I-540 road work ready to begin
FORT SMITH - Arkansas highway officials said they are about to begin a $79 million project to rehabilitate a stretch of Interstate 540 in western Arkansas.
The agency said Friday that the work will involve seven miles of I-540 between Interstate 40 and Arkansas 22 in the Fort Smith and Van Buren areas.
The project includes replacement of nine bridges and improvements to four bridges in Crawford and Sebastian counties. Highway officials said more than 50,000 vehicles travel the construction area daily.
The work is part of the 2011 Interstate Rehabilitation Program that has $1.2 billion devoted to improving 450 miles of interstate highways in Arkansas.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESSMissourian admits
tornado-aid fraud
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A Joplin, Mo., woman has admitted defrauding the federal government out of disaster benefits after the May 2011 tornado that devastated the city.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Pamala Ann Shafer, 37, pleaded guilty Thursday to making false statements to the government.
Prosecutors said Shafer applied for federal help by falsely claiming her apartment had been damaged by the tornado. She also applied for temporary rental assistance, leading the federal government to authorize a payment of $938.
Shafer admitted in her plea that she didn’t live at the apartment when the tornado struck. The apartment was owned by another person who didn’t know her.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Shafer is the fifth person so far to plead guilty in cases of fraudulently receiving post-tornado federal benefits.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESSDeath penalty
sought in killings
TULSA - Tulsa prosecutors said they’ll seek the death penalty against two men charged in an April 2012 shooting rampage that killed three black people and left two more wounded.
Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris made the announcement Friday in the case against Jake England and Alvin Watts. The two also face hate-crimes charges stemming from the shootings of William Allen, Bobby Clark and Dannaer Fields.
Two others who were shot survived. The shootings happened in a predominantly black section of Tulsa, and all five victims were black.
Authorities have said England may have targeted black people because he wanted to avenge his father’s shooting death by a black man two years ago.
However, England, who describes himself as Cherokee Indian, has said he has no ill will toward black people.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Beebe names head of heritage agency
Gov. Mike Beebe has named a new director for the Arkansas Heritage Department.
Beebe on Friday named Martha Miller of Little Rock to the post. She replaces Cathie Matthews, who retired at the end of the year after 15 years as agency director.
Miller served previously as deputy director for the Department of Arkansas Heritage Museums. She has also worked as an attorney and lobbyist.
Beebe said Miller has strong experience with the department and with state government.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESSOklahoma slayings
suspect: No deal
MULDROW, Okla. - An Oklahoma man accused of killing his parents has turned down a plea deal, and a judge granted a request that the trial be delayed.
LeFlore County District Judge Jon Sullivan on Thursday set trial for Kevin Paul Statham, 51, for May 6. Trial was to have begun Jan. 14.
Prosecutors had offered Statham life without parole in exchange for guilty pleas to first-degree-murder in the 2011 shotgun slayings of Helen Ruth Statham, 69, and Paul Everett Statham, 70, of Bokoshe.
The Southwest Times Record reported that Kevin Paul Statham could be sentenced to death if convicted.
The judge left open the possibility that Statham could accept the plea offer later but said a deadline would be set.
- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Missouri gunfire leaves 1 dead
GLADSTONE, Mo.
- One man is dead, another was shot in the stomach and the gunman was still at large in a Kansas City suburb after an early-morning shooting.
The Kansas City Star reported police responded to a shooting at a Gladstone apartment complex Friday morning and found a 23-year-old man suffering from several gunshot wounds. He was taken to a hospital where he died.
While police were investigating that shooting, they were told about a second gunshot victim in another building. They found an 18-year-old with a gunshot wound in the abdomen. He was taken to a hospital and was in surgery later Friday - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 10 on 01/05/2013