Dogtown Wire

May 11: Carrie Underwood Carnival Ride Tour with special guest Josh Turner at Alltel Arena for 7:30 p.m. Ticket cost: $55, $45 & $35. Tickets available at the Arena box office, 975-9000, visit www.alltelarena.com or through TicketMaster locations, charge by phone 975-7575 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

May 16-17: “This one’s for the birds!” A fundraising event to benefit the Parrot Exhibit at the Little Rock Zoo will be held at the Salty Parrot River Café with a $2 donation. Live island music from 5 to 10 p.m. and happy hour all day from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. For details call 372-5777.

May 16-19: Senior State Championship Tennis at the Burns Park Tennis Center. For details call 791-8585 or visit www.burnsparktennis.com.

You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.

Members who patronize the city’s two private clubs holding class B alcohol permits will have to go to Little Rock if they want to drink at a club after 2 a.m. now. When originally designed by the Alcoholic Beverages Control Board (ABC), a class B alcohol license permitted a club to stay open until 5 a.m.

City Attorney Jason Carter sent a letter to the Counterpoint club at 3605 McArthur Drive April 21 to inform the owner it as “in violation of city ordinance No. 7139” that states the closing time for private clubs is 2 a.m.

Section 5.48 of the ABC rules and regulations defining hours of operation for private clubs is explicit in giving municipalities the power to set more restrictive closing times within their jurisdictional borders.

If financial plans are sorted out, the World War II destroyer USS Orleck may float its way up the Arkansas River in the very near future.

The  Southeast Texas War Memorial and Heritage Foundation (Foundation) has had the Orleck berthed in Orange, Texas since 2000, but now must find a new home for it. After the Orleck suffered minor damage when Hurricane Rita snapped the mooring lines, its new berthing spot is no longer available to the Foundation.

A North Little Rock man was arrested Friday in connection the Nov. 25 shooting death of Cornelius Delaney, 39, of Hot Springs, said Sgt. Terry Kuykendall.

Brandon R. Booth (photo), 19, was charged with felon aggravated robbery and felony capital murder after he gave Det. Michael Gibbons a detailed taped statement about the incident.
Police responded about 2 p.m. to a call about a sick or injured person at 2009 W. 16^th St. where Delaney was found laying on the front yard bleeding. Delaney was pronounced dead at the scene of multiple gunshot wounds and became the 13^th  homicide victim of 2007.

Kuykendall said the investigation led detectives...

Amboy
5300 block of MacArthur Drive, 12:45 a.m. April 29: Police responded to a burglar alarm at Abby Road and found the front door shattered. An employee arrived and said three packages of the urine detoxifying product Mega Clean were missing.

5800 block of Sonora Drive, 7:52 p.m. April 28: A woman told police someone enter her house by forcing open a window. She said a Dell computer, a Dell 17 inch flat screen monitor, a Kodak Easyshare digital camera, a Magnavox DVD player, and a plastic tote bag were missing.

Baring Cross
1400 block of West 25^th Street, between 6:40 and 9:40 p.m. April 20: A man told police someone entered his house by kicking in the front door. He said a canister style vacuum cleaner, an Xbox, a PlayStation 2, 30 video games, 20 DVDs, and four Boston Red Sox baseball hats were missing.

1500 block, Phyllis Street, between 11:32 a.m. and 1:32 p.m. April 18: A man told police someone entered his house by kicking in a rear door. He said three watches and eight diamond rings were missing.

Early voting for the Pulaski County May 20 preferential primary election and non-partisan judicial general election begins today.

The Courthouse early voting has moved to the Pulaski County Regional Building at 501 W. Markham St. in Little Rock.

Hours and dates:

8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays through Fridays the weeks of May 5 to May 9 and May 12 to May 16

10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturdays, May 12 and May 17

8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday, May 19

Other early voting locations with times and dates:

William F. Laman Library                      2801 Orange St. – NLR

Jack Evans Senior Citizen Center           2301 Thornhill Drive – Sherwood

Jess Odom Community Center              1100 Edgewood Drive – Maumelle

Jacksonville City Hall                            #1 Industrial Drive – Jacksonville

Sue Cowan Williams Library                   1800 S. Chester St.  – LR

Dee Brown Library                                6325 Baseline Road – LR

Roosevelt Thompson Library                 38 Rahling Circle – LR

McMath Library                                    2100 John Barrow Road - LR

Hours and dates:

10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mondays through Fridays the weeks of May 5 to May 9 and May 12 to May 16

10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday May 12 and May 17

Excitement was tied to nervousness as I thought of how I would write the inaugural posting to Dogtown Wire.

With the Wire becoming the first independent, electronically published local newspaper in North Little Rock, the task of explaining why Scott Miller and I decided to take on this new venture was daunting. And, was taking way too many drafts.

Then it became easy as I remembered the first thing I learned in journalism class. Plain honesty, and its intellectual cousin ethics, was the cardinal rule to follow when sitting down to write an article.

“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.” ~ Thomas Paine

 The key word in this famous quote is “We.”

 This is why the Wire is asking residents of North Little Rock to become citizen journalists for what we want to be a true grassroots community newspaper.

 I’m not going to pretend I can do it all. I am reaching out to the residents of the city to be true stakeholders in this news site if they want to make a difference. You can be the “we” in changing the way city issues are presented, and how the public becomes engaged in conversation about its issues.

As a citizen journalist you will join the growing ranks of town and city residents across the country who are becoming an integral part of independent, electronically published local newspapers.