This Hour: Latest Arkansas news, sports, business and entertainment

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This Hour: Latest Arkansas news, sports, business and entertainment

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ARKANSAS TREASURER ARRESTED

Ark. treasurer accused of taking cash from broker

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas' state treasurer is being accused of repeatedly taking cash payments, sometimes in a pie box, from a broker who saw his share of business with the state increase in recent years.

Martha Shoffner made her initial court appearance Monday and was released on her own recognizance.

Federal prosecutors allege that Shoffner accepted $12,000 a year from a broker who would sometimes deliver cash in a pie box - with a pie. The broker is cooperating with investigators.

Shoffner didn't enter a plea. But her attorney says Shoffner would plead not guilty at the appropriate time.

Shoffner had been held in jail since Saturday, and her attorney said she would return home to rest. She was ordered to surrender her passport.

A next court date was not set.

ARKANSAS TREASURER ARRESTED-ATTORNEY

Arrested Arkansas treasurer says she won't resign

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner says she doesn't intend to resign after a criminal complaint accused her of accepting cash from a broker who managed state funds.

Shoffner appeared in federal court Monday after she was arrested over the weekend at her home in Newport. She told reporters after the hearing that she didn't intend to resign, despite calls from the Arkansas Republican Party and some Democratic officials to do so.

She didn't enter a plea at Monday's hearing. Her attorney, Chuck Banks, says she'll plead not guilty at the appropriate date, but that hasn't been scheduled yet.

Shoffner had been held in jail since Saturday, and Banks said she would return home to rest. She was ordered to surrender her passport.

MISSING ARKANSAS TEEN FOUND DEAD

Body found in Ark. river is that of missing teen

WALNUT RIDGE, Ark. (AP) - Authorities in northeast Arkansas say a body found in a river this weekend is that of a missing 14-year-old girl.

Lawrence County Sheriff Jody Dotson says Monday that the body found Saturday in the Black River has been identified as Sidney Nicole Randall.

Authorities say Sidney was last seen on March 9. The prime suspect in her disappearance was found dead two days later in an apparent suicide. Authorities say the suspect, John Cornell, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound near a truck parked in a field in the Walnut Ridge area.

Officials and volunteers have searched for Sidney weeks after her disappearance.

Details about how and when Sidney died have not yet been released.

Walnut Ridge is about 130 miles northeast of Little Rock.

ARKANSAS-SEVERE WEATHER

Severe weather forecast for northwest Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The National Weather Service in North Little Rock says severe weather is possible in north and western parts of the state.

Forecasters say a weather system that brought devastating tornadoes to the Plains on Sunday was pushing toward northwest Arkansas on Monday.

The storms led the way for a cold front, which is meeting a high pressure system that's over Arkansas and other southern states.

The high pressure ridge is causing the front to stall, with storms expected to develop over the northern and western Arkansas. The unstable conditions are expected Monday afternoon and evening.

Hail, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes are possible, along with heavy rain in places.

The greatest threat is north and west of a line from Mena to Hardy.

SEVERE WEATHER

Official: 2nd person killed by Oklahoma tornado

SHAWNEE, Okla. (AP) - Oklahoma's state medical examiner's office says a second person was killed by a tornado that leveled a central Oklahoma mobile home park.

Office spokeswoman Amy Elliott on Monday identified the two people who are confirmed to have been killed during Sunday's storms as 79-year-old Glen Irish and 76-year-old Billy Hutchinson. Both men were from Shawnee.

1 of several tornadoes that touched down in parts of the nation's midsection on Sunday leveled the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park near Shawnee.

It wasn't immediately clear if both victims lived at the mobile home park.

ARKANSAS TREASURER ARRESTED

Ark. treasurer accused of taking cash from broker

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - An affidavit filed in federal court alleges that Arkansas Treasurer Martha Shoffner repeatedly took cash payments from a broker who invested state money.

The affidavit filed Monday claims that Shoffner accepted multiple payments of $6,000 cash that was sometimes rolled up and hidden in a pie box. The affidavit says the broker has been granted immunity in exchange for his or her cooperation.

The affidavit says Shoffner admitted to authorities that it was wrong to accept the cash.

Shoffner was arrested on an extortion charge Saturday and was set to appear in court Monday, though the time of the hearing isn't immediately known.

Shoffner was criticized in a legislative audit last year for bond sales that blocked the state from earning more than $400,000.

ARKANSAS TREASURER ARRESTED-REACTION

Arkansas AG says state treasurer should resign

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Arkansas' attorney general and the head of the state Republican Party say Treasurer Martha Shoffner should resign after she allegedly took cash payments from a broker who invested state money.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel and state GOP Chairman Doyle Webb said Monday that Shoffner, a Democrat, ought to resign immediately.

An affidavit filed in federal court Monday says Shoffner accepted multiple payments of $6,000 cash that was sometimes hidden in a pie box. The affidavit says Shoffner admitted to authorities that it was wrong to accept the cash.

Shoffner was arrested on an extortion charge on Saturday and is expected to appear in court Monday.

Shoffner was criticized in a legislative audit last year for bond sales that blocked the state from earning more than $400,000.

WALMART-ARKANSAS SUPPLIERS

Walmart pushing for more Ark. product makers

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Bentonville-based Walmart is making a push to sell more U.S.-made goods and part of that effort includes promoting products made in Arkansas.

The world's largest retailer on Monday held an event in Little Rock to highlight more than 1,700 Arkansas-made items on its shelves.

Walmart has developed an "Arkansas Own" label to flag items made in the state.

The company says higher oil and labor prices in Asia have made manufacturing there more expensive. Walmart is investing $50 billion over 10 years on American-made products.

Company officials say they are offering U.S.-based suppliers longer contracts so they can afford to invest in new facilities.

Gov. Mike Beebe says the state is talking with foreign companies that are looking at building new U.S. plants, though he didn't offer further details.