Debra Hale-Shelton
Stories by Debra
Shock in fall Faulkner County sheriff race
posted: 05/23/2012 3:52 a.m.
Discuss
Andy Shock, who ran with the current sheriff's endorsement, won a four-way race for the Republican nomination for Faulkner County sheriff Tuesday.
Audit tags ex-UALR dean with violations
posted: 05/22/2012 2:40 a.m. Comment 1
A former College of Business dean at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock filed for and received more than $15,000 in expenses he was not entitled to and failed to report leave amounting to about $16,346 in salary, an internal audit found.
4 veteran lawmen in GOP sheriff race
posted: 05/20/2012 5:16 a.m. Discuss
Four men are vying for the Republican nomination for Faulkner County sheriff in a race marred by a fake mailing that has led to a federal investigation.
Addiction facility backers file suit
posted: 05/19/2012 5:06 a.m. Discuss
A lawsuit filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court accuses top officials of a Perry County ranch aimed at helping men with drug or alcohol addictions of breach of contract, defamation and other wrongdoing.
Adcock selected as trustee for UCA
posted: 05/17/2012 5:13 a.m. Comment 1
Gov. Mike Beebe named a banker as the University of Central Arkansas’ newest trustee, a man who went to the school’s aid during one of its most tumultuous times.
1930s Mather Lodge renovated, reopened
posted: 05/13/2012 4:44 a.m. Discuss
Ron Blake sat at a table with thick wooden legs and sent e-mails from his iPad — taking advantage of the rustic Mather Lodge restaurant’s Internet service while he savored its panoramic view.
UCA’s Newton: Resisted pressure
posted: 05/13/2012 3:27 a.m. Comment 1
A University of Central Arkansas vice president said Saturday that former President Allen Meadors tried to persuade her to destroy a letter in which Aramark offered $700,000 to renovate the president’s home but only if UCA extended the food vendor’s contract.
Meadors said shred it, 2 say
posted: 05/12/2012 5:11 a.m. Comments 7
Former University of Central Arkansas President Allen Meadors repeatedly told a UCA vice president to shred a letter that later led to Meadors’ resignation and to an Arkansas State Police investigation, sources said Friday.
Clinton man dies of injuries after run-in with a neighbor
posted: 05/11/2012 2:21 a.m. Discuss
A Clinton man died Thursday of injuries suffered in a fight with his neighbor, authorities said.
Beebe ready to ask, but UCA trustee said he’d resign, aide says
posted: 05/08/2012 4:22 a.m. Comment 1
Gov. Mike Beebe had planned to ask Scott Roussel to resign as a University of Central Arkansas trustee when the two talked April 30, but the request became unnecessary as the conversation developed, an aide to Beebe said Monday.
UCA trustee resigns after vendor flap
posted: 05/07/2012 4:06 a.m. Comment 1
Longtime University of Central Arkansas Trustee Scott Roussel resigned from the position Sunday after coming under criticism for voting on a new contract with food-vendor Aramark despite an ongoing investigation into an earlier botched deal with the company.
Project focus: Science in Rwanda
posted: 05/06/2012 3:33 a.m. Discuss
Eleven University of Central Arkansas students and two professors will leave Tuesday on an educational journey to Rwanda, where they hope to learn about the African nation’s culture and teach science to schoolchildren.
College-education costs to go up at UCA, ASU-Jonesboro
posted: 05/05/2012 3:25 a.m. Comments 2
The boards of the University of Central Arkansas and Arkansas State University-Jonesboro approved tuition and fee increases Friday, joining the state’s other public universities in adding to the costs they charge students.
Trustee status unclear at UCA
posted: 05/05/2012 3:18 a.m. Discuss
Gov. Mike Beebe’s office will again take up the issue of Scott Roussel’s presence on the University of Central Arkansas board of trustees next week after Roussel unexpectedly left a Friday board meeting early and left trustees and others in the dark as to his plans.
U.S. needs debt control, Boozman says
posted: 05/04/2012 3:10 a.m. Discuss
U.S. Sen. John Boozman said Wednesday that if the United States doesn’t get its budget under control, it will face the fate that some other countries already have.
Ex-coach charged in sex assault
posted: 05/04/2012 3:03 a.m. Discuss
A former coach and teacher in the Clinton School District was charged Thursday with first degree sexual assault, a felony.
Snoozing black bear caught in Conway
posted: 05/02/2012 5:12 a.m. Discuss
A black bear that wandered into a Conway neighborhood was captured late Monday night after it fell asleep in a tall pine tree and landed on a staple of children’s birthday parties — inflatable bounce houses.
Beebe talks with UCA trustee
posted: 05/01/2012 4:18 a.m. Comment 1
Gov. Mike Beebe talked briefly Monday with University of Central Arkansas trustee Scott Roussel, just days after UCA’s faculty senate urged Roussel to resign.
UCA faculty senate to trustee: Step down
posted: 04/27/2012 2:59 a.m. Comments 2
The University of Central Arkansas’ faculty senate voted Thursday to ask trustee Scott Roussel to resign over his failure to tell other board members in August that a $700,000 offer by food vendor Aramark to renovate the president’s house was contingent upon a contract extension. As it turned out, the offer was anything but the private donation that Roussel described to other trustees in August. The $700,000 would have been amortized — or recovered and likely with interest — by Aramark had the deal not fallen through, a review by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has since revealed.
Judge to consider dismissing charges
posted: 04/25/2012 5:18 a.m. Discuss
A judge on Friday agreed to consider a defense motion seeking dismissal of capital-murder charges against a former physician accused of two execution-style slayings nearly a decade ago.
Injury probe shuts down Tech fraternity
posted: 04/25/2012 5:14 a.m. Discuss
Arkansas Tech University has suspended the Russellville school’s chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, pending an investigation of a student’s injuries.
Officer shoots, kills man who struck his vehicle
posted: 04/20/2012 3:23 a.m. Discuss
A Lonoke County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot a man accused of striking the officer’s vehicle with a piece of metal Thursday near Jacksonville, Arkansas State Police said.
UCA center gets OK for Chinese program
posted: 04/11/2012 5:15 a.m. Discuss
The State Department has given the OK for Mandarin classes offered in Arkansas’ public schools to continue this fall in cooperation with the University of Central Arkansas’ Confucius Institute.
Conway OKs sewage-rate jump
posted: 04/11/2012 5:12 a.m. Discuss
Sewage rates in Conway will increase starting in June.
UCA-vendor file is handed to prosecutor
posted: 04/05/2012 5:30 a.m. Comments 2
The Arkansas State Police on Wednesday gave a state prosecutor an investigative file involving food vendor Aramark’s $700,000 offer to renovate the University of Central Arkansas president’s house.
Aramark contract wins OK at UCA
posted: 04/03/2012 4:52 a.m. Discuss
The University of Central Arkansas’ board unanimously approved a 10-year contract with food-vendor Aramark on Monday. Trustee Scott Roussel voted on the issue despite admonitions that he should recuse.
Spa City 6th-grader wins geography bee
posted: 03/31/2012 3:40 a.m. Discuss
Motorists who drive in circles trying to get to their destinations or rely on a GPS device for verbal directions might ask 11-year-old Christian Boekhout for help.
UCA studies new food-vendor pact
posted: 03/30/2012 3:32 a.m. Discuss
The University of Central Arkansas board of trustees will consider approving a 10-year contract Monday with Aramark, just as a police investigation of the food vendor’s $700,000 offer to renovate the UCA-owned president’s house last year is nearing an end.
Exams find no drugs in 2 bodies
posted: 03/28/2012 4:09 a.m. Discuss
A woman who authorities said stabbed her 7-year-old granddaughter and then set their house on fire, killing both of them, had not been taking medication for her bipolarism, a sheriff’s captain said Tuesday.
4-year-old boy missing 3 days focus of search
posted: 03/27/2012 4:28 a.m. Discuss
More than 100 people were searching for a third day Monday on foot, horse and helicopter for a 4-year old boy who was last seen Saturday during an outing near the South Fork River north of Hardy.
Vendor deals a double-edged sword
posted: 03/18/2012 4:12 a.m. Comment 1
Arkansas’ universities have reaped millions of dollars in capital projects financed by their food vendors. But most of the deals include caveats: If the contracts end before the companies recoup their investments, the schools must pay the vendors the difference.
Murder case’s dismissal sought
posted: 03/15/2012 4:41 a.m. Discuss
A judge will hear arguments Wednesday on whether he should dismiss capital-murder charges filed against a former physician in the almost decade-old slayings of a Conway businessman and an associate.
Don’t sponsor Chinese, UCA told
posted: 03/07/2012 4:36 a.m. Discuss
The U.S. State Department has advised the University of Central Arkansas that the state Department of Education, not UCA, should apply to sponsor the Chinese instructors of Mandarin in Arkansas’ public schools.
Lawsuit seeking ouster of mayor
posted: 03/01/2012 6:29 a.m. Discuss
A prosecutor has sued the mayor of tiny Caddo Valley to have him removed from office over a 1969 theft conviction.
Ex-provost moves to UCA professor post
posted: 02/29/2012 6:25 a.m. Comment 1
Lance Grahn, the University of Central Arkansas’ chief academic officer during some of the school’s most tumultuous years, has moved to a faculty position, but it was unclear Tuesday whether he will teach any classes this semester.
UCA ends foreign-studies probe
posted: 02/29/2012 6:05 a.m. Discuss
An internal investigation of the University of Central Arkansas’ international programs has ended, the school’s outgoing provost said Tuesday.
UCA provost will exit post; fill-in named
posted: 02/28/2012 4:59 a.m. Discuss
Lance Grahn, the provost and second-highest ranking employee at the University of Central Arkansas, will be leaving that position, though details about his future at UCA were unclear late Monday.
UCA puts limits on renovation
posted: 02/25/2012 3:27 a.m. Discuss
The University of Central Arkansas board of trustees on Friday unanimously approved a proposal that provides stricter regulations over major renovations at the UCA-owned president’s house.
Plan adds board OK for altering UCA home
posted: 02/24/2012 4:47 a.m. Discuss
The University of Central Arkansas owned house that ultimately led to Allen Meadors’ resignation as president would not undergo major renovations again without board approval under a proposal going before the panel today.
Plan is to buy stock, Jesse Jackson says
posted: 02/24/2012 4:35 a.m. Comment 1
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Thursday night that the civil-rights coalition he founded plans to buy stock in 50 public corporations in the Mid-South and investigate each of them.
Ike given civil-rights credit
posted: 02/24/2012 4:33 a.m. Discuss
Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the World War II general who became the nation’s 34th president, was ending a speech Thursday when she looked at a woman seated on the front row and called her “one of my heroes.” The woman was Elizabeth Eckford, one of the nine black students who broke racial barriers and attended Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957 after federal troops were dispatched to enforce desegregation.
Bookstore owner who saw literary potential to retire
posted: 02/22/2012 5:50 a.m. Discuss
The woman who opened a small-town bookstore in Arkansas’ Delta more than three decades ago and recognized the potential of John Grisham and other writers before they became best-selling authors is putting the shop up for sale.
Man cuts deal in ’09 murder case
posted: 02/18/2012 6:29 a.m. Comments 2
A man who vanished the day of his pretrial hearing in a murder case last summer pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder Friday in the shooting death of a Hot Springs man.
Conway voters pass sales-tax rededication
posted: 02/15/2012 6:15 a.m. Discuss
Voters gave the city of Conway a Valentine’s Day gift Tuesday — the overwhelming approval of a proposed quarter-percent sales-tax rededication.
TURMOIL AND TEARS: ‘Murder-suicide’ has skeptics
posted: 02/12/2012 5:37 a.m. Comments 2
Darkness shadowed Abby Robbins’ short life — from before her first birthday, when her father died, to her death Jan. 7.
Conway tax plan getting 2nd look
posted: 02/12/2012 5:19 a.m. Discuss
For the second time in less than a year, Conway voters will decide Tuesday whether to rededicate a quarter-percent sales tax that has been on the books since 1987.
UCA probes worker’s tax touting
posted: 02/11/2012 5:06 a.m. Discuss
University of Central Arkansas attorneys are investigating an allegation that one or more employees used UCA equipment during working hours to promote a local sales-tax proposal.
Tech reassigns theater director
posted: 02/03/2012 4:22 a.m. Comments 2
Arkansas Tech University announced Thursday that it replaced the director of the school’s theater program, which has come under criticism from the administration.
Conway leaders grilled on tax
posted: 01/27/2012 5:45 a.m. Discuss
Mayor Tab Townsell and five of Conway’s eight aldermen fielded questions Thursday night about the city’s proposed 0.25 percent sales-tax rededication during a meeting of the Faulkner County Tea Party.
UCA sets fund limit, broadens meetings
posted: 01/24/2012 5:05 a.m. Discuss
The University of Central Arkansas board of trustees — meeting for the first time since the appointment of a new president, two new trustees and a new board chairman — voted Monday to put limits on a contentious board fund and to provide for more staff and student input than ever before allowed.
