State Digest
Arkansans donate blood amid shortage driven by influenza
LITTLE ROCK (AP) — Arkansans are stepping up to fill a decline in blood donors due to the rising number of flu cases in the state.
Television station KTHV reports that dozens of blood donors appeared on Saturday to donate blood to the Arkansas Blood Institute. The donors helped to supplement the state's blood supply after many people who regularly give blood at churches and schools became ill with influenza and were unable to make donations.
Officials say the institute is currently meeting demand but that maintaining an inventory has become a concern. The group provides blood for all of central Arkansas and 42 hospitals across the state.
The Arkansas Health Department says 122 people have died from flu-related illness in the state so far this season — the highest number in two decades.
Youth center, 'Hollywood Walk' on residents' wish list
MALVERN (AP) — Building a youth center, creating a Hollywood-type walk of the area's famous celebrities and
offering an off-road bike trail are some suggestions Hot Spring County residents have to improve the region.
Those items were included on more than 200 surveys returned by residents in 14 communities who were asked in November how they would grow the county. Some of their ideas were discussed this week at the College of the Ouachitas.
Although improving recreation and youth opportunities made up most of the discussion, the Malvern Daily Record reports some attendees voiced concern that not having alcohol sales was hurting the county because restaurants and retailers would go elsewhere.
Other suggestions included offering a Wi-Fi charging center, moving the county fairgrounds and promoting a farmer's market and the river park.
Mississippi announces dead deer found with fatal disease
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's efforts to keep out a debilitating deer disease appear to have failed.
The state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks announced Friday that a white-tailed deer found dead Jan. 25 in Issaquena County has tested positive for chronic wasting disease. It's the first deer found in Mississippi with the disease.
The contagious and fatal neurological disease typically causes deer to have tremors and other movement problems and lose weight. The disease was already present among deer in Arkansas and 23 other states.
The department is ordering hunters to stop supplemental feeding of wildlife in Claiborne, Hinds, Issaquena, Sharkey, Warren and Yazoo counties as part of its response plan.
Mississippi last year banned import of dead deer carcasses from affected areas in hopes of keeping out the disease.