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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A second former Arkansas law enforcement officer who pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of a man he kicked during a violent arrest in 2022 that was caught on video has been sentenced to one year in prison. U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey on Thursday sentenced former Crawford County sheriff's deputy Zackary King to prison, with credit for any time served in federal custody, according to court documents. King agreed in April to plead guilty to one count of deprivation of rights under color of law during t...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Another wave of severe storms pummeled a wide swath of the United States and Canada, leading to flash floods and water rescues Wednesday in the Ozark Mountains, dropping a tornado that ravaged a community in upstate New York and stranding drivers in high water around Toronto. The relentless series of storms has caused deaths or damage from the Plains to New England this week. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost power and air conditioning during days of sweltering heat. As much as 11 inches (nearly 28 c...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Organizers of an effort to scale back Arkansas' abortion ban said they have more than enough signatures to try to put their proposal before voters in November's election. Arkansans for Limited Government submitted petitions said they turned in more than the 90,704 signatures from registered voters needed to qualify. Election officials now must begin checking the validity of the signatures. The submission brings to six the number of states where election officials are validating signatures on abortion measures. T...
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court upheld the state's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youths Friday, rejecting pleas from parents that it violates their right to decide on and seek medical care for their children. The 8-1 ruling from the all-Republican court leaves in place a law that has been in effect since Sept. 1, 2023. Texas is the largest of at least 25 states that have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The Texas law prevents transgender people under 18 from a...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Seven more Republican-led states sued Tuesday to challenge a new federal regulation that seeks to protect the rights of transgender students in the nation's schools. Republican plaintiffs call the effort to fold protection for transgender students under the 1972 Title IX law unconstitutional. The lawsuits filed in federal courts in Missouri and Oklahoma are the latest GOP attempts to halt the new regulation seeking to clarify Title IX, a landmark 1972 sex discrimination law originally passed to address women's rights an...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas on Tuesday ordered the subsidiary of a Chinese-owned company to divest itself of 160 acres (774,400 square yards) of agricultural land, the first such action under a wave of new laws across the country restricting foreign ownership of farmland. Attorney General Tim Griffin said Northrup King Seed Co. has two years to divest the property in Craighead County under legislation passed by the majority-Republican Legislature and signed by GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year. Northrup is a subsidiary o...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge struck down Arkansas' first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming care for children as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such a prohibition as a growing number of Republican-led states adopt similar restrictions. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-affirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18. Arkansas' law, which Moody temporarily blocked in 2021...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The push to restrict health care for transgender people has expanded beyond children, with Missouri placing new limits on gender-affirming care for both adults and minors. The restrictions highlight how rapidly states' efforts targeting the rights of transgender people have grown this year, despite new obstacles from the courts and the Biden administration. Here's what's happening: WHAT'S THE STATUS OF BILLS TARGETING TRANSGENDER PEOPLE? More than 450 bills have been introduced in statehouses around the country this y...
WYNNE, Ark. (AP) — Storms that dropped possibly dozens of tornadoes killed at least 21 people in small towns and big cities across the South and Midwest, tearing a path through the Arkansas capital, collapsing the roof of a packed concert venue in Illinois, and stunning people throughout the region Saturday with the damage's scope. Confirmed or suspected tornadoes in at least eight states destroyed homes and businesses, splintered trees and laid waste to neighborhoods across a broad swath of the country. The dead included at least seven in o...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed legislation making it easier to sue providers of gender-affirming care for children, a move that could effectively reinstate a blocked ban on such care. Sanders on Monday signed the new law, which won't take effect until this summer. It would allow anyone who received gender-affirming care as a minor to file a malpractice lawsuit against their doctor for up to 15 years after they turn 18. Under current Arkansas law, medical malpractice claims must be filed within two years...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas law enforcement officer who held down a man while two others beat him during an arrest recorded on video is back on the job after he did not face any criminal charges. Mulberry Police Officer Thell Riddle was reinstated and returned to work Friday, Chief Shannon Gregory confirmed Tuesday. The decision came after a state prosecutor last week said she wouldn't be charging him and a federal grand jury earlier declined to indict him. A bystander used a cellphone to record Riddle and two former Crawford County s...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Two former Arkansas law enforcement officers are charged with civil rights violations in the violent arrest of a man outside a convenience store that was caught on video and widely shared on social media, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Former Crawford County sheriff's deputies Zack King and Levi White are charged in the Aug. 21 arrest of 27-year-old Randal Worcester outside a convenience store in the small town of Mulberry, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, near the border with O...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is considering running for president, on Tuesday called a third Donald Trump White House bid the "worst scenario" for Republicans and said his call for terminating parts of the Constitution hurts the country. In an interview with The Associated Press, Hutchinson said he planned to make a decision early next year on whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination. Hutchinson, 72, leaves office in January after serving eight years as Arkansas' governor. He's part of a growing cohort of R...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Republicans have claimed key victories in state Supreme Court races that will give them an advantage in major redistricting fights, while Democrats notched similarly significant wins with help from groups focused on defending abortion access. The expensive fights over court control in several states in Tuesday's election highlight just how partisan the formerly low-key judicial races have become. Observers say they're a sign of what to expect as legal battles over abortion, voting rights and other issues are being f...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Voters in five states are deciding on Election Day whether to approve recreational marijuana, a move that could signal a major shift toward legalization in even the most conservative parts of the country. The proposals are on the ballot in Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and South Dakota and follow moves by President Joe Biden toward decriminalizing marijuana. Biden last month announced he was pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law. Advocates of the mari...
Surrounded by states with abortion bans that took effect after Roe v. Wade fell, Illinois is one of the few places where the procedure remains legal in the Midwest. Abortion-rights supporters are worried that might not last. Their concern is shared in at least a half-dozen states, and this year it's not just about state legislatures. In Illinois, Democrats hold a supermajority, and the governor, a Democrat, is expected to win reelection. Instead, Republicans could be on the verge of winning control of the Illinois Supreme Court, where Democrats...
MULBERRY, Ark. (AP) — Federal authorities said Monday they have started a civil rights investigation following the suspension of three Arkansas law enforcement officers after a video posted on social media showed two of them beating a man while a third officer held him on the ground. The officers were responding to a report of a man making threats outside a convenience store Sunday in the small town of Mulberry, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, near the border with Oklahoma, authorities said. Arkansas State Police s...
A Texas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from investigating families of transgender children who have received gender-confirming medical care, a new obstacle to the state labeling such treatments as child abuse. The temporary restraining order issued by Judge Jan Soifer halts investigations against three families who sued, and prevents any similar investigations against members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. The group has more than 600 members in Texas. "I do find that there is sufficient reason to believe that the...
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was quick to react to this week's carnage at a Texas elementary school, sending a tweet listing the gun control measures the Democratic-controlled state has taken. He finished with: "Your turn Congress." But gun control measures are likely going nowhere in Congress, and they also have become increasingly scarce in most states. Aside from several Democratic-controlled states, the majority have taken no action on gun control in recent years or have moved aggressively to expand gun rights. That's b...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — As the omicron variant rages and fills up hospital beds around the country, Republican governors are highlighting their opposition to restrictions that have marked the COVID-19 pandemic even as they seek to move past it and set their agendas for the year. The state of the state addresses governors are delivering to kick off their states' legislative sessions are occurring as COVID-19 hospitalizations surge to their highest levels since the pandemic began in 2020 and soaring infections are disrupting seemingly all a...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday effectively approved a new law that will allow employees to opt-out of COVID-19 vaccine requirements, a move by fellow Republicans to challenge federal vaccine mandates. Hutchinson allowed the measure to become law without his signature despite his concerns about the impact it will have on businesses in the state. The new law won't take effect until early next year. In Arkansas, a bill becomes law after it sits on the governor's desk for five days without any action. G...
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A former Arkansas sheriff's deputy was charged Friday with manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a white teenager whose death has drawn the attention of national civil rights activists. A special prosecutor announced the felony charge against Michael Davis, a former sergeant with the Lonoke County Sheriff's Office, in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Hunter Brittain. Davis faces between three and 10 years in prison if convicted. Davis shot Brittain during a June 23 traffic stop outside an auto repair shop along A...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — An Arkansas judge on Friday temporarily blocked the state from enforcing its ban on mask mandates after lawmakers left the prohibition in place despite a rising number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox issued a preliminary injunction against the law that Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed in April banning mask requirements by governmental entities. The ban was being challenged by two lawsuits, including one from an east Arkansas school district where more than 900 staff and students a...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — As U.S. regulators weigh giving the final stamp of approval for certain COVID-19 vaccines, governors in states hard hit by the pandemic hope the move will help persuade the many holdouts in their states to finally get the shot. The governors of Arkansas and Ohio — where cases and hospitalizations are climbing — have appealed publicly in recent days for full approval, saying it would help combat vaccine hesitancy and could also clear the way for more businesses to require their employees to be inoculated. It's a topic...
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas lawmakers on Tuesday made the state the first to ban gender confirming treatments and surgery for transgender youth, enacting the prohibition over the governor's objections. The Republican-controlled House and Senate voted to override GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson's veto of the measure, which prohibits doctors from providing gender confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment. Opponents of the measure have vowed t...
