Stories from Wednesday, July 29, 2020

The 19th annual Stuff the Bus, sponsored by United Way of Northeast Arkansas, will be a little different this year. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year's even will be virtual. The event is still committed to helping students in more than 20 participating school districts. The event runs through August 2...

The USDA is expanding access to innovative online food purchase program as Arkansas' request to provide online purchasing of food to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households has been approved. The approval will allow Arkansas to expedite the implementation of purchasing with current authorized SNAP retailers. ...

The Arkansas Department of Agriculture (ADA) says they have been told private citizens in several states have received unsolicited packages containing seeds that appear to have originated from China. The types of seeds in the packages are unknown at this time and may be invasive plant species. The packages with Chinese writing on them have been delivered in the mail...

Congressman Rick Crawford voted no to the Great American Outdoors Act earlier this month. Crawford called the legislation a land grab attempt. The legislation would have authorized the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for the full $900 million...

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced his Governor's Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund that will provided Wi-Fi for students across Arkansas. The fund will allocate $10,000,000 for Wi-Fi access points across the state and will provide 20,000 devices with up to 24 months of high speed unlimited access...

Jesus Rafael Gonzalez, 55, of Lepanto died July 19, 2020 at his home. He was a farm worker. Mr. Gonzalez was born December 22, 1964 in C.D. Mante Tamaulipas, Mexico to Salomo Alvarez and Rosalina Gonzalez. He was preceded in death by one daughter Virginia Gonzalez Juarez and one brother Rafael Hernandez...

Mrs. Joyce Hamby of Trumann departed from this life on Saturday, July 25, 2020 at the family residence at the age of 83 years, 1 month and 29 days. She was born Wednesday, May 26, 1937 in and was a lifetime resident of Trumann. Joyce worked at Salant & Salant and retired from Parker Hannifin and was of the Pentecostal faith. ...

Have you been experiencing the annoyance of biting flies the last few weeks? As if we haven’t had enough to worry about with all the bugs and mosquitoes. Now the flies have jumped on the band wagon. These pests aren’t only nuisances; they’re a threat to the health of animals and people alike...

John Schwarz of Weiner recently graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) during the spring 2020 semester. Schwarz graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Construction Engineering. UALR gave out nearly 1,300 degrees were awarded for the semester. With about 10,000 students and 100 programs, UALR offers learning, research, service, social and career opportunities that can only be found at a metropolitan university located in Arkansas' capital city...

Wava Jean McMillon Wilcox, aged 93, of Arkadelphia, formerly of Paragould, died Friday July 24, 2020. She was born June 30, 1927, on a farm in the Alexander community near Paragould, the daughter of Sam and Syble Wineland McMillon. She was a retired cosmetology instructor at the Delta Vocational Technical School in Marked Tree. ...

Shatel Gaines will guide the Trumann Lady Wildcats' volleyball program for the 2020-2021 season. Gaines replaces Kayla Malcom who coached the team for the past two seasons. Gaines will also serve at the middle school counselor. Gaines was a setter, all-conference, all-state and state champion at Jonesboro High School. ...

Latest update from AAA on contact sports.

Poinsett County has had 130 active cases with 34 cases still being active. There have been 93 recoveries, three deaths and 2,329 negative tests.

The Marked Tree School District posted on their Facebook page today that they received notification of one confirmed positive case of Covid-19 concerning a high school student athlete. For the privacy of students and staff, and by law, the Marked Tree School District cannot share personal information. ...