News

No major flight delays are being reported at Arkansas airports on Monday as furloughs kick in for air traffic controllers. Flights were running smoothly Monday morning at the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Highfill. 

Government budget cuts forced the Federal Aviation Administration to furlough its employees, including 15,000 air traffic controllers. Sunday was the first day the controllers were subject to the furloughs, which require workers to lose one day of work every other week.

Kmart says some customer information may have been compromised during an armed robbery of its store in Little Rock last month. Kmart said Monday that it's notifying pharmacy customers about the March 17 robbery. 

The company says the gunman took "electronic media" that backed up the pharmacy's computer system. Kmart says the device included confidential information, including a customer's name, address, date of birth, prescription number, prescriber and drug name.

Work is to begin to replace a storm drain in a Mayflower subdivision where an ExxonMobil pipeline ruptured on March 29 and spilled thousands of barrels of oil.

Faulkner County Judge Allen Dodson told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that work to excavate and replace the drain that collected oil runoff is to begin Monday.

Dodson says the project will take 10 to 14 days to complete.

Dodson says replacement of the drainage system will include removal of contaminated soil and precautionary sampling to ensure complete cleanup.

The chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee joined Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas for a tour of the oil spill cleanup site at Mayflower northwest of Little Rock and both said they believe ExxonMobil is doing everything possible to clean up the site. 

Republican U.S. Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania joined Griffin for the tour Sunday. ExxonMobil Pipeline Company's Pegasus pipeline ruptured in Mayflower on March 29th and spilled thousands of barrels of oil.

Michael Juiliano – aka Hot Dog Mike – has returned to Little Rock and will be helping raise money for public radio on Tuesday, April 23, during our spring fund drive.

We hope you will make a donation online or by calling 501-569-8485 or 1-800-952-2528!

An Arkansas lawmaker is apologizing for the timing - but not the content - of a tweet he sent questioning whether "Boston liberals" wished they had an assault weapon to protect themselves while police searched for a Boston Marathon bombing suspect.

Republican Rep. Nate Bell on Friday morning posted on Twitter: "I wonder how many Boston liberals spent the night cowering in their homes wishing they had an AR-15 with a hi-capacity magazine?" Bell's comments rapidly spread online, as police hunted for a suspect in Monday's Boston Marathon bombing that killed three.

A package of tax cuts that's estimated to eventually cost the state more than $140 million a year is headed to Gov. Mike Beebe's desk.

The House on Friday approved a dozen bills that include cuts in the state's taxes on income, capital gains and manufacturers' utility bills. The package also includes tax breaks for farmers and armed service members.

The total tax cut package is estimated to cost the state $10.7 million in the coming fiscal year, nearly $97 million the next year and will eventually cost more than $140 million annually.

A proposal to ban most lobbyist gifts to elected officials, prohibit corporate contributions and loosen Arkansas' term limits for legislators will appear on the ballot next year.

By a 76-3 vote, the House approved a proposal to let voters decide on adding a package of ethics and campaign finance rules to the state's constitution. The measure also would set up an independent commission to set salaries for state elected officials.

Arkansas voters will get to decide whether to toughen the requirements to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot through the petition process after the state House gave final approval to the measure Friday.

Senate Joint Resolution 16 would require that signatures be 75 percent correct for petitioners to receive additional time to collect the full, required number of signatures.

Representative Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, said the amendment is needed in light of a high number of fake or incorrect names that were turned in on petitions before the last election.

After surrendering its supply of a lethal injection drug to federal agents in 2011, Arkansas turned to a somewhat surprising place to look for another drug: a list prepared by lawyers for several death row inmates.

The state Department of Correction told The Associated Press this week that it decided to switch to phenobarbital after lawyers for several inmates said in a lawsuit that it might be an available drug.