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AP News •

Arkansas governor signs legislation allowing executions by nitrogen gas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation Tuesday allowing executions using nitrogen gas, making Arkansas the fifth state to adopt a method that opponents say is unconstitutional. The measure signed into law by the Republican governor has been promoted by supporters as a way to carry out executions for the first time in eight years. Arkansas currently has 25 people on death row.Arkansas has not had an execution since 2017, when it put four people to death before a s...
AP News •

Thousands crowd Arkansas city for world's shortest St. Patrick's Day parade

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — Cities like New York and Chicago boast some of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades, attracting thousands of revelers and plenty of green beer.But a city in Arkansas has gained popularity over the years with its parade for an entirely different reason. The city of Hot Springs, a resort town known for its mineral-rich waters, promotes its 98-foot (30-meter) route as the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.Thousands of people lined the streets Monday to watch the pa...
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Louisiana and Arkansas look to nitrogen executions

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Hours after the nation’s first execution by nitrogen gas in January last year, Alabama’s attorney general urged other states to also develop it as a method for carrying out death sentences. Now, some states are following suit.Louisiana is scheduled to execute a man with nitrogen gas on March 18. Arkansas lawmakers are seeking to introduce nitrogen there after an eight-year pause in executions.

The use of nitrogen gas is one way for death penalty states to resum...
AP News •

Groceries around the country remain expensive. That's why more states want to stop taxing them

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The number of states imposing sales taxes on groceries has shrunk over the years, and the number may decrease further in the coming months as lawmakers hear complaints about high prices for eggs and other household staples.Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday unveiled the details of her proposal to eradicate the remaining 1/8th of a cent sales tax the state levies on groceries. Lawmakers in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama and are also calling for grocery-ta...
AP News •

Mississippi judge vacates her order that a newspaper remove its editorial criticizing local leaders

A Mississippi judge on Wednesday vacated her order that a newspaper remove its editorial criticizing local officials, days after a city decided to drop the lawsuit that spurred it.The judge’s order had been widely condemned by free speech advocates as a clear violation of the paper’s First Amendment rights.Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin had issued the restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register last week, telling it to remove from its website a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, D...
AP News •

Book Review: 'Air-borne' transforms scientific history into detective story

A history of aerobiology would normally be a book that would have little interest beyond the science community. But in “Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breath,” Carl Zimmer transforms the topic into something that reads like a combination of detective and horror stories.Zimmer creates a highly relevant and gripping history of the study of the air that spans from Louis Pasteur holding a glass globe on a glacier to scientists racing to fight COVID-19 during the pandemic.The book shows...
AP News •

Arkansas victims of mortuary theft scheme inspire push for law banning sale of human remains

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A year had passed since Doneysha Smith suffered a stillbirth and the memories of her loss lingered in 2023. The cremated remains of her child were kept in a tiny urn in her house and on a necklace she wore, and a memorial service had marked her family’s loss with mourners releasing blue, white and yellow balloons into the sky.But the FBI had reached out to the Arkansas woman with shocking news: The urn and necklace didn’t contain her child’s ashes and the body had been s...
AP News •

A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial. Press advocates are outraged

A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing the mayor and city leaders after the officials sued, sparking complaints from press advocates that it violates the First Amendment.Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin issued the restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register on Tuesday in connection with a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.” The piece criticized the city for not sending the newspaper notice about a meeting the City Cou...
AP News •

Republicans consider cuts and work requirements for Medicaid, jeopardizing care for millions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program. The signing up of millions of additional Americans for taxpayer-funded health care coverage like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace during the Biden administration was lauded by Democrats as a success. But Republicans, who are looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrativ...
AP News •

Book Review: 'Disposable' a journey through the inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic

Five years after COVID-19 first emerged, the United States is still grappling with the aftereffects of the pandemic that killed millions of people worldwide. They include the gaps in the nation’s health care system and social safety net that were highlighted by the pandemic’s effects. Those inequities are the focus of journalist Sarah Jones’ “Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass,” a deeply reported, enlightening and empathetic look at the populations that were hit hardest by the pan...
AP News •

Former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who stepped down in the wake of Whitewater, dies at 81

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Jim Guy Tucker, who became Arkansas’ governor when Bill Clinton was elected president but was later forced from office after being convicted during the Whitewater investigation, has died. He was 81.Anna Ashton, Tucker’s daughter, said the former governor died Thursday in Little Rock from complications from ulcerative colitis.“Because he had a public life, there will be a lot of focus on the details of that,” Ashton said. “In addition to that, he was a really wonderful fa...
AP News •

An Arkansas organist is playing 18 hours of Bach this year, one lunch break at a time

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — It was hushed inside a 140-year-old cathedral on the outskirts of Little Rock’s downtown as about five dozen people sat in the pews during a recent lunch break in January.The nave filled with the sounds of the Gothic church’s pipe organ, and a screen showed a man performing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Those gathered weren’t there for church, but for the third concert in a series Colin MacKnight is performing over the next year to commemorate the 275th anniversary...
AP News •

Book Review: Chris Hayes' 'Sirens' Call' is a thorough look at the fight for attention in modern age

It’s no new big news that we’re living in an era of distraction. States are trying to clamp down on cell phones in schools, social media has been called a health risk for kids and some are trying undergo various “digital detox” practices.With “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” MSNBC host Chris Hayes isn’t trying to join an already crowded shelf of books warning of the ills of being online 24/7. Instead he’s exploring how we got to this point, and the re...
AP News •

Arkansas governor wants to revive state's Medicaid work requirements under Trump administration

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Thursday she wants to impose work requirements on some Medicaid recipients, hoping to revive and expand a restriction that was blocked by the courts but could get a new life under the Trump administration.Sanders’ comments come as fellow Republicans in several other states are seeking similar requirements along with other cuts or restrictions to Medicaid, which covers about 80 million people nationally. More than 18,000 people lo...
AP News •

Banning cellphones in schools gains popularity in red and blue states

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas’ Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have little in common ideologically, but the two have both been vocal supporters of an idea that’s been rapidly gaining bipartisan ground in the states: Students’ cellphones need to be banned during the school day. At least eight states have enacted such bans over the past two years, and proposals are being considered in several more states this year.

Here is a look at...
AP News •

Arkansas governor says professors should be fired if they are 'indoctrinating' students

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday said college professors should be fired if they are “indoctrinating” students, echoing rhetoric her former boss President-elect Donald Trump and other Republicans have leveled against institutions of higher education.Sanders, a Republican who served as press secretary for part of Trump’s first term, made the proposal as she delivered her state of the state address for this year’s legislative session.“Arkansas students go to...
AP News •

Book Review: 'Open Socrates' shows why philosophy isn't a spectator sport

During a time when many are complaining about divisiveness in politics and in society, it seems counterintuitive for a book to make the case that we need to argue more.But in “Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life,” Agnes Callard illustrates how philosophy isn’t just a spectator sport. It requires engaging with one another and arguing with each other, and admitting mistakes.Callard offers a roadmap for using the ancient Greek philosopher for approaching knotty discussion on topics suc...
AP News •

Arkansas Supreme Court says new chief justice tried to fire several officials

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas Supreme Court on Friday said new Chief Justice Karen Baker tried to unilaterally fire several top officials with the court shortly after taking office this week, and the court issued new rules to block the firings.The court ordered to establish procedures for firing employees, saying the move was necessary after Baker attempted to fire several people. Baker, who was elected chief justice in November, did not return a message seeking comment Friday afternoon....
AP News •

Arkansas governor appoints 2 justices to Supreme Court, and new secretary of state

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday named a top attorney for the state and a state Supreme Court justice to vacancies on the court, and her deputy chief legal counsel as secretary of state.The Republican governor’s appointments will give conservatives a 5-2 majority on the technically nonpartisan court, which has been targeted over the years by outside conservative groups.Sanders named Justice Cody Hiland and state Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni to the court, effective Jan. 1. Sand...
AP News •

Clintons urge voters agitated by today's politics to remain involved in public service

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Voters dejected by the presidential election results need to find a way to give back and remain involved, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Clinton presidential library.The former president urged audience members in a packed theater to remain engaged and find ways to communicate with those they disagree with despite a divisive political time. The two spoke about a month after former President Donald Trump’s win o...
AP News •

Book Review: 'Dead Air' tells history of night Orson Welles unleashed fake Martian invasion

Long before Donald Trump used the term “fake news” to complain about coverage he didn’t like, Orson Welles mastered the art of actual fake news.Welles’ 1938 radio adaptation of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds” is the focus of William Elliott Hazelgrove’s “Dead Air: The Night That Orson Welles Terrified America.” The book serves as an enjoyable history of the radio drama, with a fair share of fascinating details about its production and historical context. But it falls short on exploring the l...
AP News •

Arkansas governor proposes nearly $6.5B budget, with half of spending increase going to vouchers

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday proposed a nearly $6.5 billion budget for the coming year that directs half of new spending toward a school voucher program.The Republican governor called for increasing the state’s budget by nearly 3%, or $182.5 million, in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Sanders detailed the budget plan to lawmakers ahead of next year’s legislative session, which begins Jan. 13.“Budgets show our priorities and deliver on the promises...
AP News •

What to know about Transgender Day of Remembrance and violence against trans people

Wednesday is Transgender Day of Remembrance, which focuses on trans people who have lost their lives because of violence. Here is what to know.Transgender Day of Remembrance is marked every Nov. 20 and began in 1999 to honor Rita Hester, a trans woman who was killed in Massachusetts.The day marks the end of Transgender Awareness Week, which is used to raise public knowledge about transgender people and the issues they face.The Williams Institute at UCLA Law estimates that 1.6 million people in t...
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