Arkansas news

• ACANSA Arts Festival returns Sept. 10-Sept. 26

  04-09-2026 16:00 via arktimes.com
  
  ACANSA ARTS FESTIVAL OF THE SOUTH
  THURSDAY 9/10-SATURDAY 9/26. Various venues. Free-$250.Depending on what your idea of a festival is, the ACANSA Arts Festival of the South may surprise you. Rather than compress a single medium of programming into just a few frenzied days, ACANSA spreads its many offerings — across music, theater and visual art — over three weekends, allowing you to slot whatever events work best for you into your otherwise-busy schedule. Highlights of the 11th annu
  
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• LRSD Forward: The Little Rock School District’s Plan to Close Schools, Reimagine Programs, and Remain Financially Solvent

  04-09-2026 21:36 via arktimes.com
  
  At a news conference on Friday, the Little Rock School District presented a proposal to close several schools, expand or relocate certain programs, and create new academic options designed to make LRSD more attractive to students and families. The district says declining enrollment, rising operating costs, competition for students, and underused facilities have created a financial gap of approximately $4 million to $7 million that must be addressed to achieve long-term stability. Supe
  
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• LRSD Forward: District shares plan to close schools, reimagine programs, remain financially solvent

  04-09-2026 21:36 via arktimes.com
  
  At a news conference on Friday, the Little Rock School District presented a proposal to close several schools, expand or relocate certain programs, and create new academic options designed to make LRSD more attractive to students and families. The district says declining enrollment, rising operating costs, competition for students, and underused facilities have created a financial gap of approximately $4 million to $7 million that must be addressed to achieve long-term stability. Supe
  
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• Pearls About Swine: A game by game preview of the 2026 football season

  04-09-2026 21:26 via arktimes.com
  
  Big spoiler alert right out of the gate: I am NOT going with a rosy prediction for your 2026 Arkansas Razorback football team. Do I think this team will sniff bowl eligibility? To use common parlance, LOL. Do I think there’s an upset or two on the schedule? I do.Arkansas enters this season with a new coach and old expectations. Ryan Silverfield voluntarily agreed to take on this mess, and he’s saying the right things about how he plans to proceed. None of it may matter. I
  
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• The heat dome is hellacious; hide from it in your local bookstore

  04-09-2026 20:55 via arktimes.com
  
  Alpha-gal syndrome is spreading like wildfire across the state, Entergy and Google have been seeking restraining orders against local newsrooms (including this one), and the heat index values this afternoon are projected to be between 105 and 110 degrees. But you know what’s going swimmingly in Central Arkansas right now? The burgeoning bookstore scene.We had great bookstores in the Little Rock area before 2026, to be clear. WordsWorth Books continues to be a bastion for bibliophiles in T
  
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• Is Google paying for Cypress Solar—or are you?

  04-09-2026 15:49 via arktimes.com
  
  Is Google paying in full for its massive solar farm to power its West Memphis data center or not? One would think it is a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. On a damage-control press tour after a tumultuous week that included splashy disclosures of secret documents and an emergency trip to the federal courthouse, three Entergy officials visited our office on Wednesday morning to plead their case. In a 45-minute interview, they said Google is still paying the full tab, and then
  
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• SHS? She’s running.

  03-09-2026 23:16 via arktimes.com
  
  Watchers of Arkansas politics and Republican politics in general have long suspected (read: known) that Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was just biding her time in Arkansas until she could jump to a better position back in Washington, D.C. Her gubernatorial reign has always felt like an audition for a presidential or vice presidential run.Like so many would-be candidates before her, Sanders has authored a book touting her successes and listing her conservative bona fides. The new book, Unapologetic
  
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• As local libraries navigate censorship law, national group calls for repeal

  03-09-2026 21:33 via arktimes.com
  
  When the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of censorship in July, overturning a lower court’s injunction against a law that potentially exposes librarians to criminal charges if a minor checks out something “harmful,” many folks predicted implementation of the law would lead to drastic changes in many libraries around the state.Just over a month later, those predictions are proving prescient, with libraries making wholesale changes to how and what minors can check
  
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• ‘Side by Side by Sondheim’ opens Wednesday at The Rep

  03-09-2026 16:00 via arktimes.com
  
  ‘SIDE BY SIDE BY SONDHEIM’
  WEDNESDAY 9/9-SUNDAY 9/20. Arkansas Repertory Theatre. $25-$70.One of the rare giants of American theater who wrote both the music and lyrics for his shows, Stephen Sondheim’s legacy lives on through well over a dozen beloved musicals, including “Sweeney Todd,” “Into the Woods” and “Sunday in the Park with George.” He’s also been immortalized through five major revues — not dissimilar from “greate
  
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• The Observer considers multiple facets at the Crater of Diamonds

  03-09-2026 15:00 via arktimes.com
  
  Diamonds are not foreverShortly after The Observer’s parents separated for the first time, but not the final time, we all — my parents, my younger brother and I — took a trip to the Crater of Diamonds State Park at Murfreesboro in an effort to remain as much of a family as possible despite the fresh schism. I don’t really know what I expected from the diamond mine. The Observer doesn’t remember a whole lot from that period anyway. But I do recall that digging
  
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• Federal judge: Free speech trumps trade secrets

  02-09-2026 21:35 via arktimes.com
  
  A federal judge weighing free speech rights against a request by Entergy to rein in those rights sided with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Wednesday morning as he denied a temporary restraining order that, if granted, would have barred the newspaper from further publishing documents obtained regarding the utility’s secret relationship with Google. That decision could change as the case now proceeds in the next few days or weeks to the preliminary injunction phase, where the pa
  
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• Ruling to come soon on governor’s attempts to sidestep court order

  02-09-2026 21:34 via arktimes.com
  
  Gov. Sarah Sanders’ ongoing efforts to undo a court ruling against her had another day in court on Wednesday. Following an hour or so of legal arguments, Circuit Judge Patti James said she anticipated ruling on the case within 30 days. At issue is an October 2025 ruling by James that two laws passed by the Legislature in 2023 — Acts 185 and 659 — were unconstitutional. Those acts improperly transferred day-to-day control of the state’s corrections divisions to the g
  
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• TICK, TICK, BOOM! Alpha-gal syndrome, the severe tick-borne allergy, is spreading rapidly

  02-09-2026 21:31 via arktimes.com
  
  Standing under an eastern hemlock tree near a thicket of lizard’s tail in her backyard — a tick’s dream — Casey Hamaker had flashbacks to the day she first contracted alpha-gal syndrome, a mysterious illness spreading rapidly across the United States. “This is the scene of the crime,” she said. As she was clearing brush in her garden in the spring of 2024, three ticks — likely lone stars, the aggressive hunters known for causing most cases of alpha-gal
  
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• TICK, TICK, BOOM! Alpha-gal syndrome is spreading rapidly. Arkansas may hold clues to why.

  02-09-2026 21:31 via arktimes.com
  
  Standing under an eastern hemlock tree near a thicket of lizard’s tail in her backyard — a tick’s dream — Casey Hamaker had flashbacks to the day she first contracted alpha-gal syndrome, a mysterious illness spreading rapidly across the United States. “This is the scene of the crime,” she said. As she was clearing brush in her garden in the spring of 2024, three ticks — likely lone stars, the aggressive hunters known for causing most cases of alpha-gal
  
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• End of rental aid creates uncertainty for central Arkansas families facing eviction, homelessness

  02-09-2026 17:52 via arktimes.com
  
  Alexis Mitchell’s teenage nephew and son took a recent day off from school to help move the family’s laundry machines, bed frames and mattresses from their southwest Little Rock house into a storage unit.They brought bags of clothes to the hotel where they’ve stayed for over a week after being evicted from the place they called home since 2020. Mitchell saved some photos of herself and her children, and her 8-year-old son kept his stuffed animals.“Pretty much all of the
  
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• In a panic over mistakenly shared documents, Entergy lawyers ask judge to restrain journalists

  02-09-2026 03:54 via arktimes.com
  
  Sharp-suited attorneys for Entergy Arkansas got a nearly four-hour hearing with U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky Tuesday in their pursuit of a temporary restraining order that would prevent the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette from publishing anything else about Google’s sweetheart utility deal, or any other “trade secrets” the Arkansas Public Service Commission mistakenly turned over to a curious FOI-wielding citizen.Rudofsky did not make a decision Tuesday night, but said he expect
  
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• 3 takeaways from the Dem-Gaz data center scoop

  01-09-2026 22:33 via arktimes.com
  
  Jessica Kivell, who calls herself a nosy mom, is a health provider by day, but she sends out Freedom of Information requests like a seasoned journalist in her spare time. As part of her effort to mine the details of Entergy’s relationship with data centers, she sent FOI requests to the state Public Service Commission, which is charged with making sure utilities charge fair rates. What she got back was more than she bargained for. Kivell received documents that Entergy had asked to be
  
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• Entergy blows a fuse over mistakenly shared documents revealing who’s paying data center bills

  01-09-2026 21:16 via arktimes.com
  
  Explosive revelations in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today show that Google, the Silicon Valley giant building data centers in Little Rock and West Memphis, will pay only about a third of the price tag of its 600-megawatt solar facility in Jefferson County. The documents also reveal the full power draw of its 1,100-acre West Memphis project for the first time.These revelations raise new questions about Entergy Arkansas’ repeated assurances (here and here) that Google — rather than
  
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• New Natural History Museum at UA Little Rock will be Scientific Outreach to Community

  01-09-2026 21:01 via arktimes.com
  
  The University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s planned Museum of Natural History will feature “so many really amazing items from our collection, bring more people to campus, (and accomplish) scientific outreach” through its myriad displays, according to Dr. Sinéad Ní Chadhain, associate professor and chair of the biology department. “Our hope is to engage people — curious about the world around them — in science,” said&nbs
  
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• Too hot to eat? Never! Our August best bites

  01-09-2026 19:02 via arktimes.com
  
  It is with great sadness that we report the ’90s heroin chic fad is back, and the starlets are once again aspiring to Kate Moss levels of boniness.
  We at the Arkansas Times reject the scrawny aesthetic! Ever at your service, we dutifully gnawed our way through August despite the appetite-suppressing triple-digit heat. Here are our favorites.Chocolate pie and beef tallow fries at Hazel’sHazel’s pies, surprisingly sturdy. Credit: Daniel GrearHazel’s Public House, Big Whisk
  
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• Get Berry Loud for democracy at Loblolly today

  01-09-2026 18:08 via arktimes.com
  
  If there are two things we love here at the Arkansas Times, it’s Loblolly ice cream and direct democracy. So you can imagine our collective giddiness when we learned that the best ice cream maker in The Natural State was partnering with Get Loud Arkansas, a nonprofit outreach organization that always has the scoop on how to engage more voters. According to a press release from Get Loud, Lobolly “will launch a new limited run ice cream to encourage and support voter registration
  
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• Get Berry Loud for democracy at Loblolly

  01-09-2026 18:08 via arktimes.com
  
  If there are two things we love here at the Arkansas Times, it’s Loblolly ice cream and direct democracy. So you can imagine our collective giddiness when we learned that the best ice cream maker in The Natural State was partnering with Get Loud Arkansas, a nonprofit outreach organization that always has the scoop on how to engage more voters. According to a press release from Get Loud, Lobolly “will launch a new limited run ice cream to encourage and support voter registration
  
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• Video shows Arkansas State Police trooper slugging another young Black person in the face

  01-09-2026 01:11 via arktimes.com
  
  What fresh hell will the Arkansas State Police unleash on the state’s roadways this week?After multiple incidents this year of controlled-crash PIT maneuvers gone wrong and a distressing video of a white trooper punching a Black 18-year-old girl in the face, more news is now circulating about upsetting footage that captures a different trooper punching a different young Black person in the face.Stan Morris, the journalist behind Northeast Arkansas Report, broke the news this weekend about
  
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• Libertarian candidate for governor picks Facebook fight about abortion, gets an education

  31-08-2026 23:55 via arktimes.com
  
  Women did a lot of unpaid work over the weekend, this time teaching Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Colt Shelby about their reproductive choices (and lack thereof under Arkansas’s draconian abortion laws) and their thwarted efforts to wrest control over their own bodies from the state government. It was as if Shelby, not aware of our extreme abortion ban, had been born yesterday — pun intended — and dropped into the chat.Shelby, the dark horse candidate from Franklin Count
  
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• When Gov. Sarah Sanders wants an attorney, she gets an attorney

  31-08-2026 20:37 via arktimes.com
  
  In any number of times and ways, members of the Arkansas Board of Corrections have asked for legal representation in their fights against the Arkansas Attorney General, but those requests have been denied. Now that a hearing of particular importance to Gov. Sarah Sanders is scheduled for Wednesday, she has appointed an outside attorney to represent the board, thereby ensuring that her attempts to take control of the Corrections Department are well-defended.The hearing, to be held in front
  
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• Little Rock, big ideas: Can Ward 3 candidate Lake Smith drain the swamp in City Hall?

  31-08-2026 19:24 via arktimes.com
  
  Lake Smith, the 25-year-old whippersnapper running for the Little Rock Board of Directors, is offering voters a fresh face and fresh ideas. Originally from Fort Smith, Smith works at the Hillcrest burger-and-gyro institution Leo’s Greek Castle in Ward 3, the area of Little Rock she hopes to represent. With a background in labor organizing and a Zohran Mamdani-inspired campaign strategy of posting short-form videos about issues in Little Rock and knocking on doors, she hopes to unseat
  
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• Noise-rock legends Unsane at White Water Tavern on Sunday

  31-08-2026 16:00 via arktimes.com
  
  UNSANE
  SUNDAY 9/6. White Water Tavern. 6 p.m. $15.Geologists: Do not be alarmed if your seismometers start going crazy the night of Sept. 6. It’s not a localized tectonic event, just New York noise-rock trio Unsane shaking the foundation of the White Water Tavern. Described by AllMusic’s Patrick Kennedy as having a “hammering, power-press rhythm section, a searing Telecaster howl, and distorted vocals that resembled nothing if not the sound of a man trapped in the New York Sub
  
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• Giga-what?! AVAIO comes clean about big plans in Wrightsville 

  29-08-2026 00:11 via arktimes.com
  
  If you had any doubt the data center headed for the outskirts of Wrightsville was going to grow into a ginormous 1 gigawatt data center, consider Teresa Tsung.An article in DataCentre Magazine, an online publication based in Norwich, U.K., says AVAIO has hired Tsung, whose fastball is to shepherd data centers small and large into existence. Her title is vice president of product controls.
  AVAIO is the company that is trying its hardest to put in a 150 megawatt data center in the Wrightsville ar
  
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• Vic Snyder on Dolly, DEI and why he thinks ‘democratic socialism’ is bad marketing

  28-08-2026 23:31 via arktimes.com
  
  Vic Snyder, the former state senator and U.S. representative who served Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District, showed up to his sold-out Arkansas Times  Lecture Series Thursday with props and name-drops. He brought a plastic sack of books and mementos for his history and pop culture-infused talk on issues facing Democrats, from attacks on DEI to the rise of democratic socialism, which Snyder frets is alienating voters. Snyder also spoke of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and
  
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• New music from Willi Carlisle, Modeling, Jude Brothers and Zilla

  28-08-2026 22:09 via arktimes.com
  
  “Marlboro Vinyasa” — Willi Carlisle
  The fact that country star Tyler Childers is the producer of Fayetteville singer-songwriter Willi Carlisle’s forthcoming album, “The Universal Bubba,” wasn’t plainly evident on the record’s lead single, “The Mason Jar at the Center of the World.” Sneak peek No. 2, “Marlboro Vinyasa,” makes it much more clear. The tune marks the first time we’ve ever heard Carlisle accompanied by a s
  
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