Stories from Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The Blytheville Courier News announced today that through an agreement with the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and official media partner XOS Digital, Inc. (XOS), it has it has joined the SEC Affiliate Network, an exclusive program that enables the accredited media to feature official SEC game highlights for up to all 12 of the conference's school sports including football, basketball, baseball and softball...

A benefit Men's and Women's Softball tournament for Blytheville police officer Cody Gentry, who was injured while on duty, will be held in Manila at the ballpark. Entry fee is $350 per team and there will be a concession. First place winners will be awarded prizes...

The annual Chickasaw Basketball Camp is slated for July 25-28 at Arkansas Northeastern College's Briggs-Seabaugh gym. The camp, for boys and girls entering first through eighth grades, will be from 8:30-11 a.m. each day. The $55 cost includes a t-shirt...

Longtime Rivercrest boys head basketball coach Rick Wilson has stepped down as the coach of the Colts. Wilson, who will remain with the school district in a counseling position, decided to go out on a high note-- that after capturing the school's first state title in boys basketball...

Thomas Russell "Les" Lesley, 76, of Blytheville, passed from this life Monday, July 18, 2011, at John L. McClellen VA Medical Center in Little Rock.

An Osceola man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a March 2010 car accident, in which Heather Franklin, 24, of Osceola, was killed.

Members of the Blytheville Humane Society and Blytheville Emergency Squad recently teamed up to rescue a raptor that had become tangled in a utility wire near Ruddle and Parkside streets.

The Blytheville Humane Society will host a Vendor Day fundraiser from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday at the Jaycee building on Second Street.

A suspect is in custody following a robbery at the Focus Bank in Hornersville Tuesday afternoon.

Tenaris Global Services has agreed to pay $717,324 of civil penalties to the United States to settle violations of environmental regulations at seven facilities related to the public reporting of toxic chemicals at its facilities in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas.

The Finance Committee of the Mississippi County Quorum Court is weighing the use of county economic development funds for a proposed ambulatory care clinic in Manila, being developed by St. Bernards Healthcare.

The city of Blytheville is looking at outside-the-box ways to eliminate eyesores plaguing the town.

I have been living in this town all my life. We have raised our children here. I try my best to have a positive attitude. I pray for Blytheville. I try to focus on the good things. But after reading the newspaper and hearing this stuff about this $3 million and about the IRS is involved with our town and nobody seems to know where the money went to, that just blows my mind. I'm not trying to stir up a stink or anything like that, but somebody has to know somethingn (they're just not talking)...

Mr. and Mrs. Sam Scott announce the engagement of their daughter, Latorra L. Scott, to Charles E. Burton Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Burton Sr. The bride-elect is the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Smith Sr., and the late Georgia Holiday of Arkansas. She is a 2003 graduate of Blytheville High School and is presently working toward a bachelor's degree in medical sonography...

There seems to be lot less clamoring over gas prices these days. I don't know if it's because we've all simply accepted the notion that the days of $1 or $1.50 gas are long gone, or because paying $3.45 a gallon seems a whole lot better than paying $4.50 or $5.