Coming up, the state fair opens. High school students gear up for Friday Night Football
and the sniper attacks near Washington, having an effect across the country.
You're watching Arkansas's fastest growing news station. This is today's THB.
I think they're scared to get gas and scared to stop at the grocery store.
The sniper shootings in the Washington D.C. area hit close to home for one woman in the
state. That's our top story tonight at 6. I'm Karen Brady and Andy. Both have the night
off.
Well, today another shooting at a gas station is reported. This one in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Officials haven't confirmed the connection between it and the other shootings, but they
blocked off the interstates and other main routes in the area looking for white van witnesses
apparently saw driving away from the scene. Shannon Taylor caught up with a woman here
who's paying close attention to every detail. Shannon?
Karen, Patrice Hargrave is from Woodbridge, Virginia, where residents are watching their
backs. She's spending the month working here in Arkansas, but her mind is on the events
back home.
It's three and a half weeks until election day and things are heating up in Arkansas.
That's why Patrice Hargrave is back in the place she grew up, helping the Democratic
Party pull in some votes.
It's wonderful to be back in Arkansas.
But several times a day she's in touch with her boyfriend back home to see if he and her
other friends are safe.
Makes you miss them a little bit more.
The area where they live is now marked by yellow tape and crime scene investigators.
You see a lot of kids and families running around and you don't think about it being
a crime area at all.
But she stopped at the gas station in Fredericksburg and shops near the Michael's store there,
scenes of two of the shootings.
And that always brings it close to home when you see that it happened in a place that you've
walked in and out of the stores.
Patrice is relieved to be far away from the danger.
Well my parents are glad that I'm here and I guess for my own safety I'm happy.
But for my friends and family that are in Washington and the surrounding areas, of course
I worry about them and want to know that at a moment's notice I can check in and make
sure that they're safe.
So that's what she does several times a day until she can see them face to face.
I mean I know that if they haven't caught the person I'll try to take extra precautions
but it's a great community and there's wonderful people and I certainly want to go back to
my regular life once it's over.
Now none of the shootings have happened right in Woodbridge where Patrice is from.
If the sniper does strike there Patrice says that would really cause her to worry.
Karen?
Thanks Shannon.
Well there will be no high school football games tonight in Fredericksburg, Virginia
where the latest shooting took place.
Other D.C. area schools have canceled all outdoor activities including field trips, open lunches
and sports practices.
Now, first view weather from Chief Meteorologist Ed Buckner.
Well even though skies are mostly cloudy it was a little bit of a warmer day today than
we've seen the past couple of days.
We did see some breaks in the clouds this afternoon but right now they have clouded
right back up again so we're going to keep clouds in tonight's forecast.
Let's look at temperatures and again I mentioned that it was a little warmer.
We made it into the 70s today.
It's still 70 in Little Rock, 72 Fort Smith, 73 in Street Fort, 77 in Dallas.
Now, they were close to 80 today.
We will see temperatures like that here tomorrow and the first day of your weekend looks like
a warm one but the second day of your weekend holds some big changes and we'll talk more
about your forecast in just a few minutes.
Karen?
The best of both.
Thanks Ed.
Well if you noticed the smell of fried food in the air it's probably coming from the Arkansas
State Fair.
The annual event kicked off today at noon and it's scheduled to run through next Sunday.
The 10-anchor midway is filled with carnival rides, game booths and stages for live musical
performances.
Be sure and have plenty of cash on hand though because checks, credit cards are not accepted.
You've got 10 days but some just can't resist the first day of the state fair.
Gates opened at the 36th at the 63rd annual state fair at noon today.
TJ Holmes is there.
He joins us with info you may need before heading out there.
TJ?
That's right Karen.
Well tonight is one of the biggest nights out here and one of the big things that the
general manager is talking about out here at the fair is that they have more discounts
and special promotions than ever before like tonight is 50 cents Friday.
You can actually go pick up an admission ticket for 50 cents at any Harvest Foods or affiliated
food store.
But even if you are not heading out here tonight, coming in the next 10 days there are some
things you need to know before heading out to the fair.
Before the fun begins you've got to find a place to park.
Fairground parking on and near the grounds is $4 and security constantly patrols these
lots.
At the gate tickets will be $5 for adults and $3 for children and senior citizens.
You may want to make sure you have enough cash once inside.
The ATMs on the grounds charge a $4 transaction fee and there's no re-entering if you want
to leave the fair for a while.
After entering don't put your wallet away so quickly.
Just inside you'll find the ride coupons.
Individually they're 75 cents and many of the main rides require 5 or 6 of them.
On the midways you'll find a number of game booths as always.
You'll get a number of proposals from them as you walk by.
This is something else you can expect to see and hope it's not you, parents looking around
for their kids.
ID wristbands will be available.
Medical personnel are also on standby.
There's no shortage of food of course.
One thing that won't cost you here, seeing and feeding livestock.
You can even milk a cow.
And after all those rides, playing those games, petting livestock and possibly milking a cow,
you can use one of the fair's newest features, hand sanitizers placed around the grounds.
Of course the hand sanitizers are brand new this year but they're also, you ask maybe
after 63 years what else could be new here, you ask anybody out here what's new.
This is one of the first things that's going to come out of their mouth.
Fried Twinkies for those of you who thought that a Twinkie was just a little too healthy
and should be dipped in a vat of grease.
Now of course the fair has to be competing tonight for people with the All-Tel Arena
game, the Lakers and the Grizzlies playing and also Friday night high school football.
Well many of the fair officials believe the Friday night football will help them because
the fair doesn't close until 12 tonight.
Maybe the kids will get done at the games and head out here.
So that's it from the fair.
There's plenty more.
If you can't make it out tonight you got nine more days to catch up with the Fried Twinkie,
Karen.
I just don't know about that.
You'll have to let me know though.
I will, I will.
Thanks, T.J.
Well a big lineup of entertainers is scheduled to perform this week.
Rock Group 38 Special will take the stage tonight at 730 and country artists Carolyn
Dawn Johnson and Keith Urban will perform tomorrow night also starting at 730.
Well no state fair would be complete without a wide selection of fattening foods and this
year's fair is no exception.
Vendors are offering everything from the traditional to the unusual.
If you like corn dogs, candy apples and funnel cakes there are plenty of those.
But if you want something a little different try the deep fried Twinkies that T.J. just
mentioned and if that's not scary enough there are also deep fried candy bars.
In the THB poll question tonight we ask what is your favorite fair food?
Log on to our website at today'sthb.com and choose from the several options that we've
listed for you.
We'll share the results tonight on a 10 o'clock difference.
In a THB update the Little Rock School Board has approved a plan for evaluating more than
a dozen academic programs during the next 17 months.
In September district judge Bill Wilson Jr. found that the school district had complied
with most of the terms of its 1998 desegregation plan.
Wilson released the district from court monitoring in all but the area of academic program evaluations.
School officials say a compliance plan and new rules for doing evaluations has been sent
to the federal office of desegregation monitoring for approval.
In other news an attorney whose client sued the city of Little Rock has surrendered his
Arkansas law license.
David Henry represented Nora Harris who was upset about the way the city was going to
pay for the Clinton Library.
Last week the case was dismissed on Henry's request but Nora Harris responded that Henry
didn't have permission to do that.
Henry is also accused of converting about $15,000 of another client's money to his
personal use.
In West Little Rock the build for a cure idea house officially opens this weekend.
Tours of the home will raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
The house is decorated by some of the state's top designers.
There are three bedrooms, a kitchen, a failing room and a spacious back patio.
Tours of the home start tomorrow October 12th and continue through Sunday November 3rd.
The cost to get in $20 and if proceeds as we mentioned go to fight breast cancer.
State health officials say Arkansas has had one of the worst rabies outbreaks in recent
years.
More than a dozen animals around the state have been diagnosed with a deadly disease.
That's why it's so important to have your pet vaccinated for rabies and you can do that
for free tomorrow.
The Central Arkansas Rescue effort or CARE will be giving free rabies shots to pets tomorrow
at the Little Rock Animal Shelter.
Now in addition to that they are providing a free spay and neuter service.
For more information you can call the Little Rock Animal Shelter at the number on your
screen 376-3067.
If you have a child it's important to have their photo stored on a computer desk so it
will be easier to find them if they are ever lost or taken.
Coming up next we'll tell you about several Morgan Nick photo ID days going on around
the state this weekend.
And of course Chief Meteorologist Ed Wagner says we should have sunshine tomorrow.
We'll have a look at our weekend forecast right after this break.
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You're watching Arkansas's fastest growing news station with Andy Pearson, Ann Jensen,
Chief Meteorologist Ed Wagner and Craig O'Neill on sports.
This is today's THV at 6.
Now Ed, you mentioned a little earlier that we could have the best of both worlds, a little
summer, a little fall like this weekend.
You got it, that's a good way to put it.
So you just pick your favorite and head on out to the fair because we've got a little
bit of everything to talk about.
And we even got some rain in the forecast this weekend, but it's at nighttime in between
those two temperature extremes.
So Saturday night, early Sunday morning, a chance for showers and then things will taper
off and it'll get much cooler for Sunday.
Here's a look at what's going on around the nation tonight.
We have a stationary front to the southeast, lots of clouds, lots of low level moisture
trapped at the surface.
We did see a few breaks in the skies earlier, but really looking at mostly cloudy skies
all over the mid-south.
Here comes the big weathermaker for the weekend.
This front is going to pack quite a punch as it moves through the central plains tonight,
moves through Nebraska and Kansas tomorrow and into Arkansas tomorrow afternoon.
Behind it, temperatures are much cooler and you can see there are scattered showers and
thunderstorms along it.
We can't rule out a chance of that happening again.
When you're sleeping, most likely Saturday night and early on Sunday morning.
That's the timeframe it looks like right now.
That could change a little bit, but it looks like that's the timeframe.
There's the satellite picture.
We saw breaks in the clouds.
Now we're back to mostly cloudy conditions all over the place.
Not a whole lot of change anywhere you go.
70 in Little Rock, 71 in Springfield, 77 in Dallas.
It's 80 in San Antonio, 86 in Midland, 82 in Amarillo.
Warmth out here.
Cooler in the east because of the clouds and the rain.
74 in Asheville, 75 in Atlanta.
81 in Panama City, Florida.
Record high today, 97.
Set in 1963.
While the following year, 1964, we saw our record low happen.
That was 36 degrees.
Average high is 77.
Last year we only made it to 72 degrees.
Today 73.
So about like last year, but still a little below normal, but warmer than it's been the
past couple days.
62 is our morning low and that was with a lot of low clouds and fog.
70 currently, dew point 61.
Humidity 73%.
The pressure is on the high side slightly and the winds are out of the southwest at
six miles.
And now our southwesterly breeze helped warm us up a little bit today even though we did
see a lot of cloud cover.
69 in Harrison and 68 in Batesville and Jonesboro.
Most of the rest of the state in the 70s hopes at 69, but Pine Bluffs at 70.
Monticello is at 71.
El Dorado is at 72 degrees.
69 in Conway and Cabot and Heber Springs.
70 in Stuttgart, 71 in Benton and 70 also in Morlton.
Here's a look at Saturday's timeline.
We'll start out at 60 degrees, 74 at noon on our way to a high temperature of 80 degrees
tomorrow afternoon.
And that is with a little bit of afternoon sun showing up.
So temperatures each day have been a little bit warmer.
Two days ago it was 57.
Yesterday 60 something, today 70 something.
Tomorrow I think we will come real close to that 80 degree mark.
Tonight mostly cloudy.
Patchy fog again, developing mainly after midnight.
It won't be as widespread as what we saw last night, but patchy fog back in the forecast.
Calm winds and a low temperature of 60 degrees.
Tomorrow partly cloudy, a little warmer than today.
A high of 80.
Southwest winds at 5 to 10 helping to heat us up and dry out the atmosphere a little
bit more.
So I think we'll see a little bit more sunshine tomorrow than what we've been seeing.
Here's a look ahead.
80 tomorrow, then on Sunday.
Boy, a big difference.
64 the high temperature on Sunday with again that morning chance of rain.
I'd put a chance at about 30 percent Sunday morning.
Then Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Friday very much like fair weather.
Except Friday when we have another chance of rain and even a stronger cold front next
weekend, Karen.
So pick your favorite day, head on out to the fair.
It looks pretty nice once we get past Sunday.
And how do we get so perfect to get the rain overnight?
I don't know.
We must be living a ride.
Oh, that's great.
It's because you're here.
I don't know about that, but thanks Ed.
All right.
Well there are several Morgan-Nick photo ID days going on around the state this weekend.
There will be one next to the first security bank building on Main Street in Cabot.
That's tomorrow.
You can take your child there between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
And in Heber Springs, they'll be making photo IDs at the Fall Festival on East Main Street.
That event is going on between 8 and 5.
And if you live in Jacksonville, head over to the South Bend Fire Station number one.
The firefighters will be making photo IDs for kids between 9 and 3.
For more information about Morgan-Nick photo ID days, log on to our website at todaysthv.com
and click on community.
High schoolers all over the state are gearing up for Friday Night Football.
Craig O'Neill is standing by live in Cabot and we'll join him there for a THV pep rally
in just a few minutes.
Today's THV is sponsored by the law offices of Gary Green.
Nursing home abuse is reaching epidemic proportions.
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of their residents.
Abuse in a nursing home is a crime.
Those residents are protected by the same laws we live by.
If someone in your family has been a victim, you can do something about it.
Your efforts could even help raise the standards of care for all nursing homes.
Call law offices of Gary Green.
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It's a fun way to start your morning.
Join BJ, Robin and Tom weekdays on today's THB this morning.
The Pulaski County Clerk's Office is working overtime to make sure every registered voter
has a chance to cast their ballot.
Some of the county's 230,000 voters have not been assigned their correct precincts.
That could mean trouble if it's not fixed before early voting starts on October 21st.
Hatton Weeks talked with Staley today and has more.
Hatton?
Karen, County Clerk Carolyn Staley told us today that about 20,000 voters who have not
been assigned polling places in the county's computer system, she says all of that information
should be entered before early voting begins.
If not, poll workers won't know what ballot to give voters.
In a related story in southwest Little Rock, voters will have a new polling place.
That's because Wakefield Elementary School burned over the summer.
The county clerk sent notices to about 3,200 residents in that area, residents like James
Kelly.
Wakefield did vote there and the school burned out and they sent us a letter and I was supposed
to be tabernacle babbler to church on 4820 West 6th Street and it will be our next voting
place.
Well, Kelly knows and if you did vote at Wakefield, contact the county clerk's office to find
out exactly where you need to go to cast your ballot.
Karen, back to you.
Thanks, Hatton.
Some election officials have expressed concern that if their problem isn't fixed, some voters
may not show up at the polls.
Well, Craig O'Neill is in Cabot tonight for THB Game Night.
Craig?
Well, Karen, I'll let you know something.
Does the term tar and feather mean anything to you?
Because actually, what's happened here in Cabot, it's not too pretty.
You're not too pleased with me right now.
It involves a prediction.
We'll tell you about it right after Corey does his TV debut.
Yes!
More in a minute.
Welcome back to Cabot where it's homecoming, as you can tell by these beautiful faces.
Now, exactly what is your title?
The Just Club Sweethearts.
So these are all sweethearts?
Yes, sir.
How many sweethearts will we have here?
About 25 or so.
Man, the pregame festivities are going to take forever and then we'll have the game.
And unfortunately for this group, I have picked Forest City to beat Cabot and they're not
too happy about that.
And now they will try and talk me out of it.
First of all, let's start with Sarah.
Try and talk me out of it.
Why Cabot over Forest City?
Craig, see, we've gone to playoffs every year and they have it.
And when we win, I'm going to love seeing you in that cheerleading outfit cheering in
one of our pep rallies.
See, the bet is that if for some strange reason Cabot beats Forest City, then I will wear
a cheerleader outfit and dress up as a cheerleader at their next pep rally.
Now Stephanie, you want to convince me here?
Well, you see, when you have Cabot's defense and offense, you get a team that is unstoppable
and we are going to love seeing you in those cheerleading skirts with those white legs
of shining.
Okay, all right.
One more.
First, Zach over here representing the band.
Zach, you got any words of wisdom?
Well, yeah, the reason why Cabot's going to win tonight is because we have the best band
in the state.
It's the band that puts the fans in the stands.
So we're going to have the best halftime show, which is going to really pump up our team
and we're going to win.
All right, well, let me think about this.
All right, let me give you my prediction.
Here's the official prediction as to what I think will happen.
Let me go to it now.
Let me think.
I'm sorry, I'm sticking with Forest City.
I'm sorry.
Too much field.
I mean, too wet a field, slippery ball and I'm reaching here.
Go ahead and hate me.
I'm going to stick with my prediction.
We're also sticking with these predictions.
Conway over North Little Rock.
Bryant should beat Central.
McClellan, don't laugh at the hair.
McClellan overhauled.
Benton will beat Texarkana.
And tune in tonight at 10 to see how these turn out.
One thing for sure, we need your help.
Call us when you get home and let us know the score of your game.
2-4-4, 4-5-6-4.
Keep a score to yourself.
Call 2-4-4, 4-5-6-4.
And while thousands of Arkansans will be streaming into football games, there's a hot ticket
over at Alltel Arena tonight.
It's the Lakers and the Memphis Grizzlies preseason NBA basketball.
Close to 12,000 NBA fans are expected.
World champion Los Angeles Lakers will take the floor.
This is a game three years in the making.
Three years ago the Lakers were in town, but it was the Rakers of Alltel Arena that had
drawn enough concern to cancel the game.
Alltel was brand new and Raker Beams were making headlines.
So the game was canceled.
But tonight, everything is go for LA and Memphis.
Little Rock's Derek Fisher gave us a preview.
Tonight's game is not just about a win or a loss because this isn't a real game.
Tonight's game is more about giving some of our younger guys on both teams an opportunity
to show themselves, show our coaches, show our management that they can play.
Janaro Pargo, who's a former racer back, a lot of people will get a chance to see him
play tonight.
The Arkansas plays Auburn and last year the Hogs watched a football version of a star
is born.
Auburn's outstanding running back last year against Arkansas.
Carnell Williams had a great day.
One year later he's poised to attack an Arkansas defense looking to stop him.
Fred Talley will start a tailback for the Hogs, but look for Dearius Howard and Brandon
Holmes to also carry the ball.
Auburn looks to avenge last year's 42 to 17 loss.
Kickoff 1130 and Houston Nutt has a losing record in early kickoffs.
And they're about to kick off, Cabot and Forest City.
We'll see what happens tonight.
Back to you, Karen.
They're talking tough there in Cabot, Fred.
If your weekend plans include heading out to the state fair, Ed will have a last look
at the forecast when we come back.
Stay with us.
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Ed is back with a good looking weekend.
Yeah, it doesn't look too bad.
You get your choice here.
Tomorrow partly cloudy and a high temperature near 80 degrees.
Then by Sunday much cooler, a high of 64.
Next week looks great.
Yeah, and rain in between tomorrow night.
Wonderful.
Have a great, safe weekend everyone and we'll see you back here at 10.
Good night.
In Las Vegas for the weekend, I'll bet.