State briefs

Appeals panel weighs Arkansas Planned Parenthood case

LITTLE ROCK — A federal appeals panel is considering whether to uphold or strike down a judge’s decision to temporarily block Arkansas from cutting off Medicaid payments for three Planned Parenthood patients.

Attorneys for the state and Planned Parenthood appeared Wednesday before a threejudge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over the preliminary injunction preventing the defunding move for the patients. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued the injunction last year and Planned Parenthood has asked her to expand the order to any current or future patients.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson ended the state’s Medicaid contract last year because of videos secretly recorded by an anti-abortion group. The state has said Planned Parenthood received $51,000 in Medicaid funds during the past fiscal year. None of the money paid for abortions.

Arkansas medical hospital to oversee pediatric studies

LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will receive a nearly $42 million grant to oversee a pediatric clinical trial network of 17 grant recipients.

UAMS was chosen by the National Institutes of Health to be the Data Coordinating and Operations Center for the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trial Network that was announced Wednesday.

The program is part of a national seven-year, $157 million initiative by the NIH called Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes, or ECHO. The study will investigate how exposure to a range of environmental factors from conception through early childhood — affects the health of children and adolescents.

Also, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute will receive $1.9 million from the NIH to become one of the 17 clinical sites.

Police identify bodies found in salvage yard

LITTLE ROCK — Authorities have identified two Yell County men who were found dead in a salvage yard outside Russellville.

The Pope County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday said the state Crime Lab identified the bodies found at the U-Pull-It Auto Salvage yard as Aaron Brock and Beau DeWitt. The sheriff’s office didn’t say what the cause of deaths was, and said the deaths are being investigated as a homicide.

The bodies were found inside a vehicle at the salvage yard Tuesday afternoon and were taken to the Crime Lab.

Log truck driver gets 40 years in deaths of 2

LITTLE ROCK — A log truck driver who tested positive for methamphetamine following a fatal Arkansas 2014 crash has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports 41-year-old Jerry L. Hickman of Bee Branch was sentenced after he pleaded guilty in Van Buren County Monday to numerous charges, including two counts of negligent homicide.

The June 2, 2014, crash occurred in Clinton when the tractor-trailer truck Hickman was

driving south on U.S. 65 had a blowout on the left rear of its trailer. The truck’s trailer overturned and spilled logs onto a road and bridge being worked on by a construction crew.

Two construction workers — 40-year-old Ricardo Trochez of Atkins and 51-year-old Hubert Keith Moore of Chester — were struck by logs and killed. Nineteen others were injured.

Rogers airport gets $5.8 million grant for improvements

ROGERS — An airport in Rogers has received a nearly $6 million federal grant for runway improvements.

Members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation announced Tuesday that the Rogers Executive Airport received the $5.8 million in funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The money will pay for runway reconstruction at Carter Field, improvements to the existing pavement and rehabilitation to the runway’s lighting.

The airport’s manager, David Krutsch, says officials are thankful for the grant, saying it will enhance safety and provide a structurally sound runway to support aircraft at the facility.

Magnolia manufacturer to shutter plant, ending 300 jobs

MAGNOLIA — A fuel-cell manufacturer has notified local officials that it will shut its plant in Magnolia, putting about 300 people out of work in south Arkansas.

Magnolia Mayor Parnell Vann says he was notified last week that American Fuel Cells and Coated Fabrics Co., also known as Amfuel, will shut down production at its plant. The manufacturer has been located in Magnolia for more than 60 years.

A spokesman for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission says the agency was notified of the plant’s closure and said the company received no state incentives.

Amfuel makes fuel cells for the aerospace industry. The company’s predecessor, Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., moved to Magnolia from California at the end of World War II and converted a former cotton mill for its use.