The state/region in brief

Restaurant conned in utility bill scam

JONESBORO - A Jonesboro restaurant has fallen victim to a utility scam.

Police told reporters that a man posing as a Jonesboro City Water & Light employee called Barnhill’s Buffet on June 28 and told an employee that the restaurant’s $897.34 utility bill was past due and that its electricity would be shut off. Police said a financial officer at the restaurant approved paying by phone with a prepaid credit card.

The restaurant learned July 1 that the call was a scam when a manager contacted the utility to confirm payment.

A manager at the restaurant said she was unable to discuss the incident.

CW&L special projects administrator Kevan Inboden told reporters that the utility doesn’t normally contact customers by phone about past due bills and doesn’t ask for payment over the phone.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSGrant to buy radios for Fire Department

DRIGGS - A western Arkansas town has received a federal grant of more than $468,000 to purchase portable and mobile radios for firefighters.

U.S. Sens. John Boozman and Mark Pryor, a Republican and Democrat respectively, announced Thursday that the Driggs Fire Department in Logan County will receive the grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

The funding is part of the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program, which aims to strengthen the nation’s ability to respond to fires and other hazards. In fiscal year 2012, the program provided about $337 million in grants to local fire departments and emergency responders.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJudsonia educator given annual award

A Judsonia woman who teaches family and consumer life at White County Central High School has been designated the 2013 Arkansas Rural Teacher of the Year.

Beverly Froud was presented the award Tuesday in Eureka Springs by the Arkansas Rural Education Association and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

The cooperatives sponsor the annual award.

The Rural Teacher of the Year is selected based on criteria that include the teacher’s professional biography, educational history, professional development, community involvement and teaching philosophy.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS2 officers cleared

in June shooting

JOPLIN, Mo. - Joplin Police Department’s internal affairs division has cleared two police officers involved in the June 16 shooting of a man accused of trying to run them down with a sport utility vehicle during a traffic stop.

Police spokesman Lt.

Matt Stewart said there was no criminal wrongdoing on the part of Cpl. Thomas Bowin and officer Luke Stahl in the shooting of 32-yearold Brandon Knoderer. The Joplin Globe reported that both officers have been cleared to return to duty.

Knoderer was charged with two felony counts of assaulting an officer in the incident. He was struck in the right arm and left hand by bullets fired by the officers.

Stahl returned to work June 28, while Bowin was to be back on the job Thursday.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS4 arrested in death of 17-year-old boy

LAWTON, Okla. - Lawton police have arrested four people after a teenager died from a gunshot wound.

Police received a call late Tuesday about a shooting at Summit Springs Apartments, but authorities said officers found only blood and no victim when they responded to the scene.

Lawton police said 17-year-old Deshawn Givens was taken in a private vehicle to a Lawton hospital, where he later died. Police said Givens had been shot in the chest.

Lawton police Capt.

Craig Akard told the Lawton Constitution that the people who took Givens to the hospital were all interviewed by police. Akard said three youths were arrested, along with an 18-year-old man.

Akard said no one had been formally charged in Givens’ death.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESSInnocent pleas made by ex-city manager

TULSA - Former Owasso City Manager Rodney Ray has pleaded innocent to a felony bogus check charge and a misdemeanor count of falsely reporting a crime.

Ray is charged with writing a bogus check for more than $3,000 to a hearing-aid company in 2010 and with lying to police last year when he said the check had been stolen.

Ray declined comment after entering the pleas Wednesday in Tulsa County District Court.

Ray resigned in June - about one month after he was suspended with pay when the Owasso City Council ordered an investigation into his office. A municipal memo obtained by the Tulsa World showed that in April, Ray ordered that two police videos of a February traffic stop of Owasso Vice Mayor Chris Kelley be deleted.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS4 receive probation for paddlefish haul

TULSA - Three Arkansas men and a Missouri man have been sentenced to probation for illegally transporting paddlefish eggs out of Oklahoma.

The Tulsa World reported that James Chapman of Swifton, Jeremy Waldrip of Sulphur Springs, Lee Jobe of Sulphur Springs and Jay Witt of Pineville, Mo., were each sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Tulsa to one year of probation.

Paddlefish are shark-like freshwater fish whose eggs are considered by some to be a more available and affordable alternative to caviar. It is illegal to transport unfrozen paddlefish eggs out of Oklahoma.

A fifth man - Robbie Dale Tubbs of Newport - has pleaded guilty to a felony count of receiving paddlefish eggs from the four men and faces sentencing in September.

  • THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 07/12/2013

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