TOP STORY > >Audits find problems in Sherwood, Lonoke

By rick kronLeader staff writer Both Sherwood and Lonoke had problems with their 2009 financial reports, according to information released by the state legislative audit. The state has not audited any other area city’s 2009 financial records yet, but does review all city budget practices annually. In Sherwood, the district court was unable to account for “or identify $118,384 remaining […]

TOP STORY > >Comparing pardons by governors

 By GARRICK FELDMANLeader executive editorDid you see Gov. Beebe’s latest list of pardons? Last week, he announced his intent to pardon a handful of small-time criminals, emphasis on small-time. Their crimes included theft of property, shoplifting, forgery, overdrafts, possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, third-degree battery, forgery and conspiracy to commit robbery. They’re nothing like Mike Huckabee’s list of […]

TOP STORY > >Cabot Mafia case in court

By JOAN McCOYLeader staff writer George Wylie Thompson — the Cabot man indicted more than a year ago on multiple federal charges, including bookmaking, drug trafficking and gun dealing — went on trial in Little Rock on Monday, along with his alleged co-conspirator Ralph DeLeo from Summerville, Mass., near Boston. This is the first case with alleged Mafia ties to […]

EDITORIAL >>High court race

Voters will choose a justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court at the general election, and it is hard to see how they can go wrong.  Judge Karen Baker of the Arkansas Court of Appeals and Judge Tim Fox, a circuit judge in Pulaski County, are splendid judges with such deep experience on both ends of the gavel that they should […]

EDITORIAL >>Another term for Gov. Beebe

Arkansas at rare times has had a visionary governor, a brilliant governor or a governor passionately committed to reform, and it has had three dozen chief executives of whom it could be said simply that they served their time and moved on. Now we have a competent governor. Competent may be a derogatory description of a political leader, but Mike […]