Smoking has been banned on campus at the UA for a while but now it has teeth.

Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan and the city council have arranged for a one day unpaid furlough for all city employees in an effort to save money.  The Fayetteville Flyer has a nice write-up about it and other efforts.

Lots of mystery surrounding the shooting death of a 6 year old girl in Rogers.  The gun used was found in a holster and not next to her body.  Police are not talking.

Sorry boys.  Springdale has already banned the synthetic marijuana known as K2.

Jim Holt is getting the word out… on his ambulance.

More details about the 2.5 magnitude earthquake in Centerton.  I was five miles east and didn’t feel a thing. Meanwhile people in Joplin (30+ miles north) and Fayetteville (25 miles south) are claiming they felt a rumbling.  Y’all have Mexican for lunch or something?

I am suprised this is even news.  I mean, the Texas Governor, Rick Perry (R) is strapped with a laser sighted .380 Rueger with hollow point bullets while he jogs outside the Austin city limits (the actual Austin city limits, not the awesome Music Festival) and he caps a coyote?

What’s the story, here? Sometimes a governor really has to protect himself from stray coyotes and dangerous pinko commie liberals, and such that want to “Keep Austin Weird”.

“I knew there were a lot of predators out there. You’ll hear a pack of coyotes. People are losing small cats and dogs all the time out there in that community,” Perry said.

“They’re very wily creatures.”

On this particular morning, Perry said, he was jogging without his security detail shortly after sunrise.

“I’m enjoying the run when something catches my eye and it’s this coyote. I know he knows I’m there. He never looks at me, he is laser-locked on that dog,” Perry said.

“I holler and the coyote stopped. I holler again. By this time I had taken my weapon out and charged it. It is now staring dead at me. Either me or the dog are in imminent danger. I did the appropriate thing and sent it to where coyotes go,” he said.

Perry said the laser-pointer helped make a quick, clean kill.

“It was not in a lot of pain,” he said. “It pretty much went down at that particular juncture.”

Perry later added:

“He became mulch.”

No, not that former Alaskan Beauty Queen and Celeb Wannabe (pictured left)–this former Alaskan Beauty Queen and Celeb Wannabe–Maryline Blackburn. (pictured right) She’s lives in Smyrna,  Georgia (and has for almost 25 years) and is running for a seat in the Georgia House.

Singer and actress Maryline Blackburn of Smyrna, now a 24-year resident of the state, will announce Thursday that she’ll mount a Democratic challenge to Republican incumbent Rich Golick for his House seat.

Blackburn was Alaska’s first African-American representative to the Miss America beauty pageant. Palin, the future GOP vice presidential nominee, was a flute player from Wasilla. She was named Miss Congeniality.

Blackburn could neither confirm nor deny whether, if elected, her first order of business would be to buy a vowel for Smyrna. When reached for comment, GOP crush superstar Sarah Palin said she has heard of vowels, and reads  ”most of them,” “all of ‘em,” and “any of ‘em.”

after 45 years in the Pen. This decision certainly invites controversy.

Hagan declined to comment Tuesday afternoon.”I really haven’t had any time to gather my thoughts on anything,” he said.

The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center, an organization founded by the civil rights leader’s late widow, hasn’t taken a position on Hagan’s parole, board chairman Zead Ramadan said.

“We just don’t think it’s ours to decide the fate of this man. We allowed the laws of this nation to develop that,” Ramadan said.

But another group, the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, decried Hagan’s parole at a press conference earlier this month. The organization holds essay contests and other events in his memory.