*UPDATE: Joe Smith has been elected mayor of North Little Rock. He beat state Rep. Tracy Steele, who nearly avoided a run-off in the general election with 48.2 percent of the vote. Smith won the run-off 55 percent to 45 percent, 7,535 to 6,234.
*LET’S GAMBLE: Or at least try to predict the outcome of the NLR mayor’s race and the Arkansas coaching search. The latter has gotten plumb ridiculous. Les Miles to Arkansas for $5 million? Jim Harris over at the new Sporting Life Arkansas is predicting Vanderbilt’s James Franklin. But he’s just guessing.
*UAMS GRANT: University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences researcher Nalini Bora was awarded a three-year, $1.1 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to study an inflammatory eye disease that causes 20 percent of all blindness. Bora is the director of research for the Pat and Willard Walker Eye Research Center and will use the grant to find a treatment for idiopathic anterior uveitis (IAU), an inflammation of the middle layer of the eye.