State briefs
Arkansas court to hold hearing over birth certificates
LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ highest court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit over whether married same-sex couples can have the names of both spouses on their children’s birth certificate without a court order.
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Wednesday granted a request to hold oral arguments in the state’s appeal of Pulaski County Judge Tim Fox’s decision striking down part of the state’s birth certificate law as unconstitutional.
Justices in December suspended Fox’s ruling on the birth certificate law until the state’s appeal could be heard. The court did not halt a separate order from Fox allowing the three same-sex couples who brought the lawsuit to amend their children’s birth certificates.
The court said it would set a date later for the oral arguments.
5 Arkansas counties to receive new voting equipment
LITTLE ROCK — Five Arkansas counties will receive new voting equipment ahead of the general election this fall.
Secretary of State Mark Martin says Chicot, Cleveland, Jackson, Randolph, and Washington counties will receive the new equipment, which includes voting machines, tabulating machines and software. Boone, Columbia, Garland, and Sebastian counties previously received the new equipment.
Spokesman Chris Powell tells Little Rock radio station KUAR that most voting equipment in the state is about 10 years old and in need of an upgrade. Powell says the new equipment allows for a more streamlined system that should shorten the wait times for voters and speed up tabulations at the end of the night.
Forrest City vocational school seeks to avoid consolidation
FORREST CITY — The board of a vocational school in Forrest City is allowing the institution’s leader to approach other Arkansas universities about a potential partnership in order to avoid a forced merger by the state Legislature.
Crowley’s Ridge Technical Institute’s board of directors made the decision Monday after a failed attempt by some Arkansas lawmakers to force consolidation with East Arkansas Community College last week, the Times-Herald reported.
The board gave interim president David Brown permission to seek out other universities about a partnership in order to avoid a forced merger.
“Every senator who spoke to me on Thursday told me that this is going to happen, one way or the other,” said Fredric Smith, board chairman. “We have to be proactive, and I say that because we have to merge with one of these systems or — and I’ll give you the brutal, honest truth — we’re going to merge with EACC.”
Smith said he believed that by negotiating a partnership with either of the two schools, the institution could maintain some authority in how it is operated. He said that authority would be stripped from them in a forced merger.
Brown and Smith said the Department of Higher Education has expressed a desire to see each community college in Arkansas absorbed by the University of Arkansas or Arkansas State University.
The board also discussed the possibility of putting their opposition to a merger with the community college to an official
vote, but they adjourned the meeting without doing so.
LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas woman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after admitting she forced an underage girl into prostitution.
The U.S. Attorney’s office said 30-year-old Amber Johnson of Wynne was sentenced Wednesday on one count of sex trafficking of children. U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer said Johnson took advantage of two youngsters who trusted her.
Police opened their investigation after a victim told the staff at Arkansas Children’s Hospital she had been having sex with four to six men a day after she and an older sister ran away from foster care and stayed with Johnson. The girl told the hospital staff that Johnson’s children wouldn’t be able to eat if she stopped.
Johnson was arrested in central Arkansas in April 2015 and pleaded guilty last November.
Gassville man sentenced to life in prison in double homicide
MOUNTAIN HOME — A Gassville man has been sentenced to life in prison in the double homicide of a Midway couple in November.
The Baxter Bulletin reports that 24-year-old Nicholas Ian Roos pleaded guilty Tuesday in the slaying of 75-year-old Donald and 71-year-old LaDonna Rice.
Roos also admitted to taking items from the couple’s home as well as burning the couple’s house and truck.
He received two life sentences without the possibility of parole in the murders and an additional 94 years in prison for the other charges in the incident.
The only other possible sentence he could’ve received was the death penalty.
His co-defendants, 20-yearold Mikayla Mynk and 23-yearold Zack Tyler Grayham, still face the death penalty in the case. Both are being held in the Baxter County jail without bond.
Arkansas beach closed due to high E. coli levels
MOUNTAIN HOME — Officials say a swim beach in Mountain Home will remain closed indefinitely due to concerns about E. coli levels.
The Mountain Home office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ says that higher than acceptable bacteria levels were found during recent routine testing by the Arkansas Department of Health at the Highway 125 beach on Bull Shoals Lake.
Department officials say the high bacteria levels could be from run-off following recent heavy rains.
The beach will remain closed until further notice.