Today's news

Lake Isabella is being treated for blue green algae. It will take about 10 days for treatment and the lake to return to normal. Villagers are not to swim in the lake and the boat ramp will be closed during this time. The public will be notified when swimming in safe waters can be resumed.

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The Hot Springs Hanamaki Sister City program was one of only four American cities' programs to receive a commendation from the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The commendation will be presented, along with commemorative gifts at a ceremony on November 1.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the commendation is awarded to individuals and groups with outstanding achievements in international fields to acknowledge their contributions to promotion of friendship between Japan and other countries.

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Con artists who perpetrate the "secret shopper" scam entice consumers with promises of cash payments if a consumer will evaluate the customer service at store or restaurant while acting as an ordinary customer. This and similar scams have been around for years, but a number of incidents have been reported recently in northwest Arkansas.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel issued a consumer alert yesterday to remind Arkansas consumers about the "secret shopper" scam and to again warn consumers not to become victims of wire-fraud schemes.

"For the handful of actual secret-shopper jobs, employees are not required to wire money to their bosses in order to get a paycheck," McDaniel said. "Even though a con artist may go to great lengths to convince a consumer that a ruse is legitimate, the good advice that is always worth repeating is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."

Follow these guidelines to keep safe from scams.

* Throw away any unexpected or unsolicited checks that come in the mail from an unfamiliar person or business. If a consumer wants to take the check to the bank anyway, then he or she at least should ask that the check be verified and funds from it not be withdrawn unless the check has cleared. This process can take days or weeks.

* Be careful about employment opportunities in which the employer uses no screening process for applicant or guarantees a job.

* Be leery of outfits based in Canada or overseas that claim to have secret shopper or work-at-home jobs available.

* Never wire funds or provide information from a MoneyPak card to an unknown person or business.