Stories from Friday, January 2, 2015

CCN photographer David Bell's pick as his top photograph of 2014 was this photo that accompanied a feature story about Carroll County resident Ron Flake.

Carroll County's biggest news story of 2014 culminated in a surprising turn of events just two days before the new year. On Tuesday afternoon, Southwestern Electric Power Co. withdrew its application for regulatory approval to construct a high-voltage power line that would have run through the heart of Carroll County...

Nearly two years after he murdered Laura Aceves on New Year's Eve 2012, Victor Acuna-Sanchez was sentenced to 25 years in prison for her death. On Oct. 6, Acuna-Sanchez pleaded guilty in a deal with prosecutors. He then told Judge Jay Finch that he shot Aceves and left her lying in a pool of blood as their infant son cried nearby...

Carroll County garnered national attention in May when same-sex marriage licenses were issued to nearly 30 couples after a Pulaski County judge's ruling struck down the state's ban on gay marriage. However, the county stopped issuing same-sex marriage licenses after its attorney advised that doing so violated a state law not addressed by the Pulaski County ruling...

Carroll County voters elected a new sheriff in the Nov. 4 general election. Randy Mayfield, a Berryville police officer, defeated four-term incumbent Sheriff Bob Grudek by a margin of nearly 23 percent. Mayfield received 61.4 percent of the vote compared with 38.6 percent for Grudek...

Dr. Philip Clark signed a three-year contract to become superintendent of the Berryville School District on May 12, capping a search process of more than three months. Clark, who signed a three-year contract at an annual salary of $110,000, officially took over the superintendent's duties on July 1...

It was on Christmas morning 1980 that I discovered a Hungarian professor's maddening invention beneath the holiday tree. It was Erno Rubik's magic puzzle, brought to America: The Rubik's Cube. With a few twists I was hooked, but I never figured the thing out. ...