Stories from Friday, April 18, 2014

A local civic club is working hard to improve literacy in Mississippi County. With its latest venture, the Blytheville Rotary Club hopes to generate interest in reading by participating in the national book giveaway program, World Book Night.

Meeting for the second time this month, Thursday night, the Blytheville City Council's Finance and Purchasing Committee approved several requests and had a lengthy discussion with new Finance Director John Callens on its objectives.

Groundbreaking for Big River Steel is expected to take place some time in late June, according to founder John Correnti.

ARMOREL--The Armorel Lady Tigers swept the Crowley's Ridge Academy Lady Falcons in a 1A-3 East doubleheader Thursday night. The Lady Tigers came back from a 6-3 deficit to win, 10-7, in game one before winning in commanding fashion, 16-4, in the nightcap...

The Blytheville Chickasaws dropped a a non-conference battle to Obion County, Tenn, 8-1, Thursday night while the Lady Chicks lost to Caruthersville, Mo., 20-10 at the Blytheville Youth Sportsplex. The Chicks held a brief, 1-0 lead before Obion County scored four runs in the fourth followed by two runs in each of the sixth and seventh innings...

Back-to-back nights of good weather provided another entertaining night of Cal Ripken youth baseball at the Blytheville Youth Sportsplex. Here's a wrap up of Thursday night's action. MINOR LEAGUE Family Eye Care 14, Rotary 12 Cameron Ruth's three-run, over-the-fence home run helped propel Family Eye Care to a 14-12 win over Rotary in Minor League action Thursday night...

The Gosnell-Valley View rivalry has provided plenty of memorable moments over the years. Add Thursday night's doubleheader at the Blytheville Youth Sportsplex to that list. With Valley View moving up to the 5A-East next year, the two teams closed the book on an eight-year regular season rivalry by giving their fans one more night to remember with Gosnell taking game one of the twinbill, 7-4, and Valley View winning in extra innings, 6-2, in the nightcap...

The weather's been a little closer to decent the last few days -- not exactly summer yet, but a fairly good approximation of spring.