds of the state House came out Wednesday in favor of belated ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Appeals Court Judge Wendell Griffen has told the state Supreme Court that the commission handling a misconduct case against him has no reason to bar the public and news media from attending a hearing because it won’t call any witnesses whose identities it would need to shield.
The organizers of this year’s count of central Arkansas’ homeless expect a larger number than in years past, although official figures from Wednesday night’s Central Arkansas Homeless Count and Survey won’t be released for several months.
FEMA plans to build a warehouse at the Hope airport and extend its $25,000-a-month lease for an additional eight to 10 years. The warehouse would be used to store emergency supplies and refurbish travel trailers, which the agency began moving in last summer. About 8,400 mobile homes and 12,000 travel trailers are on the property.
With the scheduled opening of the school district’s new junior high building less than two weeks away, Pottsville administrators will prepare for a new construction project. A $4.5 million expansion is in the works that would add about 36,000 square feet of classroom space to the district’s elementary, middle school and high school buildings.
Passenger traffic at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, fell about 2.2 percent in 2006 because fewer flights were offered by financially troubled airlines.
The third-wettest January in Fort Smith in more than 100 years — 5.97 inches so far — has raised the level of the new Lake Fort Smith to 64 percent of its capacity.
Elsijane Trimble Roy, the first Arkansas woman to be appointed as a federal judge, who thrived in the legal profession in a time when women lawyers were all but unheard of, died late Tuesday. She was 90.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will present the second Arnold Lecture at the W.H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock on Friday.
The University of Central Arkansas has named Kane Webb of Little Rock as its associate vice president for communications, university President Lu Hardin announced Wednesday.
Dr. Brad Teague, the athletic director at Delta State University for the last four years, is the new athletic director at the University of Central Arkansas. Teague, who graduated from Delta State in 1992, will succeed John Thompson, who resigned last week after eight months on the job to return to football coaching as defensive coordinator at the University of Mississippi.
