LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS (BNO NEWS) — Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Bill Bowen will resign from his appointment due to his deteriorating health condition, Governor Mike Beebe said on Tuesday.

Bowen informed Governor Beebe of his plans to resign on Tuesday. Beebe appointed Bowen to serve on the court for 2010 after Justice Annabelle Clinton Imber resigned.

“While this news is a disappointment, my thoughts are first and foremost focused on Bill’s health and well-being,” Governor Beebe said. “A dedicated and honorable public servant, Justice Bowen expressed to me his regret in not being able to serve his full appointment. We will work quickly to fill this vacancy with another qualified jurist.”

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SPRINGFIELD, OHIO (BNO NEWS) — Four people were confirmed dead after a three-vehicle crash involving a school van near Springfield, Ohio on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

The crash occurred just before 1 p.m. local time at milepost 62 on eastbound Interstate 70, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol officials.

Lindsay Komlanc, a spokeswoman for the patrol, said a semi tanker vehicle traveling westbound lost control, crossed the median, and struck two eastbound vehicles. One of the vehicles was a 17-seat school bus carrying eleven people. “Four people [on the van] are confirmed deceased,” another spokesman said, which Komlanc confirmed. The driver of the school van was among the fatalities.

Seven other people were injured in the crash, six of those on board the van. The truck driver was also injured. A person who was on board a car, the third car involved in the accident, was not injured.

The incident is currently under investigation.

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SPRINGFIELD, OHIO (BNO NEWS) — Four people were confirmed dead after a three-vehicle crash involving a school van near Springfield, Ohio on Thursday afternoon, officials said.

The crash occurred just before 1 p.m. local time at milepost 62 on eastbound Interstate 70, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol officials.

Lindsay Komlanc, a spokeswoman for the patrol, said a semi tanker vehicle traveling westbound lost control, crossed the median, and struck two eastbound vehicles. One of the vehicles was a 17-seat school bus carrying eleven people. “Four people [on the van] are confirmed deceased,” another spokesman said, which Komlanc confirmed. The driver of the school van was among the fatalities.

Seven other people were injured in the crash, six of those on board the van. The truck driver was also injured.

The incident is currently under investigation.

(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without explicit prior permission from BNO News B.V. Contact sales@bnonews.com for more information about subscriptions.)

BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA (BNO NEWS) – Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine announced Wednesday a drastic reduction in department spending and proposed privatizing certain department programs to offset the $108 million deficit.

“Governor Jindal made clear he wanted us to protect services for the elderly and the disabled as we approached the mid-year budget challenges,” Levine said. He added that “our approach has been to consider access to Medicaid services and to vital programs while acknowledging that in tough times, we cannot be everything to everyone. We have to be targeted in how we spend our resources.”

Reductions in the non-Medicaid program are part of a larger strategy by the Department to rely more on community-based care in the private sector rather than state-funded institutions. Anthony Keck, Deputy Secretary, said that “by relying less on more costly state-operated services when we have capacity existing in lower-cost, highly effective and proven private community-based services, we are able to deliver high quality, compassionate care to our clients at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”

A transition task-force led by officials from each program office is working with DHH human resources and Civil Service to attempt to relocate employees displaced by the new department policies, where possible. Additionally, the transition task-force is considering retirement incentives and other motivations to encourage private sector establishments to hire state employees who have been laid off as a result of the budget cuts.

Keck states that “many of our employees will be highly sought-after in the private sector […]” and he insists that every possible effort will be made “to match up employees with employers.”

The budget cuts have eliminated at least 818 positions throughout the Department’s programs including the Office of Public Health, the Office of Mental Health, and the Office for Addictive Disorders.

“Government must be innovative and must constantly be in search of better ways to provide quality service in a more efficient manner,” Levine said. “We will continue to pursue policies to move Louisiana’s health agenda forward while we ensure we are living within our means.”

The Department announced previously this year that the Medicaid program was facing a spending deficit. Due to a revised estimate in relation to the H1N1 Influenza expenditures, the budget has been revised downward from the November 2009 estimate of $275 million in total funds to an estimated $248 million.

The Department of Health and Hospitals stated that they have already begun working to identify cost-saving measures and rate reductions to implement in state fiscal year 2011, when they say there will likely be even greater financial challenges.

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI (BNO NEWS) — A Kansas City man has been sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for unlawfully possessing a firearm despite a string of prior felony convictions, prosecutors said on Thursday.

Darron Eskridge, 31, was sentenced to 327 months in federal prison after a jury in August found him guilty on one count of unlawful possession of a firearm after felony convictions, said U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch.

Eskridge was arrested on September 23, 2008 during an investigation of a burglary in the 3700 block of Hutton Road in Kansas City. He possessed a .22-caliber revolver and a 12-gauge shotgun that were stolen in the burglary.

At the time he was arrested, Eskridge was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of ten prior felony convictions from 1996 through 2007 in Jackson County and Clay County, including burglary, possession of stolen property and firearms charges.

Welch commended the Kansas City Police Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead for their work on the case.

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PRAIRIEVILLE, LOUISIANA (BNO NEWS) — Five people were killed and eight others were critically injured after a crash on Interstate 10 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Saturday, officials said.

The accident happened around noon local time when a mini van apparently blew a tire and struck a large box truck, according to Russell Graham, a spokesman for the Louisiana State Police. The mini van, which was carrying thirteen people, then crossed the center median and overturned at least one time.

All the thirteen people aboard the mini van were ejected from the vehicle, Graham said, saying only the driver was believed to have been wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the box truck was not injured in the accident.

PRAIRIEVILLE, LOUISIANA (BNO NEWS) — At least five dead and eight critically injured after accident on the Interstate 10 near Prairieville, state official says.