News

As opposition continues against a newly permitted industrial swine-breeding farm now operating in the watershed of the protected Buffalo National River in Newton County, its owners have remained mostly silent until Monday when members of the media were invited for a tour.

Campbell and Henson (C&H) Hog Farms is situated along a rugged mountain bench about 20 miles southeast of downtown Jasper. From the outside its new double-barn confined feeding animal operation (CAFO) looks ordinary, inside 824 large pink sows will soon give birth.

A task force formed by lawmakers has begun looking at options for replacing a veterans' home in Little Rock that closed last year.

The Arkansas Veterans' Home Task Force on Tuesday held its first meeting at the state Capitol since the panel was created by the state Legislature earlier this year.

The 22-member committee is charged with coming up with recommendations for the location,  size and funding for replacing the now-closed facility.  

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel will have an announcement Tuesday at 3 pm regarding the Mayflower Oil Spill.

His office has been conducting an extensive investigation into the rupture of a pipeline owned by ExxonMobil. 

McDaniel has said the investigation is a precursor to litigation. There’s no more specifics on what he will discuss.

More than 200,000 gallons of raw crude spilled on March 29th. Since then the oil giant has had a small army of workers cleaning up the affected areas.

Officials in Sebastian County say some of the 65 dogs seized from an alleged puppy mill in Waldron have severe health problems. 

County Humane Society Director JoAnn Barton says the some of the dogs rescued last week need treatment for malnutrition and that some of the females have been bred too many times. They were all kept in cramped conditions.

The Southwest Times Record reports some dogs' bones were so brittle that rescuers had to be careful not to break their jaws when brushing the animals' teeth. Three dogs have died.

Organizers haven't set a date yet but the restoration of the Johnny Cash home in Dyess is on track to open in 2014. 

The project by Arkansas State University also includes restoration of a nearby theater and the Dyess Colony administration building. The structures should be ready for visitors in fall of next year.

The home is being renovated to look as it did when the Cash family moved to the Dyess Colony in 1935 in the middle of the Great Depression.

Little Rock police have released the names of two people found slain at a home.

Police say 40-year-old Bobby Broadway Jr. and 32-year-old Natasha Avery were found dead at a home Monday morning after a man who tried to reach Broadway by phone went to the residence.

A police report says the victims had been shot. The person who called police found Broadway in a front room and Avery in a bedroom at a home on West 33rd St. The report listed the address as the home of both victims.

The heads of the annual Arkansas Poll and a professor of animal science will lead the University of Arkansas' Faculty Senate in the next academic year.

Janine Parry is a professor of political science at the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences and will lead the faculty group beginning in the fall. The vice chair will be Charles Rosenkrans of the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

To mark the 225th anniversary of the U.S. Constitution, a new public television series featuring NPR host Peter Sagal will debut Tuesday, May 7, at 8 p.m. on AETN.

To celebrate the series, KUAR's Jacob Kauffman interviewed Sagal, starting with a special Arkansas news quiz he made for Sagal with a Constitutional bend. 

Congressman Tim Griffin (R) says Fourth District Cong. Tom Cotton will be the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2014 even if “he doesn’t know it yet.”

Griffin appeared on Talk Business Arkansas this week to discuss the Senate race, GOP politics and the latest from the Pegasus pipeline oil spill in Mayflower.

The number of rabies cases in Arkansas has increased to 84 so far this year.

Pope, Johnson, Yale and Garland Counties are reported to have the most number of cases.

State Public Health Veterinarian, Dr. Susan Weinstein, calls the increase very alarming and says pets and kids need to be protected.

“Our normal yearly average is about 50 rabid animals a year and we’re up to 84, but we’re not even half way through the year. So it appears that we’re on track to have a record year this year,” said Weinstein.