News

Arkansas State Police say they have investigated threats against state legislators but found no reason to believe their safety was in jeopardy. House Speaker Davy Carter was one of the legislators threatened when he was targeted in a tweet. 

Carter said Monday that he never felt he was in physical danger but said the threat made him angry. Also Monday, the editor of the Benton County Republican Committee newsletter apologized for approving an article by her husband that discussed shooting legislators.

Jefferson County authorities are searching for relatives of deceased military veterans whose metal plates were taken from the headstones of their graves. 

Sheriff's Maj. Lafayette Woods says 44-year-old Harold Law was arrested last week after trying to sell nine of the brass plates that are worth up to $2,000 each to a scrap metal dealer. Law's name was originally spelled Lawes by both sheriff's officials and by the jail's website.

Little Rock officials are now focusing on South Main Street’s growth and the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists in that area.

All this month, officials are working to heighten awareness of the need to drivers to be safer.  KUAR’s Kezia Nanda visited the South Main and 15th St. Intersection.

The corner of South Main and 15th Street is where the Root Café, the Green Corner Store and Boulevard Bread are located. 

Laura Frankenstein works at the Green Corner Store and feels it’s dangerous to walk across Main Street.

A Republican lawmaker who was one of the key supporters of a plan to use federal Medicaid money to  provide private insurance to thousands of low-income residents will lead the state Senate in the 2015 legislative session.  

Sen. Jonathan Dismang of Beebe was elected Monday to lead the 35-member Senate in the 90th General Assembly that begins in 2015.

Dismang was the only candidate running for the Senate president pro tem position.  

Dismang has served in the state Senate since 2011 and served a term in the House before then.

Lawmakers in both the Arkansas House and Senate will wrap up with their final vote on the state’s budget on Tuesday. Each chamber voted on identical versions of the budget today Monday.

The state’s budget for its fiscal year that begins July 1st and ends June 30th of 2014 is 4.9 billion dollars and includes increases for the state’s Medicaid program and education, as well as a 2 percent cost of living raise for state employees. It passed by a vote of 80-15 in the House.

A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from a white supremacist who challenged his murder  conviction after his defense attorneys tried to pick a jury with as many black members as possible.  

Chevie Kehoe was sentenced to life in prison for the 1996 killings of an Arkansas family. His accomplice received a death sentence.  

Kehoe argues that he received ineffectual counsel because of his attorneys' jury-selection strategy.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Kehoe's conviction Monday.  

The editor of the Benton County Republican Committee is apologizing for approving an article by her husband that mentioned the threat of shooting legislators who voted for the "private option" insurance expansion.

Leigh Nogy said Monday that her husband, Chris Nogy, didn't literally suggest murdering elected officials.

And she says she didn't perceive that his writing would bring such strong criticism from within and outside the Arkansas Republican Party.  

Three bridges spanning the Arkansas River across downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock will be illuminated by year’s end thanks to a $2.4 million gift from Entergy Arkansas and an assorted group of businesses and governmental entities.

The announcement was made Monday morning by Entergy Arkansas President Hugh McDonald and Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola.

McDonald said the gift is part of a celebration of the electric company’s 100th anniversary in Arkansas.  ”This project is very much in line with what we do – light things up,” he said.

No major flight delays are being reported at Arkansas airports on Monday as furloughs kick in for air traffic controllers. Flights were running smoothly Monday morning at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill. 

Government budget cuts forced the Federal Aviation Administration to furlough its employees, including 15,000 air traffic controllers. Sunday was the first day the controllers were subject to the furloughs, which require workers to lose one day of work every other week.

Kmart says some customer information may have been compromised during an armed robbery of its store in Little Rock last month. Kmart said Monday that it's notifying pharmacy customers about the March 17 robbery. 

The company says the gunman took "electronic media" that backed up the pharmacy's computer system. Kmart says the device included confidential information, including a customer's name, address, date of birth, prescription number, prescriber and drug name.