Local & Regional News

Arkansas is set to provide a new steel company with $125 million in financing and tax breaks to build a mill in the northeast part of the state now that the Legislature has given final approval to the plan.

The Arkansas House has approved a package of proposals that would cut state income taxes, capital gains taxes, and reduce taxes paid by manufacturers.

The measures approved by lawmakers Tuesday are part of the estimated $100 million in total tax cuts that legislative leaders say they want to pass this session. The vote came several hours after the House approved the Medicaid 'private option' bill that Gov. Mike Beebe says would provide the savings to fund some of the proposed tax cuts.

To honor the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” over 200 6th graders from Horace Mann Magnet Middle School in Little Rock participated in special programs at the Clinton Presidential Library. 

King’s letter challenged white church leaders in Birmingham and people across the nation to confront and end racism. Kathleen Pate, the library’s education specialist, says students learned more about the history surrounding the letter and analyzed the meaning behind King’s words. 

The Arkansas Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is filing a federal lawsuit challenging a new abortion law that is among the most restrictive in the country. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Dr. Louis Jerry Edwards and Dr. Tom Tvedten, who provide abortions at a Little Rock clinic.

By a vote of 77 to 23, the Arkansas House passed a bill that would allow funding to a plan to take federal money intended for Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and use it for private insurance for the state's adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level.

The funding bill must still me approved by the Senate. It requires a 3/4 majority in both chambers to pass. A bill laying out the plan has passed both the House and Senate with smaller majorities than required for the appropriation bill required to implement the plan.