Stories from Thursday, May 15, 2014

After a Pulaski County circuit judge's ruling last Friday declared the state's ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional, many county clerk offices have indicated they are not able to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Poinsett County Clerk Fonda Condra said Tuesday her office is not equipped at this time to issue same-sex marriage licenses because of the computer software. Condra said her office had only received a few phone calls on the issue, though those were mostly media inquiries...

The city of Marked Tree has been working for months on a contract both the council and Awesome Products can agree on regarding the company's obligations to the city. With Monday's city council meeting, an agreement may have been reached, but it will not mean any new jobs created for the city...

Over 60 people packed the Lepanto courtroom for a special council meeting Tuesday night called to discuss personnel at the police department after Police Chief Chad Henderson was demoted on Friday, May 9. Without discussing specifics, the council went into executive session immediately when the meeting began at 7 p.m. "This is a personnel issue," Mayor Jernigan said. "Therefore, there will be no audience participation. We'll go into executive session."...