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2 weeks ago | 
mhobserver.com | Sonny Albarado |Arkansas Advocate |Sonny Albarado
Arkansas’ prison oversight board on Tuesday unanimously approved a contract with two architectural engineering firms to design a planned state prison. The state Board of Corrections gave preliminary approval in May to the $57 million contract with Omaha, Neb.-based HDR and Little Rock-based Cromwell Architects Engineers, but held off formal approval until Tuesday’s special-call meeting because some members had questions.
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2 months ago | 
magnoliareporter.com | Antoinette Grajeda |Tess Vrbin |Ainsley Platt |Sonny Albarado
With one major exception, Arkansas lawmakers gave Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders almost everything she asked for in the 95th General Assembly, and even then it wasn’t a total loss. The Legislature’s Republican supermajority passed bills addressing Sanders’ priorities: maternal health, a higher-education overhaul, concerns about the effects of social media platforms on children and restrictions on the influence of China in Arkansas.
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2 months ago | 
yahoo.com | Antoinette Grajeda |Tess Vrbin |Ainsley Platt |Sonny Albarado
Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, speaks against Senate Bill 354, the $750 million Franklin County prison appropriation, on the Senate floor on Monday, April 7, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)With one major exception, Arkansas lawmakers gave Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders almost everything she asked for in the 95th General Assembly, and even then it wasn’t a total loss.
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Mar 11, 2025 | 
magnoliareporter.com | Sonny Albarado |Mary Hennigan |Arkansas Advocate
An Arkansas Senate committee approved two bills hours apart Tuesday, March 11, 2025 seeking to define a public meeting, an issue that has plagued local elected officials and government transparency advocates for decades. Sen.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
magnoliareporter.com | Sonny Albarado |Arkansas Advocate
Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Karen Baker has been asked by the state court system’s chief administrator to stay out of his office and not communicate with his staff, pending a disciplinary review. In an email to Baker on Monday, Administrative Office of the Courts Director Marty Sullivan advised Baker that an investigation of her conduct in December by the office’s personnel department had been completed and a report forwarded to the state’s judicial discipline commission.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
mhobserver.com | Sonny Albarado |Arkansas Advocate
On Jan. 7, Arkansas Department of Corrections officials met with representatives of the firm hired to oversee the design and construction of a proposed 3,000-bed prison. The meeting, the first of two days of discussions between the state agency and the construction manager, wasn’t unusual in the ordinary course of state business.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
magnoliareporter.com | Sonny Albarado |Arkansas Advocate
On January 7, 2025 Arkansas Department of Corrections officials met with representatives of the firm hired to oversee the design and construction of a proposed 3,000-bed prison. The meeting, the first of two days of discussions between the state agency and the construction manager, wasn’t unusual in the ordinary course of state business.
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Jan 8, 2025 | 
mhobserver.com | Sonny Albarado |Arkansas Advocate
Only the full Arkansas Supreme Court can appoint members to the state’s judicial disciplinary commission, according to an opinion issued Monday. The opinion arose from disagreement over the powers of the chief justice. Although newly installed Chief Justice Karen Baker partly concurred in the opinion, her actions last week prompted her colleagues to declare that she cannot on her own appoint anyone to the commission.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
mhobserver.com | Sonny Albarado |Arkansas Advocate
Two state grants totaling $9.3 million will help a training center for developmentally disabled adults in Cabot and a semiconductor project at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, officials announced Friday. The Jobs 4 You Cabot Workforce Training Center in Lonoke County will get $2 million. The Multi-User Silicon Carbide (MUSiC) Fabrication Facility at UA is getting $7.3 million, according to a press release from the governor’s office.
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Dec 20, 2024 | 
arktimes.com | Sonny Albarado
Arkansas lawmakers on Thursday rejected a proposed rule that would have allowed pharmacists to be paid a dispensing fee by drug middlemen who reimburse them for prescription costs. Members of the Administrative Rules subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council spent about two hours questioning the Insurance Department’s legal counsel about the necessity for the proposal before rejecting it by voice vote. There was at least one audible dissent.
