Lara Farrar

I am an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of domestic and global experience, covering regional, national and international stories from Arkansas, Boston, New York, London, Latin America, North Africa, Southeast Asia and Asia, including China, where I was based for nearly a decade. In 2023, I was awarded a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism Data Fellowship and Engagement Grant to fuel a data-driven investigative approach for a multi-part series focusing on government policy, specifically the regulatory framework for child psychiatric facilities in Arkansas. I specialize in geopolitical analysis, public health, trade, technology, supply chain management, brand management, authoritarian regimes, censorship, higher education, agriculture, clean energy, climate change, and general human interest reporting. My reporting has won numerous state, regional and national awards. My clients include CNN, CNN International, the Wall Street Journal, McClatchy, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Women's Wear Daily, the Economist, The New York Times, WBUR-Boston, the Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor, and Vogue Canada, among others. Public relations clients include: Morgan Stanley, Weber Shandwick, Ogilvy, and Youku.com.

Portfolio Samples

Arkansas Business — Business News, Real Estate, La •

Reading The Future: Aerospace & Defense (40 Years of Arkansas Business)

Editor’s note: This article is part of a special magazine celebrating 40 years of Arkansas Business. The full magazine is available here.

The aerospace and defense sector continues to rapidly take off in Arkansas.

In 2022, aerospace and defense exports made up more than 15% of the state’s total exports with more than $890 million in goods exported, according to the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Aerospace and aviation products are now the state’s leading exports in terms of the doll

How to harvest solar power? Beam it down from space! - CNN.com

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Jyoti is the Hindi word for light. It's something Pranav Mehta has never had to live without. And he is lucky. Near where he lives in Gujarat, one of the most prosperous states in India, thousands of rural villages lack electricity or struggle with an intermittent supply at best.

"We need to empower these villages, and for empowerment, energy is a must," Mehta said. "Rural India is suffering a lot because of a lack of energy."

By 2030, India's Planning Commission estim

Can green cellphones ring the changes in mobile industry? - CNN.com

(CNN) -- The next time you go to throw away your old mobile phone, Gert-Jan van Breugel hopes you bury it in a garden instead of tossing it in a garbage can.

That is of course if the cellphone you're using is the biodegradable bamboo handset he's designed with bamboo seeds implanted in its case that should start to sprout when the mobile disintegrates in the ground.

The phone is also energy independent -- a three-minute turn of the crank on its back provides enough power for a (short) phone ca

Can cleantech China teach the West how to be green? - CNN.com

SHANGHAI, China (CNN) -- For Dr. Xingyi Xu, the grass used to be greener on the other side.

Chinese engineer Xu spent a decade developing electric vehicle systems for Ford Motor Co. in America. In 2002, he decided to return to China to develop electric vehicle systems of his own.

"There are many guys like me," said Xu, founder of Shanghai Kinway Technologies, a small start-up specializing in motors for electric cars and manufacturing equipment.

"China offers a very good platform and environme
Arkansas Business — Business News, Real Estate, La •

Southern Bancorp Using Fintech to Help the Poor

Here’s a surprising fact: Mississippi has more payday loan shops than it has McDonald’s, Starbucks and Burger Kings combined. That’s according to Darrin Williams, CEO of Southern Bancorp Inc., a community development financial institution that’s focused on underserved, impoverished populations primarily in Arkansas and Mississippi.

Williams highlighted this during a keynote address he made at the 2023 VenCent Fintech Summit, organized last month by The Venture Center of Little Rock. I was leavi
Arkansas Business — Business News, Real Estate, La •

Arkansas Rates of Infant, Maternal Mortality Raise Alarm

Dr. Nirvana Manning said that since she began working as an OB-GYN at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock almost two decades ago, a troubling trend has emerged: More women are coming to the hospital with high-risk pregnancies.

“I have practiced at UAMS now for 16 years and the acuity and the illness that we have seen has taken a straight trajectory up over that time,” Manning said. “The comorbidities that are coming in — the obesity, the chronic hypertension, the diab
Arkansas Business — Business News, Real Estate, La •

French Hill: US Should Take 'Targeted' Approach to Oversight of Outbound Investments

Republican U.S. Rep. French Hill of Arkansas is not opposed to passing legislation that would prevent American companies from investing in Chinese enterprises that develop specific types of technologies that could threaten American intelligence operations or security interests.

The lawmaker said recent reports that he is against government scrutiny of outbound investments by American companies to China have misrepresented his stance. It has been “completely misreported,” he said.

“I am not opp

From the Trenches - Archaeology Magazine

An 11,000-year-old shale pendant engraved with an enigmatic network of lines has been discovered at Star Carr in North Yorkshire, England. The Mesolithic site was among the first in the British Isles to have been permanently settled after the end of the last Ice Age, during which Britain was likely depopulated. The engravings are similar to those found on amber pendants from the same period in Denmark, which was then accessible by land from Britain. Researchers believe the engravings may depict
USC Center for Health Journalism •

A broken system: Investigating youth psychiatric residential treatment facilities in Arkansas

Several weeks after checking her 11-year-old daughter into a psychiatric residential treatment facility in Arkansas, Katie James raced back to the state from her rural home in Montana after learning from her daughter there had been a riot inside Perimeter Behavioral of the Ozarks in Springdale.

“Big stuff went down,” James said her daughter recounted. “The fire department came, police came, girls started running and tried to escape. One made it all the way to the fence. Some were escorted off i

Can Chinese media rule the airwaves? - CNN.com

Beijing, China (CNN) -- At a time when many Western media outlets are contracting, Chinese media outlets are expanding, rapidly.

Beijing is pouring billions into the country's state-run media machine, which is churning out new TV networks, radio stations and newspapers aimed at foreign audiences.

But there are gaps emerging for non-state broadcasters to operate.

One such TV station is Blue Ocean Network (BON TV) that is owned and operated by Chinese from within China. It hopes to offer Americ
Arkansas Business — Business News, Real Estate, La •

State Does About-Face On China

Four years ago, then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined state and local officials and the Chinese management team of Hefei Risever Machinery Co. Ltd. for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the company’s $20 million plant in the Craighead Technology Park.

Attracting Chinese investments was fashionable back then. Jonesboro beat out 69 other cities for Risever’s first production facility outside of China.

First announced in 2017, the 125,000-SF plant was expected to create 130 jobs. The Jonesboro Economic Dev
Arkansas Business — Business News, Real Estate, La •

Keeping Tabs on the Justices

In 2011 and 2012, an Arkansas Supreme Court justice disclosed $62,000 in travel given to her by a Fayetteville attorney.

Since then, justices have reported only minor travel expenses — including, for example, one justice’s combined $1,676 in expenses to attend conferences in California and Arkansas in 2017 and 2018.

But recent revelations regarding gifts to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have renewed questions about the oversight of high court judges and their finances.

“Judges ar
FRANCE 24 •

Arkansas tornado kills 3, Midwest storms leave 3 dead

Washington (AFP) – A tornado tore through the southern US state of Arkansas and killed three people on Friday, while severe storms further north in Illinois and Indiana left three dead, authorities said.

The Arkansas tornado whipped across the state in the afternoon, causing what Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders called "widespread damage."

Sanders said two people were killed in the town of Wynne in the eastern part of Arkansas, while an official in Pulaski County, which surrounds the capital Li

OPINION | EDITORIAL: Ivermectin | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

"The FDA has not authorized or approved Ivermectin for the treatment or prevention of covid-19 in people or animals. Ivermectin has not shown to be safe or effective for these indications."--the FDA's website

This isn't the first generation to suspect doctors, science and "experts"--a word that should always come with scare quotes. Voltaire assured his more credulous readers that witchcraft could "effectually destroy a flock of sheep. If administered with a sufficient portion of arsenic."

Lara

Arkansas regulators doing little to stop use of Ivermectin for covid-19 despite safety warnings from doctors, FDA | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

ARKADELPHIA -- A few months ago, William Burks, owner of Clark County Livestock Feed, had enough veterinary-grade Ivermectin on his shelves to cover sales of the anti-parasitic drug for at least the next two years.

[LINK: Click here to read the FDA's report on Ivermectin for covid » arkansasonline.com/1031fda/]

Now, he's almost sold out.

All Burks has left are a few containers of the topical version of the de-worming medication, which farmers ordinarily buy to rub on horses, cows or hogs to g

Covid fuels Delta's rising hunger | Arkansas Democrat Gazette

TUCKERMAN -- A year ago, the only food pantry in this tiny Delta town served between 500 and 700 boxes of groceries to individuals and families every month.

Since the onslaught of the pandemic in March, the pantry, operated by the nonprofit group Every Child Is Ours, has nearly doubled its output, distributing sometimes more than 1,200 boxes of groceries every month to households in town as well as surrounding communities such as Grubbs, Amagon and Jacksonport.

"We get new ones every week," Lo
WWD •

Singles Day Sets Records Even as Growth Rate Slows

SHENZHEN — Alibaba sold nearly $18 billion worth of products and services during this year’s annual Singles Day shopping festival — a figure that trounces last year’s record of more than $14 billion worth of transactions for the 24-hour spending binge. But that reflects overall slower year-on-year growth, raising questions about the strength of consumer demand in China against the backdrop of an economic slowdown here.

The Chinese e-commerce giant tallies GMV, or general merchandise value, a me
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

In China, Duke U. Navigates a Foreign Landscape

The road to China has not been smooth for Duke University.

The prestigious college’s effort to open a campus here has been beset by construction problems, Chinese red tape, and faculty debates back home in Durham, N.C., about the value and cost of the venture. The opening of the 40-acre campus, which is located outside Shanghai, has been delayed several times.

But after five years, Duke finally welcomed students to the campus in October. Administrators at Duke Kunshan University, as the new in
The Chronicle of Higher Education •

Disabled Chinese Students Face Many Barriers to Higher Education

Mike, a 13-year-old who lives on the outskirts of this city of 21 million with his family, is gifted. He plays the piano by ear, and most afternoons, practices singing Italian opera. Yet Mike, whose family has requested that his Chinese name not be used, may never be able to go to a university, much less high school, because he is almost completely blind.

Now in junior high, the teenager has no special assistance in class, which means he has to navigate the curriculum by himself. It takes him h
McClatchy Washington Bureau •

China’s young adults: Directionless, unhappy, but unlikely to rebel

For two days, Rocky had been playing video games in the tiny apartment he shares with three other men in Shanghai, a city of 23 million. He left only once, to buy food. The games “help me relax,” he said. “It helps me escape. I feel so tired.”

In June, the 32-year-old quit his job as a salesman with a traditional Chinese medicine company. His monthly wage was a meager $400. Rocky has had nearly a dozen jobs since he graduated from college a decade ago. His mother, who lived in a poor village in
The New York Times •

In Myanmar, Classrooms Provide Litmus Test of Change (Published 2013)

YANGON, Myanmar — Moe Sat, a 23-year-old physics major at Myingyan Degree College near Mandalay, said that there were so many students in class that no one could hear the teachers.

“Mostly students just stay for the roll call and then leave,” he said, adding that bribing professors for good grades and cheating on exams are common practices.

Computers are so prized that students are often not allowed to use them, while science labs often lack equipment, Mr. Moe Sat said.

Because there are no d
CNN •

Chinese petitioners claim hotel used as ‘black jail’ | Business

The only souvenir that Xie Jinghua has from her stay at a Holiday Inn Express located in a vast tourism park alongside the East China Sea is a room key.

The 52-year-old said she was not able to buy any of the beach toys in the lobby, walk around a lake nearby, or enjoy the ocean just outside of her window. Xie was there, she said, because she was forced to be - held in a hotel room for eight days after she and her 56-year-old husband, Ma Haiming, traveled to Beijing in March to protest the comp
CNN •

How the internet and Silicon Valley are changing China’s office politics | Business

For more than a year, Chris Bayer, a Canadian student, waited tables alongside Chinese migrant workers in a restaurant in Shanghai. While there he received an intimate glimpse of what work life is like for millions in mainland China.

“Nothing was ever really clear,” said Bayer, who is now back in Canada. “In the West, people state their mind. In China, there was no sharing of ideas. When it came to new processes, no one ever offered any input. There was no teamwork. People were so afraid of doi
CNN •

China cracks down on websites allegedly spreading coup rumors

China’s major microblogging sites have suspended comments sections after being “punished for allowing rumors to spread” of a coup attempt in Beijing, state-run media reported Saturday.

Sina’s Weibo and Tencent’s QQ – Chinese versions of Twitter, which is banned in the mainland – will stop use of comment function on the popular sites to “clean up rumors and other illegal information spread through microbloggings,” according to Xinhua.

The comments sections will be disabled until Tuesday. The mi
Load More