Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
In the news
■ Deon Point , creative director for the Boston sneaker store Concepts, which collaborates with Nike on a line of lobster-themed shoes, managed to track down, refurbish and put on display “Lobsta Mickey,” a long-forgotten, somewhat-unsettling statue of Mickey Mouse with giant claws for hands.
■ Virginia Carter of the Save America’s Wildlife Campaign said the North Atlantic right whale “is swimming toward extinction unless things turn around,” fending off pushback as Whole Foods was persuaded to stop selling Maine lobster because entanglement in the fishing gear is one of the biggest threats to the whales.
■ Robert Taylor , who began his three decades in education as a teacher’s assistant in Mississippi and became a deputy superintendent in North Carolina, will return home as superintendent, “perhaps the pinnacle of one’s career.”
■ Bonita Coleman , superintendent of Mississippi’s award-winning Ocean Springs School District, is retiring after 10 years in the post, noting “there are seasons to life,” but she’s grateful she learned “what it means to be a Greyhound.”
■ Philip Way is stepping down from the presidency of Athens State University in Alabama, saying, “I have done what I aimed to do,” including overseeing the initiation of 20 new degree programs, and he now plans to “rebalance” his life.
■ Ken Banks of the Macon-Bibb County Hospital Authority cited “a moral argument” as the agency urges local government to join more than a dozen other Georgia counties in sharing property tax revenue to help pay for indigent care.