Government & Politics
Trial challenging Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors resumes
The trial against Arkansas’ ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender youth resumed Monday with the second witness for the defense, led by Attorney General Leslie Rutledge’s office. Monday’s witness was Dr. Stephen Levine, an Ohio-based psychiatrist with a focus on sexual dysfunction and “transsexualism,” as transgender identity was called in the 1970s when his […]
U.S. House to intervene in rail workers strike, heeding Biden call
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday said the House will take up legislation to ratify an agreement between rail workers and operators in order to avert a nationwide rail strike. “This week, the House will take up a bill adopting the Tentative Agreement — with no poison pills or changes to the […]
Arkansas will revoke Fort Smith medical marijuana grower’s license to comply with court order
Arkansas medical marijuana regulators will revoke a Fort Smith growing company’s cultivation license, the state’s chief marijuana enforcement officer decided Monday. After a nearly hour-long hearing, Alcoholic Beverage Control Director Doralee Chandler decided the agency should revoke River Valley Relief’s medical cannabis cultivation license to comply with a Pulaski County circuit judge’s decision. Earlier this […]
The Blue Umbrella sells hand-crafted merchandise from Arkansans with disabilities
A little store nestled in downtown Little Rock offers a refreshing break from the busyness and consumerism of the holiday shopping season. It offers customers products handmade by an Arkansan, and the dollars spent have an impact beyond that goes well beyond a paycheck for those artists and craftsmen who made the items in the […]
States test an electrifying idea: roads that can recharge your EV
On two short stretches of road near downtown Detroit, Michigan transportation officials hope to make history. Over the next two years, they plan to embed technology in the pavement that can charge electric vehicles while they’re being driven. The wireless system will be the first U.S. test of so-called inductive charging on public roadways, according […]
Little appetite for Manchin permitting bill in congressional lame-duck session
Among the items on Congress’ lengthy to-do list by the end of the year is U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s proposal to speed up the federal government’s permitting process that certifies energy projects do not harm the environment. But the bill, which was a condition of the centrist West Virginia Democrat’s support for his party’s larger […]
Arkansas election authority will investigate Phillips County reporting struggles
Ongoing problems with tallying and reporting voting data led the Arkansas Board of Election Commissioners this week to agree to open an investigation into the Phillips County Election Commission. The board unanimously agreed Tuesday to have director Daniel Shults file a complaint against the commission, which failed to upload the results of this month’s election […]
Georgians can start voting Saturday with state Supreme Court ruling in Warnock lawsuit
Early voting is set to take place in more than a dozen Georgia counties both days on Thanksgiving weekend after the Georgia Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch attempt by Republican groups to block the polls from opening on Saturday for the runoff for the U.S. Senate. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court justices unanimously denied the […]
Arkansas county officials prepare for runoff elections
Election season is still underway in Arkansas with more than half of the state’s 75 counties preparing for runoff elections on Dec. 6. Early voting begins Nov. 29. Benton County has eight runoff elections scheduled, the most of any county, followed by Phillips County with six contests. Phillips County has struggled to report its election […]
Another mind-numbing mass murder brings reflection
Shocked? No. Resigned? Maybe. Numb? I hope not. The slaughter continues. On the heels of two multiple murders on or near college campuses in Virginia and Idaho the week of Nov. 12 comes news of a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub catering to the LGBTQ+ community on Nov. 19. A gunman entered Club […]
Student loan repayment pause extended by White House amid legal battles over relief plan
WASHINGTON — The Department of Education announced on Tuesday it is extending the pandemic-era pause on federal student loan repayments until June 30 while legal challenges to the administration’s student debt relief program are fought over in the courts. The agency said if the student debt relief program has not been put in place by […]
Gretchen Conger to be Sanders’ chief of staff
Gretchen Conger will be Gov.-elect Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ chief of staff in the governor’s office, Sanders announced Tuesday. Sanders also announced that she will transfer more than $2.5 million from her 2022 gubernatorial campaign treasury to her 2026 reelection campaign and named campaign manager Chris Caldwell as senior advisor to the reelection campaign. Conger, who […]