News
‘Thanks, and God bless you’: Asylum-seekers enter U.S. after ‘remain in Mexico’ ends
EL PASO — Willian woke up before dawn on a recent Tuesday, packed his legal documents into a blue folder and got in a van with other migrants to one of the international bridges that connect El Paso and Ciudad Juárez. At the port of entry, the 46-year-old asylum-seeker from Ecuador was disenrolled from the […]
Jewish congregations mount legal challenges to state abortion bans
WASHINGTON — Thousands of years of Jewish scripture make it clear that access to abortion care is a requirement of Jewish law and practice, according to Rabbi Karen Bogard. “We preserve life at all costs,” she said in an interview with States Newsroom. “But there is a difference between that which is living, and that […]
Arkansas groups seek more than $275,000 total from state fund aimed at encouraging birth
This story was updated on Aug. 31, 2022. Twelve Arkansas pregnancy resource centers are among 16 groups that applied for a share of the state’s $1 million grant program created this year to help fund crisis pregnancy centers, adoption agencies and maternity homes. The other applicants include an adoption agency, a maternity care home, a […]
Arkansas officials: No determination yet on tax liability for student loan forgiveness
Arkansas tax authorities haven’t yet decided whether borrowers must pay state income tax on canceled debt under President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan. Discharged debt is typically taxable as income. However, under the American Rescue Plan Act, student loan forgiveness between 2021 and 2025 is not subject to federal taxes. Arkansas is one of […]
With election looming and no drug supply, future of death penalty in Arkansas is uncertain
Arkansas is actively searching for a new supply of lethal injection drugs, and the next governor will likely decide whether to use them. What that means is unclear with an election still months away and a hodgepodge of positions on capital punishment. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month upheld Arkansas’ execution […]
How election-denying GOP governors could tilt the 2024 presidential election
Republican candidates who claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump have been nominated for governor in four critical swing states, raising concerns that if elected they could try to sway election results in 2024 and beyond. In Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Republican primary voters elected a candidate who has denied the […]
Abortion access is on the ballot in November in these states
WASHINGTON — Voters in at least three states will determine at the polls in November what abortion access looks like for their neighbors, colleagues, friends and family — becoming some of the first Americans to deliver their own verdicts on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Residents of California, Kentucky and […]
Farmers in 40 Arkansas counties can receive drought-related financial aid
Farmers in more than half of Arkansas’ 75 counties can apply for federal funds to help them cope with the effects of ongoing drought conditions, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Thursday. The USDA declared a “primary natural disaster area” in 20 counties: Benton, Boone, Carroll, Clay, Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Independence, Izard, Johnson, Lawrence, Madison, […]
Fix for underfunded Arkansas tire recycling program must wait for legislative review
A stop-gap measure to keep Arkansas’ tire recycling program running fell through on Friday, meaning scrap tire piles will keep growing in large sections of the state. A request from the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality for $1 million from state savings to shore up the Arkansas Used Tire Recycling and Accountability Act Program was […]
Legislators OK additional $124M in recovery funds for schools
The state Department of Education received legislative approval Friday to disburse $124.3 million in federal emergency relief money to 36 more school districts. The Arkansas Legislative Council accepted a report from its Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review subcommittee to authorize spending for 35 districts and suspended its rules to add a 36th district — Rector, […]
Court releases partially redacted affidavit for Mar-a-Lago search
WASHINGTON — A judge granted the Federal Bureau of Investigation a search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s home earlier this month after agents found 184 documents with classified markings had been kept at Mar-a-Lago. The property — which hosts Trump’s private residence, a golf club and other housing — is not authorized to store […]
Arkansas Senate reviews complaint from disciplined senator
The Senate Ethics Committee will take action next Thursday on a complaint that state Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, filed earlier this month against another senator. The committee met Friday morning to review documents pertaining to the complaint filed Aug. 18. Chairman Sen. Kim Hammer, R-Benton, sent the meeting into executive session immediately, so the substance […]