Arkansas news

• Justin Moore, sobriety and Razorback football

  12-09-2026 14:00 via arktimes.com
  
  This is the first in a recurring series of riverside musings and photos from former Arkansas legislator and U.S. Congressman Vic Snyder.I’ve never met Justin Moore, Arkansas’s country music star. I suspect if we sat down and had a political discussion, it would not go well.  But sometime early last Saturday morning before dawn, lying in bed unable to sleep, my mind went to Arkansas football and all the questions surrounding the season opener that afternoon.  Then I th
  
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• 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
  
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• 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
  
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• 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. 
  
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• 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
  
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• Arkansas summers are getting hotter — especially at night

  16-09-2026 23:34 via arktimes.com
  
  Yes, this was the hottest summer on record across the contiguous United States, according to data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last week. Although Arkansas had only its 10th hottest summer (measured as June through August) on record, the state is seeing dramatic shifts towards hotter nighttime temperatures, along with hotter temps in the early fall and record-breaking drought.According to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information data,
  
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• Arkansas Diamonds bring arena football back to Little Rock, invests $1.5M in Barton Coliseum renovation

  16-09-2026 21:33 via arktimes.com
  
  Arena football is returning to Little Rock for the first time since 2010. The Arkansas Diamonds, an arena football team set to play its inaugural season in the Indoor Football League next year, announced on Tuesday that the team would relocate from Hot Springs to Little Rock and play home games at Barton Coliseum. 
  
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• Arkansas Diamonds bring arena football back to Little Rock, invest $1.5M in Barton Coliseum renovation

  16-09-2026 21:33 via arktimes.com
  
  Arena football is returning to Little Rock for the first time since 2010. The Arkansas Diamonds, an arena football team set to play its inaugural season in the Indoor Football League next year, announced on Tuesday that the team would relocate from Hot Springs to Little Rock and play home games at Barton Coliseum. 
  
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• State lawmakers grill Entergy, praise Google in Joint Committee on Energy meeting

  16-09-2026 04:29 via arktimes.com
  
  On Tuesday afternoon, the Arkansas Joint Committee on Energy met up at the Capitol for a lengthy conversation on, what else, data centers. While Pulaski County and the city of Little Rock have been left to duke it out on whether and how to regulate the incoming behemoths, the State Legislature — with the General Assembly on recess since Google and AVAIO Digital‘s official announcements in January — has been waiting in the wings. But it appears a recent scandal involving le
  
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• More support coming for CES waitlist families

  15-09-2026 20:00 via arktimes.com
  
  It’s not exactly what the parents were asking for, but Gov. Sarah Sanders took a step in their direction on Tuesday when she announced that help was on the way for hundreds of disabled individuals. Sanders, along with Janet Mann, head of the Department of Human Services, made the announcement from Dardanelle, where the governor was visiting, saying that people on a waitlist for services that would help them live fuller, more independent lives that has climbed to almost 2,500 people wo
  
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• Central High Historic Site hosts event series featuring Little Rock Nine, scholars and historians

  15-09-2026 19:25 via arktimes.com
  
  The Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site is hosting a series of free, educational pop-up programs this month about the Little Rock Nine and the 1957 Desegregation Crisis, culminating in an anniversary commemoration with four of the Little Rock Nine. The first event, titled “Beyond 1500 Park Street,” is scheduled for Sept. 17 at 11 a.m. at the National Historic Site, 2120 W. Daisy L. Gatson Bates Drive.
  
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• Longtime state senator behind changes to utility regulations resigns for job with electric coop

  15-09-2026 18:52 via arktimes.com
  
  State Sen. Jonathan Dismang, the Beebe Republican known for his mastery of the unwieldy Arkansas state budgeting process and his advocacy for utility companies, is leaving his lawmaker role to become vice president of external affairs for Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc.In his new role, Dismang will handle government relations for 17 electricity distributors that serve about a million customers in Arkansas and surrounding states.
  
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• ‘When Trees Testify’: A Q&A with writer Beronda L. Montgomery ahead of Six Bridges Book Festival

  15-09-2026 17:54 via arktimes.com
  
  With bestselling authors like Ariel Lawhon, Alix E. Harrow, Deesha Philyaw, Sarah Damoff and Annie Hartnett on the docket, the Central Arkansas Book Festival’s Six Bridges Book Festival — running Sept. 27-Oct. 4 — is proving once again that its organizers have their fingers on the national literary pulse. But don’t let those big-shot names distract you from the homegrown talent on display. To give you a sense of Six Bridges’ robust ties to The Natural State, w
  
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• Have you experienced ‘The Beginning of Convenience’ at The Momentary?

  15-09-2026 16:00 via arktimes.com
  
  ‘THE BEGINNING OF CONVENIENCE’
  THROUGH 7/27/2027. The Momentary, Bentonville. Free.British artist Lucy Sparrow’s “The Beginning of Convenience,” which debuted at The Momentary in July, is the kind of art exhibition that demands to be seen in person. An installation of the grandest proportions and an exercise in meticulous mimesis, the show brings together more than 20,000 handmade felt replicas of various consumer objects — cereal, jars of peanut butter, loav
  
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• Two Jasper cops nicked for stealing guns

  14-09-2026 23:20 via arktimes.com
  
  Arkansas State Police sent a press release Monday about the arrests of a Jasper Police officer and a Newton County Sheriff’s Office detective accused of stealing guns.Jasper Police officer Mikel Blocker and Newton County deputy Aaron Carter were arrested Friday, charged with theft of a firearm and booked into the Newton County Detention Center. Neither men remained on the Newton County Jail roster Monday.
  
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• Witness a bird tornado at Swift Night Out

  14-09-2026 21:19 via arktimes.com
  
  Tomorrow evening marks the annual Swift Night Out, a continent-wide gathering to behold swarms of chimney swifts, a species known for spiraling down chimneys in spooky, dramatic swarms that make it feel like Halloween is around the corner. The Audubon Society will host the event on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at its Little Rock location on Springer Boulevard, which boasts multiple towers built just for chimney-swift nesting and slumbering. Uta Meyer, a center manager, describes Swift Night Out as a c
  
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• Vouchers promise students with disabilities a path to private school. Parents say that’s not the reality.

  14-09-2026 20:48 via arktimes.com
  
  It’s after 6 p.m. by the time Angela Johnson hurries home from work. Her 12-year-old daughter, Amelia, is at their house outside of Pensacola, Florida, with a nurse trained to care for medically fragile children. Amelia, who was born with a rare genetic anomaly, has endured many surgeries and requires a brain shunt and a feeding tube.The nurse starts caring for Amelia as soon as a bus from the public school drops her off. Johnson loves much about the school. But as a physical therapist, s
  
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• The songs are the stars of ‘Side by Side by Sondheim’ at The Rep

  14-09-2026 20:27 via arktimes.com
  
  The late Stephen Sondheim (1930-2021) was a giant of American musical theater, responsible for many of the most well-loved productions in Broadway history. For his work, he has been awarded more than a dozen Tony and Grammy awards, the Kennedy Center Honor and even the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As far back as 1976, his songs were so revered that entire productions were assembled by some of his peers as a revue and tribute. The first, “Side By Side By Sondheim,” typically fe
  
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• Conway School Board furor leads to sudden resignation

  14-09-2026 19:14 via arktimes.com
  
  After serving one month on the Conway School Board, Matthew White has resigned, citing the “vitriol” and incessant controversy as well as the time commitment involved in the job.White resigned effective immediately in a letter Saturday to Superintendent Jason Black and board President Leona Walton.
  
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• Fire trucks respond to smoldering Rebsamen Liquor call

  14-09-2026 18:24 via arktimes.com
  
  First responders were all over the Town Pump/Rebsamen Liquor building in Little Rock’s Riverdale area this morning, after smoke was seen rising from the roof.Here are some shots from the scene, taken around 10:30 a.m. Monday.
  
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• Camelot comes to Conway: Joe Kennedy III set to stump for Democratic congressional hopeful Jones

  14-09-2026 17:06 via arktimes.com
  
  An heir to the Kennedy family political legacy will swoop down from Massachusetts this week to lend a hand to fellow Democrat Chris Jones.Joe Kennedy III, the redheaded grand-nephew of President John F. Kennedy and a former congressman himself, aims to help Jones unseat U.S. Rep. French Hill, a blue-blooded banker who’s represented Arkansas’ District 2 since 2014.Jones and Kennedy are inviting residents of Faulkner, Perry, Cleburne and Van Buren counties for a town hall at
  
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• Playing Tetris with fire: Stephen Driver’s annual kiln firing in Ozark is both science and ceremony

  14-09-2026 16:37 via arktimes.com
  
  Over the course of five or so days each year, a plot of land in the Ozark National Forest just uphill from the Little Mulberry River turns into a multi-day art project. At the center of the activity is Stephen Driver, an acclaimed potter and educator who, with three of his brothers, bought the patch of land in the fall of 1975, during an era when thousands of back-to-the-landers seeking simplicity and intentional community set their sights on the Ozarks. Over the course of five or so days
  
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• Arkansas country superstar Ashley McBryde at Robinson Center on Saturday

  14-09-2026 16:00 via arktimes.com
  
  ASHLEY MCBRYDE
  SATURDAY 9/19. Robinson Center. 7:30 p.m. $52 and up.Natural State native Ashley McBryde is as busy as ever — in 2025, she even opened her own NA-focused bar in Nashville, the city she’s called home for two decades — but the country star still manages to visit Little Rock at least once per album cycle. When McBryde returns to Robinson Center on Sept. 19 for her first Central Arkansas show since 2023, she’ll be promoting her fifth major-label album, “
  
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• With Dolly humming back-up: Entergy, I will always love you

  13-09-2026 12:30 via arktimes.com
  
  I am a satisfied Entergy customer. Reliable electricity, prompt notification of outages and repair schedules; and most of all, while I am hiding out in my home from freezing temps and nasty weather, Entergy crews are outside working, making sure all of us have power.  Many thanks to you in the bucket trucks!Entergy’s recent litigation against one individual Arkansan and two Arkansas publications was weird and unexpected. I was pleased to see Entergy’s full-page ad in the S
  
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• Art market heads to AMFA this weekend

  11-09-2026 22:59 via arktimes.com
  
  A market featuring jewelry, sculptures, prints, paintings and more from dozens of Natural State artists overtakes the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts through the weekend. The free event runs from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday. The market kicked off Friday, but today’s goings-on are open only to AMFA members. 
  
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• Tontitown traffic stops led to ICE detentions months before 287(g) agreement

  11-09-2026 21:47 via arktimes.com
  
  Editor’s Note: This investigation was originally published by Arkansas GRITA, a local nonprofit newsroom in Northwest Arkansas founded last November that reports on the impact of immigration enforcement in Arkansas communities. Arkansas GRITA kindly allowed us to republish their work.At least 20 people were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after routine traffic stops by Tontitown police before the department formally joined the federal 287(g) immigration enforcement pr
  
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• No softballs lobbed in Central High athletes’ quest for an equal playing field

  11-09-2026 21:20 via arktimes.com
  
  Female student athletes and a crowd of cheering fans gathered at the Little Rock School District administration building Thursday afternoon to continue their quest for equal facilities and equal resources.
  The goal is compliance with Title IX, a federal law that requires equal access to athletics and extracurriculars for all students, regardless of gender.
  
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• After yet another pepper spray incident at LR Central, school board considers security alternatives

  11-09-2026 20:56 via arktimes.com
  
  The Little Rock School Board renewed its contract for security services with the Little Rock Police Department during a regular meeting Thursday, under the condition that district administration provide alternatives to the program. The Little Rock School District has maintained a long-standing partnership with the Little Rock Police Department through its School Resource Officer (SRO) program. SROs are sworn officers assigned to LRSD secondary schools to provide a visible security presence
  
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• Waters of the night: On A.P. Walton’s selected letters of Arkansas poet Frank Stanford

  11-09-2026 18:10 via arktimes.com
  
  I contain multitudes. So writes Walt Whitman nearly 100 years before the birth of Arkansas poet Frank Stanford. Like Whitman, Stanford, one of the roughs, found his mature voice through what some might call excess. In a letter to the Academy of American Poets (who refused to read Stanford’s manuscript for the Walt Whitman Prize due to its length), poet Alan Dugan wrote, “I think you have made a mistake. Stanford is a brilliant poet and just because he is ample in his work, like
  
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• Where were you on 9/11? The Arkansas Times staff reflects on the biggest news day of our lives

  11-09-2026 17:19 via arktimes.com
  
  Where were you on 9/11? The question is a cultural touchpoint for anyone who was alive and old enough to recognize the significance of the events that transpired on that infamous day 25 years ago. The reporters in the Arkansas Times newsroom today weren’t here back then. One of us was at his grandmother’s bedside after a freak accident caused by the rush on the gas pumps in the confused aftermath of the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Another was newly graduated fr
  
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