Arkansas Advocate

22/08/2025

A New York state appeals court on Thursday overturned as overly punitive a nearly $500 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump, but left in place a finding of fraud based on records that inflated the value of Trump’s business holdings.

A New York state appeals court on Thursday overturned as overly punitive a nearly $500 million civil penalty against President Donald Trump.

22/08/2025

A long-planned new Interstate 55 bridge connecting Arkansas and Tennessee will be known as Kings’ Crossing, officials from the two states announced this week.

The new name “honors three transformative figures known as ‘Kings'” — civil rights martyr Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., bluesman B.B. King and rock’n’roll star Elvis Presley, according to a press release from the Arkansas Department of Transportation.

A long-planned new Interstate 55 bridge connecting Arkansas and Tennessee will be known as Kings' Crossing, officials announced this week.

22/08/2025

Officials have already cleared dozens of homeless encampments in the District of Columbia in recent days as President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the nation’s capital for a “crime emergency” at the same time takes aim at people without housing.

21/08/2025

An appeals court late Wednesday said it will allow the Trump administration, for now, to move forward with ending temporary protections for 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.

It means that Nepali immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, will lose their legal status – including work permits and deportation protections – immediately. Honduran and Nicaraguan holders will lose their status by Sept. 8.

An appeals court late Wednesday said it will allow the Trump administration, for now, to move forward with ending temporary protections for 60,000 immigrants from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua.

21/08/2025

Arkansas faith leaders petitioned Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday not to restart ex*****ons in the state in light of a new law allowing the use of nitrogen gas suffocation for the death penalty.

Seven clergy members of different Christian denominations held a news conference at the state Capitol and spoke against both Act 302 of 2025 and the death penalty itself before delivering a letter to Sanders’ office.

Arkansas is the fifth state to legalize ex*****on by nitrogen gas, which clergymembers of several denominations say is a form of torture.

21/08/2025

OPINION: In another sign of potential trouble ahead for Gov. Sanders’ prison plans, the legislature’s Joint Performance Review Committee has scheduled a Sept. 9 hearing that will allow lawmakers to ask administration officials uncomfortable questions about a project characterized by mystifying choices, unnecessary secrecy and political tone-deafness.

Chief among those questions: How are you going to supply the prison with water?

One of the notable features of Gov. Sarah Sanders’ first two years in office has been that when she asks Republican legislators to jump, their usual response is “how high?”

21/08/2025

In a few short weeks, Aldine Independent School District in Texas will welcome a new cohort of ninth graders to the HEAL high school programs — one of the biggest career-technical education experiments underway in the state and just one of many that the Houston-area district is implementing to ensure its graduates are equipped with real-world skills.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy. This service is free to readers and othe...

21/08/2025

As the Trump administration moves to expand immigrant detention centers across the country through state partnerships, more than 60 Democratic lawmakers Wednesday pressed top immigration officials for details regarding a quickly constructed facility in the Florida Everglades, dubbed by Republicans as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

As the Trump administration moves to expand immigrant detention centers across the country through state partnerships, more than 60 Democratic lawmakers Wednesday pressed top immigration officials for details regarding a quickly constructed facility in the Florida Everglades, dubbed by Republicans a...

21/08/2025

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arkansas’ LEARNS Act argued in federal court filings this week that they have standing in the case and asked a judge to reject a motion to dismiss the suit.

21/08/2025

This week, the Trump administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced an effort to check the immigration status of people who get their health insurance through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) wants states to check the immigration status of people who get their health insurance through Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

21/08/2025

The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration on Wednesday announced the 2025 optimal standard mileage reimbursement rates, which are applied for state income tax purposes.

21/08/2025

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will no longer administer a grant program that has so far provided millions of dollars to local television and radio stations to upgrade the equipment they use to send out emergency alerts.