By RICK KRONLeader staff writerIn the 14 years of roasting and toasting city leaders the Jacksonville Senior Center has never had a roastee like Joan Zumwalt – a person just lucky to be alive to be roasted and toasted.Her son Greg Jones told the audience of a strong-willed woman, with plenty of emphasis on the word strong and willed, with […]

Governor Beebe was undecided this week about whether to join a few other governors, mainly in the South, and turn away millions of dollars in new federal assistance to unemployed workers in Arkansas. Let us hope his indecision is short-lived. Why would a governor want to deny help to some 6,000 of the neediest of the jobless and to send […]

By ERIC FRANCISSpecial to The LeaderDaud Amir Jones loved Meloney Graham. That one fact was not in dispute as he went on trial for her murder.Almost everything else, however, was disputed by the prosecution and defense – especially Jones’ own version of events in Jacksonville from the night of April 20, 2008: That the fatal gunshot to the back of […]

By JOHN HOFHEIMERLeader senior staff writerStimulus funds for “shovel-ready” central Arkansas road projects, previously estimated at $12.7 million, are now estimated at $14.2 million, increasing the likelihood—but not guaranteeing—that Graham Road in Jacksonville will be widened to four lanes in the near future.The widening of Brockington Road in Sherwood has risen to the top tier—Class A Projects—and seems certain to […]

By JOHN HOFHEIMERLeader senior staff writerOperation Bottleneck, Metro-plan’s public-participation survey of traffic congestion and safety on Central Arkansas streets, roads and highways, drew more than 200 comments from residents of the Jacksonville, Cabot and Sherwood areas alone, and some draft results of the survey have just been released.As might be anticipated along the Hwy. 67/167 corridor that runs through those […]

By JOHN HOFHEIMERLeader senior staff writerJacksonville-area residents say they will ask the Pulaski County Special School District Board to reverse recent votes to proceed with an $80 million second-lien bond issue for a Maumelle school and also to recombine the Boys’ and Girls’ Jacksonville Middle Schools when they appear at a special board meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.Board members and […]