Arkansas's top news stories | September 7, 2024

Good evening. And thank you for choosing THV 11 tonight. I'm Brooke Buckner and I hope you've been enjoying this beautiful Saturday so far, I'm joined now with meteorologist Simone Thomas Simone. It is feeling like fall out there. How long can we expect this to stick around? It has been a great day. Brooke. We can't emphasize enough how much we've gotten accustomed to this taste of fall today right now as we look at temperatures, a lot of places across central Arkansas hanging out in the seventies, we do still have a couple of locations, Little Rock and Hot Springs hanging on to the 80 degree mark or lower eighties. But as you see much of the state in the seventies today, we got that nice crisp fall breeze. So if you're headed out this evening, definitely gonna be one of those evenings, you might want a light jacket as we inch closer or later on into the evening, we're gonna start to feel more of those sixties as early as 10 o'clock. But overnight tonight, for your Sunday morning, waking up in the fifties and sixties across a lot of central Arkansas. So if you're waking up early to head out to church or anything on Sunday, definitely wouldn't hurt to have that like jacket. Of course, the farther north you are in the state likely gonna be a little bit cooler and then farther south looking to see as high as those lower sixties. But tomorrow looking to be a nice repeat of today and then changes are coming as we get into the work week, I have all those details coming up in your seven day outlook. Now to a heartwarming story, a reunion for a father and a stepson in late July, Devin Gardner and his stepson Jordan were on a road trip to Alabama when they crashed in Franklin County. 12 year old Jordan then walked two miles across the interstate in the dead of night to help, find, to find help and save a step dad's life. Today. T 11, Carter was there for the special moment as Devin reunited with Jordan, who he calls his hero. That was the heartwarming moment. Jordan reunited with his stepdad. Devin at the Eugene Tobin Health Care Center in North Little Rock. It's not the first time they've seen each other since the accident, but it is the first time Devin's been well enough to get out of bed and come meet his boy. According to Jordan's mom, Trisha, it made my heart really happy that he was able to do all that. It was also the first time Jordan's been recognized like this. The staff at the Veterans Hospital giving him a certificate and a medal calling him a hero. Charlie Hogan is one nurse who's taken care of Devin and says she was touched by the story. It's an honor to take care of Mr Gardner. You know that Jordan went all that way for his dad. You could tell that there was an extremely tight bond between father and son there making Jordan's journey even more incredible the fact that the 12 year old has autism and speech aphasia, meaning it's sometimes tough for him to communicate. Adding to that when he found an officer from the Johnson County Sheriff's office, he thought it was too late. Was your dad awake when you left? No, he's dead. But miraculously, he wasn't when officers located the crash, they heard Devin yelling for help. He says he doesn't remember the crash or anything until he woke up in a hospital a few days later. But he knows Jordan saved his life. Apparently I was laying face down on a downgrade in this tall grass. I mean, you're not gonna see or notice the car from the highway. If it hadn't been for Jordan finding him and telling him they would have never found me. Uh Who knows? I would have been, uh, they would have, I guess somebody would have found me when I started stinking. That's why this day was so special to Devin. He was able to see his stepson again and tell him how much he means to him. Understandably, it was an emotional scene. He's my hero. He's my, my savior. Hey, we gonna throw football and I'm gonna get, well, everything's gonna be great back to normal. We gonna go shoot the shotgun and get some doves and eat them, wrap them in bacon and it's all because Jordan went walking in North Little Rock Carter wh thv 11 news. What a great story. Thank you. Carter Devin says the staff at the VA hospital has been incredible helping him recover and he says he hopes to be out of the hospital next week. In a thb 11 update. An Arkansas mayor is currently behind bars this evening. It comes after prosecutors arrested him and charged him with property theft. State police say they arrested Jeff Collins after an investigation triggered by a legislative audit. The State Bureau reported last year about several instances of misappropriated funds and suspicious credit card purchases. Auditors turned their findings over to the prosecutor who ordered the arrest on one count of theft. Amid all this. In June of this year, nine people living in Augusta sued the mayor asking him to be removed and check this out. Folks with the central Arkansas library system celebrated the 50th anniversary of the John Gold Fletcher Library today and they ended up with a big crowd to the point where they actually ended up running out of hot dogs and drinks. As you can see people were very excited to celebrate the library's 50th anniversary of the Fletcher building. As a part of the Fletcher Library's 50th anniversary, we had face painting balloon animals, all kinds of crafts. We had cake and of course the cows cruiser made its first appearance. Officials with cows say they were very excited about the turnout they saw and that wasn't the only celebration that took place earlier today. Lots of pop culture fans came together for Comic Con in Arkansas. It's happening all weekend long at the Statehouse Convention Center. It's Comic Con where we just dress up, have fun, meet cool people take photos, buy things and just really, you know, get the, get the nerd community together, basically, like just, just have lots of fun. And if you missed out today, don't worry, the event is also scheduled to take place tomorrow from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.