CAMDEN — New hepatitis A report
raises second virus alert
WALNUT RIDGE - The diagnosis of another northeast Arkansas food-service worker with hepatitis A prompted the state Department of Health on Tuesday to issue its second alert on the virus in less than a week.
The latest case involves an employee of the Doublebee’s gas station at 1003 U.S. 63 in Walnut Ridge and is part of an outbreak that has infected 13 people in the state’s northeast, including four other food-service workers.
The Doublebee’s employee was diagnosed Saturday, Health Department spokesman Meg Mirivel said.
The previous alert came after the diagnosis of an employee at a Subway and Flash Market gas station in Corning.
Although the department has been warning people who ate at the businesses, health officials haven’t identified anyone who has gotten the virus by eating contaminated food at those locations, said Gary Wheeler, the department’s medical director.
Instead, he said, those who have been affected are connected by social relationships.
Two charged in deaths of Arkansans killed in ‘14
DOVER - After following “countless leads” over four years, authorities have charged two people with capital murder in the 2014 deaths of two Arkansans, the Pope County sheriff’s office said Monday.
The remains of 45-year-old Billy Allen and 28-year-old Patricia Meadows, Allen’s niece, were discovered in a burned trailer in northern Pope County on Jan. 16, 2014, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
The state Crime Laboratory reportedly determined that the manner of both Dover residents’ deaths was homicide.
Pope County Sheriff Shane Jones said Monday that warrants were issued for 32-year-old Kerri A. Hill and 38-year-old Brad L. Hill. Authorities did not say how the two were related.
Kerri Hill was booked into the Pope County jail Monday, a news release states.
Brad Hill is currently incarcerated by the Arkansas Department of Correction on unrelated drug and theft charges.
Little Rock gunfire leaves victim wounded Tuesday
LITTLE ROCK - A shooting in Little Rock left one person wounded Tuesday night, according to a Police Department spokesman.
Authorities were dispatched to 7200 W. 12th St. at 8:31 p.m. for a report of a shooting, according to an online dispatch log.
Police spokesman Lt. Michael Ford said one person was shot in the incident but did not have life-threatening injuries. He reported Tuesday night that no suspect is in custody.