TOP STORY >> Lore of ivory-billed woodpecker sparks lovefest

By EILEEN FELDMANLeader Managing EditorAmateur naturalists and wildlife biologists and some genuine wilderness lovers gathered together in Brinkley in late February for a love- fest in honor of the “Lord God” bird, the ivory-billed woodpecker.Long thought extinct, but recently spotted on more than one occasion in the Big Woods of the Cache River basin, the rediscovery of Campephilus principalis (the […]

TOP STORY >> Iraqi airmen proud of C-130s

By DANIEL CONNOLLYAssociated Press WriterWhen the U.S. government gave three C-130 cargo planes to the new Iraqi Air Force, Iraqi airmen celebrated by slaughtering sheep and marking the planes with blood. The ceremony was repeated in November, when they flew a mission without a single American aboard, said Lt. Col. Mike Bauer, an Air Force officer who is involved in […]

TOP STORY >> Who watches lenders?

By JOHN HOFHEIMERLeader staff writerArkansas has 275 cash advance or payday lending stores, of which only 66 are licensed and make any pretense of being regulated by the state, according to a study to be released Wednesday morning by Arkansans Against Abusive Payday Lending (AAAPL).“We located all the payday lenders,” said study author Hank Klein, president of AAAPL. The study, […]

TOP STORY >> Crime is down in Lonoke

By JOHN HOFHEIMERLeader staff writerEven as former Lonoke Police Chief Jay Campbell, his wife Kelly Campbell and a pair of bail bondsmen prepare for arraignment in Lonoke County Circuit Court Monday, statistics show that crime in the city during Campbell’s last full year was down 24 percent. That’s according to 2004 and 2005 statistics compiled and released by the standardized […]

TOP STORY >> Cabot tries to ease traffic congestion

By JOAN MCCOYLeader staff writerCabot residents who don’t want to battle Hwy. 89 traffic to get to the new Wal-Mart Supercenter will eventually have a direct route off Hwy. 5, courtesy up to this point of the Lonoke County Road Depart-ment.The 1.4-mile road is the first step in a proposed long-range transportation plan to alleviate traffic congestion in Cabot. And […]

TOP STORY >> Cabot tries to ease traffic congestion

By JOAN MCCOYLeader staff writerCabot residents who don’t want to battle Hwy. 89 traffic to get to the new Wal-Mart Supercenter will eventually have a direct route off Hwy. 5, courtesy up to this point of the Lonoke County Road Depart-ment.The 1.4-mile road is the first step in a proposed long-range transportation plan to alleviate traffic congestion in Cabot. And […]

TOP STORY >> Cabot tries to ease traffic congestion

By JOAN MCCOYLeader staff writerCabot residents who don’t want to battle Hwy. 89 traffic to get to the new Wal-Mart Supercenter will eventually have a direct route off Hwy. 5, courtesy up to this point of the Lonoke County Road Depart-ment.The 1.4-mile road is the first step in a proposed long-range transportation plan to alleviate traffic congestion in Cabot. And […]

TOP STORY >> Fight against meth far from over

By JOAN MCCOYLeader staff writerA celebration in Little Rock Monday over the decline in meth labs across the state could be misleading.While it is true there are fewer large meth labs in production since a new state law made it difficult to buy over-the-counter cold and allergy medicines like Sudafed, used in making the illegal drug, Arkansas’ war on drugs […]