State briefs

Authorities investigate Arkansas inmate death

GRADY — Arkansas prison officials are investigating the death of an inmate.

Arkansas Department of Correction spokesman Solomon Graves says Rodney Weston was found unconscious in his cell about 8 a.m. Monday by staff at the Varner Unit in Grady, about 70 miles southeast of Little Rock.

Graves says correction department staff began emergency medical treatment, but 36-yearold Weston died at the prison.

Graves says Arkansas State Police are investigating the death, and the department will conduct a separate internal probe.

Weston was serving a life without parole sentence on a capital murder conviction out of Chicot County.

Eldridge says threat case undermines criticism

LITTLE ROCK — Democratic Senate hopeful Conner Eldridge is touting his work

prosecuting a man who threatened Sen. John Boozman, saying it undercuts the Republican lawmaker’s criticism of his role as an Obama-appointed U.S. attorney in Arkansas.

Eldridge on Monday cited his office’s work prosecuting the case against Larry Joe Nixon, who was sentenced to two years in prison last year for making profanity-laced threats in phone calls to Boozman’s Washington office. Eldridge said his work on the case shows how “ridiculous” Boozman’s repeated criticism of him as an appointee of President Barack Obama is.

Eldridge faces an uphill challenge unseating Boozman, who launched statewide ads last week portraying the former prosecutor as a gift to the state from President Barack Obama. Boozman’s campaign defended his ad, saying it was based on facts.