Game and Fish search narrows to four

The Game and Fish Commission has narrowed its search for a director to four finalists, including interim director Loren Hitchcock.
Details follow:

NEWS RELEASE

A field of 15 applicants for the vacant director’s position at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has been narrowed to four people. After reviewing applications and conducting extensive interviews, the AGFC Personnel Committee on Tuesday forwarded a list of four names to the entire Commission.

The four candidates are:

*Mike Armstrong, currently the Assistant Director of Field Services at the AGFC.

*Tom Bennett, currently the Vice President of Operations at the National Archery in the Schools Program Foundation.

*Don Brazil, currently the Deputy Administrator of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.

*Loren Hitchcock, currently the Interim Director of the AGFC.

From this list, the Commission will ultimately elect a successor for former Director Scott Henderson, who stepped down Sept. 1 for another position within the agency.

AGFC Personnel Committee Chairman Rick Watkins announced the finalists during today’s committee meeting. “The process has worked well within our committee structure and provided us with great results. I am very pleased because all of these candidates have broad experience that would work well for the AGFC and the people of Arkansas,” Watkins said.

One-on-one interviews with the four finalists will be conducted by the entire Commission in executive session Jan. 17-18 at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute facility on Petit Jean Mountain. When this process is complete, the Commission will have a public meeting on Jan. 19 to rank the four candidates in order of preference. This candidate list will then be recommended to the Commission at its Jan. 20 meeting for its final approval and selection of a director.“This system has brought us some excellent candidates for the director’s position,” Watkins said. “The quality and talent of this impressive list is truly a testament to the value and esteem with which our agency is held, and is due to the hard work of everyone involved in the search.”

After the Personnel Committee meeting, the entire Commission met later in the day. In that short meeting, Commissioners approved a budget increase for cost-of-living and merit increases as well as career service payments.

The salary adjustments are a result of Gov. Mike Beebe’s announcement earlier this month that the previous pay freeze had been lifted. The increases will become effective during the first pay period of January 2011.
In other business, the Commission:

*Established a set of procedures for the conduct of Commission business through the use of committees.

*Approved a fishing regulation change for Lake Monticello. The new regulation changes the largemouth bass slot limit on Lake Monticello to 19-22 inches with a daily limit of eight, of which only one may be 22 inches or longer.

*Approved a budget increase of $50,000 for legal expenses.

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Search for missing children believed to be dead moves to Citronelle

Published: Sunday, December 05, 2010, 5:55 PM ??? Updated: Sunday, December 05, 2010, 8:11 PM

The search for two missing children that investigators now believe are dead was suspended in Mississippi today as detectives combed an area west of Citronelle, according to authorities.

Investigators searched for any sign of Jonathan Chase DeBlase, 3, and his older sister Natalie Alexis DeBlase, 5, for more than eight hours today in the far northwest end of Mobile County, said Mobile police Officer Christopher Levy.

The youngsters haven't been seen since July when they moved to Kentucky with their father and stepmother, Levy said.

"Again, we had no results," Levy said as the search concluded this afternoon.

On Saturday, the search unsuccessfully led detectives to an area north of Vancleave, Miss., just off Miss. 57.

The children's father, John Joseph DeBlase, 27, led Mobile and Jackson County, Miss., investigators to the Vancleave area, where he thought he had dumped his son's body, Levy said.

DeBlase was apprehended in Milton, Fla., late Thursday by a Santa Rosa County sheriff's deputy responding to a report of a suspicious person, according to previous reports.

DeBlase was brought to Mobile on Friday, where, Levy said, he was questioned by Mobile police and then charged with two counts each of aggravated child abuse and abuse of a corpse.

"When we get information, we have to check, even if it doesn't add up," Levy said of today's search outside Citronelle. "The father is being cooperative, but we've just had no results."

Levy said the search would continue in both areas this week.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Byrd said his investigators would rejoin the search with the department's helicopters.

Byrd said the Vancleave area searched Saturday was about 12 square miles and too broad.

"We need to get a better idea where the body was left," Byrd said. "And that's just if he's telling the truth."

Stepmother Heather Keaton was arrested last week in Louisville, Ky., and faces two counts each of willful abuse and neglect of a child, Levy said.

Byrd said Keaton and DeBlase are each accusing the other of killing the children, but both have agreed that the body of at least one of the children was left in Vancleave.

On Wednesday, Keaton waived an extradition hearing and is expected to be brought to Mobile this week, Levy said.

Authorities were alerted in late November that the children were missing after Keaton asked Kentucky police for a restraining order against DeBlase, Levy said. The couple had been living in Louisville but had separated, Levy said, and DeBlase went to Florida.

Keaton alleged in her complaint to Kentucky police that she was fearful of DeBlase because of events that took place six months prior in Mobile, Levy said. She told authorities that the children were killed in Mobile, Levy said.

"What we know is that they are both responsible for the death of their kids," Levy said. "We know that, but we haven't been able to determine exactly how they died. If we could locate their bodies, that would help our investigation out quite a bit."

Asked about the corpse-abuse charge, Levy said it’s the result of the children not being buried properly, and carries a penalty of up to 30 years in prison. ?

Levy said the most disheartening fact is that friends and family members are now coming forward saying they suspected DeBlase was abusing the children.

"Where were they a year ago when these children needed some protection?" Levy asked. "Why didn't some report it to police?"

When contacted today, family members declined to comment.

Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the Mobile Police Department at 251-208-7211.

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Search for bodies of missing children begins Saturday; father arrested by Mobile police

Published: Friday, December 03, 2010, 6:21 PM ??? Updated: Saturday, December 04, 2010, 5:59 AM

MOBILE, Ala. -- Mobile police will begin searching Saturday for the bodies of two children — Jonathan Chase DeBlase and Natalie Alexis DeBlase — after their father, John Joseph DeBlase, blamed their stepmother for their suspected fate.

As two officers escorted DeBlase from police headquarters tonight, he accused the children’s stepmother when asked who killed them, and responded, “Don’t’ know,” when asked why.

DeBlase, 27, remained in the Mobile County Metro Jail late todaycharged with two counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of abuse of a corpse.

Mobile police Chief Micheal T. Williams said tonight that police will bring in cadaver dogs to search an area that’s within 100 miles of Mobile.

“We are not sure exactly, but he has given us an indication of a location where they may be, or where he remembers burying the children,” Williams said, adding that police believe the children are dead. “Based on what he told us, we believe that.”

Williams said that DeBlase could face additional charges.

“We want to make sure we find these children and that they are buried properly with the dignity and respect they deserve,” Williams said.

The children’s stepmother, Heather Leavell-Keaton, remains jailed in Louisville, Ky., charged with two counts of willful child abuse.

Williams said he did not know when Leavell-Keaton would be brought to Mobile.

DeBlase was apprehended in Milton, Fla., late Thursday by a Santa Rosa County sheriff’s deputy responding to a report of a suspicious person, according to a police report obtained by WKRG-TV Channel 5.

DeBlase was brought to Mobile, where he was being questioned this afternoon, according to police.

Jonathan, 3, and Natalie — whose birth date is given as Nov. 24, 2005, according the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website — have not been accounted for since July, police spokesman Officer Christopher Levy said.

The search for DeBlase intensified this week after Leavell-Keaton, 22, was arrested in Kentucky and charged with two counts of willful child abuse in connection with an incident that occurred while she, the children and their father were living in west Mobile.

On Thursday night, the Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Department received a complaint about a suspicious person living at a home on Charles Circle, according to WKRG.

When the deputy arrived, the homeowner told him that DeBlase had been staying at the house for two days. The homeowner told the deputy that he called the Sheriff’s Department after hearing about the investigation into the children’s disappearance and DeBlase’s potential involvement.

According to the report, the homeowner had confronted DeBlase, who yelled, “I didn’t do it!” and fled.

The deputy took DeBlase into custody at an intersection just blocks from the home. The deputy wrote in his report that DeBlase “made a spontaneous statement of ‘I didn’t do it.’”

Mobile police moved DeBlase to police headquarters this afternoon, where he was questioned.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children posted online pictures of Natalie and Jonathan on Tuesday, listed them as “endangered missing.”

Anyone with information in the case should call Mobile police at 251-208-7211.

(This report was updated with additional information at 8:35 p.m. Press-Register reporter Jillian Kramer contributed to this report.)

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Search for a candidate

Arkansas policy Search for a candidate

Posted by Max Brantley on Friday, October 22, 2010 at 6 H 20

I do not have a link for you, but I thought that I would like to remind that Memphis West log continues hard on the trail of the Democratic candidate for State representative district 54, Fred Smith, allegedly Crawfordsville.Most of the statement is that nobody seems to be able to locate the elusive Mr. Smith, a former globetrotter in Harlem, including the State Ethics Commission, who would ask him on failed to produce financial disclosure forms nécessaire.Preuve he lives in Crawfordsville is insufficient.Was compiled the evidence suggesting that he lives in Mississippi.

Perhaps after he was elected, there was no opposition) someone can serve papers on him in the House of the House of representatives état.Probablement will complete the formalities required to get a paycheck and daily.

Tags: Fred Smith, room 54 district

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