Arkansas news

• Arkansas Education Department releases district letter grades (sort of)

  17-09-2026 23:50 via arktimes.com
  
  The Arkansas Department of Education announced Thursday that they’ve released the official district and school letter grades for the 2025-26 school year.
  If you’re eager to see how your district did, though, you might need to wait a bit longer. The website where these grades are to be posted appeared to still show grades for the 2024-25 school year as the latest available around 4:45 p.m., suggesting some glitches are possibly glitching, and may frustrate your search.
  
  Read more

• Little Rock Zoo nets $1.2M donation, hires new higher-ups 

  17-09-2026 21:25 via arktimes.com
  
  With a big honking donation in their coffers and new people in new positions, it’s been a big week for the Little Rock Zoo. On Tuesday, the Arkansas Zoological Foundation, the nonprofit fundraising arm of the Little Rock Zoo, announced a $1.2 million donation to ongoing renovations at the zoo, an undertaking dubbed “Project Zoo: Wildly Reimagined.” 
  
  Read more

• Unconventional spending fuels the Grappes’ unusual, on-the-ground campaign

  17-09-2026 20:49 via arktimes.com
  
  Democratic secretary of state candidate Kelly Grappe knows she is taking a unique approach to campaigning. She’s not following the usual strategy of quick appearances at political events and heavy spending on advertising. Rather, she’s focusing on being in communities for extended periods of time, talking to voters who, according to her, rarely get the chance to speak to Democratic candidates for any office.“This is our strategy and we’re proud of it,” she said. &ld
  
  Read more

• U.S. House takes up familiar debate over who pays for data centers’ electric infrastructure

  17-09-2026 19:06 via arktimes.com
  
  Arkansas is not at all special in its ongoing tussles over how and if to embrace artificial intelligence and the hot, loud, sprawling data centers it requires.
  As local news broke Wednesday that Entergy was dropping legal action in its attempt to keep the secret details of its deal to power a West Memphis Google data center under wraps, federal lawmakers were also wrangling with how to power data centers and who should pay.The U.S. House overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that aims to hav
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Six Bridges Book Festival returns Sept. 27-Oct. 4

  17-09-2026 16:52 via arktimes.com
  
  SIX BRIDGES BOOK FESTIVAL
  SUNDAY 9/27-SUNDAY 10/4. Downtown Little Rock. Free.Except for a final hoorah fundraiser event featuring Ariel Lawhon, a historical fiction writer who’s sold nearly 2 million copies of her 2023 book “The Frozen River,” the Six Bridges Book Festival is entirely free. That’s remarkable, given the resources — both financial and logistical — required to rally five dozen authors from across the state and country into one place. Notable gu
  
  Read more

• Metallica announces U of A show, Razorbacks post strange AI slop video to celebrate 

  17-09-2026 16:43 via arktimes.com
  
  Thrash metal pioneers Metallica are coming to Razorback Stadium at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in May, and the Razorbacks created a freaky AI-generated video to announce the show. Metallica is bringing along rap-rock royalty Limp Bizkit, which has experienced a resurgence in popularity in recent years, and Swedish heavy metal band Avatar as support. Tickets for the general public go on sale next Friday, Sept. 25 at 10 a.m. 
  
  Read more

• Entergy dismisses case against publications, citizen over trade secrets beef

  17-09-2026 03:42 via arktimes.com
  
  Entergy has dropped its federal court complaint against the Arkansas Times and Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, two reporters and a citizen activist that was filed after documents mistakenly shared revealed controversial details about plans for a Google data center in the state. Entergy sued after the Arkansas Public Service Commission inadvertently shared documents with engaged citizen Jessica Kivell, who shared them with Democrat-Gazette reporter Sydney Sasser. Entergy said the documents reveal
  
  Read more

Follow @News_Arkansas on Twitter!