Top Story>>Rural area appears set to support new district

IN SHORT: Survey says Bayou Meto patrons prefer Jacksonville 2-to-1 as PCSSD plans to decide boundary lines.By John HofheimerLeader senior staff writerBy a margin of 2-to-1, Bayou Meto Elementary School attendance-zone respondents prefer affiliation with the proposed Jacksonville-area school district over remaining with the Pulaski County Special School District. This could clear the way for the PCSSD board to include […]

EDITORIAL >>Congress must pass health reform

If you’re like most Americans, your mind is made up on what to do about health care: make it affordable and more available. It took a while to get a response but finally, after being dragged kicking and screaming to the drawing board, six senators from the finance committee, not including Sen. Blanche Lincoln, are talking about how the government […]

EDITORIAL >>Air base wins big

Little Rock Air Force Base sent four C-130s and some 140 airmen for the weeklong air rodeo competition at McChord Air Force Base in Washington state. They returned triumphantly to Little Rock Air Force Base on Saturday with nine trophies — including two best overall and seven C-130 awards — outpacing the teams the base sent two years ago, the […]

EDITORIAL >>Taxpayers robbed again

Since the mid-reign of Gov. Mike Huckabee nine years ago, an Arkansas public official who has been on the job for a number of years and is in the know could draw his or her state pension and stay on the job at full salary. Word of the little loophole created by a 1999 law spread so that now more […]

TOP STORY > >Alamo could use a prison consultant

By GARRICK FELDMANLeader editor-in-chiefTony Alamo, the self-anointed preacher and serial child molester, looked nervous outside the federal courthouse in Texarkana on Friday. The former hotshot leader of the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation, who was once just a smalltime hoodlum and a washed-up crooner before he became rich robbing people of their dignity and freedom, was looking at serious […]

TOP STORY > > Cabot could serve beer at state fair

By JOAN MCCOYLeader staff writerIf the Arkansas State Fair needs a new home away from Little Rock, Cabot Mayor Eddie Joe Williams sees no reason why Cabot shouldn’t provide it, even though the city is in a dry county. The deadline for submitting sealed proposals for locations for a new fair grounds is Sept. 15. Williams said he will discuss […]

TOP STORY > >Ward police to get stimulus money

The Ward Police Department will receive $128,809 to hire one additional police officer for three years, according to members of the Arkansas congressional delegation.The money, from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Stimulus), appropriated about $8.7 million to hire 60 new officers at 16 Arkansas towns.The stimulus money is intended to pay 75 percent of the officer’s salary and benefits […]

TOP STORY > >Jacksonville’s ‘Idol’ comes home

Story and photos by Christy HendricksThe “American Idols Live 2009” tour was making a stop at the Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on Saturday night.Kris Allen, the newest American Idol, was headlining the tour. The former Jacksonville resident, who played Little League baseball there and was a substitute teacher in Cabot, would soon be getting ready for the show […]

SPORTS>>Decline of Legion baseball undeniable, difficult to witness

By KELLY FENTONLeader sports editorBaseball season, for us at The Leader anyway, officially came to an end with Cabot’s loss to Fayetteville on Saturday afternoon at Burns Park.No more stifling early evenings chronicling the junior American Legion teams. No more endless, error-plagued, mosquito-infested senior nightcaps. No more walk-filled, action-free 12-1 routs in which the winning team scores all its runs […]

SPORTS>>Heye, Haralson go on record rampage at MOC

By JASON KINGLeader sportswriterSharks don’t have to be big to be fierce. Just look at 10-year-old, pint-sized Sherwood Shark swimmers Delaney Haralson and Thomas Heye, who each took several big bites out of the record books on July 18 at the Meet of Champs.Haralson broke records in five of the six gold events she competed in, while Heye set new […]