The state/region in brief

Saturday, December 15, 2012

— Nighttime blaze hits Hector school

Authorities said firefighters have contained a blaze that broke out overnight at an elementary school in Pope County.

Authorities said the fire was reported at Hector Elementary School about 10 p.m. Thursday. The blaze was contained by more than 100 firefighters from 11 fire departments.

The cause of the fire is not yet known. School officials said classes were canceled Friday.

Officials said student belongings were damaged in the fire, along with items the school had collected for a holiday canned-food drive.

Northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 540 in Fort Smith will be closed next week, according to a news release from the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. The lane closings will take place between Arkansas 271 and the Arkansas River bridge.

Lanes will be closed from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday to allow crews to sweep driving surfaces on the interstate, according to the news release. Times and days for the lane closings may be adjusted if the weather turns bad.

Woman 4th held

in ’11 killings of 2

FORSYTH, Mo. - A fourth person has been charged in the 2011 deaths of a southwest Missouri couple found shot and buried in Taney County after vanishing from their Greene County home.

KOLR-TV reported that Windy Friend, 31, of Springfield, was being held Thursday in lieu of $500,000 bond in the Taney County jail. She was indicted Wednesday on two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in the deaths of Rebecca and Russell Porter.

Friend is the wife of Tony Friend, 44, who is charged along with his 26-year-old son, Phillip Friend, and Dusty Ray Hicks, 25, with first-degree murder. All three have pleaded innocent.

Windy Friend did not have a lawyer Thursday.

The Porters disappeared from their Willard home in April 2011. Investigators have not commented on a motive in the apparent abduction and killings.

off overpass, dies

TULSA - The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said a man is dead after he apparently jumped from an overpass in Tulsa County and landed on the windshield of a truck.

The highway patrol said the 60-year-old man jumped about 9 a.m. Friday on the Creek Turnpike in Tulsa County. Authorities said he apparently leapt from the Sheridan Road overpass and struck a truck as it was traveling east.

The man was pronounced dead at the scene. The truck’s driver wasn’t injured.

Traffic was slowed forhours Friday morning as crews worked the scene.

tribal-rights suit

OKLAHOMA CITY - A federal appeals court said descendants of slaves owned by members of the Cherokee Nation can sue the current chief in an attempt to restore their tribal memberships.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia noted Friday that an 1866 treaty granted former slaves known as the Cherokee Freedmen all tribal rights, including the right to vote. A lower court had said the Cherokee Nation enjoyed sovereign immunity, but the appellate panel said the Freedmen could sue the chief to press their claim.

Over time since the treaty was signed, many of the slaves’ descendants were no longer considered tribal members. The Freedmen said the chief - and through him the sovereign tribe - is breaking federal law by not honoring the treaty. There are 2,800 descendants.

sought at college

STILLWATER, Okla. - Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis is calling for a task force to review the university’s handling of recent sexual assault allegations on campus.

Student Nathan Michael Cochran has been charged in Payne County District Court with three counts of sexual battery against fellow students.

The university said it has suspended Cochran, 22, who has pleaded innocent to the charges.

An affidavit filed in the case says two students claim Cochran sexually battered them while they were asleep in a dorm room.

Affidavits say the purported assaults occurred in August and November.

The student newspaper, The Daily O’Collegian, reported that university Vice President Gary Clark said university officials first learned of the complaints Nov. 9. Stillwater police Capt. Randy Dickerson told the student newspaper Wednesday that police only learned of the allegations last week when they were contacted by student reporters.

The newspaper also reported that university officials said they could not inform police because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and that Dickerson dismissed the claim.

Hargis’ request asks Oklahoma State University/ A&M Board of Regents Chairman Andy Lester to expand the scope of a task force created during the summer to review policies, practices and procedures related to sexual misconduct.

The task force was created in the aftermath of child sexual abuse allegations at Penn State University and the later conviction of a former Penn State football coach on the charges.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 12/15/2012