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Arkansas Advocate •

Annual Gillett supper shows there are some Arkansas political traditions that endure | Arkansas Advocate

Let’s get something clear: No Arkansas politician actually enjoys eating raccoon.
That’s one of the few areas of bipartisan consensus left in a state that sometimes feels as polarized as the rest of the country. 
But every year — especially the ones when their name is on the ballot — the state’s elected officials and candidates flock to tiny Gillett in southeast Arkansas for its annual Coon Supper. They join hundreds of people in a school gymnasium to eat the mammal. Or at least the politicians...
Arkansas Advocate •

Arkansas prison fight to overshadow elections and legislative session in 2026 | Arkansas Advocate

Building a maximum-security, 3,000-bed prison was supposed to be a crowning achievement for Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders as she touts her bonafides as a law-and-order Republican.
Debate over the project is instead casting a shadow on this year’s primary elections and legislative session, with a special election this week in the Senate district where the project is planned.
That election kicks off what’s already expected to be a busy year for Arkansas politics and government, where Democr...
Arkansas Advocate •

$1.8 billion Powerball winner a mystery, and could remain one for years thanks to Arkansas law | Arkansas Advocate

It’s the biggest mystery to hit the central Arkansas town of Cabot, not to mention the rest of the state: Who purchased the winning $1.8 billion Powerball ticket?
Locals speculate on who the big winner of last week’s jackpot is, and whether there’s a new billionaire in their midst. Area charities are hopeful it’s a donor who’s willing to share the wealth.
“If I go into a local grocery store, if I go into anywhere in town, someone asks me about it,” House Speaker Brian Evans of Cabot said “Typica...
AP News •

Waves of fake threats to colleges are putting students on edge and testing dispatchers

MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Around 50 college campuses across the country have been deluged in recent weeks with hoax calls about armed gunmen and other violence, laying bare the challenges of detecting fake threats quickly to prevent mass panic. Students at some schools spent hours hiding under desks, only to find out later it was someone’s idea of a entertainment. On Thursday, several historically Black colleges locked down or canceled classes after receiving threats, at a time when the fatal shootin...
AP News •

Former poet laureate Ada Limón says artists must band together during 'dangerous times'

During her three years as the 24th poet laureate, Ada Limón said her travels around the United States taught her just how many poets the country has.Limón said people would approach her during appearances to tell her they wrote poems regularly in a journal, or on a full moon or with their children. “They might not be publishing poems, they might not even be sharing poems, but there are many people that are secret poets,” Limón said.Limón’s term, which ended in April, included writing a poem engr...
AP News •

Book Review: Evidence of historian David McCullough's curiosity abounds in 'History Matters'

The late Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough told an audience in 2012 that writing history was like working on a detective case.“And once on the case, you want to know more and more and more,” he said in remarks at Dartmouth College. “Follow your curiosity.”One thing that’s clear after reading “History Matters,” a posthumous collection of McCullough’s writings and speeches that include his Dartmouth remarks, is how much the revered historian practiced what he preached.The book is a...
AP News •

'Devil in the Ozarks' planned prison escape for months, cited lax security in kitchen, report says

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A former police chief known as the “Devil in the Ozarks” spent months planning his escape from an Arkansas prison, and said lax security in the kitchen where he worked allowed the convicted murderer to gather the supplies he needed, an internal review by prison officials released Friday said.The Department of Corrections’ critical incident review of Grant Hardin’s May 25 escape from the Calico Rock prison provides the most detailed description so far of his planning and...
AP News •

Book Review: 'The Devil Reached Toward the Sky' weaves thorough account of Atomic Age's start

The story of the Atomic Age’s start is a fascinating one about the power of invention and a chilling one about its consequences. In “The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb,” Garrett M. Graff skillfully tells both.The power of Graff’s oral history is the diversity of voices he relies upon in crafting a comprehensive history of the atomic bomb’s inception, creation and use during World War II.He creates a comprehensive account of a what se...
AP News •

Texas Democrats arrive in Illinois to block vote back home on redrawn House maps sought by Trump

A standoff in Texas over redrawn U.S. House maps sought by President Donald Trump sharply escalated Sunday when dozens of Democratic legislators left the state to block a vote, followed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott warning them that he will seek their removal from office if they don’t return.The revolt by Democrats, and Abbott giving them until Monday to come home or face efforts to strip them of their elected positions, pushed a widening fight over congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm...
AP News •

Teacher admits to fatally stabbing couple on a hike with their kids in a random attack in Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A teacher admitted he fatally stabbed a couple he didn’t know who were hiking with two of their children in an Arkansas state park, authorities said Thursday, after a five-day search and hundreds of tips led to his arrest. State Police arrested 28-year-old Andrew James McGann on Wednesday at a barbershop in Springdale, approximately 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Devil’s Den State Park, said Maj. Stacie Rhoads, commander of the department’s criminal investigation divi...
AP News •

Pee-wee's bike is at the Alamo, but not where you think

It took 40 years, but Pee-wee’s bike is now at the Alamo. Just not the basement.The Alamo announced last week it had acquired and would display the iconic bike from the 1985 Tim Burton film, “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” The San Antonio landmark plays a key role in the film chronicling Pee-wee Herman’s search for his stolen bicycle when a devious fortuneteller tells him the bike is located in the Alamo’s basement. Pee-wee, played by the late Paul Reubens, learns the Alamo doesn’t have a basement, b...
AP News •

Federal court says Arkansas can enforce ban on critical race theory in classrooms

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Arkansas can enforce its ban on critical race theory in classrooms, ruling the First Amendment doesn’t give students the right to compel the state to offer its instruction in public schools.A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction issued against the ban, one of several changes adopted under an education overhaul that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in 2023.The...
AP News •

Arkansas prison employees fired after 'Devil in the Ozarks' escape

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Two employees at an Arkansas prison where an inmate known as the “Devil in the Ozarks” escaped have been fired for policy violations, corrections officials said Thursday as they faced questions from lawmakers who said the escape points to deeper problems.The head of the Arkansas Board of Corrections told state lawmakers the violations allowed Grant Hardin to escape from the Calico Rock prison wearing a makeshift law enforcement uniform on May 25. But officials have said...
AP News •

These Texas twins shared made-up games and story time. They died together at Camp Mystic

Hanna and Rebecca Lawrence were happy children who shared the kind of bond twins do, but the 8-year-old girls from Dallas were also different from each other.Hanna was the one with endless energy who wanted to be a chef and open a restaurant to feed the needy for free. Rebecca had an infectious laugh, but also “a killer eye-roll,” her parents said. One day, she wanted to become a teacher.Neither will ever get a chance to fulfill those dreams. The twins, who had just finished second grade, died a...
AP News •

Teen who helped family escape from van is among those killed in Texas floods

Mollie Sylvester Schaffer had been married to her husband, Randy, for 57 years when the Houston couple traveled to an annual get-together with friends on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas. She was killed in the catastrophic flash floods that so far have claimed the lives of 120 people. They include a budding 8-year-old actress and twin sisters from Dallas.The flooding originated from the fast-moving waters of the Guadalupe River on the Fourth of July. Authorities say search and res...
AP News •

Book Review: 'Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil' doesn't live up to book's promise

One of the most challenging things about any biography of Bob Dylan is piercing the reticence the legendary singer and songwriter has displayed in talking about his roots. In addition to that, biographers have had to to sift through the myths Dylan has built up about his life story.That’s why it’s somewhat forgivable that “Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil” by Harry Freedman doesn’t quite live up to its promise of tracing how the singer’s early career was influenced by his Jewish roots.Free...
AP News •

Authorities eyeing whether a kitchen job had a role in the 'Devil in the Ozarks' prison escape

CALICO ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas authorities are looking at whether a job in the prison kitchen played a role in the weekend escape of a convicted former police chief known as the “Devil in the Ozarks.”Grant Hardin, 56, was housed in a maximum-security wing of the medium-security Calico Rock prison, where he also held a job in the kitchen, Arkansas Department of Corrections spokesperson Rand Champion said Thursday. Authorities have said Hardin escaped Sunday by donning an outfit designed to loo...
AP News •

Book Review: Ron Chernow's 'Mark Twain' gives readers an honest assessment of beloved author's life

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow is known for writing massive biographies of the country’s most enduring figures, including Ulysses S. Grant and Alexander Hamilton. So it comes as no surprise that his biography of author and humorist Mark Twain clocks in at more than 1,000 pages.It’s also forgivable, considering that Twain was such a colossal figure in American literature and history that his authorized biography was more than 1,500 pages long.Chernow’s “Mark Twain” is well worth that l...
AP News •

Here's why May the 4th is celebrated as Star Wars Day across the galaxy

It didn’t begin a long time ago or in a galaxy far far away, but every May 4 it feels like images, memes and promotional deals involving “Star Wars” have an inescapable gravity.May 4 — or May the 4th, as fans say — has evolved over the years into Star Wars Day, an informal holiday celebrating the space epic and its surrounding franchise. Star Wars Day was created by fans as a sly nod to one of the films’ most popular catchphrases, “May the force be with you.” Get it? Good, now May the 4th be wit...
AP News •

Arkansas governor says she's not rushing to resume executions after signing nitrogen gas bill

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Friday that she’s not in a rush to resume executions after signing legislation allowing the use of nitrogen gas to put inmates to death.Sanders made the comments during a joint interview with The Associated Press and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, days after lawmakers wrapped up this year’s legislative session.In the 30-minute interview, Sanders also stood by her plan to build a 3,000-bed prison in the state and left o...
AP News •

Arkansas and Indiana ask USDA to let them ban soda and candy from SNAP

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Republican governors in Arkansas and Indiana moved Tuesday to ban soft drinks and candy from the program that helps low-income people pay for groceries, becoming the first states to ask the Trump administration to let them remove such items from the program long known as food stamps.Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said her state’s request is aimed at improving the health of nearly 350,000 residents who participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or...
AP News •

Book Review: 'No More Tears' scrutinizes the legacy of health giant Johnson & Johnson

Health care giant Johnson & Johnson is one of the most well-known and respected brands, and its response to the 1982 tampering of Tylenol bottles that killed seven people is held up in business schools as a model.But in “No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson,” veteran reporter Gardiner Harris uses his investigative skills to scrutinize the legacy of the company, as well as that of federal regulators. What he unveils is a damning portrait.It’s a story that Harris writes “has been h...
AP News •

What to know about the severe storms and flash flooding hitting parts of the US

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — At least six people have been killed in a wide swath of violent storms and tornadoes that hit the South and Midwest, and officials are bracing for more severe weather and flooding in the coming days.The destruction is part of a potent storm system that the National Weather Service said will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” each day through Saturday. The first wave of storms killed at least four people in western Tennessee and one each in Missouri and...
AP News •

Longest-serving inmate on Arkansas' death row dies from natural causes

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Bruce Ward, a convicted murderer who was the longest-serving inmate on Arkansas’ death row, has died, the state Department of Corrections said. He was 68.The state Department of Corrections said Ward was pronounced dead Tuesday from natural causes. He had been held on death row at the Varner SuperMax unit in Gould, located 67 miles (108 kilometers) south of Little Rock. Citing confidentiality, the department declined to provide any further details on Ward’s health or the...
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