Latest Arkansas Headlines
All the headlines from our Arkansas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Judge Dismisses Mayflower, Arkansas Oil Spill Lawsuit
Mar 19 2015 // A federal class-action lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corporation over a 2013 crude oil spill in central Arkansas has been dismissed by a federal judge, who acknowledged in his ruling that his decision seems unfair. U.S....
Arkansas Senate OKs Plan to Create New Agency to Regulate Title Insurance
Mar 19 2015 // The Arkansas Senate is backing a proposal to set up a new commission that would supervise the title insurance business. The body approved Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson’s bill on a 20-11 vote on March 17. The bill had failed...
Blasingame to Retire as Arkansas Chief Deputy Commissioner
Mar 10 2015 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr announced that long-time insurance employee, Chief Deputy Commissioner Lenita Blasingame, has decided to retire at the end of June after nearly 50 years with the Arkansas...
Arkansas Senate Votes to Delay State Insurance Exchange Plans
Mar 6 2015 // Arkansas lawmakers voted to put the state’s plans to set up its own insurance exchange under the federal health law on hold while the nation’s highest court weighs a legal challenge over tax subsidies granted...
Car Cellphone Regulations Rejected by Arkansas House Committee
Feb 26 2015 // A dashboard video showing a state trooper narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a driver who was using a cellphone wasn’t enough to sway an Arkansas House committee that tougher laws are needed. The Public...
Arkansas Gov.’s Prison Overcrowding Plan Would Tap Insurance Department Fund
Feb 20 2015 // Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Feb. 18 proposed tapping more than $33 million in state reserve funds — including $31 million from the insurance department’s reserve fund — to ease a backlog of state inmates at...
Voter ID, Tort Reform Among Amendments Filed in Arkansas
Feb 17 2015 // Reinstating Arkansas’ voter ID law, imposing new restrictions on lawsuit damages and eliminating the lieutenant governor’s office are among the dozens of ideas lawmakers would like to put on the ballot in...
Arkansas Bill Would Jeopardize Local Gay Anti-Discrimination Laws
Feb 13 2015 // An Arkansas municipality’s effort to protect its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents from discrimination would be nullified under a bill presented by the town’s state representative. The House...
Arkansas Senate Bill Would Allow Armed Teachers, School Staff
Feb 11 2015 // The Arkansas Senate passed legislation aimed at clearing the way for districts to use teachers, administrators and other staff as armed guards and eliminating the regulatory panel that had resisted similar efforts. By a...
Arkansas Senate Votes to Continue ‘Private Option’ for Healthcare Insurance
Jan 30 2015 // The Arkansas Senate voted to continue the state’s compromise Medicaid expansion another year and create a task force to look at alternatives for the hundreds of thousands of people receiving coverage through the...
Study Finds Workplace Trust a Predictor of Comp Outcomes in Arkansas
Jan 25 2015 // A new study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) identified new predictors of worker outcomes that can help public officials, payors, and health care providers in Arkansas improve the treatment and...
Exxon Mobil Seeks to Bar Release of Files in Arkansas Pipeline Case
Jan 2 2015 // Exxon Mobil said it shouldn’t have to release any further information on a proposed but abandoned pipeline intended to run alongside the Pegasus pipeline that ruptured in 2013 in central Arkansas. The company is...
‘Throwing Money’ at Data Breach Victims May Not Be Best Response
Dec 28 2014 // Offering customers discounts in future purchases and free credit monitoring —strategies used by Target after its large-scale data breach — may raise suspicions rather than satisfy customers’ sense of justice,...
Arkansas Governor-Elect Names Kerr as Next Insurance Commissioner
Dec 18 2014 // Arkansas Gov.-Elect Asa Hutchinson has announced that state Rep. Allen Kerr will be the new state insurance commissioner. Allen Kerr Kerr has been a Farmers Insurance agent for more than 30 years and along with his wife...
Former Agency Owner Standridge Sentenced to Prison in Arkansas
Dec 15 2014 // A Mount Ida, Ark., man has been sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering and wire fraud. Federal prosecutors say 58-year-old Steven Alan Standridge was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Hot...
Weather Service to Deem Tornado-Torn Arkansas County ‘Storm Ready’
Dec 12 2014 // The National Weather Service says it will recognize Faulkner County in Arkansas as a “StormReady” community next week. Forecasters said that with the deaths in last April’s tornado at Mayflower and...
Report: Arrests at Arkansas Schools on the Rise
Dec 11 2014 // A new report indicates that the number of school-based arrests in Arkansas has increased 13 percent since 2011. The report by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families looked at school-based arrests across the state in...
Arkansas Judge: No Class-Action in Whirlpool Lawsuit
Dec 9 2014 // A federal judge in Arkansas says he won’t certify a complaint against Whirlpool Corp. as a class-action lawsuit because he is not sure whether residents of a polluted Arkansas neighborhood or the company is the...
Former Agency Owner Standridge Sentenced in Arkansas
Dec 8 2014 // A Mount Ida, Ark., man has been sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering and wire fraud. Federal prosecutors say 58-year-old Steven Alan Standridge was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Hot...
Arkansas Community Still on Mend After Fatal Twister
Dec 3 2014 // Seven months after a deadly tornado struck Vilonia residents and business owners are still working to rebuild the central Arkansas community. Marty Knight heads the Rebuild Vilonia committee and says recovery has been...
