Alex Daniels
Stories by Alex
LR murder retrial gets ultimate OK
posted: 05/25/2012 5:41 a.m. Discuss
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday decided that an Arkansas defendant can be retried on murder charges even though a Little Rock jury stated that during its lower-court deliberations it had decided he was innocent of those charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Arkansan head of secret court
posted: 05/19/2012 5:15 a.m. Comment 1
Starting today, U.S. District Judge Morris “Buzz” Arnold will lead a court so secret that it hears its cases in private and rarely makes its decisions public.
2 allege retailer stalling in probe
posted: 05/18/2012 3:13 a.m. Discuss
Two Democratic House leaders said Thursday that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is not cooperating with their investigation into allegations that the company used bribes to gain market share in Mexico.
Five budget plans falter as senators trade blame
posted: 05/17/2012 5:38 a.m. Comment 1
Before the vote on Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, told his colleagues in the Senate that passing the budget bill he had just offered would be “irresponsible.” “I expect it to get no votes,” he said.
Pryor, Boozman salute Hammerschmidt, 90
posted: 05/15/2012 4:26 a.m. Comment 1
In speeches on the Senate floor late Monday afternoon, Arkansas’ two U.S. senators paid tribute to former Rep. John Paul Hammerschmidt, who turned 90 on May 4.
Wallet wisdom lands a D.C. visit
posted: 05/13/2012 4:01 a.m. Discuss
Precious Collier, a University of Central Arkansas junior, took questions from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan at a meeting on personal finances in the nation’s capital Thursday.
On cuts, Arkansans split by party
posted: 05/11/2012 3:01 a.m. Comments 4
Arkansas’ House members split along party lines on a vote Thursday that would cut funding for a range of domestic programs to block automatic military cuts scheduled for early next year.
Spare A-10 wing, six urge
posted: 05/11/2012 2:37 a.m. Comment 1
At a meeting Thursday morning with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, the entire Arkansas congressional delegation teamed up to try to persuade the Pentagon chief to spare a Fort Smith National Guard unit from Air Force budget cuts.
Medals for 2 in LR attack go to Senate
posted: 05/10/2012 5:58 a.m. Comments 2
Sen. Joe Lieberman on Wednesday introduced a bill that would allow two victims of a Little Rock U.S. Army recruiting center attack to receive the Purple Heart medal.
Baker fills state’s federal judgeship
posted: 05/08/2012 4:54 a.m. Comments 2
The Senate confirmed Kristine Baker to a lifetime appointment as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas on a voice vote Monday, ending the latest partisan standoff over judicial nominations.
PAC jabs at Pryor, calls IRS case fishy
posted: 05/03/2012 5:19 a.m. Comments 7
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor said Wednesday that a new Arkansas-based political action committee set up to derail his 2014 re-election bid is engaging in smear politics.
GOP budget faces Catholic flak
posted: 04/29/2012 4:58 a.m. Discuss
Bathed in a glow from the hall’s stained-glass windows and the television-camera lights, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan — a member of St. John Vianney Parish in Janesville, Wis. — cast his governing philosophy as an embodiment of Catholic ideals.
WASHINGTON NEWS IN BRIEF: Arkansan rallies for Alzheimer’s bill
posted: 04/29/2012 4:56 a.m. Discuss
Guy Dallas of Bella Vista fired up a Capitol Hill rally Monday sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association. Alzheimer’s “ambassadors” like Dallas were in Washington early last week to meet with lawmakers and press the case for changes in the law designed to help people with Alzheimer’s disease and their caregivers.
Pryor donor ‘regrets’ auction of internship
posted: 04/27/2012 2:54 a.m. Comments 7
A Los Angeles venture capitalist and longtime Democratic donor apologized Thursday for offering an internship in Sen. Mark Pryor’s office in an online auction.
Senate OKs bill to slow postal losses
posted: 04/26/2012 5:34 a.m. Comment 1
The U.S. Senate passed legislation Wednesday designed to stanch the flow of financial losses at the Postal Service, and at the same time to scale back an aggressive set of proposed service cutbacks and post office closings.
Porn producer claims to buy job with Pryor
posted: 04/26/2012 5:16 a.m. Comments 10
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor is asking the FBI to examine claims that he allowed a Los Angeles house of worship to auction off a four-week-long summer Senate internship as part of a charitable fundraiser.
Obama recognizes Monticello teacher
posted: 04/25/2012 5:21 a.m. Discuss
President Barack Obama honored Monticello High School visual arts teacher Kimberly Kaye Wilson and 53 other educators of the year Tuesday at the White House.
4 GOP top-job names still on ballot in state
posted: 04/22/2012 4:43 a.m. Discuss
Of the four names on the May 22 Arkansas Republican presidential primary ballot, one has dropped out of the running and another, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, is missing in action.
Batesville to Benin
posted: 04/21/2012 2:29 a.m. Discuss
In the land of Vodun, a form of spirit veneration more popularly known in the West as Voodoo, religion is an essential facet of life.
COTTON GROWERS IN LIMBO: World will be watching as U.S. tackles farm subsidies
posted: 04/16/2012 4:12 a.m.
Comments 4
As Congress prepares to craft a new farm bill in the coming weeks, Arkansas cotton growers are bracing for tens of billions of dollars in cuts in the cash payments and taxpayer backed loans that they have received for years.
With no money to fight U.S., 4 took cotton case to WTO
posted: 04/16/2012 4:11 a.m. Discuss
In 2002, Brazil took the United States to international trade court, using its muscle as a large trading partner to force U.S. concessions.
IN TINY BENIN, COTTON IS KING: Poor nation struggles for a toehold in cotton trade
posted: 04/15/2012 4:16 a.m.
Discuss
Each day, Sambo Sero balances his hand-hoe over his shoulder and disappears onto the path that is barely visible from the dirt road. He navigates the twisty route for hundreds of yards in his bare feet, through weeds as tall as he is, passing scattered hardwoods and a field planted in yams.
Beninese scrape by on average of $730 a year
posted: 04/15/2012 4:06 a.m.
Discuss
The van, having made pickups at roadside gas stands throughout Cotonou, snaked along pitted, dirt side streets toward the drop-off point.
In Benin, genetically modified cotton not option for now
posted: 04/15/2012 4 a.m.
Discuss
Dismayed, Sero Modougou walked among his cotton plants, scanning the damage.
GOP budget costly for health funding in state, group says
posted: 04/11/2012 5:30 a.m. Comment 1
Arkansas would lose billions in future federal health-care funds if the budget passed last month by the House becomes law, a liberal advocacy group said Tuesday.
Crawford gives ‘pork’ a rethink
posted: 04/08/2012 3:46 a.m. Comment 1
Arkansas Republican U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, who took a “no pork pledge” as a candidate, said Friday that budget earmarks, often derided as “pork-barrel spending,” should make a comeback.
Industry adopting Hussman Web idea
posted: 04/04/2012 3:27 a.m. Discuss
After years of giving away their news stories for free online and seeing their circulation plummet, newspapers are successfully shifting to a business model that charges readers for their Internet publications, according to a group of newspaper executives who charge for content.
Hundreds join legal discourse on health care
posted: 03/28/2012 4:27 a.m. Discuss
The name of the case, Department of Health and Human Services v. Florida, suggests two organizations — a state and a federal agency — dueling it out in the U.S. Supreme Court in this week’s oral arguments on the nation’s health care mandate.
State delegation says law too costly
posted: 03/26/2012 4:43 a.m. Comments 8
Two years after President Barack Obama signed a health-care overhaul into law, and on the eve of extended arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court to test its constitutionality, the tug-of-war over the act continues as feverishly as ever.
WASHINGTON NEWS IN BRIEF: Pryor clause in small-banks bill
posted: 03/25/2012 6:21 a.m. Discuss
A bill designed to promote investment that passed in the Senate on Thursday contained a provision co-authored by Arkansas’ U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor that aims to help small banks raise capital.
Bill clears Congress for coin to honor Marshals Service
posted: 03/22/2012 5:01 a.m. Discuss
The House passed a bill Wednesday directing the U.S. Mint to design and produce a coin to honor the U.S. Marshals Service. Proceeds from the sale of the coin would be used to fund a museum for the service in Fort Smith.
Justices take on child offenders’ no-parole terms
posted: 03/21/2012 5:15 a.m. Comments 5
The United States heard arguments in two cases Tuesday, including one originating in Arkansas, that will test whether children convicted of murder can be sentenced to prison with no hope of release.
Huckabee hopes show offers foil to Limbaugh
posted: 03/19/2012 5:14 a.m. Comments 4
The advertising exodus from Rush Limbaugh’s nationally syndicated radio show has fallen like a gift into the lap of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Obama honors 4 UA students for feeding hungry
posted: 03/16/2012 3:36 a.m. Discuss
At a White House ceremony Thursday, President Barack Obama named four University of Arkansas students “Champions of Change” for their efforts to feed the hungry.
No-tax-rise pledger Crawford proposes one
posted: 03/16/2012 3:18 a.m. Comments 4
WRep. Rick Crawford, a Jonesboro Republican who as a candidate pledged not to raise taxes, said Thursday that he’s willing to increase taxes on millionaires if Congress agrees to take steps to eliminate deficit spending.
State’s D.C. legislators pushing export growth
posted: 03/11/2012 5:33 a.m. Discuss
Viewing export growth as the quickest route out of the economic doldrums, members of both major political parties during the early months of the current session of Congress have pushed to expand U.S. foreign trade.
Local produce touted at panel
posted: 03/08/2012 3:39 a.m. Comment 1
An Arkansas farmer who grows vegetables on a small patch of land and an executive at the world’s largest retailer both touted buying tomatoes plucked from the vine at a farm near the grocery market during a Senate hearing Wednesday.
Call goes out to tap U.S. oil reserves
posted: 03/04/2012 4:22 a.m. Comment 1
Having spent a recess period getting an earful from voters vexed over rising gas prices, lawmakers in Washington last week made lowering energy prices a priority. But Democrats and Republicans have different views on how to ease the pain at the pump.
6 Arkansas vets join in telling Congress: VA budget falls short
posted: 02/29/2012 6:31 a.m. Discuss
While many other federal agencies are facing cuts, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs would receive additional funding under President Obama’s budget proposal, which this week is being examined by committees across Capitol Hill.
House panel split on freezing rules
posted: 02/28/2012 5:28 a.m. Discuss
During a House Judiciary Committee hearing Monday, lawmakers voiced strong disagreement over whether a timeout on new federal regulations proposed by Arkansas’ Rep. Tim Griffin would breathe life into the economy.
Governors’ moods lighter, Beebe says
posted: 02/26/2012 4:43 a.m. Discuss
Meeting in Washington on Saturday with the nation’s other top state executives, Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe offered a rosy, but qualified, assessment of the budget picture in the states.
U.S. justices hear state retrial case
posted: 02/23/2012 5:02 a.m. Discuss
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case Wednesday that will test whether a person can be retried for murder when a jury has already stated that it believes that the defendant is innocent, beyond a reasonable doubt, of the offense.
Lawmakers hit fork on House road bill
posted: 02/20/2012 4:28 a.m. Comments 2
House members left Washington on Friday for a week-long recess unable to complete work on a long-overdue highway bill. They can’t even agree on whether the House plan would boost road spending or slash it.
State’s congressional delegates blast Obama’s budget
posted: 02/14/2012 4:29 a.m. Discuss
Members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation slammed President Obama’s budget proposal, faulting the plan for raising taxes and not cutting spending enough. And the cuts that are proposed, they said, would disproportionately hit farmers and ranchers.
Morality bigger issue than economy, Huckabee tells conservative group
posted: 02/11/2012 5:17 a.m. Comments 6
To win the White House in the November election, Republicans must focus on social issues, especially abortion, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a large gathering of conservatives Friday.
Law offers exit from FEMA tab
posted: 02/09/2012 5:02 a.m. Discuss
Thousands of people being dunned by a federal agency for money improperly paid out for disaster relief will get a chance to have their debts forgiven under a new federal law.
Gifted earn time with Obama
posted: 02/08/2012 6:29 a.m. Discuss
Under the watchful eyes of the Abraham Lincoln portrait in the White House’s State Dining Room, high school senior Taylor Wilson chatted Tuesday about nuclear physics with the president.
Bevy of bills out to tame budget
posted: 02/06/2012 4:53 a.m. Comment 1
Several bills designed to improve federal budgeting are making the rounds on Capitol Hill. There’s the Pro-Growth Budgeting Act, the Honest Budget Act, the Baseline Reform Act, and the Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act, to name a few.
WASHINGTON NEWS IN BRIEF: Crawford plan lets farmers save up for disasters
posted: 02/05/2012 4:46 a.m. Discuss
A bill offered Thursday by Rep. Rick Crawford would allow farmers to create their own tax-free rainy-day funds to help bridge the gap between disasters and the federal disaster assistance that can often take months to follow — if it comes at all.
At D.C. breakfast, Obama talks of political life rooted in faith
posted: 02/03/2012 4:41 a.m. Comments 44
President Barack Obama told a crowd of worshippers Thursday morning that political life should be rooted in a “living, breathing, active faith.” About 30 Arkansans traveled to Washington for the National Prayer Breakfast, which was co-chaired by Arkansas’ U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat.
