It was a good week for…

THE KOOKS. In the face of hysteria stoked by anti-government groups, state and private conservation agencies withdrew their support of the federal Blueway designation for the White River. The voluntary designation would’ve helped coordinate conservation efforts. Critics falsely claimed it would amount to a government land-grab. See more on page 10.

W.P. SOOIE. Remember W.P. Sooie, the pot-bellied pig that Little Rock Animal Control tried to evict from its home with Jyll Latham? The Times wrote about the travails of the pig and Latham, who thought an exemption for ownership of pot-bellied pigs in a section of Little Rock municipal code allowed her to keep it in a residential neighborhood. But Little Rock Animal Control said the pig fell under the category of “livestock” and couldn’t be housed in the city. The case went to court last week with Judge Alice Lightle ruling the pig could stay, despite a neighbor’s complaint of insufficient sanitation of the output of the 58-pound porker.

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A MOVE TOWARDS EQUALITY. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings on same-sex marriage, gay rights organization Arkansans for Equality submitted a proposal to Attorney General Dustin McDaniel for approval of a ballot measure that would repeal Amendment 83, which bans marriage and civil unions of same-sex couples in Arkansas. If approved, the measure would need about 78,000 signatures to make the ballot.

A MERGER. Conway-based Home BancShares, owner of Centennial Bank and a holding company with more than 100 branches in three states and assets of more than $4 billion, acquired Liberty Bancshares of Jonesboro, an institution with almost $3 billion in assets and 42 branches. The combination will create the second largest Arkansas-based banking corporation, after the much larger Walton-owned Arvest.

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It was a bad week for…

MAYNARD MAYOR GARY HART. In a video captured on a clip camera worn by Maynard Police Chief Lonnie Cline and then supplied to a news station, Mayor Hart seems to say, “If it’s got tits, you got problems. You know what I’m staying? At my house, maybe not yours, but at my house, if you got tits, you got problems (laughs).” He was apparently directing his comments to female members of the city council. They’ve asked the mayor to resign. He’s refused. The mayor told news station KAIT that what he’d actually said on the video was, “If it’s got tires and wheels it’s got problems.”

RESIDENTS OF FOREST PLACE APARTMENTS. Another fire of suspicious origin hit the Forest Place Apartments on North University, the seventh since February. The Little Rock Fire Department is investigating the blazes as arson.

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