Friday, March 23, 2007
Friday summary
A $1 million bonus that has been in the works since Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt turned down an offer from Nebraska in 2004 is now part of his financial package. UA Chancellor John White outlined details of the bonus in a letter to Razorback Foundation President Chuck Dicus. Despite the departure of the offensive coordinator and several star players, White described the payment as a reward that “recognizes specific and extraordinary achievement” in accordance with NCAA bylaws.
An anti-Wal-Mart television commercial charging the world’s largest retailer with blocking efforts to make ports more secure has begun to air nationally. The commercial contends that Wal-Mart is the major force blocking use of scanning equipment on all incoming containers to guard against terrorist deployment of nuclear weapons.
Wal-Mart’s former vice chairman, Tom Coughlin, isn’t entitled to a multimillion-dollar retirement package he negotiated before the world’s largest retailer learned that he had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company, an attorney for Wal-Mart told the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday.
El Dorado-based Deltic Timber Corp. paid its highest-ranking executive about $1.1 million in total compensation in 2006, according to its annual proxy statement filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A tax relief amendment backed by Arkansas' senators opens the door for Congress to consider reducing estate taxes. Sen. Mark Pryor was a co-sponsor of the legislation to make permanent a number of tax cuts set to expire at the end of the decade, including an exemption from inheritance taxes for estates of up to $3.5 million.
One of the backers of a ban on adoption and foster parenting by homosexuals has accused the governor and speaker of the House of working behind the scenes to kill the legislation. Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council, says House Speaker Benny Petrus assigned the bill to an unfriendly committee, House Judiciary, in an effort to defeat it. He said Gov. Mike Beebe is putting pressure on lawmakers with vague comments about the bill’s constitutionality.
Gov. Mike Beebe’s pilot program for merit pay for teachers in school districts received a wholehearted endorsement from a legislative committee Thursday after business interests and union officials got together to support the bill
Ethics legislation by House Speaker Benny Petrus is being blocked in a Senate panel. The State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee adopted a motion by Sen. Bobby Glover of Carlisle, to table House Bill 2384. He questioned the House’s “sincerity” in passing the bill.
A House committee passed a bill that would dissolve a workers’ compensation fund that pays lost wages to certain disabled workers. The Second Injury Trust Fund, as it is called, uses tax revenue to compensate a handicapped employee who is injured on the job. The $4.6 million fund now pays lost wages to 109 people.
A House panel recommended a bill to expand the state's current graduated driver's license requirements for teenage drivers. Senate Bill 196 by Sen. Jimmy Jeffress of Crossett restricts young drivers from late-night driving, having passengers in their car and from using cell phones while behind the wheel.
A Gravette High School drama teacher is under arrest after admitting he had sex with a female student. Casey Helms was arrested in connection with a felony charge of first-degree sexual assault. Helms is being held in the Benton County Jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
Although probation officers said it might not be permissible and prosecutors promised to appeal, a federal judge sentenced former Newport Alderman Pinkey McFarlin to three years’ probation, to be served at a halfway house. McFarlin pleaded guilty in November to a single charge of conspiring to distribute crack cocaine in exchange for prosecutors dropping 26 other charges for which he was on trial.
A 14-year-old stands charged in the stabbing death of his mother’s live-in boyfriend Thursday in Pulaski County’s first homicide of the year. The 14-year-old son was taken into custody and charged as a minor with first-degree murder. The boy was being held without bail in county custody.
A 17-year-old Conway High School-East student was taken into custody for firearm possession after taking a loaded handgun to the school.
Tulsa police are reaching out to Pulaski County residents in the search for the family of a man who died in Tulsa last week. Kirk M. Staggs slumped against the steering wheel of his car as seizures gripped him near the entrance of a Tulsa casino March 14. Staggs died after arriving at a hospital. Since then, Tulsa police have gotten nowhere in the hunt for anyone who might know Staggs.
The termination of a lease agreement involving Summit Medical Center leaves the future of the Van Buren facility in question for the time being. Crawford county has 22 years remaining on its lease to HMA, which adds $775,000 annually to the county budget.
An anti-Wal-Mart television commercial charging the world’s largest retailer with blocking efforts to make ports more secure has begun to air nationally. The commercial contends that Wal-Mart is the major force blocking use of scanning equipment on all incoming containers to guard against terrorist deployment of nuclear weapons.
Wal-Mart’s former vice chairman, Tom Coughlin, isn’t entitled to a multimillion-dollar retirement package he negotiated before the world’s largest retailer learned that he had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from the company, an attorney for Wal-Mart told the Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday.
El Dorado-based Deltic Timber Corp. paid its highest-ranking executive about $1.1 million in total compensation in 2006, according to its annual proxy statement filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
A tax relief amendment backed by Arkansas' senators opens the door for Congress to consider reducing estate taxes. Sen. Mark Pryor was a co-sponsor of the legislation to make permanent a number of tax cuts set to expire at the end of the decade, including an exemption from inheritance taxes for estates of up to $3.5 million.
One of the backers of a ban on adoption and foster parenting by homosexuals has accused the governor and speaker of the House of working behind the scenes to kill the legislation. Jerry Cox, executive director of the Family Council, says House Speaker Benny Petrus assigned the bill to an unfriendly committee, House Judiciary, in an effort to defeat it. He said Gov. Mike Beebe is putting pressure on lawmakers with vague comments about the bill’s constitutionality.
Gov. Mike Beebe’s pilot program for merit pay for teachers in school districts received a wholehearted endorsement from a legislative committee Thursday after business interests and union officials got together to support the bill
Ethics legislation by House Speaker Benny Petrus is being blocked in a Senate panel. The State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee adopted a motion by Sen. Bobby Glover of Carlisle, to table House Bill 2384. He questioned the House’s “sincerity” in passing the bill.
A House committee passed a bill that would dissolve a workers’ compensation fund that pays lost wages to certain disabled workers. The Second Injury Trust Fund, as it is called, uses tax revenue to compensate a handicapped employee who is injured on the job. The $4.6 million fund now pays lost wages to 109 people.
A House panel recommended a bill to expand the state's current graduated driver's license requirements for teenage drivers. Senate Bill 196 by Sen. Jimmy Jeffress of Crossett restricts young drivers from late-night driving, having passengers in their car and from using cell phones while behind the wheel.
A Gravette High School drama teacher is under arrest after admitting he had sex with a female student. Casey Helms was arrested in connection with a felony charge of first-degree sexual assault. Helms is being held in the Benton County Jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
Although probation officers said it might not be permissible and prosecutors promised to appeal, a federal judge sentenced former Newport Alderman Pinkey McFarlin to three years’ probation, to be served at a halfway house. McFarlin pleaded guilty in November to a single charge of conspiring to distribute crack cocaine in exchange for prosecutors dropping 26 other charges for which he was on trial.
A 14-year-old stands charged in the stabbing death of his mother’s live-in boyfriend Thursday in Pulaski County’s first homicide of the year. The 14-year-old son was taken into custody and charged as a minor with first-degree murder. The boy was being held without bail in county custody.
A 17-year-old Conway High School-East student was taken into custody for firearm possession after taking a loaded handgun to the school.
Tulsa police are reaching out to Pulaski County residents in the search for the family of a man who died in Tulsa last week. Kirk M. Staggs slumped against the steering wheel of his car as seizures gripped him near the entrance of a Tulsa casino March 14. Staggs died after arriving at a hospital. Since then, Tulsa police have gotten nowhere in the hunt for anyone who might know Staggs.
The termination of a lease agreement involving Summit Medical Center leaves the future of the Van Buren facility in question for the time being. Crawford county has 22 years remaining on its lease to HMA, which adds $775,000 annually to the county budget.
Comments:
<< Home
Thank you for posting the info on Kirk Staggs. He is my brother. His home town was Raytown, MO. Kirk was a good person with the biggest heart and a huge love of life. He will be missed dearly! Surviving him is is Mother, step-Father, Father, step-Mother, 3 sisters and 4 brthers. Best regards, Carol Rice
Post a Comment
<< Home
