Arkansas Congressional delegation celebrates historic achievement
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, Chairman Rick Crawford and the rest of the Arkansas Congressional delegation came together to celebrate their rare achievement.
Arkansas is the only state in which every member of the delegation can be called “Chairman.”
“Our state is blessed with decades of legislative experience in Washington, D.C., which has led Arkansans to lead critically important committees in the House and Senate that support our farmers, our national security, our natural resources, our financial markets, and our transportation infrastructure funding. It is the honor of a lifetime to serve alongside my fellow Arkansas Chairmen on Agriculture, Intelligence, THUD Appropriations, Financial Services, and Natural Resources as we work for America,” said Chairman Crawford.
The six positions are:
• Representative Bruce Westerman (AR-04) – House Natural Resources Committee Chairman
• Representative Steve Womack (AR-03) – House Appropriations Committee Cardinal, Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Chairman
• Senator Tom Cotton – Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman • Senator John Boozman – Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee Chairman
• Representative Rick Crawford (AR-01) – House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman
• Representative French Hill (AR-02) – House Financial Services Committee Chairman.
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Arkansas Peanut Growers to have annual meeting
JONESBORO — The Arkansas Peanut Growers Association seeks eligible peanut producers who are interested in serving on the National Peanut Board. Arkansas Peanut Growers Association will hold a nominations election to select two nominees each for member and alternate to the National Peanut Board during a meeting on March 18, at 1 p.m. at the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas, 3414 One Place.
A meal will be provided at noon, followed by the meeting at 1 p.m. All eligible peanut producers are encouraged to participate. Eligible producers are those who are engaged in the production and sale of peanuts and who own or share the ownership and risk of loss of the crop.
Greg Baltz of Pocahontas, is the current Arkansas National Peanut Board member and Allen Donner of Manila, serves as the alternate. The term for the current Arkansas board member and alternate expires Dec. 31, 2025.
The United States Department of Agriculture requires two nominees from each state for each position of member and alternate. The National Peanut Board will submit Arkansas slate of nominees to the U.S.
Secretary of Agriculture, who makes the appointments.
The Arkansas Peanut Growers Association is the USDA Certified Peanut Producer Organization in Arkansas and represents Arkansas’s peanut producers in the areas of promotion, research and education.
The National Peanut Board represents all U.S. peanut farmers and their families.
The mission of the Board is to improve the economic condi-
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tion of U.S. peanut farmers and their families through compelling promotion and groundbreaking research.
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State Police identify homicide victim in 40-year-old mystery
CARLISLE — The Arkansas State Police (ASP) Cold Case Unit has successfully identified a homicide victim from 1984 as Earl James McDaniel, a 53-year-old man originally from Kansas City, Missouri.
The victim's body was discovered on Oct. 30, 1984, by Arkansas Department of Transportation workers mowing grass along Interstate 40, about four-and-a-half miles west of Carlisle in Lonoke County.
The deceased was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory for an autopsy that revealed the cause of death was strangulation, and the manner of death classified as a homicide. Unable to identify the man, the investigation remained stagnant for 40 years.
The ASP Cold Case Unit began reviewing the cold case in March 2024. In September of that year, they submitted remains to Othram Labs, a specialized DNA and genealogy testing facility in Texas.
On Jan. 27, 2025, Othram Labs provided a tentative identification of the victim as McDaniel and identified a potential relative in Washington state.
Working with the Washington State Attorney General's Office Cold Case Unit, ASP investigators located McDaniel's daughter in Washington. Her DNA sample was submitted to Othram Labs in early February, and on Feb.
24, 2025, the lab confirmed McDaniel's identity. The investigation revealed that Mc-Daniel had been incarcerated in Washington state during the 1960s. He was paroled in Oklahoma in the early 1980s and had numerous arrests throughout the United States. Mc-Daniel's last contact with law enforcement occurred on Sept. 11, 1984, when the Oskaloosa, Iowa, Police Department arrested him for operating a vehicle while intoxicated. The circumstances surrounding McDaniel's homicide remain under investigation by the ASP CCU.
The ASP Cold Case Unit is asking for any information relating to the death of Earl James McDaniel. Anyone with information should contact ColdCase@asp. arkansas.gov.
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Court upholds man’s 360-year sentence
JONESBORO — A state appellate court has upheld the conviction and 360-year prison sentence for a man who was caught up in a child sex sting.
A Craighead County Circuit Court jury found David M.
Odom, now 60, of Trenton, Tenn., guilty of one count of internet stalking of a minor, one count of computer child pornography and 30 counts of possession of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child.
On Aug. 10, 2023, Judge Scott Ellington followed the jury’s recommendation and sentenced Odom to the maximum of 40 years for the stalking conviction, 20 years for the child pornography conviction and 10 years each for the other convictions, with all the sentences to be served consecutively. Odom had been chatting on social media with someone presumed to be a 15year-old girl named “Kaylee” back in August of 2021, according to court records.
“Kaylee” was actually Detective Bill Brown, who works in the Jonesboro Police Department’s Internet Crimes against Children unit.
They chatted off and on and the conversations turned sexual in nature in September 2022. At one time “Kaylee” indicated during the chats she would have to wait a year before she could get her driver’s license.
On Nov. 6, 2022, Odom drove to a motel in Jonesboro “under the impression he would meet Kaylee there.”
After Odom was arrested on that date, police found a phone, laptop, a box of condoms, lubricant and a paddle with the words “board of correction” inscribed on it. On the phone, police said they found a photo of Odom, two pictures of the fictitious Kaylee Jackson and several images and videos depicting sexually explicit conduct involving children. Similar images were found on Odom’s computer.
Odom appealed his conviction, claiming there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove he knew the person he was communicating with was under the age of consent in Arkansas, which is 16. He also said the stalking charge should have been tried separately from the child porn charges. He argued there was no proof that he was actually the person who downloaded the sexually explicit images to his phone and computer.
But on Wednesday, the Arkansas Court of Appeals said there was also testimony in the trial that Odom had sent some of the images found on his phone to the fictitious girl. According to information on Odom’s case on the Arkansas Department of Corrections website, the earliest Odom will be eligible for parole is April of 2083.
