The state/region in brief

Saturday, December 1, 2012

Texarkana police raid 4 nightclubs

Texarkana police cited seven people Thursday on charges of possessing gambling machines at four nightclubs, according to a statement released Friday.

Officers in the criminal investigation division conducted raids a private clubs after learning the some of them had illegal 8-liner gambling machines, which look and play like slot machines, the release said.

Investigators worked with a state Alcoholic Beverage Control agent because the clubs had state permits to sell beer or liquor.

The clubs where machines were found include Hippies on East 36th Street;

The Cottage on East 9th Street; The Roadmap on East Street; and The Crazy Horse Saloon on Broad Street.

$42,000 in stolen

pork to be tossed

LITTLE ROCK - Arkansas health officials are disposing of $42,000 worth of meat after a Little Rock truck driver was accused of not delivering the hams and hot dogs and selling them himself from a refrigerated trailer.

Police Sgt. Cassandra Davis said Robert Lee was arrested Thursday on suspicion of theft by receiving after an officer spotted him and another man unloading a trailer containing 549 boxes of hot dogs and 384 hams.

Davis said Lee was under contract to pick up the pork in South Carolina on Nov. 13 and drop it off in Miami. A police report said the meat’s owner, Smithfield Hams, told police the meat had been missing for two weeks and was presumed stolen.

Lee remains jailed and authorities didn’t know if he had an attorney.

AmeriCorps to say

farewell to Joplin

JOPLIN - One of the key groups helping with Joplin’s recovery from the May 2011 tornado is preparing to leave town.

AmeriCorps St. Louis will turn over its duties to Joplin’s Long-Term Recovery Committee on Dec. 21, when a grant that provided a sevenmember team will end.

The Joplin Globe reported that AmeriCorps members provided several services in Joplin, including setting up a volunteer reception center and a missing persons call center and helping with debris removal and search and rescue efforts.

In recent weeks, they helped people move from temporary to permanent housing, delivered donated items to families and worked on minor repairs.

Renee White, head of the recovery committee, said the city has been working since August to divide AmeriCorps’ responsibilities.

She called AmeriCorps the workhorses behind Joplin’s recovery.

Corpse in garage

leads to charges

EUFAULA, Okla. - An Oklahoma woman has beencharged with desecration of a human corpse after her mother’s body was found in a McIntosh County garage this week.

Prosecutors filed charges Thursday against Shelly Maytubby, 52. She was arrested after her mother, Erlene McCune, 79, was found wrapped in a sheet in a garage.

The Tulsa World reported authorities were awaiting autopsy results to determine McCune’s cause of death.

Police said McCune was living in an assisted living facility in Kansas two months ago when Maytubby checked her out and brought her to McIntosh County.

Detective Jared West said Maytubby told him that her mother died of natural causes and that she didn’t want to take her to a funeral home.

Maytubby remains jailed.

Court records did not list an attorney for her.

Blanchard Springs

reservations lost

MOUNTAIN VIEW - Officials at the Blanchard Springs Recreation Area Group campsite and pavilion are asking those who booked reservations for early 2013 to rebook those dates.

Reservations maintained in a database could not be retrieved due to a computer glitch, said Tony Guinn, a spokesman for the recreation area.

“It was a computer malfunction,” she said. “We couldn’t get the reservations opened.”

Recreation area officials have called regular customers who book a campsite annually to rereserve spots, Guinn said.

They also ask that anyone who had reserved a campsite or pavilion for early 2013 to call the recreation area and ensure their reservations are made.

“We don’t want to doublebook any campsite, and we don’t want to disappoint anyone,” Guinn said.

New reservations will not be taken until the earlier reservations have been corrected, she said, although she doesn’t know how many people were affected by the computer program.

People can call the Blanchard Springs Recreation Area Group at (870) 269-3228

.- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

NASA gives UALR $750,000 grant

LITTLE ROCK - The University of Arkansas at Little Rock has announced it will receive a $750,000 grant from NASA as part of the space agency’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

The university said in a news release that it’s one of 17 research colleges and universities chosen to share a $12.6 million total grant for research and technology development from NASA.

UALR said the majority of its grant will be used for work on a robot visions systems project for vehicles on the moon or Mars.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 12/01/2012