Uphill climb for road plan
The state Highway and Transportation Department picked a fine time to get into a financial bind, in the dismal train of the worst economic decline in 70 years, but then hasn’t it nearly always been in a financial bind? [FULL TEXT]

Earmarks help development
Was that a lot of good news for central Arkansas yesterday? The Little Rock National Airport broke ground for a $50 million expansion and modernization, which Governor Beebe called a shot in the arm for economic development. [FULL TEXT]

Airport needs new manager
Without taking time to pray about it, does this sound a little improper to you, or not? A small private academy with big-time athletic ambitions wants to put an artificial turf in its stadium in the western reaches of Little Rock near Chenal Valley and asks you for a big pledge to get it installed. Your son goes there.  [FULL TEXT]

Keep eyes on lottery
Who Would Ever Have Believed It? Department: The first audit of the Arkansas Lottery Commission reveals that the agency ignores state financial rules, feathers the nests of top lottery officials and fattens the pocketbooks of the big gambling contractors. [FULL TEXT]

Mark Darr's bad big idea
An endorsement by the voters, no matter how thin the margin, can do wonders for the ego. Mark Darr, the Springdale pizza-parlor owner, was elected lieutenant governor by the margin of 51-49, but Darr took it as a mandate to take charge. [FULL TEXT]

Panama president
ex-UofA roommate
John Mason, a Jacksonville real estate broker, was in Fayetteville with his wife Ien for homecoming weekend on Oct. 30, when the Razorbacks played Vanderbilt. [FULL TEXT]

Our error given wide circulation
We’ve received lots of calls, comments and complaints over an error in Wednesday’s paper about a Christmas program in Cabot. [FULL TEXT]

Comparing pardons
by governor
Did you see Gov. Beebe’s latest list of pardons? Last week, he announced his intent to pardon a handful of small-time criminals, emphasis on small-time. [FULL TEXT]

POWs recall their
World War ordeal
The former POWs who were shot down over Romania during the Second World War arrived at the Jacksonville Museum of Military History in their tour bus a little after 11 a.m. Thursday. [FULL TEXT]

Annexation plan: Many in area say they're against it
People who live north of Jacksonville near Hwy. 67/167 met at a church Monday evening to fight the city’s plan to annex the area.[FULL TEXT]

Lighthouse plans to build middle and high schools
The headline in Saturday’s Leader: “Cabot schools about to hit 10,000.”[FULL TEXT]

J’Accuse: Smearing
of general
Air Force Gen. John D. Lavelle, who died more than 30 years ago, after he was falsely accused of insubordination, is a four-star general again. [FULL TEXT]

Petraeus salutes
camp liberators
It was 65 years ago Monday that Beryl Wolfson helped liberate the Dachau concentration camp in southeastern Germany.
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Marker recalls fire at Twist
There's finally a marker honoring B.B. King in Twist in Cross County, where the great blues singer escaped from a fire at nightclub with his guitar and named it Lucille.
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Justice Jim fought tough final battle
Arkansas bloggers were the first with the news of Justice Jim Johnson’s suicide over the weekend. The local TV news on Sunday ignored his passing, probably because no one in the newsroom knew who he was. [FULL TEXT]

Cabot man in raid
on POW camp in 1970
Mst. Sgt. Paul Poole, who helped to liberate Americans from a Vietnamese prison camp, died last week. [FULL TEXT]

Trial could get Muhammad
his death wish
Last June, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad killed a soldier from Conway and injured another soldier from Jacksonville in front of a recruiting station in Little Rock.
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What a little girl asked
from Santa
When my friend Jack Sallee was with the Jaycees in Fayetteville, they'd put an ad in the paper at Christmastime, saying that for $2 you could have Santa come to your place.
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Tuskegee legend
at holiday reception
A tall elderly man stood in a far corner in a large banquet room at Little Rock Air Force Base on Sunday afternoon during the holiday reception hosted by the wing commanders.
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Gas shut off
as hospital bills pile up
A couple in Beebe have been without heat for several months after the natural-gas company took out their meter because they were not paying their bills.
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Huckabee our worst governor?
Who is Arkansas’ worst governor? Is it Orval Faubus, who defied federal authorities i in 1957, when he wouldn’t allow nine black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock? He brought shame and ridicule on the whole state, but at least no one was killed. Or is Mike Huckabee our worst governor ever?
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