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Fireworks Cited as Likely Cause of Blackbird Deaths

Tue, 4 Jan 2011 15:46:15 -0600

News media reports are suggesting that fireworks were a factor in the death of thousands of blackbirds over the City of Beebe.

MSNBC reports: No poison found in birds that fell on town

Earlier reports said that the weather may have been a factor. We obtained some data from the National Weather Service to investigate that possibility.

Below are some radar images for 11:00 PM on New Years Eve (0500 GMT 1/1/11), zoomed into Beebe with a marker for the Windwood area, and a Google Map satellite image with a marker at the same coordinates. The radar data indicates a small area of light precipitation passed over Windwood at that time. But the “Hail Index” map from the National Weather Service seems to indicate that no hailstorms were present in Beebe at the time of the incident.

USA Today reported “five to 12 booming noises in the eastern part of town. They reported it sounding like a cannon or transformer exploding”. This report is consistent with the theory that fireworks were involved.

The Wall Street Journal quotes an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission spokesman:
Some storms passed through the area, but that was at least 10 hours before the birds dropped from the sky, said Jeff Williams, spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
"It looks like weather did not have an effect," he said.
UPDATE 3: The Washington Post has some new theories on the tragedy, including: “Birds accidentally read opening chapter of Snooki’s new book, mistaking it for an actual book.”

UPDATE 4: KATV Channel 7 has a radar analysis too. They believe the radar echos represent the birds themselves, not precipitation.

UPDATE 5: The Onion - America’s Finest News Source - interviews some Beebe residents. And Beebe gets more coverage on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.

UPDATE 6: We just got our first dead blackbird here at Beebe.info, on the back porch about a mile west of the main disaster.

Global Alarm Over Dead Blackbirds in Beebe

Sun, 2 Jan 2011 08:55:23 -0600

Millions of people around the world are hearing about the mysterious blackbird deaths in Beebe on New Years Day of 2011. Here is a sampling of some of the reports -

Drudge Report:

1,000 birds fall from the sky in Arkansas...

Daily Mail, London UK:

Environmental experts baffled as thousands of blackbirds literally drop dead from the sky

Quiet area: The otherwise event-free Windwood Drive in Beebe, Arkansas, has become the centrepoint of an unexplained phenomenon

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1343413/Environmental-experts-left-baffled-thousands-blackbirds-literally-drop-dead-sky-Arkansas-city.html#ixzz19sZU13Hc

Arkansas Times:

Blackbirds dead, not singing, in the night

http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2011/01/01/blackbirds-dead-not-singing-in-the-night

MSNBC:

More than 1,000 black birds fall from the sky in Arkansas

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/01/5749518-more-than-1000-black-birds-fall-from-the-sky-in-arkansas?pc=25&sp=25

Associated Press:

Dead blackbirds mysteriously rain on Arkansas town 
http://www.argusleader.com/article/20110101/UPDATES/110102001

Real cola soft drinks return to Beebe

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:27:42 -0500

While shopping at Knight’s Supermarket in Beebe a few weeks ago, I found a four-pack of cola bottles sitting on the floor in the soft drinks section. It was Boylan’s Cane Soda. This is an old-fashioned cola drink made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup.

As a fan of cane sugar products, I made an instant decision to buy these colas, and wondered where they are normally stocked in the store. I checked every aisle in the soft drinks section, but could not find any more of these bottles.

Today, I found the place where Knight’s is selling them, in the refrigerated cola section in the aisle before the produce section.

Knight’s is now selling Mexican Coca-Colas too, which are also made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup. The Coca-Cola company in the United States replaced sugar with corn syrup as an ingredient in their flagship product back in 1985, during the “New Coke” fiasco. Since then, discriminating shoppers have resorted to buying Mexican Coca-Cola in order to get “The Real Thing” that we remember from a quarter-century ago. Meanwhile, a whole generation has grown up without knowing what a real cola drink tastes like.

I bought another four-pack of Boylan’s Cane Soda, and four bottles of Mexican Coke. As I exited the grocery store, I noticed that another shopper was carrying a four-pack of Boylan’s out the door too. Hopefully, the major bottlers will see that there is a strong demand for sugar-based products instead of corn syrup. Indeed, PepsiCo has been experimenting with this idea. They released a couple of batches called Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback over the past year that contained sugar as a sweetener. Knight’s carried the Pepsi Throwback 12-back, and it seemed to be selling well. I hope that PepsiCo will make it a regular, full-time product soon.

Meanwhile, Knights is selling the Boylan’s and Mexican Cokes for about a dollar per bottle. Bravo to Knight’s for adding these products. If you’ve never tried a sugar cane cola, or if you’re nostalgic for the taste you grew up with many years ago, go to Knight’s Supermarket and treat yourself to a real sugar cane cola.

New iPhone App Features Beebe Weather

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:56:43 -0600

(Update - April 25th - this app is still in development and will be released soon. In the meantime, we have developed an iPhone app for the Log Cabin Democrat daily newspaper in Conway, and it is now available on the Apple iTunes App Store.)

(Update - January 2, 2011 - Yeah, it’s late. We’re working on it.)

It was a dark and stormy night. The tornado sirens were howling, the storm shelters were full, and ArkPhone LLC was testing a new app for Beebe news and weather reports.

The app will soon be available for free on the Apple iTunes App Store. It works on three different Apple devices: the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the iPad.

The app includes the usual weather features, like the 7-day forecast and the current conditions. It is also useful for tracking severe weather that can affect the Beebe area. Several different radar views are available, with a marker showing Beebe’s location on the map. A NOAA Weather Radio player is available, with weather information from the National Weather Service in Little Rock. Storm watches, warnings and advisories are available directly from the weather service.

Pasted below are several screen images from the storm tests. We will update this article when the app becomes available for free download. Remember to grab your iPhone on the way to the storm shelter and watch this app for weather information.

Candidates begin filing for elections

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 16:20:39 -0600

Today marks the official beginning of the 2010 campaign year as the Secretary of State opens the registration process.

We will publish a list of candidates in the Beebe area over the next few days.

The Secretary of State has an online database of registered candidates at this link - http://www.votenaturally.org/electionresults/index.php?ac:show:cand_search=1&elecid=211

Dismang weighs in on GOP in-fighting

Wed, 6 Jan 2010 05:54:34 -0600

Rep. Jonathan Dismang of Beebe has published a blog item advocating a disciplined approach to rebuilding the GOP in Arkansas, rather than questionable attacks on a party “establishment” that supposedly supports Gilbert Baker in the U.S. Senate primary.

Baker is frequently cited as the frontrunner in the GOP contest due to his record in the Arkansas legislature, and his history as an effective campaign fundraiser.

Dismang observes: “Before you have an establishment, you have to first be established - something I desperately wish the Republican Party of Arkansas were, but is obviously not”. Good point. If the GOP gains some seats in the legislative elections this year, an “establishment” could emerge within the Republican party after that.

Dismang’s article was published in The Tolbert Report blog, at this link -

http://tolbertreport.com/2010/01/05/dismang-the-arkansas-republican-establishment-or-lack-thereof/

With nine Republicans running for one Senate seat, things are bound to get complicated.

Beebe.info welcomes 2010 with new software

Fri, 1 Jan 2010 14:15:15 -0600

We wish a Happy New Year to all of our readers, and we have a couple of software projects to announce.

The first item is the new Arkansas News Headlines page at the Arkansas Times, featuring news articles from across the state, updated continuously:

It is the most comprehensive overview of Arkansas news headlines available on the Internet. Please visit the page here:

http://www.arktimes.com/arkheadlines.aspx

The second item is for users of iPhone and iPod Touch: the new Arkansas Code app from Capsearch.com. It contains a database of all of the laws passed by the Arkansas General Assembly which are currently in force:

The ArkCode app is available at Apple’s iTunes App Store at an affordable price. See this page at Capsearch.com for more details.

http://www.capsearch.com/arkansascode

It includes a search feature which allows users to find all of the statutes containing matching words. For example, a search for the word “Beebe” produces these results:

This app does not require a live connection to the Internet for usage after installation. All of the data is self-contained within the app, so it works everywhere in the City of Beebe.

Stay tuned for more app announcements in 2010...

Christmas Eve Storms Flood 30+ Homes

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 09:14:01 -0600

A brief Twitter report from Rep. Jonathan Dismang gives this information - “Just talked to Mayor. 30+ homes flooded/severely damaged in Beebe last night.”

Around 8:30 AM this morning, David Goins of Fox16 news reports: “67/167 northbound from Sherwood to Jacksonville is still closed due to high water, take 440/Rixey Rd to get around it.”

Parts of Beebe were without electrical power this morning, but service has returned in some affected areas. The Entergy outage map currently shows no outages in the Beebe area.

More local reports of the flooding are available on the ArkansasCarry.com discussion board.

The Weather Channel has a video sent from Bobby J Mitchell, showing the flooding on 67/167 yesterday.

The Arkansas Times has continuous coverage from across the state on their new news page - http://www.arktimes.com/arkheadlines.aspx

Another place to watch for reports is Google’s new real-time search.

UPDATE: Rep. Dismang posted this Twitter message: If you know of anyone that has been impacted by flooding in White Co., please have them call Tamara Jenkins at 501.268.4810