Lynch at Large

A 33-member committee likely will recommend dropping “Indians” as the name of Arkansas State University sports teams, effective in 2008, to comply with NCAA guidelines, committee Chairman Jim Pickens said at the panel’s first meeting.

Arkansas’ Department of Health and Human Services is scrapping a drug discount program for which it has spent more than half a million dollars preparing. When funding for the program was approved in 2005, supporters estimated that up to 400,000 Arkansans were without health insurance and many could enroll. 2800 actually did.

Lacking any violent criminals to investigate, law enforcement agencies statewide next week will begin Arkansas' sixth "Click It or Ticket" campaign, an effort to aggressively enforce the state's mandatory seat belt law. The state police and 100 other local law enforcement agencies will put more officers on roads during the two-week enforcement mobilization.

Jermain Taylor of Little Rock defends his title on Saturday against Cory Spinks of St. Louis an HBO-televised fight at FedExForum in Memphis.

Little Rock voters would be asked to give their mayor more direct power under a proposal the city Board of Directors will begin to consider today.

Diminished revenues from Fayetteville's hotel, motel and restaurant tax did not stop the city's Advertising and Promotions Commission from handing out $130,000 in funds to local events Monday. Neither did a $94,800 budget for the requests.

All tobacco products, including smokeless, will be banned from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s 345-acre campus effective July 1, 2008.

The Rogers School Board listened to two patrons arguments but made no motion and took no action on the request to supplement high school biology textbooks with additional critical analysts of evolution.

David Alsobrook, the first director of the Clinton library, will leave his post to direct a smaller library in his home state of Alabama. Alsobrook will make the transition from working in the modern Clinton library to directing the Museum of Mobile in the 150-year-old Southern Market/Old City Hall building in the coastal Alabama city.

Eureka Springs Aldermen unanimously approved a domestic partnership registry that will allow residents and tourists to record their relationships with the city clerk’s office.

Today’s Democrat-Gazette reports that Larry Wilson succeeded in blocking Bank of the Ozarks’ plans to expand into Jacksonville, but John Allison says his First State Bank won’t succumb to Wilson’s opposition and give up on plans to enter tiny Quitman.

Diners in downtown Van Buren may enjoy the first legal liquor served there in 65 years if the efforts of a local business owner are successful. Richard Hodo, the recent recipient of the citizen of the year award, has begun the application process for a private-club permit at a new Main Street restaurant, Sisters Gourmet Bistro.

Pat McClanahan of Mena is facing charges after she reportedly confessed to killing her ex-husband, Joe Campiglia, and disposing of his body in a 7-acre lake located on private property near Waldron. The owner of the lake was fishing Wednesday when his hook latched onto a rope. He reeled in the rope, which brought with it Campiglia’s torso, wrapped in a tarp. Campiglia was probably murdered in January 2003.