Tornadoes, Floods Marred Arkansas In 2008

Last updated Saturday, January 3, 2009 6:05 PM CST in News

By Jon Gambrell
The Associated Press

Bad Weather

Outside of tornadoes, winter storms charged rivers and dammed lakes to levels never seen before. A foot of snow fell in some regions of the state.

Hurricanes Gustav and Ike also soaked the state, as Gustav remained stationary overhead and dumped rain into already saturated ground. Power companies sending workers to the Gulf Coast for recovery ended up pulling linesmen into the state to help.

At least 26 people had died from violent storms by May, most in rural areas where rice grows and livestock graze on tall grass. A final twister roared through Stuttgart late in the month, but left no fatalities in its wake.

Gwatney Shooting

Gwatney, a former state legislator and the owner of three Little Rock-area car dealerships, was only in his office Aug. 13 to sign checks when Johnson walked in. The Searcy man shot Gwatney three times and left, leading police on a 30-mile chase before officers shot him to death.

The morning of the attack, Johnson quit his job at a Conway Target store after being confronted with evidence that he had written profanity-laced graffiti on a storeroom wall. Later that morning, he tried to call another co-worker but she cut him off and told him to call later.

After months of investigating, state police and Little Rock detectives released their reports on the shooting, offering no real insight into a why a man known for walking his beagle down his rural street and living quietly alone pulled the trigger.

TV Anchor Attacked

Pressly was an anchorwoman on KATV’s “Daybreak” program and had a small role as a conservative commentator in the Oliver Stone movie “W.” Pressly died Oct. 25, five days after her mother discovered her bloody and beaten at her Little Rock home.

Police worked for weeks without a named suspect until DNA collected at Pressly’s home matched a sample from an unsolved April rape in Marianna, about 90 miles east of Little Rock. A Marianna detective suggested that officers investigate Curtis Lavelle Vance, a suspect in several burglaries.

Vance denied being in Little Rock the day of the attack on Pressly and allowed detectives to swab a DNA sample from his saliva, according to a police affidavit. Detectives say it matched the sample from Pressly’s home.

Vance remains held without bond and has yet to enter a plea.

Lottery

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter offered Arkansas its first chance to vote solely on whether the state should get into the business of scratch-offs and lottery drawings to fund college scholarships.

However, the former Clinton administration official first had to gather signatures to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot as lawmakers balked at putting it there themselves. Later, lottery opponents challenged the measure before the state Supreme Court and lost.

Voters apparently had no qualms about overturning a ban set in place before lawmakers even decided how to pronounce the state’s name. About two-thirds of voters approved the measure. Now, many of the same legislators that balked at the ballot measure must pass laws authorizing the games during the upcoming legislative session.

Huckabee

A governor known for quips and weight loss outlasted all his Republican opponents in a crowded presidential primary. The reason -- social issues.

The Southern Baptist preacher won support from social conservatives and evangelical Christians who were attracted to his opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Huckabee won the leadoff Iowa caucuses, making him a sudden but short-lived sensation, and then seven other states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana and Kansas. Meantime, Arizona Sen. John McCain piled up big victories and clinched the nomination in March after winning in Texas.

“It’s time for us to hit the reset button,” Huckabee told supporters. And he did, remaking himself as a commentator with his own Fox News Channel show and a soon-to-begin program on ABC Radio Networks.

Evanegelist-Child Abuse

Alamo, 74, left federal prison after serving time for tax evasion, but state police and federal agents kept an eye on the preacher Bill Clinton once called “Roy Orbison on speed.” After an employee with the U.S. attorney’s office mistakenly sent an e-mail about raid preparations to reporters, FBI agents and state troopers served a search warrant on Alamo’s Fouke compound in September.

Agents later arrested Alamo in Flagstaff, Ariz. He faces charges he took children across state lines for sex. Meanwhile, state officials have seized 32 children associated with the ministries and continue to look for as many as a hundred more.

Alamo faces trial in February.

Natural Gas Industry

Exploration continued in the state’s Fayetteville Shale play, a 300-million-year-old deposit across north-central Arkansas. State officials and economists attributed that business to staving off the effects of national recession.

Former Arkla gas company executive Sheffield Nelson led a one-man charge earlier in the year to raise the state’s severance tax on natural gas. Nelson abandoned the push after the governor reached a compromise in private negotiations with gas company executives and secured lawmakers’ support to raise the tax for the first time since 1957.

State government also got into the gas business. The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission leased land in the Gulf Mountain and Petit Jean wildlife management areas to Chesapeake Energy Corp.

2008 Election

The Green Party won its first-ever seat at the state Legislature, as an unknown North Little Rock candidate won a seat sought by a former lawmaker who resigned over allegations he fondled a young girl. State voters supported a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents -- a measure aimed at stopping gays from taking in children.

Voters also passed a measure allowing for annual Legislative sessions, catching lawmakers and the governor off guard as no one campaigned for it.

Democrats maintained control of both the state House and Senate, though Republicans made small gains.

Alltel-Verizon

Verizon Wireless, the nation’s No. 2 carrier, announced plans in June to buy out Alltel Corp. for $5.9 billion and assume $22.2 billion of the Little Rock-based company’s debt. That would easily make Verizon the nation’s largest cellular company with more than 80 million subscribers.

Alltel’s wide-ranging rural coverage in 35 states made it an appealing target. Verizon said it might open a regional headquarters and call center at Alltel’s corporate park. Still, the company’s well-paid professionals are to lose their jobs in 2009, leaving a big hole in the central Arkansas economy.

Verizon executives had said earlier that they expect the deal to close before the end of 2008. More recently, they’ve said it would close “as early as practicable,” which could mean early this year.

University of Central Arkansas

Hardin resigned from his position at the rapidly growing college in August over criticism of a secretly awarded $300,000 bonus. His buyout package was worth more than $700,000. Afterward, stories by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette questioned how some scholarships were awarded and how the school borrowed money without state approval.

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