Kyle Massey

Little Rock

Assistant Editor at Arkansas Business

Assistant Editor, Arkansas Business. Cover energy and media/marketing. @nytimes alum. Proud husband to @kaprichard and dad to @kalib_tweli

Articles

Arkansas Universities Promote Debt-Free Degrees with Innovative Scholarship Stacking

1 week ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

Arkansas Tech University senior Mandy Hughes grew up knowing the burden of her mother’s student debt, so she made sure that when she graduates next month, she won’t have any. She and thousands of other young Arkansans have seized on new and innovative programs that help them navigate college without piling up debt. “I was raised by a single mom who went to school to go into the medical field, and she is still paying off her student debt,” Hughes said in a telephone interview.
Murphy USA Adds 32 Stores in 2024, Plans 50 More in 2025

1 week ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

When publicly traded companies issue their proxy statements each year, they open a revealing window on ownership, governance and top pay structures. Murphy USA’s proxy last month was a good example. The El Dorado-based gasoline and convenience retailer added 32 new stores in 2024, bringing its total of Murphy USA and QuickChek locations up to 1,601 in 27 states.
Arkansas Filmmakers Unite to Push for More State Incentives

3 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

Arkansas filmmakers lobbying for more state incentives have launched a campaign to turn the state into a top contender for film and television projects, the Arkansas Cinema Society announced Tuesday.
Arkansas Passes Utility Bill That Could 'Destabilize Rate Regulation'

3 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

Arkansas homes and businesses are going to face higher electric bills and see their rate watchdogs defanged, John C. Pickett fears. Pickett, an economics professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, was once chair of the state’s utility regulator, the Arkansas Public Service Commission. He spoke out against a bill that will let utilities raise revenue for capital projects under construction, but his voice went unheard.
Storm Nolan’s Cultivation License in Legal Limbo Amid Arkansas Court Battle

3 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

When Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert T. Wright ordered the state to strip Storm Nolan’s medical marijuana cultivation license in 2022, Nolan wasn’t even party to the lawsuit. The judge found in favor of a rival for the cultivation license, 2600 Holdings LLC, doing business as Southern Roots Cultivation, and against the state of Arkansas and Nolan’s River Valley Relief Cultivation.
Ownership of Arkansas Cannabis Companies Remains Murky, Despite Efforts for Transparency

3 weeks ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey |Mark Friedman

When authors of an amendment to legalize medical marijuana drafted it a decade ago, they offered voters a plan that would require at least 60% of dispensary and cultivator ownership to be held by Arkansans. But at present, nearly nine years after Amendment 98 passed, state records offer only a “snapshot” of overall ownership of the state’s cannabis companies. It isn’t a particularly clear picture.
Wayne Woods’ Tourism Legacy

1 month ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

Wayne Woods, the younger of two brothers who invented modern messaging to lure visitors in Arkansas, left the state with a $10 billion tourism industry when he died March 10. He was 77. “We can’t take credit for everything, not some big things like the Clinton Library in Little Rock and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville,” Wayne’s brother, Shelby Woods, told Arkansas Business a few years ago.
Arkansas Sees Surge in Renewable Energy Projects Despite Opposition

1 month ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

It’s no secret that Donald Trump hates “disgusting” wind energy and “ridiculous” large solar arrays. But even as his new administration takes aim at renewable power and adopts a “drill, baby, drill” approach to fossil fuels, new wind and solar projects are taking root in Arkansas. Tech giants Microsoft and Meta recently confirmed plans to reap the carbon neutrality benefits of new solar projects in Arkansas.
MMBOB’s Annual Expo Returns to Highlight Black-Owned Businesses in Arkansas

1 month ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

Minding My Black Owned Business, a Little Rock nonprofit that elevates Black entrepreneurs, business owners and young people, has a catchy name — and a story behind it. A’Ja Rolfe, the co-founder of MMBOB, said her catering business partner, Gabrielle Wilkerson, devised it. “She said it’s a funny thing: Black people don’t mind their own business; we mind everyone else’s business but our own,” said Rolfe, the nonprofit’s director of marketing.
Arkansas Faces Surge in Power Demand from AI & Data Centers

1 month ago | arkansasbusiness.com | Kyle Massey

Arkansas and national utility leaders are bracing for what might be called the great power surge of the 21st century. Artificial intelligence hubs, giant data centers and other industries hungry for power threaten to drive up heavy load demand over the next decade. The surge will mean higher electricity bills, but Arkansas’ relatively affordable rates could make it a mecca for economic development, utilities argue.