Crime
Pandemic stress, gangs, and utter fear fueled a rise in teen shootings
Diego never imagined he’d carry a gun. Not as a child, when shots were fired outside his Chicago-area home. Not at age 12, when one of his friends was gunned down. Diego’s mind changed at 14, when he and his friends were getting ready to walk to midnight Mass for the feast of Our Lady […]
Sanders announces fentanyl trafficking legislation, new “drug czar” for Arkansas
The Arkansas Legislature will consider legislation that would charge drug traffickers with murder if someone dies of an overdose after receiving drugs from them, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin announced at a Friday press conference. Fentanyl traffickers would be sentenced to between 20 and 60 years in prison with the possibility […]
Funding needed to curb fentanyl smuggling at ports of entry, administration officials say
WASHINGTON — Biden administration officials at a U.S. Senate hearing Wednesday on the deadly illicit drug fentanyl said they need more money for better screening technology at ports of entry at the Southern border. They also said the U.S. needs to keep pressure on China due to its role in the sale of chemicals used […]
Of more than 7,500 threats against members of Congress in 2022, just 22 prosecuted
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress receive thousands of threats a year, though just a fraction of the people who call, mail or email will ever be prosecuted — a situation that’s of great concern to the police who guard members. Just 22 of the 7,501 threats lobbed at members during 2022 led to prosecution, the […]
Two Crawford County deputies in viral arrest beating video arrested on federal charges
The two West Arkansas sheriff’s deputies captured in a viral video beating a suspect during an arrest last year were taken into custody on Tuesday after a federal investigation. A grand jury charged former Crawford County sheriff’s deputies Levi White and Zack King with felony civil rights violations in the Aug. 21 arrest of Randal […]
Wave of mass shootings prompts Biden to call yet again for assault weapons ban
WASHINGTON — Following a mass shooting on the eve of Lunar New Year in which 11 people in a predominantly Asian neighborhood in California were killed, President Joe Biden again urged Congress to pass legislation banning assault weapons. Communities across America “have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado Springs to […]
Arkansas legislative Democrats promise to fight, acknowledge bleak numbers
Democratic leaders know they don’t have the numbers to win many battles in the Arkansas Legislature, but they still plan to try to find common ground with Republicans and fight bills they oppose. Arkansas Democrats hold essentially no power as a group after Republicans solidified supermajorities in both the state House and Senate during November’s […]
Sarah Huckabee Sanders taps Arizona prison official to lead Arkansas Department of Corrections
Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders will appoint an Arizona prisons official to lead the Arkansas Department of Corrections after she takes office next week. Joe Profiri, whom Sanders plans to tap as her corrections secretary, is the deputy director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, which he also led in an interim capacity in 2019. Profiri […]
Fifth Arkansan charged in connection with Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack
A 32-year-old Madison County man was arrested Monday on federal charges connected to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Brennen Machacek of Hindsville is named in a criminal complaint filed under seal last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The case was unsealed Monday after his arrest […]
‘An addict and treated like a criminal’: Native woman’s death sparks questions
In May of 2021, Abbey Lynn Steele gave birth to her first child, a baby boy. A urine test showed methamphetamine in his system. Steele, who turned 19 that month, also tested positive for meth. The drug’s detection in the baby’s urine assured that Steele would not keep full custody under South Dakota law. Its […]
Arkansas State Police investigate death of prisoner at East Arkansas unit
Caleb Cogburn, 24, was found dead in his cell at the Varner Unit in Gould on Thursday, according to a press release from the Arkansas Department of Corrections. The prisoner was pronounced dead at 6:40 a.m., according to the department. No other details about the circumstances of Cogburn’s death were released. Arkansas State Police was […]
Rampage at Virginia Walmart follows upward trend in supermarket gun attacks
A gun rampage at a Walmart in Virginia is the latest amid a rise in mass shootings in general in the U.S., and mass shootings at grocery and retail stores in particular. Multiple people including the gunman were killed in the incident on Nov. 22, 2022, at an outlet of the retailer in Chesapeake. It […]