Jim Brooks
Stories by Jim
Wide array of events set for Memorial Day
posted: 05/23/2009 3:48 a.m. Discuss
In addition to the traditional Memorial Day commemorations of veterans and their sacrifices, Arkansans on Monday will have the opportunity to learn more about the state's military history, shop for traditional Arkansas crafts, or run and bike till they drop.
Beavers likely cause of roadway flooding
posted: 05/22/2009 2:56 a.m. Discuss
Beavers are the likely cause of flooding that has forced Faulkner Lake Road to be blocked off for more than two weeks, North Little Rock and county officials said Wednesday.
Officials urge safety on boats after rains
posted: 05/22/2009 2:52 a.m. Discuss
The Memorial Day weekend generally marks the start of the Arkansas boating season and state and federal officials say that high water levels mean safety is even more important than usual.
UALR graduation called family affair
posted: 05/17/2009 3:02 a.m. Discuss
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Chancellor Joel Anderson, on behalf of the 1,370 graduates at Saturday's commencement ceremonies, thanked the students' families.
Riverfront gearing up for cities' big festival
posted: 05/16/2009 2:51 a.m. Discuss
A week before Riverfest's start, festival organizers are ready to begin setting up for what they want to be a successful - and, they hope, dry - event.
Two bodies found in SUV off I-40
posted: 05/10/2009 4:35 a.m.
Arkansas State Police are investigating the deaths of a couple whose bodies were found in a black Ford Expedition on Saturday in North Little Rock after a passing driver saw the sport utility vehicle off Interstate 40 and called authorities to report what he thought was a wreck.
Judge grants delay, resets Alamo's trial for July 13
posted: 05/09/2009 5:29 a.m.
A federal judge on Friday delayed the sexual abuse trial of evangelist Tony Alamo for two months, splitting the difference of a 120-day delay that Alamo's attorney had requested.
Pastors say churches can help keep kids off prison path
posted: 05/02/2009 4:11 a.m.
A group of pastors told participants at the Cradle to Prison Pipeline Summit on Friday in Little Rock that churches have a role to play in keeping children off the path that leads to incarceration but that there are barriers in the way of progress.
LR officers swoop in on suspects
posted: 04/19/2009 3:30 a.m.
In 15 minutes, the men in this room will knock down the door of a suspected drug house in central Little Rock to serve a search warrant, but the atmosphere in the lineup room is more business meeting than locker room.
Police beat
posted: 04/18/2009 5:23 a.m.
Little Rock police arrested a 29-year-old man Thursday night on child-endangerment charges after his 3-year-old son fell off the gas tank of the man's motorcycle and struck the pavement, police said.
Secretary charged in credit-card purchases
posted: 04/18/2009 4:54 a.m.
Little Rock police arrested a secretary at Mabelvale Middle School this week after an internal Little Rock School District audit turned up almost $12,000 in unauthorized credit card purchases for non-school purposes which included, among other things, a Super Deluxe Cat Tree, police said.
California man arrested in robbery wanted in LA
posted: 04/17/2009 4:42 a.m.
A California man arrested Wednesday in the robbery of a Taco Bell restaurant in Little Rock was identified Thursday as a suspect in a February gangrelated slaying in Los Angeles, police said.
Police beat
posted: 04/03/2009 3:51 a.m.
A woman arrested last month on a robbery charge involving a purse-snatching in the parking lot of a Cantrell Road Wal-Mart was charged Wednesday in a second purse-snatching after the victim saw news coverage of the Wal-Mart arrest, police said.
LR officer fires as car races at him
posted: 04/02/2009 3:35 a.m.
An off-duty Little Rock police officer interrupted an attempt to break into his car outside a North Little Rock school Wednesday afternoon, firing at one suspect as the man tried to run him over in a car, police said.
Web site for lawsuit misleads, judge says
posted: 03/28/2009 2:30 a.m.
A Web site soliciting Little Rock police officers for a class-action lawsuit filed by a former officer seeking damages to compensate for time officers spend "donning and doffing" their uniforms must carry a prominent court-approved notice and an explanation that the site expresses only the opinion of the plaintiffs, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Ex-Arkansan keeps head above water
posted: 03/28/2009 2:23 a.m.
Former Little Rock police captain David Ebinger hasn't slept much lately - like many other residents of Moorhead, Minn., where the rising Red River is at historic flood levels with predictions to rise even farther.
Body found in abandoned club
posted: 03/26/2009 2:24 a.m.
Authorities found the body of a woman inside an abandoned club Wednesday morning on Wooten Road south of Jacksonville in Pulaski County, the Arkansas State Police reported.
Police: 2-year-old shot after argument
posted: 03/25/2009 1:45 a.m.
Two-year-old Shari Graydon remained in critical condition in a Little Rock hospital Tuesday, the day after the little girl was struck in the head by a bullet as she sat in a car seat inside a vehicle in a Little Rock parking lot.
Center debut a tribute to past, future
posted: 03/22/2009 3:08 a.m.
The Arkansas Studies Institute's grand opening in downtown Little Rock on Saturday night gave hundreds of spectators an opportunity to hear from a veritable Mount Rushmore of the state's most powerful living political figures - including President Bill Clinton - talk about the importance of history and preserving government documents.
Officers 'sorry' after wrong door knocked in during LR drug raid
posted: 03/21/2009 6:02 a.m.
Little Rock police detectives and SWAT team members broke into the wrong apartment during a Wednesday evening drug raid after an informant pointed to the wrong door, police said.
Police beat
posted: 03/07/2009 5:04 a.m.
Theft of computers leads to LR arrest Little Rock police arrested a man Friday on a commercial burglary charge after his fingerprint was found at the scene of a burglary earlier this year at the Pulaski County Health Care building at 3915 W. Eighth St., police said.
Police beat
posted: 03/06/2009 3:56 a.m.
State police officers arrested a teen Thursday on charges stemming from the Wednesday night police pursuit of a pickup that began in Maumelle and ended in North Little Rock.
Court lets stand ruling over school punishment
posted: 03/05/2009 3:58 a.m.
The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that the Watson Chapel School District violated students' First Amendment rights by punishing them for wearing black armbands to protest a new uniform policy.
Police beat
posted: 03/05/2009 3:58 a.m.
Little Rock police arrested a 26-year-old man on multiple charges in the November homeintrusion robbery of a good Samaritan who bought the gas later used in the getaway vehicle, police said.
Nothing found in mound
posted: 02/21/2009 5:18 a.m.
Investigators searched a rocky mound in a wooded area in northern Sherwood all day Friday, but when they dug into the suspected grave late in the afternoon, they found nothing.
Woods site a new lead in cold case
posted: 02/19/2009 2:41 a.m.
Hoping to solve a 23-year old mystery, authorities have obtained a court order to dig up what they believe is a shallow grave in woods in the northern part of Sherwood.
Police beat
posted: 02/13/2009 3:25 a.m.
Two masked men, one armed with a silver handgun, ambushed employees of a west Little Rock bank branch on their way into work early Thursday and stole an undisclosed amount of money, police said.
Fingerprints on cup lead to arrest
posted: 02/09/2009 5:16 a.m.
A suspect in four bank robberies was tracked down by the Little Rock Police Department after his fingerprints were matched with a cup involved in a Subway restaurant robbery and a confidential informant recognized him from surveillance photos, police said.
Father, son believed dead in trailer fire
posted: 02/08/2009 5:49 a.m.
A father and son died in a Saturday afternoon fire in their Pulaski County mobile home, which had been padlocked from the outside to keep the door from swinging open in the wind, sheriff 's deputies said.
3 arrested in killing of cooking woman
posted: 02/05/2009 5:20 a.m.
Little Rock police arrested three men on capital murder charges in the Jan. 27 shooting that killed Virginia Brown as she cooked for a house full of family.
Shooting suspect gives up to police
posted: 01/30/2009 4:20 a.m.
Little Rock police arrested a 27-year-old man Thursday night on 14 counts of committing a terroristic act on accusations he shot into a home occupied by two adults and 12 children Tuesday night, striking a woman in the head as she cooked dinner for her family.
Police beat
posted: 01/30/2009 4:12 a.m.
Slaying suspect also charged in robbery A man charged in three slayings earlier this month was charged Thursday with aggravated robbery and theft in the Jan. 5 holdup of a pizza deliveryman, Little Rock police said.
Man shot after trying to run over officers, LR police say
posted: 01/25/2009 2:35 a.m.
Little Rock police officers shot a man shortly before midnight Friday who tried to run over them in a motel parking lot, police said.
'08 death at jail ruled suicide; case is closed
posted: 01/21/2009 2:20 a.m.
The Pulaski County sheriff's office closed its investigation into the June 16 death of a North Little Rock woman at the Pulaski County jail, concluding that the 39-year-old woman committed suicide.
Pulaski County homicides drop 25 percent in '08
posted: 01/19/2009 5:08 a.m.
Despite a pair of high-profile slayings in Little Rock that grabbed national headlines, overall homicides in Pulaski County plunged by 25 percent in 2008, with Little Rock and North Little Rock seeing the biggest decreases.
Ex-drug dealer among 9 up for Beebe pardon
posted: 01/17/2009 5:53 a.m.
Gov. Mike Beebe announced Friday his intention to grant pardons to nine Arkansans, including a man who claimed to have founded Little Rock's "Original Gangster Crips" in the early 1990s and spent nearly 10 years in prison on drug convictions.
Police: Stop at McDonald's linked suspect to shootings
posted: 01/17/2009 5:50 a.m.
A quick run by the drive-through window at a McDonald's restaurant started a chain of events that ended in the arrest of 20-year-old Brandon Johnson on three counts of capital murder Thursday in a string of robbery killings over the past month, police said.
Police beat
posted: 01/17/2009 5:48 a.m.
Deputies say driver just wouldn't stop Pulaski County sheriff's deputies arrested a Little Rock man Friday on a fleeing charge after a low-speed pursuit through portions of west Little Rock, deputies said.
LR police arrest suspect in robberies, 3 slayings
posted: 01/16/2009 5:16 a.m.
Little Rock police arrested a 20-year-old man Thursday on three counts of capital murder in a string of robbery-homicides that police said targeted Hispanics.
Police beat
posted: 01/14/2009 4:41 a.m.
22-year-old jailed in fatal LR shooting Little Rock police arrested a 22-year-old Little Rock man Monday in connection with a fatal shooting last month near an Asher Avenue gas station.
Man shot by LR officer had arrest warrant
posted: 01/11/2009 3:09 a.m.
A man shot by a Little Rock police officer Friday night was wanted on a warrant charging him with not paying a fine for a previous resisting arrest conviction in North Little Rock, police said.
Man with gun shot by officer, police say
posted: 01/10/2009 5:26 a.m.
A Little Rock officer shot a man twice in the chest Friday evening as the man raised a handgun toward the officer in a southwest Little Rock apartment complex, police said.
Police arrest suspect, 45, accuse him of 12 holdups
posted: 01/09/2009 2:38 a.m.
Little Rock police arrested Robert Tupac Shakur late Thursday afternoon, charging the 45-year-old in 12 aggravated robberies dating to Dec. 3.
Police beat
posted: 01/08/2009 5:13 a.m.
LR police seek man in string of robberies A man sought on a warrant charging him in a Monday bank robbery in Little Rock was identified as the suspect in a Tuesday night robbery of a west Little Rock toy store and is being investigated in the similar robbery of a southwest Little Rock drugstore Wednesday, police said.
Drive-by is LR's 1st '09 homicide
posted: 01/04/2009 2:35 a.m.
Little Rock recorded its first homicide of 2009 late Saturday afternoon when a man was killed in a drive-by shooting, police said.
Blaze levels nonprofit mushroom center
posted: 01/04/2009 2:35 a.m.
SHIRLEY - A New Year's Eve fire destroyed the Shiitake Mushroom Center in Shirley.
LR man collapses, dies after police subdue him
posted: 01/03/2009 2:01 a.m.
A 425-pound Little Rock man died early Friday a few hours after collapsing as he was pepper-sprayed while being taken into custody by North Little Rock police, authorities said.
Father, son shot during teen spat
posted: 12/31/2008 2:52 a.m.
A Little Rock father and son were shot Tuesday afternoon as they attempted to break up a fight between two teenage girls at a central Little Rock intersection.
Device takes crime scene off-site
posted: 12/30/2008 4:58 a.m.
The Little Rock Police Department has a new tool for murder investigations complete with graphics straight out of the latest video game: A laser scanner that can create a three-dimensional rendering of a crime scene.
Tougher laws on domestic violence urged
posted: 12/28/2008 2:21 a.m.
For the most part, once a man decides he wants to kill his current or former domestic partner, a protective order isn't going to be much of a barrier, authorities said.
