News from the South - Arkansas News Feed
Panel OKs proposed removal of racial and gender quotas for Arkansas boards and commissions
Panel OKs proposed removal of racial and gender quotas for Arkansas boards and commissions
by Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate
March 4, 2025
An Arkansas legislative panel revived a debate over whether government entities should consider race, gender or other characteristics or experiences before approving a previously failed bill Monday.
House Bill 1365 would remove race and gender quotas and qualifications from a variety of state boards, councils and commissions, altering 22 sections of state law. Bill sponsor Rep. Karilyn Brown, R-Sherwood, and attorney Laura D’Agostino said current requirements to have minimum numbers of women and racial minorities on the panels are unfair.
D’Agostino, who is based in Virginia and works for the California law firm Pacific Legal Foundation, said Arkansas could be vulnerable to lawsuits for unequal treatment of its citizens as the law currently stands.
“People are so complex and different that it’s extremely demeaning to say, ‘Well, if you’re of this racial perspective or if you’re a woman, you’re automatically going to bring a diverse perspective,’” D’Agostino said. “…The government should not be in a position to use racial classifications to either think that it knows better than its own people or to tell people that it’s being culturally responsive because it’s assuming that people [in the same group] have the same perspectives.”
Brown and D’Agostino repeatedly said passing HB 1365 will increase, not decrease, opportunities for all Arkansans. Their arguments were similar to those of the sponsors of Act 116 of 2025, originally Senate Bill 3, which became law in February after much debate in both chambers.
Act 116 will “prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment” by public entities and eliminate required minority recruitment and retention plans and reports from public school districts and higher education institutions. The law’s Republican sponsors, Rep. Mary Bentley of Perryville and Sen. Dan Sullivan of Jonesboro, said it will prioritize merit over demographics.
HB 1365 “seems much more straightforward and narrowly tailored than SB 3,” said Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle.
Ray was one of 13 of the 20 members of the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs who voted for HB 1365, while the panel’s three Democrats were the only members to vote against it. The committee failed to pass the bill when it was first heard Feb. 12, since several members were absent, and the bill received nine votes for it when at least 11 were needed.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is responsible for appointing people to most boards and commissions, and D’Agostino and Ray both said any governor who does not consider a range of experiences among Arkansans when making appointments will be accountable to the voters.
Debate
No members of the public spoke for or against HB 1365 Monday, but committee discussion lasted more than an hour before the vote.
House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, noted that the Arkansas House in decades past was entirely composed of white men.
“I think that the Legislatures of the past, who realized the errors we made in over-erring on the the side of letting the old boys’ network run its course, realized that there’s value in having people who look different and have different backgrounds in the room making decisions, especially when we’re talking about things like minority health [and] closing the achievement gap,” Collins said.
Rep. Denise Ennett, also a Little Rock Democrat, said her constituents who are racial minorities have told her for years that they’ve had trouble being appointed to state boards and commissions on which they want to serve. She said this highlighted the need to keep the racial quotas as they are.
Brown insisted that “diversity occurs naturally” and the state should not codify language that “makes things more awkward or more difficult to fill positions.”
“With all due respect, I think this language came about because diversity wasn’t happening naturally,” said Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville.
Clowney repeated her statement from the committee’s Act 116 debate that she had yet to hear concrete examples of harm resulting from the state’s current laws focused on diversity, equity and inclusion.
D’Agostino said Pacific Legal Foundation once represented a white man in Arkansas who sought appointment to the state Social Work Licensing Board but could not be appointed because of the requirement for minority members. She said the lawsuit became moot after Sanders signed Act 254 of 2023, which removed the board’s requirement that at least two of its nine members be African American.
Act 254 passed both chambers of the Legislature with solely Republican support.
HB 1365 will next go to the full House for consideration.
Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.
The post Panel OKs proposed removal of racial and gender quotas for Arkansas boards and commissions appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com
News from the South - Arkansas News Feed
Hackett student arrested after shooting threat
SUMMARY: A Hackett student was arrested after an anonymous shooting threat targeting the high school was posted in a student group chat. The threat, reported Monday morning, prompted Sebastian County deputies to station officers at Hackett schools for safety as classes resumed. Deputies, aided by Homeland Security, traced the post back to the teenager within ten hours. Investigators say there is no credible evidence the student intended to carry out the threat. The situation escalated through social media, complicating tracing efforts. The investigation remains active, with possible additional arrests, and deputies will continue a visible presence at the schools.
Deputies increased security at Hackett schools in response.
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News from the South - Arkansas News Feed
Every fall there’s a government shutdown warning. This time it could happen.
by Jennifer Shutt, Arkansas Advocate
September 2, 2025
WASHINGTON — Congress returns to Washington, D.C., this week following an uneventful August recess where little to no progress was made on government funding, even though lawmakers have just weeks left until their shutdown deadline.
Republican leaders will need the support of several Democratic senators to approve a stopgap spending bill before Oct. 1, since lawmakers have once again failed to complete the dozen full-year bills on time.
But what was once a routine bipartisan exercise has taken on heightened stakes, with Democrats and some Republicans increasingly frustrated by the Trump administration’s unilateral spending decisions.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has issued several reports faulting the Trump administration for impounding, or refusing to spend funds approved by Congress, in violation of the law. And dozens of lawsuits have been filed, alleging the administration has acted to supersede Congress’ power of the purse.
The ongoing tension, combined with party leaders’ increasing focus on next year’s midterm elections, makes the possibility of a shutdown higher than it has been for years.
President Donald Trump said in mid-August he was open to meeting with Democratic leaders once they were back in town to negotiate a government funding deal but minimized the importance of talks.
“Well, I will, I guess, but it’s almost a waste of time to meet because they never approve anything,” Trump said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries released a letter last week urging Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune to quickly begin negotiating a bipartisan stopgap bill.
“The government funding issue must be resolved in a bipartisan way,” they wrote. “That is the only viable path forward.”
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said last week that she wants to keep advancing the full-year spending bills, but that a short-term stopgap would be necessary to give lawmakers enough time.
“We need to avoid a government shutdown, which would be horrendous if that were to occur on October 1,” Collins said, according to remarks provided by her office. “And we also need to avoid having a continuing resolution, by that I mean a stopgap bill that just puts government on automatic pilot for the whole year.
“We’re going to have to have a short-term continuing resolution, but we’re making really good progress with overwhelming bipartisan support, and I hope that will continue.”
Another failure
Congress is supposed to complete work on the dozen annual appropriations bills before the start of the new fiscal year but has failed to do so for decades. This year is no different.
The House and Senate are nowhere near finishing their work on the bills, which provide funding for dozens of departments, including Agriculture, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Justice, State, Transportation and Veterans Affairs.
The bills, which make up about one-third of federal spending, also fund smaller agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Science Foundation and the National Weather Service.
The House has approved two of the dozen bills — Defense and Military Construction-VA. The Senate has passed its Agriculture, Legislative Branch and Military Construction-VA bills.
The House bills have only been supported by GOP lawmakers, while the Senate’s bills are broadly bipartisan, giving that chamber an upper hand if the two chambers begin conferencing full-year bills later this year.
Without a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on how much to spend on all of the bills, it’s highly unlikely Congress will be able to complete its work before the Oct. 1 deadline.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, speaks at a Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Inside Washington luncheon on Aug. 12, 2025. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Leaders will instead need to reach agreement on a stopgap spending bill that essentially keeps government funding on autopilot until lawmakers can work out a final deal on the full-year bills.
The calendar doesn’t give Speaker Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Thune, R-S.D., much time to find compromise with their Democratic counterparts.
Both chambers are in session for three weeks at the beginning of September before breaking for Rosh Hashanah. They’ll return to Capitol Hill on Sept. 29 with less than two days to fund the government or begin a partial shutdown.
Thune said in mid-August at the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Inside Washington luncheon that he expects lawmakers will “have a big fight at the end of September.”
Last shutdown stretched 35 days
It’s been almost seven years since some federal departments and agencies had to navigate a shutdown, when Congress and the first Trump administration were unable to broker a funding deal before a deadline.
A shutdown this year would have substantially more impact than that 35-day debacle since, when that funding lapse began, Congress had approved the Defense, Energy-Water, Labor-HHS-Education, Legislative Branch and Military Construction-VA spending bills.
The departments and agencies funded by those laws, including Congress, weren’t affected by the shutdown.
Lawmakers have failed to send any of the full-year bills to Trump so far this year, so every department and agency would need to implement a shutdown plan if Congress doesn’t approve a stopgap spending bill before Oct. 1.
Federal employees who deal with the preservation of life and property as well as national security will likely be deemed exempt and work without pay until the shutdown ends.
Workers who are not considered essential to the federal government’s operations would be furloughed until Congress and the president broker some sort of funding deal.
Both categories of employees receive back pay once the lapse ends, though that doesn’t extend to federal contractors.
On to the stopgap
Congress regularly approves a stopgap spending bill in September to gain more time to complete negotiations on the full-year appropriations bills.
That continuing resolution, as it’s sometimes called, usually lasts until the last Friday in December when both chambers of Congress are scheduled to be in Washington, D.C.
So a September stopgap would likely last until Friday, Dec. 19, assuming the House and Senate can reach an agreement and hold floor votes in the weeks ahead.
Last year, in the lead-up to the presidential election, lawmakers approved a stopgap bill in September that funded the government through mid-December.
Following the Republican sweep of the November elections, GOP leaders opted not to negotiate the full-year bills and used a second stopgap bill to fund the government until March after a raucous 48 hours on Capitol Hill.
Speaker Johnson took a go-it-alone approach on a third stopgap spending bill, leaving Democrats completely out of the negotiations and jamming the Senate with the legislation.
Schumer and several Democrats ultimately helped Republicans get past the 60-vote legislative filibuster, but most voted against actually passing the stopgap.
The dilemma over forcing a shutdown or helping Republicans pass a stopgap bill will resurface for Schumer in the weeks ahead as he tries to navigate another shutdown deadline amid unified GOP control of Washington.
Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com.
The post Every fall there’s a government shutdown warning. This time it could happen. appeared first on arkansasadvocate.com
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This content presents a balanced overview of the government shutdown situation, highlighting perspectives and actions from both Republican and Democratic leaders without overtly favoring either side. It includes factual reporting on legislative processes, quotes from key political figures across the aisle, and references to nonpartisan sources, maintaining a neutral tone throughout. The article focuses on the procedural and political challenges without editorializing, reflecting a centrist approach to the topic.
News from the South - Arkansas News Feed
Arkansas Fall forecast: Warmer temperatures and drier conditions expected as drought persists
SUMMARY: Arkansas is expected to experience a cooler and more fall-like September, starting meteorological fall on September 1st. The last week of August was among the coolest on record, and early September will continue with below-average temperatures. A cold front later next week will bring further cooling, making the second weekend of football season comfortable. Mid-September temperatures will remain fairly mild, with highs dropping from mid-80s to mid-70s in Northwest Arkansas and from low 90s to low 80s in the River Valley by month’s end. Fall colors should appear earlier than last year, likely peaking from late October to early November.
The Climate Prediction Center released its outlook for Fall, which shows above-average temperatures continuing through November.
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