In a bizarre turn of events, the super-secret mystery group who previously swooped in from the darkness to pledge $10 million more than the UA’s $50 million offer for the FHS property has decided to, you know, just say screw it.

The group, known only as Campus Building Group LLC, offically withdrew its offer yesterday despite the fact that it wasn’t set to expire until August 26th. “They felt like, at this point, that they just didn’t need to go forward,” said superintendent Bobby New.

This certainly isn’t going to quiet those who already believed it was a lame attempt to get the UA to pony up and offer more cash money. New had this to say on the matter, “The people who would conceive a conspiracy or a manipulation of the university’s offer give me far more credit for being divisive than I deserve.”

[Via NWAnews]

Taurus: April 20-May 20 - I had a great time last night. I’ll call you. I promise.

Gemini: May 21-June 21 - If you aren’t eating, or talking, keep your mouth closed. Sitting there with your mouth open makes you look real dumb.

Cancer: June 22-July 22 - The stars can’t do anything to help you with those pants.

Leo: July 23-August 22 - Fill up the gas tank on your car. You might need to take out a loan. Crap. You can’t do that either.

Virgo: August 23-September 22 - Remember that song “the Thong Song?” There’s a lot of truth in that song.

Libra: September 23-October 22 - This month, take advantage of your own psychic powers, which will last for 9 minutes on the 28th. Just not sure which 9 minutes, and neither will you. Sorry.

Scorpio: October 23 - November 21 - There really is no excuse for bongo drums. Seriously.

Sagittarius: November 22-December 21 - Summer is a time for romance. Especially if you are a Sagittarius. Get laid.

Capricorn: December 22-January 19 - Uh oh. I think your sex tape is gonna leak this month. That sucks.

Aquarius: January 20-February 18 - Bad day? Dance it off, man. Dance it off.

Pisces: February 19-March 20 - Congrats on winning $1000. Don’t spend it on drugs.

The section from Poplar St. to down around the intersection of Drake and Gregg is great. Besides being completely paved and marked with lanes, it’s all lit up at night with a fancy light post every 75 feet. Whether you’re walking, running or riding your bike, it’s hard not to smile about halfway down that stretch and think to yourself, “Wow. I am so proud of my city.”

Just knowing that there will eventually be a connection of all these great trails one day is enough to keep that smile on your face even longer. The fact that it’s not just some isolated attempt to appease the locals in one specific area of town is great. This system is set to extend all the way from one end of town to the other.

Unfortunately, there are currently some snags in the budget that are probably going to keep the brand new section between North St. and Poplar from getting lights for a while. Although there are plenty of lights already purchased and in storage for that stretch of Scull Creek Trail, there’s simply not enough money to install them. In fact, it may be early 2009 before they’re in. It’s probably not just a matter of labor costs, though. Installing 58 lights on posts including underground wiring and the service panels needed for that stretch can’t be cheap. Although it’s understandable that hiccups like this are inevitably going to occur, it’s certainly easy to become impatient.

Don’t let that deter you, though. There are plenty of completed sections and even those that aren’t lit are perfect for daylight use. Scull Creek Trail is awesome. And by awesome, I mean go check it out today.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader chas for providing this awesome link to a Google Map of Scull Creek Trail!

[Via NWAnews]

I’ve already made mention of how I’m not a fan thus far, but I decided that I should dig a little bit deeper into this and then take a look at how we rank amongst the rest of the SEC.

First off, the site is so cluttered that it’s very hard to figure out where I’m supposed to look (see thumbnail at the right for usage of space — red = content, yellow = navigation, green = ad space, blue = premium content and purple = wtf). Users of the site are probably coming here for one reason — content. So when you pepper the site with more ad blocks than content, something is wrong (for a University sponsored site, do we really need that much ad revenue?). Additionally, there’s too much white. Our colors aren’t White and Cardinal, they’re Cardinal and White. And thirdly, we’re at the bottom when compared to our frakin’ enemies!

SEC East
1. Tennessee — I love to hate the Vols, but they’re far and above the best in the SEC with their site. They haven’t used the all-too-common CSTV or JumpTV and I applaud them for that. Great visuals + content focus and balance of colors = winner.
2. South Carolina — Here’s what you can do to a template site and make it still interesting to look at. There still a bit of ads, but the content is easy to access and read. The header makes my loins kinda burn.
3. Kentucky — Another player that’s not using the main template sites. This could rival Tennessee as one of the classier designs, but more than 50% of the top of the site is banner ads. Super clean, though. I’d get fresh with it.
4. Florida — The site screams Florida and has around 4ish banners. Nice. Other than that, nothing too exciting to look at. Maybe Tebow should redesign it.
5. Georgia — Take the Florida site and add a bunch of ads and wham-o. That’s not a good thing.
6. Vanderbilt — This site is about as exciting as a Vanderbilt football team.

SEC West
1. Auburn — When I look at this page, I see Auburn-focused stuff in the top-left third, nice work. Good use of color, too. Countdown ticker is a nice touch, but the main gist here is content, content, content.
2. LSU — What an Arkansas page could look like if done better. Good use of color and separation here. More content than banners is a plus.
3. Alabama — A much cleaner approach for content, well organized. But can we get some professional photography? iPod Phone photos won’t cut it.
4. Mississippi State — It’s like Alabama’s with pods and pod shadows. While it’s clean, there’s too much going on here.
5. Ole Miss — With less room and more banners than Arkansas’ site, Ole Miss barely beats us out due to a more colorful design. The lack of content with headlines is awful and the use of the “MORE” links is a nice touch if you’re looking to have a lame site. Nutt lucked out (I guess).
6. Arkansas — See above. Worst of the bunch. Can’t even correctly utilize a template that half the entire conference uses. Lack of a favicon is lousy.

Let’s applaud Jeff Long for consolidating the sites, but let’s keep on him to get something out there that us Hog fans deserve!

According to a press release, INEOS, one of the top three chemical companies in the world, has announced that it is aiming to produce commercial quantities of bioethanol fuel from biodegradable municipal waste within two years. The technology, which was developed in Fayetteville changes carbon-based materials into ethanol.

INEOS is the largest privately owned company in Britain and has recently created a new branch, INEOS Bio, with locations across the world in order to commercialize and license the breakthrough technology.

“We expect the Fayetteville site to continue to be the technology center for INEOS Bio as it grows,” said Bruce Walker, site manager for INEOS Bio in Fayetteville. Mayor Coody agrees. “The plan is to develop a pilot plant here in Fayetteville that will be able to take our municipal waste and turn it into desperately needed clean fuel,” said Coody.

As for the direct impact this will have on Fayetteville, we’re not sure. Will we be viewed as more of a “green” city? Will there be more “green collar” jobs available here in the future? Will all of this even come to fruition? We certainly hope so.

Congrats, Fayetteville. You rule.

[Via INEOS Bio and NWAnews]

Make sure to set your DVR for Tuesday’s edition of CFB Live because Bobby Petrino is the featured guest. That’s right. They’ve either given up on their tired attempts to bore the hell out of everyone with Petrino flaming over at the ESPN HQ or they’re going to give him one hell of a ride on national TV.

Either way, I say it’s great to have a spot on the second episode of the year. What do you think?

finally I have
pushed the worst christian bale film
from my memory

You’re in luck, bud… well, at least on the eating out part. The best meat market in town, Richards Country Meat Market, serves lunch… and apparently has been for a while. Who knew? So when you want to get a quick bite, you can stop by Richards, grab a delicious and freshly made sandwich(BBQ is an option too!), wrap, soup and even a cooked dinner(varies daily) on the cheap. It’s a real simple lunch and is pretty refreshing when you’re tired of fast food and $8 sandwiches.

Right now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself, “Ok?… So I can get a sandwich and soup from Richards. So what? Why not just go to Panera or ABC?” First off; chill out, I’m getting to it. Ok. Calmed down? Good. Here’s the sweet part: From 11-2 you can get the lunch special, which is a sandwich and soup, for $3.49! Nope, that’s not a typo, it’s THREE DOLLARS AND FORTY NINE FREAKING CENTS! That’s a damn deal. Oh yeah, they also use Boars Head products which are, hands down, the best cheeses and meats you can get. Seriously, when it comes to a delicious sandwich, Boars Head is where it’s at. And, no, we’re not paid by Boars Head to say that.

Anyway, I went and grabbed lunch there today and I have to say, it was damn good. I’m thinking about picking up one of the dinners this week as well and giving that ago. Has anyone else tried the dinners out? Today’s dinner was red beans & rice. Nawt Bawd!

My only complaint: Where are the glass bottle cokes? When I was a kid and I went to Richards with my dad, I was always treated to a delicious bottle of coke. Now all I see are Pepsi products. Lame. Pepsi sucks it. Come on Richard, bring back the glass bottle cokes! Please? Please??

We’ve sent out requests to each candidate and we’ve already received a confirmation from Walt Eilers and Mayor Coody so look for those interviews soon. We’re still waiting to hear from Steve Clark and Lioneld Jordan but we only sent the requests out this morning so it’s still early.

In order to do this correctly, we need to at least contact each candidate but we’re having a helluva time finding any kind of contact information for Adam Fire Cat. And that’s where ya’ll come in. Who knows Adam? Does he have a campaign manager? A website? An e-mail address? Help us find Adam and we’ll do our best to help you learn a little more about him.

Ready? Set. Go!

If you asked me, I’d have to say I doubt it.

According to an article in Saturday’s NWAT, the pension would only be half of his roughly $107,000 annual salary. In other words, about $53,000. It’s a nice retirement package for 12 years of city service but it’s hardly luxurious.

It should also be noted that if Mr. Coody took the pension, he’d lose all funds that he’s already contributing to his city employee retirement plan which is similar to a 401K.

“Frankly, I’m not doing this job for the pay or the benefits,” Coody said. “If I were doing this for the retirement, I wouldn’t have thought about walking away from it seven months ago.”

Sounds honest enough to me. What do you think?

[Via: NWAnews]

Earlier this month, Starbucks announced the closing of 600 company-operated locations that will continue from July through early next year. As of now, only 50 closures have been announced and of the eight locations in Arkansas that have been given a pink slip, Fayetteville remains off the radar.

“But wait! I heard from a friend of a friend that Fayetteville was losing a location in 2008!” Nope. Your friend of a friend was probably confused by the closing of a Van Buren location at 2008 Fayetteville Rd.. Weird, huh?

Of course, considering the fact that there are only 3 locations here (including Barnes & Noble and the UA campus), we’re probably not that high on the list of potentials.

I know, I know. How DARE we mention Starbucks on a local Fayetteville website. SHUN! SHUN! Let the flaming begin…

Instead of having to remember some weird-ass URL name when trying to find information about the Hogs, Razorback fans will now simply have to remember the name of their team. That’s right, ya’ll. Thanks to Jeff Long, both Hogwired.com and Ladybacks.com will now reside at ArkansasRazorbacks.com. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus. It suddenly feels more like 2008 around here.

“The all new web site will be an integral part of our athletic program and provide a platform to communicate with Razorback fans all over the world,” Long said.

According to a press release, the official launch date is tomorrow, July 21. And from the looks of the countdown ticker that’s featured on the landing page right now, things should be turning on at around 8 a.m. in the morning.

All sorts of promises are being made such as internet-only features (nice), behind the scenes coverage (cool) and expanded video coverage (finally).

For those of you who are RazorZone members, don’t worry because even though it’s being renamed to RazorVision, your membership status will roll over automatically.

Here’s hoping the transition goes smoothly and that all promises are fulfilled. And once again, thanks to Jeff Long for bringing yet another badly-needed change to the University of Arkansas athletic programs.

If so, then tomorrow might be the beginning of the rest of your (Surreal) life because “America’s Next Top Model” Cycle 12 is holding an open casting call at the Northwest Arkansas Mall.

According to a press release we received today, The CW Network is looking for females, ages 18 to 27, with a minimum height of 5′7″ of “diverse backgrounds, shapes and sizes” and of course, who also think they’ve got what it takes to become a “top model.”

If you’re interested, this biznass is going down tomorrow, Saturday, July 19 at Center Court in the mall from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Don’t forget to download an application to sign up and view all the eligibility requirements by visiting this here website.

Oh yeah, there are some sponsors listed but until they send us a check or two, we’ve got no love. Good luck, ladies!

With all the hype, is it possible for Chris Nolan’s sophomore effort in the Batman universe to live up to everyone’s rather lofty expectations? To exceed it? Well, many of us will find out this weekend. In fact, a ton of us will find out this weekend. I’m calling it right now: The Dark Knight will have the biggest weekend opening this summer… perhaps all year.

2005’s Batman Begins was a fresh start on a tired, stale series. Ever since 1989’s Batman, the quality of the Batman flicks dropped faster than M. Night Shyamalan’s. The new Batman, played by none other than superbadass Christian Bale, completely rejuvenated the series. Sixteen years was a long time in between good Batman flicks.

Nolan’s Batman was not quite perfect, but definitely close to it. Gone were villains delivering God-awful one-liners, one after the other(I’m looking at you Ah-nold). This time around, the baddies were interesting, well-crafted and well-acted. Thank God. Also, the Batsuit didn’t have nipples.

Anyway, I’ve purchased my ticket and I’ll be seeing The Dark Knight at 1:15. I’m incredibly amped. I just hope that I haven’t got my hopes up too high.

What about you? Are you planning on seeing The Dark Knight?

This particular team, made up of Brandon Barber, Seth Kaffka, Seth Rains and John Russell Meeks borrowed $5.18 million in June 2005 against property along Township Rd. in Fayetteville and now it seems their mortgage is in default with an estimated $2.79 million due.

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again…Brandon Barber is not having a good couple of years.

According to The Morning News, the street address for the property in question was not reported in the filing. Anyone wanna take a stab at this one?

[Via The Morning News]