Wednesday, October 24, 2007

TOP STORY >>Restrictions upset payday lenders

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

With implementation of a new 17 percent interest limit on payday loans to members of the military and their families in Arkansas, the cash cow may be drying up for lenders who target the military.

The military has taken a firm position against payday lenders, and in Arkansas, state Rep. Jeff Wood (D-Sherwood) authored a bill approved by the General Assembly in 2005 to limit the interest charged on military payday loans to 17 percent, the maximum interest allowed in the state.

Some lenders found a way around that limit, but this month, a federal law took effect limiting loans to members of the military and their families to 36 percent interest except where state law called for less. So, in Arkansas, 17 percent is officially the highest interest a payday lender could charge—not much for an industry that regularly charged 400 percent interest or more for its small loans.

Studies have shown that payday lenders and the check cashers tend to congregate near military bases, and in fact, three of four Jacksonville payday lenders are within a mile of base property outside Little Rock Air Force Base’s Vandenberg gate.

Clustered just east of state Hwy. 67/167 are Advance America, First American Cash Advance and American Check Cashers.
At Little Rock Air Force Base, arriving airmen are briefed on payday lenders and discouraged from using the services, according to Sgt. Arlo Taylor, the public information officer. “We work to encourage financial education,” he said.

The base does provide some services, such as Airman’s Attic, Air Force Aid and Good Samaritan loans, according to Hank Klein, the founder of Arkansans Against Payday Lending and former head of the Arkansas Federal Credit Union.

“There ain’t much future in our industry,” said payday entrepreneur W. Cosby Hodges of Fort Smith. “The (Arkansas Federal) Credit Union has come out with a product (for the military),” he said, which hurts the payday lenders.

Although the credit union announced a low-interest loan product for the military a few months ago, it has yet to make its first such loan, according to Terry Vick, the credit union’s vice president.

“We’ve had a few inquiries, with people gathering information,” he said.

The new, small, relatively low-interest loans, which also have a savings component to them, will be advertised on Little Rock Air Force Base soon, he said.

Criticized at every turn, Arkansas’ payday lenders and their first cousins, the check cashers, are finding business increasingly difficult and less profitable, Hodges said.

Whether or not the situation is as grim for the makers of small, short-term, high-interest—some say usurious—loans as the picture Hodges paints, it seems certain that they operate now in a tougher environment.

Hodges said he was thinking about closing some of his stores, perhaps including the two in Jacksonville.

Hodges, who owns outright 17 payday and check cashing stores in Arkansas, mostly under his American Check Cashers brand says the check-cashing business is increasingly competitive, with chain stores like Wal-Mart cashing paychecks for as little as $3.

The largest payday lenders have hundreds of stores across the country and are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or are owned by banks or other publicly traded companies.

Combined with new state and federal laws limiting the amount of interest that can be charged military families for payday loans, directives from Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., lawsuits and negative publicity, some payday lenders and check cashers have left the state.

“We haven’t done a payday loan this year,” said Hodges, who had created his own out-of-state finance company to permit him to circumvent state caps on the amount that could be loaned.

There are about 24,000 payday loan stores in the United States, and last year, about 19 million people used one, according to an industry spokesman.

Many communities have more payday loan stores than McDonald’s restaurants.

“Between the combination of the activists (AAAPL), and so much has been happening in the market over the past five or six years, with Wal-Mart getting in the business, how can anybody compete with that?” Hodges asked.

Klein said Wal-Mart is not only cashing checks, but putting money centers in 1,000 stores, part of what Business Week magazine called “the retailing giant’s relentless push into financial services.” The retail giant already offers money-transfer and check cashing.

EDITORIALS>>Huck GOP’s best hope?

The national media has discovered our man Mike Huckabee, and the pundits from David Brooks of The New York Times to Jonathan Alter of Newsweek are writing glowingly about his charm, wit and middle-of-the-road positioning in the field of Republican presidential candidates. They note that the former governor is given to occasional stupid or even scary remarks but no more than the other candidates. And unlike any of the others, he evinces traces of compassion.

Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.

Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.

But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?

If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.

EDITORIALS>>Huck GOP’s best hope?

The national media has discovered our man Mike Huckabee, and the pundits from David Brooks of The New York Times to Jonathan Alter of Newsweek are writing glowingly about his charm, wit and middle-of-the-road positioning in the field of Republican presidential candidates. They note that the former governor is given to occasional stupid or even scary remarks but no more than the other candidates. And unlike any of the others, he evinces traces of compassion.

Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.

Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.

But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?

If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.

EDITORIALS>>Huck GOP’s best hope?

The national media has discovered our man Mike Huckabee, and the pundits from David Brooks of The New York Times to Jonathan Alter of Newsweek are writing glowingly about his charm, wit and middle-of-the-road positioning in the field of Republican presidential candidates. They note that the former governor is given to occasional stupid or even scary remarks but no more than the other candidates. And unlike any of the others, he evinces traces of compassion.

Occasionally, they catch another side of him, his propensity to exaggerate or to just make things up. In the Florida debate over the weekend, Huckabee was driving home his credentials as the most zealous social conservative. He linked his anti-abortion stance with the Declaration of Independence’s promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The people who signed Jefferson’s declaration, he added, were “brave people — most of whom, by the way, were clergymen” like himself.

Not quite, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, wrote. One out of 64 is not “most.” The only clergyman was John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister who was president of the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. A large number — it’s impossible to say whether it was “most” — were not even traditional Christians but Deists.

But it was a forgivable gaffe, one largely ignored in the reporting on the debate. The governor has been guilty of more serious whoppers — his tax record in Arkansas and his softness for rapist/killer Wayne Dumond come to mind — but he gets a pass on these matters. Why bother to check on the accuracy of an also-ran candidate’s claims of what he did back in his state when the major candidates are stretching their own records beyond recognition?

If it’s true that Huckabee is climbing into the top tier of candidates he will need to become more circumspect. The unadulterated truth and nothing but is the right thing to do and the best political strategy. We hope he is capable of it.

EDITORIALS>>State should reject plant

In the closing argument for a permit to build a coal-fired generating plant in Hempstead County, the lead attorney for Southwestern Electric Power Co. pleaded with the state Public Service Commission Monday not to put the company and its customers at risk by denying permission to build the plant.

He made a persuasive case that coal was the most reliable and maybe the cheapest way to meet the growing demand for electricity among its customers in western Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Soft coal is abundant in Wyoming and Montana and other generation sources are questionable. Nuclear takes too long, natural gas is abundant but prices are unstable, and renewable sources like wind and solar can help but are not yet reliable enough to meet a base load demand.

But the company makes a weaker case against the other options to building a coal plant that will foul the atmosphere for generations: existing merchant gas supplies and conservation. There is abundant capacity in the region now to meet the anticipated needs of SWEPCO and its partner in the Hempstead County proposition. A gas-powered merchant plant at El Dorado, for example, could meet the need as soon as transmission facilities are put in place. In other regions, notably North Carolina, power companies are investing in conservation practices and earning a return on the investment, which reduces demand and helps customers, too.

SWEPCO’s attorney acknowledged the existence of ample capacity among merchant suppliers, but he said it was just too chancy.

“If you force us into the market to meet base load, you’re putting our customers at risk,” the attorney told the commissioners, who must decide within 60 days whether to grant an environmental permit to build the big plant.

“Risk” is an apt description of the issue all right, but the risk of a higher imperative involves all of us and our grandchildren, not merely the ratepayers of the ArkLaTex who might some day have to pay a little more than is forecast on their light bills if the plant is not built.

The proposed plant would pump from 4 to 6 million tons of carbon dioxide every year into the atmosphere, where it will hover for a century or so and contribute, if ever so slightly, to the warming of the earth. We know that now; we didn’t know it 40 years ago, when the state was approving the existing three coal plants in Arkansas, which are pumping something like 30 million tons of carbon a year into the atmosphere. In the big scheme of things, the plant’s 4 to 6 million tons of poison is not that much, but are we to avoid simple good works simply because they are not miracles?

Congress shortly — well, as soon as there is a change of administrations — will regulate carbon dioxide for the first time and it almost certainly will impose huge costs on the new generation of electricity from carbon. All across the country companies are abandoning plans for new coal plants or being blocked by state governments. We hope the Arkansas commissioners as well will avoid the most dangerous risk, literally to mankind, and reject the plant.

SPORTS >>Freshmen, NP Falcons set records

By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor

The North Pulaski freshmen football team is turning the corner. The freshmen Falcons have won their last two games over Little Rock Christian Academy and Pulaski Oak Grove, and broke some school records in the process.

Last Thursday against Oak Grove, freshman running back Michael Cage broke single-game records for touchdowns, points and rushing yardage, while the team broke the single-game school record for total yards.

The Falcons amassed 426 total yards while Caged piled up 288 of those on the ground.

He also scored six touchdowns and ran in two separate two-point conversions to finish the game with 40 points scored in North Pulaski’s 48-34 victory over the Hornets.

“It was a phenomenal effort,” North Pulaski coach Ben Belton said. “He ran hard, the line blocked really well for him. There were some big holes, and when there wasn’t he ran through tackles, kept his feet moving, it was just a great team accomplishment. “

North Pulaski has been at a disadvantage all season in having Belton as the only coach to work with the team most of the time. Extenuating circumstances left Belton without an assistant this season, and it’s taken the team a little more time to get up to speed with where most teams have been for a while.

“I knew this team would get better, and they have,” Belton said. “We’ve played eight games and we’re just now hitting our third and fourth-game stride. We’re behind other teams, but I knew they would come around.”

Belton felt like a key turning point was three games ago against league leading Mills. NP lost that game, but competed well, and the head coach noticed a difference that night.

“We made the turn that week against Mills,” Belton said. “We know we’re just 2-6 overall, but the way we’re looking at it, we’re throwing out the first half of the season and trying to finish 4-0.”

Belton is also proud of his team for sticking through the arduous and long process of improvement.

“They’re good kids, there’s no doubt about that,” Belton said. “They know they’re at a disadvantage, but they’ve kept working hard. We haven’t been able to do as much with our time as other teams, but what we’ve been able to do, they’ve listened and done what was asked of them. They’ve been getting better and better and better. I knew a turn would come for ‘em, and it finally did. We’ve got two tough games left, but games I think they can win.”

The Falcons travel to Sylvan Hills tomorrow, and close the season next week at home against Jacksonville in the annual Chili Bowl.

SPORTS >>Zebras concern Cabot

By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor

The Cabot Panthers’ loss to Bryant last week puts them in a strange position for the playoffs. If Bryant wins one more game, it seals up the conference title and No. 1 seed in the playoffs. If Cabot wins out, it can finish as high as No. 2 and get a home playoff game with a 5-2 league record. If it loses just one and fnishes 4-3, everything is up in the air.

Standing between Cabot and that two seed right now is Pine Bluff, which visits Panther Stadium this Friday night. The Zebras’ record isn’t impressive, but the team is, and has shown considerable improvement all season.

“They haven’t won a game, and you go in there wondering how you’re going to beat ‘em,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said. “They got speed all over the place. They got good size on the line. They’ve just been finding ways to beat themselves. They’re getting better though. I wish we could have got them in the first couple of weeks.”

Pine Bluff’s best weapon is sophomore quarterback Claude Johnson. He leads the team in rushing, and has a good arm. The Zebras lost 32-31 to Russellville, and Catholic scored late in the fourth to win 21-14. They also have a 28-28 tie with Fayetteville on their record this year.

“Russellville was lucky,” Malham said. “They gave that one away. Catholic had a tough time with them. They tied Fayetteville, this is a good team that’s about as dangerous as anyone we’ve played. If we play like we did in the second half last week we’re not going to beat anybody.”

Cabot gave up 28 points in the second half against Bryant, losing a 14-10 halftime lead in the process and falling 38-14. The Hornets scored just before halftime on an inverted screen to the wideout. A play that should have been stopped for a short gain, but turned into a 22-yard touchdown pass.

“We missed three tackles on that play and sort of gave them the momentum at halftime,” Malham said. “We were still in good shape, we were ahead. We just didn’t play in the second half. We didn’t tackle well, didn’t cover some receivers. For some reason we got some linemen that didn’t want to block like they’ve been blocking. If all that keeps up, we’re in trouble.”

Cabot lost two more players in that game as well. Starting center ?? Phelps, and starting cornerback Joe Bryant were injured last week and will miss this Friday’s game.

Malham said Jeremy Wilson will finish the year at quarterback. Sophomore Powell Bryant, who stepped in at quarterback against Little Rock Central when starter Seth Bloomberg suffered a broken collarbone, will play in the defensive backfield.
“We’ll need some speed in the defensive backfield these next two weeks for sure, and Bryant runs a little better than Wilson.” Malham said. “Wilson’s been doing a good job for us. He runs hard and makes good decisions with the ball.”

The importance of winning these last two games isn’t lost on the team. Five teams in the 7A-Central still have winning conference records. Bryant is 5-0, Russellville is 4-1 while Cabot, Catholic and Central are all 3-2.

“Everything is big right now,” Malham said. “We’d like to get to play at home and 5-2 will probably get us that. You finish 4-3 you may not even get in.”

SPORTS >>Beebe preparing mentally

By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor

Beebe’s “take-a-breath” week is over, and it’s back to games of great importance this week as the Badgers prepare to travel to Craighead County to take on the Nettleton Raiders. Beebe’s supposedly easy game against winless Greene County Tech turned out a little more difficult than it should have been, but Badger coach John Shannon was glad that his team got the win, got its 13 conference points and still has a shot at a high seed and a home playoff game.

Beebe’s 35-18 win over Tech qualified the Badgers for the playoffs, now it’s a matter of seeding.

A win over Nettleton assures Beebe of at least a three seed, and sets up a battle with Batesville for second place. Right now, Batesville is the furthest thing from Shannon’s mind.

“This is a big one right here,” Shannon said. “They’re on a roll. They’ve won 42-0 the last two weeks, so they’re coming into this one with some confidence.”

The teams’ four common opponents don’t shed much light on the matchup. Nettleton beat North Pulaski and Tech much easier than Beebe did, but just got by Paragould 21-14 and was blown out by Blytheville. Beebe hammered Paragould 35-0 and lost a thriller 32-22 to Blytheville.

What Shannon is most concerned with is improving how his team played last week against Tech.

“I don’t think it took them long to realize that they weren’t ready to play,” Shannon said of last week’s game. “We came back on Saturday watched film. They responded well to the talk we had Saturday, and hopefully we learned a valuable lesson about being mentally prepared.”

There some very tangible things that Beebe will have to improve upon in order to beat the Raiders. Executing on offense, and maintaining assignments on defense are key elements to a win this week, but those things too, go back to mental preparation.

“We had way too many missed assignments all over the field,” Shannon said. “Their (Tech’s) big plays were pass plays where the quarterback scrambled. He was able to get big yardage because we weren’t in our rushing lanes. We absolutely can’t do that this week because Nettleton is going to spread you out and run the ball.”

The Raiders come with a two-fold attack. Operating out of the spread offense, they run most of the time, but do have an effective passing game.

Their quarterback runs well and their running back is pretty good too,” Shannon said. “If we make the same kind of mistakes that we did last week, they’re going to have big games. We have to play smarter and execute better. We want to go into the playoffs with some momentum. We don’t want to limp in there losing two in a row, so we’re going to have to get better.”

OBITUARIES >> 10-24-07

James Roberts

James “Jim” Raleigh Roberts, 26, of Ward went to be with the Lord Oct. 18 in Little Rock. He was born Feb. 25, 1981 in Lawton, Okla.

He attended the New Life Assembly of God Church in Gravel Ridge and was an electrician for his family business, Cabot Electric. His two loves in life were spending time with his family and being outdoors. He was preceded in death by his grandmother, Hilda Stevens.

He is survived by his wife, Christina M. and son, Caleb James of Ward; mother, Kathy D. Wilk of Vilonia and father, Richard E. Wilk of Albuquerque, New Mexico; two sisters; Ruby Juarez of Ward and Jamie Roberts of Ward; daughter, Brooklyn Roberts of Jacksonville; and son, Colton Roberts of Cabot. He will be dearly missed by a host of family and friends.

Visitation will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 24, at Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 25 at New Life Assembly of God Church in Gravel Ridge with burial to follow in Chapel Hill Memorial Park in Jacksonville.


Dakota Raney

Dakota Marie Raney, infant, of Cabot passed away Oct. 19. She was born Oct. 19 to Jeffrey Raney and Stefanie Hochhalter.

She was preceded in death by her grandfather, George Raney, Sr.; great-grandfathers, Vernon Brent Willis and George Henley; and great-grandmother, Verdie Kellett.

She is survived by her father, Jeffrey Allen Raney and mother, Stefanie Nicole Hochhalter of Cabot; grandparents, Carol Willis “Marc Henley” of Conway; Dana Hochhalter “Debra” of Montgomery, Ala., and Ernestine “Amy” Raney of Cabot; three great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather; four uncles, one aunt, along with other close family members and friends.

Graveside services were Oct. 22 at Mayflower Cemetery in Mayflower. Arrangements were by Thomas Funeral Service of Cabot.


Gary Wright

Gary Wayne Wright, 50, of North Little Rock passed away Oct. 20. He was born Dec. 15, 1956 in Little Rock.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Fred and Georgia Ives, and two sisters, Gladys Vondran and Connie Eubanks.

He is survived by two brothers, David Ives and Bobby Wright and wife Wendy; one sister, Barbara Campbell and many other family members and friends.

Funeral services were Oct. 23 at Thomas Funeral Service in Cabot. Burial was at Evans Cemetery in Cabot.


Etta Wright

Etta M. Wright, 99, of Ward died peacefully in her home on the morning of Oct. 20.

She was born April 5, 1908, at Des Arc to Sam and Martha Ford Williams. She was a member of Ward Methodist Church.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Carol Dewey Wright; one sister, Bonnie Dalton; and three brothers, Troy, Edward and Clarence Williams.

She is survived by one son, Rayford Wright and his wife Bonnie; one granddaughter, Jeri Lynne Wright; one grandson, Steve Wright; and two great-granddaughters, Alyssa and Tawna Wright, all of Springfield, Ill.; and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services were at Westbrook Funeral Home in Beebe Oct. 22. by the Rev. Frank Warden. Burial was at Johnson Chapel Cemetery.


James Sanders

James Leslie Sanders, 67, of Mabelvale died Oct. 18.

He was preceded in death by his father, James Phillip Sanders.

He is survived by his loving wife, Linda; sons, Norman Sanders and Jerry Sanders; daughter, Sandra Dailey; four grandchildren; sisters, Jeanette Wilson, Joyce Allen and Charlotte Curtis; mother, Dessie Mae Sanders.

Funeral services were Oct. 20 at North Jacksonville Church of Christ. Burial was Oct. 23 at Arkansas State Veterans’ Cemetery in North Little Rock. Funeral arrangements were by Wood Funeral Home of Jacksonville.


Ray Snell

Funeral services for Ray Williamson Snell, 84, who passed away Oct. 5 were held Oct. 8 at Oak Grove Baptist Church, Meridian, Miss., with the Rev. David Chandler officiating. Burial was in Oak Grove Cemetery with James F. Webb Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.

Snell was a retired postal worker and had worked in his father’s business, the Bob J. Snell Candy Company, for many years. He was a veteran of the Second World War and served in the Army Air Corps.

He was a member of the American Legion and a member of the E.J. Knox-King Solomon Lodge 130 F&AM.

Survivors include his brother, Reese Harris Snell and wife Carolyn of Hattiesburg, Miss.; niece, Sandy Snell Booth; great-nieces, Haley Booth and Abby Booth of Lawrence, Ga.; niece, Linda Snell McComb; great-nieces, Meredith McComb Eason and Morgan McComb of Clinton, Miss.; great-niece, Katey Evans and great-nephew, Derek Evans, of Jacksonville; niece, Jennifer Gullette Boyd and great-nephew, Jesse Boyd of Jacksonville; nephew, Bob J. Snell II; great-nephews, Reese Snell II and Ryder Snell of Jonesboro.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob J. Snell and Ella B. Williamson Snell; brother, Robert J. Snell; sister, Mary Kate Snell Gullette, and niece, Julia Kay Gullette Evans.


Lillian Ervin

Lillian Ervin, 78, of North Little Rock went to be with her Lord Sept. 29. She was born in Vermilion County, Ill., and attended schools in that area. She was interested and participated in bluegrass music and arts and crafts.

She is survived by her husband of 61 years, Donald; daughters, Donna Wilson and Carolyn and husband John Gloyd; three sisters, Ernestine, Barbara Jean and Wilma; two grandchildren, Terry Lott and Cody Speer.

Graveside services were at Arkansas State Veterans Cemetery in North Little Rock by Huson Funeral Home of Sherwood.


Boyd Gilson

Boyd Roland Gilson, 70, of North Little Rock died Sept. 19 in Little Rock.He was born in Decorah, Iowa, Oct. 3, 1936 to the late W.L. Gilson and Esther N. Gilson. He spent 20 years in the Air Force and another 20 years as the butcher at Little Rock Air Force Base. He was also a member of Victory Missionary Baptist Church in Sherwood.

He had nine brothers, Bill and wife Marylin of Wicks, Phillip of Jacksonville, John and wife Bessie of Mena, Chucky of Conway, Mo., Ronnie and wife, Arlyss of Wright City, Mo., Norman of Texas, Larry of Arkansas, Duane and wife Veverly of Nixa, Mo., and Donnie who preceded him in death.

He is survived by his loving wife, Grace P. Jones Gilson of North Little Rock; two sons, James D. Gilson and wife Laura of North Little Rock, and John Gilson of Texas; two daughters, Esther Ashworth and husband Ben of Miss., and Elizabeth Hicks of Jacksonville; three grandsons, Brandon Ashworth, Chris Hicks and David Gilson; and a granddaughter, Allison Hicks; four sisters, Lucy Bowman of Galena, Mo., Nancy and husband Wayne Towe of Rogers, Cheryl Reid of Paris and Beth and husband T.M. Morgan of Mena; and many nieces and nephews. Cremation arrangements were by Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.


Joe Vann, Jr.

Joe “Poppy” Wilton Vann Jr., departed this life Oct. 22. He was born April 8, 1931.

He is survived by his wife, Marie; brother, John Sukeforth and wife Sharon; sister, Barbara Vann; children, Joe W. Vann III, Cheryl Vann Laar, Pamela Marie Walthers and Michael Ray Le Master; seven grandchildren; many nieces and nephews and one mother-in-law. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the chapel of Wood Funeral Home, Jacksonville.

TOP STORY >>Beebe will bring check for armory

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

Gov. Mike Beebe will be in Cabot at 11 a.m. Thursday to present Mayor Eddie Joe Williams with a check to help pay for the land where the new National Guard armory will be built.

The public is invited to the presentation ceremony which will take place at the community center on North Lincoln.

The mayor has asked the governor for $100,000 from his discretionary fund to help pay for the 15.5 acres in the industrial park on Highway 367 where the armory (now called a readiness center) will be built.

However, the actual amount of the check has not been disclosed.

The city council approved buying the property for the facility at a price of $399,000 with the contingency that the state would pay $350,000 of that amount.

In addition to the $100,000 expected from the governor, state Sen. Bobby Glover (D-Carlisle) said when the council agreed to the purchase in July that $150,000 would come from the almost $1 billion state surplus.

After the land has been paid for, it will be turned over to the National Guard which will place the facility in line for federal funding within the next five years. The state has not built a new armory since September 2005 when a $4.25 million facility went up in Warren.

It’s estimated that the Cabot armory will cost $8 million.

Williams has said building the armory is “the single biggest thing for Cabot in recent history” and that it will have an economic impact on the city of $1 million or more a year.

It will be visible from the new railroad overpass now under construction and since the overpass will be used by school buses, Williams says the location will be good for recruiting.

Williams also says he hopes construction of the armory will have a positive impact on his efforts to get federal money to build the north interchange that is part of his three-phase plan to connect Hwy. 5 to U.S. 67-167.

FROM THE PUBLISHER >>Department plays games with scores

The state Education Department last Friday sent out a poorly written press release that bragged about how much progress public schools are making, although if you read far enough into the press release, you realize schools are doing less well than the year before.

The first few paragraphs were almost incomprehensible because the bureaucrats in Little Rock who run our public schools were hoping you wouldn’t notice that more schools are on the failing list this year than last year.

What the bureaucrats did was what we in the newspaper business call burying the lede. You had to keep on reading deep into the press release before you stumbled on this bombshell: “The 2007 school improvement list for Arkansas includes 325 schools, compared with 304 last year.”

The figures get much worse — 217 schools have been on the troubled list from two to seven years — but even those numbers are suspicious because the state keeps lowering the bar, making failing schools look better.

Several schools in the Pulaski County Special School District have been on the list for several years and lag in numerous areas. Lonoke also suffers in key areas, while Cabot’s main weakness is that it is not doing enough for students with disabilities, which was the same reason Beebe was cited.

The Education Department’s public relations department issued its press release late Friday, but our reporter Rick Kron saw through the mumbo-jumbo right away: Statewide, the education picture is not pretty. (See his article in the Saturday Leader, “18 schools in area go on state’s watch list.”)

This is how the Education Department’s press release started: “The use of Arkansas’ growth model enabled 69 schools to meet adequate yearly progress this year because it credits schools for adequately raising the performance of students even if they fall short of scoring ‘proficient’ on the state’s Benchmark Exams.”

The sentence is ungrammatical and confusing. What’s the antecedent of “it” near the middle of the sentence? Does it refer to “progress”? No. Reread the sentence a couple of times, and you realize “it” refers to “Arkansas’ growth model,” whatever that means, back at the beginning of the sentence, which should have been rewritten before it was released.

“We were thrilled to have our growth model approved last year because we know it gets to the heart of what No Child Left Behind is about,” said an ecstatic Dr. Ken James, who heads the Education Department, referring to the federal law that almost everyone hates and that will probably die with this administration, which pushed it through a gullible Congress.

Getting back to the growth model: “The model assesses the year to year growth of each child and determines which ones are making enough progress to achieve proficiency by eighth grade even though they haven’t yet reached that performance level.”

So there you have it: “Growth model” is like a mobile goal post: If you can’t score, move the goal closer to the ball and call yourself the winner. Seven states, including Arkansas, have permission to do that. Thank you, Dr. James.

Looking on the bright side, Dr. James said, “It is gratifying to know that children scoring at the ‘basic’ and ‘below basic’ levels are making substantial academic progress. Those individual success stories were masked in previous years when (average yearly progress) was based almost totally on the percentage of students scoring proficient and individual academic growth was not a factor.”

Still, the list of troubled schools keeps growing. Most educators know, and parents are slowly finding out, that not all students will become proficient in all subjects, so instead of gimmicks like No Child Left Behind, why not set realistic goals and acknowledge the problems of poor students.

Arkansas schools need all the help they can get, so the federal government is calculating test results differently for those who are left behind: We don’t have to catch up with the rest of the field, just make a little bit of progress (if you can call it that) and issue an optimistic press release.

TOP STORY >>Parties still far apart on golf course

By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer

The owners of the North Hills Country Club and Sherwood are at a loggerhead over the property’s purchase price, according to City Attorney Steve Cobb.

Cobb updated the city council Monday night on the status of the country club purchase and the lawsuit the city has against North Little Rock about its recent high increase in electric rates. North Little Rock service about half of Sherwood.

Cobb said the attorneys for both sides in the country club purchase are still talking, but there is a big disparity between the price the owners want and what the city is willing to pay.

The owners had a $5.1 million offer for the 106 acres from developer Ron Campbell.

A building moratorium issued by the city helped that deal fall through, but the moratorium ends this week, and Campbell is still pursuing financing.

The owners also supposedly have even a higher offer for the property if Campbell does not pursue his $5.1 million offer.

Based on feasibility studies and appraisals paid for by the city, Sherwood believes the property is worth between $1.5 million and $2.5 million.

Cobb said the good news is that some individuals have approached the city about buying the property and maintaining a large portion of it as green space, which the city could then buy.

“We’ve told these parties that we are not opposed to them pursuing attempts to purchase the property,” Cobb said.

He could give no date or idea when there might be an acceptable agreement worked out.

Cobb was more optimistic in the NLR electric case.

“We have asked the judge (Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox) for a summary judgment. North Little Rock has until Nov. 5 to respond and then the judge could rule in our favor,” Cobb said.

If the judge does not make a summary ruling, the case is set to go to trial in February. “We’re ready,” Cobb said.

First Electric has joined in the lawsuit on the side of Sherwood. The city is asking the judge for the right to allow other electric companies to provide services to the city that are currently provided by North Little Rock Electric.
In other business:

The council approved rezoning 6535 Warden Road from C-3 to C-4 and denied an appeal for the rezoning of Collins Subdivision, Lot 27.

Aldermen approved an ordinance creating a stormwater pollution prevention code which is required by federal law. Failure to develop an ordinance could have caused the city to be fined.

The council approved an ordinance regulating electronic signs and created a five-member board of adjustments for sign waivers.

Aldermen approved an ordinance prohibiting the sale of novelty lighters in the city. This comes on the heels of a fatal North Little Rock fire where children were playing with a novelty lighter.

The council approved an ordinance appropriating funds to upgrade the Sherwood 911 emergency system. The upgrade will cost about $25,000.

The council reappointed Nita Pilkington and John Hester to the advertising and promotion commission and Forrest Penny to the public facilities board.

The mayor also reminded the council and guests that the city’s Halloween carnival is set for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 31 at Sherwood Forest. It will go until 8:30 p.m.

TOP STORY >>MEMS will get funding

Leader staff writers

With Medicare reimbursement cuts now in full force, Cabot, Lonoke and Sherwood must help subsidize Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services (MEMS) or look elsewhere for coverage, effective Jan. 1.

In the past, Medicare, private insurance and individual customers picked up the tab.

Sherwood and Cabot this week both agreed to pay more for the service.

MEMS asked Sherwood for $28,000 in support for next year, and the city council Monday quickly said yes.

“In light of what MEMS is asking other cities to pay, I think this is excellent, and we need to say yes before they change their minds and charge us more,” joked Alderman Becki Vassar.

Alderman Sheila Sulcer said the service the city has received from MEMS has been excellent. “We get what we pay for, and I want us to keep getting MEMS,” she said.

Aldermen Steven Fender said he was surprised that it took MEMS this long to ask cities to supplement its service.

“The amount that Medicare pays has dropped drastically over recent years and operation costs have gone up. I’m surprised it took MEMS this long to come forward,” Fedner said.

A resolution will be drawn up and the council will officially vote on it at their November meeting.

Cabot City Council members have unofficially approved rerouting unused funds in a maintenance account to pay the $50,000 annual subsidy MEMS has asked for beginning in January to continue providing ambulance service.

The proposal was passed to the full council Monday night by members of the budget and personnel committee, but the discussion beforehand involved every elected official able to attend the meeting.

All the council members present – Eddie Cook, Teri Miessner, Becky Lemaster, Tom Armstrong and Ed Long – agreed that the proposal should be voted on next Monday during a special council meeting that had already been called to discuss insurance for city workers.

If it passes as expected, half of the $100,000 or so in property tax revenue that now goes for maintenance of the health department, library and senior citizen center will go into a public safety fund to pay the MEMS (Metropolitan Emergency Medical Service) subsidy. The service needs the subsidy because the cost of providing service to Cabot is more than the income.

By working smarter and more efficiently, MEMS forestalled for several years the all-but-inevitable subsidy requests, MEMS executive director Jon Swanson has said.

But now MEMS has asked Lonoke for $87,000 for 2008, Cabot for about $50,000, Sherwood $28,000 and further west, Maumelle $63,000—each based upon projected revenues and expenses for its specific area.

As a department of the city of Little Rock, MEMS cannot operate at a deficit, according to Swanson, but it won’t abandon the towns that decide to look elsewhere.

It will charge a monthly subsidy equal to one-twelfth of the annual subsidy until the town gets a new provider, Swanson said.
Lonoke Mayor Wayne McGee said he’d been trying to contact some of the other ambulance companies “to explore our options,” but said Cabot’s bad experiences with two other area services is worrisome.

Lonoke, like other cities and counties in the state, is in the process of preparing its 2008 budget. As for figuring out how or whether to afford the new $87,000 a year expense, “We’re just getting to that,” he said.

“That’s a pretty big number.”

McGee said that Swanson and Jim Parks, Lonoke County’s representative on the MEMS board of directors, would visit soon with the city council to explain the situation in Lonoke in specific detail.

But McGee said he doesn’t doubt the ambulance service’s need for the money. “With all the cuts that’s coming down to them—that’s what they have to (do) to function.”

The volume of ambulance calls in the Little Rock, North Little Rock and Conway areas is sufficient for the service to break even there without subsidies, according to Swanson.

When the Medicare cuts began taking effect in 2002, Swanson visited the various city councils to warn them that eventual subsidies were nearly inevitable.

“In the late 1990s, Medi-care put the whole medical world upside down with its new reimbursement schedule,” said Swanson, but it wasn’t fully implemented until 2006. We estimate we get $1.4 million a year less since the rules changed, he said.
As a department of the city of Little Rock, MEMS cannot operate at a deficit, Swanson said.

MEMS’ creative cost-containment measures have drawn interest and visits from those running ambulance services around the country, he said.

They installed “black box” technology in the ambulances that lets MEMS officials record instances when the ambulances are driven too fast, corner too fast or are out of control. That measure has reduced accidents and has reduced insurance premiums by about 32 percent, he said.

MEMS has reworked schedules to be more efficient and now sends only emergency medical technicians (EMTs), not the more expensive paramedics, on routine transfers.

The service has started its own schools for EMT and paramedic certification and has purchased FEMA trailers for outlying posts such as the one at Lonoke, instead of paying rent.

The service is debt free to contain interest costs and for 10 years, starting pay for both EMTs and paramedics has been frozen at $18,105 and $24,260 respectively.

The board has voted to increase the starting pay.

For around-the-clock coverage, MEMS has 93 advanced life support crews and five basic life support crews spread across its coverage area, including Sheridan, Conway and Faulkner counties.

The metropolitan area averaged 918 annual runs per ambulance crew, compared to 594 for Sherwood crews, 490 for Cabot crews and 422 runs per Lonoke crew.

That’s twice as many runs per crew in the metropolitan area than in the Cabot area, showing that each run is more expensive in the less urban areas. System-wide, crews made an average of 720 runs a year.

TOP STORY >>Cabot mayor faces expulsion

By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer

Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams and Alderman Ken Williams were absent from a Monday budget meeting called to discuss redistributing property tax to pay a $50,000 subsidy to keep MEMS ambulance service in the city.

Both are Republicans (although they’re not related) and were called on the carpet at a meeting to explain to a panel of GOP leaders why they did not support partisan elections that would have given their party an advantage in Cabot, where Republican candidates fare better than Democrats.

If the GOP panel decides the two elected officials worked against the Republican Party, their party memberships could be taken away.

How that would affect future races is unclear, but both say they have done nothing that would warrant expulsion and hope the panel agrees.

“Carl Schmidt (a losing Republican candidate for city council) said that because I didn’t veto the resolution I wasn’t a good Republican and should be taken out of the party,” Mayor Williams said after he spoke to the panel Monday night.

“But I’m elected to represent 22,000 people, and my goal is never to issue a veto.”

Alderman Williams, who was complimentary of the courtesy and professionalism of the panel, said there was no willful intent on his part to work against the Republican Party.

“It’s just ridiculous that casting a vote that someone else doesn’t like is grounds for removal,” he said.

The council members who voted for non-partisan elections said national issues, such as abortion, homosexuality and gun control, have nothing to do with local government. They also said voters should get to know the candidates rather than deciding who was best for the job based on party affiliation.

A resolution requiring all candidates for office in Cabot to run as independents in 2008 passed the city council in August with a 5-2 vote over the strong objections of area Republicans who attended the meeting. Republican Aldermen Becky Lemaster and Teri Miessner voted against the resolution, but Alderman Williams voted for it, and Mayor Williams declined to veto it as Republicans requested.

The complaint against both Williamses was filed by Carl Schmidt, who was defeated by one vote during the 2006 Republican primary when he ran for Cabot City Council. Virgil Teague, who won in the primary and in the general election, has been unable to serve since he had a stroke about four months ago. Schmidt said he told the mayor that his area needs representation on the council and that he would like to serve, but that he never officially asked for Teague’s seat.

“His comment was that Virgil is strong. He’ll be back,” Schmidt said. The scuttlebutt about the complaint is that Schmidt used it as a way to get back at Williams. But Schmidt said Tuesday that he was simply looking out for other residents like himself who want to know what a candidate stands for.

“The citizens have a right to know your party affiliation,” Schmidt said.

Robert Horn, chairman of the Lonoke County Republican Committee, said he appointed Mike Freeze, Johnny Benefield and Charlie Bright to investigate Schmidt’s complaint. They alone will decide if it has merit, he said.

In recent years, the Lonoke County Republican Committee expelled Tommy Coates, who lost his race against former Cabot Mayor Joe Allman. Coates ran a newspaper ad that promoted a Democrat.

TOP STORY >>Top cop: We need to build jail cells

By HEATHER HARTSELL
Leader staff writer

Until voters pass a quarter-cent jail tax, most criminals who are arrested will be back on the street within days, a problem the Jacksonville Police Department is dealing with every day.

According to Police Chief Robert Baker, Pulaski County hasn’t had enough money since 2004 to provide more jail space at the county lockup, which he calls “a regrettable situation.”

“We have a circumstance now where if you are a nonviolent felon or a misdemeanor, you’re not going to go to jail – it’s that problematic right now,” Baker told the Jacksonville Rotary Club Monday.

But the problem gets worse.

“If you’re a violent felon and you get to jail and there is another violent felon there that has committed a worse violent felony, there is an evaluation process the county’s using to alleviate bed space and make space available for the more violent felon,” he said.

“It should never have been this way. It should never have gotten to this point, but since 1990, it has been one of those regrettable situations and, as of yet, everyone understands it’s going to be the almighty dollar that will eventually solve the problem.”

The proposed quarter-percent countywide sales- and use-tax increase that appeared on the September 2006 ballot, which the voters rejected, would have paid for construction and operation of the 1,125-bed Pulaski County Regional Detention Facility, would have reopened the 250-bed work release center and would have paid for 196 new minimum- to medium-security beds and 292 new maximum-security beds.

But because of budget constraints, the detention facility has remained closed over 95 percent of the time.

“We fight the issue (of the jail being closed), and we are frustrated by it. As members of law enforcement, whose primary obligation is to serve and protect, we can do everything we can to serve and we can do everything we can to protect, but it’s regrettable that we can’t put certain people in jail that deserve to go,” said Baker, who has been with JPD since 1977.

“It isn’t that we aren’t trying to catch them or that we aren’t catching them. We are catching them, but the regretful thing is we can’t do anything once we get them,” he said.

Of the five homicides this year – the highest murder rate Jacksonville has ever seen, Baker said – JPD has arrested or gotten warrants for all but one suspect.

The department is still looking for Xavier Butler, 27, the Sept. 11 double-homicide suspect who is still at large after allegedly shooting three men at America’s Best Value Inn and Suites on John Harden Drive.

Butler is wanted for two counts of first-degree murder since two of the victims died. He is believed to be carrying a .45-caliber handgun and considered very dangerous. He was last seen driving a blue 1984 Chevrolet Caprice with Arkansas license plate number 939 LEO.

There have also been 255 burglaries this year in Jacksonville, 67 fewer than last year, giving the police department a clearance rate of 29 percent, compared to the national average clearance rate for burglaries of 13 percent, Baker said.
The state prison is also full and facing the same problems as the county detention facility, the chief explained.

With roughly 14,307 inmates housed in the state prison, it must make space available for other felons, who stay in county jails until there’s room in state prisons.

“The backlogs at the county jails sit at roughly 1,020 prisoners scheduled for the state prison but can’t get in the door (because of lack of space),” Baker said.

But lack of jail space isn’t the only problem law enforcement officials face.

The Arkansas Supreme Court, according to Baker, made a decision regarding Rule 7.1 that deals with misdemeanor warrants.
In the ruling, the court has made all misdemeanor warrants invalid unless a judge has issued them.

“Say we have an active (misdemeanor) warrant for theft of property under $500. We can’t make an arrest. We can only issue a summons to appear in court. If they fail to appear (in court), a warrant is issued for their arrest for failure to appear,” Baker said.

Prosecuting attorneys also can’t do more than issue summons to appear in court when they know who committed a crime.
“Instead of affidavits for arrest, it’s a summons to appear,” the chief said.

Baker said he hoped the Legislature would correct the problem, but, “regrettably, they were not able to this time around.”
“We’re having to suffer this — we’ve got them (the warrants) sitting in our office and we can’t serve them. It should not be that way,” he said.