 |
 |
 |
« May 2007 | Main | July 2007 »
Saturday, June 30, 2007 - 16:54:40
Conway crash
Plane crashes into house on approach to Conway Airport, our partner Fox 16 reports. The latest report says two dead. Any Conway readers with a camera? Send photos to max@arktimes.com Your observations are welcome here, too, of course.
No reason this can't be Saturday's open thread, either.
Oh and one more thing
It's too late for Friday, but Lindsey Millar's weekend To-Do podcast is worth a listen over on Rock Candy. Essential info on entertainment, with some cuts of the music you're likely to hear. Check it out.News roundup
A roundup of news from a full e-mail basket after a long absence from the keyboard:
1) INDUSTRY: As expected, the Indian concern Welspun, today announced plans for construction of a $100 million steel tube plant by the Little Rock Port. It will employ 300 and should open by spring of 2008.
2) MIKE HUCKABEE: He's in Iowa, promising a fight to finish in the Iowa straw poll, though it sounds like his money report tonight will be small.
3) NEIGHBORHOOD ISSUE: The LR Planning Commission will decide July 19 whether to allow Trinity Episcopal Cathedral to close the 1600 block of Spring Street for use by the Cathedral School. Some in the neighborhood aren't happy about the idea of closing the through street, others are fine with it. The Downtown Neighborhood Association will hear from Cathedral July 12.
4) FOOD: If you're not already checking it regularly, our Eat Arkansas blog has good tomato news, good watermelon news and, if you're of a mind to argue, an open line on barbecue preferences.
5) ARKANSAS IMAGES: Inspired by our snap from the Chat and Chew yesterday, free-lance photographer Piney Woods unearths this shot from May when he attended an outdoor wrestling program in Paragould. The point here is that the big speaker in the Crown Vic is the PA for the rasslin' match. But the good old boys on hand found the activities of a working garbage truck more entertaining than the rasslin' underway in the opposite direction. These fellows could be blood kin of Maynard G. Krebs.
They must not read Arkansas newspapers
Uh oh. Says here in Washington Post that many presidential candidates are getting heavily into text messaging. Not minutes before kickoff, I hope.
(And on an almost thoroughly unrelated subject: I was reading excerpts from the Supreme Court decision on school assignment plans and came across a passage in Justice Breyer's dissent. Somebody needs to send him some copies of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's gone and slandered the great Orval Faubus. Wrote Breyer, lamenting the damage done to the Brown decision: "Three years after that decision was handed down, the governor of Arkansas ordered state militia to block the doors of a white schoolhouse so that black children could not enter." Sheesh. He was just trying to keep the peace. Check the 'Crat's clips.)
Brummett's back
And he explains something I'd wondered about last weekend -- the poor state of Interstate 40 in eastern Arkansas. (I mean, I knew the ungodly procession of trucks you encounter there causes the road damage. But I thought the interstates had been fixed.)Friday, June 29, 2007 - 20:01:45
Oh, why not
An open line.FOI victory
Citizen wins. Barbara Cockrell, the Carver School parent who sued Cycle Breakers under the Freedom of Information Act for information from the organization which works with people on probation, won her case today. She argued, successfully, that the organization's records should be open because it was supported in part by public funds, including money from Pulaski County and fees ordered to be paid by probationedrs in Judge Willard Proctor's court.
Cockrell has been looking into the agency because of its effort to open a center near the elementary school. But there are larger questions about the organization because of the dearth of information about its source of funds and accounting for them. A legislative audit is in progress.
Judge John Plegge said the information was public and should be released to Arnold by next Friday. Since she represented herself, Cockrell couldn't get an attorney fee award. But the judge did order Cyclebreakers to pay her filing fee. No word if they'll follow the rule of secretive and suspicious-acting public officials throughout the county courthouse and appeal.