Build-a-prison budget step sought
NEWPORT — With Gov. Mike Beebe’s blessing, the Arkansas Board of Corrections intends to ask the Legislature for something not included in the governor’s propos…
Stories by Cathy Frye
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Newspaperman, always respectful
Robert W. Chowning, a longtime newspaperman and past president of the Arkansas Press Association, died Thursday at 93.
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Robert W. Chowning Newspaperman, always respectful
Robert W. Chowning, a longtime newspaperman and past president of the Arkansas Press Association, died Thursday at 93.
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Corrections Board amends parole policy
The Board of Corrections has found itself in an unenviable position in recent months as members have struggled to toughen up the state’s parole system without …
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Ex-coach’s bash broken off after 2 groups protest
A goodbye party for Kathy Griffin — the former Mount St. Mary athletic director found guilty last month of failing to report a sexual relationship between a te…
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For years, parolees did crime, no time
The state’s parole system failed George Johnson. It failed Tanya Hollifield. And, according to homicide detectives, it failed Jeffery Hughes.
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Shots killed mother, dreams of a lifetime
Someday, a little girl named Linnea Olson will peer into the contents of a trunk filled with her mother’s favorite belongings — New Orleans Saints jerseys, a c…
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Big-house bay finds his stride
The prison horse up for bid was large and stout — not what most would consider barrel-racing material. But Lana Jason thought his bay coloring was pretty, even…
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Parole office admits open-records lapses
Top parole administrators conceded Thursday that the state parole and probation agency’s past leadership failed to properly and consistently share information …
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Girl beats 99% odds, goes home
A crowd gathered at Arkansas Children’s Hospital stood and clapped Wednesday morning as Kali Hardig — a 12-year-old who survived a rare and usually fatal type …
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Parole agency promotes three
The Department of Community Correction is promoting three longtime employees to an executive level, Director Sheila Sharp announced Thursday.
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Malvern mayor ill but toils
Malvern Mayor Steve Northcutt isn’t living in a condo on nearby Lake Hamilton. Nor is he the owner of a party barge, ditching work for play.
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Philander Smith to host screening, talk
Seventeen years ago, Betty Chism listened in disbelief when the judge pronounced her son’s sentence for a nonviolent drug conviction — life without parole.
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Sheriff retiring, says offenses not why
Saline County Sheriff Bruce Pennington said Friday that his abrupt decision to retire doesn’t have anything to do with his recent convictions for resisting arr…
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No early paroles in 2 counties
Since November 1998, the Board of Corrections has routinely invoked the Emergency Powers Act to ease prison overcrowding. The act allows inmates to be released…
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Parole officers feeling the heat
On any given day, a parole officer in the Little Rock area is expected to know the whereabouts and activities of the 140 to 150 men and women under his supervi…
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Teacher’s wisdom, wit graced OBU
Thomas Lynn “Tom” Auffenberg — who taught history for 40 years at Ouachita Baptist University — died Wednesday, just a day before he was to be honored for his …
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Corrections gives Sharp the job
In early July, the Board of Corrections asked Sheila Sharp to temporarily take over an agency mired in controversy — one that remains the subject of multiple i…
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Schools check out sheriff’s arms plan
Thus far, Faulkner County Sheriff Andy Shock’s proposal to deputize school administrators — thereby allowing them to carry weapons on campus — has attracted th…
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New policies on parole fill jails, prisons
The increasing number of parolees getting locked up in county jails across the state after a recent policy change is creating a worrisome ripple effect on the …
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McDaniel: School-gun plans skirt law
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel issued an opinion Thursday saying that school districts cannot continue to use a private-security-guard law to arm th…
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Parole Board axes policy letting absconders slide
The state Board of Parole on Thursday rescinded a policy that for six years allowed parolees to successfully complete their terms even if they stopped reportin…
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Drug dilemma spurs debate: Still execute?
Given the unavailability of drugs needed for lethal-injection executions and an avalanche of federal lawsuits, lawmakers face two questions in the coming month…
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Panel petitions for parolee’s file
For 15 years, parolees’ personal files have remained confidential under Arkansas law.
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Papers battle for New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS — On this muggy summer morning, a group of longtime friends gathers at the Fair Grinds coffeehouse on Ponce de Leon Street. After shoving a couple …
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Longtime chief of state parole, probation retires
The head of the state’s parole and probation system retired Monday amid several ongoing investigations into his agency’s handling of an eight-time parole absco…
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Ex-captive sad to hear convict dead
In 2001, convicted murderer Vann Tucker, then 17, tried to escape from the Pope County jail by crawling through the air-conditioning vents.
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Prison guard leaves after sex-act claims
A lieutenant at the Hawkins Center for Women, a state prison in Wrightsville, resigned June 3 after several inmates accused him of engaging with them in sexual…
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Justices: Murder charge will stay
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up a capital-murder defendant’s challenge of an east Arkansas judge’s refusal to let prosecutors drop h…
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Both sides in Helena murder case challenge judge’s clinging to charge
Defense lawyers aligned with their usual opposition Tuesday against an east Arkansas judge’s decision to appoint a special prosecutor in a capital-murder case …
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Firearm charges net man 4 years
A federal judge ordered a four-year prison sentence Friday for a Helena-West Helena man who bought a small cache of firearms from a pawn shop while he was faci…
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Shoffner left family farm for life in capital city
NEWPORT — People in this small, northeast Arkansas town remember her as “a real looker” — no, an “absolute knockout” — who had brains, grit and an entrepreneur…
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State park long time in making
MARIANNA — For more than 40 years, Arkansas officials scrutinized land along the Mississippi River, hoping to find an area to create a state park.
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Phillip County court hears jail financing options
HELENA-WEST HELENA — Members of the Phillips County Quorum Court were overwhelmed Tuesday night by the amount of planning and money needed to reopen the county…
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Ex-UCA official’s defense loses bid to put prosecutors on stand
Attorneys for Jack Gillean — the former chief of staff at the University of Central Arkansas charged with felony commercial burglary in a test-cheating scandal…
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Henderson’s ex-chief adept administrator, loved the classroom
When Charles Dunn — who served as president of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia for 22 years — decided to retire in 2008, he did so with a specific go…
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Closed four years, jail ready to reopen
ASHDOWN — The Little River County jail — which closed in January 2009 after failing a state inspection — has been extensively renovated and will reopen this we…
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Sheriff closes lockup found unsafe, dirty
HELENA-WEST HELENA — Phillips County closed its jail Tuesday after a state inspection last month found that some of the jail’s locks didn’t work, inmates had e…
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’99 crash victim’s family gives burn unit $700,000
For two weeks, she lay in the Burn Center at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the youngest victim of the 1999 American Airlines Flight 1420 crash.
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Democrat-Gazette wins 1st for editorial writing
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette won first place in editorial writing in the 79th National Headliner Awards.
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LR social activist had civil-rights ties
After earning a doctorate in communication at Ohio University in 1960, Allan Ward knew that he wanted to find a teaching position at a college in the South, wh…
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LR racer finished just minutes ahead of blast
The race clock showed 3:58:23 when Cortney Allison, 47, crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday.
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Schools take lesson: Need to arm staffs
As the superintendent of a small, rural school district, Nancy Anderson never imagined she would one day feel the need to carry a gun on campus.
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Oily wildlife getting human touch
A duck coated with thick crude oil squirmed frantically as two field biologists from Florida examined their newest patient.
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Arkansas has route to arm school staffs
A national report on school safety — put together by former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson for the National Rifle Association — includes a sample draft of a law for …
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Erstine to succeed Gillean as UCA chief of staff
Kelley Erstine, who once served on the board of trustees for the University of Central Arkansas, will become the university’s chief of staff on July 1.
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Medical ‘pot’ backers file suit, say McDaniel wrong to ax ballot try
What’s good for the goose — in this case, Arkansas legislators — also should be good for the gander, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday against state Attorn…
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Troubled past catches up to McCready
She said it again and again — on Twitter, Facebook, her blog and even in one of her songs: “I’m still here.” Country singer Mindy McCready talked often and ope…
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Man gets five years in Delta drug case
A Helena-West Helena drug dealer received a five year sentence in federal court Friday for the role he played in a multi-state drug trafficking ring that funne…
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Rookie officer in PB arrested over thefts
A Pine Bluff police officer — accused of stealing things from people he knows — was arrested Thursday at the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy in Camde…
