Arkansas news

• Kamala Harris endorses Chris Jones for Congress

  26-08-2026 13:22 via arktimes.com
  
  There are two ways to look at today’s big announcement that former Vice President Kamala Harris is endorsing Democrat Chris Jones for Arkansas’ Second Congressional District. If you’re Jones, a physicist, minister and Pine Bluff native making his second political run, this embrace from a well-known, well-resourced player on the national stage likely brings more cash and attention to the cadre of sweaty and sore-footed Democrats who’ve been hustling in the South for
  
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• Proposed data center ordinance gets first reading

  26-08-2026 04:29 via arktimes.com
  
  The Pulaski County Quorum Court completed the first reading of a proposed ordinance on Tuesday night that would go a long way toward allowing the county to control data centers.Prior to the meeting, the Pulaski County Planning Board met with the intent of sending the Quorum Court a recommendation on the proposal, but the best it could do was ask for a 90-day pause on any action taken on the proposed ordinance, giving them more time to study it, and a 90-day suspension of activity of high-end us
  
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• Jeff Nichols talks ‘King Snake’ and other forthcoming projects in Variety interview

  26-08-2026 00:00 via arktimes.com
  
  If you haven’t heard, Little Rock native filmmaker Jeff Nichols (“Mud,” “Loving,” “The Bikeriders”) is at work on a new movie, shot here in Arkansas and starring Margaret Qualley, Michael Shannon and Drew Starkey. Though a release date has yet to be announced for “King Snake,” independent juggernaut Neon recently acquired the film’s U.S. rights.While Nichols was in town the weekend before last to help out with Filmland, the annual fest
  
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• Black lawmakers criticize Arkansas State Police director, call for policy and legislative change after trooper punched Black teenager in the face 

  25-08-2026 23:49 via arktimes.com
  
  The Arkansas Black Legislative Caucus heard from community members during a meeting at the state Capitol complex Tuesday in lieu of Arkansas State Police Director Mike Hagar, who reneged on his commitment to answer legislators’ questions about a state trooper who threw an 18-year-old Black girl on the ground and punched her in the face during a traffic stop.The state police announced late Monday afternoon that Hagar wouldn’t be attending the meeting, citing ongoing litigation. Alisa
  
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• Bill Walker, fired as head of Arkansas Baptist College, speaks out

  25-08-2026 20:40 via arktimes.com
  
  William “Bill” Walker Jr. says the reasons for his termination Monday as president of Arkansas Baptist College were never adequately explained to him, although he did relate that he strongly opposed the board’s move to put students in a downtown Little Rock hotel.Walker made the comments on a social media post on Tuesday.“I appeared before the Board, answered all questions presented, and was subsequently dismissed,” he wrote. “However, when I sought clarifica
  
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• The Oxford American plumbs the meaning of home in latest issue

  25-08-2026 19:15 via arktimes.com
  
  Issue 133/134 of the Oxford AmericanA new double issue of the Oxford American, the acclaimed quarterly literary magazine of the South based in Conway, hit newsstands a couple of weeks ago, and it’s full of stories focused on the idea of home. It’s available for purchase and perusal here.Here’s a bit from an introduction by Managing Editor Christian Leus that teases some of the issue’s preoccupations: 
  When we started talking to writers about home, the theme of this
  
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• ‘Food was everything’: What Chris Jones’ family cake recipe has to do with his campaign for Congress

  25-08-2026 17:48 via arktimes.com
  
  Before congressional candidate and actual rocket scientist Chris Jones started talking kitchen-table politics with Arkansas voters, he was sneaking into the kitchen with his siblings and cousins to steal a second slice of this caramel cake. The recipe, he said, “goes back to at least my great-grandmother, Audrey, who was born in 1903.” Jones’ grandmother, Lola Mae Torrence, “would make it completely from scratch. She was the oldest of 11, and her and my grandfather owned
  
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• The Bap brings America’s Korean food craze to town with bold dishes, to-go kimchi and K-pop trinkets

  25-08-2026 16:55 via arktimes.com
  
  At The Bap, the newly opened Korean spot on Little Rock’s west side, expect a line — and then expect the line to be half the fun of going. Before diners ever grab a number and plop down at a lime green banquette under a canopy of fruity-colored umbrellas, they are taken past a number of cutesy, alluring delights imported from Korea and elsewhere in Asia. First up comes the mini-mart of fidget toys, like Squeezy Dumplings, a basket of toy steamed buns anthropomorphized with tiny
  
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• Arkansas State Police director cancels appearance before Black lawmakers to discuss traffic stop

  25-08-2026 16:14 via arktimes.com
  
  The head of Arkansas State Police said Monday he would be unable to appear before the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus to discuss a state trooper punching an 18-year-old during a traffic stop because of pending litigation. Col. Mike Hagar had been scheduled to appear before the caucus Tuesday to discuss the Aug. 1 traffic stop of Alisa Hackett of Osceola that has drawn national attention and sparked a civil rights lawsuit. “I offered to meet privately with the Caucus
  
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• Arkansas Baptist College president fired, interim named

  25-08-2026 02:58 via arktimes.com
  
  William “Bill” Walker Jr., president of Arkansas Baptist College, was terminated Monday, according to school officials.Walker was tapped in October to lead the historically Black college. But last week, Roland Gosey, chairman of the college’s board of trustees, said that Walker was on leave pending a “review.” He said Monday that Walker had been fired, but he declined to say why, other than to write in an email that Dr. George Herts was named acting president, effe
  
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• Fraud investigator, finding nothing, tucks tail and leaves

  24-08-2026 23:48 via arktimes.com
  
  Republicans had such high hopes for it. Why, it could have been a made-for-TV police procedural, with a title of “Fraud Investigator: We’re coming for your signature.” Somebody pop some popcorn, quick! This is going to be good.Alas, the show got canceled. Like so many other Republican-led attempts to find voter fraud, this one only found that there wasn’t anything to find.This Arkansas episode was brought to you by Republican Secretary of State Cole Jester, who hired ret
  
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• Russellville favorite Ridgewood Brothers BBQ teases new Conway location

  24-08-2026 23:26 via arktimes.com
  
  Central Arkansas barbecue fans will soon have a much shorter drive to get their Ridgewood Brothers fix. Ridgewood Brothers BBQ, the acclaimed Russellville barbecue joint from owners Robert Couser and Grant Hall, announced today that it plans to open a second location in Conway this fall. According to a Facebook post, the new establishment will be taking shape at 2310 Sanders St. in Conway where Couser and Hall are working to transform the space into what they describe as an “old
  
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• Violet Hensley, the ‘Stradivarius of the Ozarks,’ dead at 109

  24-08-2026 22:29 via arktimes.com
  
  Arkansas musician and fiddle maker Violet Hensley’s age alone is enough to warrant recognition: Born in 1916 near Mount Ida, Hensley died at her home in Yellville on Aug. 7 at the age of 109. But Hensley was much more than merely a centenarian. A performer at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, for more than 50 years and a guest on TV shows like “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Captain Kangaroo” and “Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee,” she also spent
  
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• Drunk-driving Arkansas State Police trooper resigns after on-duty crash

  24-08-2026 21:18 via arktimes.com
  
  The ditch-pitching troopers of the Arkansas State Police are sporting lots of self-inflicted black eyes lately, after a spate of controlled-crash “PIT maneuvers” that imperiled a child in medical distress who was en route to the hospital; the driver of a car that looked like the right one but wasn’t; and most recently two elderly innocent bystanders who got creamed after a trooper crashed into a fleeing Hyundai Sonata, sending both the Sonata and the bystanders’ car tumb
  
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• Little Rock writer Jeffrey Condran awarded 2026 Porter Fund Literary Prize

  24-08-2026 20:54 via arktimes.com
  
  Little Rock fiction writer Jeffrey Condran has been named the 2026 recipient of the Porter Fund Literary Prize, a $5,000 honor bestowed annually upon an “Arkansas writer with a substantial and impressive body of work that merits enhanced recognition.” Condran, who moved to Arkansas from Pittsburgh in 2015 to teach creative writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, is the author of two short story collections — “Claire, Wading Into the Danube By Night&rdq
  
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• Former Pulaski county attorney says purported Democrat Barry Hyde is team SHS

  24-08-2026 20:25 via arktimes.com
  
  
  Political gadfly Jimmie Cavin has a heck of a report on overtly pro-Sarah Sanders machinations he says are happening within the Pulaski County judge’s office, and it’s shady enough that it just might call lame-duck County Judge Barry Hyde’s motives into question.The backstory is pretty straightforward: longtime conservative Arkansas politico Cavin, acting on a tip, sent a FOIA request to Hyde in June regarding allegations that Democratic gubernatorial candidate and state Sen.
  
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• More Arkansas communities putting data centers on hold

  24-08-2026 19:59 via arktimes.com
  
  The number of Arkansas communities rejecting or imposing new limits on data centers is growing faster than the list of places considering such projects publicly.Madison County joined four other counties in passing a three-year moratorium on data center projects last week, though it doesn’t have any known projects in development. The pause is the second-longest in the state; only Independence County’s is longer.The Madison County Record first reported on the moratorium, which passed
  
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• Paste Magazine says these are the best songs ever written about Arkansas

  24-08-2026 18:30 via arktimes.com
  
  A couple of weeks ago, Paste Magazine debuted a 50-part series that promises to outline and rank the best songs written about each and every American state. Fortunately, the project is moving alphabetically, which means it hasn’t taken long to get to Arkansas’ turn. The Natural State’s list, 10 songs deep and full of names both legendary and contemporary, dropped this morning. I was especially pleased to find Sufjan Stevens’ “The Lord God Bird” — a
  
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• Community members demand accountability after LRPD officer put gun to unarmed Black man’s head

  24-08-2026 18:06 via arktimes.com
  
  Community organizers plan to gather Monday afternoon at the Valero gas station on South University Avenue, where a Little Rock police officer placed a gun against an unarmed Black man’s head earlier this month.
  Organizers of Monday’s demonstration are demanding the officer’s firing and decertification, as well as the firing of the store clerk who called the police. Officer Thomas Shook placed a gun against 23-year-old Gregory Williams’ head while he was subdued and
  
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• Bob Lancaster meets Hallie Shoffner and files this report

  24-08-2026 17:31 via arktimes.com
  
  My daughter called recently to inform me that Hallie Shoffner, the Democratic Party nominee for the U.S. Senate seat from Arkansas now held by two-term Republican Tom Cotton, would be bringing her campaign to Sheridan. Daughter has been following the Hallie campaign with great enthusiasm from faraway Maryland and asked me to go by the cafe and welcome Hallie and her Troupe to the burg where the Lancaster clan grew up.I used to write newspaper profiles of prominent Arkansas politicians, especial
  
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• Groundbreaking jurist Darrell Hickman dead at 91

  23-08-2026 06:52 via arktimes.com
  
  Darrell Hickman, who spent nearly 22 years as a trial court judge and justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, died Thursday at Searcy, his hometown, at the age of 91. He was diagnosed in early summer with esophageal cancer and endured one round of chemotherapy.As both a trial and appellate judge, Hickman carried out his belief that the courts had to strictly implement provisions of the state and federal constitutions, even if the provisions were outmoded and needlessly restrictive. It would forc
  
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• Mayor responds to Little Rock officer drawing gun on unarmed Black man

  21-08-2026 22:31 via arktimes.com
  
  The Little Rock Police Department placed an officer on leave as part of an internal investigation into an incident in which the officer pointed a gun at a subdued, unarmed man’s head while arresting him Aug. 9. Officer Thomas Shook, with two other officers from the Little Rock Police Department, responded to a call about a disturbance at a convenience store on South University Avenue. The store clerk who made the call said Gregory Williams, 23, threatened to shoot him. Shook’s
  
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• The Rep solidifies the legacy of an Arkansas legend with ‘The Remarkable Resignation of Dr. Joycelyn Elders’

  21-08-2026 22:14 via arktimes.com
  
  In the world of theater, with all of its singing and dancing and outsize emotions, telling a true story, especially a quiet one, can be a bit of a gamble. That’s the challenge embarked upon by Little Rock native Steve H. Broadnax III, who wrote and directed “The Remarkable Resignation of Dr. Joycelyn Elders,” the penultimate show of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s 50th anniversary season. As its title suggests, the world-premiere play centers on Arkansan Dr. Joycel
  
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• Failed prison project shows the cost we pay for Sarah Sanders’ hubris

  21-08-2026 21:19 via arktimes.com
  
  Word on the street is that the plan to build a 3,000-bed megaprison in rural Franklin County is dead. Sure, the governor impotently pushed back on that idea via a noncommittal statement from her communications team, but that seems to be based more on ego than reality. Pretending she’s never been wrong about anything is a load-bearing piece of who Sanders is as a person.An annoying side effect of Sanders’ pretend infallibility is that, when one of her plans does not work out, she sim
  
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• Some towns short on water amid drought

  21-08-2026 20:50 via arktimes.com
  
  Conway and Morrilton residents obsessed with their well-manicured lawns and outdoor swimming pools may have to suck it up for a while and watch their lawns turn brown and their pool levels dwindle.
  The drought is hitting hard, especially in Conway where residents are now under a mandatory water curtailment order, one more restrictive than an earlier order that took effect June 1. The new mandates, listed here and announced Wednesday, allow residents to water lawns and gardens only once weekly a
  
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• What’s Love got to do with it? A Q&A with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Fred Love

  21-08-2026 20:15 via arktimes.com
  
  Democrat Fred Love of Mabelvale is clocking out of his time in the Arkansas Legislature at the end of 2026, with the aim of clocking in at the governor’s office. Elected to the state House in 2010, he leveled up to the Senate in 2023. Now, he’s challenging Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Libertarian Colt Shelby this November. Sounds really hard, right? Arkansas Democrats have a nice platform and all, with designs on lower grocery and fuel prices, better public e
  
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• 150 people evacuated as crews battle wildfire in south Arkansas

  21-08-2026 18:31 via arktimes.com
  
  About 150 people in Union County have been evacuated as crews worked to contain a wildfire that’s grown to 2,000 acres, Arkansas authorities said Friday morning.The Arkansas Department of Agriculture said in a post on X that the fire at Pine Tree Road has been burning since Thursday night.“Ten bulldozers are currently working the fire, and we are preparing replacement crews from other parts of the state,” the department’s post said. “A detection flight over southea
  
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• Arkansas medical groups urge Trump administration to grant 2-year reprieve for Medicaid expansion

  21-08-2026 16:40 via arktimes.com
  
  Dozens of healthcare providers and organizations urged the federal government Wednesday to grant Arkansas officials’ request for two years to come up with a new Medicaid expansion model.The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services verbally denied a five-year extension of the Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me, or ARHOME. The Department of Human Services has not yet received a formal notification of the denial, nor has it received a response to the agency’s request for
  
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• Arkansas Democrats have reason to be hopeful in three legislative battlegrounds

  20-08-2026 19:58 via arktimes.com
  
  Credit: Matt CampbellIt often feels like it is moving about as quickly as cold syrup, but Arkansas Democrats are in the midst of a comeback in the state Legislature. In both 2024, with a win by Diana Gonzales Worthen over a GOP incumbent in a Springdale district, and in a March 2026 special election, with a solid victory by Alex Holladay in a GOP-held seat in North Little Rock, Democrats have picked up two seats, oozing their way toward the magic number of 26 in the House of Representatives.&nb
  
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• Reel Queer Film Festival slated for Aug. 27-30

  20-08-2026 18:36 via arktimes.com
  
  REEL QUEER FILM FESTIVAL
  THURSDAY 8/27-SUNDAY 8/30. CALS Ron Robinson Theater. $50-$115.How is it possible that there are this many new, rad-sounding movies that I’ve never heard of made by an abundance of talented actors, writers and directors that I’ve also never heard of, all of whom are united in the cause of earnestly exploring the limitlessness of queer life? That’s a gussied-up version of the question that crosses my mind every time the Reel Queer Film Festival, Little
  
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