SPORTS STORY >> JHS shooter earns All-American nod

Ryan Bowen of Jacksonville has been selected to the 2017 Sub-Junior (under the age of 15) All-American trapshooting second team, according to the Amateur Trapshooting Association. More than 100 years old, trapshooting is a competitive sport of shooting at 4 1/4-inch clay targets with a shotgun. Since being featured in The Leader last July for his winning efforts in the […]

SPORTS STORY >> Panthers play well, top Mavs

By RAY BENTON  Leader sports editor The Cabot baseball team won its second 7A-Central game in as many tries on Friday when it traveled to Fort Smith to defeat Southside 8-1. The Panthers led 7-0 before Southside finally scored in the sixth inning. Cabot added a run in the top of the seventh to set the final margin, and Michael […]

SPORTS STORY >> Cabot girls take title at Fayetteville Farmington

By RAY BENTON  Leader sports editor Outstanding pitching and timely hitting led to the Lady Panther softball team winning the highly competitive Fayetteville/Farmington Softball Challenge over the weekend, going 5-0 in two days, including three shutouts, to bring home the first-place trophy. Cabot never trailed in the tournament, and that was important in 70-minute time-limit games. “If you can get […]

SPORTS STORY >> Titans shut down Badgers

RAY BENTON  Leader sports editor Jacksonville bounced back from its worst outing of the year to hammer an injury-bitten Beebe Badger team 17-0 Friday at Dupree Park. The win was an important bounce-back effort after recording their worst outing of the year in dropping two mercy-rule games to Maumelle last Wednesday to open 5A/6A-Central Conference play. “I think it was […]

EDITORIAL >> NLR donates sirens to Ward

Ward residents can feel safer this spring thanks to the generosity of North Little Rock officials. They are donating four tornado sirens to Ward, where a couple of residents told the city council last week they can make the sirens work almost like new. Dustin Johnson, who worked in public safety and information technology and oversaw Conway’s 22 sirens and […]

EDITORIAL >> Obamacare repeal stuck

The House of Representatives will vote on a Republican health-care bill on Thursday, but passage is uncertain as critics in the president’s own party balk at a plan that would hurt the working class and working seniors who voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. The bill’s future is almost certainly doomed in the Senate, where at least 10 Republicans, including our […]

TOP STORY >> FBI bares spying by Russians

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By GARRICK FELDMAN Leader Executive editor FBI director James Comey’s announcement at a House intelligence committee hearing Monday that the bureau is investigating allegations of Russian interference and possible collusion with Trump’s campaign in last year’s presidential election comes as no surprise. It turns out the FBI has been looking into Russian meddling at least since last July, when we […]

TOP STORY >> Agencies speak out over cuts in social programs

By DEBORAH HORN Leader staff writer Congress will vote Thursday on repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act — some know it as Obama-care — which could leave many Arkansans without health insurance. Proposed budget cuts will eliminate or endanger programs like Meals on Wheels, low-income energy assistance, food stamps and many more in a state that leads the […]

TOP STORY >> Payday lenders trip bill in House

By JOHN HOFHEIMER Leader senior staff writer Sen. Jason Rapert’s passed-again, failed-again consumer-protection bill was expunged late Tuesday afternoon after state Rep. Doug House (R-North Little Rock) nullified the 51 to 12 “failed” vote when supporters were not in the chamber, setting the stage for another vote as early as Wednesday. Rapert (R-Conway) sponsored SB658, which would protect borrowers from […]