Latest Arkansas Headlines
All the headlines from our Arkansas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Two Plead Guilty in Insurance Fraud Cases in Arkansas
Jun 1 2016 // The Arkansas Insurance Department announced that two guilty pleas have been secured in relation to property theft and insurance fraud charges. The cases were handled by AID’s Criminal Investigation Division On May...
Arkansas Court Backs $3M Judgment Against Gerber over Workers’ Time
May 27 2016 // Arkansas’ highest court says a baby food manufacturer must pay more than $3 million to workers for the time they spent dressing and undressing into uniforms and protective gear. The state Supreme Court upheld a lower...
Arkansas Officials Question Health Insurance Rate Hikes for 2017
May 25 2016 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr says he expects to deny several recent requests by insurers to raise rates on individual on-exchange health insurance policies by more than 10 percent for 2017. Under the...
Business Travel Fuels Growth of Uber Use in Arkansas
May 20 2016 // Business travelers needing a ride in Arkansas are increasingly using their thumbs — not to hitchhike, but to tap the Uber app on their smartphones. And despite class-action lawsuits by drivers and some job actions,...
Disaster Declaration for 12 Arkansas Counties
May 9 2016 // President Barack Obama has declared a disaster for a dozen Arkansas counties affected by severe weather in early March. The White House announced the disaster declaration Friday for Arkansas, Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun,...
$250K Settlement in Veteran’s Death Endorsed by Arkansas Panel
May 6 2016 // A legislative committee has endorsed a $250,000 settlement with the state’s veterans department over a World War II veteran who died while his nurse went to eat her lunch. The Joint Budget Committee’s Claims...
Arkansas Regulators: In Separate Cases 2 Plead Guilty to Auto Insurance Fraud
May 6 2016 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr announced two recent guilty pleas resulting from separate criminal investigations of insurance fraud. On May 2, Becky Brand, 34, of Lonoke entered a guilty plea to one count of...
Officials: 9 Tornadoes in Oklahoma, Arkansas Last Week
May 5 2016 // Meteorologists have identified tornado damage in Muskogee County nearly a week after a string of at least nine weak tornadoes across northeastern Oklahoma and Arkansas. The Tulsa World reports that the National Weather...
Gulf States Fighting Metal Thefts from Ag Operations
May 4 2016 // A new group trying to reduce metal theft from agriculture operations in Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas. Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said his office is creating a Mississippi Delta Agricultural...
Arthur J. Gallagher Acquires Arkansas Agency, Hagan Newkirk
May 3 2016 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has acquired Hagan Newkirk Financial Services in Little Rock, Ark. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. With operations dating back to the 1960s, Hagan Newkirk Financial Services...
Exxon Mobil Pays $2.63M Fine for Arkansas Pipeline Spill
May 3 2016 // Exxon Mobil has paid a $2.63 million fine more than three years after its Pegasus pipeline ruptured and spilled thousands of gallons of crude into a Mayflower neighborhood. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety...
Workers’ Comp Market Share: South Central States
May 2 2016 // The workers’ compensation insurance markets in South Central states are relatively stable and are experiencing a drop in rates across the board. However, reforms made in Oklahoma in 2013 continue to be challenged in...
Arkansas Measure Would Cap Medical Non-Economic Damages at $250K
Apr 27 2016 // Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has approved the wording of a measure to limit lawsuit damages awarded against health care providers, clearing the way for supporters to try and put the proposal on the November...
2 Ohio Property/Casualty Insurers Approved to Operate in Arkansas
Apr 27 2016 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr has approved Ohio-based All America Insurance Co. (AAIC) and Central Mutual Insurance Co. (CMIC) to do business in the state. The companies now have the authority to offer...
Arkansas Admits New Life, Accident, Health Insurance Provider
Apr 25 2016 // Atlantic Coast Life Insurance Company (ACL) has been approved to do business in Arkansas, the state insurance department announced. ACL, a South Carolina domestic insurer since 1925, currently offers a variety of life,...
OSHA: 3 in South Central States Killed when Riding Mowers Overturn
Apr 21 2016 // In the past month, three landscape company employees have died in Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas when riding mowers or tractors overturned into water or a stream bed — equaling the total in the previous six years, a...
Workers’ Comp Costs to Decline in Arkansas
Apr 18 2016 // The state’s top insurance regulator has approved a decrease in workers’ compensation rates in Arkansas. Effective July 1, the overall loss cost in the voluntary market will decline by 4.3 percent and the...
Arkansas Man Gets 30-Month Sentence for Insurance Fraud
Apr 14 2016 // A Little Rock, Ark., man received a 30-month sentence for auto insurance fraud following a negotiated guilty plea, the Arkansas Insurance Department reported. Tyus West, 28, entered a plea of guilty to one count of...
Fires in Arkansas Blamed on Lightning, Static
Apr 13 2016 // Thunderstorms with high winds and frequent lightning rolled across Arkansas’ southern counties on April 11, bowling over trees and starting a number of fires. Lightning or static electricity triggered a fire in a...
Weather Service Confirms Arkansas Tornado
Apr 4 2016 // The National Weather Service says a tornado touched down earlier this week in Dermott, Ark. about 115 miles southeast of Little Rock near the Mississippi border. Meteorologist Anna Wolverton at the weather service’s...
