Branch News

Authorities in Franklin County are awaiting hospital records of a 6-year-old boy who was shot and wounded during the weekend.

There's a development in the so-called West Memphis Three case. The defense team representing Damien Echols, who is on Arkansas death row for his conviction in the case, reports that there are new witnesses who have not been questioned in the 1993 investigation.

Tom Mann Jr. was a double-winner Saturday, with one victory coming by a large margin and the other by a razor's edge.

There will be a number of fireworks displays and other Independence Day events this week across the River Valley and Northwest Arkansas.

A man who was shocked by 7,200 volts of electricity while trying to rig an unmetered power line to his house is hospitalized, and charges are pending for theft and for a methamphetamine lab deputies found in his house.

A neighbor who lives along South Hopkins Road in Branch called 911 Friday night when a man fell from a power pole near her home.

The Franklin County Sheriff's Department has six full-time officers. Sheriff Reed Haynes said that isn't enough for the county, which stretches more than 700 square miles.

Officials across Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley said they have been making preparations in case of an H1N1 flu outbreak in Arkansas, but they said they have seen no positive cases as of Thursday afternoon.