State briefs
Winter storm to bring snow, freezing rain
OKLAHOMA CITY — A winter storm packing freezing rain and snow is forecast to cut an icy path through the Southern Plains as a busy holiday shopping weekend unfolds.
The National Weather Service says a storm system that caused heavy rain and flooding in southern California was forecast to produce freezing rain beginning Thursday in central New Mexico.
The wintry weather will move eastward today, producing freezing rain in northwest Texas, much of Oklahoma then northern Arkansas and heavy snow from eastern New Mexico to northwestern Oklahoma.
Forecasters say snow will envelope Oklahoma and parts of Arkansas and Missouri on Saturday as the storm stretches to the mid-Atlantic, producing freezing rain in Tennessee and Kentucky and snow in western Virginia and North Carolina.
Heavy rainfall is forecast for the Gulf Coast.
Medical marijuana panel member to resign
LITTLE ROCK — A member of the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission says he plans to resign, leaving the five-member commission with two members to start the new year as the terms of two other commissioners are ending.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that James Miller has submitted a letter of resignation to state Senate President Pro Tem Jonathan Dismang, who appointed him.
Miller is halfway through a four-year term and said he intended to serve for two years, but drew the longer term after
being appointed. Miller said he plans to focus more time on his family and his job as a lobbyist.
Miller said he believes “the most important and difficult work of the commission has been done.”
Licenses to cultivate marijuana were issued in July and licenses to dispense the drug are expected later this month.
Rapper sentenced to 5 years in Arkansas gun case
LITTLE ROCK — A Tennessee rapper has been sentenced in Arkansas to five years in prison on a federal weapons charge that came after he was arrested with a gun a week before a shooting at an unrelated event at a Little Rock nightclub where he was performing.
Ricky Hampton, who performs under the name Finese2Tymes, was sentenced Thursday in Little Rock.
Hampton, who has a prior felony conviction, initially pleaded guilty in March to possessing a gun at a Forrest City nightclub in eastern Arkansas.
He sought to withdraw his guilty plea in October, but withdrew the request two weeks later.
Hampton was performing at the Power Ultra Lounge in Little Rock last year when a shooting began. More than two dozen people were injured, but no one died.