Stories from Wednesday, October 12, 2011

One of the growing hot topics across the country the past few days has been the "Occupy Wall Street" protest, which started in New York, and is now spreading across the country.

To help clear up all the unanswered questions about the city's unpaid taxes, I urge the City of Blytheville to immediately authorize an independent audit of the city's finances during the time period of 2006-2010.

Blytheville schools' town hall meeting will be at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Changes were made Tuesday night to the city of Gosnell's governance regarding yard sales.

National Fire Prevention Week is being observed this year from Oct. 9-15, and will be commemorated by the Blytheville Fire Department in the form of public fire education.

Blytheville's KIPP school may be getting an entirely new campus. The KIPP college preparatory school presented plans Tuesday night to the Blytheville Planning Commission for a new campus in Blytheville.

Blytheville City Councilwoman Missy Langston hopes to have a new sanitation ordinance on the City Council's table this month that limits trash piles, but allows free dumping at Public Works to Waterworks customers.

What was a hot topic of discussion at Monday night's Osceola School Board meeting, became a hush subject on Tuesday night.

The Gosnell Hish School Pirate Marching Band brought home more trophies recently during the Oct. 8 Marching Competition at Paragould. They received a II score (excellent) overall and the Field Commander and Color Guard both received a Superior Rating among all the bands participating. ...

Blytheville Chickasaw mascot Sarah Russell wraps up in a Chickasaw flag during a recent Blytheville home game. The Chicks hit the road Friday night for a key 5A-East battle with Beebe.

Recent reports from the Blytheville Police Department:

Highland travels to Gosnell to take on the Pirates this week in a 3-4A showdown. The game highligts this week's matchups in the conference. Westside mercifully has the week off after a 41-7 home loss to Osceola a week ago. It was the third consecutive week that the Warriors gave up 40 or more points in a game. Here's a look at the matchups...

There are two huge games in the 5A-East this week. Blytheville (4-2, 2-1 5A-East) travels to Beebe (4-2, 2-1 5A-East) for a battle of two teams tied for third in the league standings. Meanwhile, Wynne (5-1, 3-0 5A-East) goes to Batesville (4-2, 3-0 5A-East) in a clash of the conference's co-leaders...

Rivercrest's multi-talented Robert Cooney ran for two touchdowns and blocked a Manila punt to score a third touchdown, leading the Colts to a 35-0 shutout of the Lions Friday night at Wilson in 3A-3 conference football action. Cooney, the speedy Colt quarterback, got Rivercrest on the board with a five yard touchdown run at the 7:24 mark of the opening period. Corbin Smith added the first of his five extra points, giving the Colts a 7-0 advantage...

Riverside continued its dominance in high school tennis under head coach Terry Conner, capturing the team championship in the girls division of the 2A-3 District Tournament Friday afternoon at Allen Park in Jonesboro. The Lady Rebels were led by Anna Brickell, who defended her singles championship by defeating Adrianna Morehouse of Ridgefield Christian 6-4, 6-4. ...