Featured Articles

Explore a featured selection of my writing work below.

Standard Lithium execs say $225 million federal grant could be delayed - Arkansas Times

Standard Lithium executives said during an earnings call Thursday that they do not expect advancement of their projects in Arkansas to be impacted in the medium term by the ongoing dispute over royalty rates for the extraction of lithium-rich brine in the Smackover formation in the southwest part of the state.“Obviously we are somewhat disappointed that the application was not approved on Nov. 5. However, we understand the complexity of the decision for the commissioners,” Dave Park, Standard Li...

Study finds sharp rise in Arkansas child labor violations in years before state rolled back work permit law - Arkansas Times

Child labor violations in Arkansas more than tripled over the last few years, according to a new study by Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families — but a new law passed by the state Legislature in 2023 may have made it harder to track the exploitation of children in the workforce. The AACF report, released Monday, is based on an analysis of state and federal data. AACF found the number of child labor violations in Arkansas increased 266% between fiscal years 2020 and 2021 and fiscal years 2...

Garland County re-elects JP arrested for underage drinking, possession of fake IDs - Arkansas Times

A 21-year-old Republican who resigned from his post as a justice of the peace in Garland County after he was caught using fake identification to purchase alcohol at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort will become justice of the peace again after a victory Tuesday night. The Hot Springs Police Department arrested Dayton Myers in August 2023 after surveillance cameras at Oaklawn showed Myers, who was 20 at the time, gambling and drinking booze. Police said he had been using fake IDs from other states to...

An Arkansas mother's near-death experience with 'pro-life' abortion ban - Arkansas Times

2:37 p.m.Friday, Oct. 18. That time will forever be etched in Kayla Moore’s memory. It was when doctors finally gave her medication to induce labor during which her 18-week-old daughter died and Moore almost died too, hemorrhaging so much in the hospital room that she had to have blood transfusions to save her life. Moore’s experience is one of many horrific stories about how abortion bans threaten the lives of pregnant women across the United States. Moore, who lives in Fayetteville, wanted to...

Trichinosis or treat: Liability laws for pumpkin patches and agritourism a mixed bag  - Arkansas Times

It all seemed innocent enough. Cows. A bunch of them. And the kids who wanted to pet them at a pumpkin patch in the rural community of Dayton, Minnesota. It was October 2013, and the owners of Dehn’s Pumpkins decided to oblige their young guests’ bovine curiosity, allowing the children to pet and feed the cattle through a metal fence. But aside from the 60 or so cows in the enclosure, there were also thousands of pounds of cow manure on the ground, on the cows’ hides and on the gate the children...

There's an international bird flu summit in Arkansas this week, and this is why it is important - Arkansas Times

With the race on to investigate the first possible human-to-human infections of bird flu in the United States, avian flu experts from around the world are meeting in Fayetteville this week to contain the spread.This is the second year for the International Avian Influenza and One Health Emerging Issues Summit, a four-day conference held virtually and in-person at the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences in Fayetteville, part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The...