Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) has said that American Eagle Communities announced it would pay some of the subcontractors and suppliers it owes for work on the now-stalled housing privatization effort at Little Rock Air Force Base. Pryor and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) have been vocal critics of the Air Force for selecting a contractor that had a history of defaults. The housing problems with American Eagle and its partner Carabetta Enterprises include Air Force contracts in Georgia, Florida, and Massachusetts, as well as Arkansas. The Leader reports that American Eagle plans to pay about $778,000 of the $2.4 million it allegedly owes for work at Little Rock.
Retired Col. Carlyle "Smitty" Harris, known for introducing the "tap code" by which American POWs in North Vietnam could surreptitiously communicate with one another, died July 6. Harris was brutalized by the North Vietnamese over almost eight years of captivity.