Arkansas

LAKE CITY, Ga. — A reality TV show’s most ambitious project three years ago has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.In January 2005, more than 1,800 people helped Beazer Homes USA and ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” team demolish a Georgia family’s decrepit home and replace it with a four-bedroom mini-mansion.The Harper family used the home as collateral for a $450,000 loan. Now, it’s set to go to auction Aug. 5. The couple told an Atlanta television station they received the loan for a construction business that failed.Materials and labor were donated for the home, which would have cost about $450,000 to build. (Read the full post about ‘‘Extreme Makeover’ Home Faces Foreclosure’…)

Four months ahead of the anticipated release of the sixth movie in the Harry Potter series, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the film’s trailer has hit the Internet. The trailer will debut in theaters this Friday. Preview: ‘Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince’ The 1 minute 30 second trailer features flashbacks to when Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) first meets an 11-year-old Tom Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin), the boy who would become Potter’s arch-enemy Lord Voldemort. “I can make bad things happen to people who are mean to me. And I can speak to snakes. They find me. (Read the full post about ‘New ‘Harry Potter’ Trailer Hits Web’…)

Even though he was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor drunken driving, Shia LaBeouf appears to be in the clear as far as the accident he was involved in over the weekend.The celebrity gossip site TMZ.com quoted Los Angeles Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore as saying that the other driver was responsible for the early Sunday morning crash by running red light.”He was not at fault,” Whitmore said LaBeouf’s pickup truck collided with another vehicle and rolled over at 3 a.m. Sunday in West Hollywood. (Read the full post about ‘Police Say Crash Not LaBeouf’s Fault’…)

Vanity Fair looked all over the world to find the best-dressed men and one of them turned out to be Bond — James Bond.Daniel Craig, the actor who played James Bond in “Casino Royale” and the upcoming “Quantum of Solace” is on the magazine’s International Best-Dressed List.Also making the list are “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer, rapper Kanye West, “Today” show co-host Matt Lauer and soccer star David Beckham. The women’s list includes “Sex and the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker and “Michael Clayton” Oscar winner Tilda Swinton.Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are on the list for best-dressed couples. (Read the full post about ‘Daniel Craig Among ‘Best-Dressed’’…)

Michael Nelson, a Rhodes College professor and author of a book about the political dimension of the South’s growing love of lotteries, blogs on the Chronicle of Higher Education about getting crosswise with wannabe Gov. Bill Halter over lottery issues.

He recounts the key points he made in a recent talk at the Clinton School and the typically over-the-top retort from Halter’s bumptious lottery mouthpiece.

UPDATE: A Halter camp response.

On the jump, an LRPD report on the arrest of three car burglars, WLR teens all, and a car full of their booty from some 25 car break-ins over a two-night span.

Good news. But, please, folks. If you don’t leave anything in your car overnight, there’s  nothing for criminals to steal. It’s Crime Prevention 101.

More on former LR journalist Ron Fournier, journalism, politics, etc. (After you read this, imagine for a moment that the report had emerged in February and the names Clinton or Obama were substituted for McCain.) From Editor and Publisher:

NEW YORK Ron Fournier, the former top Associated Press reporter returned to AP in March 2007 and now serves as D.C. bureau chief, where he directs coverage of the 2008 campaign. But before he took that job, Politico.com revealed tonight, he considered taking a job as a senior adviser to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.

(Read the full post about ‘Being close to sources’…)

Desperate for traction, John McCain has gone sharply negative and Rovian. NY Times claims some Republicans worry about the tactic. Hard to believe, since negativity has been the mother’s milk of the GOP for so many years. But if you read closely you find that what they mean is that McCain should pretend to be a nice guy and let others do the slashing. Oh.

NY Times editorializes on the nasty turn of events.

PS — Dems should not take heart from this. Negative has worked before. And there are signs aplenty that Obama hasn’t closed the deal with swing voters.

You’ve perhaps noticed by now that Gov. Mike Beebe has made it clear he believes Game and Fish should share some of its gas riches with other state agencies — most particularly the environmental stewards already woefully understaffed, even if they were inclined, to vigorously protect natural resources from the inevitable damage caused by massive exploration. Unless he gets some gas money for state agencies, other revenues will have to be supplied.

(Read the full post about ‘Enter Beebe on gas strike’…)

WALDRON, Ark. — Scott County officials said a Parks man, Phillip Holloway, has been arrested on murder charges.Investigators found the body of Holloway’s wife, Erma, in a pond Wednesday morning. Wednesday, police questioned Holloway, but could only find enough evidence to charge him with first degree battery.Friday, court officials said those charges were amended to first degree murder. (Read the full post about ‘Scott County Man Charged With Murder In Wife’s Death’…)