Between Editions

The man who held El Dorado Police and SWAT teams at bay for more than five hours on Feb. 22 is facing yet another charge: second degree murder.

Police arrested Robert Dujuan Loggins, 26, of El Dorado, on Wednesday for the murder of Tyrone A. Brown, 37. No bond was set. Brown was killed last November.

Look for more in tomorrow’s News-Times.

By John Worthen
For Between Editions
It’s chaos in Florida, as a wide-spread blackout has brought life in much of the state to a standstill. This includes the major metro area of Miami, where school children are not being allowed to leave their buildings, so as to “avoid the dangers in the streets,” according to one school official in an interview with the Miami Herald newspaper.

The paper reports as many as 600,000 without power in the Miami area.

People are stuck in elevators, traffic jams are stalling city streets, and I’m glad I’m in El Dorado right now.
UPDATE: Most power has now been restored. Click here for more.

By John Worthen
For Between Editions
The Smackover Police Department is still seeking information on the whereabouts of Laura Lee Smith “Bethany.” Smith, 26, is a white female, 5’ 8”, 162 pounds and has brown hair and brown eyes.

She is wanted on forgery and failure to appear charges, though Smackover Police Chief Michael Fife said he is ultimately worried about her safety.

Fife said that Smith has a history of drug abuse.

“Her family just want to make sure she’s safe,” Fife said. “I’m also worried about her. While I would like to have her in custody, I also want to make sure she’s OK. I’m afraid if she isn’t found, she may wind up dead.”

Smith was last seen between 4-5 a.m. on Jan. 29, when a Union County Sheriff’s deputy responded to a disturbance call at a residence at 5709 N. West Ave., El Dorado, according to a police report.

A vehicle driven by Smith Jan. 29 was later located and recovered by the Union County Sheriff’s Office on Arkansas 335, according to a police report. An El Dorado man was at the wheel.

Police did not say how the man gained possession of the vehicle.

Anyone with information on Smith should call the Smackover PD office (725-3571) or the Union County Sheriff’s Office (864-1970) immediately.

This fire Monday at a Big Spring, Texas, refinery is partially to blame for the higher oil prices seen today.

Just when you thought $3 a gallon for gas was high….

We could be seeing a lot higher prices after oil Tuesday closed at just over the $100 mark for the first time ever.

There was no single driver behind oil’s sharp price jump, reports the Associated Press; investors seized on an explosion at a 67,000 barrel per day refinery in Texas, the falling dollar, the possibility that OPEC may cut production next month, and continuing tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

What will this mean for prices at the pump? Well, it doesn’t take an economist to figure out that we’ll soon be paying more per gallon to fill ‘er up.

According to the AP: Retail gas prices, meanwhile, jumped 1.8 cents to a national average price of $3.032 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Retail prices, which typically lag the futures market, are following oil prices higher. The Energy Department expects gas prices to peak near $3.40 a gallon this spring.

Around South Arkansas, we’re already paying near $3 a gallon for regular unleaded. What are commuters going to do when it reaches near $3.50 or more? Any thoughts?

Steve Kazmierczak

By John Worthen
For Between Editions
The Chicago Tribune is reporting the identity of the man who sprayed bullets inside a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Ill., Thursday.

Six were killed.

According to the DeKalb Police Department, it’s former student Steve Kazmierczak. DeKalb police asked Florida authorities Friday morning to assist in speaking to his father, Robert Kazmierczak.

Here’s more from the Tribune.

The latest round of gun-related violence is sickening, to say the least. We’ve heard, over the past year or so, of school shootings, mall shootings, department store shootings and other senseless violence.

This time it happened at Northern Illinois University, but it could have just as easily been at South Arkansas Community College right here in El Dorado.

When is our nation going to face the fact that we’re in a violence-related crisis? The sad truth: There probably isn’t anything we can do about it.

THE LATEST:
The Associate Press is reporting: Kazmierczak became erratic after halting his medication and carried a shotgun to campus inside a guitar case, police said Friday. The man, 27-year-old former student was also wielding three handguns during Thursday’s ambush inside a lecture hall.

Two of the weapons — the pump-action Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun — were purchased legally less than a week ago, on Feb. 9, authorities said. They were purchased in Champaign, where Kazmierczak was enrolled at the University of Illinois.