The Leader

Pizza shop forced out for on-ramp
Virgil and Leigh Wilson have spent more than a decade building their pizza business on T.P. White Drive in Jacksonville, but the state Highway Department has told them they must vacate the premises and start all over again someplace else.[FULL TEXT]

Huckabee just as bad as mayor
How come Lonoke Mayor Thomas Privett faces charges of using inmate labor to put up Christmas lights at his home and at a friend's house, but Gov. Huckabee can use murderers to do chores around the Governor's Mansion.[FULL TEXT]

No wonder Lonoke jail so popular
No wonder the Lonoke jail is always overcrowded. There's a party atmosphere over there, according to Prosecuting Attorney Lona McCastlain, who accuses the police chief and his wife of serving up more than just baked beans and day-old bread for the prisoners.[FULL TEXT]

Staffers see too many relatives die
Several Leader staffers lost their relatives during the holidays, two of them killed in car wrecks, while another relative died suddenly from a heart attack. As we were talking about the unusually high number of sudden deaths in The Leader family, word came that the 93-year-old mother of bluesman Charlie Musselwhite was strangled in Memphis during a home break-in. Musselwhite's father died a few days later in a nursing home.[FULL TEXT]

Big Jack Johnson: Great Bluesman
Big Jack Johnson has been playing at Red's Lounge in Clarksdale, Miss., for the last couple of weekends, and if you hurry down there, you might still catch the great bluesman tonight as he rocks the juke joint down with his powerful guitar playing and soulful singing that's as deep and satisfying as anything you'll hear today anywhere in the Delta.[FULL TEXT]

How bodies come home from Iraq
(Relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq are often surprised to find out that their loved ones are returned home on commercial airplanes. This column first appeared here on May 26, 2004). A couple of weeks ago, passengers on an airplane flying into Little Rock heard a pilot telling them that an officer was escorting home a soldier returning from Iraq. [FULL TEXT]

Eyewitness to attack on Pearl Harbor
(This column about the late McLyle Zumwalt first appeared here on Dec. 9, 1989 and is reprinted to mark the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.) Most people think of retired Col. McLyle Zumwalt as one of the organizers of Pathfinders, which trains the developmentally and physically disabled in Jacksonville. [FULL TEXT]

MARCH 01, 2006

Wanda Amaya and Jesse Morrison, friends of Jerry Justice, who was killed in a wreck, search for his personal belongings while workers Tommy Pearson, Dion Pickens and Dennis Stinson repair the Main Street bridge in Jacksonville.

Unsafe at any speed?
IN SHORT: Truck driver in fatal crash is identified Donald Watkins, 35, of Bald Knob has been identified as the driver of the loaded gravel truck that apparently started the six-vehicle, chain-reaction accident that resulted in the death of Jerry S. Justice, Jr., of Ward, and the hospitalization of four other people Thursday, according to State Police reports. [FULL TEXT]

Cabot council is close to deal
IN SHORT: The transfer of authority over Cabot’s water and sewer systems from the mayor and council to a new commission approved by voters more than a year ago is one major step closer to completion. [FULL TEXT]

Tax base small for separate districts
IN SHORT: There may not be sufficient tax revenue north of the Arkansas River to support separate school districts for both Jacksonville and North Little Rock, a consultant hired to sort out Pulaski County’s public school mess told a meeting of county mayors and the county judge Tuesday. [FULL TEXT]

Annexation would add on to Cabot
IN SHORT: The Cabot School District is working with residents in the area of Campground and Stagecoach roads to have the area annexed into the city limits in order for sewer lines to be extended to the proposed site of a new $6 million elementary school. Cabot will not extend sewer services beyond the city limits. [FULL TEXT]

Sherwood mayor will retire
IN SHORT: “This is my last state of the city address,” Sherwood Mayor Bill Harmon, 80, announced Monday night at the conclusion of the address brimming with good news about the town’s finances and growth. [FULL TEXT]

Newspaper starts its 20th year
IN SHORT: The Leader begins 20 years of publication and invites readers to take advantage of an anniversary special. [FULL TEXT]

Knight’s celebrates 35 years
IN SHORT: A long time ago, Warren and Sandra Knight had a dream of owning their own business. In 1971, they bought a store in Cabot, which was a sleepy little town, and renamed their business Knight’s Dollar Saver at 302 E. Main at the corner of Grant. [FULL TEXT]

Cabot's Kim Sitzmann leads a fast break, while teammate Lauren Daniels trails during the Lady Panthers' 62-57 win over Conway on Tuesday.

Cabot survives early scare
IN SHORT: The Cabot Lady Panthers fought off a strong fourth-quarter attack Tuesday night to defeat Conway 62-57 in the opening game of the class AAAAA state tournament at UALR’s Stephens Center. [FULL TEXT]

HA ladies knock off Carlisle in title game
IN SHORT: The Harding Academy Lady Wildcats won the AA Region 6 tournament with an upset over the Carlisle Lady Bison 37-31 in Augusta on Saturday. After losing twice to the Lady Bison during the conference regular season, the Lady Wildcats used a match-up zone to contain Carlisle in the defensive struggle. [FULL TEXT]

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Previous Issues

Would UAE let us run their ports?
President Bush picked a fine time to worry about ethnic profiling: when the safety of the nation’s ports is in peril. The man who has inflamed Arab passions against the West more than anyone since Pope Urban II and Peter the Hermit organized the First Crusade is terribly afraid that not allowing the sheik of Dubai to run major U.S. ports will cause Muslims to distrust us and not want to do business with American corporations. Bush’s trade representative is trying to negotiate a trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates, which is keenly wanted by major businesses. [FULL TEXT]

‘Not just NO, but HELL NO’
When you first heard that the U.S. has hired a company owned by the United Arab Emirates to help run some of our nation’s ports, a couple of thoughts probably crossed your mind: Why can’t a superpower watch its own ports without foreign help, and where is the United Arab Emirates located, anyway? [FULL TEXT]

Oklahoma vs. Arkansas
Arkansas lost another battle in the great border war with Oklahoma over chicken litter this week when the U. S. Supreme Court refused to settle the dispute itself. But let us be more precise. Poultry companies and Attorney General Mike Beebe lost the battle. Arkansas could even be a winner. [FULL TEXT]

Rewriting History
Eager to establish his credentials as a tax-cutter and economic wizard, Asa Hutchinson got a little crossways with history last week. Hutchinson, the expectant Republican nominee for governor, told the North Little Rock Rotary Club that he arrived in Congress in January 1997 just in time to help the Republicans repair the federal fiscal system, turn the nation away from bloated budget deficits and head it toward balanced budgets and surpluses. [FULL TEXT]

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