The state/region in brief

FBI tells of threat to Memphis span

The FBI says it wants law enforcement officers assigned to areas around a Mississippi River bridge at Memphis to help keep an eye on the span after a vague threat warning of an attack.

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FBI spokesmen said Tuesday that the threat against the Interstate 40 bridge was unsubstantiated, but as part of its routine, agents alerted law enforcement agencies in and around Memphis.

The bridge serves a route that stretches from California to North Carolina. It remained open.

Highway officials reviewed their contingency plans for rerouting traffic and asked workers to remain vigilant.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said the threat had not reached a level that would require it to put anyone on standby. Spokesman Rick Fahr said threats that include specifics happen rarely.

-- The Associated Press

3-dog attack lands girl, 3, in hospital

SMACKOVER -- A 3-year-old girl was in stable condition at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock on Wednesday after authorities said she was attacked Tuesday night by three dogs at a home in Smackover.

Michael Sikes, 53, of Smackover owned the animals and was arrested late Wednesday on three counts of having a vicious dog at large. In addition, he is being charged with failing to pay a previous misdemeanor fine, Smackover police said.

Smackover Police Chief Michael Fife said five other dogs and nine puppies -- all pit bull mixes -- were also inside the house at the time of the attack. All of the animals were seized by animal control officials, but only the three who attacked the girl are considered unsafe and will likely be euthanized, the chief said.

Fife said the girl and her mother were moving into the home to help care for two elderly men who lived there.

Sikes, who also lived with the elderly men, kept the dogs locked in a bedroom inside the house because they were known to growl and act unfriendly, especially to strangers, Fife said.

"The mother was doing something in the bedroom and forgot to close the door," Fife said. "That's when the dogs got out and attacked the girl on the front porch."

The chief said the dogs had never attacked anyone before Tuesday.

-- Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Population rises 0.6% in Oklahoma

TULSA -- A report from the U.S. Census Bureau said Oklahoma's population has grown slightly but is trailing the national rate.

Oklahoma added nearly 25,000 residents between 2013 and the middle of 2014. The growth rate of 0.6 percent is behind the national rate of 0.7 percent and well behind that in Texas, where growth was 1.7 percent.

The Tulsa World reported Wednesday that Oklahoma grew at a faster pace than neighboring Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri, which grew at a rate of 0.3 percent.

The Census Bureau said 60 percent of the growth was the result of in-state births and the other 40 percent involved people moving into the state from elsewhere.

Oklahoma had 3,878,051 residents as of July 1 -- up 3.4 percent from the 2010 Census.

-- The Associated Press

Tulsa man busted over Colorado 'pot'

WEATHERFORD, Okla. -- Two days after Oklahoma officials lodged a complaint about an influx of Colorado marijuana into the state, police said they arrested a Tulsa man with 85 pounds of pot and $20,000 in cash.

Custer County officials said Seminole police gave them a tip about the journey. Officers stopped a minivan for a broken brake light near Weatherford and found the marijuana and cash. They said the man and a mother-daughter team from Broken Arrow were taking the marijuana to Tulsa.

The Tulsa World reported Wednesday that deputies found receipts showing the three had gone to Colorado to buy the marijuana.

On Dec. 18, the attorneys general of Nebraska and Oklahoma asked the U.S. Supreme Court to void a Colorado law legalizing marijuana sales. The Weatherford-area bust was two days later.

-- The Associated Press

Boy's confinement is upheld as abuse

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A man who punished his teenage son by confining him in a church bathroom lost an appeal Tuesday when the Missouri Supreme Court upheld his child-abuse convictions.

In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court rejected assertions by Peter Hansen that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that he knowingly inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on his son.

Hansen, his wife, 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter were living at a Seventh-day Adventist church after they were evicted from their Springfield home in April 2009.

Child-abuse investigators responding to a hotline call that November found the boy being kept as punishment in a cold, dark bathroom that was so small he was unable to fully stretch out while lying down. The boy had been confined there for days at a time, the Supreme Court said in its ruling.

The family maintained a low-calorie, largely vegetarian diet, and the children's meals were sometimes denied entirely as punishment. Hansen argued that the food restrictions amounted to nothing more than depriving his son of desserts and condiments, but the Supreme Court said there was evidence that the boy was malnourished.

"This is not a case about sending a child to bed without dessert," Judge Richard Teitelman wrote for the Supreme Court.

The case was argued before the Supreme Court on Oct. 1.

Hansen was convicted in 2011 of two counts of abusing his son, but jurors acquitted him of other charges and couldn't reach a verdict on a child-abuse charge regarding his daughter. He was sentenced to three years in prison, but a judge suspended the imposition of that punishment and instead placed him on five years of probation and 100 days in jail. Hansen already has served the jail time.

-- The Associated Press

Pastor who killed boy ruled justified

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Prosecutors said an Oklahoma City pastor was justified in fatally shooting a 14-year-old would-be burglar who hid in a bedroom's closet and attacked him.

The Oklahoman reported Tom Vineyard, 48, won't face charges in the shooting of Keontre Reese over the weekend.

Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said Reese broke into Vineyard's home. Vineyard had been Christmas shopping when he received a notification from his alarm company that a motion detector had been activated in his house.

Prater said Vineyard went home and was attacked by Reese while he was checking around the house. He said Vineyard, who has a concealed-carry permit, then shot Reese in self-defense.

Vineyard is the pastor of Windsor Hills Baptist Church.

-- The Associated Press

NW News on 12/25/2014

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