Baxter Bulletin from Mountain Home, Arkansas • 1

WEATHER PARTLY SUNNY: North wind around 10 mph LAKES: Bull Shoals 671.83, Norfork 562.45 SUNRISE: 5:55 SUNSET: 8: 1 8 Up-to-the-minute weather www.baxterbulletin.com AT THE MOVIES New comedy "The Hangover" opens Friday in Mountain Home Entertainment, IB 7551 THURSDAY, June 4, 2009 MOUNTAIN HOME, ARKANSAS www.baxterbulletin.com 500 ma Former city clerk arrested MH City Council to discuss vacancy By FRANK WALLIS Bulletin Staff Writer Collins could not account for $330 that came to her office in the form of. business came in person to city hall on April 14 for the purpose of examining the office's records. Kincade said the letter from Kim Williams of the Arkansas Legislative Joint Auditing Committee and findings from private and state audits are the basis of the charge. Collins was released from jail in lieu of a $500 cash bond. Collins was unopposed in the November general election.

She previously worked in the Baxter County Circuit Clerk's office for 22 years. fwallisbaxteibulletin.com By FRANK WALLIS Bulletin Staff Writer Former Mountain Home City Clerk Karen Collins was arrested Wednesday morning and charged in Baxter County District Court with a single count of misdemeanor theft of property, according to Ron Kin-cade, prosecuting attorney of Arkansas 14th Judicial District. Collins resigned on May 29 citing personal illness and family needs. On that same day an auditor with the Arkansas Legislative Audit Division posted a letter to Kincade alleging that Audit for errors in bookkeeping that occurred during an extremely busy time of the office in January, as service businesses and vendors converged on the office pursuing business licenses following ice storms in late January. She said it was also the time for annual renewal of business licenses for all merchants in the city.

She said the crush caused her to fall behind and resulted in some funds not being posted correctly and in a timely manner. Auditors from the Division of Legislative Audit The Mountain Home City Council will discuss how to conduct interviews and hire to fill the vacant position of city clerk during a meeting tonight at 6. Mayor David Osmon said the council interviewed candidates for the office in open public session last November after the resignation of former clerk Cindy Wynn. He said candidates for the job were uncomfortable with being interviewed in public and some aldermen were also uncomfortable with the process of interviewing for the job in public. The council has an option afforded by the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act to meet with and interview candidates for the job in executive session.

fees and Collins pet licenses. The auditor alleged that Collins characterized periodic personal use of office funds as "borrowed" funds. Collins told The Baxter Bulletin about a month ago that her office was under investigation by the Arkansas Division of Legislative See CITYPage 12A Nelson retiring after 35 years on air tr I i 1 1 f-VvV y- Bulletin Photo by Kevin Pieper Brenda Nelson works in a studio Tuesday at KTLO-FM. The popular host of the station's Talk of the Town" program is retiring after 35 years on the air. Prison: Help by guards in escape still a possibility LITTLE ROCK (AP) Authorities say they haven't ruled out the possibility that Department of Correction employees helped two convicted killers escape from an Arkansas prison wearing guard uniforms made at the facility.

Correction Department Spokeswoman Dina Tyler said Wednesday that officials are still investigating how Calvin Adams and Jeffrey Grinder escaped from the Cummins Unit prison over the weekend. New York police captured the escapees Tuesday after their car crashed in Hornell, N.Y. "At this point, we can't rule anything out," Tyler said. So far, authorities don't have any evidence of "overt" help by staff, she said. "We also have to look at more subtle ways.

Did someone turn their head?" Tyler said. Tyler says it's likely the pair may have had help from other inmates. Five correction officers have been placed on unpaid leave while an investigation is under way. Adams and Grinder are weighing whether to fight extradition after their capture in western New York. After a 20-mile car chase, state troopers and city police caught Adams and Grinder on Tuesday as they scurried on foot through a residential neighborhood in Hornell after abandoning their car.

They were jailed without bail as fugitives from justice. Adams, the driver, was charged with reckless endanger-ment. The men, serving life sentences for capital murder, will be assigned lawyers at a court appearance scheduled for See PRISONPage 12A Prosecutors look at Army shooter LITTLE ROCK (AP) Abdulhakim Muhammad is facing a state capital murder charge that could cost him his life. He may also face a federal murder charge, though it's an uncommon practice to stack charges in both jurisdictions. Police say Muhammad, 23, a Muslim convert who changed his name from Carlos Bledsoe, took aim Monday with an assault rifle and shot two soldiers at a recruiting center.

One soldier died, the other was wounded. Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Harris said the case could remain in state hands even though the FBI is also investigating. Other federal charges could include assault on a government official or using a firearm during a crime of violence, which doesn't have a state equivalent. "It would just be a protection thing in case one case falls through," Harris said.

But if both state and federal prosecutors believe they have solid cases, See PROSECUTORSPage 12A few questions under each. "I'm never confrontational or controversial," she said. "I try to be friendly. I want my guests to be comfortable and my audience to be informed." She's also persistent. When she gets an idea watching television, she goes to the Internet and searches for the top expert on the topic.

"I just track and track and track the people down," Nelson said. She has a formal interview request she sends first. When she decided she wanted to interview Anderson Cooper of CNN, she sent her formal request to four different e-mails she found for him and hoped for the best. He responded to her within 30 minutes and she had the interview that day. Other interviews can take years to secure or are simply declined.

Nelson wanted to interview singer Richard Carpenter on the anniversary of the death of his sister, Karen Carpenter. He called her and said the matter was still too private for him to talk about. She said she always See NELSONPage 12A during her lunch break when she heard Nelson's interview. "It's been such a rewarding job," Nelson said. Over the years, Nelson, 62, has aired one or two interviews every single day, speaking with all kinds of people, from local citizens to international celebrities.

She once tried to come up with a count and "it was something like 8,000 interviews and 86,000 weather forecasts," she" said. Her secret to success is starting with the simple journalistic format who, what, where, why and when and listing a By DEB PETERSON Bulletin Staff Writer Brenda Nelson, host of "Talk of the Town" on KTLO-FM, is retiring June 19 after 35 years on the air. "I'm most proud of thinking I've made a difference in my community," she said. And she has. One holiday season, Nelson interviewed Glenn Taylor of Ozark Family Ministries about holiday blues and suicide.

Taylor called her the next day to say a young mother had called him for help. She had been in the process of writing a suicide note Benefit fund created for Genessa Mikolajski to Genessa's room for dinner with her granddaughter, and at 6:15 took "Nessa," as she calls her, to the playroom From there she went back to the truck to read a little more. It was gone. "It was an old, beat-up truck," Ekenes said, "but it was reliable, and it was all they had." The situation got worse. A few hours later, Carrie's wallet was stolen from Genessa's room.

"I can't see," she said, "that the two things happening within two hours of each other weren't related." Carrie knows she had her wallet when she filed a report with the police for her missing truck because she gave them her driver's license. That was between 7 and 8 p.m. The officer walked Carrie back to Genessa's room because she was shaken, she said. Carrie knows she had her wallet then because she put the officer's card in it. She remembers grabbing her lighter and going out to bum a cigarette See BENEFITPage 12A that requires the chemotherapy treatment.

Genessa and her grandmother, Carrie Mikolajski, 54, of Lakeview, who also is her legal guardian, were making their biweekly trips to Little Rock in an old, but reliable, truck. Last Friday, that truck was stolen from the parking lot at Children's Hospital. "I can take only three episodes of Spongebob SquarePants," Carrie said, so she took a break from Genessa's room to sit in her truck with a book. At 5 p.m., she went back By DEB PETERSON Bulletin Staff Writer Ten-year-old Genessa Mikolajski is in the middle of a 49-week chemotherapy treatment program at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock. She has osteosarcoma, bone cancer, in her left leg and already has had her femur removed, according to Cheryl Ekenes, Genessa's home health nurse through North Arkansas Home Care.

Her prosthesis required her doctors to leave some muscle and nerves, and it is this tissue CONTACT US INSIDE THE BULLETIN 508-8050 508-8000 NEWS MAIN Visit our online edition: baxterbulletin.com 3A 6A-7A OBITUARIES BUSINESS HOME DELIVERY 877-424-0198 SPORTS 508-8060 CLASSIFIED 800-695-1710 FAX 508-8020 4A CLASSIFIEDS 9B-12B OPINIONS Of" "4090ri360 COMICS 8A SPORTS 6B-8B TOLL FREE OUTSIDE BAXTER COUNTY A Gannett Newspaper Vol. 108 No. 143 2009 Baxter County Newspapers, Inc..