Southern Bancorp and its nonprofit affiliate Southern Good Faith Fund have partnered with the Internal Revenue Service to provide the service to families with an annual income of $42,000 or less.

A long line of participants in the Martin Luther King Day Marade marched into the Day Armory on Crittenden Street Monday afternoon.

Pat Wright, treasurer of the MLK Committee, emceed the event. She welcomed Taylor Bledsoe, an Arkadelphia High School ninth grader, who was recently selected to go to Washington, D.C. this summer. While at the capital, Bledsoe will have the opportunity to study crime scene investigation and the law system during his six-day trip.

Southern Bancorp and its nonprofit affiliate Southern Good Faith Fund in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service are offering a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program to the residents of Phillips County and Surrounding areas.

Work is wrapping up on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week child care center that will benefit working families in Clark County.

The Boys & Girls Club announced today that club member and CHS Senior Orlando Jones has been named one of five national finalists for the Charles Schwab Foundation’s Money Matters scholarship.

…The Club has signed up over 400 members since August and with a daily attendance rate hovering between 40 and 50 percent …

The Knowledge Is Power Program, also known as KIPP, is expanding its educational operation in the Arkansas Delta. Currently, the program has a free open-enrollment public charter middle school and high school in Helena-West Helena.

The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Check Cashers Act violated the state constitution, according to the Associated Press.

In a 6-0 decision, the court overturned a Pulaski County judge who last year ruled that the act was constitutional after justices sent the case back to his court without ruling on the law itself.

Clark County has received a $70,000 grant from the Arkansas Department of Rural Services to help fund a regional emergency and fire training center, State Senator Percy Malone and Phil Baldwin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Bancorp, announced today.

The $70,000 Community Enhancement Grant will be combined with local funding sources to finance the facility. Clark County in applying for the state grant noted that the county lacked appropriate space to conduct training sessions for emergency responders. Construction of the facility is scheduled to begin in October 2008.

Nick and Gina Redford of Mabelvale are caught in the middle. Her salary is too high to qualify for public assistance but does not cover the bills associated with his liver disease and the rising cost of gasoline and food.