By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
As the Pulaski County Special School District on Tuesday hand-delivered the latest revision of its fiscal-distress improvement plan to the state Department of Education, some Jacksonville leaders met with Gov. Mike Huckabee’s education adviser while district administrators prepared to satisfy a Freedom of Information request from a Jacksonville businessman.
Mark Perry, president of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, and others who suspect that Marvin V. Jeter III and the Pulaski County Special School District didn’t make a good-faith effort to secure construction and teacher-training grants for the new single-gender schools, will be disappointed by the information they are seeking, according to Jeter, the district’s assistant superintendent for learning services.
Perry faxed a Freedom of Information request Friday afternoon for copies of grant applications and the results of those applications. Jeter said Tuesday that Perry was not the first to request that information. He said the Office of Desegregation Monitoring made similar requests earlier as had an unidentified person.
Also Tuesday, Perry, Jacksonville Mayor Tommy Swaim and former state Rep. Pat Bond met at the state Capitol with Huckabee’s education policy adviser, Terry Hardy, to voice their concerns over the state of the PCSSD in general and, most specifically, with the Jacksonville single-gender middle schools. “She was very attentive and listened to our concerns about what’s happening in our school district,” Swaim said. “We’re concerned about the quality of the education of the students in (the district), particularly Jacksonville schools. We imparted to her our concerns about fund ing for the single-gender schools.”
Some district patrons have said Jeter misled them about the likely availability of grant money to support the single-gender schools, according to Perry, who has a son at the middle school and two younger children on deck at Pinewood Elementary School. “(Jeter) led us on to believe there’s all this money out there for this grant and that grant,” Perry said. “Show me the money. We have problems galore.
“My motivation is to make sure that the district is doing what they said they would do. “They said, when we agreed to do the new boy-girl schools — Jeter said there is this much money out there and we can get this grant and this grant and now there’s no (grant) money available.”
In his letter to acting Superintendent Robert Clowers, Perry requests the following: Number of grants applied for by Jeter, or anyone in Learning Services, from Sept. 1, 2004 to the present date, with a copy of each, plus rejection or approval notifications.
Number of grants applied for by Jeter, or anyone in Learning Services, specifically for the Jacksonville Middle School from Sept. 1, 2004 to the present date, with a copy of each, plus rejection or approval notifications. The amount of National School Lunch Act funds Jacksonville Middle School boys and girls campus students were eligible to receive for the 2004-05 and the 2005-06 academic school years.
The total amount of NSLA funds received by the school district in 2004-05 and in 2005-06. A breakdown of the allocation of the NSLA funds within the entire district. Jeter said he received Perry’s FOI request Tuesday and would have the information Perry seeks.
Jeter said the department had applied for three grants on behalf of the single-gender schools, but hadn’t been awarded any of them. He said it sometimes took repeated applications over a period of years to get grants. “There are a number of complicated issues,” Jeter said.
“In every grant package a portion has to do with the sustainability of the program in question. Since we went into fiscal distress, it’s hard to guarantee to any funding source how long the district will be solvent.” The material requested by Perry will show that the district applied for the grants, he said.
“I don’t believe I oversold the grants, saying we were going to apply and hope to get them. But the success of the program doesn’t depend on getting grants,” Jeter said. With the first nine weeks of school completed, Jeter said his department is working on a comprehensive report detailing the successes and problems so far at the middle school. Perry’s FOI request also seeks information on the free-and reduced-cost lunch program and the expenditures of federal funds generated by that program at the single-gender schools, where most of the students qualify. Those requests have been forwarded to John Archetko, the district’s chief financial officer, who was not at work Tuesday.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
TOP STORY >>He'll stay in race despite attacks, Stumbaugh says
By JOAN MCCOY
Leader staff writer
Cabot Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh says he is not worried that the recent report about his personnel record while an officer with the Little Rock Police Department will hurt his race for Congress. If anything, he believes the residents of Arkansas’ First District will see him as someone who has made mistakes but has tried to learn from them – someone like themselves.
The report in Tuesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette chronicled Stumbaugh’s suspensions during his 15 years with the department for such infractions as wrecking patrol cars, failing to file the proper paperwork before taking an off-duty job, calling a radio talk-show while on duty and on the way to a call and using profane language to civilians.
But Stumbaugh says there was nothing in the article that he didn’t make public before the mayor’s race in 2002 and were the same incidents reported by The Leader at that time. None of the offenses were bad enough to be fired for and most occurred while he was in his 20s, he said. Now that it’s all out once again, there is nothing else of a personal nature that can be used against him in his race for Congress against Democrat Marion Berry.
“That’s all they’ve got,” said Stumbaugh, who will now have a Republican opponent in the race after Patrick D’Andrea, 43, a retired Marine who works as a juvenile probation officer for Lonoke County, said Tuesday that he will announce his candidacy on Friday.
Stumbaugh said that when he learned his personnel file had been requested under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act as it had been when he was running for mayor, he called the newspaper and volunteered other personal information, like the fact that he had filed bankruptcy when he was in his 20s and that he had been divorced twice. But that information, too, had been made public during the mayor’s race.
During that race, Stumbaugh learned that someone from former Cabot mayor Joe Allman’s camp had filed an FOI for his records and he responded by turning the file over to The Leader, which ran the information along with his comments much like the Democrat-Gazette did.
“It’s no big secret. I haven’t hid it,” he said. “I believe the voters of the First District have the right to know any mistakes I’ve made in my past, as well as my accomplishments,” Stumbaugh said in a prepared statement on Tuesday. “ “Being a good leader involves accepting responsibility for mistakes, and ensuring that the mistakes are not repeated. I acknowledge that I have made many mistakes in my life, and I accept full responsibility for them.
“I do not believe that these instances alone show what type of congressman I will be. My records also document numerous letters of commendation for volunteer efforts, providing professional assistance to people in need, and displaying professional courtesy.
“The voters of the First District have the right to know all of these things about me. I have nothing to hide. The bottom line is that while my life has not always been perfect, it has molded me into an effective leader, and I want to use this leadership to attract jobs to the First District, stabilize the farming industry, and get our kids off drugs.”
Stumbaugh said he believes his victory over Allman was partly the result of the information from his personnel file being released. It worked against Allman, and he believes it will work against Cong. Marion Berry, his Democratic opponent.
“I think people are going to see it for what it’s worth,” he said. “I’m going to stick to the issues.”
Leader staff writer
Cabot Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh says he is not worried that the recent report about his personnel record while an officer with the Little Rock Police Department will hurt his race for Congress. If anything, he believes the residents of Arkansas’ First District will see him as someone who has made mistakes but has tried to learn from them – someone like themselves.
The report in Tuesday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette chronicled Stumbaugh’s suspensions during his 15 years with the department for such infractions as wrecking patrol cars, failing to file the proper paperwork before taking an off-duty job, calling a radio talk-show while on duty and on the way to a call and using profane language to civilians.
But Stumbaugh says there was nothing in the article that he didn’t make public before the mayor’s race in 2002 and were the same incidents reported by The Leader at that time. None of the offenses were bad enough to be fired for and most occurred while he was in his 20s, he said. Now that it’s all out once again, there is nothing else of a personal nature that can be used against him in his race for Congress against Democrat Marion Berry.
“That’s all they’ve got,” said Stumbaugh, who will now have a Republican opponent in the race after Patrick D’Andrea, 43, a retired Marine who works as a juvenile probation officer for Lonoke County, said Tuesday that he will announce his candidacy on Friday.
Stumbaugh said that when he learned his personnel file had been requested under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act as it had been when he was running for mayor, he called the newspaper and volunteered other personal information, like the fact that he had filed bankruptcy when he was in his 20s and that he had been divorced twice. But that information, too, had been made public during the mayor’s race.
During that race, Stumbaugh learned that someone from former Cabot mayor Joe Allman’s camp had filed an FOI for his records and he responded by turning the file over to The Leader, which ran the information along with his comments much like the Democrat-Gazette did.
“It’s no big secret. I haven’t hid it,” he said. “I believe the voters of the First District have the right to know any mistakes I’ve made in my past, as well as my accomplishments,” Stumbaugh said in a prepared statement on Tuesday. “ “Being a good leader involves accepting responsibility for mistakes, and ensuring that the mistakes are not repeated. I acknowledge that I have made many mistakes in my life, and I accept full responsibility for them.
“I do not believe that these instances alone show what type of congressman I will be. My records also document numerous letters of commendation for volunteer efforts, providing professional assistance to people in need, and displaying professional courtesy.
“The voters of the First District have the right to know all of these things about me. I have nothing to hide. The bottom line is that while my life has not always been perfect, it has molded me into an effective leader, and I want to use this leadership to attract jobs to the First District, stabilize the farming industry, and get our kids off drugs.”
Stumbaugh said he believes his victory over Allman was partly the result of the information from his personnel file being released. It worked against Allman, and he believes it will work against Cong. Marion Berry, his Democratic opponent.
“I think people are going to see it for what it’s worth,” he said. “I’m going to stick to the issues.”
TOP STORY >>War goes well, Self tells base council
By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader editor
The top commander at Little Rock Air Force Base says the war in Iraq is going much better than the way the media are portraying the fighting there. Brig. Gen. Kip Self, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing, told members of the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council on Monday that progress is being made in Iraq despite the bloodshed there.
“Every day, Iraq improves,” Self said. Schools, roads, hospitals and other infrastructure are being built every day, while the Iraqi military is taking more responsibility in the fight against the insurgents. The base has played a key role in the Iraqi war, as it has in Afghanistan and before that in the first Gulf war.
“Afghanistan is the benchmark,” the general said. “We’ve done amazing things.” He said more then 400 personnel from Little Rock Air Force Base are deployed in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones, and more will be on the way in January.
Several C-130s are deployed in those areas, along with more than 50 others, including two C-130Js, from other bases.
The general said the C-130s are dependable carriers that can make long and short deliveries and stay in theater for a long time.
Self would not be specific on how many more planes and new personnel LRAFB would gain after the Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations are implemented. “BRAC is good news for Little Rock,” Self said. “We’re not going to get worse.”
Under a Pentagon recommendation that called for shutting down scores of military facilities, the base here would have received several dozen more planes and some 4,000 new personnel, but the commission did not accept all of the Pentagon’s recommendations and voted to keep several more bases open, reducing the number of new missions here.
President Bush and the House of Representatives have accepted the BRAC Commission recommendations, and the Senate is expected to follow suit. The latest estimate is that the base will get a handful of new planes and perhaps a few hundred more personnel.
“We train the best crews and maintain the best planes,” the general told the community council. “If we’re not better tomorrow than we were today, I have failed you,” Self said. He told the luncheon that Gen. William R. Looney, the new commander of the Air Education and Training Command — which operates Little Rock Air Force Base — has asked the base to reach out to community members and let them fly the planes assigned to the base and see for themselves how their tax dollars are spent.
“I have a mandate from Gen. Looney to get council people in the air,” Self said.
He invited council members to fly with him in one of the C-130Js to see how the new planes measure up. Self also pointed out that new construction continues on base all the time, including new housing now under private management. “Little Rock Air Force Base is a model for other bases,” the general said.
“We’re in this together,” Self said. “I cannot do this job without you.”
Leader editor
The top commander at Little Rock Air Force Base says the war in Iraq is going much better than the way the media are portraying the fighting there. Brig. Gen. Kip Self, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing, told members of the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council on Monday that progress is being made in Iraq despite the bloodshed there.
“Every day, Iraq improves,” Self said. Schools, roads, hospitals and other infrastructure are being built every day, while the Iraqi military is taking more responsibility in the fight against the insurgents. The base has played a key role in the Iraqi war, as it has in Afghanistan and before that in the first Gulf war.
“Afghanistan is the benchmark,” the general said. “We’ve done amazing things.” He said more then 400 personnel from Little Rock Air Force Base are deployed in the Iraq and Afghanistan war zones, and more will be on the way in January.
Several C-130s are deployed in those areas, along with more than 50 others, including two C-130Js, from other bases.
The general said the C-130s are dependable carriers that can make long and short deliveries and stay in theater for a long time.
Self would not be specific on how many more planes and new personnel LRAFB would gain after the Base Realignment and Closure Commission recommendations are implemented. “BRAC is good news for Little Rock,” Self said. “We’re not going to get worse.”
Under a Pentagon recommendation that called for shutting down scores of military facilities, the base here would have received several dozen more planes and some 4,000 new personnel, but the commission did not accept all of the Pentagon’s recommendations and voted to keep several more bases open, reducing the number of new missions here.
President Bush and the House of Representatives have accepted the BRAC Commission recommendations, and the Senate is expected to follow suit. The latest estimate is that the base will get a handful of new planes and perhaps a few hundred more personnel.
“We train the best crews and maintain the best planes,” the general told the community council. “If we’re not better tomorrow than we were today, I have failed you,” Self said. He told the luncheon that Gen. William R. Looney, the new commander of the Air Education and Training Command — which operates Little Rock Air Force Base — has asked the base to reach out to community members and let them fly the planes assigned to the base and see for themselves how their tax dollars are spent.
“I have a mandate from Gen. Looney to get council people in the air,” Self said.
He invited council members to fly with him in one of the C-130Js to see how the new planes measure up. Self also pointed out that new construction continues on base all the time, including new housing now under private management. “Little Rock Air Force Base is a model for other bases,” the general said.
“We’re in this together,” Self said. “I cannot do this job without you.”
TOP STORY >>C-130J fleet is evaluated
By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader editor
A team from Edwards Air Force Base is evaluating the four C-130J transport planes at Little Rock Air Force Base as the Pentagon seeks to determine if the planes are combat-worthy. Although two C-130Js are assigned to the war in Iraq, critics inside and outside the Pentagon say the new aircraft has fallen short of expectations, although top Air Force generals insist the planes have performed well.
Brig. Gen. Kip Self, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing at the base and a supporter of the C-130J program, told members of the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council on Monday that the evaluators findings are crucial to the future of the C-130Js. “I’m a C-130J pilot. I love it,” the general said, although he has also flown the larger C-17s as well as helicopters.
While Air Force officials believe the C-130Js are a big improvement over the older C-130E models, Pentagon auditors have been critical of the plane’s performance and cost.
More C-103J evaluations are scheduled for Alaska in December to see how the C-130Js assigned here perform in the cold.
Inspectors had found problems with the planes in the Middle East, where sand interfered with their performance, but Self said those problems have been fixed.
A Pentagon inspector-general’s report last year criticized the Air Force’s purchase of 50 transport planes without a set price during contract negotiations with Lockheed-Martin of Marietta, Ga., the plane’s manufacturer. The C-130Js cost about $67 million each, or about $17 million more than what the plane’s supporters said they would cost a decade ago.
Critics say Lockheed could set its own price in a cost-plus contract, even though the plane has had problems in combat several years after delivery of the first aircraft. Self believes the planes are a big improvement over the older C-130Es, which have been the workhorse at LRAFB for decades. Three more J model planes are scheduled for delivery to the base in December, but their future depends on the outcome of the auditors’ report.
“We’re not limited to seven,” Self said, explaining that he expected more C-130Js would be assgned to the base. The challenge is to make sure Congress and civilians in the Pentagon approve the C-130J as “a weapons commodity,” Self said.
Some community council members voiced surprise that the C-130J, whose production has been on-again and off-again, has yet to receive the go-ahead for more orders and whose combat-worthiness is still under review.
Self said the new planes “are a hybrid” between the C-130Es and the C-17s. While the C-17s can carry huge amounts of cargo into a theater, the C-130s can hop around in war zones indefinitely. Besides two C-130Js, the Air Force has sent 64 C-130Es to Iraq, several of them from LRAFB.
Self told the community council that the older C-130Es have a maximum flight-life of 45,000 hours. They can be refurbished for $10 million each, but the general wondered if it might not be more cost-effective to buy more C-130Js. Lockheed Martin has sold more than 50 C-130Js to the U.S. military, in addition to foreign markets, but their domestic production has slowed.
Self said the new planes have a better view for the pilots and take off faster than the old planes.
The new plane can cruise at 30,000 feet with a range of 3,000 miles. It can deliver 39 percent more paratroopers or 50 percent more payload and needs a three-person flight crew as opposed to the five-person crews on the older planes.
According to Lockheed-Martin, the C-130J has all-new avionics, as well as more powerful engines, six-blade propellers, 50 percent greater range with a standard load, 25 percent higher cruising ceiling, 50 percent faster time-to-climb, 12 percent increase in maximum speed and 17 percent greater fuel efficiency.
The C-130J has room for eight pallets instead of the six on the old planes, Self said. The maximum takeoff weight is 164,000 pounds, with a maximum payload of 48,000 pounds. The plane can fly 660 kilometers-an-hour and takes off or lands on runways as short as 1,500 feet. Lockheed Martin says overall, the C-130J boasts a 50 percent improvement in reliability and maintainability and 68 percent reduction in maintenance man-hours.
Leader editor
A team from Edwards Air Force Base is evaluating the four C-130J transport planes at Little Rock Air Force Base as the Pentagon seeks to determine if the planes are combat-worthy. Although two C-130Js are assigned to the war in Iraq, critics inside and outside the Pentagon say the new aircraft has fallen short of expectations, although top Air Force generals insist the planes have performed well.
Brig. Gen. Kip Self, commander of the 314th Airlift Wing at the base and a supporter of the C-130J program, told members of the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council on Monday that the evaluators findings are crucial to the future of the C-130Js. “I’m a C-130J pilot. I love it,” the general said, although he has also flown the larger C-17s as well as helicopters.
While Air Force officials believe the C-130Js are a big improvement over the older C-130E models, Pentagon auditors have been critical of the plane’s performance and cost.
More C-103J evaluations are scheduled for Alaska in December to see how the C-130Js assigned here perform in the cold.
Inspectors had found problems with the planes in the Middle East, where sand interfered with their performance, but Self said those problems have been fixed.
A Pentagon inspector-general’s report last year criticized the Air Force’s purchase of 50 transport planes without a set price during contract negotiations with Lockheed-Martin of Marietta, Ga., the plane’s manufacturer. The C-130Js cost about $67 million each, or about $17 million more than what the plane’s supporters said they would cost a decade ago.
Critics say Lockheed could set its own price in a cost-plus contract, even though the plane has had problems in combat several years after delivery of the first aircraft. Self believes the planes are a big improvement over the older C-130Es, which have been the workhorse at LRAFB for decades. Three more J model planes are scheduled for delivery to the base in December, but their future depends on the outcome of the auditors’ report.
“We’re not limited to seven,” Self said, explaining that he expected more C-130Js would be assgned to the base. The challenge is to make sure Congress and civilians in the Pentagon approve the C-130J as “a weapons commodity,” Self said.
Some community council members voiced surprise that the C-130J, whose production has been on-again and off-again, has yet to receive the go-ahead for more orders and whose combat-worthiness is still under review.
Self said the new planes “are a hybrid” between the C-130Es and the C-17s. While the C-17s can carry huge amounts of cargo into a theater, the C-130s can hop around in war zones indefinitely. Besides two C-130Js, the Air Force has sent 64 C-130Es to Iraq, several of them from LRAFB.
Self told the community council that the older C-130Es have a maximum flight-life of 45,000 hours. They can be refurbished for $10 million each, but the general wondered if it might not be more cost-effective to buy more C-130Js. Lockheed Martin has sold more than 50 C-130Js to the U.S. military, in addition to foreign markets, but their domestic production has slowed.
Self said the new planes have a better view for the pilots and take off faster than the old planes.
The new plane can cruise at 30,000 feet with a range of 3,000 miles. It can deliver 39 percent more paratroopers or 50 percent more payload and needs a three-person flight crew as opposed to the five-person crews on the older planes.
According to Lockheed-Martin, the C-130J has all-new avionics, as well as more powerful engines, six-blade propellers, 50 percent greater range with a standard load, 25 percent higher cruising ceiling, 50 percent faster time-to-climb, 12 percent increase in maximum speed and 17 percent greater fuel efficiency.
The C-130J has room for eight pallets instead of the six on the old planes, Self said. The maximum takeoff weight is 164,000 pounds, with a maximum payload of 48,000 pounds. The plane can fly 660 kilometers-an-hour and takes off or lands on runways as short as 1,500 feet. Lockheed Martin says overall, the C-130J boasts a 50 percent improvement in reliability and maintainability and 68 percent reduction in maintenance man-hours.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
EDITORIALS>>Huck frees another one
Another killer has been paroled, and questions have been raised about Gov. Huckabee’s involvement. The governor is a well-known champion of inmates seeking clemencies or pardons. Huckabee may not be leading the presidential pack, but he does lead all area governors in the number of violent criminals either he or his handpicked parole board let out over the years.
Remember rapist Wayne Dumond? The governor sprung him out of prison, happy that he was leaving the state. Dumond did leave, going up to Missouri and killing two women, but at least he died in prison there not long after he ended two innocent lives. Sorry about that, governor. Now rumor has it that Huckabee may have interceded on behalf of Michael Webb, who has been trying to get out of prison ever since he was convicted in 1996 of shooting a Sherwood teenager in the back with a rifle. The teen died, and the jury gave Webb 46 years.
But the scuttlebutt is that while the governor was in the hospital about four years ago because of a bad knee, one of the rehab nurses happened to be Webb’s mother. Isn’t this an amazingly small state? While she worked on the governor’s knee, word has it, Huckabee may have given her helpful advice on how to fill out the paperwork, how to “bug” and “befriend” the parole board.
It’s nice to have friends in high places. Look how many killers, rapists and drunks have gone free because they knew the governor or knew someone who could plead their case with an always-understanding Huckabee. Apparently, the trick worked for the Webbs — twice. Webb was first cleared for clemency in 2004, but unfortunately for that family, the victim’s parents went before the governor’s handpicked board, which voted against early parole when the victim’s family told the truth about the murder.
Then just the other day, Webb won parole. His cohorts were released earlier, but that doesn’t justify Webb’s parole, since he probably was the trigger man. Word has it that the governor himself pushed for the release—that way he wouldn’t have to give Webb clemency and have his “tough-on-crime” stance questioned as he runs for president on a law-and-order theme. That stance is being questioned in this case, in the Dumond case and in the hundreds of other cases where the governor has let the criminal element go free.
Forgiveness is one thing, Gov. Huckabee, but coaching a killer’s mom is another. How about showing a little compassion for the Hatcher family, who lost their beloved son in that senseless killing only a decade ago?
We’ve said it before: When the national media learn about this governor’s reckless record of freeing thugs and drunks, his candidacy won’t get out of the starting gate at the Iowa caucus. Let’s hope the voters will also remember his record should he run for another statewide office one day. Here’s hoping the next governor of Arkansas won’t let well-connected killers out of prison before their time is up. The good news is that thanks to term limits, Huckabee will no longer parole anybody after January. That will come as a welcome relief to victims’ families all over the state.
Remember rapist Wayne Dumond? The governor sprung him out of prison, happy that he was leaving the state. Dumond did leave, going up to Missouri and killing two women, but at least he died in prison there not long after he ended two innocent lives. Sorry about that, governor. Now rumor has it that Huckabee may have interceded on behalf of Michael Webb, who has been trying to get out of prison ever since he was convicted in 1996 of shooting a Sherwood teenager in the back with a rifle. The teen died, and the jury gave Webb 46 years.
But the scuttlebutt is that while the governor was in the hospital about four years ago because of a bad knee, one of the rehab nurses happened to be Webb’s mother. Isn’t this an amazingly small state? While she worked on the governor’s knee, word has it, Huckabee may have given her helpful advice on how to fill out the paperwork, how to “bug” and “befriend” the parole board.
It’s nice to have friends in high places. Look how many killers, rapists and drunks have gone free because they knew the governor or knew someone who could plead their case with an always-understanding Huckabee. Apparently, the trick worked for the Webbs — twice. Webb was first cleared for clemency in 2004, but unfortunately for that family, the victim’s parents went before the governor’s handpicked board, which voted against early parole when the victim’s family told the truth about the murder.
Then just the other day, Webb won parole. His cohorts were released earlier, but that doesn’t justify Webb’s parole, since he probably was the trigger man. Word has it that the governor himself pushed for the release—that way he wouldn’t have to give Webb clemency and have his “tough-on-crime” stance questioned as he runs for president on a law-and-order theme. That stance is being questioned in this case, in the Dumond case and in the hundreds of other cases where the governor has let the criminal element go free.
Forgiveness is one thing, Gov. Huckabee, but coaching a killer’s mom is another. How about showing a little compassion for the Hatcher family, who lost their beloved son in that senseless killing only a decade ago?
We’ve said it before: When the national media learn about this governor’s reckless record of freeing thugs and drunks, his candidacy won’t get out of the starting gate at the Iowa caucus. Let’s hope the voters will also remember his record should he run for another statewide office one day. Here’s hoping the next governor of Arkansas won’t let well-connected killers out of prison before their time is up. The good news is that thanks to term limits, Huckabee will no longer parole anybody after January. That will come as a welcome relief to victims’ families all over the state.
EDITORIALS>>Slumping incomes
By ERNIE DUMAS
Editorial writer for The Leader
Another day, another depressing economic report. Now it is the U. S. Census Bureau reporting on its 2005 household survey, which showed median family incomes slumping since the turn of the century, in Arkansas a whopping 7.2 percent over the five years.
Summoning Karl Rove! Can the White House spinmasters, who put such a beautiful countenance on everything from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the monthly unemployment report, not work their magic on the statisticians at the government bureaus that churn out all the economic reports?
Sure, it would be dishonest for the number crunchers to put a pretty face on the gloomy products of their studies, but think what it would do for the hapless American psyche. Happy talk from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld doesn’t work anymore, but it might if it came from the career statisticians with green eyeshades.
The latest census figures could be worse. The poverty rate did not actually climb last year, median family incomes adjusted for inflation did better than the previous year, and the percentage of families without health insurance climbed no greater rate than it had been climbing since 2000.
Arkansas’ figures naturally were worse than most states’. The median household income for Arkansans in 2005 was $34,999, which was better than only Mississippi and West Virginia, for generations our familiar doormats in these rankings. Our poverty rate, 17.2 percent, ranked us seventh in the country.
Actually, the figures deceive just a little. The income figures do not include government benefits: the earned-income tax credit, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid, all programs in which Arkansans participate in considerably larger numbers than other states simply because we are poorer.
In disposable family income, which includes those payments, we may be sure that we fare a little better against the rest of the country as a whole. But that is little comfort unless you are one of those who happen to benefit. This comes after a period in which the economy actually grew, federal taxes in corporations and the investor class fell sharply, wealth accumulated bountifully, corporate profits set records and worker productivity increased. The trouble was that it did not trickle down to working families. David Betson, a University of Notre Dame economist, said it for the average family:
“We keep saying, ‘you’ll get yours in the future.’ At some point, that future is supposed to arrive.”
Even better than a Marxist-style re-education of the government statisticians would be an honest re-examination of national fiscal, monetary and social policies. That would include new tax policies directed at middle-income people, a real effort to use government leverage to expand healthcare coverage for working families, a candid re-evaluation of global trade strategies, perhaps a modern minimum wage law, a realistic strategy for leaving Iraq and pacifying the Middle East diplomatically, balancing the federal budget again and, maybe most important, development of an energy strategy that ends our total reliance on oil.
President Bush mentioned the last in his Labor Day message but the words seemed futile and unconvincing. When the country is in doldrums, elections, even the midterm variety, have a way of sending it in fresh directions — sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but usually different. With one hand on the pocketbook, we count the days until this one passes and hope that providence shines upon us.
Editorial writer for The Leader
Another day, another depressing economic report. Now it is the U. S. Census Bureau reporting on its 2005 household survey, which showed median family incomes slumping since the turn of the century, in Arkansas a whopping 7.2 percent over the five years.
Summoning Karl Rove! Can the White House spinmasters, who put such a beautiful countenance on everything from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the monthly unemployment report, not work their magic on the statisticians at the government bureaus that churn out all the economic reports?
Sure, it would be dishonest for the number crunchers to put a pretty face on the gloomy products of their studies, but think what it would do for the hapless American psyche. Happy talk from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld doesn’t work anymore, but it might if it came from the career statisticians with green eyeshades.
The latest census figures could be worse. The poverty rate did not actually climb last year, median family incomes adjusted for inflation did better than the previous year, and the percentage of families without health insurance climbed no greater rate than it had been climbing since 2000.
Arkansas’ figures naturally were worse than most states’. The median household income for Arkansans in 2005 was $34,999, which was better than only Mississippi and West Virginia, for generations our familiar doormats in these rankings. Our poverty rate, 17.2 percent, ranked us seventh in the country.
Actually, the figures deceive just a little. The income figures do not include government benefits: the earned-income tax credit, food stamps, Medicare and Medicaid, all programs in which Arkansans participate in considerably larger numbers than other states simply because we are poorer.
In disposable family income, which includes those payments, we may be sure that we fare a little better against the rest of the country as a whole. But that is little comfort unless you are one of those who happen to benefit. This comes after a period in which the economy actually grew, federal taxes in corporations and the investor class fell sharply, wealth accumulated bountifully, corporate profits set records and worker productivity increased. The trouble was that it did not trickle down to working families. David Betson, a University of Notre Dame economist, said it for the average family:
“We keep saying, ‘you’ll get yours in the future.’ At some point, that future is supposed to arrive.”
Even better than a Marxist-style re-education of the government statisticians would be an honest re-examination of national fiscal, monetary and social policies. That would include new tax policies directed at middle-income people, a real effort to use government leverage to expand healthcare coverage for working families, a candid re-evaluation of global trade strategies, perhaps a modern minimum wage law, a realistic strategy for leaving Iraq and pacifying the Middle East diplomatically, balancing the federal budget again and, maybe most important, development of an energy strategy that ends our total reliance on oil.
President Bush mentioned the last in his Labor Day message but the words seemed futile and unconvincing. When the country is in doldrums, elections, even the midterm variety, have a way of sending it in fresh directions — sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but usually different. With one hand on the pocketbook, we count the days until this one passes and hope that providence shines upon us.
SPORTS >>Falcon seniors can be pioneers
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
North Pulaski coach Tony Bohannon stated last week that you have to be optimistic this time of year, because if you’re not, you may as well fold it up and head home. That was before the Falcons lost to Dumas 28-6 in the season opener, but there’s still good reason to be optimistic. Eliminating mistakes would have made a big difference for North Pulaski in the outcome of last Friday’s game, and can still make a big difference in the rest of the season.
This year’s NP team has just a few seniors and a lot of sophomores and a junior class that’s in between, but this team has potential. There’s no doubt about it.
At times last Friday, that potential showed. What this team has to avoid is the thing that has plagued past North Pulaski teams – the willingness to give up. Past teams have been full of bravado in the preseason, only to fold it up and go home when things began to go awry. Things aren’t going to change completely overnight. The Falcons will probably lose more than they will win the rest of the season, but the overall attitude must be one of making progress, not making it to the state championship game. And the optimism should remain as long as there is progress, despite the scoreboard.
Sure, winning is great, and goes a long way in improving the attitude and outlook of a group of teenagers, but it isn’t the be-ball, end-all for a football program that’s just trying to get off the ground. Recent North Pulaski classes, ones that have also possessed a lot of talent, fell apart when things went wrong. Team leaders at the beginning of the year turned into malcontents and the leadership disintegrated. The underclassmen had only a shadow of an example of leadership from which to draw from and exhibit the next season, and so the cycle continued.
If this senior class at North Pulaski can keep their heads up, keep pumping up the underclassmen and keep giving it their all, those underclassmen will stand a lot better chance of taking that attitude with them into next season. Only next season, that attitude will come with another year of seasoning, maturity and playing time, and the team will be better.
If that class can do the same, the class that follows them, which is the most talented class to come through since one particular reporter started covering the school five seasons ago, will do the same. If that happens, North Pulaski would be a playoff contender in 2008. NP has had talented sophomore classes come through before, but what starts as a group of 28 sophomores seems to always become a group of 10 seniors. Players aren’t sticking with it largely because leadership hasn’t been prominent among players. It’s understandable logic for a 15-year old. ‘If the guys that are starting aren’t trying, and throwing fits and arguing with teammates and coaches, why should I bust my butt just to stand and watch’.
The key to changing all of that starts with this year’s senior class. The 2006-07 seniors up to this point have been good leaders. Most showed up on the first day of two-a-days. Many came and worked out all through the summer, and that’s the beginning of what it takes to build a successful program. But it’s just the beginning. Other classes have done the same, but lacked the vision and fortitude to stay positive during the tough times.
Just remember, it doesn’t have to all happen at once. In fact, it rarely ever does, but the process has to start with players – leaders – pioneers if you will – willing to take some lumps and stay positive for the benefit of the program down the road. That doesn’t mean this year’s team can’t get itself a couple of wins, it can. Just don’t expect a nine-game winning streak and conference championship right now.
There were signs of progress last Friday. Keep noticing the progress, and keep building off it. First and foremost, you are Falcons, but you can also be pioneers.
Leader sports editor
North Pulaski coach Tony Bohannon stated last week that you have to be optimistic this time of year, because if you’re not, you may as well fold it up and head home. That was before the Falcons lost to Dumas 28-6 in the season opener, but there’s still good reason to be optimistic. Eliminating mistakes would have made a big difference for North Pulaski in the outcome of last Friday’s game, and can still make a big difference in the rest of the season.
This year’s NP team has just a few seniors and a lot of sophomores and a junior class that’s in between, but this team has potential. There’s no doubt about it.
At times last Friday, that potential showed. What this team has to avoid is the thing that has plagued past North Pulaski teams – the willingness to give up. Past teams have been full of bravado in the preseason, only to fold it up and go home when things began to go awry. Things aren’t going to change completely overnight. The Falcons will probably lose more than they will win the rest of the season, but the overall attitude must be one of making progress, not making it to the state championship game. And the optimism should remain as long as there is progress, despite the scoreboard.
Sure, winning is great, and goes a long way in improving the attitude and outlook of a group of teenagers, but it isn’t the be-ball, end-all for a football program that’s just trying to get off the ground. Recent North Pulaski classes, ones that have also possessed a lot of talent, fell apart when things went wrong. Team leaders at the beginning of the year turned into malcontents and the leadership disintegrated. The underclassmen had only a shadow of an example of leadership from which to draw from and exhibit the next season, and so the cycle continued.
If this senior class at North Pulaski can keep their heads up, keep pumping up the underclassmen and keep giving it their all, those underclassmen will stand a lot better chance of taking that attitude with them into next season. Only next season, that attitude will come with another year of seasoning, maturity and playing time, and the team will be better.
If that class can do the same, the class that follows them, which is the most talented class to come through since one particular reporter started covering the school five seasons ago, will do the same. If that happens, North Pulaski would be a playoff contender in 2008. NP has had talented sophomore classes come through before, but what starts as a group of 28 sophomores seems to always become a group of 10 seniors. Players aren’t sticking with it largely because leadership hasn’t been prominent among players. It’s understandable logic for a 15-year old. ‘If the guys that are starting aren’t trying, and throwing fits and arguing with teammates and coaches, why should I bust my butt just to stand and watch’.
The key to changing all of that starts with this year’s senior class. The 2006-07 seniors up to this point have been good leaders. Most showed up on the first day of two-a-days. Many came and worked out all through the summer, and that’s the beginning of what it takes to build a successful program. But it’s just the beginning. Other classes have done the same, but lacked the vision and fortitude to stay positive during the tough times.
Just remember, it doesn’t have to all happen at once. In fact, it rarely ever does, but the process has to start with players – leaders – pioneers if you will – willing to take some lumps and stay positive for the benefit of the program down the road. That doesn’t mean this year’s team can’t get itself a couple of wins, it can. Just don’t expect a nine-game winning streak and conference championship right now.
There were signs of progress last Friday. Keep noticing the progress, and keep building off it. First and foremost, you are Falcons, but you can also be pioneers.
SPORTS >>Defense lifts Beebe to win
By JASON KING
Leader sports writer
After a very shaky start, the Beebe Badgers rallied in their season opener to defeat the Greenbrier Panthers 28-14 Friday night at Greenbrier. The Badgers were the victims of two bizarre safeties in the opening quarter to trail the Panthers at halftime 11-7. Beebe demonstrated its old habits from last year, coming back strong in the second half to take control of the game. The Badgers outscored Greenbrier 21-3 in the final two quarters for the win.
The first score of the game occurred at the 8:04 mark of the first quarter, when Beebe found itself with possession deep in its own territory. A snap to Badgers quarterback Jared Mathis was too high, making its way into the end zone. Mathis recovered the loose ball to avoid a Panthers touchdown, giving up two points as opposed to six for Greenbrier.
On the next possession, Mathis once again found himself with the ball in his own end zone, but this time, it was a slip that gave the Panthers a pair of points and made them the recipient of another free kick from the Badgers. After one quarter of play, Greenbrier held a rare 4-0 lead over Beebe. The Badgers took over the lead at the 10:12 mark of the second quarter when senior Robbie Puckett broke through with a 2-yard touchdown run. The point after was successful, giving Beebe brief 7-4 lead.
Greenbrier answered moments later with a 10-yard run for a TD to give the Panthers an 11-7 lead heading into the half. Beebe’s defense stepped up tremendously in the second half, allowing only a field goal from Greenbrier, while producing two touchdowns of its own off of Panther turnovers.
The Badgers retook the lead with 5:42 left in the third quarter when back up quarterback Charlie Spakes found James Anderson for the touchdown pass, putting the Badgers up by three.
Anderson ended up stealing the show defensively as well; intercepting two Greenbrier passes in the final quarter to seal the deal for the Badgers. The first came with 9:12 left in the game, when Anderson took the pick 35-yards for the score. After a Greenbrier field goal that made the score 21-14, Anderson once again snagged a Panthers toss, this time returning it all the way from 45 yards out to set the final margin of 28-14.
Beebe finished the game with 278 yards of total offense, compared to 189 for Greenbrier. Mathis and Spakes combined for 150 yards passing, hitting 10 of 19 completions for a touchdown and two interceptions. The Badgers rushed a total of 22 times for 128 yards on the ground. Beebe was penalized seven times for 57 yards, while Greenbrier took three flags for a total of 22 penalty yards.
Beebe returns home to Bro Erwin Field this week for the home opener verses Lonoke at 7:30 p.m. ond quarter when senior Robbie Puckett broke through with a 2-yard touchdown run. The point after was successful, giving Beebe a brief 7-4 lead. Greenbrier answered moments later with a 10-yard run for a TD to give the Panthers an 11-7 lead heading into the half. Beebe’s defense stepped up tremendously in the second half, allowing only a field goal from Greenbrier, while producing two touchdowns of its own off of Panther turnovers.
The Badgers retook the lead with 5:42 left in the third quarter when backup quarterback Charlie Spakes found James Anderson for the touchdown pass, putting the Badgers up by three. Anderson ended up stealing the show defensively as well, intercepting two Greenbrier passes in the final quarter to seal the deal for the Badgers. The first came with 9:12 left in the game, when Anderson took the pick 35 yards for the score. After a Greenbrier field goal that made the score 21-14, Anderson once again snagged a Panthers’ toss, this time returning it all the way from 45 yards out to set the final margin.
Beebe finished the game with 278 yards, Greenbrier had 189. Mathis and Spakes combined for 150 yards passing, hitting 10 of 19 attempts for a touchdown and two interceptions. The Badgers rushed a total of 22 times for 128 yards on the ground. Beebe returns home this Friday for the home opener verses Lonoke at 7:30 p.m.
Leader sports writer
After a very shaky start, the Beebe Badgers rallied in their season opener to defeat the Greenbrier Panthers 28-14 Friday night at Greenbrier. The Badgers were the victims of two bizarre safeties in the opening quarter to trail the Panthers at halftime 11-7. Beebe demonstrated its old habits from last year, coming back strong in the second half to take control of the game. The Badgers outscored Greenbrier 21-3 in the final two quarters for the win.
The first score of the game occurred at the 8:04 mark of the first quarter, when Beebe found itself with possession deep in its own territory. A snap to Badgers quarterback Jared Mathis was too high, making its way into the end zone. Mathis recovered the loose ball to avoid a Panthers touchdown, giving up two points as opposed to six for Greenbrier.
On the next possession, Mathis once again found himself with the ball in his own end zone, but this time, it was a slip that gave the Panthers a pair of points and made them the recipient of another free kick from the Badgers. After one quarter of play, Greenbrier held a rare 4-0 lead over Beebe. The Badgers took over the lead at the 10:12 mark of the second quarter when senior Robbie Puckett broke through with a 2-yard touchdown run. The point after was successful, giving Beebe brief 7-4 lead.
Greenbrier answered moments later with a 10-yard run for a TD to give the Panthers an 11-7 lead heading into the half. Beebe’s defense stepped up tremendously in the second half, allowing only a field goal from Greenbrier, while producing two touchdowns of its own off of Panther turnovers.
The Badgers retook the lead with 5:42 left in the third quarter when back up quarterback Charlie Spakes found James Anderson for the touchdown pass, putting the Badgers up by three.
Anderson ended up stealing the show defensively as well; intercepting two Greenbrier passes in the final quarter to seal the deal for the Badgers. The first came with 9:12 left in the game, when Anderson took the pick 35-yards for the score. After a Greenbrier field goal that made the score 21-14, Anderson once again snagged a Panthers toss, this time returning it all the way from 45 yards out to set the final margin of 28-14.
Beebe finished the game with 278 yards of total offense, compared to 189 for Greenbrier. Mathis and Spakes combined for 150 yards passing, hitting 10 of 19 completions for a touchdown and two interceptions. The Badgers rushed a total of 22 times for 128 yards on the ground. Beebe was penalized seven times for 57 yards, while Greenbrier took three flags for a total of 22 penalty yards.
Beebe returns home to Bro Erwin Field this week for the home opener verses Lonoke at 7:30 p.m. ond quarter when senior Robbie Puckett broke through with a 2-yard touchdown run. The point after was successful, giving Beebe a brief 7-4 lead. Greenbrier answered moments later with a 10-yard run for a TD to give the Panthers an 11-7 lead heading into the half. Beebe’s defense stepped up tremendously in the second half, allowing only a field goal from Greenbrier, while producing two touchdowns of its own off of Panther turnovers.
The Badgers retook the lead with 5:42 left in the third quarter when backup quarterback Charlie Spakes found James Anderson for the touchdown pass, putting the Badgers up by three. Anderson ended up stealing the show defensively as well, intercepting two Greenbrier passes in the final quarter to seal the deal for the Badgers. The first came with 9:12 left in the game, when Anderson took the pick 35 yards for the score. After a Greenbrier field goal that made the score 21-14, Anderson once again snagged a Panthers’ toss, this time returning it all the way from 45 yards out to set the final margin.
Beebe finished the game with 278 yards, Greenbrier had 189. Mathis and Spakes combined for 150 yards passing, hitting 10 of 19 attempts for a touchdown and two interceptions. The Badgers rushed a total of 22 times for 128 yards on the ground. Beebe returns home this Friday for the home opener verses Lonoke at 7:30 p.m.
SPORTS >>Bears, Panthers rolling after one
By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
It wasn’t considered to be that big of a matchup before the start of the season, but now that both Cabot and Sylvan Hills are coming off of huge wins to start their seasons, people are now taking a closer look at the two programs. The Bears struggled through a 4-6 season last year, while the Panthers finished an unheard of 1-9.
Sylvan Hills re-established itself as a contender with a big win over Catholic last week to start the season. Cabot got a much-desired win over longtime foe Jacksonville on the road in front of a rowdy crowd. The reason for many of the woes for both teams last year was also wound by a common thread– lack of offense. In fact, last year’s game between the two teams was one of the most hopeless defensive struggles witnessed in many years. The only score in the entire game was made off a field goal for the Bears with less than 20 seconds remaining. The rest of the game was a three-and-out trade back affair, or decent drives negated by senseless turnovers.
Nothing is further from the truth this season. Cabot’s long-standing running game was proven revitalized last week during its pounding of the Jacksonville defense. Sylvan Hills showed a new hand of passing; although its junior quarterback Hunter Miller displayed that he could do both with ease, even against a strong defense such as the Rockets. Miller racked up a total of 343 yards against Catholic last week, 196 of them through the air and 147 on the ground for a very balanced attack.
The similarities between the two programs just don’t end there. Both teams have long standing tradition with their coaches. Ron Sebastian has been head coach at Sylvan Hills for 20 years now, while Mike Malham has been head Panther for a quarter of a century as of this season. Malham knows the road isn’t any easier this week. His biggest concerns are with some of the inexperience for his team defensively, and how they will respond to the Bears’ wide-open attack.
“We’ve got four sophomores on our defense,” Malham said. “There were times last week when we had six of them out there. That’s a lot of inexperience on the field at one time; hopefully they can grow up fast. “Sylvan Hills showed they could be explosive last week; they have a lot of weapons. That Miller kid, he’s the real deal. He is probably the best quarterback we will face all year.”
As far as momentum goes, Malham is confident that his team can carry in some from their big win at Jacksonville last week, but is leery of the momentum that the Bears posses after their win over the Rockets last week. “Anytime you win to start out the season, it gives you confidence,” Malham said. “We didn’t know what to expect going into last week. We knew we had worked hard in our two-a-days and our kids had put up a good effort, and it turned out to pay big dividends.
“I’m sure they are going to be confident after beating the second ranked team in the state. Anytime you put 36 on Catholic, you’ve obviously got some talented skill people. If it was a track meet, they would definitely beat us, but someone is going to be 1-1 after Friday night.”
Leader sportswriter
It wasn’t considered to be that big of a matchup before the start of the season, but now that both Cabot and Sylvan Hills are coming off of huge wins to start their seasons, people are now taking a closer look at the two programs. The Bears struggled through a 4-6 season last year, while the Panthers finished an unheard of 1-9.
Sylvan Hills re-established itself as a contender with a big win over Catholic last week to start the season. Cabot got a much-desired win over longtime foe Jacksonville on the road in front of a rowdy crowd. The reason for many of the woes for both teams last year was also wound by a common thread– lack of offense. In fact, last year’s game between the two teams was one of the most hopeless defensive struggles witnessed in many years. The only score in the entire game was made off a field goal for the Bears with less than 20 seconds remaining. The rest of the game was a three-and-out trade back affair, or decent drives negated by senseless turnovers.
Nothing is further from the truth this season. Cabot’s long-standing running game was proven revitalized last week during its pounding of the Jacksonville defense. Sylvan Hills showed a new hand of passing; although its junior quarterback Hunter Miller displayed that he could do both with ease, even against a strong defense such as the Rockets. Miller racked up a total of 343 yards against Catholic last week, 196 of them through the air and 147 on the ground for a very balanced attack.
The similarities between the two programs just don’t end there. Both teams have long standing tradition with their coaches. Ron Sebastian has been head coach at Sylvan Hills for 20 years now, while Mike Malham has been head Panther for a quarter of a century as of this season. Malham knows the road isn’t any easier this week. His biggest concerns are with some of the inexperience for his team defensively, and how they will respond to the Bears’ wide-open attack.
“We’ve got four sophomores on our defense,” Malham said. “There were times last week when we had six of them out there. That’s a lot of inexperience on the field at one time; hopefully they can grow up fast. “Sylvan Hills showed they could be explosive last week; they have a lot of weapons. That Miller kid, he’s the real deal. He is probably the best quarterback we will face all year.”
As far as momentum goes, Malham is confident that his team can carry in some from their big win at Jacksonville last week, but is leery of the momentum that the Bears posses after their win over the Rockets last week. “Anytime you win to start out the season, it gives you confidence,” Malham said. “We didn’t know what to expect going into last week. We knew we had worked hard in our two-a-days and our kids had put up a good effort, and it turned out to pay big dividends.
“I’m sure they are going to be confident after beating the second ranked team in the state. Anytime you put 36 on Catholic, you’ve obviously got some talented skill people. If it was a track meet, they would definitely beat us, but someone is going to be 1-1 after Friday night.”
OBITUARIES >> 09-06-06
MICHAEL FAITH
Michael “Scott” Faith, 38, of North Little Rock, formerly of Beebe, went to be with the Lord, on Sept. 2. He was a graduate of Beebe High School, a master plumber, and a friend of Bill W.
He is survived by his mother and stepfather, Nelson and Brenda (Goff) Haley, of North Little Rock; his father, Mike Faith of Beebe; two daughters, Michaela Rene and Sarah Elizabeth Faith of Little Rock; a brother, Matt Faith and wife Anna of Beebe; and niece Lauren Ellison of Beebe.
Scott is preceded in death by his grandparents, Thomas Eugene Faith, Romie and Nell Goff. Memorials may be made to the Wolf St. Foundation at 120 Wolf St., Little Rock.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Fellowship Bible Church, One E. 52nd Place, North Little Rock.
ROBERT BRADWELL
Robert Nelson Bradwell, 72, of Jacksonville passed away Sept. 1 in North Little Rock.
He was born March 24, 1934 to the late Edward and Winifred Nelson Bradwell in Garner, Iowa. Robert was also preceded in death by one sister, Kristina Beth Claude.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Jacksonville, Lion’s Club, Elks Lodge, Moose Lodge and the Snowmobile Club of Iowa.
Survivors include his wife Marrian, of the home; two daughters, Linsley Bradwell and Jodi Black and her husband Lance, all of Jacksonville; one sister, Nancy Housh and her husband Raymond of Red Oak, Iowa; one grandchild, Makenzi Black; and a loving companion, “Lil’ Bit.”
Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home Cha-pel, 1504 J.P. Wright Loop Road, Jacksonville, with Dr. Carol Goddard officiating.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home one hour prior to the service.
Funeral arrangements are under direction of Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.
HAROLD LACKIE
Harold Lyndle Lackie passed away Sept. 3. He was born Nov. 21, 1929 to the late William Richard and Lena Tucker Lackie. He was preceded in death by three sisters, Kathleen Bryan, Daisy Stricklin, and Nora Finch, along with two brothers, Don Lackie and William Lackie, Jr.
Survivors include his loving wife of 54 years, Emma Jean Jackson Lackie of Lonoke; his children, Richard Lee Lackie of Gravette, Lelah Jo Sawyer (John) of Lonoke, and Lynn Franklin Lackie of Hot Springs; grandchildren, William Lee Lackie and Robert Newton Parker, III; great-granddaughter, Hayden Elizabeth Parker; sisters, Thelma Welch and Rosa Nan Estell; brother, Ray Lackie, and a host of nieces and nephews. Lyndle graduated from Lonoke High School in 1948 and served in the 1st Marine Division in the Korean War.
He was a State Farm insurance agent in Lonoke for 31 years. He was a life-long member of the Lonoke Baptist Church and served as deacon for 40 years. He was also a 32nd degree Mason and served as a past worshipful master of the Lonoke Masonic Lodge.
He enjoyed membership with The Chosen Few, the Marine Fraternity of Honor.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Lonoke Baptist Church with burial at Lonoke Cemetery. The family requests any memorials be made to the Lonoke Baptist Church Building Fund.
ALMA HARRISON
Alma Harrison, 87, of Milling-ton, Tenn., formerly of McRae, died Sept. 1.
She was preceded in death by her husband, W. C. Harrison; her parents, Lonnie and Annie Pace, and her siblings. She is survived by two daughters, Peggy Sanders of Higden and Ruth Turner of Elgin, Texas; three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Graveside services were held Sept. 4 at Antioch Cemetery, by Westbrook Funeral Home of Beebe.
JOE WEATHERLY, JR.
Joe Weatherly, Jr., 72, of Austin, was born July 23, 1934, in Romance, to Joe Henry and Mattie Stracener Weatherly. He died Sept. 2. He was a member of Woodrow Church of Christ and owner and operator of Pappy Joe’s Signs.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Frances, his parents and his brother, Willis Weatherly. He is survived by four sons, Don Weatherly, Ron Weatherly, Rusty Liles and Michael Weatherly; three daughters, Barbara Petrick, Shirley Harris and Lila Healy; 15 grandchildren; five brothers; five sisters and his companion, Velma Cunningham. Graveside services were held Sept. 3 at Sixteenth Section Cemetery, by Westbrook Funeral Home of Beebe.
Wesley Kemp
Wesley Kemp, age 55, died Aug. 31. He was an Army Veteran and was with law enforcement for many years.
Preceding him in death are his parents, Wesley M. Kemp, Sr., and Lora Jones Vaughn; brothers, Daryl Wayne, Thomas and Buford Kemp; and one granddaughter, Haven Leigh Dyer-Kemp.
Survivors include his wife of 32 years, Delois Kemp; children, Billy Wayne Kemp of Missouri, Wesley M. Kemp III, Tonya Ballou and Gail Hobby, all of Jacksonville, and Deanna Martinez of Lonoke; siblings, Chester Vaughn of Rogers, Terry Vaughn of Harrison, Treasa Cummins of Missouri and Tony Vaughn of Canada, and 10 grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Sept. 5 at Boyd Funeral Home in Lonoke. Burial followed in Concord Cemetery.
HARRY HOLT
Harry E. Holt, 75, of Jacksonville passed away Aug. 28. He was preceded in death by his parents, Coy and Naomi Holt.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Opal Holt of Jacksonville; two sons, Neil and Travis Holt, both of Jacksonville; one grandson and one granddaughter; brother, Ross Holt and wife, JoAnn, of Jacksonville; two sisters, Sue DeLao of Sherwood and Jane Brown and husband, Jim, of Jacksonville.
Graveside services were held Aug. 31 at Bethel Methodist Cemetery.
Michael “Scott” Faith, 38, of North Little Rock, formerly of Beebe, went to be with the Lord, on Sept. 2. He was a graduate of Beebe High School, a master plumber, and a friend of Bill W.
He is survived by his mother and stepfather, Nelson and Brenda (Goff) Haley, of North Little Rock; his father, Mike Faith of Beebe; two daughters, Michaela Rene and Sarah Elizabeth Faith of Little Rock; a brother, Matt Faith and wife Anna of Beebe; and niece Lauren Ellison of Beebe.
Scott is preceded in death by his grandparents, Thomas Eugene Faith, Romie and Nell Goff. Memorials may be made to the Wolf St. Foundation at 120 Wolf St., Little Rock.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday at Fellowship Bible Church, One E. 52nd Place, North Little Rock.
ROBERT BRADWELL
Robert Nelson Bradwell, 72, of Jacksonville passed away Sept. 1 in North Little Rock.
He was born March 24, 1934 to the late Edward and Winifred Nelson Bradwell in Garner, Iowa. Robert was also preceded in death by one sister, Kristina Beth Claude.
He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Jacksonville, Lion’s Club, Elks Lodge, Moose Lodge and the Snowmobile Club of Iowa.
Survivors include his wife Marrian, of the home; two daughters, Linsley Bradwell and Jodi Black and her husband Lance, all of Jacksonville; one sister, Nancy Housh and her husband Raymond of Red Oak, Iowa; one grandchild, Makenzi Black; and a loving companion, “Lil’ Bit.”
Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home Cha-pel, 1504 J.P. Wright Loop Road, Jacksonville, with Dr. Carol Goddard officiating.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home one hour prior to the service.
Funeral arrangements are under direction of Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home.
HAROLD LACKIE
Harold Lyndle Lackie passed away Sept. 3. He was born Nov. 21, 1929 to the late William Richard and Lena Tucker Lackie. He was preceded in death by three sisters, Kathleen Bryan, Daisy Stricklin, and Nora Finch, along with two brothers, Don Lackie and William Lackie, Jr.
Survivors include his loving wife of 54 years, Emma Jean Jackson Lackie of Lonoke; his children, Richard Lee Lackie of Gravette, Lelah Jo Sawyer (John) of Lonoke, and Lynn Franklin Lackie of Hot Springs; grandchildren, William Lee Lackie and Robert Newton Parker, III; great-granddaughter, Hayden Elizabeth Parker; sisters, Thelma Welch and Rosa Nan Estell; brother, Ray Lackie, and a host of nieces and nephews. Lyndle graduated from Lonoke High School in 1948 and served in the 1st Marine Division in the Korean War.
He was a State Farm insurance agent in Lonoke for 31 years. He was a life-long member of the Lonoke Baptist Church and served as deacon for 40 years. He was also a 32nd degree Mason and served as a past worshipful master of the Lonoke Masonic Lodge.
He enjoyed membership with The Chosen Few, the Marine Fraternity of Honor.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Lonoke Baptist Church with burial at Lonoke Cemetery. The family requests any memorials be made to the Lonoke Baptist Church Building Fund.
ALMA HARRISON
Alma Harrison, 87, of Milling-ton, Tenn., formerly of McRae, died Sept. 1.
She was preceded in death by her husband, W. C. Harrison; her parents, Lonnie and Annie Pace, and her siblings. She is survived by two daughters, Peggy Sanders of Higden and Ruth Turner of Elgin, Texas; three grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Graveside services were held Sept. 4 at Antioch Cemetery, by Westbrook Funeral Home of Beebe.
JOE WEATHERLY, JR.
Joe Weatherly, Jr., 72, of Austin, was born July 23, 1934, in Romance, to Joe Henry and Mattie Stracener Weatherly. He died Sept. 2. He was a member of Woodrow Church of Christ and owner and operator of Pappy Joe’s Signs.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Frances, his parents and his brother, Willis Weatherly. He is survived by four sons, Don Weatherly, Ron Weatherly, Rusty Liles and Michael Weatherly; three daughters, Barbara Petrick, Shirley Harris and Lila Healy; 15 grandchildren; five brothers; five sisters and his companion, Velma Cunningham. Graveside services were held Sept. 3 at Sixteenth Section Cemetery, by Westbrook Funeral Home of Beebe.
Wesley Kemp
Wesley Kemp, age 55, died Aug. 31. He was an Army Veteran and was with law enforcement for many years.
Preceding him in death are his parents, Wesley M. Kemp, Sr., and Lora Jones Vaughn; brothers, Daryl Wayne, Thomas and Buford Kemp; and one granddaughter, Haven Leigh Dyer-Kemp.
Survivors include his wife of 32 years, Delois Kemp; children, Billy Wayne Kemp of Missouri, Wesley M. Kemp III, Tonya Ballou and Gail Hobby, all of Jacksonville, and Deanna Martinez of Lonoke; siblings, Chester Vaughn of Rogers, Terry Vaughn of Harrison, Treasa Cummins of Missouri and Tony Vaughn of Canada, and 10 grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Sept. 5 at Boyd Funeral Home in Lonoke. Burial followed in Concord Cemetery.
HARRY HOLT
Harry E. Holt, 75, of Jacksonville passed away Aug. 28. He was preceded in death by his parents, Coy and Naomi Holt.
He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Opal Holt of Jacksonville; two sons, Neil and Travis Holt, both of Jacksonville; one grandson and one granddaughter; brother, Ross Holt and wife, JoAnn, of Jacksonville; two sisters, Sue DeLao of Sherwood and Jane Brown and husband, Jim, of Jacksonville.
Graveside services were held Aug. 31 at Bethel Methodist Cemetery.
FROM THE PUBLISHER >>Bad guys will get hands on nukes soon
While talking to Israel’s consul general not long before the fifth anniversary of 9/11, I realized that in his country, they commemorate such anniversaries just about every week. “We live in a tough neighborhood,” Asher Yarden, Israel’s consul general to Houston, said recently as he sat in front of a computer at an office in Little Rock. “Our neighborhood is not like Mexico or Canada.”
The neighborhood has become much more dangerous as Iran develops nuclear weapons and threatens to wipe out Israel.
The Iranian ayatollahs gave Hezbollah thousands of rockets, which the Lebanese militia fired into Israel this summer. What if next time, those rockets carry nuclear warheads? What if Hamas and al-Qaida get their hands on nuclear bombs? What if the next hijacked planes fly with nuclear bombs into skyscrapers in New York, or detonate in Chicago subways?
Yarden wouldn’t say what Israel would do if Iran continued on its nuclear path, but clearly the threat is on top of his government’s concerns. Yarden is a diplomat and is not involved in military planning, but even if he were, he couldn’t talk about any plans Israel might consider against Iran. But he did say, “We will do anything to protect ourselves. We’ll take any action necessary.”
Publicly, Israel hopes the United Nations will convince Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, but it doesn’t look like the ayatollahs will agree to that. The U.S. might eventually take out Iran’s nuclear installations, but Yarden hinted that Israel might act unilaterally to eliminate the Iranian threat, even if that invites the same kind of worldwide condemnation that was leveled at Israel when it bombed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear facility in 1982.
If extremists get their hands on nuclear weapons, they could fire them in all directions. Suicide bombers and Hezbollah fighters would become insignificant if Islamic clerics send orders to fire nuclear missiles at Israel in hopes of restoring an Islamic kingdom in Jerusalem. The consul general was reading the headlines on news Web sites back home. The news was not good: Peacekeeping forces had still not arrived in Lebanon, where they were supposed to keep Hezbollah a good distance away from Israel. But several hundred French troops and those from other nations were on their way, and perhaps they’ll keep the peace between Israel and Hezbollah, at least for a while.
“Hezbollah always finds an excuse to attack,” Yarden said. “What’s important is to have Hezbollah disarmed and have the Lebanese army and the United Nations forces deployed.” But Israel doesn’t think much of the UN. “We have very low expectations of the United Nations,” Yarden said.
There’s an uneasy truce between Israel and Lebanon, but if Hezbollah acquires even more powerful weapons from its Iranian patron, the war could spread throughout the Middle East and beyond. Hezbollah is lying low right now, perhaps waiting for orders from Iran and its Syrian friends.
The militia had fired thousands of Iranian-supplied rockets into Israel for a month, killing more than 100 Israelis, but Lebanon suffered far more losses: More than 1,000 Lebanese dead and much of their country in ruins, while Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, hides in bunkers, afraid that Israel, or other Lebanese, might assassinate him.
Despite bragging about a strategic victory, Nasrallah knows this war has set Lebanon back at least 20 years. He recently told an interviewer that his group would not have kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12 if he’d known Israel would strike back with such tremendous force.
“We did not think that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not,” he said. But what if next time Hezbollah gets nuclear-tipped rockets from Iran?
One word that’s not in the Israeli vocabulary is fear. They might take comfort from Psalm 83: “Your foes are in uproar, and those who hate you have raised their head. They say, ‘Come let us cut them off from nationhood so Israel’s name will not be remembered anymore.’”
As an Israeli military officer recently told the New York Times, “This is the Middle East. One war ends, and the next one is already at the door.”
The neighborhood has become much more dangerous as Iran develops nuclear weapons and threatens to wipe out Israel.
The Iranian ayatollahs gave Hezbollah thousands of rockets, which the Lebanese militia fired into Israel this summer. What if next time, those rockets carry nuclear warheads? What if Hamas and al-Qaida get their hands on nuclear bombs? What if the next hijacked planes fly with nuclear bombs into skyscrapers in New York, or detonate in Chicago subways?
Yarden wouldn’t say what Israel would do if Iran continued on its nuclear path, but clearly the threat is on top of his government’s concerns. Yarden is a diplomat and is not involved in military planning, but even if he were, he couldn’t talk about any plans Israel might consider against Iran. But he did say, “We will do anything to protect ourselves. We’ll take any action necessary.”
Publicly, Israel hopes the United Nations will convince Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, but it doesn’t look like the ayatollahs will agree to that. The U.S. might eventually take out Iran’s nuclear installations, but Yarden hinted that Israel might act unilaterally to eliminate the Iranian threat, even if that invites the same kind of worldwide condemnation that was leveled at Israel when it bombed Saddam Hussein’s nuclear facility in 1982.
If extremists get their hands on nuclear weapons, they could fire them in all directions. Suicide bombers and Hezbollah fighters would become insignificant if Islamic clerics send orders to fire nuclear missiles at Israel in hopes of restoring an Islamic kingdom in Jerusalem. The consul general was reading the headlines on news Web sites back home. The news was not good: Peacekeeping forces had still not arrived in Lebanon, where they were supposed to keep Hezbollah a good distance away from Israel. But several hundred French troops and those from other nations were on their way, and perhaps they’ll keep the peace between Israel and Hezbollah, at least for a while.
“Hezbollah always finds an excuse to attack,” Yarden said. “What’s important is to have Hezbollah disarmed and have the Lebanese army and the United Nations forces deployed.” But Israel doesn’t think much of the UN. “We have very low expectations of the United Nations,” Yarden said.
There’s an uneasy truce between Israel and Lebanon, but if Hezbollah acquires even more powerful weapons from its Iranian patron, the war could spread throughout the Middle East and beyond. Hezbollah is lying low right now, perhaps waiting for orders from Iran and its Syrian friends.
The militia had fired thousands of Iranian-supplied rockets into Israel for a month, killing more than 100 Israelis, but Lebanon suffered far more losses: More than 1,000 Lebanese dead and much of their country in ruins, while Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, hides in bunkers, afraid that Israel, or other Lebanese, might assassinate him.
Despite bragging about a strategic victory, Nasrallah knows this war has set Lebanon back at least 20 years. He recently told an interviewer that his group would not have kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12 if he’d known Israel would strike back with such tremendous force.
“We did not think that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. You ask me if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not,” he said. But what if next time Hezbollah gets nuclear-tipped rockets from Iran?
One word that’s not in the Israeli vocabulary is fear. They might take comfort from Psalm 83: “Your foes are in uproar, and those who hate you have raised their head. They say, ‘Come let us cut them off from nationhood so Israel’s name will not be remembered anymore.’”
As an Israeli military officer recently told the New York Times, “This is the Middle East. One war ends, and the next one is already at the door.”
TOP STORY>>CJHN students in school
By SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
Cabot Junior High North seventh- and eighth-graders went back to school Tuesday, two weeks after the rest of the district.
Sunday will be one month since a fire started by a faulty light fixture destroyed the Cabot Junior High North building Aug. 10.
Roughly 1,200 students attended classes in the $9 million, eight-year-old Junior High North building.
“I can’t say thank you enough to all the teachers, administrators, parents, students and volunteers who gave up their Labor Day to help us get these portables ready for these students,” said Frank Holman, Cabot School District superintendent.
Intercoms and bell systems were not yet ready for the students, but teachers and administrators were keeping in contact with two-way radios.
“We still have a few-dry erase boards to hang up, some bookshelves to put up and a few plumbing jobs but we have a desk for every student,” Holman told The Leader. Despite pleas to have students ride the buses, about half the students were driven to school for the first day back, which caused some traffic congestion around the campus.
“The students and teachers are very positive and happy to be back to visit with their peers,” said Holman. Following an assembly in the Cabot Junior High North gym, students then split by grade to go over the student handbook with their teachers and get their class schedules before returning to the gym for lunch.
“We have concession facilities in the gym that keep the food hot, and it’s the very same meal being served at all our other schools,” Holman explained. The school’s 400 ninth-graders started school Aug. 28, a week after the rest of the district returned, attending classes in four portable buildings already on the neighboring Cabot High School campus and 24 empty classrooms in the old high school science and business buildings. Holman said district officials hope to hear from insurance adjusters within the next couple of weeks to find out how much money the school can expect to receive through insurance. Cost to rebuild Cabot Junior High North has been estimated to be about $15 million. Construction is expected to take about about two years.
Leader staff writer
Cabot Junior High North seventh- and eighth-graders went back to school Tuesday, two weeks after the rest of the district.
Sunday will be one month since a fire started by a faulty light fixture destroyed the Cabot Junior High North building Aug. 10.
Roughly 1,200 students attended classes in the $9 million, eight-year-old Junior High North building.
“I can’t say thank you enough to all the teachers, administrators, parents, students and volunteers who gave up their Labor Day to help us get these portables ready for these students,” said Frank Holman, Cabot School District superintendent.
Intercoms and bell systems were not yet ready for the students, but teachers and administrators were keeping in contact with two-way radios.
“We still have a few-dry erase boards to hang up, some bookshelves to put up and a few plumbing jobs but we have a desk for every student,” Holman told The Leader. Despite pleas to have students ride the buses, about half the students were driven to school for the first day back, which caused some traffic congestion around the campus.
“The students and teachers are very positive and happy to be back to visit with their peers,” said Holman. Following an assembly in the Cabot Junior High North gym, students then split by grade to go over the student handbook with their teachers and get their class schedules before returning to the gym for lunch.
“We have concession facilities in the gym that keep the food hot, and it’s the very same meal being served at all our other schools,” Holman explained. The school’s 400 ninth-graders started school Aug. 28, a week after the rest of the district returned, attending classes in four portable buildings already on the neighboring Cabot High School campus and 24 empty classrooms in the old high school science and business buildings. Holman said district officials hope to hear from insurance adjusters within the next couple of weeks to find out how much money the school can expect to receive through insurance. Cost to rebuild Cabot Junior High North has been estimated to be about $15 million. Construction is expected to take about about two years.
TOP STORY>>Farmers struggle with high costs
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
Between drought and high fuel costs, “this is the most expensive crop ever in my family,” said Lonoke County farmer Shane Hamilton, scouting for insects in a soybean field last Thursday, and he’s a third-generation farmer. He said because of irrigation costs, he was considering cutting back on next year’s rice acreage. He’s not alone among Lonoke County producers in decrying the high irrigation costs this year.
“Some producers caught recent rains, some not,” said Keith Perkins, a Lonoke County Extension Service agent. “We’re reaching the end of irrigation on some varieties,” said Per-kins, but farmers now must control for insects and disease.
Pod feeders on soybeans—the same as cotton bollworms and those on other crops—can cause significant loss if not sprayed for. But a lot of soybean fields are reaching maturity and have been harvested or will be soon. Dry land beans already are in, said Perkins.
He said producers expect higher than average yields, but that increased irrigation and pesticide costs could offset the increases or more. The good news is that for the third consecutive year, soy rust has not affected beans in Arkansas. Pastures are drying up and some farmers have already begun feeding hay, which usually doesn’t happen until October. The scarcity of hay had about doubled the price, Perkins said.
Others may sell calves sooner to the feedlots, for less money. Some cattlemen may get rid of some of their breeding cows rather than feed them hay until next spring. “I don’t know if the pastures are overgrazed, but there’s not adequate rainfall,” he added.
The rice harvest is starting, he said, although not all fields are ready. A lot of acreage is being drained for harvest. The added variable in this year’s rice crop is the decline in market prices, tied to the recent disclosure that geneticallly modified rice from Bayer CropScience test plots had found its way into the nation’s long-grain rice stores.
Japan and South Korea have banned import of the rice and for now, members of the European Union are refusing to buy the rice. Loss of sales in Japan and South Korea, where residents prefer “sticky rice,” is less of a threat than loss of European customers, according to a spokesman for Riceland Foods.
Bayer and Riceland are being sued by some farmers over the contamination, although a Riceland spokesman calls the rice “mixed,” not “contaminated.” Hot dry weather forced producers also to irrigate cotton more than usual. Most of the corn is harvested, Perkin said, and most farmers were “pretty pleased with the yields, right at average or above.” He said boosted by demand for corn for ethanol, corn prices were pretty good, although Arkansas is a pretty small producer of corn.
Cotton is nearly to the point of defoliation, Perkins said, probably beginning this week. Growers have had to rely more than usual on pesticides because they were having more problems with worms. The boll weevil is under control, he said. But budworms are harder to kill.
First the type of worm has to be identified and then treated with the proper pesticide. The weather has been ideal for the local fish farmers, according to extension service fisheries biologist Hugh Thomford. “They are getting very good growth,” he said.
Leader staff writer
Between drought and high fuel costs, “this is the most expensive crop ever in my family,” said Lonoke County farmer Shane Hamilton, scouting for insects in a soybean field last Thursday, and he’s a third-generation farmer. He said because of irrigation costs, he was considering cutting back on next year’s rice acreage. He’s not alone among Lonoke County producers in decrying the high irrigation costs this year.
“Some producers caught recent rains, some not,” said Keith Perkins, a Lonoke County Extension Service agent. “We’re reaching the end of irrigation on some varieties,” said Per-kins, but farmers now must control for insects and disease.
Pod feeders on soybeans—the same as cotton bollworms and those on other crops—can cause significant loss if not sprayed for. But a lot of soybean fields are reaching maturity and have been harvested or will be soon. Dry land beans already are in, said Perkins.
He said producers expect higher than average yields, but that increased irrigation and pesticide costs could offset the increases or more. The good news is that for the third consecutive year, soy rust has not affected beans in Arkansas. Pastures are drying up and some farmers have already begun feeding hay, which usually doesn’t happen until October. The scarcity of hay had about doubled the price, Perkins said.
Others may sell calves sooner to the feedlots, for less money. Some cattlemen may get rid of some of their breeding cows rather than feed them hay until next spring. “I don’t know if the pastures are overgrazed, but there’s not adequate rainfall,” he added.
The rice harvest is starting, he said, although not all fields are ready. A lot of acreage is being drained for harvest. The added variable in this year’s rice crop is the decline in market prices, tied to the recent disclosure that geneticallly modified rice from Bayer CropScience test plots had found its way into the nation’s long-grain rice stores.
Japan and South Korea have banned import of the rice and for now, members of the European Union are refusing to buy the rice. Loss of sales in Japan and South Korea, where residents prefer “sticky rice,” is less of a threat than loss of European customers, according to a spokesman for Riceland Foods.
Bayer and Riceland are being sued by some farmers over the contamination, although a Riceland spokesman calls the rice “mixed,” not “contaminated.” Hot dry weather forced producers also to irrigate cotton more than usual. Most of the corn is harvested, Perkin said, and most farmers were “pretty pleased with the yields, right at average or above.” He said boosted by demand for corn for ethanol, corn prices were pretty good, although Arkansas is a pretty small producer of corn.
Cotton is nearly to the point of defoliation, Perkins said, probably beginning this week. Growers have had to rely more than usual on pesticides because they were having more problems with worms. The boll weevil is under control, he said. But budworms are harder to kill.
First the type of worm has to be identified and then treated with the proper pesticide. The weather has been ideal for the local fish farmers, according to extension service fisheries biologist Hugh Thomford. “They are getting very good growth,” he said.
TOP STORY>>Metroplan approves funding of projects
By JOHN HOFHEIMER
Leader staff writer
The Metroplan board of directors last week approved $40 million for improvement projects, including the widening of Highway 67/167 from the North Belt Freeway to Redmond Road in Jacksonville. Although all work on Hwy. 67/167 benefits Cabot commuters by increasing the road’s capacity, only one job is planned for the Cabot area under the 2007-2010 Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) for central Arkansas.
All the design work for the planned $4.1 million Union Pacific Railroad overpass in Cabot is completed and right-of-way acquisition is underway, according to Richard Magee, Metroplan director of planning. Cabot’s share for the overpass is about $800,000, which the city is funding with the extension of a one-cent sales tax.
The bridge will be built near Polk Street off Hwy. 367 between Cabot and Austin. Even as they were unanimously adopting the TIP for central Arkansas, Metroplan board members also approved $330,000 to relocate utilities for the 1.7-mile, four-laning of Hwy. 107 between Bear Paw Drive and Brockington Road this year. That project is on the 2005-2007 TIP, which expires in October.
The TIP—a list of projects and funding sources—is the link between the Metroplan planning process and implementation of the plan, identifying the funding available. The new TIP also includes $2 million to buy right-of-way for widening that Hwy. 107 route and an additional $4.4 million for its construction.
JACKSONVILLE
The TIP includes construction projects in the Jacksonville area during that period totaling $25.5 million, with $10 million of that earmarked for widening a 1.8-mile section of northbound Hwy. 67/167 from Hwy. 440 to Redmond Road in 2007.
The southbound lanes will be widened in 2009 at a cost of $7.8 million.
“This is going to be great for Jacksonville,” City Engineer Jay Whisker said Tuesday of the work on Hwy. 67/167. “I’m happiest they decided to do Hwy. 440 to Redmond first. That will help alleviate (a bottleneck).” Another $2 million will be spent in 2007 for construction of a new, safer northbound Hwy. 67/167 on-ramp near the site of the old Pizza Company.
Currently, that ramp is near Vandenberg Boulevard in front of the Lowe’s Home Improvement store. In 2008, $663,000 has been allotted to purchase right-of-way for the widening of Graham Road from Oak Street to Loop Road. The actual widening is budgeted for 2009 at a cost of $1.2 million.
Whisker said the improvements to Graham Road are important because “it gets you a four-lane into your downtown. That’s what you’re after.” “It’s the central (east-west) arterial through the city. That’s what you’re trying to do is keep people headed toward downtown,” Whisker added.
Also in 2009, the state budget includes $304,000 to purchase right-of-way for the widening of 0.85 miles of Hwy. 107 between Jacksonville-Cato Road and Bayou Meto and another $3.4 million for the actual widening.
SHERWOOD JOBS
With a $20.2 million, 1.5 mile widening of Hwy. 67/167 from Kiehl to Hwy. 440 slated for 2010, and other major widenings slated for Brockington Road and Hwy. 107, spending on Sherwood-area projects will total $34.1 million. In 2007, $2.6 million is committed for widening Brockington Road to four lanes from Maryland to state Highway 107, a 1.2-mile stretch of road.
In 2008, $1.2 million should be available to purchase right-of-way and relocate utilities on a 0.8-mile section of Brockington Road from Kiehl to Maryland. About $3.7 million will be available for the actual widening in 2009.
Leader staff writer
The Metroplan board of directors last week approved $40 million for improvement projects, including the widening of Highway 67/167 from the North Belt Freeway to Redmond Road in Jacksonville. Although all work on Hwy. 67/167 benefits Cabot commuters by increasing the road’s capacity, only one job is planned for the Cabot area under the 2007-2010 Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) for central Arkansas.
All the design work for the planned $4.1 million Union Pacific Railroad overpass in Cabot is completed and right-of-way acquisition is underway, according to Richard Magee, Metroplan director of planning. Cabot’s share for the overpass is about $800,000, which the city is funding with the extension of a one-cent sales tax.
The bridge will be built near Polk Street off Hwy. 367 between Cabot and Austin. Even as they were unanimously adopting the TIP for central Arkansas, Metroplan board members also approved $330,000 to relocate utilities for the 1.7-mile, four-laning of Hwy. 107 between Bear Paw Drive and Brockington Road this year. That project is on the 2005-2007 TIP, which expires in October.
The TIP—a list of projects and funding sources—is the link between the Metroplan planning process and implementation of the plan, identifying the funding available. The new TIP also includes $2 million to buy right-of-way for widening that Hwy. 107 route and an additional $4.4 million for its construction.
JACKSONVILLE
The TIP includes construction projects in the Jacksonville area during that period totaling $25.5 million, with $10 million of that earmarked for widening a 1.8-mile section of northbound Hwy. 67/167 from Hwy. 440 to Redmond Road in 2007.
The southbound lanes will be widened in 2009 at a cost of $7.8 million.
“This is going to be great for Jacksonville,” City Engineer Jay Whisker said Tuesday of the work on Hwy. 67/167. “I’m happiest they decided to do Hwy. 440 to Redmond first. That will help alleviate (a bottleneck).” Another $2 million will be spent in 2007 for construction of a new, safer northbound Hwy. 67/167 on-ramp near the site of the old Pizza Company.
Currently, that ramp is near Vandenberg Boulevard in front of the Lowe’s Home Improvement store. In 2008, $663,000 has been allotted to purchase right-of-way for the widening of Graham Road from Oak Street to Loop Road. The actual widening is budgeted for 2009 at a cost of $1.2 million.
Whisker said the improvements to Graham Road are important because “it gets you a four-lane into your downtown. That’s what you’re after.” “It’s the central (east-west) arterial through the city. That’s what you’re trying to do is keep people headed toward downtown,” Whisker added.
Also in 2009, the state budget includes $304,000 to purchase right-of-way for the widening of 0.85 miles of Hwy. 107 between Jacksonville-Cato Road and Bayou Meto and another $3.4 million for the actual widening.
SHERWOOD JOBS
With a $20.2 million, 1.5 mile widening of Hwy. 67/167 from Kiehl to Hwy. 440 slated for 2010, and other major widenings slated for Brockington Road and Hwy. 107, spending on Sherwood-area projects will total $34.1 million. In 2007, $2.6 million is committed for widening Brockington Road to four lanes from Maryland to state Highway 107, a 1.2-mile stretch of road.
In 2008, $1.2 million should be available to purchase right-of-way and relocate utilities on a 0.8-mile section of Brockington Road from Kiehl to Maryland. About $3.7 million will be available for the actual widening in 2009.
TOP STORY>>Parole upsets parents
By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The man responsible for a Sherwood teen’s death has been paroled over the objections of the teen’s parents and the prosecuting attorney’s office. In a 4 to 1 vote, the parole board voted Tuesday to release Michael R. Webb, 33. With the parole approved, Webb will be released in mid-December after serving less than 11 years of a 46-year sentence—40 years for first-degree murder and six years for first-degree assault.
Webb, who was 21 at the time, was one of four people convicted in the December 1993 shooting death of Jason Hatcher, 17, in the Harvest Food parking lot in Sherwood. Another person was shot in the knee during the shootout. Webb wasn’t convicted and jailed until early 1996 for his role in the shooting.
The Hatcher family is infuriated. “The system has gone crazy,” Jason’s father, Doug Hatcher, said. “The jury gave Webb 46 years, and the parole board reduced it to 11. Is that all my son is worth? Is that all that anyone’s son is worth? The parole board doesn’t value human life,” Hatcher said.
“If we, as citizens, don’t get a handle on this it will consume us all,” he added. “I can’t understand why people let the governor, who is the boss of the parole board, and the parole board, get away with this stuff time after time.” Hatcher said it’s his understanding that the parole board never even asked Webb if he did the shooting.
“My son was shot in the back. Murdered! The scale of justice has not been served for my son’s life,” Kathy Hatcher told the parole board in early August. She found out about the decision by calling the parole board and was so upset with the board’s decision that she couldn’t talk about it Tuesday.
“Webb could have killed a lot more than just my son,” Hatcher said. “Webb’s rifle held about 17 rounds, but jammed after about four shots,” he said. The prosecution never tried to show specifically who killed Hatcher, but convicted all four teens involved in the shooting under the accomplice-liability law. But all testimony and evidence point to Webb as Hatcher’s killer.
The Hatcher family, friends and others opposed to Webb’s release met with the parole board on Aug. 9. A week later the board traveled to the state prison facility and listened to Webb and his family and friends as to why he should be released.
“It’s a shame that the board is releasing him,” said Pulaski County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson. “I hate it for the victim’s family.”
Johnson was among those at the Aug. 9 hearing opposing the release, but no one from the prosecuting attorney’s office was allowed to participate in the hearing of Webb and his family. “I wish we could have been there. Webb’s mother has made some statements to the board that just weren’t true and we couldn’t refute them,” Johnson said. He was made aware of the statements in letters from the parole board.
“It’s not about us or about justice. It’s about managing beds. It’s about a system ready to explode,” Doug Hatcher said back in early August. Webb asked for clemency in 2004, and the board voted 3-to-2 in favor of it. Hatcher said it was “all done behind closed doors.” He said they didn’t get to present their side, but when Kathy Hatcher got through showing the clemency board all the facts, one of the members changed his vote, and the clemency was eventually denied.
“They told her they had doubts and questions that Webb was even involved,” Hatcher explained. “We sat through four court trials. We knew,” he said. Kathy Hatcher went to the courthouse and pulled the transcripts—almost 6,000 pages—and copied and highlighted all the testimony that showed Webb was the killer, Doug Hatcher explained.
“When she went there, she found out that no one had ever looked at the files,” Doug Hatcher said. “How can the board make a decision like that and not look at the transcripts?” he asked. According to Leader articles and police reports at the time, there was a fight in the Harvest Foods parking lot. Jason and others, who were at Taco Bell, came over to see what was going on.
James Gross, Tim McGarity and others were fighting. About that time a car pulled up with Webb, Chad Jones and Jason Carter. Carter had a pistol and was firing it in the air as the vehicle pulled in. John Johnson, a Pulaski County assistant prosecutor, said apparently the pistol was passed around between Carter, Gross and Jones.
McGarity ended up shot in the knee. Shortly thereafter someone got a rifle out from the trunk of the car and began firing. “By this time, Johnson said, “everyone was running away and Jason was shot in the back. The bullet went completely through him.”
Johnson said the investigation found that Webb left the crime scene and went to the home of some friends. He walked in carrying his rifle and bragging. Kathy Hatcher told the parole board that “Webb bragged to his friends by saying ‘I think I got one’ or ‘I think I shot one’ and that the worst part was he ‘had to throw his taco down.’”
The rifle was found in Webb’s home. Carter, 18 at the time of the shooting and from Little Rock, was found guilty of first-degree murder, battery and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to 60 years on the murder count, 30 years for battery and 10 years for the assault, all to run concurrently. He was paroled in March 2005.
“His release was the only one we didn’t protest because we felt he was just a gopher in the whole incident, and the only one to really show remorse,” Doug Hatcher said. Jones, 22 at the time and from Cabot, was found guilty of first-degree murder and battery. He was given 32 years on the murder charges and five years for the battery, to run concurrently. He was paroled in August 2004.
Gross, 19 at the time and from Gravel Ridge, was found not guilty of murder, but was convicted of battery and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to six years on each charge, to run concurrently. He was the first to be paroled, in December 1996. Jason was the youngest of the Hatchers three children and his death affected the whole family. “It’s just not something you ever get over,” Kathy Hatcher said.
Leader staff writer
The man responsible for a Sherwood teen’s death has been paroled over the objections of the teen’s parents and the prosecuting attorney’s office. In a 4 to 1 vote, the parole board voted Tuesday to release Michael R. Webb, 33. With the parole approved, Webb will be released in mid-December after serving less than 11 years of a 46-year sentence—40 years for first-degree murder and six years for first-degree assault.
Webb, who was 21 at the time, was one of four people convicted in the December 1993 shooting death of Jason Hatcher, 17, in the Harvest Food parking lot in Sherwood. Another person was shot in the knee during the shootout. Webb wasn’t convicted and jailed until early 1996 for his role in the shooting.
The Hatcher family is infuriated. “The system has gone crazy,” Jason’s father, Doug Hatcher, said. “The jury gave Webb 46 years, and the parole board reduced it to 11. Is that all my son is worth? Is that all that anyone’s son is worth? The parole board doesn’t value human life,” Hatcher said.
“If we, as citizens, don’t get a handle on this it will consume us all,” he added. “I can’t understand why people let the governor, who is the boss of the parole board, and the parole board, get away with this stuff time after time.” Hatcher said it’s his understanding that the parole board never even asked Webb if he did the shooting.
“My son was shot in the back. Murdered! The scale of justice has not been served for my son’s life,” Kathy Hatcher told the parole board in early August. She found out about the decision by calling the parole board and was so upset with the board’s decision that she couldn’t talk about it Tuesday.
“Webb could have killed a lot more than just my son,” Hatcher said. “Webb’s rifle held about 17 rounds, but jammed after about four shots,” he said. The prosecution never tried to show specifically who killed Hatcher, but convicted all four teens involved in the shooting under the accomplice-liability law. But all testimony and evidence point to Webb as Hatcher’s killer.
The Hatcher family, friends and others opposed to Webb’s release met with the parole board on Aug. 9. A week later the board traveled to the state prison facility and listened to Webb and his family and friends as to why he should be released.
“It’s a shame that the board is releasing him,” said Pulaski County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney John Johnson. “I hate it for the victim’s family.”
Johnson was among those at the Aug. 9 hearing opposing the release, but no one from the prosecuting attorney’s office was allowed to participate in the hearing of Webb and his family. “I wish we could have been there. Webb’s mother has made some statements to the board that just weren’t true and we couldn’t refute them,” Johnson said. He was made aware of the statements in letters from the parole board.
“It’s not about us or about justice. It’s about managing beds. It’s about a system ready to explode,” Doug Hatcher said back in early August. Webb asked for clemency in 2004, and the board voted 3-to-2 in favor of it. Hatcher said it was “all done behind closed doors.” He said they didn’t get to present their side, but when Kathy Hatcher got through showing the clemency board all the facts, one of the members changed his vote, and the clemency was eventually denied.
“They told her they had doubts and questions that Webb was even involved,” Hatcher explained. “We sat through four court trials. We knew,” he said. Kathy Hatcher went to the courthouse and pulled the transcripts—almost 6,000 pages—and copied and highlighted all the testimony that showed Webb was the killer, Doug Hatcher explained.
“When she went there, she found out that no one had ever looked at the files,” Doug Hatcher said. “How can the board make a decision like that and not look at the transcripts?” he asked. According to Leader articles and police reports at the time, there was a fight in the Harvest Foods parking lot. Jason and others, who were at Taco Bell, came over to see what was going on.
James Gross, Tim McGarity and others were fighting. About that time a car pulled up with Webb, Chad Jones and Jason Carter. Carter had a pistol and was firing it in the air as the vehicle pulled in. John Johnson, a Pulaski County assistant prosecutor, said apparently the pistol was passed around between Carter, Gross and Jones.
McGarity ended up shot in the knee. Shortly thereafter someone got a rifle out from the trunk of the car and began firing. “By this time, Johnson said, “everyone was running away and Jason was shot in the back. The bullet went completely through him.”
Johnson said the investigation found that Webb left the crime scene and went to the home of some friends. He walked in carrying his rifle and bragging. Kathy Hatcher told the parole board that “Webb bragged to his friends by saying ‘I think I got one’ or ‘I think I shot one’ and that the worst part was he ‘had to throw his taco down.’”
The rifle was found in Webb’s home. Carter, 18 at the time of the shooting and from Little Rock, was found guilty of first-degree murder, battery and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to 60 years on the murder count, 30 years for battery and 10 years for the assault, all to run concurrently. He was paroled in March 2005.
“His release was the only one we didn’t protest because we felt he was just a gopher in the whole incident, and the only one to really show remorse,” Doug Hatcher said. Jones, 22 at the time and from Cabot, was found guilty of first-degree murder and battery. He was given 32 years on the murder charges and five years for the battery, to run concurrently. He was paroled in August 2004.
Gross, 19 at the time and from Gravel Ridge, was found not guilty of murder, but was convicted of battery and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to six years on each charge, to run concurrently. He was the first to be paroled, in December 1996. Jason was the youngest of the Hatchers three children and his death affected the whole family. “It’s just not something you ever get over,” Kathy Hatcher said.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
EVENTS>>Fall 2006
AROUND THE AREA
Midway school reunion 2006 at Cabot High School cafeteria will be from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. A potluck lunch will be served. All of those interested in this event including former teachers, students, administrators, bus drivers and families are urged to attend. Participants are invited to bring pictures to share with the group. For more information contact Jo Etta Aten at 843-7062 or 412-6845 or Arlene Davidson at 676-5972.
An explosion at the Little Rock Air Force Base’s 308th Titan II Missile Wing’s silo in Damascus 26 years ago will be the topic of the Jacksonville Museum of Military History’s War Stories lecture series at 6 p.m. Thursday at 100 Veterans Circle in Jacksonville. Admission is $2. For more information, call 241-1943 or e-mail dkduggarmilitarymuseum@centurytel.net or visit www.jaxmilitarymuseum.org.
Donations are being accepted for the Reynolds family of Highland Court in Cabot. The family lost their home and 77-year-old grandmother Velma Metcalf in a fire last week. Donations can be made at any Bank of the Ozarks to the Jannie Reynolds Fire Fund.
The Lonoke County Democratic Women’s Club will hold its next meeting at Maria’s in England Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. The Annual Donkey Day dinner will be at 6:30 p.m. Saturrday, Sept. 23, in the Cabot North Middle School cafeteria. Guest speakers will be Attorney General Mike Beebe, Bill Halter, candidate for Lt. Gov, and the master of ceremonies Judge Mark McRoy of Desha County. Next meeting will be at Maria’s in England Tuesday at 7 p.m. For tickets or more information, call Juanita Horn at 843-3934 or 605-3776, Sue Wagner at 843-8160.
Arkansas is preparing for Breast Cancer Awareness month coming up in October. To further breast cancer education and awareness, the Faith Support Ministry at Faith Baptist Church in Cabot is hosting a Brunch at 10 a.m. Saturday. All women in the community and surrounding areas are invited to attend.
This year’s program will focus on education. Sandra Bennett, BSN, RN, an Instruction Development Specialist with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, will present the latest information from the Komen Foundation and the American Cancer Society regarding risk factors and early detection. Certified by the Komen Foundation, Bennett will also instruct proper methods for self-breast exams.
Entertainment will be provided by local vocalist, Lis Geoghegan.
Statistics indicate one in seven women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. An estimated 2,000 women in Arkansas will be diagnosed this year.
Who is at risk? You, your sister, your daughter, your neighbor, your mother, your niece are at risk. Women as young as 14 up to senior ladies in their 70’s or 80’s all need to be aware.
The Komen Mission is to eradicate breast cancer as a life threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening and treatment.
Plan to attend this community event and participate in the mission. There is no cost to attend, but reserve a seat by calling Faith Baptist Church at 843-5291 or e-mailing elaine@faithcabot.org.
Called the “Patriot’s Pen,” this Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary program is an essay contest for students in sixth through eighth grade, and also home schooled students. The program offers students the opportunity to express their opinion on a patriotic theme and improve their writing skills while competing for prizes. Prizes are awarded at the local, state and national levels. The first place national winner will receive a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond during the VFW/Ladies Auxiliary Community Service Conference in Washington, D.C. in March.
The theme for 2006-07 is “Citizenship in America.” The essay needs to be between 300-400 words. The deadline for students to submit an entry for local judging is Nov. 1. Information and entry forms should be available at the middle schools, or can be downloaded from the VFW website, www.vfw.org.
The North Pulaski VFD will be conducting its annual fundraising drive. This year’s goal is to purchase unbudgeted equipment needed to lower the ISO rating, which lowers home owners Insurance. Any additional funds will be used to update station No. 2. For the next several weeks, representatives will be going door-to-door offering an 11x14 family portrait for only $30.
The Arlene Cherry Memorial Library resumes its preschool storytime program on Wednesday and will run it every Wednesday and Thursday at 10:30 a.m. from then on. Storytime includes fingerplays, songs, games and craft time. Daycare and other groups are welcome to schedule separate storytimes. Questions? Call the library at 843-7661.
A ladies fellowship luncheon will be held at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 23. Guest speaker will be Sister Mosco Christian of Bountiful Blessing Church in Little Rock. Lunch will be served immediately after she speaks.
Women’s and Men’s Day services will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 24 at the church. Dr. Quinton E. Hammonds of Antioch Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala., will be the speaker. His theme is “Women and Men Uniting Together for Christ.” Mt. Pisgah is located at 1017 Ray Road in Jacksonville. For more information, call 982-6215.
The Arkansas Choral Society will start rehearsals for its 76 Messiah concert at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept.11 at the Bible Church of Little Rock, 1911 Cantrell Road. All singers welcome, no auditions required. For more information, please call (501) 851-2383 or (501) 568-1077.
FaithWeaver Friends is a mid-week Christian education opportunity at Cabot United Methodist Church for children 2-years-old to 6th grade. “Friends” will be held every Wednesday during the school year, beginning Sept. 6 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Children will learn to grow in their faith through Bible study, music, crafts, puppets and much more. The 5th and 6th graders are “Mission Maniacs” during the same time and are involved in different service projects in our church and community, as well as their own Bible study. The cost is $20 for the year. For more information or to sign up, contact the church office 501-843-3541.
The 23rd Annual Camp Aldersgate Fish Fry at First United Methodist Church in Jacksonville will be Sept. 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the church. Activities include live entertainment, a children’s area, bake sale, silent auction and more. All proceeds benefit Camp Aldersgate. For more information call 501-225-1444. Also, AARP is still holding the “Eden at Home” workshops for those who care for aging or disabled persons. If you care for someone who falls in this category and need advice on caring for their needs call 501-217-1628 and speak with Theresa for a schedule of workshops.
Saturday, October 21ST
Sherwood Fest
8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
Arts & Crafts Show, Children’s Fun Activities
All Day, Chamber of Commerce Pancake
Breakfast, Pony Rides, Cute Kids Contest
Tuesday, October 31ST
City of Sherwood
Halloween Carnival
6:30 P.M. - 8:30 P.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
Carnival Games, Costume Contest
December 1ST-30TH
Enchanted Forest
Holiday Trail of Lights
6:00 P.M. - 9:30 P.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
(501) 835-8909
Friday, December 1ST
Children's
Christmas Party
6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.
Duran Youth Center
508 Sherwood Ave.
Sunday, December 3RD
Sherwood
Christmas
Parade
2:00 P.M.
Chamber of Commerce Event
Saturday, December 9TH
Breakfast
With Santa
8:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
(501) 835-8909
Cabot High School’s open house will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. This is an excellent opportunity to meet and greet students’ teachers and see the new school. There will be no general assembly, so parents are invited to follow their student’s schedule for a regular school day. Available for those interested will be a 7 p.m. report to the public in the second floor loft. Please remember, this is not the official dedication of the new high school. That date will be announced later.
Zainy Zebra Children’s Consignment is donating 20 to 30 percent of profits from sales to the Homeless Ministry at Cabot First Baptist Church until Monday, Sept. 25. Consignments and donations are being accepted. For more information please call (501) 952-1919.
The Beebe Shepherd’s Center conducts classes each Wednesday at College and Cherry streets. A new program in “Adventures in Learning” will be held Thursday, Sept. 7 through Wednesday, Oct. 25. Senior adults take classes for fun or learning. Class times will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers are needed to share their knowledge or hobbies with others. For more information, Paul Ramsey, director at 501-882-0243.
Do you have a child that is 3 or 4 years old? Have you heard about the Cabot HIPPY program? Then it’s time to see for yourself what HIPPY is all about and for you to become part of our HIPPY family. Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a parent involvement, 30-week school-readiness program that helps parents prepare their 3- and 4-year-old children for success in school and beyond. The parent is provided, free of charge, with a set of carefully developed curriculum, books and materials designed to strengthen their children’s cognitive skills, early literacy skills, social/emotional and physical development. Along with the 30-week curriculum, HIPPY hosts a monthly group meeting for all the HIPPY families to come and have a good time with friends.
Each month your children will enjoy a themed meeting with story time, songs, crafts and special surprises. If HIPPY sounds like something you and your child would be interested in, call soon, as spaces are limited and it’s almost time to start lesson one. If you want more information please call Kelley Smith at 501-842-1737, or Michelle Barrick at 501-843-5693 or 501-941-9299.
There will be a dance at the Senior Citizen’s Center in Cabot the first Wednesday of each month from 1 to 3 p.m.
Midway school reunion 2006 at Cabot High School cafeteria will be from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday. A potluck lunch will be served. All of those interested in this event including former teachers, students, administrators, bus drivers and families are urged to attend. Participants are invited to bring pictures to share with the group. For more information contact Jo Etta Aten at 843-7062 or 412-6845 or Arlene Davidson at 676-5972.
An explosion at the Little Rock Air Force Base’s 308th Titan II Missile Wing’s silo in Damascus 26 years ago will be the topic of the Jacksonville Museum of Military History’s War Stories lecture series at 6 p.m. Thursday at 100 Veterans Circle in Jacksonville. Admission is $2. For more information, call 241-1943 or e-mail dkduggarmilitarymuseum@centurytel.net or visit www.jaxmilitarymuseum.org.
Donations are being accepted for the Reynolds family of Highland Court in Cabot. The family lost their home and 77-year-old grandmother Velma Metcalf in a fire last week. Donations can be made at any Bank of the Ozarks to the Jannie Reynolds Fire Fund.
The Lonoke County Democratic Women’s Club will hold its next meeting at Maria’s in England Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. The Annual Donkey Day dinner will be at 6:30 p.m. Saturrday, Sept. 23, in the Cabot North Middle School cafeteria. Guest speakers will be Attorney General Mike Beebe, Bill Halter, candidate for Lt. Gov, and the master of ceremonies Judge Mark McRoy of Desha County. Next meeting will be at Maria’s in England Tuesday at 7 p.m. For tickets or more information, call Juanita Horn at 843-3934 or 605-3776, Sue Wagner at 843-8160.
Arkansas is preparing for Breast Cancer Awareness month coming up in October. To further breast cancer education and awareness, the Faith Support Ministry at Faith Baptist Church in Cabot is hosting a Brunch at 10 a.m. Saturday. All women in the community and surrounding areas are invited to attend.
This year’s program will focus on education. Sandra Bennett, BSN, RN, an Instruction Development Specialist with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, will present the latest information from the Komen Foundation and the American Cancer Society regarding risk factors and early detection. Certified by the Komen Foundation, Bennett will also instruct proper methods for self-breast exams.
Entertainment will be provided by local vocalist, Lis Geoghegan.
Statistics indicate one in seven women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime. An estimated 2,000 women in Arkansas will be diagnosed this year.
Who is at risk? You, your sister, your daughter, your neighbor, your mother, your niece are at risk. Women as young as 14 up to senior ladies in their 70’s or 80’s all need to be aware.
The Komen Mission is to eradicate breast cancer as a life threatening disease by advancing research, education, screening and treatment.
Plan to attend this community event and participate in the mission. There is no cost to attend, but reserve a seat by calling Faith Baptist Church at 843-5291 or e-mailing elaine@faithcabot.org.
Called the “Patriot’s Pen,” this Veterans of Foreign Wars Ladies Auxiliary program is an essay contest for students in sixth through eighth grade, and also home schooled students. The program offers students the opportunity to express their opinion on a patriotic theme and improve their writing skills while competing for prizes. Prizes are awarded at the local, state and national levels. The first place national winner will receive a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond during the VFW/Ladies Auxiliary Community Service Conference in Washington, D.C. in March.
The theme for 2006-07 is “Citizenship in America.” The essay needs to be between 300-400 words. The deadline for students to submit an entry for local judging is Nov. 1. Information and entry forms should be available at the middle schools, or can be downloaded from the VFW website, www.vfw.org.
The North Pulaski VFD will be conducting its annual fundraising drive. This year’s goal is to purchase unbudgeted equipment needed to lower the ISO rating, which lowers home owners Insurance. Any additional funds will be used to update station No. 2. For the next several weeks, representatives will be going door-to-door offering an 11x14 family portrait for only $30.
The Arlene Cherry Memorial Library resumes its preschool storytime program on Wednesday and will run it every Wednesday and Thursday at 10:30 a.m. from then on. Storytime includes fingerplays, songs, games and craft time. Daycare and other groups are welcome to schedule separate storytimes. Questions? Call the library at 843-7661.
A ladies fellowship luncheon will be held at Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 23. Guest speaker will be Sister Mosco Christian of Bountiful Blessing Church in Little Rock. Lunch will be served immediately after she speaks.
Women’s and Men’s Day services will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 24 at the church. Dr. Quinton E. Hammonds of Antioch Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala., will be the speaker. His theme is “Women and Men Uniting Together for Christ.” Mt. Pisgah is located at 1017 Ray Road in Jacksonville. For more information, call 982-6215.
The Arkansas Choral Society will start rehearsals for its 76 Messiah concert at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept.11 at the Bible Church of Little Rock, 1911 Cantrell Road. All singers welcome, no auditions required. For more information, please call (501) 851-2383 or (501) 568-1077.
FaithWeaver Friends is a mid-week Christian education opportunity at Cabot United Methodist Church for children 2-years-old to 6th grade. “Friends” will be held every Wednesday during the school year, beginning Sept. 6 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Children will learn to grow in their faith through Bible study, music, crafts, puppets and much more. The 5th and 6th graders are “Mission Maniacs” during the same time and are involved in different service projects in our church and community, as well as their own Bible study. The cost is $20 for the year. For more information or to sign up, contact the church office 501-843-3541.
The 23rd Annual Camp Aldersgate Fish Fry at First United Methodist Church in Jacksonville will be Sept. 30 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the church. Activities include live entertainment, a children’s area, bake sale, silent auction and more. All proceeds benefit Camp Aldersgate. For more information call 501-225-1444. Also, AARP is still holding the “Eden at Home” workshops for those who care for aging or disabled persons. If you care for someone who falls in this category and need advice on caring for their needs call 501-217-1628 and speak with Theresa for a schedule of workshops.
Saturday, October 21ST
Sherwood Fest
8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
Arts & Crafts Show, Children’s Fun Activities
All Day, Chamber of Commerce Pancake
Breakfast, Pony Rides, Cute Kids Contest
Tuesday, October 31ST
City of Sherwood
Halloween Carnival
6:30 P.M. - 8:30 P.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
Carnival Games, Costume Contest
December 1ST-30TH
Enchanted Forest
Holiday Trail of Lights
6:00 P.M. - 9:30 P.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
(501) 835-8909
Friday, December 1ST
Children's
Christmas Party
6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.
Duran Youth Center
508 Sherwood Ave.
Sunday, December 3RD
Sherwood
Christmas
Parade
2:00 P.M.
Chamber of Commerce Event
Saturday, December 9TH
Breakfast
With Santa
8:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M.
Sherwood Forest
1111 W. Maryland Ave
(501) 835-8909
Cabot High School’s open house will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday. This is an excellent opportunity to meet and greet students’ teachers and see the new school. There will be no general assembly, so parents are invited to follow their student’s schedule for a regular school day. Available for those interested will be a 7 p.m. report to the public in the second floor loft. Please remember, this is not the official dedication of the new high school. That date will be announced later.
Zainy Zebra Children’s Consignment is donating 20 to 30 percent of profits from sales to the Homeless Ministry at Cabot First Baptist Church until Monday, Sept. 25. Consignments and donations are being accepted. For more information please call (501) 952-1919.
The Beebe Shepherd’s Center conducts classes each Wednesday at College and Cherry streets. A new program in “Adventures in Learning” will be held Thursday, Sept. 7 through Wednesday, Oct. 25. Senior adults take classes for fun or learning. Class times will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers are needed to share their knowledge or hobbies with others. For more information, Paul Ramsey, director at 501-882-0243.
Do you have a child that is 3 or 4 years old? Have you heard about the Cabot HIPPY program? Then it’s time to see for yourself what HIPPY is all about and for you to become part of our HIPPY family. Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) is a parent involvement, 30-week school-readiness program that helps parents prepare their 3- and 4-year-old children for success in school and beyond. The parent is provided, free of charge, with a set of carefully developed curriculum, books and materials designed to strengthen their children’s cognitive skills, early literacy skills, social/emotional and physical development. Along with the 30-week curriculum, HIPPY hosts a monthly group meeting for all the HIPPY families to come and have a good time with friends.
Each month your children will enjoy a themed meeting with story time, songs, crafts and special surprises. If HIPPY sounds like something you and your child would be interested in, call soon, as spaces are limited and it’s almost time to start lesson one. If you want more information please call Kelley Smith at 501-842-1737, or Michelle Barrick at 501-843-5693 or 501-941-9299.
There will be a dance at the Senior Citizen’s Center in Cabot the first Wednesday of each month from 1 to 3 p.m.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
SPORTS >Cabot North controls clock, knocks off South
IN SHORT: North used its traditional running game to defeat its cross-town rivals.
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Cabot Junior High North met Cabot Junior High South Thursday night to open the 2006 season, and christened the new field turf with its first official regular-season game.
It turned into North’s running game against South’s surprising pass threat, and it was the old style that prevailed as North won 20-12.
North’s big fullback Spencer Neumann was too much for South to handle in the first half. He carried the ball sparingly in the second half, but the North defense held strong, giving up a pair of big pass plays, but limited South’s ability to sustain drives.
Neumann carried 11 times for 128 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and finished with 14 carries for 133 yards.
North got the ball first after covering a surprise on-side kick to start the game. The home Panthers drove 31 yards in seven plays to take a 6-0 lead.
South then went on its best drive of the game, but failed to score. The South Panthers went 50 yards in 11 plays, but failed to convert fourth and one at the North 15-yard line.
North then drove 85 yards with some big runs by Neumann and the help of a personal-foul penalty on South for a late hit. Neumann capped the drive with a 20-yard run in which he broke three tackles to cross the goal line.
South started going backwards on its second drive. After starting at the North 40, a run for minus five yards, a holding penalty and a negative 2-yard run left them with third and 27 from the 23. That’s when quarterback Joseph Bryant hit receiver Powell Bryant down the right sideline for a 77-yard scoring strike with 1:43 left in the half.
That score stood until halftime, and North got the ball back to start the third quarter. North started at its own 31, and used 15 plays and nine minutes and 14 seconds before finally scoring with 6:46 left in the game.
Halfback Jared Maxwell completed the drive with a 3-yard plunge to make it 20-6.
South again lost four yards on its opening play of the half from the 39-yard line.
But again, Bryant hit Bryant for 46 yards to set up first down at the North 19.
A 2-yard run and two incomplete passes set up fourth and 8, but Joseph Bryant improvised on another pass play. The quarterback rolled left looking for an open receiver, but found lots of running room. He tucked and ran and made it to the end zone to cut his team’s deficit to 20-12 with 4:37 left.
South covered an on-side kick and took over on North’s 49, but couldn’t convert a first down. A sack by Matt Bayles left North with fourth and 15, and Seth Bloomberg intercepted the fourth-down pass.
North ran five plays to run out the clock and seal the win.
North compiled 264 total yards while South totaled 182.
North’s Michael James was the game’s second-leading rusher. He finished with 14 carries for 71 yards and a touchdown.
Both teams will play Conway next week. North will travel and play Conway White, while South will host Conway Blue.
In other freshmen games, the Jacksonville schools struggled through their first games of the season. North Pulaski lost 35-8 to Lonoke while Jacksonville fell 35-0 to Lake Hamilton.
By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Cabot Junior High North met Cabot Junior High South Thursday night to open the 2006 season, and christened the new field turf with its first official regular-season game.
It turned into North’s running game against South’s surprising pass threat, and it was the old style that prevailed as North won 20-12.
North’s big fullback Spencer Neumann was too much for South to handle in the first half. He carried the ball sparingly in the second half, but the North defense held strong, giving up a pair of big pass plays, but limited South’s ability to sustain drives.
Neumann carried 11 times for 128 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and finished with 14 carries for 133 yards.
North got the ball first after covering a surprise on-side kick to start the game. The home Panthers drove 31 yards in seven plays to take a 6-0 lead.
South then went on its best drive of the game, but failed to score. The South Panthers went 50 yards in 11 plays, but failed to convert fourth and one at the North 15-yard line.
North then drove 85 yards with some big runs by Neumann and the help of a personal-foul penalty on South for a late hit. Neumann capped the drive with a 20-yard run in which he broke three tackles to cross the goal line.
South started going backwards on its second drive. After starting at the North 40, a run for minus five yards, a holding penalty and a negative 2-yard run left them with third and 27 from the 23. That’s when quarterback Joseph Bryant hit receiver Powell Bryant down the right sideline for a 77-yard scoring strike with 1:43 left in the half.
That score stood until halftime, and North got the ball back to start the third quarter. North started at its own 31, and used 15 plays and nine minutes and 14 seconds before finally scoring with 6:46 left in the game.
Halfback Jared Maxwell completed the drive with a 3-yard plunge to make it 20-6.
South again lost four yards on its opening play of the half from the 39-yard line.
But again, Bryant hit Bryant for 46 yards to set up first down at the North 19.
A 2-yard run and two incomplete passes set up fourth and 8, but Joseph Bryant improvised on another pass play. The quarterback rolled left looking for an open receiver, but found lots of running room. He tucked and ran and made it to the end zone to cut his team’s deficit to 20-12 with 4:37 left.
South covered an on-side kick and took over on North’s 49, but couldn’t convert a first down. A sack by Matt Bayles left North with fourth and 15, and Seth Bloomberg intercepted the fourth-down pass.
North ran five plays to run out the clock and seal the win.
North compiled 264 total yards while South totaled 182.
North’s Michael James was the game’s second-leading rusher. He finished with 14 carries for 71 yards and a touchdown.
Both teams will play Conway next week. North will travel and play Conway White, while South will host Conway Blue.
In other freshmen games, the Jacksonville schools struggled through their first games of the season. North Pulaski lost 35-8 to Lonoke while Jacksonville fell 35-0 to Lake Hamilton.
SPORTS >>Momentum killers doom Lions in loss
IN SHORT: Early penalties and a flawless Vilonia offense gave Searcy fits during the Lions’ season opener at Eagle Field in Vilonia Friday night.
By JASON KING
Leader sports writer
Searcy’s defense had no answer for Vilonia’s perfectly executed double wing-T offense. The Eagles ran the tricky set to perfection through the duration of Friday night’s season opener at Eagle Field in Vilonia to take a convincing 33-16 win over the Lions.
Vilonia scored its first touchdown on the opening play of the second quarter, and controlled the game’s tempo from then on, keeping the Lions down by at least two scores for the majority of the contest.
The lead at halftime was 14-0 for the Eagles, who added another score on the opening kickoff to start the second half. Derrick Gwatney took Jason Felton’s kick at the 1-yard line, and broke to the right side from the left hash to take it all the way in for the score.
Gwatney added another touchdown with 1:42 remaining in the third to put the Eagles ahead 27-0.
“We had some momentum there in the first quarter, but the penalties killed us,” Searcy head coach Bart McFarland said. “I guess we got four or five penalties after big plays that really slowed us down, but that’s no excuse.
“We knew they were going to come out in the double wing; we knew they weren’t going to throw the football. We practiced it all week. We couldn’t stop them and we couldn’t run the football effectively. That’s the bottom line, we got beat. But, it’s a long season, we have to keep our heads up, that’s just the first game. We will go back and coach them up, and get ready for the next one.”
Vilonia head coach Jim Stanley was elated by his young team’s dominating performance after the game.
“I was worried,” Stanley said. “We had lots of penalties, we’ll have to work on that. I’m always scared to death the first game on special teams. My philosophy is that the game is won or lost on special teams.
“We were lucky that we scored, because they scored. I’m not happy with that, but I’m just glad we didn’t lose because of special teams. I was a nervous wreck. Now we can study and evaluate some problems we’ve got.”
Searcy’s first spark at all in the game finally arrived with 1:26 left in the third after Gwatney’s run put Vilonia up by 27.
Demarco Brown returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for the first Lions’ score of the game. A pass from quarterback Justin Rowden to Felton converted the two-point attempt to close the gap to 27-8.
Zac Hall put his third touchdown on the board at the 11:16 mark of the fourth quarter. Hall’s 35-yard TD run increased the Eagles’ lead to 33-8.
Hall scored both Vilonia touchdowns in the first half with runs of 5-yards and 4-yards respectively for a two-touchdown halftime advantage.
Searcy’s one complete offensive drive came too little, too late. The Lions got great field position at the hands of two-straight intentional grounding penalties on Eagles QB Kevin Puckett. The ball was moved back further on a delay of game penalty when Vilonia lined up to punt. Kicker James Lloyd lined up at the goal line, and punted to the Vilonia 31-yard line.
The Lions took advantage of the good spot, going the distance on six plays, capped off with a 6-yard toss from Rowden to Jonathan Wyatt on fourth-and-goal. Rowden ran in the two-point attempt under pressure, setting the final margin of 33-16.
The early storyline was penalties for both teams. After the opening Searcy possession halted at its own 43, Vilonia took over and quickly moved into the Lions’ red zone. Three penalties moved the Eagles back into their own territory, forcing a punt.
Searcy’s best looking drive in the opening moments was cancelled out with three straight holding penalties.
In total, Searcy was penalized nine times for 86 yards in the first half, while Vilonia drew six flags for 31 yards. McFarland was not a big proponent of some of his teams’ penalties, including a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after disputing the third Searcy holding call in four plays.
“Whether they happened or not, they called them, and that’s enough for me to say about that,” McFarland said. “We committed them, so it’s no excuse.”
Vilonia finished with 403 yards of total offense. All but 16 of those yards came on the ground. Searcy finished with 145 yards of total offense. Justin Rowden was 11 of 25 for 87 yards passing.
For Vilonia, Zac Hall carried 13 times for 125 yards and three touchdowns. Derrick Gwatney had 17 rushes for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
Searcy will travel to Batesville next week to face the even stronger ground assault of the Pioneers. Vilonia will face Hot Springs Lakeside in Hot Springs.
By JASON KING
Leader sports writer
Searcy’s defense had no answer for Vilonia’s perfectly executed double wing-T offense. The Eagles ran the tricky set to perfection through the duration of Friday night’s season opener at Eagle Field in Vilonia to take a convincing 33-16 win over the Lions.
Vilonia scored its first touchdown on the opening play of the second quarter, and controlled the game’s tempo from then on, keeping the Lions down by at least two scores for the majority of the contest.
The lead at halftime was 14-0 for the Eagles, who added another score on the opening kickoff to start the second half. Derrick Gwatney took Jason Felton’s kick at the 1-yard line, and broke to the right side from the left hash to take it all the way in for the score.
Gwatney added another touchdown with 1:42 remaining in the third to put the Eagles ahead 27-0.
“We had some momentum there in the first quarter, but the penalties killed us,” Searcy head coach Bart McFarland said. “I guess we got four or five penalties after big plays that really slowed us down, but that’s no excuse.
“We knew they were going to come out in the double wing; we knew they weren’t going to throw the football. We practiced it all week. We couldn’t stop them and we couldn’t run the football effectively. That’s the bottom line, we got beat. But, it’s a long season, we have to keep our heads up, that’s just the first game. We will go back and coach them up, and get ready for the next one.”
Vilonia head coach Jim Stanley was elated by his young team’s dominating performance after the game.
“I was worried,” Stanley said. “We had lots of penalties, we’ll have to work on that. I’m always scared to death the first game on special teams. My philosophy is that the game is won or lost on special teams.
“We were lucky that we scored, because they scored. I’m not happy with that, but I’m just glad we didn’t lose because of special teams. I was a nervous wreck. Now we can study and evaluate some problems we’ve got.”
Searcy’s first spark at all in the game finally arrived with 1:26 left in the third after Gwatney’s run put Vilonia up by 27.
Demarco Brown returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards for the first Lions’ score of the game. A pass from quarterback Justin Rowden to Felton converted the two-point attempt to close the gap to 27-8.
Zac Hall put his third touchdown on the board at the 11:16 mark of the fourth quarter. Hall’s 35-yard TD run increased the Eagles’ lead to 33-8.
Hall scored both Vilonia touchdowns in the first half with runs of 5-yards and 4-yards respectively for a two-touchdown halftime advantage.
Searcy’s one complete offensive drive came too little, too late. The Lions got great field position at the hands of two-straight intentional grounding penalties on Eagles QB Kevin Puckett. The ball was moved back further on a delay of game penalty when Vilonia lined up to punt. Kicker James Lloyd lined up at the goal line, and punted to the Vilonia 31-yard line.
The Lions took advantage of the good spot, going the distance on six plays, capped off with a 6-yard toss from Rowden to Jonathan Wyatt on fourth-and-goal. Rowden ran in the two-point attempt under pressure, setting the final margin of 33-16.
The early storyline was penalties for both teams. After the opening Searcy possession halted at its own 43, Vilonia took over and quickly moved into the Lions’ red zone. Three penalties moved the Eagles back into their own territory, forcing a punt.
Searcy’s best looking drive in the opening moments was cancelled out with three straight holding penalties.
In total, Searcy was penalized nine times for 86 yards in the first half, while Vilonia drew six flags for 31 yards. McFarland was not a big proponent of some of his teams’ penalties, including a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after disputing the third Searcy holding call in four plays.
“Whether they happened or not, they called them, and that’s enough for me to say about that,” McFarland said. “We committed them, so it’s no excuse.”
Vilonia finished with 403 yards of total offense. All but 16 of those yards came on the ground. Searcy finished with 145 yards of total offense. Justin Rowden was 11 of 25 for 87 yards passing.
For Vilonia, Zac Hall carried 13 times for 125 yards and three touchdowns. Derrick Gwatney had 17 rushes for 90 yards and two touchdowns.
Searcy will travel to Batesville next week to face the even stronger ground assault of the Pioneers. Vilonia will face Hot Springs Lakeside in Hot Springs.
SPORTS >> North Pulaski turns ball and game over to visiting Dumas
IN SHORT: The Falcons’ hope for a season-opening win at home was dashed by the Bobcats Friday night in Jacksonville.
By JOHNNY RAY LAKE
Special to the Leader
An untimely fumble and a blocked punt, both deep in their own territory, led to two quick scoring strikes as the North Pulaski Falcons fell in their home opener to the Dumas Bobcats, 28-6. In a clash between two teams needing a win to get the season off to a good start, this game was highlighted with turnovers and penalties.
The Falcons started with an impressive 11-play drive that went 48 yards, but came up empty on a missed field goal. Three plays into their first drive, Bobcats quarterback Kendall Council took a keeper 54 yards down the left side, but fumbled at the 1-yard line. Facing 1st and 10 from their own 1, the Falcons got a couple of breaks from the Bobcats as two offside penalties gave the Falcons breathing room on their own 11. But three plays later, a costly fumble by running back Melvin Tenner gave the Bobcats a short field at the Falcons’ 15-yard line. On third and 10, Council made amends for his earlier fumble by scrambling 15 yards down the right side for the score.
On the ensuing drive, facing fourth and 5 from their own 44-yard line, Bracy McCoy blocked a Falcon punt that was recovered by Aaron Holt at the 26-yard line. Once again, with a short field, the Bobcats scored quickly as Jones ran it in from 5 yards out two plays later.
The Falcons then lost their third fumble of the game on the next play from scrimmage, but got it back with an interception at their own 10 yard line.
The Falcons moved the ball down to the Bobcats’ 38, and then tried to get something going by attempting a fake punt on 4th down, but it was unsuccessful. After an off-sides penalty moved the Bobcats back to their own 33 on the next play, Council hit Damian Anderson for a 34-yard pass down to the Falcons’ 33 yard line. On the next play, the Bobcats got down to the 10 yard line thanks to a late hit penalty against the Falcons. On the third play of this drive, Jones scored his second touchdown from 10 yards out.
With under a minute left in the first half, the Falcons showed heart when their defense forced a Bobcat punt and returned it to the Dumas 35. On first down, Brandon Hudson plowed his way 20 yards down to the Bobcat 15. Two plays later, Baker scored with 12 seconds left in the half to make it 21-6.
The third quarter would pick up where the first half left off, as once again both teams exchanged fumbles on the first two drives. Penalties by both teams ended drives going into the fourth quarter, where Dumas put the game away with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Council to Anderson with 3:38 left in the game.
Council finished the game leading all rushers with 102 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown. He also was 11 of 16 for 154 yards passing and a score.
Baker led the Falcons with 69 yards on 13 carries and a score. The Falcons were held to 12 yards passing, and lost four fumbles.
By JOHNNY RAY LAKE
Special to the Leader
An untimely fumble and a blocked punt, both deep in their own territory, led to two quick scoring strikes as the North Pulaski Falcons fell in their home opener to the Dumas Bobcats, 28-6. In a clash between two teams needing a win to get the season off to a good start, this game was highlighted with turnovers and penalties.
The Falcons started with an impressive 11-play drive that went 48 yards, but came up empty on a missed field goal. Three plays into their first drive, Bobcats quarterback Kendall Council took a keeper 54 yards down the left side, but fumbled at the 1-yard line. Facing 1st and 10 from their own 1, the Falcons got a couple of breaks from the Bobcats as two offside penalties gave the Falcons breathing room on their own 11. But three plays later, a costly fumble by running back Melvin Tenner gave the Bobcats a short field at the Falcons’ 15-yard line. On third and 10, Council made amends for his earlier fumble by scrambling 15 yards down the right side for the score.
On the ensuing drive, facing fourth and 5 from their own 44-yard line, Bracy McCoy blocked a Falcon punt that was recovered by Aaron Holt at the 26-yard line. Once again, with a short field, the Bobcats scored quickly as Jones ran it in from 5 yards out two plays later.
The Falcons then lost their third fumble of the game on the next play from scrimmage, but got it back with an interception at their own 10 yard line.
The Falcons moved the ball down to the Bobcats’ 38, and then tried to get something going by attempting a fake punt on 4th down, but it was unsuccessful. After an off-sides penalty moved the Bobcats back to their own 33 on the next play, Council hit Damian Anderson for a 34-yard pass down to the Falcons’ 33 yard line. On the next play, the Bobcats got down to the 10 yard line thanks to a late hit penalty against the Falcons. On the third play of this drive, Jones scored his second touchdown from 10 yards out.
With under a minute left in the first half, the Falcons showed heart when their defense forced a Bobcat punt and returned it to the Dumas 35. On first down, Brandon Hudson plowed his way 20 yards down to the Bobcat 15. Two plays later, Baker scored with 12 seconds left in the half to make it 21-6.
The third quarter would pick up where the first half left off, as once again both teams exchanged fumbles on the first two drives. Penalties by both teams ended drives going into the fourth quarter, where Dumas put the game away with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Council to Anderson with 3:38 left in the game.
Council finished the game leading all rushers with 102 yards on 12 carries and a touchdown. He also was 11 of 16 for 154 yards passing and a score.
Baker led the Falcons with 69 yards on 13 carries and a score. The Falcons were held to 12 yards passing, and lost four fumbles.
SPORTS >>Cabot triumphant over Red Devils
IN SHORT: The Panthers broke a two-game losing streak to rival Jacksonville Friday night at Jan Crow Stadium. The Panthers won the game 35-19 with over 400 yards of offense, including 355 in the first half.
Cabot’s seniors won’t graduate without a win over Jacksonville. They made sure of that Friday night with a 35-19 victory at Jan Crow Stadium that featured some of the best and worst from both teams.
Cabot’s best came on its first and last drives, and several places in between.
The Panthers took the opening kickoff 80 yards in four plays. And get this, they were all passes.
First was three straight passes from senior quarterback Cory Wade to senior halfback Colin Fuller. They went for 8, 14, and 35 yards respectively. The last one was a 23-yard strike to senior halfback Brandon Davis for the score with 10:28 left in the first quarter.
Jacksonville’s worst came on its opening drive. It started with quarterback Daniel Hubbard being sacked by sophomores Blake Carter and Cody Myers. It ended on the next play when Hubbard was picked off by Raul Gault after again being pressured by Cabot’s defense.
Cabot went 35 yards in five plays, but only one pass for the score to take a 14-0 lead with 7:37 left in the fist period of play.
“We wanted to jump out on them and get them down so I thought I’d try something different,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said of the uncharacteristic passing on the first drive. “I thought it’d give us a lift and put some pressure on them, and it seemed to work for us.”
Jacksonville was much better on its second drive. Starting at their own 23-yard line, the Red Devils completed three passes for 27 yards, Akins carried once for five and Cabot was called off sides once to put the ball on the Panther 39.
After an illegal procedure penalty, Jacksonville hit a big play, and ran into some luck.
Hubbard hit Marcus King along the left sideline; he got to the 3-yard line before fumbling. The ball rolled into the end zone, but a heads-up play by a hustling Blake Mattison, who chased the play down the field and covered the ball in the end zone, gave the Red Devils a touchdown with 5:19 on the clock.
The next several drives were a series of turnovers and stalls. Cabot fumbled on the Jacksonville 30, and Jacksonville punted on fourth and 25 after picking up one first down. Cabot went 32 yards in three plays, but fumbled again to give Jacksonville the ball on its own 37.
Jacksonville gave it back when Cabot’s Josh Clem intercepted a pass that was tipped up into the air by junior Red Devil Tirrell L’Hrisse.
That gave Cabot the ball at its own 35 with 10:53 left in the half. The Panthers went 34 yards in 11 plays, and stalled when they failed to convert on fourth and three.
Jacksonville then drove to the Cabot 7-yard line where it faced fourth and two. A quarterback sneak yielded only one yard and Cabot took possession at its 6-yard line.
Cabot turned around and drove 88 yards to the Jacks-onville 4, but also failed to convert fourth down. Jacksonville started at the 4, and lost one yard on each of its three plays before punting out of the end zone.
Hubbard’s punt from the back of the end zone was fielded by Fuller at the 35 and Fuller returned it 27 yards to the Jacksonville 8. Sophomore fullback Vince Aguilar did the rest on the next snap, rumbling up the gut for the score with 17 seconds remaining in the half.
Jacksonville got a lift to open the second half. Senior Justin Akins took the kickoff 89 yards before stepping on the out-of-bounds line at the Cabot 3. The play didn’t stand though. Jacksonville was called for a personal foul, which pulled the ball out to the Cabot 45. It didn’t matter much. Hubbard hit L’Hrisse for 11 yards, then found King again for the final 34 and the score. King made a tremendous catch. Hubbard scrambled left and threw into traffic and right to a Cabot defender. King came back for the ball, leaped, caught the ball over the Panther defender’s shoulder, and lifted it up over his head before turning upfield for the last 20 yards of the play. The two-point conversion failed and Cabot led 21-12 with 11:25 left in the third.
Cabot wasted no time answering. Gault took the ensuing kickoff at the 15, and ran it back 65 yards to the Jacksonville 20.
The Panthers needed just four plays to score again, a 5-yard run by Fuller, to take a 28-12 lead less than two minutes after Jacks-onville’s score.
The rest of the half was one missed opportunity after another for Jacksonville.
The Red Devils got inside Cabot’s 5-yard line on each of their next two drives, and came away empty both times.
On second and goal from the 4, Mattison caught a 2-yard pass, but was called for offensive pass interference, which moved the ball back to the 19 and cost a down.
Cabot’s Brian Frey then tipped the third-down pass, and Jacksonville’s Lee Robinson picked up four yards on a reception on fourth and 19 after Hubbard was again flushed and forced to scramble.
Cabot gave it right back. Aguilar carried once for 10 yards to move the ball to the 25. Jacksonville’s Norvel Gabriel then broke up a pitch-out, and junior Cameron Hood covered the loose ball on the Cabot 12.
Again, Jacksonville failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Two plays picked up eight yards, but a bad snap that rolled out from under center was covered by Hubbard for a 4-yard loss. The fourth-down pass was incomplete and Cabot took possession at its own 8.
The Panthers got it out of the shadow of their end zone, but punted from the 22.
Jacksonville got one first down, but gave it back at the Cabot 30. Cabot got to midfield and tried a fake punt, but Aguilar mishandled the short snap.
The Red Devils took over at the Cabot 42, but their hopes were dashed when Frey intercepted a Hubbard pass and returned it 30 yards to set up Cabot’s final scoring drive.
The Panthers, back to their old form, went 45 yards in nine plays, taking 5:17 off the clock by feeding the ball to the fullback over and over.
Aguilar capped the drive by rumbling four yards with 2:17 remaining in the game.
While the Panthers’ opening drive was impressive, the final drive was what Cabot football is all about.
“There’s nothing like what we did on that last drive,” Malham said.
Jacksonville scored with 39 seconds remaining when Hubb-ard hit Mattison cutting across the middle. Mattison caught the ball about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage, and ran it for the remainder of the 46-yard play.
Cabot finished with 461 total yards while Jacksonville piled up 372. Aguilar carried 23 times for 123 yards and three touchdowns. Fuller carried 10 times for 82 yards and a score, and had five receptions for 66 yards.
Brandon Davis also had over 100 total yards.
He carried six times for 69 yards, and caught two passes for 36 yards and a touchdown. All of Davis’ stats came in the first half.
Hubbard completed 26 of 46 pass attempts for 344 yards. He had two receivers over the 100-yard mark. Marcus King led the way with eight catches for 158 yards and one score. Blake Mattison caught seven passes for 109 yards and scored twice.
The Panthers will be at home next week hosting Sylvan Hills, while Jacksonville travels to Lake Hamilton.
Cabot’s seniors won’t graduate without a win over Jacksonville. They made sure of that Friday night with a 35-19 victory at Jan Crow Stadium that featured some of the best and worst from both teams.
Cabot’s best came on its first and last drives, and several places in between.
The Panthers took the opening kickoff 80 yards in four plays. And get this, they were all passes.
First was three straight passes from senior quarterback Cory Wade to senior halfback Colin Fuller. They went for 8, 14, and 35 yards respectively. The last one was a 23-yard strike to senior halfback Brandon Davis for the score with 10:28 left in the first quarter.
Jacksonville’s worst came on its opening drive. It started with quarterback Daniel Hubbard being sacked by sophomores Blake Carter and Cody Myers. It ended on the next play when Hubbard was picked off by Raul Gault after again being pressured by Cabot’s defense.
Cabot went 35 yards in five plays, but only one pass for the score to take a 14-0 lead with 7:37 left in the fist period of play.
“We wanted to jump out on them and get them down so I thought I’d try something different,” Cabot coach Mike Malham said of the uncharacteristic passing on the first drive. “I thought it’d give us a lift and put some pressure on them, and it seemed to work for us.”
Jacksonville was much better on its second drive. Starting at their own 23-yard line, the Red Devils completed three passes for 27 yards, Akins carried once for five and Cabot was called off sides once to put the ball on the Panther 39.
After an illegal procedure penalty, Jacksonville hit a big play, and ran into some luck.
Hubbard hit Marcus King along the left sideline; he got to the 3-yard line before fumbling. The ball rolled into the end zone, but a heads-up play by a hustling Blake Mattison, who chased the play down the field and covered the ball in the end zone, gave the Red Devils a touchdown with 5:19 on the clock.
The next several drives were a series of turnovers and stalls. Cabot fumbled on the Jacksonville 30, and Jacksonville punted on fourth and 25 after picking up one first down. Cabot went 32 yards in three plays, but fumbled again to give Jacksonville the ball on its own 37.
Jacksonville gave it back when Cabot’s Josh Clem intercepted a pass that was tipped up into the air by junior Red Devil Tirrell L’Hrisse.
That gave Cabot the ball at its own 35 with 10:53 left in the half. The Panthers went 34 yards in 11 plays, and stalled when they failed to convert on fourth and three.
Jacksonville then drove to the Cabot 7-yard line where it faced fourth and two. A quarterback sneak yielded only one yard and Cabot took possession at its 6-yard line.
Cabot turned around and drove 88 yards to the Jacks-onville 4, but also failed to convert fourth down. Jacksonville started at the 4, and lost one yard on each of its three plays before punting out of the end zone.
Hubbard’s punt from the back of the end zone was fielded by Fuller at the 35 and Fuller returned it 27 yards to the Jacksonville 8. Sophomore fullback Vince Aguilar did the rest on the next snap, rumbling up the gut for the score with 17 seconds remaining in the half.
Jacksonville got a lift to open the second half. Senior Justin Akins took the kickoff 89 yards before stepping on the out-of-bounds line at the Cabot 3. The play didn’t stand though. Jacksonville was called for a personal foul, which pulled the ball out to the Cabot 45. It didn’t matter much. Hubbard hit L’Hrisse for 11 yards, then found King again for the final 34 and the score. King made a tremendous catch. Hubbard scrambled left and threw into traffic and right to a Cabot defender. King came back for the ball, leaped, caught the ball over the Panther defender’s shoulder, and lifted it up over his head before turning upfield for the last 20 yards of the play. The two-point conversion failed and Cabot led 21-12 with 11:25 left in the third.
Cabot wasted no time answering. Gault took the ensuing kickoff at the 15, and ran it back 65 yards to the Jacksonville 20.
The Panthers needed just four plays to score again, a 5-yard run by Fuller, to take a 28-12 lead less than two minutes after Jacks-onville’s score.
The rest of the half was one missed opportunity after another for Jacksonville.
The Red Devils got inside Cabot’s 5-yard line on each of their next two drives, and came away empty both times.
On second and goal from the 4, Mattison caught a 2-yard pass, but was called for offensive pass interference, which moved the ball back to the 19 and cost a down.
Cabot’s Brian Frey then tipped the third-down pass, and Jacksonville’s Lee Robinson picked up four yards on a reception on fourth and 19 after Hubbard was again flushed and forced to scramble.
Cabot gave it right back. Aguilar carried once for 10 yards to move the ball to the 25. Jacksonville’s Norvel Gabriel then broke up a pitch-out, and junior Cameron Hood covered the loose ball on the Cabot 12.
Again, Jacksonville failed to take advantage of the opportunity. Two plays picked up eight yards, but a bad snap that rolled out from under center was covered by Hubbard for a 4-yard loss. The fourth-down pass was incomplete and Cabot took possession at its own 8.
The Panthers got it out of the shadow of their end zone, but punted from the 22.
Jacksonville got one first down, but gave it back at the Cabot 30. Cabot got to midfield and tried a fake punt, but Aguilar mishandled the short snap.
The Red Devils took over at the Cabot 42, but their hopes were dashed when Frey intercepted a Hubbard pass and returned it 30 yards to set up Cabot’s final scoring drive.
The Panthers, back to their old form, went 45 yards in nine plays, taking 5:17 off the clock by feeding the ball to the fullback over and over.
Aguilar capped the drive by rumbling four yards with 2:17 remaining in the game.
While the Panthers’ opening drive was impressive, the final drive was what Cabot football is all about.
“There’s nothing like what we did on that last drive,” Malham said.
Jacksonville scored with 39 seconds remaining when Hubb-ard hit Mattison cutting across the middle. Mattison caught the ball about 15 yards from the line of scrimmage, and ran it for the remainder of the 46-yard play.
Cabot finished with 461 total yards while Jacksonville piled up 372. Aguilar carried 23 times for 123 yards and three touchdowns. Fuller carried 10 times for 82 yards and a score, and had five receptions for 66 yards.
Brandon Davis also had over 100 total yards.
He carried six times for 69 yards, and caught two passes for 36 yards and a touchdown. All of Davis’ stats came in the first half.
Hubbard completed 26 of 46 pass attempts for 344 yards. He had two receivers over the 100-yard mark. Marcus King led the way with eight catches for 158 yards and one score. Blake Mattison caught seven passes for 109 yards and scored twice.
The Panthers will be at home next week hosting Sylvan Hills, while Jacksonville travels to Lake Hamilton.
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