Thursday, October 15, 2009

Ducks Unlimited Banquet October 29, 2009, in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Please click on images to move to Flickr site and use magnifying tool above photo to ENLARGE for easy reading.
09
09

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Green Groups Guild meeting Thursday

From: Green Groups Guild (ggg@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of ggg (ggg@UARK.EDU)
Sent: Tue 10/13/09 2:31 PM
To: GGG@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU

Meeting 10/15/09 7:00 p.m.
209 Thompson Ave. Three Sisters Bldg on Dickson above Fez Hookah Lounge.
Patrick Kunnecke
GGG President
ASLA Vice President
4th Year Landscape Architecture Student
479-544-1906

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Runners and Sponsors sought for Nov. 7, 2009, 5K veterans' memorial race to benefit Fayetteville National Cemetery

Please click on image to move to Flickr site and ENLARGE for easy reading. The Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corporation meets at 10:30 a.m. Saturday October 10 and needs to add sponsor names to the file for the race T shirts and the brochures so that printing can begin. Already, Tyson Foods has donated at the Medal of Honor level and has challenged others to join them at the top of the list, thanks to the effort of RNCIC Secretary Peggy McClain.
RNCIC 5K sponsorship levels 09

Bill McArthur dead at 71: MYSTEERY of wife's murder lingers

The Morning News

Local News for Northwest Arkansas


Lawyer Suspected In Wife's 1982 Killing Dies

By Jon Gambrell
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LITTLE ROCK — Bill McArthur, a Little Rock lawyer never charged but considered a suspect in the 1982 execution-style shooting of his oil heiress wife, died Sunday. He was 71.

Little Rock police Lt. Terry Hastings said a neighbor called police Sunday night after seeing McArthur collapsed at the door of his apartment. Hastings said an autopsy likely will be performed on McArthur, though investigators suspect natural causes in his death.

"There's no foul play suspected," Hastings said.

McArthur, a well-known criminal defense lawyer, became notorious in Arkansas on July 2, 1982, when police found Alice McArthur dead in a bedroom closet from a single gunshot wound to the head. A bouquet of flowers sat at her feet, with a card reading, "Have a nice day."

Two months earlier, a homemade explosive detonated under Alice McArthur's luxury car at their Little Rock home. She escaped with minor injuries.

Shortly before her death, Alice McArthur told friends she had come into "quite a bit of money," roughly $50,000 a month, from oil leases and royalties on property in Louisiana. She also discussed setting up a trust fund for her two children.

An anonymous telephone call led sheriff's deputies to arrest parolee Larry Darnell McClendon, 27, in Alice McArthur's death. They also arrested Eugene "Yankee" Hall and Mary Lee Orsini, a North Little Rock widow Bill McArthur defended against charges she shot her husband to death. The state Supreme Court overturned Orsini's conviction in that case.

Orsini received life in prison without parole for orchestrating McArthur's slaying; Hall got a life sentence and McClendon received a 20-year sentence.

Deputies later said Orsini gave a man a script to read for the anonymous phone call. Then Hall implicated Bill McArthur in his wife's slaying.

Bill McArthur also was part-owner of the state's largest country music night club, the Star Studded Honky Tonk.

Then-Pulaski County Sheriff Tommy Robinson, a flamboyant lawman who later went to Congress, arrested McArthur on suspicion of killing his wife. But prosecutors declined to charge McArthur in his wife's slaying, as did a later grand jury. Robinson later tried to have the lawyer charged with setting up a $500,000 contract killing targeting him.

McArthur later sued Robinson and another deputy, but the lawsuit was dismissed. However, the former sheriff has said he always harbored suspicions about McArthur's role in his wife's death.

"I think the truth will come out," Robinson said in a 2003 interview with The Associated Press. "Somebody somewhere sometime will finally come forward and tell the truth."

Robinson declined to comment Monday.

Though never charged, McArthur acknowledged his wife's death forever stained his reputation.

"During the year 1982 after Alice's death to the middle of 1983, I didn't do a great deal of practicing law. That was a great deal by choice, but not entirely," McArthur said in a 1986 interview. "I'm sure, at that time, no one would have been terribly interested in having me try a case. There was a cloud over me."

Just before her death in 2003, Orsini told sheriff's deputies in prison that she killed her husband. She also told investigators she had an affair with Bill McArthur, though the lawyer wasn't aware of her plans to have his wife killed. McArthur had denied he and Orsini had an affair.

In a 2003 interview with The Associated Press, McArthur said he hoped his now-adult children and elderly mother could find some closure with Orsini's confession.

"One thing I learned," McArthur said of Orsini, "was that I couldn't figure her out."

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Veterans' Memorial 5K race set for November 7, 2009, in Town Branch neighborhood: Sponsorship information below

The Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corporation (RNCIC) is organizing a Veteran’s Memorial 5K race on Saturday, November 7th at the National Cemetery in Fayetteville. The purpose of this 5K race is to raise funds for purchase and clearing of land to expand the Cemetery and, even more importantly, to raise the awareness of the Cemetery and the ongoing threat of closure.
We write to ask that you consider sponsoring the event.
The sole mission of the nonprofit RNCIC is to secure and clear land adjacent to the Fayetteville National Cemetery to ensure that the cemetery can continue to receive veterans for burial. Established immediately after the Civil War, the Fayetteville National Cemetery is an important part of the history of this region and the country. Veterans living in Northwest Arkansas, as well as many veterans from here but now living outside our region, have planned their final resting place here. But that may not be possible in the near future.
The Veteran’s Administration maintains the Cemetery, but the purchase of new land to expand
existing National Cemeteries has not occurred in decades.
When the RNCIC was organized only seven unfilled grave sites remained at Fayetteville National
Cemetery and the Cemetery was soon to be permanently closed to new interments. We have kept the Cemetery open and increased its size by over 120 percent in the ensuing 25 years, but with the passing of the World War II generation of veterans, the Cemetery will be full in a few years and closed to new burials.
Unless, of course, we act now to prevent that.
The recent controversy over the possible rezoning and development of the adjoining property has regularly been on the front page of local newspapers this summer. The massive turnout of veterans and non-veterans alike to public hearings demonstrates the deep emotional currents that surround the National Cemetery. We are grateful for past commitments to support veterans made by this community. We plan to make the race an annual event and, in this inaugural year, we are happy to give you the opportunity to associate yourself with keeping an important part of this region’s and nation’s heritage alive and to honor those who guarded us. We hope that you will see your way clear to sponsor this event. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.
Respectfully submitted,
Wesley Stites, Race Organizer
wstites@uark.edu
Tel: 479-871-7478
5K RACE
VETERANS MEMORIAL
Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corporation
P.O. Box 4221
Fayetteville, AR 72702
http://regncic.tripod.com
Veterans' 5 K race November 7, 2009, in Fayetteville, Arkansas: Sponsorship details below
2009 Veteran’s Memorial 5K Race Sponsorship Levels
We thank you for considering sponsorship of this fundraising event. As you may know, all
proceeds of the race go to purchase and clear land for the expansion of Fayetteville National
Cemetery. The Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corporation is a registered nonprofit
with a 25-year history. Through the efforts of this group and, even more importantly, the
generosity of past donors, land has been purchased, cleared, and donated to the Veterans Administration increasing the size of the National Cemetery by 120% and keeping it open for
burial of veterans. However, without additional purchases of land, the cemetery will be closed in 14 years or less.

MEDAL OF HONOR - $1000
Business name and logo prominently on front and back of race shirt
Business name and logo on all race materials and race website
Sponsorship noted in all press releases
Business name and logo on finish line banner
Business recognized at award ceremony
Distribution of marketing materials and/or product samples in race goodie bags
10 complimentary entries and/or race shirts

DISTINGUISHED SERVICE - $500
Business name and logo prominently on back of race shirt
Business name and logo on race website
Business name and logo on finish line banner
Business recognized at award ceremony
Distribution of marketing materials and/or product samples in race goodie bags
5 complimentary entries and/or race shirts

SILVER STAR - $250
Business name and logo on back of race shirt
Business name and logo on race website
Business recognized at award ceremony
Distribution of marketing materials and/or product samples in race goodie bags
3 complimentary entries and/or race shirts

BRONZE STAR - $100
Business name and logo on back of race shirt if room allows
Business name and logo on race website
Business recognized at award ceremony
Distribution of product samples in race goodie bags
1 complimentary entry and/or race shirt
CONTACT Information:
Wesley Stites 479-871-7478
All checks should be payable to Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corporation or to R.N.C.I.C.
Regional National Cemetery Improvement Corporation
P.O. Box 4221
Fayetteville, AR 72702

Friday, October 2, 2009