Noel E. Oman
Stories by Noel E.
2 LR officers arrested in drug-escort probe
posted: 05/25/2012 5:28 a.m. Comments 2
Two Little Rock police officers were arrested Thursday on charges they escorted three shipments of marijuana totaling more than a half ton through the city while on duty.
Justice-of-peace primaries see 2 challengers lead
posted: 05/23/2012 4 a.m.
Discuss
Only one of the three incumbent Pulaski County justices of the peace was ahead of his challenger in their respective primary contests Tuesday night.
Arrive early, airport warns
posted: 05/21/2012 4:28 a.m. Comments 8
The state’s largest airport continues to field passenger complaints about the congestion associated with its new and expanded screening facility, but officials from the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration say not all of the problem is in the airport or its federal security screeners.
Pulaski County JP faces ex-legislator for her seat
posted: 05/21/2012 4:20 a.m. Discuss
Justice of the Peace Judy Green of Little Rock faces a challenge in her bid for reelection representing District 9 on the Pulaski County Quorum Court.
Alternate plan lets bridge stay
posted: 05/15/2012 4:32 a.m. Comment 1
A new Broadway Bridge connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock can be built next to the old one using the same connections and reduce the time the downtown Arkansas River crossing is out of action from as long as two years to as little as three months, the top official at the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department said Monday.
Ballot holds one name too many
posted: 05/14/2012 4:33 a.m. Discuss
The ballot for Pulaski County Justice of the Peace District 5 has three names, but only two candidates are running.
Gailya Sue Stilwell Childress: Ex-teacher also good sister-in-law
posted: 05/12/2012 4:25 a.m. Discuss
When the girl in the fifth grade who lived across the street in a Blytheville neighborhood began to come over and play with Rose Childress, who was only in the first grade, the younger girl remembered being flattered.
Site idea changes for airport hotel
posted: 05/11/2012 2:30 a.m. Discuss
The state’s largest airport is having second thoughts about developing a hotel on its property that wouldn’t be connected to the terminal.
5 vie for airport lobbying job
posted: 05/10/2012 5:13 a.m. Discuss
A Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission committee Wednesday recommended retaining its two lobbying firms — Witt Associates and Patton Boggs LLP — to represent the interests of the state’s largest airport at the state Capitol and in Washington.
2 deaths labeled homicide
posted: 05/08/2012 4:09 a.m. Discuss
A man and woman found dead of an apparent double homicide in a north Pulaski County mobile home were identified Monday as Herman Anthony Hill and Alexis Crawford, the sheriff’s office said.
Poll predicts uphill climb for road levy
posted: 05/07/2012 4 a.m. Comments 6
Arkansas voters narrowly oppose a proposed temporary half-cent increase in the sales tax to pay for a $1.8 billion road-construction program targeting four-lane highways, according to a public opinion survey taken last month by supporters of the proposal.
Shortfall puts road projects at risk of cuts
posted: 05/03/2012 5:02 a.m. Comments 3
The state highway director said Wednesday that his department will have little choice but to cut some highway-improvement projects to make up for an anticipated $12 million shortfall over the next four years caused by a sales-tax exemption on big trucks and trailers.
Cantrell Road curve work produces 3 bids this time
posted: 05/03/2012 4:53 a.m. Discuss
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department opened bids Wednesday for the second time in two months on a crash-prone section of Cantrell Road near downtown Little Rock.
Occupy camp protests May moving deadline
posted: 05/01/2012 4:26 a.m.
Comment 1
Just as the raindrops hit the sidewalks in downtown Little Rock on Monday afternoon, so did Occupy Little Rock members in a show of civil disobedience to protest their May 16 notice of eviction, the deadline Little Rock officials gave the movement to clear out of a parking lot near the U.S. post office along East Capitol Avenue.
Police beat
posted: 05/01/2012 4:10 a.m. Discuss
2 gunmen steal 4 phones, $3,000 Two gunmen got away with $3,000 in cash and four cell phones after surprising four residents at a west Little Rock apartment early Sunday, Little Rock police said.
I-530 repairs to close 2 lanes
posted: 04/30/2012 4:01 a.m. Comment 1
Motorists who regularly drive between Little Rock and Pine Bluff on Interstate 530 likely will welcome word that the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department is overhauling the 46-mile route, arguably the poorest-quality interstate in Arkansas.
Street-plan vote rejects idea for new river span
posted: 04/27/2012 2:42 a.m. Discuss
The Little Rock Planning Commission on Thursday overwhelmingly declined to recommend an amendment to the city’s master street plan that would allow for a new downtown bridge across the Arkansas River.
Villines backs agency’s plan
posted: 04/26/2012 5:17 a.m. Comment 1
Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines on Wednesday played down the anticipated traffic snarls that will come with the demolition of the Broadway Bridge and the construction of a new Arkansas River crossing in its place.
Care urged as I-40 work starts
posted: 04/25/2012 5:23 a.m. Comment 1
A new construction project on Interstate 40 provided an apt backdrop Tuesday for a news conference promoting more careful driving in road-construction work zones.
Suspect: Robbed man, did not kill
posted: 04/24/2012 4:20 a.m. Discuss
A 26-year-old man admitted to detectives that he bound up 41-year-old Wesley Burris at Burris’ west Little Rock home Saturday night, took several items from the residence and set Burris’ vehicle afire, but said he didn’t kill him, according to Little Rock police.
Airport hotel intrigues panel
posted: 04/23/2012 4:12 a.m. Comments 5
The state’s largest airport wants to gauge interest in building a hotel on its property, seeing it potentially as another amenity to offer passengers and a lucrative asset for its bottom line.
1st 3 months of ’12 bustling at LR airport
posted: 04/18/2012 5:05 a.m. Discuss
Passenger traffic at the state’s largest airport has increased nearly 11 percent in the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2011, and represents the highest firstquarter total in four years.
Airport renovation obvious
posted: 04/16/2012 4:02 a.m. Discuss
The future of the state’s largest airport is taking shape as construction progresses on the $67 million first phase of the terminal renovation.
Stick with plan for bridge, says state engineer
posted: 04/13/2012 3:36 a.m. Comments 2
Replacing the Broadway Bridge connecting Little Rock and North Little Rock next year as planned is a matter of safety, and to deviate from the schedule to build a new Arkansas River crossing that could take several years risks having the former shut down before the latter is built, a top state highway official said Thursday.
Health chief’s trial set in police clash
posted: 04/11/2012 5:19 a.m.
Comment 1
Arkansas Surgeon General Joe Thompson will go on trial May 30 on three misdemeanors stemming from his confrontation last month with two Little Rock police officers.
History connects airport’s names
posted: 04/08/2012 3:44 a.m. Discuss
When the state’s largest airport was formally named after George Geyer Adams, an Arkansas Air National Guard captain, on Nov. 11, 1941, the nation was less than a month from the Dec. 7 attack on Pearl Harbor.
Talk is baleful on North Belt plan
posted: 04/05/2012 5:28 a.m. Comments 8
The Metroplan board of directors didn’t outright kill the North Belt Freeway project Wednesday but may have merely delayed the inevitable for the long-planned route across north Pulaski County, which has never been on the front burner and now appears too costly to ever get there.
Mayors’ bridge plan hits wall
posted: 04/04/2012 4:52 a.m. Comments 5
A proposal to leave the Broadway Bridge standing and use the estimated $58 million replacement cost to build a new Arkansas River crossing at Chester Street is permissible under federal rules but impossible for several reasons, the state’s top highway official said Tuesday.
Signs mark 4 trails in state to honor heritage, history
posted: 03/30/2012 3:17 a.m. Discuss
A new program designed to promote Arkansas heritage and encourage people to travel in the state focuses on four history-laden routes that took immigrants, American Indians, Confederate and Union troops, and the mail through the state.
LR museum director fired for second time
posted: 03/29/2012 4:16 a.m. Comment 1
H.L. McGill, the director of the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, has been fired again, just over a year after he was fired and then later rehired on the recommendation of Gov. Mike Beebe’s administration.
Police beat
posted: 03/28/2012 3:54 a.m. Discuss
Shot by old foe, victim alleges A 32-year-old man was in stable condition Tuesday after being shot Monday night in a southwest Little Rock parking lot by, according to the victim, the same man who shot him “three or four years ago,” Little Rock police said.
Jane Krutz: State public TV loses its 1st lady
posted: 03/27/2012 4:12 a.m. Comments 2
Jane Krutz, whose unmistakable drawl and Indefatigable personality graced Arkansas public television on air membership drives for nearly 50 years, has died.
$493,467 pact set on fixing up Cantrell Road
posted: 03/26/2012 4:36 a.m. Comments 2
A longtime crash-prone location on busy Cantrell Road near downtown Little Rock is in line for nearly a half-million dollars in improvements.
State to finance study of adding I-40 tolls
posted: 03/22/2012 5:05 a.m. Comments 8
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department has the go-ahead to hire a consultant to study the feasibility of making Interstate 40 from North Little Rock to Memphis a toll road.
LR panel renames airport for Clintons
posted: 03/21/2012 4:46 a.m.
Comments 19
The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission unanimously voted Tuesday to rename the state’s largest airport after former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
4 support renaming airport for Clintons
posted: 03/20/2012 4:45 a.m. Comments 12
If the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission doesn’t vote to rename the state’s largest airport after former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, four of the seven commission members reached Monday would be surprised.
LR to take up plan for road to jet complex
posted: 03/19/2012 5:10 a.m. Discuss
The city of Little Rock is moving ahead with completing a new four-lane road leading in and out of the Dassault Falcon Jet complex at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, after learning it has enough money left over from federal and state grants to pay for it.
LR panel puts off decision on bridge
posted: 03/16/2012 3:14 a.m. Discuss
A proposed fourth downtown crossing over the Arkansas River on Chester Street north of LaHarpe Boulevard will paralyze the neighborhood because building the new bridge could take years if it is built at all, property owners in the mixed-use area and their representatives said Thursday.
Fair helps with out-of-jail life
posted: 03/13/2012 4:48 a.m. Comments 5
For one day, a range of services that people who were recently released from jail or prison need, including potential jobs, were in one place Monday.
Lines remain long at airport
posted: 03/12/2012 5:10 a.m. Comments 4
The newly upgraded passenger security checkpoint at Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, has endured some growing pains.
Cities in early phase of fourth-bridge plan
posted: 03/10/2012 4:10 a.m. Comments 2
After a lot of talk over the past few months, the cities of Little Rock and North Little Rock finally are backing up their words with concrete steps toward building a fourth bridge over the Arkansas River.
Road-work list omits North Belt
posted: 03/01/2012 5:53 a.m. Comments 6
Missing from the latest list of central Arkansas road projects on which the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department intends to spend money is the remaining segment of the North Belt Freeway.
Arkansas’ road-bid rules stiffen
posted: 02/29/2012 5:46 a.m. Discuss
Highway contractors eager for work but barred from bidding on new contracts because of missed deadlines can no longer circumvent the ban by submitting bids through another company with the same officers.
Deputies: House fire suspicious
posted: 02/28/2012 4:34 a.m. Discuss
Authorities say they are suspicious of an early-morning fire that engulfed a south Pulaski County home Monday.
Nelson says foes of gas-tax vote ‘un-American’
posted: 02/24/2012 4:34 a.m. Discuss
Little Rock lawyer Sheffield Nelson on Thursday lambasted opponents of his proposal to increase the severance tax on natural gas as “un-American” for urging Arkansans not to sign petitions to allow the measure to get on the ballot. Those opponents insist they are doing nothing improper.
Airport exec pay increase tops $19,000
posted: 02/22/2012 5:45 a.m. Comments 3
The top executive of the state’s largest airport received a salary increase and bonus Tuesday totaling nearly $20,000 that will bring his compensation for this year to $200,000.
Law agencies arrest 26 in crack-ring bust
posted: 02/17/2012 6:25 a.m. Discuss
Nearly three dozen people have been charged with federal and state drug-related offenses as part of a wideranging investigation that authorities said Thursday was designed to “disrupt and dismantle” a Pine Bluff drugtrafficking ring distributing up to 4 kilograms of crack cocaine monthly.
LR developer: 4 months till new Cantrell
posted: 02/16/2012 6:18 a.m. Comment 1
If state and city officials approve, changes to two key intersections on busy Cantrell Road at the Pleasant Ridge Town Center should be completed in four months, the developer who pushed for the changes said Wednesday.
Some imagine Chester Street for new bridge
posted: 02/13/2012 4:34 a.m. Comments 3
Postponing replacement of the Broadway Bridge in favor of a new bridge at Chester Street has gained traction with local officials worried about the coming traffic nightmare when construction begins, but the idea is spinning its wheels with state highway officials.
Rural roads’ 55 mph limit to be studied
posted: 02/09/2012 5:04 a.m. Comments 11
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department will look at whether speed limits should be modified on rural four- and fivelane undivided highways, with an eye toward raising the speed limit beyond the 55 mph they are set at now.
