SPORTS>>Old Bear is taking over SH softball

By RAY BENTONLeader sports editorSylvan Hills’ fastpitch program will be under new tutelage for the upcoming season. Former Jacksonville assistant softball and head volleyball coach Phil Bradley will take over for the Lady Bears softball team. Bradley graduated from Sylvan Hills and began his coaching career there in 1999, where he was an assistant coach on the SHHS state softball […]

SPORTS>>Cabot gets big first-round win

By JASON KINGLeader sportswriterCabot’s American Legion AAA team put its late season struggles behind with a vital 2-1 win over Maumelle in the first round of the Zone 3 tournament Thursday night at Burns Park. Post 71 needed one extra inning to get the job done, but found a little bit of good fortune when an interference call on Bulldogs […]

SPORTS>>Jacksonville outlasts Bruins

By JASON KINGLeader sportswriterThursday’s first-round Zone 3 tournament game between Sylvan Hills and Jacksonville at Burns Park in North Little Rock would mark the ninth meeting between the two squads this summer, and by far would turn out to be the most bizarre. Gwatney Chevrolet pulled off a 16-14 upset win, showing resolve and focus in the face of adversity […]

OBITUARIES >> 07-28-07

Artle CrockerArtle Brady Crocker, 100, passed away July 25, just two weeks shy of her 101st birthday. She was preceded in death by her husband, three daughters and one grandson. She is survived by three grandchildren, Dennis and and his wife Carol Armstrong, Marva and and her husband Paul Verkler and Debbie Cooper; five great-grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren. She […]

EDITORIALS>>Taxpayers fleeced again

When something seems too good to be true it usually is, which is a lesson that the Pulaski County government keeps learning, ruefully, over and over. Now it has found that municipal bonds are not the risk-free answer to everything.You may remember that press conference in Little Rock’s River Market five years ago when a buoyant County Judge Buddy Villines […]

TOP STORY >>Two hopefuls face off in Sherwood contest

By RICK KRONLeader staff writerBy 9:30 p.m. Tuesday the unofficial word should come from the Pulaski Election Commission as to who is the new mayor of Sherwood: City Clerk Virginia Hillman, 43, or Interim Mayor Bill Harmon, 80.The pair ended up in a virtual dead heat out of five candidates in the July 10 special mayoral election to fill the […]

TOP STORY >>Priorities in Cabot

By JOAN MCCOYLeader staff writerThe members of Cabot Water and Wastewater Commission spent two hours Thursday night discussing the progress of various projects.Projects include the new sewer treatment plant, the North Belt transmission line to connect to Central Arkansas Water, buying land for a headquarters for Cabot WaterWorks and moving administration temporarily into the old Community Bank building the city […]

TOP STORY >>North Belt gets route, no funding

By JOHN HOFHEIMERLeader senior staff writerAt least two members of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department disagree on whether the second phase of the North Belt Freeway should be financed with tolls, since no highway money is available right now for the project.Because no money has been allocated for construction, Highway Commissioner Carl Rosenbaum has said often he favors designing […]

TOP STORY >>Charter school hearing

By HEATHER HARTSELLLeader staff writerIn light of problems with the Pulaski County Special School District, Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce members are supporting a petition to the Arkansas State Board of Education to operate open-enrollment public charter schools in the community.The charter school would be operated in connection with the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Science and Arts (ASMSA) in Hot Springs […]

TOP STORY >>Reviving downtown

By HEATHER HARTSELLLeader staff writerIn 1998, MJMJ LLC, led by Mike Wilson, Jim Peacock, Mike Abdin and Jim O’Brian, purchased about 12 acres located in the 600 block of West Main in downtown Jacksonville, the 130,000-square-foot Jacksonville Shopping Center.But after almost a decade of ownership, Wilson, Peacock and O’Brian have decided to sell to aid in reviving the downtown area. […]