Stories from Saturday, March 31, 2012

Such a day! A call from Judge Carney last month set my mind in whirl. I was invited to speak at a luncheon being held this day at the Manila Depot, to all the mayors in Mississippi County, (17 were invited.)

Jimmy Branscum, 81, of North Little Rock and formerly of Blytheville died Friday, March 30, 2012 at the VA Hospital in Little Rock. Funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Cobb Funeral Home.

Hollis Medford, 84, of Blytheville died Saturday, March 31, 2012 at the Great River Medical Center in Blytheville. Funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Cobb Funeral Home.

Mrs. Betty Joyce Buckner, 67, of Trumann, died Friday at her home in Trumann. Born April 5, 1944, she was a homemaker of the Baptist faith. She was preceded in death by two sisters, Emily Screpe and Julie Harper, and three brothers, Dick Bratton, Bill Bratton and D.A. Bratton...

Tax revenues for Mississippi County are trending down in 2012, but are still up from this time last year. In March of 2012, the 1 percent sales and use tax generated $105,422.44. This is down from $112,567.87 in February, but up from only $92,036.67 in March of 2011...

Gosnell Elementary Principal Angie Middleton lived up to her word Friday afternoon, allowing herself to be taped to a tree on the campus because the school achieved its goals on last year's Benchmark tests.

Blytheville schools, like other schools in Arkansas, are in the midst of preparing for the end-of-the-year Benchmark tests. This comes at a time when the Blytheville Intermediate School is also gearing up to take the next step in education. Starting in the 2012-13 school year, Blytheville Intermediate School will be implementing the new Common Core standards into its curriculum. ...

As part of their ongoing efforts to stop tobacco use in the area, the Mississippi County Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Arkansas is posting Act 811 posters at area childcare centers, Head Start buildings and WIC offices. Act 811, or the Arkansas Protection from Secondhand Smoke for Children Act, was created in August of 2011 in the Arkansas legislature. ...

The first Community Cleanup of the year is scheduled for Saturday, April 21 and plans are being made to make this cleanup even better than last year's. Local church and civic leaders met Saturday to discuss some logistics for the upcoming Community Cleanup and lay out a plan that will make the effort as effective and efficient as possible, according to Blytheville First Assembly pastor Paul Strong...

Last April organizers of the inaugural Healing in the Hood Legends Game were forced to turn away fans because Chickasaw Gym's capacity had been reached. Healing in the Hood director Sandy "Bebe" Gillespie hopes for similar support for this year's event, which will be April 13-14...

GAME ONE Weiner 6, Armorel 0 Weiner starting pitcher, Jaden Malone, stifled the Armorel bats in game one helping her team shut out the Lady Tigers, 6-0. Malone allowed just three hits in five complete innings to pick up the win. Malone had just three strikeouts as the Lady Tigers made plenty of contact but rarely found the holes in the Weiner defense...

BOYS Merrendeas Jackson 5th place 100m hurdlesTimarcus Bohannon 3rd place 300m hurdlesJonathon Banks 5th place 4x100m relay Marcus Northern, Timarcus Bohannon, Terry Northern and Alan Scott 7th 4x800m relay Jay Richardson, Ari Holliman, John Alan Guyton and Jonathon Banks 1st...