This is a no-brainer. Lonoke County desperately needs a new jail, and county residents have an opportunity to pay for it quickly and almost painlessly.
The quorum court has placed a 12-month penny sales tax on the Tuesday primary ballot to pay for construction of a new, 140-bed jail. That’s nearly twice the capacity of the current jail, which is dank, disintegrating, inefficient and overcrowded. It’s dangerous not only for the inmates—many of whom have not yet been convicted—but also for the jailers. Doors don’t open from a central control panel. The area is hard to monitor. There is no sally port to load prisoners safely in and out of the jail, and the plumbing and electrical systems are a patchwork of potential problems.
There’s always room to keep accused rapists and murderers in jail, but sometimes there’s no room at the inn for accused and convicted burglars and drug dealers.
County Judge Charlie Troutman and quorum courts dating back to the new millennium have searched for ways to expand and update the existing jail or build a new one. They’ve convened meetings on top of meetings, visited jails in other counties, looked a modular construction, worked with architects and wrestled with funding—to no avail so far.
Now the county has a plan for a new jail that should be big enough for the next 20 years, and could even generate income from other counties and agencies needing any leftover bed space.
The Lonoke County Republican Party, which hasn’t endorsed a tax increase since the beginning of recorded time, voted almost unanimously to support this temporary tax.
The tax is estimated to raise the $5.5 million that the new jail is expected to cost. Skilled and unskilled state Correction Department inmates are expected to do the actual construction under supervision of a paid construction manager.
Over one year that the tax would be collected, it would cost residents of the county, including those in the cities, an estimated $65 for households earning up to $12,500 and an estimated $286 for a family earning $94,000 a year, according to the Public Policy Center of the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture.
No one disputes the need for a modern jail that’s safer and bigger than the current one. The only question is how to raise the money, and right now, the penny sales tax is the only option.
Vote yes Tuesday—or sooner—for the dedicated penny sales tax for jail construction.
As long as it is tempered by wisdom and compassion, there is nothing quite like experience when you are looking for a judge.
That is the first consideration when you evaluate the contestants for a judge on a trial bench like the Pulaski Circuit Court.
That is where our judgment finally rested when we examined the candidates for two circuit judgeships who will be on the ballot at the party primaries next Tuesday. (Judges must now run non-partisan races, and the same candidates will appear on the ballot at Republican and Democratic precincts.)
Our recommendation is Judge Mary Ann McGowan for the Ninth Division and Cathi Compton for the Eleventh Division, although there are other excellent candidates.
Judge McGowan has been the Ninth Division judge for 18 years, which for the past dozen years has been an experimental drug court while also handling the usual run of trial cases. Her conduct of the court formed the template for drug-court programs across the state.
A good word for this judge is tough. We remember last year when the Arkansas Supreme Court was willing to let Pulaski County officials slide by without releasing the computer email records of the crook who was running the county’s finances. No, Judge McGowan said, taxpayers are entitled to know about them. The justices then backtracked and affirmed her and we learned the full extent of the shenanigans in the county comptroller’s office.
McGowan has been known to be abrupt with attorneys who she thinks come to court unprepared and short with bureaucrats who haven’t done their work on mental-health cases. Now she is opposed by a young lawyer, Cecily Patterson Skarda, who experienced unpleasantness as an advocate in Judge McGowan’s court. She says judicial canons require Judge McGowan to be considerate of lawyers in the courtroom and that the judge sometimes is not. In time, Skarda might make a good judge, too, but we would rather not take a chance or wait upon her seasoning.
The race for Division 11 is harder. None of the three candidates — Cathi Compton, Jewel “Cricket” Harper and Melinda Gilbert — is a sitting judge but all are experienced trial lawyers and have the requisite interest in children. The court deals almost exclusively with juvenile cases.
You can take your choice and not go wrong but we lean to Compton because she has an edge in years and breadth of her experience. She chaired the first Arkansas Public Defender Commission.
So we recommend Judge Mary Ann McGowan for Ninth Division judge and Cathi Compton for Eleventh Division judge.
Two Republicans are squaring off in the May 20 primary for the open House of Representatives District 43 seat. The primary winner will face Democrat Jim Nickels in November.
Tom Raley and Steven Meckfessel, both Sherwood residents, want a shot at the position and both for different reasons.
Raley wants to be a part of the state legislature because of his involvement in the state foster care program. Raley and his wife have fostered dozens of children and have adopted four of them. “ I’d like to see the state become more proactive than reactive after abuse has occurred,” Raley said.
He also believes the program can operate better and at a lower cost.
Meckfessel confesses that he’s just got tired of being overtaxed, and decided the best way to alleviated the problem was from inside the system.
“I talked to friends and family and decided it was time to put my money where my mouth is,” he said.
Meckfessel wants to see the state income tax lowered. “I don’t have an exact amount in mind, but with the state surplus we have I know we have the ability to cut the tax,” he explained.
Raley, a senior manager for Leisure Arts, has 17 years of management experience and has been responsible for multi-million budgets and inventories. “I’m use to being held accountable,” he said.
Raley would also like to enhance the DWI penalties and work to make Arkansas more business friendly. If elected, he’d also like to see more done for spouses and families of fallen law enforcement officers and increase student scholarships for the underprivileged.
Meckfessel has spent the last 18 years self-employed.
For 17 of those years, he was in the dry cleaning industry and owned up to 21 locations.
“But I sold out about a year ago and now work as an independent builder,” he explained. Meckfessel is currently building duplexes in Jacksonville.
Meckfessel admits he doesn’t have the answers to the state’s problems, but “I do have common sense.” “With my 18 years of business experience I know there are places the state can cut spending and areas it can improve its productivity,” he said.
Raley has been married for 16 years and has lived in Sherwood for the past seven or eight years.
Meckfessel has been married for 13 years, has a 5-year-old son and has lived in Sherwood for the past 10 years. J eff Wood, who has been term limited and is deployed to Iraq, currently occupies the District 43 seat.
With a stroke of her pen on Tuesday, Pulaski Tech student Kendra Bean, 19, of Little Rock became the symbolic 77,468th signature needed to qualify Lieut. Gov. Bill Halter’s scholarship lottery for the November ballot.
The deadline for filing signatures is July 7, and Halter’s group, Hope for Arkansas, expects to continue gathering signatures until a total of 100,000 have been collected.
Proceeds from the lottery would go toward college scholarships, although lottery operators will collect a hefty fee for their services.
“I am honored to put pen to paper and to offer my name as the symbolic signature needed to qualify this much needed scholarship lottery for the November ballot,” remarked Bean.
“I am thankful that I am able to obtain an Arkansas college education and I am pleased to support this scholarship lottery because I believe it will open new doors of opportunity for more Arkansans to receive a higher education.”
“We are one step closer to providing hundreds of millions of dollars in new college scholarships and one step closer to helping more Arkansans realize a better future with more opportunities,” said Halter.
“For too long, Arkansans have been driving across state lines to subsidize the education of other states’ students by playing their lottery. Now, Arkansans will have the chance to have their own scholarship lottery to help our own people.”
“Higher education has never been more important or more expensive,” said Halter. “Arkansas deserves to have its own scholarship lottery to help more Arkansans reach for better opportunities.”
Halter brought his lottery campaign last week to the Cabot Kiwanis Club, and highlighted Arkansas’ rank on the nationwide poverty scale. He says a lottery is the only way to improve educational opportunities.
“Arkansas has a very significant problem,” Halter said before Kiwanis Club members, noting the state is 49th in per capita income, inspiring the phrase “Thank God for Mississippi.”
“There’s nothing in the water, nothing in the genetic makeup of Arkansans that says we have to be 49th,” he said. “Look at what other states have done,” Halter said. “If it works, copy it.”
Halter thinks financing college for Arkansans who are “hard-pressed” to afford an education will send more qualified, well-trained employees into the workforce, increasing income.
The Jacksonville Planning Commis-sion said no to the birth of a church Monday night and welcomed Chick-fil-A to the community, provided the company build another 100 feet of sidewalk on property they are using, but doesn’t belong to them.
Carwin and Carolyn Baker came to the commission Monday night requesting a conditional-use permit to operate a church out of their home at 403 Boston St. The Bakers told the commissioners that they had been worshipping with a small group of neighborhood residents and working with area children.
“They need alternatives to all the violence,” Carolyn Baker said, “and we’ve been teaching them cooking and gardening.”
The Bakers said at the most, 20 people may show up to worship, and that most walk to their home, and that they were looking for a more permanent location for their Solid Rock Ministries.
City codes allow for churches to be built in residential areas, but don’t specifically address a church growing out of a home.
Commissioner Bart Gray Jr. voiced concerns about a large gathering in a facility not conducive to that size crowd.
Commissioner Charles Evans also worried about parking and noise.
Aldermen Bill Howard, also a commission member, told the commission that the fire marshal had researched the situation and said it was illegal, based on fire codes, to operate a church in a home.
With that in mind, Howard suggested that the commission deny the Bakers’ request to operate a church in their home.
But before the commission took the vote which would have denied the church, Gray suggested that the Bakers withdraw the request and look for a more appropriate place.
“Would we have known about this if they weren’t here tonight?” Gray asked City Planner Chip McCulley. “No, they came to us because they wanted to make sure they were following city codes. We’ve had no complaints at all—and probably would not have even known about the church if they didn’t come in,” he said.
“And our code enforcement officers, do they work on Sundays?” Gray asked. “No, they do not,” McCulley said, but he added that since the city now knows about the church, it can’t really ignore it.
A number of the commissioners applauded the Bakers for their effort and endeavor.
“If you think about it, most churches probably started in homes,” commissioner Chad Young said. But the city codes were clear, and the Bakers withdrew their request.
If the city caught them in violation of city code, they would be warned, but if the commission had voted no and the Bakers continue to meet with their congregation, they would face fines.
The commission also approved the final plat and site plan for a proposed Chick-fil-A restaurant. The company is buying the land occupied by the abandoned TCBY restaurant in the old Wal-Mart shopping Center on North First Street.
The TCBY building will be torn down and Chick-fil-A will build a 3,921-square-foot restaurant, complete with landscaping, new curb gutters and a sidewalk that basically goes nowhere, but is required by ordinance.
“A sidewalk going nowhere isn’t any good,” Gray said.
The commission asked the restaurant company to extend the sidewalk another 100 feet along the street edge of a section of the shopping center parking lot that is being called a protective area.
It is a section that the restaurant is planning to use for overflow parking and will be landscaping it, but is not buying it.
Restaurant officials said they would comply with the request.
The only other item on the commission’s agenda, the final plat for the Meadows Subdivision near Homer Adkins Pre-K Center, was pulled from the agenda before the meeting.
Elections for judgeships are theoretically non-partisan, but the race for Division One Lonoke County circuit judge pits the former head of the Lonoke County Republican Party against a woman who ran twice for county prosecutor as a Democrat. A spokesman for the Lonoke County Republican Committee said that group has endorsed deputy Lonoke Prosecutor Chuck Graham.
Barbara Elmore, 54, was appointed judge in Lonoke’s new Third Division by Gov. Mike Beebe, beginning her appointment in July 2007. Before that, Elmore had been the Lonoke District Court judge since 2005 and before that a lawyer in private practice.
“Being a judge is my calling,” says Elmore. “I enjoy helping people.”
Toward that end, her degree is in sociology. “I became an attorney to help others. As a judge I enjoy hearing the attorneys be the voices of the client, giving them the opportunity to show the client’s side in a courtroom.” Then she applies the procedural laws and rules, she said.
“I started out working at Remington Arms out of high school,” she said. “I was a factory worker. Then I did secretarial and payroll work.”
She has volunteered at Open Arms Shelter, and at her church she is on the Family Life Committee and teaches junior high Sunday school and also vacation Bible school.
She said she’s always been service-oriented. After she married Danny Elmore, she went to UALR, where she got her degree and later a law degree.
“I went to work with Larry Cook in the Lonoke County prosecutor’s office until January 1999.” She lost two close races to Prosecutor Lona McCastlain, and then went to work in private practice.
“I’ve done property law, divorces, class-action cases, contract law—about any kind of case that could come before the court, I’ve either practiced it or been the judge,” she said.
Elmore says she’s always been trying to help the youth in whatever form or fashion she can be of service. “I’ve been attorney ad litem for children taken out of the home for neglect or abuse,” she said. “I went to law school so I could help children.”
She said the county needs more room in the jail. “I see the need as a judge.”
She said she hears child-support cases, and when delinquent spouses are let out of jail to make room for violent criminals, they think they don’t have to pay. “There has to be some teeth in the law,” she said.
Graham, 51, has worked in the prosecutor’s office for the past six years. “I handle the drug cases. That’s the area I specialize in now,” he said.
Before that, he was in private practice in Cabot and was a public defender in Little Rock. Originally from Kentucky, Graham retired from the Air Force.
He said he’s been everything in the courtroom over the past 30 years except a defendant and a judge.
He’s worked as a military cop, a bailiff, he’s testified, worked as a special agent, represented some defendants and prosecuted others.
He said it would be a conflict of interest to be involved as a judge in any case he’s been involved with as a prosecutor.
Graham says he doesn’t have a natural bias. “I can sit and listen to both lawyers, witnesses and make appropriate rulings,” he explained.
He said he thought anyone who had dealt with him over the years would say he was fair and had treated everyone respectfully.
TOP STORY > >Election may settle GOP split among JPs
By JOHN HOFHEIMER Leader senior writer
Four of six Republican seats on the Lonoke County Quorum Court are up for grabs in the Republican primary as the various factions of the party grapple for position on the court.
Nominally, the Republicans had held a 7-6 advantage over the Democrats after the 2006 election, but when Republican Casey Van Buskirk moved away, Gov. Beebe on Tuesday appointed fellow Democrat Harry Crum to finish out her term.
The conservatives drafted an opponent to challenge Republican Larry Odom, who has been on the court for 18 years, saying privately that he breaks ranks with them too often when it comes time to vote.
JP DISTRICT 2
Jannette Minton, 59, is running for a third term on the court against Larry Ridgeway, 58, from whom she wrested the seat in 2004 and turned back a challenge from him in 2006.
“He’s a Republican this time,” said Minton, the wife of Randy Minton, who is running against Davy Carter for the Republican nomination for the House seat currently held by Rep. Susan Schulte, who is term-limited.
Jannette Minton has been chairman of the Lonoke County personnel committee, which has been trying to commission the JESAP study of all county jobs, responsibilities, pay and benefits and then compare it to like jobs and compensation in neighboring counties and in private industry, she said.
“Right now, everyone starts at same salary and benefits regardless of position and experience,” she said.
“There will be a written job description and a four-step salary scale based on experience, education—on rhyme and reason,” she said. That should help motivate employees and help the county hang on to experienced workers.
“Equitable pay and fairness,” she said.
Minton also hopes for a Repub-lican majority that will back her notion of bulk purchasing of supplies such as toilet paper, copier paper, cleaning supplies—pretty much everything. She believes the county can save money with bulk purchasing.
A former junior high school special education teacher at Cabot, Minton says she favors the one-year, penny sales tax to build a new jail. “We’ve got to have a jail,” she said. “This one is a lawsuit waiting to happen. It’s not safe for inmates, deputies or guards.”
Ridgeway, a social studies teacher and coach at Cabot Junior High School North, says one reason Minton defeated him the first time was because he supported redistributing the county sales tax to help pay for jail improvements. Nonetheless, he supports the penny tax on the primary ballot to build a new jail this time around. “They haven’t done anything for four years,” he said.
“As a citizen I’ll support it. Something has to be done. There’s no money in any other budget (for it).”
Ridgeway, who ran previously as a Democrat in the heavily Republican area he represents, says he lost by 400 votes the first time, 100 votes the second time and that he expects to win this time.
Before losing his JP seat to Minton, he had served two terms on the quorum court. “I thought I was a pretty good JP representative for my area,” he said. “I thought I’d be there a lifetime.”
Ridgeway has served as a Ward alderman for four years. He’s a Navy veteran, against new taxes and he’d like to see an ordinance approved that would exempt seniors from county taxes.
“I’ve knocked on 300 doors,” he said.
JP DISTRICT 3
Odom, 63, says he’s been on several jail committees over his 18 years on the court.
He provided leadership to pick a jail design, a way to build it and a way to fund it—the penny sales tax proposal on the ballot.
“I got interested initially because old county administration didn’t want state Hwy. 321 built,” said Odom, who has headed the county’s road committee most of the time on the court. “I lobbied three weeks to get Hwy. 321. I led the movement to get rid of nepotism in the county and to move meetings to nights when citizens could come. He started the movement that culminated with JPs paying for their own insurance, he said. Before that they had free health insurance at taxpayers’ expense.
“I worked diligently all these years to work on the transportation situation in Cabot. County Judge Charlie Troutman appointed me chair of transportation committee.”
Odom said the committee helped get the Third Street bridges built and the new frontage road to the Cabot Wal-Mart and a road to the Austin cloverleaf.
He said he had been chairman for the past three years of the county building and jail committees.
“The county has scrounged $1 million to put on third (Lonoke County Circuit) judgeship, to up-date the old John Deere building into a courthouse annex to alleviate overcrowding.
“I’ve supported all volunteer agencies in our communities,” he said.
“Our district was the first in the county that got all the roads chipped and sealed,” said Odom. “I’m running on my record.”
RECRUITED TO RUN AGAINST ME
Odom said he had been singled out because “I won’t vote partisan politics right down the line.” He said the Republican women on the court had recruited Lisa Shotts to run against him.
A Cabot-area native, Odom’s family has been in the area almost 100 years, he said. “I’m a farmer by choice, an entrepreneur farmer.”
He has a bachelor’s degree from University of Central Arkansas with a major in math. “I worked with Alltel as a long-range planner,” he said, but he’s been full-time on the farm since 1973.
This is Lisa Shotts’ first run for office, she said.
Shotts, 47, is a registered nurse and educator. “I’ll be training people on the insulin pump,” she said.
“I’ve always been very interested in politics. I’m conservative and raised my kids with Fox News.”
She said she has a son in premed at the University of Arkansas, a son studying the ministry at Ouachita Baptist and a 16-year-old daughter.
“This is a good opportunity to serve the people,” she said. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of blessings.”
She said Odom had been on the court for a long time.
“We’re trying to get a conservative vote on the quorum court. He’s not always a conservative vote.”
She and her family have lived in the Cabot area about 16 years. Her husband, Joe Shotts, is a doctor at the Cabot Medical Clinic.
“I’m really running on an honest conservative vote for Cabot’s future,” she said.
Shotts said the existing Lonoke County Jail is out of compliance, has been for some time and that residents are going to have to deal with it now or deal with it later.
“Hopefully we’ll build it with room for expansion with our growing city,” she said.
JP DISTRICT 4
Donna Pedersen, 49, has served on the court for two-and-a-half terms, filling in for her husband Pete Pedersen when an election challenge kept him out for the first half of a term. Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed her to that vacancy.
Among the accomplishments she is proud of, “we’ve got the new courthouse annexed without raising taxes, added new judgeship, had to find her a new court house.”
“I’m just running on my conservative record,” she said. “I’m a true conservative. I don’t even like the word ‘tax,’” she said.
Nonetheless, she supports the jail tax proposal on this primary ballot. “I hate to vote for a tax, but we’re going to have to have one. We put it on the ballot and let the people decide. The jail is in dire straits.
“Our jail is our number-one priority right now. They could come and shut it down anytime.”
Pedersen works for Mayfair Solutions, a collection agency.
The Pedersens have one son.
Tim Lemons, 45, an engineer for 18 years with a degree from Louisiana Tech, is making his first run for office. He owns Lemons Engineering of Cabot.
He’s been a board member of the Cabot Chamber of Commerce, Lonoke County’s representative to Metroplan, served on the Cabot Parks commission, volunteers for the Special Olympics and Relay for Life.
He and wife Janice have been married for 24 years. They have a daughter majoring in nursing at UCA and a son majoring in civil engineering at the University of Arkansas.
Lemons has lived in Cabot for 21 years. “The quorum court can best be described as the city council for the county. I feel my experience as a small business owner will be of great benefit,” he said.
“I will make finding a resolution to our traffic problem a priority. I will work closely with the cities, the county, the state and the federal government to resolve this important issue. As an engineer, I feel that my background and contacts on the state and federal level will be assistance to easing our traffic problems.
“As a fiscal conservative, I am against new taxes. However, in this case I support this sales tax. If the jail tax does not pass, the property owners in Lonoke County are almost ensured an increase on our already high property taxes. An increase in property taxes will last forever. The proposed one-cent sales tax for the jail will last for only one year. Also, since it is a sales tax, anyone who purchases goods in the county, whether they live here or not, will be paying for the new jail. The Republican Party agreed to support this tax.
“I believe the family is the foundation of our community. Conservative family values are most important to me. Second, I offer proven progressive leadership. And last, I offer a fresh positive outlook.”
JP DISTRICT 6
Alexis Malham, 54, has served five terms on the quorum court since 1992. In 2006, she won a three-way race against independent Harry Roderick and Democrat Chris Skinner .
This time, Roderick is running against her as a Republican.
Why does she want to serve again?
“The work is not done,” she said. “Basic stuff.”
She lives in the county and the roads and ditches are a major problem and part of the area is prone to flooding.
As a JP, Malham has fought for years to change the county’s policy of paying a large portion of the health insurance premiums of the employee’s families. She says its one thing to pay for the employees, but that it’s not good stewardship of the county’s finances to pay for their families’ insurance.
Malham says other counties don’t pay that. “It’s easy to spend other people’s money,” she said.
“Why have an insurance committee,” she asks, if the court is going to ignore its recommendations.
Malham says the county paved other roads and made a new road to Wal-Mart while people in her district need basic road services.
She also wants to help the county build a new jail.
Of the proposed jail tax, she said, “If the people support it, it’s a great deal. It has a sunset and we do have to do something.”
She said she helped set the vote for the primary ballot, instead of a special election where a small group could push it through.
“This is the fairest way,” she said.
“I’m a conservative voice on the quorum court for the people I represent,” she said. “We need safe roads and I supported the sheriff for his new patrol cars.
“I’m for lower taxes, less obtrusive government and want to make sure we use our taxpayer money wisely.”
She works part-time in retail at the mall. She’s married to Mike Malham, Cabot’s head football coach.
Roderick, her opponent, is retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant after 21 years. He was a loadmaster flying on the C-130s based at Little Rock Air Force Base.
Now he’s a representative of Lockheed Martin and works part time as an unpaid deputy for the Lonoke County Sheriff’s Office.
Roderick says people recognize his house by the six flags he flies out front on Campground Road.
“We have lived in the community for 22 years and in our current location for eight,” he said. “We have a lot of road problems, no shoulders,” he said, and the county needs to take care of that.
“Most people around here didn’t know who their justice of the peace was.”
Roderick said he would be the voice of the area and have an open door policy. He’ll put a suggestion box out for people who just want to drop off some feedback.
“Every time they turn around, they want to increase taxes,” he said. “I’ll get a good handle on how the county spends its money. The county is growing, revenue coming in—what are they doing with the excess revenue?”
“I’m for the jail tax. They should have done that a long time ago. The jail should have been condemned. We need a good facility that could actually turn a profit.
“Being a part-time deputy, I see the sheriff almost daily has to decide if he has to release someone to take someone else.”
He said the county has to give the sheriff the tools to do the job.
Roderick said he would put inmates to work on county roads, fixing stop signs for instance.
Like her opponent did 12 years ago, the Lonoke County prosecutor hopes to make the switch from advocate for the people and state to impartial judge.
With less than a week before the election, Prosecutor Lona McCastlain and Circuit Judge Phil Whiteaker are campaigning hard for the Second Division seat Whiteaker now holds.
“I’ve been campaigning since January,” Whiteaker said Tuesday, noting that the election was only seven days away. “I’ve been to about every civic organization in the county and every fish fry. I’ve had a lot of fish,” he added.
In Cabot, Carlisle, Ward, Austin, England, Lonoke, Keo and Humnoke, Whiteaker says he’s shaken hands with voters, telling them that his 12 years on the bench make him the best candidate for judge.
In that time, Whiteaker, who presides mostly over civil, juvenile and drug cases, says he has promoted the use of technology to streamline proceedings and he has been a supporter of CASA, the court appointed special advocates who help abused and neglected children through the court system.
But in addition to his experience, Whiteaker says he has “the temperament to be fair and listen to both sides. People want to have a fair day in court,” he said. “I’ve been doing that for 12 years.”
McCastlain also talks about Whiteaker’s time on the bench, but from a different perspective.
“It’s time to bring in something new,” McCastlain said. “I’ve been over there 15 years (10 as prosecutor). I can bring a fresh look at the job and a passion for the job.”
McCastlain says the circuit court is behind the times in technology. Although some prisoners now make their first court appearance via cameras in the jails, that was only started this year, she said.
More needs to be done, like putting the docket on a computer so changes can be made as needed.
Although the judicial races are non-partisan this year, McCastlain has always run as a Republican in the past and she says if elected she will represent the most conservative values.
McCastlain, Chuck Graham, the assistant prosecutor who is running for Division One judge, and Ken Williams, the lawyer and Cabot alderman who is running for district judge in Cabot, were endorsed Monday night by the Lonoke County Republican Committee.
McCastlain said the rules of ethics do not allow candidates to attack each other. But that hasn’t stopped some Cabot residents from putting out large signs that say McCastlain’s integrity is questionable.
McCastlain attributes the signs to Roger Lemaster and his wife, Becky, a Cabot alderman.
In 2007, McCastlain prosecuted Roger Lemaster’s son, who was convicted of child molestation and sentenced to prison.
Alderman Lemaster said they didn’t pay for the signs.
“My husband helped the woman who put them up because she didn’t have a truck,” Lemaster said.
“She’s a longtime friend of ours and we didn’t have any problem helping her out, because, you know, the signs are kind of right.”
RUSSELLVILLE — It had been a few years, but the Cabot Lady Panthers made their way back into the quarterfinal round of the 7A state softball tournament over the weekend. The No. 4 seed Lady Panthers took a 3-1 win over a pesky Rogers team in the first round on Friday at Hickey Park to advance to Saturday’s quarterfinal game against West No. 1 seed Fayetteville.
The Lady Bulldogs proved too much for the Lady Panthers, however, shutting them out 3-0, to end an up-and-down season for Cabot. The Lady Panthers ended their season with a 10-10 record.
It was the first time in three years that Cabot has advanced past the first round of the state tournament.
Cabot pitcher Cherie Barfield gave up doubles to the first three Lady Mounties batters in Friday’s first-round game, which led to the only Rogers’ score of the game in the top of the first inning.
She began to find the sweet spot after the early hiccup, striking out 12 batters and allowing only two more hits, both of which came in the top of the fifth inning after the Lady Panthers had seized the lead.
“Cherie starts out slow, she always does,” Cabot coach Becky Steward said. “And then she’ll come through. Thankfully, they only scored one run. When they went double, double, double, I just went ‘Oh no, here we go,’ but she settled down. You’ve got to give her defense credit; they stayed behind her.”
That defensive play resulted in one Rogers runner stranded and another tagged out by second baseman Kristy Flesher in the fifth. Barfield chased down a bunt by Chase Todd and got the throw to first baseman Ashton Seidl for the out. Seidl then tossed it to Flesher when Lady Mounties runner Ashley Brown began to lead off second.
The offensive effort wasn’t as productive as the pair of runaway wins against Mt. Saint Mary three days prior, but a three-hit, three-score performance for the Lady Panthers in the bottom of the second inning proved to be enough.
Cleanup hitter Rachel Lamb started things off for Cabot in the second when she reached on an error. A single to right by designated player Kayla Hart advanced Lamb, and another single by Tara Boyd scored her to tie the game at 1-1.
Becca Bakalakos drove in the next run with a single to right center, and a sacrifice bunt by Jordan Reed allowed Boyd in for the final score of the game.
“One inning can do it,” Steward said. “You’re supposed to have the best of the best here. We’ve been working on that outside pitch exclusively all year long. When we see it, usually, we connect with it. I just wish we would have gotten more runs.
“It’s like this all year long. They score some runs and get ahead and then they just kind of go into coast mode. You can’t do that.”
Steward was all smiles after Friday’s win, and attributed her squad’s late-season surge on what at the time seemed like an unlikely win against a very tough opponent.
“I’m going to go back to the Conway game,” Steward said. “When we beat Conway in the tiebreaker in eight innings, that started our run. That was great to beat the state champs for the last two years in a row. This is good for us. We have not been past the first round in three years, so this is a good win.”
For Seidl, it was her final weekend as a Lady Panther, as she will move on to Central Baptist College to become a part of the Lady Mustangs softball program. The Lady Panthers team captain was also jubilant after the big win over Rogers.
“We were very nervous out there, but we came through with it and did pretty good,” Seidl said. “The second inning took us from low to sky high. We did amazing at the end of the second inning, I was really proud of all of us. That was what turned the game around for us.”
MOUNTAIN HOME — Jacksonville’s season came to an end in the first round of the 6A state softball tournament at Mountain Home on Saturday in a 4-1 loss to Watson Chapel.
Shoddy defense and struggling bats ended the Lady Red Devils’ campaign at 14-8 after they had earned a No. 2 seed into the tournament.
Jacksonville committed four errors and picked up only two hits against Lady Wildcat hurler Kristen Johnson, while striking out eight times. Watson Chapel went on to beat Sheridan before falling to Mountain Home in the semifinals.
An error, a pair of passed balls, a single and a wild pitch allowed Watson Chapel to take a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
The Lady Devils scored a run in the fifth and had an opportunity to knot things up. Paula Burr walked and moved to second on Alexis Whatley’s sacrifice. After Riley Zinc reached safely after striking out on a wild pitch, Tyler Pickett had an infield single to score Burr.
With runners at second and third, Johnson got a strikeout to leave the go-ahead run at second base.
Chapel scored individual runs in the sixth and seventh, both the result of Jacksonville errors.
Jacksonville hurler Jessica Lanier pitched well, allowing no earned runs and just six hits, while striking out nine.
SPORTS>>Red Devils suffer extra-innings loss in quarterfinals
By JASON KING Leader sportswriter
The next to the last inning of Jacksonville’s season was somewhat of a microcosm of the Red Devils’ entire year. After missing the postseason the past four years, only one out stood between the Devils and the 6A state quarterfinals.
But a fielding error allowed Watson Chapel to stay alive in the bottom of the 12th inning.
Jacksonville led 5-2 at that point with two outs, but the Wildcats tied the game to send it into the 13th inning, where WC shut down the Red Devils in the top half before scoring on a pair of singles in the bottom side to secure the marathon win.
Jacksonville’s strange-but-successful season ended at 16-14.
“We didn’t play as well as we could have all year,” Jacksonville head coach Larry Burrows said, “but we competed hard all year long. We hung in and battled, and we got rewarded for playing tough. I told them that we may not have played well enough to get a ring, but that we can still be satisfied with the effort we gave, and the things we accomplished.”
Burrows said he felt his potent young squad was on the brink of greatness all season. That great thing came with a 4-3 win over Sheridan in the first round on Friday, and he said Saturday’s near upset of the top-seeded Wildcats will generate even more excitement for 2009 and beyond.
Pitcher Michael Harmon was working on a no-hitter until the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday, when the Wildcats plated a pair of runs. The Red Devils answered with four hits in the top of the seventh inning, including a RBI-double by Patrick Castleberry that scored Cameron Hood and a single by Seth Tomboli to bring in Castleberry for the tie. That score stayed the same for the next five innings.
Hood and Castleberry singled and Tomboli reached on an error, bringing in Hood to give the Red Devils the lead. Wisdom walked to force in another run, and a bad throw on a squeeze play gave the Red Devils a 5-2 lead.
“We can build on this,” Burrows said of the bad season turned good. “We told the seniors that it’s our plan to build on what they have started.”
Plenty of talent remains on the Jacksonville roster, but the loss of first baseman/pitcher Jason Regnas, along with outfielders Cameron Hood and Tyler Wisdom leaves a big gap in the middle of the Devils’ batting line-up. It also means Jacksonville will be losing three of its best defensive players.
“We’re losing our two-hole hitter, and our three-hole,” Burrows said. “And Regnas is the best first baseman I’ve ever coached. Wisdom and Hood have both been good in the outfield for us over the past years, and they both batted over .400, so they are going to be tough to replace.”
It was a tough way to lose a game, let alone end a season.
It was an even tougher way to close out a career.
Fort Smith Southside rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on Friday night to beat Cabot, 6-5, in the opening round of the 7A state tournament at Burns Park.
A pair of errors in the inning, sandwiched around an RBI double, sealed the Panthers’ fate after they had rallied for three runs in the sixth to overcome a 4-2 deficit.
“It was a roller coaster year,” said Cabot head coach Jay Fitch, whose Panthers finished the season 14-12. “The sun came up, but it was a tough way to lose.”
The Rebels had knotted the game at 5-5 on Matt Henry’s one-out double in the seventh. With two outs, Weston Burgess sent a sharp grounder to Sam Bates. The senior shortstop fielded it cleanly, but his throw one-hopped past first baseman Matt Turner. Henry never broke stride and scored easily from second as Cabot’s strange season came to an end.
“I told somebody I couldn’t remember a throwing error Sam had made all year,” Fitch said of his senior leader. “Doggone, Sam has been so good for us and I’d love to have nine of him on the field. If any other ground ball was going to be hit, I’d want it to be hit to him. He’s been rock steady all year.”
Sophomore Tyler Erickson turned in another in a series of solid performances, going the distance in the tough-luck loss.
The Panthers had taken the lead after a bizarre sequence in the sixth inning. Trailing 4-2, Drew Burks got the third of his four singles in the contest, and Bates walked. Ben Wainright’s sharp grounder to short took a bad hop for a base hit that drove in Burks. A bad throw from the center fielder moved the runners up to second and third with no outs.
Rebel pitcher John Koch struck out the next two batters. He then fanned Turner to apparently retire the side with Southside still clinging to a one-run lead. But the third strike hit the plate and bounded over the catcher’s head. Though it took Turner several seconds to realize what had happened and begin a furious race to first, Rebel catcher Matt Henry had trouble locating the ball back by the screen.
Not only was Turner safe on the play, allowing Bates to score the go-ahead run, the runner from second came all the way around to score and give Cabot the lead.
“That was a shaky way we got the lead in that inning,” Fitch said. “But I’ve told the kids that so many times in high school baseball it’s a deal not of who earns the most, but who gives the most away. They gave us something there, but we gave them a little bit more.”
Cabot wasted a couple of good opportunities to break the game open. The Panthers got off to an outstanding start against Koch, the Rebel ace. Matt Evans, Powell Bryant and Burks led off with singles to quickly put Cabot up 1-0. But Koch got the next three batters — one on a diving catch by shortstop Cameron Young on Wainright’s bid for a bloop single into shallow left.
Though the Rebels took the lead with two runs in the second, Cabot tied it on a Burks single and Bates’ RBI double in the third. Southside scored single runs in the third and fourth to take a 4-2 lead. After Bates’ double in the third, Koch retired seven straight — including four straight by strikeout. Koch finished with 12 strikeouts — four in one inning.
“We knew [Koch] was their ace and that they didn’t have much pitching after him,” Fitch said. “We wanted to jump on him early. But we didn’t do that and he settled in.”
Cabot’s other big chance came in the seventh when it placed two on with one out on singles by Evans and Burks. But Koch got the next two batters on strikes as Cabot stranded its eighth and ninth runners.
The Panthers finished with nine hits — four by Burks and two by Evans. Erickson went the distance, allowing 10 hits and three earned runs. He struck out one, walked two and hit a batter.
The Panthers’ season started strong, hit a midseason lull then finished on a high note. Cabot won its final four regular season games to earn a No. 6 seed.
“It was a tough, tough road, but the experience will be good for them next year,” Fitch said. “Young teams will break your heart. They show flashes of brilliance, then they don’t make a routine play. But I thought they matured well and came along. Seniors like Sam gave us good leadership.
“The season could have fallen apart if we hadn’t had integrity and if we hadn’t kept working hard. I’m proud of them.”
TEXARKANA — His heart didn’t appear to be in it when he said it, but Arkansas High head coach Mike Lloyd suggested that, if his team and Sylvan Hills could play a 7-game series, it might be a different story.
Maybe Lloyd was thinking someone other than D.J. Baxendale would be pitching those games for the Bears. But with Baxendale on the mound, it’s hard to imagine a much different outcome than the 3-0 shutdown D.J. and the Bears put on the Razorbacks on Monday night to advance to the 6A state championship game at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
They’ll take on Watson Chapel, 6-3 winners over Jonesboro in the other semifinal game on Monday.
“In a single-game elimination, if you come up and run into a guy that’s having a good night, that’s the way it can happen,” Lloyd said of Baxendale’s performance. “I tip my hat to him.”
Baxendale, the junior transfer from Abundant Life, showed no effects from having pitched 48 hours earlier, tossing a 2-hitter against an Arkansas High team with a potent lineup. TheseRazorbacks are the same team that was ranked in the top 20 nationally and that features a slugger in Garrett Underwood who hit four consecutive home runs in one game this season.
Baxendale was coming off a 51-pitch, 4-inning outing against Searcy in the state quarterfinals on Saturday. Sylvan Hills head coach Denny Tipton said he realizes he took a gamble when he pulled his ace with the Bears clinging to a 2-0 lead on Saturday.
“Yeah, I probably gambled a little,” said Tipton, whose club set a school record by recording its 28th win. “But it worked out.” Baxendale said he felt no fatigue on Monday.
“Saturday was just like a midweek bullpen since I only threw about 50 pitches,” he said. “So it didn’t affect me too much. My adrenaline took over [in the seventh inning]. I knew we were three outs away, so I just reared back and went after it.”
Sylvan Hills got all the offense it needed in the second inning when Jordan Spears singled with one out. Pinch runner Casey Cerrato stole second and scored on Tyler Van Schoyck’s looping liner to center.
Ryan Dillon, running for Van Schoyck, stole second and scored on Clint Thornton’s long double to the fence in right to make it 2-0.
It was theme for the night: Get on base and run. The Bears stole seven bases in the contest, losing only one when Mike Maddox was out at third in the fifth. They had another runner picked off.
“We like to run,” Tipton said. “That’s our game plan every game. We hit the ball hard and ran the bases well. And we played great defense. Clint Thornton at second base made a lot of great plays.”
His best play of the night came in the fourth inning, when he tracked down a slow roller near second base and, throwing away from his body, got Josh Stringfellow when first baseman Blake Evans made a nice stretch.
Sylvan Hills got an insurance run in the third when Hunter Miller was hit with a pitch, stole second and scored on Nathan Ellers’ line-drive single to center.
But the story of the game remained Baxendale, who al-lowed only four base runners on two hits and two walks. After issuing a pair of walks in the third, he retired 12 in a row and 13 of the final 14.
The only Razorback to reach during that span was Josh Stringfellow, who was credited with a single when his pop up into shallow left with two outs in the seventh dropped in between shortstop Justin Treece and left fielder Mark Turpin after an apparent miscommunication between the two.
But Baxendale recorded his 10th strikeout of the game to send Sylvan Hills to the state title game for the first time since 2005.
“I knew they could swing it one through eight (in their lineup),” Baxendale said. “So I had to really be focused and make sharp pitches and go after them with everything I had. I tried to keep them off guard. I’ve got seven or eight pitches so it was kind of hard for them to guess what pitch was coming.”
Tyler Weir got Arkansas High’s only other hit — a solid single to center in the first inning.
“These teenagers, with their adrenaline in the state tournament is going to carry them a lot,” Tipton said of Baxendale’s 11 innings of work over three days. “Texarkana swings the bat well. But D.J. has great stuff and throws from a lot of different angles. He’s just a great pitcher.
“It’s a great thing he’s just a junior. A great thing for our sake, anyway. He can be a dominant pitcher, and he threw a dominant game tonight.”
Arkansas High finished the season 23-11. Sylvan Hills (28-6) finished with seven hits, with no one collecting more than one in the contest.
“Once again, we’re capable of hitting it all the way through the lineup,” Tipton said. “I like multiple-hit games from guys. But it’s a team game, and we got some hits when we needed them.”
It’s been a tumultuous ride for the Bears, who have endured the death of a former teammate in a car accident in January, as well as the loss of their home field to tornados in April. Tipton said those things are never far from their minds and their hearts.
“It’s always your goal [to get to the state championship],” he said. “But we’ve dealt with so much. I can’t lie. I think it means something more with everything we’ve been through.”
The state Ethics Commission, which never met an ethical lapse by a politician that it could not indulge, issued Mike Huckabee still another Letter of Caution last week, this one for not reporting some $31,000 in secret cash gifts that he received in 2006, his last year as governor.
A Letter of Caution is the mildest reprimand in the commission’s arsenal of feather lashings, and Huckabee does not seem to mind them.
This is what the letter said: “Your actions violated the law. You are advised not to engage in the same activity again.” He won’t because he is no longer governor and is not apt to hold office in Arkansas again. But the Letter of Caution would not restrain him if he did; none of his previous reprimands did.
Huckabee, who was required by law to list all his gifts each quarter, reported only that he had received the gift of a portrait from a “Nancy Harris,” who turned out to be a portrait artist from Virginia. But that account wasn’t true.
An Arkansas Democrat Gazette reporter late last year stumbled upon a private bank fund for Huckabee that was administered by the state Department of Finance and Administration. Huckabee had hired the woman to paint his portrait, and then to pay for it he had friends solicit cash from lobbyists, supporters and people he had appointed to state jobs, boards and commissions.
He refused to identify the benefactors — until the Ethics Commission, acting on a complaint by a Republican critic of Huckabee, said that probable cause existed that he had violated the law. He then released the names and had his lawyer work out a settlement with the commission for the Letter of Caution so that there would not be a public hearing and perhaps a harsher penalty.
Though he signed the settlement and accepted the admonition, Huckabee had his lawyer maintain that he was not admitting that he had broken the law. This is called obfuscation. The commission’s director had this very kind explanation: “It’s like getting a ticket for a broken taillight. You fixed the taillight. You paid the ticket, and now you are not admitting that you had a broken taillight.” — Ernie Dumas
TOP STORY > >WateWater department given good grades
By JOAN McCOY Leader staff writer
An audit of Cabot Water-Works books for the past two years when it has been overseen by a commission shows the utility’s finances are sound and that the controls are sufficient to make manipulation of the books difficult.
“From what we see here, this organization has operated in a financially prudent manner,” Michael Cobb of Cobb and Suskie, LTD, Certified Public Accountants, told the commission Thursday night.
J.M. Park, chairman of Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission, pressed Cobb and accountant Melissa Hodgson about the issue of internal controls to safeguard against embezzlement.
Hodgson and Cobb responded that theft is always possible in private and public operations if employees are determined to steal.
But they said the internal controls at WaterWorks are adequate.
The audit shows that expenses were up in 2007 over 2006, from $3.8 million to $4.3 million because of projects and inflation and that income was down, possibly in part because of the building slowdown, which meant fewer fees were collected. In 2006, WaterWorks’ revenue was $6.1 million compared to $6 million in 2007.
But with 10 months of operating capital in the bank, Cobb said WaterWorks is in an enviable position compared to some smaller utilities where rates are lower than they should be to pay for maintenance and growth-related projects.
The audit shows WaterWorks has $9.5 million in unrestricted assets that will go toward the $11 million needed to build a water- line from Gravel Ridge to Cabot to connect Cabot to Central Arkansas Water.
In other business, Tim Joyner, WaterWorks director, told the commission that the wastewater treatment plant that opened late in 2007 is operating well, but the bugs are still being worked out of some of the monitoring systems. Until they are, the construction company over the $15 million project won’t be paid the last $58,000 for the work.
“Hopefully they’ll have all this wrapped up in a week,” Joyner said. Work is progressing on landscaping and roads at the new plant and the grand opening is still scheduled for sometime in the fall.
Commission Secretary Bill Cypert said when the plant opened that when it was completed he would drink a glass of the treated water. He said Thursday night that he intends to make good on his promise and will expect news cameras on hand for the occasion.
Opening the new plant brought the city into compliance with state and federal discharge regulations but now the problem that must be dealt with is groundwater infiltration into sewer lines. Joyner said $250,000 was spent last year replacing broken lines at Greystone that were not properly installed and that line replacement this year at Lindu Lake and Hickory Bend and Greystone Boulevard have been estimated at $325,000.
Additionally, work will be done at Shiloh, Turnberry, Magness Creek and Highway 321 to keep water from running into manholes.
“Engineers like having them ground level because they are unsightly but when it floods they act just like a bathtub drain,” Shaw said in a later interview.
“We don’t allow it anymore. Our policy is that they have to be above the floodplain,” Shaw added.
WaterWorks also is in the process of building a $1.5 million, 36-inch sewer line that will extend from the new treatment plant off Kerr Station Road to Locust Street in the downtown area.
The pipe will replace an eight-inch concrete pipe that has crumbled over time and allows rainwater to get into the sewer system.
An audit of Cabot Water-Works books for the past two years when it has been overseen by a commission shows the utility’s finances are sound and that the controls are sufficient to make manipulation of the books difficult.
“From what we see here, this organization has operated in a financially prudent manner,” Michael Cobb of Cobb and Suskie, LTD, Certified Public Accountants, told the commission Thursday night.
J.M. Park, chairman of Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission, pressed Cobb and accountant Melissa Hodgson about the issue of internal controls to safeguard against embezzlement.
Hodgson and Cobb responded that theft is always possible in private and public operations if employees are determined to steal.
But they said the internal controls at WaterWorks are adequate.
The audit shows that expenses were up in 2007 over 2006, from $3.8 million to $4.3 million because of projects and inflation and that income was down, possibly in part because of the building slowdown, which meant fewer fees were collected. In 2006, WaterWorks’ revenue was $6.1 million compared to $6 million in 2007.
But with 10 months of operating capital in the bank, Cobb said WaterWorks is in an enviable position compared to some smaller utilities where rates are lower than they should be to pay for maintenance and growth-related projects.
The audit shows WaterWorks has $9.5 million in unrestricted assets that will go toward the $11 million needed to build a water- line from Gravel Ridge to Cabot to connect Cabot to Central Arkansas Water.
In other business, Tim Joyner, WaterWorks director, told the commission that the wastewater treatment plant that opened late in 2007 is operating well, but the bugs are still being worked out of some of the monitoring systems. Until they are, the construction company over the $15 million project won’t be paid the last $58,000 for the work.
“Hopefully they’ll have all this wrapped up in a week,” Joyner said.
Work is progressing on landscaping and roads at the new plant and the grand opening is still scheduled for sometime in the fall. Commission Secretary Bill Cypert said when the plant opened that when it was completed he would drink a glass of the treated water. He said Thursday night that he intends to make good on his promise and will expect news cameras on hand for the occasion.
Opening the new plant brought the city into compliance with state and federal discharge regulations but now the problem that must be dealt with is groundwater infiltration into sewer lines.
Joyner said $250,000 was spent last year replacing broken lines at Greystone that were not properly installed and that line replacement this year at Lindu Lake and Hickory Bend and Greystone Boulevard have been estimated at $325,000.
Additionally, work will be done at Shiloh, Turnberry, Magness Creek and Highway 321 to keep water from running into manholes.
“Engineers like having them ground level because they are unsightly but when it floods they act just like a bathtub drain,” Shaw said in a later interview.
“We don’t allow it anymore. Our policy is that they have to be above the floodplain,” Shaw added.
WaterWorks also is in the process of building a $1.5 million, 36-inch sewer line that will extend from the new treatment plant off Kerr Station Road to Locust Street in the downtown area.
The pipe will replace an eight-inch concrete pipe that has crumbled over time and allows rainwater to get into the sewer system.
Ordinarily, you get to know nothing about the people running to be a judge in Arkansas unless you happen to be in the candidate’s circle of friends and family or unless he or she had a previous public life — a lawmaker or prosecutor perhaps — that exposed the candidate’s ideas and predilections about how the public’s business should be conducted. If the candidate is already a judge, you may have become familiar with his or her preferences or biases, which every single judge brings in some way to decision making. Otherwise, all you know is what will fit on a calling card: the candidate’s years in the bar, matrimonial status, number of children, current job and civic memberships, along with the ritual promise to be fair.
Judge Wendell Griffen of the Arkansas Court of Appeals is an exception, although not particularly by his choosing. Some six years ago, he got quoted in the newspaper about the endemic racism in the athletic department at the University of Arkansas after he spoke to some black lawmakers at Fayetteville, which caused the director of the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission to haul him in for violating the ban on public speech by judges. No, Judge Griffen said, the U. S. Supreme Court years ago struck down those bans and affirmed that judges have the same rights to be heard that the Bill of Rights gives to every other American. Besides, he said, he never made a public utterance about any issue that was before his court or ever likely to be there.
In his role as a Baptist minister and leader of a national religious organization, Griffen over the years has often spoken on moral issues in religious forums, and after the U of A controversy the media on three or four occasions picked up comments that he made about the moral dimensions of the Iraq war, prejudice and the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, which caused more complaints to the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission about a judge making comments in public.
Twice the Arkansas Supreme Court agreed with Griffen, and finally so did the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission. The Arkansas bar is now rewriting the ethical canons for judges to reflect the values that Griffen espoused.
Rarely does one win such clear vindication, but it still could cost him his career. He has an opponent for re-election to the Court of Appeals, which is extremely rare for sitting judges. He, too, would be unopposed were it not for the five-year smear by the director of the discipline commission that he was somehow an unethical judge because he allowed himself to be quoted in newspapers a half-dozen times on matters of public concern (as if he could have stopped it). The Arkansas Democrat Gazette joined the chase, penning at least a dozen editorials attacking the jurist for undermining public confidence in the courts. The paper’s editorial page obviously disagreed with his criticism of President Bush, the war and the University of Arkansas, but the paper eventually acknowledged that he had won his argument that he had a right to utter them — after that right had been affirmed by the Supreme Court and the commission itself. But exercising that right sullies the courts, the newspaper said again this week when it endorsed his opponent, Rita Gruber. Gruber is a former Pulaski County official and now a juvenile judge, a passably good one from what we hear.
Were it not for the controversy over his right to speech, Judge Griffen would be judged on his unassailable judicial record, as an appellate judge and formerly as a quasi-judicial arbiter of worker compensation rights. Even the Democrat-Gazette, which praised his high intelligence and personal likeability, found no exception to his some two thousand decisions as a judge. No question was ever raised about his impartiality or the wisdom of his opinions. That is good enough for The Leader to endorse him for re-election on May 20.
Gasoline busted through the $3.50 mark in central Arkansas with a vengeance this week, and is just pennies away from the $4 mark in Alaska and California.
According to the American Automobile Association, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in Arkansas was $3.55 Friday, up three cents from a month ago and 67 cents higher than a year ago.
The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline rose 2.6 cents to $3.671 Friday, breaking the record set Thursday.
It was the second day in a row that gas prices set a record, and follows a 17-day streak of record-breaking days that ended May 1.
Both Jacksonville and Cabot are averaging $3.54 for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline. Sherwood is five cents higher at $3.59 and Beebe at $3.57. All four cities are above the state average.
TOP STORY > >Secure rooms in schools a good idea, Beebe says
By JOHN GAMBRELL Associated Press writer
Just before the sirens sounded in Carlisle, school superintendent Floyd Marshall got the warning from police — a tornado was coming right for the town’s elementary and high school.
But unlike most other schools in Arkansas, the two Carlisle schools have specially designed interior hallways — dubbed tornado-safe rooms — where the district’s 750 students cowered until the storms passed by on May 2.
“It doesn’t take but the one time to devastate a community and families and if there’s a way to prevent that from occurring, then we need to make an effort to do it,” Marshall said. “You may never need it, but that one time that you do that you don’t have it, it’s something you can’t recover from.”
The National Weather Service said the Carlisle tornado last week had a path 2.6 miles long and was rated an E-F1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale from 0 to 5, meaning it had winds of 86-110 mph.
It veered away from the shared campus of the elementary and high schools at the last moment, but Gov. Mike Beebe acknowledged the importance of the rooms on a visit
