Friday, August 15, 2008

TOP STORY > >Child abuse: The youngest victims

By NANCY DOCKTER
Leader staff writer

In Arkansas, homicide is a leading cause of death from infancy into adulthood. The youngest are the most vulnerable. Among children ages 1 to 4 years, homicide takes the lives of more children than all cancers or birth defects.

For Arkansas preschoolers, that meant that from 2001 to 2005, eight percent of all deaths were attributed to homicide. Most of these children died at the hand of a parent or other caregiver.

In two separate incidents within the past two months, two area toddlers were so severely injured that one died and the other remains hospitalized.

Nicole Lloyd of Jacksonville has admitted to battering the hospitalized child, who is her stepson.

Lekedrin Smith of Sherwood, a caregiver unrelated to the child who died, has been charged with capital murder.

In her years treating injured and abused children, pediatrician Karen Farst has observed that persons unrelated to the child are often responsible for the abuse. Oftentimes it is a young, stressed mom who makes the critical error in judgment.

“One of the biggest risk factors is the single caregiver who does not have a good network of social support,” said Farst, who is with the UAMS TEAM for Children at Risk. “They invite others into their lives, perhaps a boyfriend without the understanding of what to expect of a child at different stages of development and who may have problems with anger management.”

In Farst’s experience, “unrelated male caregivers” are often involved in a large proportion of physical abuse cases, she said.

Nationally, Arkansas ranks 26th for violence as a cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 years, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Only accidents outpace homicide as a cause of death for this age group. Physical abuse is but one form of child maltreatment, and accounts for 6.6 percent of all maltreatment cases nationally. Maltreatment also includes neglect, sexual abuse, psychological maltreatment, and medical neglect.

Thirteen of every 1,000 children in Arkansas have experienced maltreatment, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The national rate is 12 out of 1,000. The vast majority of these cases are neglect, and most often the parents are the ones responsible.

Mike Holladay, who lives in Scott, took a parenting course at Lonoke Apostolic Church. He wishes he had taken the class when his kids were still little, because it would have changed his parenting style for the better.

“I was probably too mean instead of talking to them,” Holladay reflected. “I was more the ‘I’ll bust your butt type,’ rather than talking to them.” He strongly recommends parenting classes to young moms and dads especially.

“These kids having kids these days, they need something to help them understand, to give them guidelines, something stable so they can understand what is going on around them,” Holladay said.

Child abuse is more common among families under considerable stress who lack the skills and social support to cope. Mental illness or reliance on drugs or alcohol to cope further heightens the chance that a child will be abused. Single parents who have few friends or family to help out can be at increased risk of committing abuse.

Sometimes a basic lack of understanding about normal child development can lead to unreasonable expectations about what a child should and can do from infancy on up. Substance abuse can further cloud judgment.

“The drugs and alcohol are a way often to self-medicate, but they impair folks’ ability to know what is realistic to expect from kids, for example, that it is normal for a nine-month-old to mess a diaper,” Farst said. Farst has observed a spike in cases of severe physical abuse in children in recent months, but is not ready to call it a trend.

“It feels like we have had more severe cases of physical abuse recently than in years past,” Farst said. She wonders if the economic downturn is a factor.

“When everyone feels stress it tends to be felt in the family, but since it has been a while since there’s been a recession, it is hard to say,” Farst said. When child abuse makes the news, it is easy just to think, “Oh, that is a problem for the police and social services,” Farst said, but actually there is a lot that regular citizens can do in their communities to reduce the risk of abuse occurring.

A simple thing like making educational literature available to new moms in the hospital nursery is a good volunteer activity that can make a difference.

For example, handouts on topics such as how to cope with a crying baby, the harm of shaking a baby, or decision making about babysitters can provide valuable parenting tips that might come into play at a critical moment.

Speaking to elected officials about the importance of adequate local social services can also go a long way in reducing the incidence of child abuse.

“People should let lawmakers know the importance of support for mental health and other social services, to tell them to not put those programs on the backburner,” Farst said. “The Department of Social Services is already overloaded.” Grant opportunities for child-abuse prevention programs are available from the Arkansas Child Trust Fund. Currently funded programs include home visitation programs for young moms and dads as well as classes and a support center for families.

One- and two-year grants are awarded to individuals and organizations that provide parental support and education to prevent child abuse and neglect.

The fund is administered by the Arkansas Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board and supported by revenues from marriage licenses. Classes are an excellent way for new moms and dads to learn about child development and skills for parenting and managing stress.

A Woman’s Place with locations in Cabot and Beebe provides one-on-one counseling and educational sessions, focusing expectant parents and those with children up to age 12. “Parenting begins the moment you become pregnant, and during pregnancy you should already begin practicing parenting skills,” says Vikki Parker, director of A Woman’s Place.

The sessions are individualized and offered at no cost.

“We offer training every day; it is individual and custom fit because each situation is different,” Parker said. Most of the persons served by A Woman’s Place are word-of-mouth referrals, many from the local middle and high schools in Cabot, as well as Jacksonville, and as far away as Vilonia and North Little Rock.

In her experience working with parents, Parker has found that abuse knows no demographic boundaries, but is committed by persons of all walks of life. It is not only individuals who grew up in abusive families who commit abuse. There is no defining characteristic of who might be abusive to their child, other than how they manage anger and stress.

“Anybody can be, it depends on their personality and how self-absorbed they are, if they have not matured past the point of it’s all about me,” Parker said. “So we focus on teenage parents to give them every possible edge, because most of them have not had to give of themselves.”

Parker agrees with Farst that who a mom decides to allow into her and her baby’s life is critically important to the child’s safety.

“Just because you get along good with that boyfriend does not mean that is a person you can trust with your baby out of your sight,” Parker said.

CHILD-ABUSE PREVENTION RESOURCES

Hotlines to report suspected child abuse and neglect

If you need to report suspected child abuse in a state other than Arkansas, please call: Childhelp® USA National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-CHILD®(1-800-422-4453) or for TDD: 1-800-2-A-CHILD.

If you need to report suspected child abuse in the state of Arkansas, please call: Arkansas Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-482-5964.

Individualized parent
counseling and instruction

A Woman’s Place, in Cabot and Beebe. Call Vikki Parker, program director, for more information at 941-5533 or 882-7695, Beebe.
n Classes on anger management, parenting, and drug and alcohol abuse. Sponsored by the Lonoke Apostolic Church. Call Ralph Brown, program director, for more information at 912-0855.

New Moms Support Group. Meets each Thursday from 10 a.m.-11:30 a.m. at the Parent Center, 5905 Forest Place, Suite 205, in Little Rock. Sponsored by UAMS ANGELS (Antenatal and Neonatal Guidelines, Education and Learning System) and the Centers for Youth and Families, 526-7425.

TOP STORY > >Carjacker slays teen near gym

By JONATHAN FELDMAN
Leader staff writer

A woman was murdered in the parking lot of Ultimate Fitness Gym, 1108 S. Redmond Road in Jacksonville at 1:57 a.m. Friday.
The victim, Danick Adams, 18, of 1509 Stanphil Road, and another woman went to the 24-hour gym for a late-night tanning session, according to an employee at the gym.

The police are still searching for her killer, who drove off with the victim’s car.

When the women left the gym, a black man came out of the wooded area near the gym and pointed a gun at the two women, police said. The suspect demanded the victim’s car keys, their cell phones and other valuables.

Adams complied with his demands, but he shot at the women anyway, killing Adams. The victim’s friend escaped unhurt.
The killing was Jacksonville’s fourth murder this year. The city had five murders in 2007.

About a half an hour after the shooting, a Jacksonville police officer pulled over a driver and a female passenger in a car matching the description of the victim’s vehicle.
A manhunt is underway, according to April Kiser, public information officer of the Jacksonville Police Department.

The driver fled on foot from the officer and has not been caught, but the female passenger is in custody..
Ultimate Fitness first opened in 1993 and “then became a 24-hour gym in 2002,” a gym employee said.

TOP STORY > >Gwatney: He found his voice in politics

By GARRICK FELDMAN, Leader Publisher

Not long after he was shot at Democratic Party headquarters just before noon on Wednesday, Bill Gwatney’s family and friends knew his wounds would prove to be fatal.

They were on the phone with each other, sharing the terrible news, knowing he’d been assassinated in the shadow of the state Capitol, where he served three terms in the Senate and acquired impressive political skills that put him at the head of the state Democratic Party.

Several relatives, friends and notables rushed to UAMS, where he’d been taken after he was shot. Gov. Beebe was there after he turned his plane around when he heard his friend had been gunned down. Legislators huddled outside and knew the news was not good.

But they were there to show that Bill meant a lot to them, this son of a humble car dealer who started with nothing in Jacksonville more than 50 years ago and built an automotive empire with his two boys in several states and helped organize Citizens Bank in the 1960s.

Bill went on to build his own little empire — after acquiring majority ownership in Gwatney Chevrolet in Jacksonville, he bought Sidney Moncrief’s old dealership in Sherwood and Dick Layton Buick-Pontiac in Little Rock.

Gwatney was always good for a quote — he knew how to work the media and gave us stories whenever we needed something to splash on the front page — and he really found his voice in the Legislature, where he championed health-care reform and fought Gov. Huckabee on his lousy ethics with anti-corruption legislation.

Some people thought Bill was arrogant, but no more than his predecessor in the Senate, Max Howell, the longest serving legislator in America.

Howell, who was in the Legislature for 46 years, was one of the reasons term limits were passed in Arkansas, which turned out to be a mixed blessing as too many talented people are driven out of office much too soon.

Gwatney could serve just 10 years in the Senate and might have run for governor one day, if not for the imagined personal grievance of a lonely killer.

Four hours after the shooting, the announcement was made that the 48-year-old party chairman had passed away.

His Yukon was still parked in front of the small party headquarters building near the state Capitol. Timothy Johnson, his killer, couldn’t miss the SUV there, figuring the man he wanted dead was inside.

In almost an instant — just moments after Johnson walked into the building, just past the secretary up front and into Gwatney’s nearby office — a promising political leader was gunned down at close range with several shots to his chest.

Johnson, 50, a troubled loner from Searcy, had attended a class reunion last weekend with the few friends he had made at the technical college he attended in 1977 down in Hope, where he finished first in his class.

It was perhaps his way of saying goodbye to them because he would not be taken alive after his rampage.

Gwatney’s co-workers are lucky that Johnson didn’t shoot at them, or at the people working at the nearby Arkansas Baptist Convention building, where he went after he’d shot Gwatney.

He aimed his gun at an employee there but decided not to shoot. Instead, he walked to his small pickup truck and drove toward Sheridan, where he was killed after a long chase.

We’ll never understand Johnson’s strange fascination with Gwatney: Two rings of keys from a Gwatney dealership and the chairman’s name written on a Post-it note were found in Johnson’s home.

Did he hate Gwatney because he was head of the Arkansas Democratic Party, or was he upset over a vehicle he had bought from a Gwatney dealership? Police are still investigating a possible motive, although we might never know why he chose this victim.

Back when Bill Clinton became governor for the second time in 1982, he fired Bill’s father Harold as adjutant general — a standard procedure in politics — and it looked as if the family would never forgive Clinton — Gwatney even switched parties for a while, saying he was upset at the governor for doing what he did.

And yet when he died, Bill was a Hillary Clinton supporter and a superdelegate to this month’s Democratic convention, which he would have enjoyed attending because he loved politics and could talk about it all the day if you let him.

He understood how politics worked — it was about building relationships, he’d tell you — and he was as good as the best of the southern legislators who spent a lifetime in politics. Had he lived, he could have become governor or run for some other office because politics was his true calling. It was an amazing talent that few people realized he had when he started out, winning a Senate seat from Jacksonville in 1992 and forming a lasting alliance with Mike Beebe, when he was senator from Searcy.

During a legislative redistricting a decade ago, when they were leaving the Senate, Jacksonville and Searcy wound up in the same district because the people drawing the map thought of it as a tribute to their friendship.

The way the new district is drawn means that people from Searcy will probably always get to elect their senator, which is what they’ve done by picking John Paul Capps for the Senate after his long service in the House.

But when Bill first ran for the Senate, he “really brought this community together like it hadn’t been in a long time. Our community has benefited from that ever since,” said Larry Wilson, the Jacksonville banker whose family competed with the Gwatneys’ bank until it was sold to Union National Bank several years ago.

Bill later served on the board of directors of First Arkansas Bank, which is owned by the Wilsons. He also supported American Legion baseball, the Jacksonville Boys and Girls Club and other causes, and although he moved from Jacksonville to Little Rock, he’d always tell his friends here that he missed his hometown, and he’d ask them, “How are things in Jacksonville?”

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday at Pulaski Heights Methodist Church in Little Rock.

Visitation is from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Sunday at Griffin Leggett Rest Hills Funeral Home in North Little Rock.

TOP STORY > >Gwatney funeral Monday

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

Grown men wept Wednesday after their friend and leader was gunned down in his state Democratic Party Headquarters office by a man he apparently didn’t know.

State Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney was shot several times in the upper torso about noon and was pronounced dead about four hours later at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Flags will fly at half-mast Monday at the state Capitol and Gwatney’s close friend Gov. Mike Beebe will speak at Gwatney’s 2 p.m. funeral at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church that day. Rev. Vic Nixon will officiate.

Gwatney’s alleged assailant, Timothy Dale Johnson of Searcy, then fled, allegedly pointed a gun at a worker at the nearby Arkansas Baptist Convention headquarters, telling her he had lost his job.

Johnson, a student at ASU-Beebe, then allegedly got into a blue pickup truck and led law enforcement officials on a 30-minute chase to Sheridan (Grant County) where he died apparently in an exchange of gunfire with officers from at least three jurisdictions.

In addition to his family, the governor, state legislators, party officials, business leaders, lifelong friends and just plain folks struggled to make sense of the senseless.

So far, Little Rock police aren’t saying much, and nothing that would help friends comprehend the incomprehensible has come to light.

About 300 people attended a hastily convened vigil Thursday evening on the steps of the state Capitol, about a quarter of a mile from the scene of the shooting on Capitol Avenue.

Pastor Steve Copley led prayers for Gwatney and renowned singer Lawrence Hamilton of Philander Smith College led the assembled in singing several verses of Amazing Grace.

Those in attendance included the governor, several state legislators including Sen. Bobby Glover of Carlisle, Mayor Tommy Swaim and banker Larry Wilson with other Jacksonville leaders, Pulaski County Clerk Pat O’Brien of Jacksonville, Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines and Sheriff Doc Holladay.

A few acquaintances and an employee of Gwatney’s shared personal experiences.

Gwatney’s murder is still under investigation, according to Lt. Terry Hastings, spokesman for the Little Rock Police Department.

“We’re not commenting on the items seized from the suspect’s home,” Hastings said. Known to be among those items are 14 firearms, ammunition and a Post-it note with Gwatney’s name and a phone number. Also found were two sets of keys from a Gwatney car dealership and a bottle of antidepressants.

The shooting has attracted attention of national news media, and notes, emails or calls of sympathy to the family or to friends have come from as far away as India.

Currently one Little Rock officer and three state troopers are on paid administrative leave following the exchange of gunfire that resulted in Johnson’s death.

The State Police are investigating Johnson’s death and are awaiting the results of toxicology tests at the state Crime Lab, according to Bill Sadler, the State Police spokesman.

Police have reported that Johnson either quit or was fired from his job at a Conway Target Store on Wednesday, not long before the shooting, after he wrote graffiti on the wall and acted in an agitated manner.

The graffiti expressed frustration with Target and was not of a political or racial nature.

Arkansas Times reported that a search of Johnson’s home turned up no political writings or books. Searcy police told the Times that Johnson had bothered local women he apparently was trying to date or have a relationship with to the extent that they reported him to the police.

Neighbors say he kept to himself.

TOP STORY > >Shocking homicide stuns all in region

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

From old Jacksonville friends to once (and perhaps future) presidents, folks who knew state Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney are grieving, praising Gwatney and wondering what the future might have held for him had he not been senselessly gunned down at work Wednesday.

Blaine Hayes, who worked for Gwatney for 30 years, said that when his father-in-law died in 1994, he needed money up front to pay the funeral home. “I walked up the stairs to his office,” Hayes said, and when he asked, Gwatney told him, “Whatever you need, you’ve got it.”

“We are deeply saddened,” said Bill and Hillary Clinton. “His leadership and commitment to Arkansas and this country have always inspired us and those who had the opportunity to know him. Our prayers are with his family during this time.”

“I cried all day yesterday,” said Republican JP Bob Johnson of Jacksonville. “There’s a lot of us that’s hurting.

“We go back to his birth,” said Johnson. “I don’t remember not knowing Bill. We went to a lot of football and basketball games. He was a big supporter of UALR.”

“I think he was very instrumental in Mike Beebe becoming governor,” said Johnson. “He was his friend, his campaign manager and a good statesman. But he never forgot where he came from. He kept his business in Jacksonville, supported American Legion and Tuesday night basketball games.


“He always was pro-Jacksonville, working to make it better place to live and work.”
He was down to earth, loved his kids and was a good family man.

“It’s a tough day for everybody,” said Jacksonville businessman Mike Wilson, who said he knew Gwatney all his life as neighbors and friends. “It’s a senseless, tragic thing. “

Wilson, a former state representative himself, said he encouraged Gwatney to run for the state Senate when the seat came open. “I was glad because I thought we needed a young, bright, articulate person.”

Wilson said Gwatney quickly became “very astute in the legislative process and very knowledgeable about state government in general.”

“He could get to the heart of the matter,” Wilson said.

“He was always very interested in economic development locally and in the state,” he said.

“He also was instrumental passage of the any-willing-provider law, which allows Arkansans covered by managed-care health insurance plans to see the doctor of their choice.

“He could be impatient and didn’t suffer fools gladly,” said Wilson, attributing that in part to Gwatney’s quick mind and ability to see into the center of a problem pretty quickly.

“His commitment to our local community stands out in my mind. A bigger and better Jacksonville was in the forefront of his efforts.”

Wilson said Gwatney was a graduate of Jacksonville High School and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and his family opened the Chevrolet dealership in the late 1950s. Right out of college he was a state bank examiner and was an officer of his family owned bank, Citizen’s Bank, Wilson said. “He was a director of our (First Arkansas) bank.

“He served on our (North Metro) hospital board,” Wilson said. “He was interested in community health care as well as economic development.

“He energized the party to new highs that hadn’t been seen in years and years,” said state Sen. Bobby Glover of Carlisle. “He enjoyed what he was doing. He wanted to make a difference and he did.

“He had the potential of seeking any office and making a success of it,” said Glover, who has known him since Gwatney joined the state Senate. “There was talk of him one time running for governor. He could have served in that office or the U.S. Senate or Congress and he would have handled himself very well and been very productive,” said Glover.

“The thing I admire about him the most, when he talked about issues, he left no doubt about how he felt. He was very forthright.

As for Gwatney’s serving as state Democratic Party chairman, “for anyone other than Beebe, I’m not sure he would have done it.”

“He had good instincts,” said state Rep. Will Bond of Jacksonville, who cut his political teeth in 1992 in Gwatney’s first Senate race, campaigning door-to-door with him. Later, himself elected to the state House of Representatives, Bond said he would call Gwatney periodically for advice. “He wasn’t afraid to take some risks to say what he believed. His heart was always on the right side of most policy issues.”

“He did a great job in the Senate and as head of the party and I liked him a lot.”

“He was vibrant, affable and very driven on issues that he considered important for his district and for the state of Arkansas,” said state Sen. John Paul Capps of Searcy, who through redistricting now represents parts of Gwatney’s and Beebe’s former Senate districts.

“He took the side of those who didn’t have lobbyists,” said Capps. “He always devoted attention to those who needed help. When he saw something he thought was wrong, he worked against it.

“He was really enjoying this chairmanship, doing a great job. He had three car dealerships, good people working for him and he was really enjoying life,” Capps said.

TOP STORY > >Shocking homicide stuns all in region

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

From old Jacksonville friends to once (and perhaps future) presidents, folks who knew state Democratic Party chairman Bill Gwatney are grieving, praising Gwatney and wondering what the future might have held for him had he not been senselessly gunned down at work Wednesday.

Blaine Hayes, who worked for Gwatney for 30 years, said that when his father-in-law died in 1994, he needed money up front to pay the funeral home. “I walked up the stairs to his office,” Hayes said, and when he asked, Gwatney told him, “Whatever you need, you’ve got it.”

“We are deeply saddened,” said Bill and Hillary Clinton. “His leadership and commitment to Arkansas and this country have always inspired us and those who had the opportunity to know him. Our prayers are with his family during this time.”

“I cried all day yesterday,” said Republican JP Bob Johnson of Jacksonville. “There’s a lot of us that’s hurting.

“We go back to his birth,” said Johnson. “I don’t remember not knowing Bill. We went to a lot of football and basketball games. He was a big supporter of UALR.”

“I think he was very instrumental in Mike Beebe becoming governor,” said Johnson. “He was his friend, his campaign manager and a good statesman. But he never forgot where he came from. He kept his business in Jacksonville, supported American Legion and Tuesday night basketball games.


“He always was pro-Jacksonville, working to make it better place to live and work.”
He was down to earth, loved his kids and was a good family man.

“It’s a tough day for everybody,” said Jacksonville businessman Mike Wilson, who said he knew Gwatney all his life as neighbors and friends. “It’s a senseless, tragic thing. “

Wilson, a former state representative himself, said he encouraged Gwatney to run for the state Senate when the seat came open. “I was glad because I thought we needed a young, bright, articulate person.”

Wilson said Gwatney quickly became “very astute in the legislative process and very knowledgeable about state government in general.”

“He could get to the heart of the matter,” Wilson said.

“He was always very interested in economic development locally and in the state,” he said.

“He also was instrumental passage of the any-willing-provider law, which allows Arkansans covered by managed-care health insurance plans to see the doctor of their choice.

“He could be impatient and didn’t suffer fools gladly,” said Wilson, attributing that in part to Gwatney’s quick mind and ability to see into the center of a problem pretty quickly.

“His commitment to our local community stands out in my mind. A bigger and better Jacksonville was in the forefront of his efforts.”

Wilson said Gwatney was a graduate of Jacksonville High School and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and his family opened the Chevrolet dealership in the late 1950s. Right out of college he was a state bank examiner and was an officer of his family owned bank, Citizen’s Bank, Wilson said. “He was a director of our (First Arkansas) bank.

“He served on our (North Metro) hospital board,” Wilson said. “He was interested in community health care as well as economic development.

“He energized the party to new highs that hadn’t been seen in years and years,” said state Sen. Bobby Glover of Carlisle. “He enjoyed what he was doing. He wanted to make a difference and he did.

“He had the potential of seeking any office and making a success of it,” said Glover, who has known him since Gwatney joined the state Senate. “There was talk of him one time running for governor. He could have served in that office or the U.S. Senate or Congress and he would have handled himself very well and been very productive,” said Glover.

“The thing I admire about him the most, when he talked about issues, he left no doubt about how he felt. He was very forthright.

As for Gwatney’s serving as state Democratic Party chairman, “for anyone other than Beebe, I’m not sure he would have done it.”

“He had good instincts,” said state Rep. Will Bond of Jacksonville, who cut his political teeth in 1992 in Gwatney’s first Senate race, campaigning door-to-door with him. Later, himself elected to the state House of Representatives, Bond said he would call Gwatney periodically for advice. “He wasn’t afraid to take some risks to say what he believed. His heart was always on the right side of most policy issues.”

“He did a great job in the Senate and as head of the party and I liked him a lot.”

“He was vibrant, affable and very driven on issues that he considered important for his district and for the state of Arkansas,” said state Sen. John Paul Capps of Searcy, who through redistricting now represents parts of Gwatney’s and Beebe’s former Senate districts.

“He took the side of those who didn’t have lobbyists,” said Capps. “He always devoted attention to those who needed help. When he saw something he thought was wrong, he worked against it.

“He was really enjoying this chairmanship, doing a great job. He had three car dealerships, good people working for him and he was really enjoying life,” Capps said.

EDITORIAL >>A lion on the court

Ordinarily we celebrate for people who after a long and abundant career take a well-deserved retirement, but we were somehow grieved by the news that Justice Tom Glaze was retiring from the Arkansas Supreme Court. At 70, Mr. Justice Glaze was the oldest and longest-serving member of the court and a quiet stalwart for an independent judiciary and adherence to the Constitution.

Will his absence, we wondered, mean any less devotion to those principles? Gov. Beebe will appoint someone to complete the final 28 months of Glaze’s term, and we trust that he will choose wisely, which is to say someone in the mold of Thomas A. Glaze.

Glaze has spent nearly 30 years on the bench, first as a chancery judge, then as a judge on the Arkansas Court of Appeals and since 1987 as a justice of the Supreme Court. He was always Exhibit A for the premise that elected judges can be as fiercely independent as those appointed for life. He never cast a sidelong glance at the next election. For a half-dozen years, as the landmark Lake View school case bounced up and down through the courts, he insisted that, whatever the politics and the cost, the court do its duty and see to it that the state obliged the unmistakable mandate of the Constitution that it provide a suitable and equal education for all children. The court eventually did its duty and the legislature and the governors, Huckabee and Beebe, thereby did theirs.

We remember the young Glaze, a struggling North Little Rock lawyer, who observed how imperfect was the Arkansas democracy. As one of the band of lawyers with Winthrop Rockefeller’s Election Research Council, he investigated election fraud in some of the state’s most notorious machine counties — Conway, Perry, Phillips, Crittenden and Searcy. He would become a solitary avenger for disenfranchised voters, all of those whose force at the ballot box each year was diminished by voting fraud. He filed lawsuits and dodged grand juries and jail to stop illegal votes and ballot bribery and theft. Minutes before a trial in Searcy County, leaders of both parties agreed that if Glaze would drop the suit they would sign a consent order to end the system of vote buying. A voter leaving a voting place might be given a dried speckled butterbean or some other secret token, which he would redeem for cash with the designated agent of the party for having voted the right way.

As deputy attorney general under Honest Joe Purcell in 1967, Glaze rewrote the state election code, which promised fairer and secret ballots, and the legislature and Gov. Rockefeller made it law. Courts are notoriously skittish about election disputes, whether they regard fraud or mere error, but Glaze would insist, sometimes in dissent, that the appellate courts get to the bottom of them. He never let go of the suspicion that corruption was prevalent and widespread.

His humility always seemed a little quaint, even in his valedictory. He wrote a letter this week to hundreds of friends and supporters so that they would hear of his resignation from him personally and receive his thanks. He wrote: “I am simply overcome with gratitude when I reflect on the blessings of having family and friends who, while perhaps disagreeing on some matter upon occasion, expected and trusted me to do the task with integrity and honesty.”

They did and he did. Have a long and abundant retirement, your honor.

SPORTS>>Gwatney remembered as true Hog fan

FAYETTEVILLE — While Arkansas remembers Bill Gwatney as the state chairman of the Democratic party and a major automobile dealer in Pulaski County, longtime members of the Razorback Foundation remember him as a friend and an utterly avid, yet selfless, University of Arkansas booster.

At Arkansas Democratic headquarters in Little Rock, Gwatney of Jacksonville was murdered last Wednesday by a gunman who later was shot and killed by police.

Frank Broyles, who for 50 years served either as the UA’s athletic director or head football coach, knew Gwatney, 48, all of Gwatney’s life.

Harold Gwatney, Bill’s father, started the family car dealership and with it, a longtime relationship with the UA athletic department, during which Gwatney provided cars to Razorback coaches.

“His father was a great friend of mine,” Broyles said Thursday. “Bill was a great citizen of this state. A great Razorback fan, of course, but a great leader always for the good of Arkansas. I was so shocked and saddened. He cannot be replaced.”

Jeff Long, Broyles’ successor as AD since Jan. 1, was only two days away from a scheduled lunch with Gwatney.

He learned of Gwatney’s death Wednesday while at KATV in Little Rock for what was to have been a press conference.

“I had the pleasure of meeting him when I first arrived and I was scheduled to visit him in Little Rock for lunch on Friday,” Long said Thursday. “Obviously we are very saddened, and that’s why we made the decision not to go forward with the press conference.”

Chuck Dicus, the Razorback Foundation president and former Razorback All-American wide receiver, and Harold Horton, a Razorback Foundation vice president and a longtime former Razorback coach, recruiting coordinator and Razorback football letterman, recalled Gwatney’s fondness for the Hogs and the important yet unobtrusive ways he showed it.

“Bill Gwatney made my heart smile,” Horton said. He was always fun. Bill was one of those quiet supporters who loved the Razorbacks. He was a fan that supported us by being here and supporting us with his giving.”

One of Gwatney’s gifts parks in the head football coach’s parking spot.

“Bobby Petrino drives a Bill Gwatney automobile,” Horton said. “Bill didn’t stop at one. Our maintenance department has a vehicle supplied by Bill Gwatney. He has been providing the athletic department automobiles as long as I can remember. That goes back to his dad.

“Any time we’d fly into Memphis and needed a car, Bill’s brother in Memphis has a car dealership and would provide us one.”

Gwatney was a fixture at the annual football coaches/media/car-dealer golf scramble and was apparently a man for all seasons for all things Razorback.

“The Bill Gwatney I knew was a good businessman, a good politician and a big Razorback fan,” Dicus said. “He liked to talk about his love of the Razorbacks. It’s such a sad moment for all of us.”

Both Dicus and Horton said that “all” envelops the state.

“It’s not just a loss to the community of Jacksonville and Pulaski County,” Horton said. “He touched a lot of people. His loss will be felt.”

SPORTS>>Lady Bears round into match form as season nears

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

The Sylvan Hills Lady Bears have had two good weeks of practice to start their fall volleyball camp, with 25 players making up this year’s squad. There will be eight seniors on this year’s team, including three returning senior starters.

Sitter Nicole Goff, blocker Kaci Willis and all-conference hitter Courtney Luth return the most experience to the Lady Bears, with the rest of the upperclassmen coming from last year’s junior varsity team.

Head coach Harold Treadway said the group has made a lot of progress since the first day of practice on Aug. 3, adding that the girls have such a good grasp of the fundamentals they could handle a match now, even with close to two weeks left before the season opens.

“We might not get every ball,” Treadway said. “But we could definitely play a game. We’ve put a lot on them the first week, and they have all responded well.”

The only drawback for the Lady Bears has been consistency in attendance. With some families squeezing in last-minute vacations, and others attending cheerleading, band and academic func tions, the team has been about four people short each day on average. Treadway is hoping that the closer it gets to the start of the fall semester the attendance will improve.

Last year’s team graduated several talented players, but the most notable absence is that of Megan Gwatney, the all-state hitter, who was also a strong team leader for the Lady Bears since her sophomore year in 2005. Treadway said he knows the loss of all-purpose standout and Midland College Lady Chaps freshman Gwatney is a tough one, but it’s the not the first time, he added.

“Several people have come up and asked what we’re going to do without Megan this year,” Treadway said. “But every year we lose a group of good, experienced players. Now granted, Megan was a super player – that’s why she’s in west Texas playing at the next level now, but we have some seniors this year that are working very hard. Their actions speak pretty loud for them, and they are all good kids.”

Goff and Willis both bring solid experience back to the team, and big expectations will sit on the shoulders of Luth. With good size and fierce hitting ability, Treadway expects Luth to have an even stronger season in 2008, and gain valuable leadership experience.

“The girls are excited, but it’s not as important to the kids who have other things going on,” Treadway said. “A lot of them are into cheerleading and band, but Courtney plays junior Olympic volleyball, and wants to play volleyball in college.”

The Lady Bears open their season on Aug. 26 at Greenbrier.

SPORTS>>Pieces of puzzle coming together

By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor

It’s way too early to say if the Jacksonville Red Devils have developed the kind of attitude head coach Jim Whatley has been looking for ever since the 2007 season ended, but so far, so good, he says.

After a 3-7 season that left Whatley questioning his team’s focus, the emphasis last spring and this summer was on re-learning the importance of hard work and preparation.

“I think we’re on the right track, but that change of attitude won’t be tested until they meet adversity,” said Whatley, who begins his fourth season at the Red Devil helm. “We’ll find out if we’ve really changed or it’s just lip service.

“But as far as work habits and the way the kids are positive and pushing each other and demanding each other go full speed, they’re taking a very business-like and positive approach.”

Two weeks into summer practice, the Red Devils are sitting on a roster of around 63 players who are coming off what Whatley characterizes as a solid offseason and summer workout program.

Rather than rely on 7-on-7 tournaments through the summer, the Red Devils elected instead to host a couple of team camps, and Whatley thinks that will prove more beneficial in the long run.

Three quarterbacks entered last spring vying for the starting job. Thanks to a shoulder injury suffered during baseball season by sophomore Noah Sanders, that competition has been narrowed to two as of now. Senior Terrell Brown and sophomore Logan Perry, fully recovered from an ankle injury suffered during high school baseball, are “neck and neck,” Whatley said.

“They both bring to the table some things we can use,” Whatley said. “We think we’ll use both of them quite a bit this year. If we played tomorrow, they’d both see a lot of action, and I think that’s a good thing. As far as Noah, that injury has set him back quite a bit.”

The other big question — piecing together a nearly brand-new offensive line — has yet to be answered, though Whatley insisted things were starting to become clearer.

He is especially high on 6-4, 310- pound senior Michaiah Davis, who has missed most of the past three seasons because of chronic hip and knee injuries. He’s healthy this year and Whatley thinks he could be special.

“He’s got the size and the speed and the desire,” Whatley said. “If there’s any justice, with the time and effort he’s put in in the offseason, he should have a phenomenal season. I think he’s capable of being a premiere offensive lineman.”
Now, it’s just a matter of plugging in the other pieces of the puzzle.

But whatever happens, Whatley is optimistic that he may be able to play his linemen one way, rather than have them playing both offense and defense.

“Whatever we do, we’re going to be young when we do it,” he said. “But the kids will work that out and we’ll put that puzzle together.”
Taking a young team — and the Red Devils are loaded with sophomores — into the teeth of a rugged 6A-East Conference schedule is no picnic, but Whatley is encouraged by a surprising toughness among his youthful linemen.


“There are times we may be all sophomores across the defensive line,” he said. “But there’s that old saying, ‘If you bite as a pup, there’s a good chance you’ll bite as a big dog.’ What’s encouraging is that these pups are biting right now.

“The discouraging thing is we play in a very tough league and it’s tough to compete as a sophomore. But I’ve been impressed with how physical our young ones have been.”

On the injury front, fullback Caleb Mitchell re-injured a finger he had originally hurt during baseball season and will be out three to four weeks. Running back Jeffrey Tillman suffered heat exhaustion in the first week of practice but is coming around and should be good to go when Jacksonville hosts Cabot on Sept. 2.

SPORTS>>Rhinos host Knights

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

Tonight’s game against Clarksville at Red Devil Field will not only determine whether the Arkansas Rhinos remain above .500, it could well determine whether or not they reach postseason with only four games left on their schedule.

It is the first meeting of the season between the Knights and the Rhinos (2-2). The first game was scheduled at Clarksville on July 12, but severe storms in the area postponed that game. The Rhinos would have carried a 2-game winning streak into that contest last month. Instead, they will be coming into tonight’s 7 p.m. kickoff as losers of their last two.

The defense has carried much of the weight in the early season, while the offense has fought injury and inexperience. That has forced head coach Oscar Malone and staff to simplify the game plan.

“We cut off a majority of our traps,” Malone said. “Some of these guys, especially on the line, are new to what we’ve been doing, and learning it on the fly. We’re all starting to get on the same page, and they have been improving in practice. I think we’re going to be able to put the ball up more, and have better protection from our line.”

Guard Antone Lewis (6-1, 298) and tackle William Moss (6-2, 312) were the only two offensive linemen with any semi-pro experience coming into the season. The other four have been playing catch-up to Lewis and Moss in terms of learning the offense, and that has led to difficulty picking up defensive pressure at times, especially the blitz.

Clarksville will bring a familiar offensive package to town tonight, running a variation of the former Arkansas Razorback offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn’s ‘Wildhog’ formation, made famous by current Oakland Raider and former Razorback Darren McFadden. The scheme, which is a first cousin to the classic wishbone formation, is heavy on misdirection, and will be a new look for the Rhinos’ defense to contend with.

Focus on the offensive line over the past two weeks, along with Clarksville’s more conservative 4-3 zone defense, should give quarterback Jeremiah Crouch a break from the pressure he was under in a 19-12 loss to Nashville two weeks ago. Malone hopes to capital ize by hitting the Knights underneath and elsewhere.

“We’ve got to get through to the middle,” Malone said. “We can go with sweeps, even some deep routes. I’m a balance guy, even though I’m partial to the run, but we have to move the ball any way we can.”

Malone is also counting on kicker Garrett Morgan for generating points. Long field goals in excess of 50 yards are not a problem for the three-year Rhinos kicker, and Malone said he also has the proper speed and agility to use him for trick plays.

Morgan led the team in scoring in the Rhinos’ season-opening 34-7 win over the Memphis Blast.

At the end of the day, however, Malone still said that defense will be key.

“Our job offensively is simple – move the chains and put up points,” Malone said. “If we can generate 21 points, I feel like we can win the game.”

All students, including college students with student IDs, will get in for $3 for the first back-to-school bash/parents retro night. Parents are encouraged to dress as they did in high school.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

TOP STORY > >British girl who survived bombs, German scientist who made them

Christine Diffie of Jacksonville was just a little girl back in England during the Second World War, when German bombs and rockets fell from the skies and families were split up and sent to the countryside where it was considered less dangerous, especially for children.

She remembers separating from her parents and moving from town to town and living with her aunt and uncle in Bath.

This was in 1943, when she was 5 years old and should have been in kindergarten, but instead she was on the run, seeking shelter and wondering where her parents might be.

“Children were evacuated so whole families wouldn’t be wiped out,” she recalled Monday.

She moved from Somerset to London, and then to Coventry and Bath till the war ended.

Her name back then was Christine Ivy Weir Childs, and she’s not in the least bit traumatized by her wartime experiences, even though she saw violence and destruction and the death of her beloved aunt and uncle when a bomb hit their home.

She was too young to remember, but she thinks her sister stayed with her mother, while her father worked in an airplane factory, building Spitfires.

Christine’s uncle owned a pub near where she was staying, but it soon took a direct hit, destroying most of the building and pretty much everything that was there, including a thick 15th Century wooden door.

“When the bomb dropped, there was no door,” she said. “They found no portion of it. Like there was nothing there.”
She was sleeping in the same bed with her aunt and uncle and a cousin when the bomb fell on them.

“It pushed my cousin out one window, and I went out the other window,” she said. “My aunt and uncle were killed. Her hand was all that was left of her. We knew it was her because of her wedding ring.”

It so happens that one of the people who built the rockets that terrorized Britain died a few months ago.

His name was Ernst Stuhlinger, who was a rocket scientist with Wernher von Braun, who helped develop the Nazis’ V-2 missile program that terrorized Britain, although it had absolutely no effect on the outcome of the war.

Von Braun, Stuhlinger and some other 100 Nazi scientists surrendered to the American military as they overran Germany. It was this team that built the U.S. missile program and sent astronauts into space and to the moon.

Stuhlinger, who died in May at the age of 94 in Huntsville, Ala., where he was director of science at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center during the early years of the space race with the Russians.

He was a brilliant scientist, according to his son, Christoph, who is a state forester with the University of Arkansas at Monticello. He travels around the state and helps landowners preserve and expand forests.

He’s close to nature and says, “Dad would have been a zoologist” if he hadn’t become a renowned rocket scientist.

Christoph is soft-spoken, probably like his father, who was caught up in the Nazi era, but he, too, had suffered, having barely survived the war in Russia, his son said.

Stuhlinger’s expertise was guiding rockets around the world and to the moon, surpassing the Soviets after their success with Sputnik and the early space flight around the world. There was a picture of Christoph’s father that accompanied his obituary in the New York Times, and he’s holding a model of the rocket he helped design.

The picture was taken in 1958, the year Christoph was born.

“We moved to Huntsville five days before Explorer I was launched,” he recalled.

Stuhlinger stayed with his newborn son for a few days, then headed for Cape Canaveral for the Explorer’s launching.

The Explorer was a combination of the V-2 rocket that rained on Britain and American upper stages, which later sent our astronauts to the moon and powered the Titan missiles that were assigned to Little Rock Air Force Base.

The second-stage firing was Stuhlinger’s area of expertise. Soon after Christoph’s birth, the scientist worked out a timing mechanism in his garage so that the Explorer could go into orbit after its launch.

According to the New York Times obituary, Stuhlinger stood in front of a console on the night of Jan. 31, 1958 “and pressed a button at just the right moment to signal the timing device to trigger the second-stage firing, not a second too soon or too late.

He became known as ‘the man with the golden finger.’”

“At his memorial service, he was remembered as equal part Albert Einstein and Mahatma Ghandi,” Christoph told us. “He was a brilliant scientist with the soul of a saint.”

As for those who question his father’s service under the Nazis, Christoph says, “They don’t understand what it’s like under a dictatorship.”

To the end, Stuhlinger insisted he was not interested in weapons, only in space flight.

We’ll never know if he was responsible for one of those rockets that landed that could have killed Christine Diffie when she was a child, but it does make you think of George Orwell’s observation, sending out a dispatch from wartime London, “As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.”

It’s our good fortune that those highly civilized human beings lost the war. Ernst Stuhlinger would probably have agreed.

TOP STORY > >Public relations, permanent areas help fight crime

By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer

Jacksonville Police Chief Gary Sipes said Tuesday that his department is working hard to lower the crime rate in the city through permanent patrol areas, working with the public and adding new weapons to the force.

“We’ve gone to permanent districts, which keeps the same officers in the same area and makes them more aware of who and what should or shouldn’t be there,” the chief explained. “This gives us an advantage,” he said.

Sipes, who was the Benton police chief before taking the same position in Jacksonville in April, said he was not happy with the 2007 crime statistics that showed Jacksonville had a higher incident of violent crime than the surrounding cities of Sherwood,
Cabot, Lonoke, Ward and Beebe.

Looking at what the state classifies as violent crimes—murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—Jacksonville had nine violent incidents in 2007 per 1,000 population.

Sherwood, Cabot, Ward and Beebe each came in at five violent incidents per thousand, while Lonoke was at four incidents per thousand.

Jacksonville suffered through one of its worse murder rates in years in 2007 with five homicides and has had three so far this year.

The good news, according to the chief, is that all the homicides have been solved.

Sipes added, “We are getting out in the public more than in the past and building a stronger relationship with the public.” The chief said the department participated in three National Night Out events last week—one in Sunnyside, one in Foxwood and one in Base Meadows—and the response was excellent at all three events.

The chief said the department is also exploring the possibility of going to 12-hours shifts, which would mean more patrols on the streets at a time.

Capt. Charlie Jenkins, a spokesman for the department, said the officers have voted in favor of the idea. “This will increase the number of offices on a shift, so when one or two are responding to a call, we still have some on patrol.”

The chief isn’t sure yet when the department will go to the longer shifts. “It’s something we are exploring.”

The department has also recently purchased Taser weapons, which shoot out an electrical charge to stun suspects and all patrol officers have been trained on the use of the shock weapon.

“This is the first time that we’ll have these electronic control units,” Sipes explained. “And it will help bring our officer injuries down because the officers will not likely have to put hands on a combative individual.”

In the months since taking over Sipes has said, “The best thing that I have found about the department is the number of dedicated officers and staff that want to work here and serve the city.

“These guys have the opportunity to go to larger departments in central Arkansas and make more money, but they chose to stay here,” he continued.

That means a lot to the chief whose three sons all attended Jacksonville High School and live close by.

He believes that dedication, along with building a stronger relationship with the residents will do a lot to help lower the crime rate.

Sipes is also proud that the department will be sponsoring its first Citizens Police Academy in September.

“We are looking to have 25 to 30 residents in the class. They will meet one night a week for eight weeks and get a good inside look at the department,” he said.

The chief went on to explain, “You know sometimes you see an officer do something that doesn’t make a bit of sense to the normal citizen but we do things for a reason. I want to educate our citizens as best as we can so they have a positive image about their department.”

The chief also said he is pushing training.

“Our officers will receive and attend every training opportunity that presents itself. The Criminal Justice Institute offers us excellent opportunities at no cost and I’ll take advantage of it,” he said.

Sipes, who has been married for 32 years and has three grown sons, started his police career when he was 18 as a cadet with the North Little Rock Police Department.

He became a NLR police officer when he turned 21 and worked every division in the department before he retired in April 1999 and became the director for the city’s code-enforcement department.

In 2004, he was selected to head up the Benton Police Department. Just before that, he was a finalist for the open police chief job in Jacksonville left vacant by the departure of Wayne Ruthven, who became state homeland security chief but was soon pushed out.

Capt. Robert Baker was selected as chief and ran the force until his retirement in March.

Two of Sipes’ sons have followed him into law enforcement. One is a NLR police officer and the other is a Pulaski County deputy.

TOP STORY > >Landfill promoted as wildlife habitat, source for energy

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

Proving that one man’s trash is another’s bird sanctuary, Waste Management Inc. and Audubon Arkansas announced Tuesday that they were undertaking a unique partnership to help cleanup the headwaters of the Bayou Meto watershed.

Waste Management’s Two Pine Landfill in Jacksonville began tapping the methane gas created in the landfill and burning it in giant generators to provide low-cost electricity to 4,500 North Little Rock homes.

The methane gas, which would otherwise escape into the atmosphere to create ozone, instead replaces tons of coal to generate that electricity.

On hand to celebrate the partnership and as well as the alternative energy produced at the landfill were Gov. Mike Beebe, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Cong. Vic Snyder, Sherwood Mayor Virginia Hillman, Jacksonville Mayor Tommy Swaim and others.

“The whole country can take a lesson from this partnership,” said Beebe. “It’s a testimony to the people of Arkansas and can be a model to lead the nation.”

He said that some might expect a pit fight between Waste Management and Audubon, but that the cooperation was inspiring.

He said their bird and management program was a step in making the world safer and cleaner.

“Ken Smith has dedicated his life to making sure these things happen,” Lincoln said, referring the state director of Arkansas
Audubon.

“We celebrate this first-of-a-kind partnership,” she added.

The generators produce 5 megawatts of electricity to power some homes in North Little Rock.

Nationally, Waste Manage-ment produces enough electricity to power 400,000 homes and offset the burning of 200 million tons of coal, a company spokesman said.

The existing landfill is about at its capacity, and Waste Management is preparing about 150 acres across Hwy. 440 for future use, but all of it will eventually be incorporated into the bird and wildlife habitat, according to Smith.

He said the park and habitat will total about 500 acres and will include grasses that can be harvested and sold to make ethanol, marshes to help clean and filter storm-water runoff, trails, overlooks and eventually a nature center just yards from the generators turning methane into electricity.

“It’s all pretty neat stuff,” said Smith, but the real importance to Audubon is that Two Pine and Jacksonville are in the headwaters of Bayou Meto.

He said that other than cleaning up the dioxin spilled from the old Vertac chemical plant, little thought had been given to conservation of the watershed.

“Downstream is the largest public waterfowl shooting grounds in the United States, 20,000 acres in the Bayou Meto Wildlife Management Area,” Smith said.

TOP STORY > >Cabot aldermen start filing for city council

By JOAN McCOY
Leader staff writer

The filing period for independent candidates for city council started Wednesday, Aug. 6, but so far only two have filed in Cabot and none have filed in Beebe.

The filing period ends at noon Aug. 26.

Richard Prentice filed Wednesday for the Ward 3, Position 2 seat in Cabot now held by Teri Miessner.

Patrick Hutton, a former council member who lost his race two years ago for the Lonoke County Quorum Court, wants back on the council and has filed for the Ward 2, Position 1 seat now held by Virgil Teague.

Teague, serving his first two-year term on the council, suffered a stroke last year and has been absent from several council meetings and committee meetings.

In Beebe, Linda Anthony, a former council member, has announced that she intends to run for the Ward 1 Position 2 seat held for almost six years by Janice Petray.

Petray, who last month rear-ended a pickup at a traffic light in Beebe and is now at the center of a controversy over whether she received special treatment from police officers on the scene, says she plans to run again.

Hutton, an active member of the Lonoke County Republican Committee, sponsored the legislation calling for party elections for the Cabot City Council in 2006. But a year ago, over the strong objections of the Lonoke County Republican Committee, the council voted to hold independent races for the Nov. 4 election.
Alderman Eddie Cook sponsored the legislation for non-partisan elections for the council.

The proponents of party elections said at that time that voters need to know whether candidates are Republican or Democrat to know whether their values are the same as theirs. But Cook said the Cabot council never deals with the issues like abortion and homosexuality. Instead of looking for the “R” or “D” beside a candidate’s name, voters should get to know the candidates, he said.

North Lonoke County is now predominantly Republican, so Republican candidates are the most likely to be elected. Cook said in support of his resolution that without getting to know the candidates it’s impossible to determine their values.

Cook’s resolution passed 5-2. Miessner and Alderman Becky Lemaster voted against the resolution. However, Alderman Ken Williams voted for it and even though he was under pressure from Republicans to veto the resolution, Mayor Eddie Joe Williams refused to do so.

A formal complaint that could have led to expulsion from the Lonoke County Republican Committee was later filed against Mayor Williams and Alderman Williams for their position, but no action was taken against the two.

Members of the Cabot City Council are paid $630 a month and are expected to attend council and committee meetings. Most opt to have city insurance deducted from their checks. Like all city employees, they pay up to about $210 a month medical, dental and vision insurance.

In Beebe, council members and the mayor may opt to take the insurance or be paid the amount of the premium, $748 a month. All council members in Beebe are also paid an additional $10 a month.

However, Carol Crump-Westergren, city clerk-treasurer, said no one on the current city council takes the money.

“In December, I write them a check for $120 minus taxes,” she said. “They give it to the Angel Tree.”

TOP STORY > >Boundaries for school district are presented

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

A meeting that saw a brief discussion of a separate Jacksonville school district might have turned into a shootout at the Pulaski County Special School District corral instead resembled more a love-in by adjournment Tuesday, with union representatives and school board members all complimenting the district’s improving scores, hard work by the teachers and excitement over starting school on Monday.

Although word was already out that PCSSD president Charlie Wood had pulled from the agenda twin recommendations to withdraw recognition of the teachers’ and support staff’s unions, an overflow crowd packed the boardroom, standing and spilling out into the hall.

DECERTIFICATION PULLED

True to his word, however, Wood pulled both actions from the agenda, promising a board workshop on the Pulaski Association of Support staff contract and recognition and saying later that individual teachers had assured him that they thought any problems could be worked out.

Meanwhile, PCSSD School Board member Bill Vasquez of Jacksonville first recommended that the board petition the state Department of Education to create a Jacksonville School District, then added a more specific resolution and then tabled the entire matter.

“I just wanted to get the board this information and let them consider it,” Vasquez said.

Included in the information were both a map and a legal description of the Jacksonville and the other portions of north Pulaski County that would be included in the proposed district.

Supporters of a standalone Jacksonville school district say they need a few more days to pull together the last of the information to show that not only is a Jacksonville district financially feasible, but that it can be split off to the mutual advantage of the PCSSD.

Vasquez’s proposal was contingent upon PCSSD achieving unitary status from the federal courts or as part of a settlement with the state attorney general’s office.

UNIQUE NEEDS

“This action will allow the citizens of the proposed district to meet the unique educational needs of the students in the Jacksonville area while consolidating the remainder of the PCSSD into a more efficient and effective school district,” Vasquez wrote in support of his proposal.

Vasquez also proposed a resolution drafted by state Rep. Will Bond of Jacksonville in favor of the creation by detachment of a new school district in the Jacksonville/north Pulaski County area, which consists of the following schools:

Arnold Drive Elementary, Bayou Meto Elementary, Homer Adkins Pre-K, Jacksonville Elementary, Murrell Taylor Elementary and Pinewood Elementary.

Also, Tolleson Elementary, Warren Dupree Elementary, Jacksonville Boys Middle School, Jacksonville Girls Middle School, North Pulaski High School and Jacksonville High School.

PURSUE NEW DISTRICT

“The Pulaski County Special School District empowers its administrators, staff and lawyers to pursue creation of this new district with the goal being that the new district be in existence and in control of the geographical area attached in Exhibit A as soon as practicable,” the resolution read. “It empowered them to negotiate with representatives of the city of Jacksonville, unless otherwise directed by law or the State Board of Education.

“In approving the resolution, PCSSD would acknowledge that the new district could be created within the statutory scheme laid out by Act 395 of 2007 or by legislative acts now existence or to be passed.

“Nothing in this resolution shall be interpreted as an agreement by PCSSD to violate any currently existing court orders or consent decrees, the according to the resolution. If federal court approval were required, the district would agree not to oppose such approval.”

MORE NEGOTIATION

The resolution notes that the district understands that settling financial issues will require additional negotiation and agreement.

The meeting originally was slated to consider the decertification as bargaining agents of the Pulaski Association of Support Staff and the Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers.

Earlier in the week, it seemed likely that both the teachers’ union and the support staff union could be decertified as bargaining agents.

STILL NO CONTRACT
With only days remaining until classes begin on Monday, the district and Pulaski Association of Support Staff still have not agreed on a new contract, and union supporters had hinted that decertification could result in a strike.

But Wood said Tuesday that the board had promised to consider PASS at a special board workshop and that he had decided it would be unfair to take action before that promised workshop.

PASS was decertified after a strike in 2004 and recertified July 10, 2007.

The Pulaski Association of Classroom Teachers currently is in the second year of a three-year contract, so decertification would not take effect until June 30, 2009, according to the agenda proposal.

Judging by comments that were made in during the July board meeting, Danny Gilliland, who represents parts of Jacksonville and north Pulaski, Pam Roberts who represents Maumelle and west Little Rock, and Shana Chapman, who represents west Little Rock, seemed likely to join Wood, providing the four votes needed to decertify the union.

ROBERTS NOT RUNNING

Roberts is not running for reelection to the board in September.

Gwen Williams, who represents the McAlmont area; Mildred Tatum, who represents south Pulaski County, and also Vasquez have expressed support for the teachers and support staff.

Williams faces a September challenge from Reedie Ray of Jacksonville, who has gotten crossways with the PCSSD unions in the past.

Two previous attempts this year at decertification were unsuccessful or were deferred over parliamentary questions, but it appears that union opponents may have their ducks in a row this time.

PASS had been seeking a 3.6 percent increase in pay plus longevity increases while the district negotiators have offered 1.6 percent pay increase.

DESEG MONEY IFFY

Wood and Roberts have said with large cuts in desegregation aid likely looming, the district was not in a position to grant large pay increases or to sign new multi-year contracts. The teachers typically negotiate a three-year contract and PASS was also asking for a three-year contract.

If the district were released from the 20-year-old school desegregation agreement, the state would phase out the $16 million in annual desegregation support PCSSD receives.

The teachers and support staff have said they bore much of the brunt of cutbacks while the district struggled to get off fiscal distress designation and state Education Department scrutiny and now it’s time to increase pay.

TOP STORY > >Insiders used for contract

By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader senior staff writer

The developers who failed to build or rehabilitate the promised 1,200 houses at Little Rock Air Force Base apparently got a foot in the door by promising $200,000 to a retired Air Force general chief of staff and by working with a Republican fundraiser with ties to the Bush family and others.

The housing deal involving insiders was published Thursday by Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Eric Nalder.

The scandal has prompted Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) to sponsor a bill that would more closely scrutinize military contracts with private firms. Pryor said Monday that his bill had passed out of the Senate subcommittee and that he expected his bill to be part of the 2009 defense authorization bill.

“We will require a lot of nuts and bolts, monthly site visits and that the military does more due diligence in selecting the contractors,” Pryor said.

In his Post-Intelligencer article, Nalder’s identified Ret. Gen. Merrill McPeak, Air Force chief of staff during the Persian Gulf War, and a former lieutenant colonel from his staff as the consultants who were promised $200,000 for helping secure the first of six military housing contracts around the country.

Pryor said this appeared to be another example of the revolving door between the defense department and companies seeking influence in securing government contracts.

In 2004, American Eagle Com-munities, managed by Kathleen Thompson and otherwise made up of the Carabetta Carabetta Enterprises and Shaw Infras-tructure, entered into a 50-year contract to build, rehabilitate, own and manage air base housing at Little Rock, Moody, Patrick and Hanscom Air Force bases.

They also won the contracts for the sprawling Naval housing at Puget Sound (Washington) and also at the Army’s Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri.

Thompson, who came to Little Rock Air Force Base for the groundbreaking of the American Eagle Community Center, was a major fundraiser for former President George H.W. Bush and counted Newt Gingrich, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot as friends.

But reports quickly surfaced that American Eagle was paying building contractors and suppliers late or not at all and three-years into the contract, it was already two years behind in the building program, according to Gen. Rowayne Schatz, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base.

Despite Carabetta’s 25-year history of bankruptcy, corruption allegations, unpaid contractors, slowly paid contractors, unfinished projects, unhappy partners, litigation and cross litigation, the Air Force determined that past performance was satisfactory for all four Carabetta/Shaw projects, according to Mike Hawkins. He is a spokesperson for the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment at Brooks City-Base, Texas, which manages the Air Force’s housing- privatization program.

Not only had Carabetta’s company filed for bankruptcy, but it had been prohibited in the 1990s from bidding on government housing programs, Nalder said, because it “improperly diverted millions from federal housing projects.”

Work at Little Rock Air Force Base stopped in May 2007, when the banks holding the construction bonds refused to advance American Eagle any more money.

At that time, the company had completed about 25 of the 1,200 houses and slabs had been poured for another 70.

The contract called for 468 new homes and 732 homes remodeled by 2011.

In response to American Eagle’s spectacular failure, Pryor last year introduced in the Senate a bill calling for increased oversight and transparency of those military contracts.

Of the Carabettas and Thomp-son, Pryor said, “I will be disappointed if they are allowed to bid other contracts. I support a death penalty. If you have a contractor that has had trouble before, they should not be able to bid on any contracts for a period of time.”

“I think Gen. Schatz has done a good job of monitoring this,” said Pryor, “as good as anybody in the system. The truth is that we’re going to end up with less housing than we had budgeted for. We’re trying to get a much as we can.

Of Carabetta, Thompson and American Eagle, Pryor said, “They are gaming the system. It’s inexcusable that we allow them to continue to bid.”

Pryor also said the death penalty should apply not only to the company, but to its principals and officers in the company so they can’t just change the name of their companies. The Air Force reportedly is withholding its decision of whether or not to blacklist Carabetta until all negotiations are finished. A new purchase and sales agreement will be signed within the next few months transferring the contract from American Eagle to Hunt-Pinnacle and should close in the fall, according to Hawkins.

That’s in line with Schatz’s estimation earlier this year that the deal could close in October with construction starting back up perhaps in the spring.

Hunt Building Corp. will be responsible for execution of the construction and renovation program and Pinnacle Property Management Services Corp. will provide day-to-day property management services, Hawkins said.

Hunt-Pinnacle, American Eagle and the Air Force all signed a letter of intent in April laying out the parameters of the remaining negotiations, although technically the Air Force is not a party to the negotiations.

Hunt-Pinnacle, which won the 2007 Air Force Professional Housing Management Associa-tion Award for best installation team for its work at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, has built and manages tens of thousands of such units for the military.

EDITORIAL >>Kickin the habit

A government nanny may be meddlesome, but it can make life better for all of us, as a state health survey about smoking demonstrates. Arkansas began a campaign to reduce smoking on several fronts in 2000 — a big advertising campaign, increasingly tough laws banning smoking from public places and marginally higher cigarette taxes — and the evidence keeps piling up that it works.

A survey called the Arkansas Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System found that the share of adults in Arkansas who smoke fell from 26.3 percent to 22.4 percent between 2002 and last year. The changes were more dramatic for youngsters. The share of smokers in Arkansas high schools fell from 34.7 percent in 2001 to 20.7 percent last year.

All of those who kicked the habit or refused to start it will live healthier and more productive lives. It’s good for everyone else, too. Medical costs that are directly caused by smoking run to more than $800 million a year in Arkansas. A survey of Arkansas hospitals by the state Health Department showed that fewer and fewer people are being treated in hospitals for heart disease and strokes, which are common products of smoking.

When people lay off cigarettes, it eventually levels off health-care spending, including charitable care, and that translates into lower health-care premiums for everyone. Don’t look for a slice in your premiums, but the increases will be smaller.

Arkansas still has a higher prevalence of smokers than the nation as a whole, but the difference now is small.

Arkansas was one of the few states that channeled most of their big annual settlement with tobacco companies into smoking-prevention and other health programs in 2000. Voters approved an initiated act earmarking the money for anti-smoking and health programs after the legislature caviled. The state this year is spending nearly $16 million on smoking-cessation programs.

The legislature got the message, too. Since 2000, it has passed laws banning smoking in public places and graduating the excise tax on cigarettes, which is now up to 59 cents a pack. By raising the retail price of a pack, cigarette taxes are a particularly good way to forestall smoking by children.

That is where Arkansas is far behind most other states. The national average of the tax is nearly twice the Arkansas tax.

The legislature may fix that in January. State Rep. Gene Shelby, D-Hot Springs, is considering introducing a bill to raise the tax by 50 cents a pack to pay for a statewide trauma system, which is badly needed. The extra tax would curtail smoking so much that the tax might produce only marginally more revenue for the state than the current levy, but that would be all right. Urge your favorite lawmaker to vote for it.

While you’re at it, page your Washington lawmakers — Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor and Representatives Vic Snyder and Marion Berry — and tell them to support legislation to authorize the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes that hook young blacks.

That way, the FDA (under a new and sympathetic president) can crack down on tobacco marketing to children, perhaps saving many of those 4,000 children a day who take their first puff.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

SPORTS>>Summer regimen has Beebe on target

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

It’s back to business this August for the Beebe football Badgers.

The excitement over last year’s success with first-year coach and Badger alumnus John Shannon is evident in this year’s numbers, as 51 players reported for fall camp. Everyone stayed through the first week and showed steady improvement, which has Shannon excited about his team’s prospects entering the new 5A-Southeast Conference.

“The kids have been working real hard,” Shannon said. “It was hot the first few days and we pushed through the heat. The last half of the week was almost like a vacation, it cooled off so much. We’re kind of excited where we’re at right now.”

The Badgers are returning 14 seniors, 17 juniors and 20 sophomores. Of those, five starters return on offense and six are returning on defense. The coaching staff put a lot of responsibility on the players over the summer, which they got through with flying colors, Shannon said. He said the stringent summer workout schedule has them a little ahead of the game.

“We required our kids to get in 10 mandatory workouts this summer,” Shannon said. “We also went to one team camp up at UCA. Most of our kids got in 10-14 workouts this summer. We started the summer with about 55 kids, and 51 of them got their 10-plus workouts in. We feel pretty good where we’re at strength wise and conditioning wise.”

The experienced players have lived up to the expectations of Shannon and the Beebe coaching staff, and the only surprises have been positive ones.

“We had spring football, so we kind of already knew who our starters were going to be,” Shannon said. “But we have had some of our younger kids that were ninth-graders last year that have come out here for two-a-days, and you can physically see a difference in them. They’restronger and faster just from what we’ve done this summer.

“There hasn’t been a whole lot of surprises, but we’ve had a few young kids step up. So, if they don’t help us in the starting department, they can definitely help us in the depth department.”

Still, with all the strides that have been made in just over a week, Shannon said the special teams’ are not where they need to be this fall. The start of teacher workshops have moved both morning and afternoon practice sessions around, and put a squeeze on available time.

“Probably the thing that has hurt the most is that we’ve missed some times for our kickers to get out and practice kicking before practice both in the morning and in the afternoon,” Shannon said. “That’s one place where we feel that we’re kind of behind in right now, and it’s just from the standpoint that our practices have been cut because of the teacher’s meetings that we have to go to, so we’re having to work around that.”

The Badgers traditionally take the remainder of their media day off after taking pictures for the school and local media, but Monday’s media day was followed with a weight room workout and special teams practice to compensate for the tight practice time through the first week.

The Badgers will scrimmage at Searcy on Aug. 26 before opening the season at Greenbrier on Sept. 5.

SPORTS>>Boxer reaches top of his game at 42

By KELLY FENTON
Leader sports editor

Grant Walker dances around the punching bag, delivering a series of stinging jabs with the animated face of a man who surely loves what he’s doing.Pop, pop, duck, jab, duck, uppercut. He finishes off the flurry with a roundhouse right, his favorite punch, then steps away from the heavy, swaying bag.

He’s breathing heavy, but hardly sucking wind. And he’s still smiling.

Yeah, he must really love this.

“I dread these workouts like summer two-a-days in football,” says the former Morrilton high school football player. “Every time, I dread them. It’s as hard as anything. It’s grueling.

“And it gets in the way of family time, which gets me in a very bad mood. I dread the workouts all day if I’m doing them in the afternoon.”

The key word here is dread. So why in the world does the 42-year-old Cabot occupational therapist put himself through this three times a week, spar two other days and lift weights on alternate days?

To hear Walker tell it, it’s mostly about building character and learning about himself.

And winning, of course.

Walker can put a check mark by all three. He recently reached the pinnacle of his career when he won the Title Boxing national open tournament Masters championship in Memphis, earning his second consecutive crown at the event. The Masters division is for boxers over 35.

Still, it takes Walker some time to formulate an answer to the question, “Why?”

“Gosh,” he finally says. “I guess I like the idea of conquering your fears. Because boxing scares me.”

Walker is refreshingly honest discussing a sport associated with machismo and abhorrence of weakness. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s won 14 of 15 fights that he can be so disarming and modest and open, so fearless when discussing his fears.

“As a kid, it scared me more than anything,” he admits. “You’re in there against a guy that’s trying to kill you. Or, if it’s a sparring partner, they’re trying to get the best of you. It’s just going in there and conquering your fears and getting over it.

“And when it’s over, you feel like you’ve done something. Plus, it’s a great workout.”

THE SWEET SCIENCE

But it’s not all about self-denial and self-revelation. The fact is, Walker, who has been boxing seriously for nearly 20 years, loves the sport, loves the chess-match aspects of a bout, loves trying to figure out an opponent’s strategy.

“It’s wonderfully fun,” he says. “It really is a sweet science. It’s not just about power and speed, it’s about trying to outwit each other.”

Walker was 14 when his dad, an avid fan of the sport, began coaching him. But he drifted into taekwondo until he was 23, when he really got serious about boxing. He trained at Ray Rodgers gym in Little Rock, where he became acquainted with Jermain Taylor, the former world super middleweight champion. The two sparred on occasion, though that last sparring session with Taylor will be his final one with the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, he insists.

“It was a month before the Olympics,” Walker remembers. “I hadn’t boxed in about a year, and I was coming back from knee surgery. And I got into the ring with him thinking, he’s going to the Olympics, I can tell people about this.

“He really made me look bad.”

As disheartening as it was for Walker to show so poorly — even against the likes of a future world champion — he applied the lessons the sport had taught him through the years: He got back in the ring and started working out harder.

“You can sit on your butt, or do something about it.”

Though Walker and Taylor were never close friends, never hung out together, Taylor knows Walker well enough to say hi to him on the rare occasions they run into each other. That happened recently in Memphis, and it clearly impressed Walker’s sister-in-law.

“‘You really do know him,’ she said to me. And I was, like, yeah, did you think I was just making that up?”

And he knows Taylor well enough to admit to nearly crying when Taylor lost the title to Kelly Pavlik last year.
LOOKING FOR AN OPPONENT

Walker spars at least twice a week with three Cabot buddies — John Hensley, Chad Hankins and Josh Woody — in the gym he’s set up in his garage at his spacious home in the Confederate Woods division outside of Cabot. But despite the rigors of training for a tournament, there is never any guarantee Walker will have an opponent when he arrives.

In fact, he says, it’s usually about a 50-50 proposition that the Masters division will have another boxer entered.

Walker says it is purely and simply fear that is responsible for the no-shows at events. Often, he explains, six or seven will be entered and will even actually show up for the weigh-in. Then reality hits.

“Boxing is a tough sport,” he says. “Guys train, they get there, they sign up, they come to the weigh-in. Then they see all these other big, muscular guys walking around and when it comes to fight night, they aren’t there. That happens ALL the time.”

The fear has never entirely receded for Walker, who says he had a bad case of butterflies back in June for that Title Boxing national championship bout. He confided in his brother that he was “terrified.” His brother calmly assured him that there was no way the other guy hit as hard as Grant. That was all it took to get him back on track.

TITLE BOUT

Walker won in a unanimous decision. Despite the fact that he was sure he had won the fight, there was a lingering doubt as to how the judges would see it, especially after Walker got off to a bad start in the event.

Walker is slim-wasted, stocky and chiseled, but at 186 pounds, he was no match size-wise for his opponent, and his bigger foe landed a big punch in the first round, a punch Walker admits stung him pretty good.

“I knew I needed to stay away from him,” he says. “I was faster than him and I needed to out-quick him and I did that. After that, I decided to box him and not get in there and brawl with him.”

Despite being a hard puncher, Walker says quickness and speed are his strengths. And, after 19 years in the ring, experience.

Walker says a lot of novice boxers will let their fear turn them into freewheeling, out-of-control swingers who try to overpower their foes. Though Walker says such brawlers can be a little scary and unpredictable, they can usually be beaten with a little patience and presence of mind.

Walker says his only defeat — way back in 1991 — was the result of just such inexperience and recklessness ... his own.

“I thought that kid was the worst fighter I’ve ever fought,” he says with a laugh. “But all it takes was one punch and I wasn’t very good back then. I was winning the fight decisively, but he was playing defense, letting me wear myself out. And then he hit me with a left in the jaw.”

The next thing Walker remembers is coming to in the locker room, asking his girlfriend if he’d won the fight.

“She said, ‘No, baby, you didn’t,’” Walker says. “I don’t remember any of it before that. I learned something from that. I learned, don’t go crazy out there, don’t be out there sucking wind. Because if you do something stupid, you’re going to wake up in the locker room.”

FACING THE FEAR

Walker says he’s only been hurt a couple of times over the years, both on liver punches — one by Jermain Taylor and another by a guy who boxed in the Army.

“Early in my career, (the Army boxer) hit me with a left hook to the liver,” he remembers. “I went down and laid there for a good minute.

“Have you ever been hit in the liver before?” Walker asks, wincing from the memory. “It takes your breath away; it paralyzes your diaphragm. It’s just painful.”

But it didn’t scare Walker off. One of those reasons he got into the sport to begin with carried him past any lingering apprehension.

“I wanted to get back and face that fear again,” he says. “I’m a good guy, but I’ve got a lot of pride. I told myself, that’s the last time that’s going to happen. It wasn’t the last time, but after a few more times, it didn’t happen any more.”

With the national Masters title under his belt, Walker figures he’s ready to cut back on competitive boxing. That will allow him to spend more time with 10-year-old daughter Miranda and 8-year-old son Carson. Walker is hardly ready to give up his workouts; they’ll just probably become a bit more relaxed, he says.

“I’m obviously not going to turn pro at 42,” he says. “And any amateur boxer’s goal is to win a national championship. As far as the very intense pre-fight training I’d do six weeks before a tournament, I’m not going to do that as much.

“If I had lost (in Memphis), I’d probably still be doing it.”

SPORTS>>Injuries mar practice

By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter

The cooler temperature on Monday was hardly what Sylvan Hills coach Jim Withrow considered a paradise.

The Bears returned respectable numbers for fall camp last week, but two key injuries on the defensive side early on has
Withrow and the SH coaching staff scrambling for replacements.

A total of 60 players turned out for fall practice. The initial number expected was closer to 65, but three returning starters who decided not to return, and a pair of ineligible players whittled that number down further.

Two players who did return were defensive starters Michael Robinson and Nick Brewer. Robinson, who started at inside linebacker last year, went down with a knee injury, and defensive end Brewer joined him when he sustained a shoulder injury in practice.

Both players were key components of the Bears’ defense last season. Robinson ended last season with more than 50 tackles to his credit, while Brewer had finished with more than 60 before the end of the 2007 campaign.

Withrow did not know the extent of each player’s injury as of Monday afternoon.

“They’re juniors, so they’re not the oldest guys in the world,” Withrow said. “But when we came out here and went through drills at the end, those guys know where they’re going. And they’re helping everyone else get in place, so now we have to bring two different ones in.

“I imagine that by the time we get to conference, we will be playing a little iron-man football, and have a lot of people going both ways.”

The numbers were thin to start with. Sylvan Hills returned five starters on both sides of the ball, but Brewer’s and Robinson’s absence will now put only three experienced defenders on the field until their returns.

Withrow said depth could be an issue, but is counting on the underclassmen to take up some of the slack.

“It’s a great junior class,” Withrow said. “And the sophomores have filled in. It’s been a learning experience. A lot of them are going to have to play. We don’t have a lot of depth, because we didn’t have a big senior class to begin with. It kind of puts us in a bind, but I think some of these young guys will be able to help us, so we should be all right.

“At times, it has felt like starting over. But we have enough guys that can play. Honestly, the juniors that played a lot last year have really helped us out tremendously. Juliean Broner, Ahmad Scott, so the talent pool is there, and I think we’re fine.

The lack of experience has made the learning curve a little higher over this time last year, but Withrow said the tedious process of learning in August will help his young team out down the road.

“It’s not bad; we spent a lot of time teaching and getting them lined up,” Withrow said. “We’ve picked it up a little bit, especially since we put the pads on. Last year it was new, but we had older guys. So they pretty much knew what was coming on Friday night. These guys are younger, and we just need to make sure they know what they’re doing.”

One common enemy this time of year has yet to rear its head at practice — the heat. The end of last week and the first two days of this week have had unseasonably cool temperatures with rain on several days. Withrow said the break from the weather has been beneficial, but added he was concerned about the effects of higher temps down the road.

“I didn’t think any of it has been bad,” Withrow said. “There was a couple of times in the afternoon where it got a little warm, but I don’t know, maybe it was the days leading up to two-a-days that were so warm, but it didn’t really seem that bad. The kids even commented on it. It’s not been that bad. That’s one thing I am worried about — if it gets hot all of a sudden. How we’re going to react to that?”

Most eyes this season are focused on the quarterback slot, and how the Bears will adjust to losing all-state signal-caller Hunter Miller. Junior Jordan Spears has officially earned starting duties, and has been solid in the early practices.

“Jordan’s done well,” Withrow said. “We’ve asked him to do a lot of things, and we’ve asked him to read a lot of things, and he’s done it all well. He’s thrown the ball well, he’s more of a thrower, so we’ll throw the ball a little more this year. But he’s directed the offense and managed everything really well. That’s what has impressed me.”

The Bears will have their blue-white game on Aug. 23 before scrimmaging at Little Rock Christian on Aug. 26.