George Jared

Gov. Asa Hutchinson received his Pfizer booster shot Tuesday (Sept. 28) moments before he held his weekly COVID-19 pandemic press conference. The governor, his wife and Arkansas Secretary of Health Dr. Jose Romero got their boosters shot on live television to encourage others to get vaccinated, the governor said.

St. Bernards Behavioral Health will begin a partnership with Craighead County on Oct. 1 to operate the county’s 16-bed regional Crisis Stabilization Unit.

Spirit Fitness, a company that builds residential and commercial fitness equipment, has announced plans to expand the company’s operation in Jonesboro with the addition of a new facility in Jonesboro’s Craighead Technology Park. When complete, Spirit’s $10 million investment will create approximately 40-50 new jobs.

Dr. Anthony Bland fell short in his 2018 attempt to win the lieutenant governor’s race in Arkansas, but that did not deter the Democrat from Little Rock from setting his sights on the state’s top job. Bland, 43, told Talk Business & Politics he intends to seek the Democratic nomination for governor during the 2022 election cycle.

Major floods in the southern Arkansas Delta in early June caused more than $200 million in direct losses to major crops, according to a preliminary estimate by experts with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

There is one place in the western hemisphere where north meets south and east meets west from a goods distribution perspective. Interstate 55, which connects Canada to Mexico, and Interstate 40, which connects the west coast to the east coast, meet in West Memphis, the largest city in Crittenden County that abuts the Mississippi River.

Tuition and fees will remain the same and masks will be gone on the Arkansas State University campus in Jonesboro in the coming school year. ASU and the five two-year institutions in the ASU System will not increase tuition and fees for students this fall while holding budgeted expenses below pre-pandemic levels.

Extended use of the controversial herbicide dicamba was approved by the Arkansas Plant Board earlier this year, but has now been stopped, at least temporarily, according to the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.

The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday (April 19) passed SJR 10, a proposed change to the state constitution for voter consideration. The resolution could be one of three proposals that legislators refer to voters for the 2022 general election.

Arkansas is one of the only states without some type of hate crime law on the books, and Gov. Asa Hutchinson has said more than once it’s a top priority for him during the current legislative session. SB622, filed Thursday (April 1), will attempt to solve that problem.

Businesswoman and civic leader Supha Xayprasith-Mays will seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022. She announced her intentions to run Friday (March 26).

A 30-day public comment period has been set for a proposed rule to allow the extended use of dicamba in Arkansas on soybean and cotton varieties resistant to dicamba. Written public comments will be accepted from March 24 through April 22, 2021.