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Panel OKs proposed removal of racial and gender quotas for Arkansas boards and commissions

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arkansasadvocate.com – Tess Vrbin – 2025-03-04 01:00:00

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.

HB 1365 in practice

Boards, councils and commissions that would no longer be required to have Black, Hispanic, female or other historically underrepresented members include:

The State Board of EducationThe Arkansas Ethics CommissionThe Arkansas State Board of PharmacyThe Commission on Closing the Achievement Gap in ArkansasThe State Athletic CommissionThe Arkansas Financial Education CommissionThe Arkansas Teacher Retirement System Board of TrusteesThe Arkansas Tobacco Control Board

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.

Rep. David Ray (left), R-Maumelle, asks a question while Little Rock Democratic Reps. Denise Ennett (center) and Andrew Collins (right) listen during a meeting of the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Wednesday, February 19, 2025. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)

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.”

Rep. Nicole Clowney, D-Fayetteville (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate)

“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.

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News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Re-live the Beatles epic 1964 tour stop in Cincinnati

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www.youtube.com – 40/29 News – 2025-07-10 09:35:38

SUMMARY: The Beatles’ 1964 Cincinnati tour stop featured lively interactions and candid remarks. The band discussed their trip, politics—expressing skepticism about Goldwater—and addressed rumors about being banned in the U.S., dismissing them as baseless. They talked about novelty merchandise like mugs but denied inventing such items. The Beatles shared impressions of American movie stars like Burt Lancaster and Gordon, describing encounters as mixed but mostly positive. Their unique hairstyles were playfully explained as natural. The clip captures the group’s playful, down-to-earth nature amid their historic U.S. visit, blending humor, music, and cultural observations.

The Beatles came to Cincinnati to play a show in August 1964 as part of a 25-city North American tour. In this rare footage, see John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr as they land at the airport to the delight of throngs of die-hard fans. The Fab Four also chatted with local media about whether they should be banned, what they knew about the upcoming presidential election and how they felt about American movie stars.

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US Education Department to revive student loan interest for borrowers in SAVE program

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arkansasadvocate.com – Shauneen Miranda – 2025-07-09 16:06:00


The U.S. Education Department announced interest on federal student loans under the Biden-era SAVE plan will resume Aug. 1 for 7.7 million borrowers, following court rulings blocking the plan’s implementation. The SAVE plan, introduced in 2023 to lower payments and forgive debt after time, was halted by legal challenges from GOP-led states. Borrowers will now owe accrued interest plus principal, urged to shift to compliant repayment plans. Education Secretary Linda McMahon criticized the previous administration’s forgiveness efforts, while advocates condemned the decision for adding financial strain. The department is also facing legal challenges amid efforts to downsize and restructure.

by Shauneen Miranda, Arkansas Advocate
July 9, 2025

WASHINGTON — Interest accrual on the debt of nearly 7.7 million student loan borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education plan will resume Aug. 1, the U.S. Education Department said Wednesday.

The Biden-era income-driven repayment plan better known as SAVE saw legal challenges from several GOP-led states beginning in 2024, creating uncertainty for borrowers who were placed in an interest-free forbearance amid that legal limbo.

The SAVE plan, created in 2023, aimed to provide lower monthly loan payments for borrowers and forgive remaining debt after a certain period of time.

In February, a federal appeals court upheld a lower court injunction that blocked the SAVE plan from going into effect. The department said Wednesday that it’s instructing its federal student loan servicers to start charging interest Aug. 1 to comply with court orders.

When the SAVE plan forbearance ends, “borrowers will be responsible for making monthly payments that include any accrued interest as well as their principal amounts,” the department said in a written announcement.

“For years, the Biden Administration used so-called ‘loan forgiveness’ promises to win votes, but federal courts repeatedly ruled that those actions were unlawful,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement alongside the announcement.

“Congress designed these programs to ensure that borrowers repay their loans, yet the Biden Administration tried to illegally force taxpayers to foot the bill instead,” she added.

McMahon said her department is urging borrowers under the SAVE plan to “quickly transition to a legally compliant repayment plan.”

“Borrowers in SAVE cannot access important loan benefits and cannot make progress toward loan discharge programs authorized by Congress,” she said.

‘Unnecessary interest charges’

Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, blasted the department’s decision in a statement Wednesday.

“Instead of fixing the broken student loan system, Secretary McMahon is choosing to drown millions of people in unnecessary interest charges and blaming unrelated court cases for her own mismanagement,” he said.

“Every day, we hear from borrowers waiting on hold with their servicer for hours, begging the government to let them out of this forbearance, and help them get back on track — instead, McMahon is choosing to jack up the cost of their student debt without giving them a way out.”

The agency has taken heat for its sweeping actions in the months since President Donald Trump took office as he and his administration look to dismantle the department.

The department is also mired in a legal challenge over some of its most significant efforts so far, including laying off more than 1,300 employees earlier this year as part of a reduction in force effort, an executive order calling on McMahon to facilitate the closure of her own agency and Trump’s proposal to transfer some services to other federal agencies. These actions have been temporarily halted in court.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump signed a massive tax and spending cut bill into law last week, part of which forces any borrower under the SAVE plan to opt in to a different repayment plan by July 1, 2028, or be automatically placed in a new, income-based repayment plan. 

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 US Education Department to revive student loan interest for borrowers in SAVE program 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: Center-Right

This article presents the developments around the federal student loan SAVE plan primarily through a critical lens toward the Biden administration’s policies, emphasizing legal challenges and statements from Education Secretary Linda McMahon, a Trump appointee, who frames the administration’s actions as unlawful and fiscally irresponsible. It includes critical commentary from conservative officials and frames the Biden-era policies as politically motivated. Although it also quotes critics of the Education Department’s decision, the overall tone and source choices suggest a center-right leaning, reflecting skepticism of progressive loan forgiveness policies while focusing on legal and fiscal accountability.

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News from the South - Arkansas News Feed

Ceasefire & trade deal talks ongoing at White House

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www.youtube.com – THV11 – 2025-07-09 09:03:54

SUMMARY: The White House expects a Gaza ceasefire deal by the end of the week following Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s third visit to Washington in the Trump administration. Talks involve a 60-day pause in fighting, hostage releases, and partial Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza, aiming to resolve the conflict while dismantling Hamas’s military and governance. Meanwhile, President Trump reiterated an August 1 tariff deadline, refusing extensions for trade deals. The Supreme Court has also allowed the president to proceed with significant federal workforce layoffs, impacting nearly two dozen agencies, as part of government downsizing efforts.

Here’s the latest on where negotiations stand now, along with President Trump’s recent moves on tariffs.

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