Author Melinda Palacio will present a reading at Northwestern State University at 5 p.m. on Tuesday in the Thomas-D’Amato Reading Room in Watson Library. Admission is free. The public is invited to attend.

Palacio is a poet and novelist who lives in Santa Barbara and New Orleans. Her poetry chapbook, “Folsom Lockdown,” won Kulupi Press’ Sense of Place 2009 award. She is the author of the novel “Ocotillo Dreams” (ASU Bilingual Press 2011), for which she received the Mariposa Award for Best First Book at the 2012 International Latino Book Awards and a 2012 PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature.

Chesapeake Energy donated on Tuesday a 2011 Chevy Silverado, formerly of the company’s security fleet, to the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

At an event held at the sheriff’s headquarters in Center, Texas, Chesapeake presented the keys to the four-wheel-drive truck that the company says will provide durable transportation and access to rural sites.

An Arkansas man was arrested by Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) enforcement agents and charged with five counts of timber theft Wednesday morning.