Stories from Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Rachel Benson Gifford of Manila can add the title of author to her impressive list of accomplishments. Gifford, Dean at Arkansas Northeastern College in Blytheville, oversees the Marketing and Development offices. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Communications and a Master's Degree in Mass Communication with a major in journalism...

U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford met with Lake City city government officials, Riverside school administrator, and other citizens on Thursday afternoon where the topics included possible funding for a new water tower and school safety issues...

Blytheville Courier News All the local basketball games were postponed Tuesday night because of inclement weather. The Blytheville Chickasaws were scheduled to host Nettleton, Gosnell was set to entertain Westside, and Armorel was slated to travel to Maynard before weather conditions forced the teams to change their plans...

Mr. Daphne Duane Tate, 42, of Osceola, died Friday, Jan. 11, 2013, in Blytheville.

Sherry Mahan, of Paragould, passed from this life earlier today at her home.

I have read with interest the recent chain of events concerning the firing and re-instating of the Gosnell Police Chief. This chain of events would never have happened if Arkansas State statutes had not been violated. This violation occurred when Mr. ...

Effective in the first billing invoice of the new year, local Ritter Communications customers will notice adjustments to the price of some services, with the average customer seeing a 10 percent increase.

The second winter storm of the season settled a layer of solid ice over the Blytheville area Tuesday afternoon and evening, leading to area-wide school closures and event cancellations.

It appears wastewater rates will be going up in the city of Blytheville, but not this month.

Blytheville High School is on the verge of a new era after unanimous approval of the school's intended charter conversion from the state Board of Education.

The current national flap over gun control -- a dialogue that most recently began in reaction to the Newtown, Conn., school massacre -- recently got me thinking about how it came to be that citizens of our country got the right to own guns in the first place.

Mrs. Brandi Nichole Clay, 36, departed this life Monday evening, Jan. 14, 2013, at her home. She was born Nov. 7, 1976, in Jonesboro, the daughter of Thomas Hatch and Regina Poe Hatch. Brandi was a 1995 graduate of Riverside High School and was an LPN at the NEA Baptist Hospital in Jonesboro for three years. She loved to read and spend time with her family and was of the Baptist faith...

Margaret "Beadie" Freeman McWilliams, 90, of Manila passed from this life Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013, at Manila Nursing Center. Born in Marmaduke, to William Newton and Fannie Earls Freeman, she was a homemaker and a member of First Baptist Church in Manila. ...

Mrs. Joann Million Eagan Jones, 59 of Cleveland, Ohio, formerly of Blytheville, went to join her Heavenly Father Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013, at her residence.