Stories from Wednesday, July 6, 2011

EUREKA SPRINGS -- A board room packed with teachers, former teachers, a former principal, parents and students waited out the more than two hours it took the Eureka Springs School Board Thursday night to finish with its other business, including a snack break, before the board would consider a grievance request by high school English teacher Kathy Remenar...

LITTLE ROCK -- Arkansans stricken by the storms, tornadoes and floods that hit the state from April 14 to June 3 have just one month left to register for disaster-related assistance offered by the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As part of continued efforts to close the chapter on allegations that discrimination occurred at the United States Department of Agriculture in past decades, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Assistant Attorney General Tony West recently announced the establishment of a process to resolve the claims of Hispanic and women farmers and ranchers who assert that they were discriminated against when seeking USDA farm loans...

Some of our nation's biggest corporations are planning a tax holiday and they want you to pick up the tab. Actually, you already pay for their routine tax avoidance through the use of tax havens in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and elsewhere. These accounting acrobatics cost the U.S. Treasury $100 billion a year. Now they want Congress to pass a special tax holiday for money they "repatriate" back to the United States...

New Arkansas State University football coach Hugh Freeze spoke to a group of fans and alumni on Thursday night at the Holiday Island clubhouse. Freeze was joined at the event by Arkansas State University Athletic Director Dean Lee. The event was sponsored by Vacation Rentals, Tom Dees and the Holiday Island Rotary Club. Both Freeze and Lee were enjoying a few days of leisure before the gridiron season gets underway. ASU opens the season at Illinois on Sept. 3...

FAYETTEVILLE-- Somewhere up above, Preston Carpenter and Buddy Bob Benson probably still argue their greatest play on Earth. Arkansas Razorbacks legends Carpenter, also an All-Pro NFL tight end, and Benson, a legendary coach at Ouachita Baptist, have passed away in the same year...

It was another great season for children playing in the Berryville Parks and Recreation League

The Eureka Springs Coffee Party group is hosting an open potluck and showing of the film The Future of Food on Sunday evening, July 10 at the UU church building at 17 Elk Street. The film investigates the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically- engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture...

LITTLE ROCK -- The Department of Human Services has announced Carroll County residents may be eligible to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Disaster Assistance. Any household that resided within one of the designated counties, which also include Crawford, Clark, Dallas, Hot Spring, Chicot and Desha Counties, at the time of the April 23 and continuing severe storms/flooding and suffered disaster losses may be eligible to receive temporary DSNAP assistance. ...