Stories from Wednesday, June 2, 2010

TRUMANN - Mrs. Laura Dean Odom Smith, 71, of Trumann, died Wednesday, May 26, 2010 at the family residence. Mrs. Smith was born in Florence, Ala. and had lived in Trumann for the past 30 years. She was a housewife and of the Pentecostal faith. Mrs. Smith was preceded in death by two step-sons, one step-daughter, one brother, and her parents, Bill Johnson and Carol Green Johnson Smith...

Hannah Ghant, daughter of Marshall and Vicki Ghant of Marked Tree, received the "2010 Outstanding Female Student Athlete of the Year Award" at the MTHS Athletic Banquet last Monday night. Ghant also earned the "Pitchers Award", "RBI Award", and "Slugger award" as well as All-Conference, All-Region, All-State in softball...

Marked Tree High School named senior Richie Tate as their "2010 Outstanding Student--Athlete of the year." Tate, led his baseball team to the 2A District and Regional championships. Tate also received the "Outstanding Hitter award." He broke the record for the most home runs hit in MTHS baseball...

If you're a little confused about what Memorial Day is all about, it's not really your fault. You might just think of it as the start of the summer vacation season. At least, that's what the oil companies tell us as they begin to raise the price of gas. ...

I couldn't believe the latest headlines when reading the news this week, "Mother convicted in Facebook harassment case". Facebook is an internet website that allows you to socialize by networking with other people from all over...

I wanted to wait a week before I wrote about this because it made me so mad. I'm still mad about it, but not in the immediate sense it was last week. What I'm talking about is the way some people reacted to the incident in West Memphis nearly two weeks ago. First of all understand that I am a proponent of the death penalty...

A grievance hearing was held Thursday night for the Marked Tree High School choral director who believed the principals at the high school and elementary schools treated her unfairly due to her part in a group grievance. Sherry Hatch filed the grievance against High School principal Matt Wright and Elementary principal Jana Hatley...

On June 8, a 23-year-old who grew up in Weiner and has been involved in state Democratic Party functions since his teens will be involved in a run-off with a seasoned state politician for Land Commissioner. That Poinsett County native, L.J. Bryant, will face Monty Davenport in the run-off June 8 for Land Commissioner...

Ritter Communications broadened their retail services this week with the acquisition of Optus, Inc.'s retail division. Ritter will now expand its phone system product line to include providers such as Cisco, NEC and Shoretel, as well as advanced IT technologies from Compellant, Cisco, Microsoft and VMWare. ...