Aaron Black is back on the state payroll. In 2011, a Joint Legislative Audit committee found that Black failed to report absences from his state job and was overpaid nearly $20,000.
Former Saline County Sheriff Bruce Pennington pleaded guilty today to a wire fraud charge, paying personal bills with campaign money, KARK reports. A statement issued later by the Justice Department said Pennington pleaded to spending more than $20,000 on the likes of home mortgage, utilities, groceries, casinos visits and skin care products.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced today that former Lt. Gov. Mark Darr had repaid the state for almost $11,000 in illegal expense reimbursements he'd claimed in office. Darr resigned Feb. 1 after findings that he'd misspent campaign money on personal expenses and and audit finding that he'd received money for personal expenses in claims for official expenses, chiefly commuting money to his home in Springdale.
The latest in state political races, including all the drama in District 35 in Little Rock; good numbers for the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace; a new appointment to the state board of education; Uber in Fayetteville; Mark Darr’s debt to the state, and the resignation of the Jonesboro police chief — all covered on this week's edition.
Mark Darr, who resigned as lieutenant governor Feb. 1 amid controversy over his abuse of state and campaign expenses accounts, still hasn't repaid almost $10,000 in improper expenses he charged to the state. But Attorney General Dustin McDaniel says the check may soon be in the mail.
Details emerge on the next public teats to be sucked by Darr's Deadwood, the lieutenant governor staff members who kept working at a cost to taxpayers of $25,0000 a month even though they had nothing to do after Mark Darr resigned effective Feb. 1.
The lieutenant governor's office shuts down today, though its $300,000-a-year staff has had nothing to do for five months, since Mark Darr's resignation. Some will head to other state jobs, though the only staff member we can reach doesn't want to talk about what those jobs are.
One of the four employees on the lieutenant governor's $300,000 payroll who've had little or nothing to do since Mark Darr resigned Feb. 1 has found another job — just down the hallway at the state House of Representatives.
Takeaways from the May 20 primary election results (including that few people care enough to vote), problems with the state's new voter ID law and the latest on former Lieutenant Gov. Mark Darr — all covered on this week's podcast.
The lieutenant governor's office finally responded to an FOI request. The records show little work is being done there and that Mark Darr still owes the state almost $10,000 in improper expense reimbursements.
Taxpayers are still spending $200,000 a year to staff an office, lieutenant governor, without an officeholder. What are they doing to pass the time? Good question. And one that even an FOI request has been unable to dislodge answers for as yet.