Police Chief records video of ‘black panther’

Police Chief records video of ‘black panther’

KIBLER — According to officers with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, hundreds of sightings of mountain lions have come into their office. Only 15 have been confirmed by the AGFC in the last 12 years.

But what about black panthers in Arkansas?

Kibler Police Chief Roger Green said he was sitting in his hunting blind back in November when he says he saw a rather unusual sight.

“I have seen deer, squirrels, rabbits, big rabbits. This time it was a black panther,” Green said. “I thought I had to get footage of this because so many people are saying there’s no black panthers in this area. I even believed it my self until I saw it and then I knew I was witnessing something I had heard about for years.”

Green said the Discovery Channel has contacted him about the footage he shot on his phone. Green posted it on Facebook and said it has been shared thousands of times.

“They want to get video of me sitting here and someone walk out there so they can measure the height of that person and how high I thought the cat stood,” he said.

It’s a similar process used by AGFC when they go into the field to check out sightings of possible mountain lions. They use life-size cardboard cutouts of animals that they can place near trees and in the woods to get measurements of animals.

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Bill would remove

Confederate designation from star on Arkansas flag

LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas lawmaker is proposing that a star on the state’s flag no longer represent the Confederacy, saying it should instead commemorate the contribution of Native Americans to the state.

It’s a largely symbolic gesture. Democratic Rep.

Charles Blake’s legislation filed Friday wouldn’t change the design of Arkansas’ state flag. Instead, it would eliminate language from Arkansas law that a blue star above the state’s name that says the star commemorates the Confederate States of America.

Under Blake’s proposal, the star would commemorate the Quapaw, Osage and Caddo tribes and the other Native American nations who inhabited Arkansas. The proposal comes two years after Arkansas’ Republican governor signed into law a measure removing Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the state holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.

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Arkansas Senators split vote on border security compromise

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ U.S. Senators split their votes Thursday, Feb. 14, on a compromise bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and a portion of President Donald Trump’s controversial border wall. U.S. Sen.

John Boozman (R-Arkansas) voted for the bill, with U.S.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) voting against it. Neither Senator commented on Trump’s promise to enact a national emergency to find additional wall funding.

The U.S. Senate voted 83-16 on the resolution that sets aside $1.375 billion for a 55-mile border barrier, which was less than the $5.7 billion Trump wanted for more than 200 miles of wall on the southern border. In his recent State of the Union joint address, Trump called on funding for new security along the nation’s southern border. The divisive topic was at the center of a partial federal government shutdown for nearly 35 days at the end of 2018 and in the early days of 2019 following The U.S. House voted 300 to 128 late Thursday night for the resolution. The four members of Arkansas’ House delegation were split on the resolution, with U.S. Reps.

Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, and Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, voting against it, and U.S. Reps. French Hill, R-Little Rock, and Steve Womack, R-Rogers, voting for it.