State briefs

HSU President Glen Jones submits resignation

ARKADELPHIA — The president of Henderson State University has resigned as the school in Arkadelphia faces a budget deficit.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that HSU President Glen Jones resigned Friday and the school’s Board of Trustees named university attorney Elaine Kneebone as acting president.

The university has projected a

$4 million or more deficit. Jones has said students owe about $4.5 million in various bills.

Jones will take a oneyear sabbatical during which he will receive his annual

$230,500 salary, then return to HSU as a business professor.

Trustees issued a statement praising Jones for attracting more students, increasing fundraising and improving student life.

HSU also announced it will pay the Arkansas State University System more than $52,000 to conduct an audit and help with cash-flow management.

SBA: $10.8M in disaster loans made in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK — The U.S. Small Business Administration says $10.8 million in disaster assistance loans have been made in Arkansas.

SBA director Tanya Garfield in Sacramento, California, said Friday that the loans are to businesses and residents to help rebuild and recover from severe storms and flooding that inundated western, central and southeastern Arkansas from May 21-June 14.

Businesses and residents in Arkansas, Conway, Crawford, Desha, Faulkner, Jefferson, Lincoln, Logan, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Sebastian and Yell counties who have damage from the storms or flooding can register for the loans through Aug. 7.

Interest rates can be as low as 4 percent for businesses, 2.75 percent for private nonprofit organizations and 1.938 percent for homeowners and renters with terms up to 30 years.

15-year-old girl charged with murder in man’s death

RUSSELLVILLE — Authorities in west-central Arkansas say a 15-year-old girl has been arrested on a first-degree murder warrant in the death of a 52-year-old man near Atkins.

Pope County Sheriff Shane Jones told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the girl is being held in the neighboring Yell County jail on $300,000 bond.

Her name has not been released.

Authorities investigating re

ports of a shooting say 52-yearold Edward Eugene Arnold dead near Atkins.

A suspected cause of death and the relationship between the girl and Arnold have not been released.