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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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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Growing inmate populations prompt states to look for more prison funding

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A plan to build a 3,000-inmate prison in Arkansas hit a roadblock in the state Senate on Tuesday, while the Alabama Legislature gave final approval to ensure funding for another mega-prison.The Republican governors in both states have proposed building new prisons as a partial solution to problems in the state corrections system. The proposals come as Republican governors in several states grapple with how to increase funding for overcrowded facilities.
The Arkansas...
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Book Review: Spare writing style propels tragic story in 'Flesh'

Istvan, the protagonist in David Szalay’s new novel “Flesh,” is a character who reveals little in his conversations with others. His clipped responses to questions are akin to the frustrating conversations adults have with teenagers.That reticence throughout “Flesh” demonstrates how much Istvan remains frozen in time as a shy Hungarian teenager forced to grow up. Szalay’s novel follows Istvan’s life in various moments, beginning when he’s a 15-year-old who lives alone with his mother. Istvan is...
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Book Review: 'Lollapalooza' is an entertaining history of festival's role in alternative rock rise

The least enjoyable part of “Lollapalooza: The Unscripted Story of Alternative Rock’s Wildest Festival” for readers might be seeing the $27.50 ticket price for the inaugural festival in 1991. The cheapest tickets for the reconfigured version of Lollapalooza this year start at about $189.With hundreds of interviews from the musicians, promoters and others, Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour compiled a comprehensive and entertaining oral history of the festival that was crucial in the rise of alte...
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Book Review: 'There Is No Place For Us' shines lights on a homeless population often ignored

The public’s perception and debate over homelessness is usually fixated on people living on the street, encampments or shelters. That view ignores an even larger segment of the population, often dubbed the “invisible homeless,” people without stable housing who are living with friends or family or other locations such as extended-stay hotels.That population is the focus of Brian Goldstone’s book, “There Is No Place For Us: Working and Homeless in America.” It’s a revelatory and gut-wrenching exp...
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Arkansas governor signs legislation allowing executions by nitrogen gas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation Tuesday allowing executions using nitrogen gas, making Arkansas the fifth state to adopt a method that opponents say is unconstitutional. The measure signed into law by the Republican governor has been promoted by supporters as a way to carry out executions for the first time in eight years. Arkansas currently has 25 people on death row.Arkansas has not had an execution since 2017, when it put four people to death before a s...
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Thousands crowd Arkansas city for world's shortest St. Patrick's Day parade

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — Cities like New York and Chicago boast some of the largest St. Patrick’s Day parades, attracting thousands of revelers and plenty of green beer.But a city in Arkansas has gained popularity over the years with its parade for an entirely different reason. The city of Hot Springs, a resort town known for its mineral-rich waters, promotes its 98-foot (30-meter) route as the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.Thousands of people lined the streets Monday to watch the pa...
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Louisiana and Arkansas look to nitrogen executions

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Hours after the nation’s first execution by nitrogen gas in January last year, Alabama’s attorney general urged other states to also develop it as a method for carrying out death sentences. Now, some states are following suit.Louisiana is scheduled to execute a man with nitrogen gas on March 18. Arkansas lawmakers are seeking to introduce nitrogen there after an eight-year pause in executions.

The use of nitrogen gas is one way for death penalty states to resum...
AP News •

Groceries around the country remain expensive. That's why more states want to stop taxing them

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The number of states imposing sales taxes on groceries has shrunk over the years, and the number may decrease further in the coming months as lawmakers hear complaints about high prices for eggs and other household staples.Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday unveiled the details of her proposal to eradicate the remaining 1/8th of a cent sales tax the state levies on groceries. Lawmakers in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama and are also calling for grocery-ta...
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Mississippi judge vacates her order that a newspaper remove its editorial criticizing local leaders

A Mississippi judge on Wednesday vacated her order that a newspaper remove its editorial criticizing local officials, days after a city decided to drop the lawsuit that spurred it.The judge’s order had been widely condemned by free speech advocates as a clear violation of the paper’s First Amendment rights.Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin had issued the restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register last week, telling it to remove from its website a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, D...
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Book Review: 'Air-borne' transforms scientific history into detective story

A history of aerobiology would normally be a book that would have little interest beyond the science community. But in “Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breath,” Carl Zimmer transforms the topic into something that reads like a combination of detective and horror stories.Zimmer creates a highly relevant and gripping history of the study of the air that spans from Louis Pasteur holding a glass globe on a glacier to scientists racing to fight COVID-19 during the pandemic.The book shows...
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Arkansas victims of mortuary theft scheme inspire push for law banning sale of human remains

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A year had passed since Doneysha Smith suffered a stillbirth and the memories of her loss lingered in 2023. The cremated remains of her child were kept in a tiny urn in her house and on a necklace she wore, and a memorial service had marked her family’s loss with mourners releasing blue, white and yellow balloons into the sky.But the FBI had reached out to the Arkansas woman with shocking news: The urn and necklace didn’t contain her child’s ashes and the body had been s...
AP News •

A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial. Press advocates are outraged

A Mississippi judge ordered a newspaper to remove an editorial criticizing the mayor and city leaders after the officials sued, sparking complaints from press advocates that it violates the First Amendment.Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin issued the restraining order against the Clarksdale Press Register on Tuesday in connection with a Feb. 8 editorial titled “Secrecy, Deception Erode Public Trust.” The piece criticized the city for not sending the newspaper notice about a meeting the City Cou...
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Republicans consider cuts and work requirements for Medicaid, jeopardizing care for millions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are weighing billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, threatening health care coverage for some of the 80 million U.S. adults and children enrolled in the safety net program. The signing up of millions of additional Americans for taxpayer-funded health care coverage like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace during the Biden administration was lauded by Democrats as a success. But Republicans, who are looking to slash federal spending and offer lucrativ...
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Book Review: 'Disposable' a journey through the inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic

Five years after COVID-19 first emerged, the United States is still grappling with the aftereffects of the pandemic that killed millions of people worldwide. They include the gaps in the nation’s health care system and social safety net that were highlighted by the pandemic’s effects. Those inequities are the focus of journalist Sarah Jones’ “Disposable: America’s Contempt for the Underclass,” a deeply reported, enlightening and empathetic look at the populations that were hit hardest by the pan...
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Former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who stepped down in the wake of Whitewater, dies at 81

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Jim Guy Tucker, who became Arkansas’ governor when Bill Clinton was elected president but was later forced from office after being convicted during the Whitewater investigation, has died. He was 81.Anna Ashton, Tucker’s daughter, said the former governor died Thursday in Little Rock from complications from ulcerative colitis.“Because he had a public life, there will be a lot of focus on the details of that,” Ashton said. “In addition to that, he was a really wonderful fa...
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An Arkansas organist is playing 18 hours of Bach this year, one lunch break at a time

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — It was hushed inside a 140-year-old cathedral on the outskirts of Little Rock’s downtown as about five dozen people sat in the pews during a recent lunch break in January.The nave filled with the sounds of the Gothic church’s pipe organ, and a screen showed a man performing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Those gathered weren’t there for church, but for the third concert in a series Colin MacKnight is performing over the next year to commemorate the 275th anniversary...
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Book Review: Chris Hayes' 'Sirens' Call' is a thorough look at the fight for attention in modern age

It’s no new big news that we’re living in an era of distraction. States are trying to clamp down on cell phones in schools, social media has been called a health risk for kids and some are trying undergo various “digital detox” practices.With “The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource” MSNBC host Chris Hayes isn’t trying to join an already crowded shelf of books warning of the ills of being online 24/7. Instead he’s exploring how we got to this point, and the re...
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