Frank Scott elected Mayor of Little Rock

Frank Scott elected Mayor of Little Rock

LITTLE ROCK — Frank Scott, 35, a banking executive and former highway commissioner won Tuesday’s runoff for Little Rock mayor, becoming the first African-American elected to lead Arkansas’ capital six decades after it was the center of a school desegregation crisis.

Scott served as an adviser to former Gov. Mike Beebe and on the state Highway Commission, and he assembled a coalition that crossed racial and political lines. His supporters included Democratic state legislators from the area and prominent Republicans such as Will Rockefeller, grandson of former Arkansas governor Win Rockefeller.

Scott had said he wasn’t running to be Little Rock’s first elected black mayor, but had sought to bridge some of the city’s biggest divides: race, income and geography.

“If you believe it’s time to unify this city, let’s do it,” Scott told supporters Tuesday night.

Little Rock has had two black mayors, but they were elected city directors chosen for the job by fellow board members and not by voters.

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New bill aims to make ‘Stop the Bleed’ training a high school graduation requirement

LITTLE ROCK — A new piece of legislation proposes high school students to undergo bleeding-control training before graduation.

“We knew that the next step was we needed to go back to the legislature and say we mandate CPR, I think it’s important that we mandate Stop the Bleed,” said Dr.

Marlon Doucet, works with the Special Tactics Advanced Response team as part of Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services.

The Stop the Bleed initiative was introduced to Arkansas law enforcement in 2013. Fire academy personnel received training in the years following. In 2017, the Arkansas Department of Education heard a proposal to expand trauma-medical training under the Stop the Bleed principal to schools.

The state health department, UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital expressed support for the lifesaving campaign being promoted through the education system.

The Stop the Bleed initiative involves training with how to quickly yet efficiently apply a tourniquet and how to plug a wound using various materials including gauze. The application of adding pressure is also emphasized in the training. Bleeding control kits are provided to schools that participate in the free training. If the legislation passes, the state education and health departments would be tasked with devising the bleeding- control training endorsed by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians.