Latest news with #ArkansasAdvocate
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas Supreme Court sends AG's FOIA lawsuit against prison board back to circuit court
The Arkansas Supreme Court building in Little Rock. (John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a lower court's dismissal of the attorney general's lawsuit against the state prison board for violating the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. The ruling, written by Associate Justice Rhonda Wood for the six-member majority, sends the case back to Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox for adjudication. Attorney General Tim Griffin filed the lawsuit on Dec. 15, 2023, alleging the Arkansas Board of Corrections violated the FOIA when it entered executive session during a pair of public meetings and improperly hired an outside attorney. Griffin also said the board failed to properly respond to a public records request from his office. Arkansas attorney general to appeal rulings in Board of Corrections disputes Fox gave Griffin 30 days to work with the corrections board on an agreement with an outside attorney to represent it. Fox dismissed the case without prejudice in January 2024, ruling Griffin's office failed to make an effort to initiate the statutory procedure that allows special counsel to represent state officials and entities. Griffin moved to vacate the circuit court's order, arguing his office could not certify special counsel until the board asked for legal representation, according to Thursday's order from the state Supreme Court. The attorney general typically represents state entities, but according to Thursday's order, Griffin argued his duty to represent the state corrections board depended on the board certifying its need for legal representation. 'He is correct,' Wood wrote, noting that the attorney general has no duty to represent state agencies until a certified request for services is made. '[Griffin's appeal] argues that the circuit court dismissed the action for his failure to accomplish what he legally did not have sole authority to do,' the order states. 'In response, the Board contends the circuit court had authority to dismiss the action under Arkansas Rule of Civil Procedure 41(b). Because we find the circuit court abused its discretion, we reverse and remand.' Special Justice Bud Cummins joined the decision, while Associate Justice Nicholas Bronni did not participate. The governor appointed Cummins, a former U.S. attorney, to replace Bronni, who recused himself from the case in January. Bronni served as the state's solicitor general in Griffin's office before Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed him to the high court in December. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Associate Justice Shawn Womack dissented. In his dissent, Womack writes that even though the circuit court was right to dismiss Griffin's lawsuit, the dismissal should have been with prejudice and because of sovereign immunity, a legal doctrine that the state cannot be sued in its own courts. The case should be reversed and dismissed, said Womack, who regularly cites sovereign immunity in court decisions. 'Obviously, in most situations when the State brings a lawsuit, sovereign immunity is not implicated because the lawsuit does not make the State a defendant,' he wrote. 'But in those rare instances when the State is both the plaintiff and the defendant—as it is here—sovereign immunity applies, and the underlying lawsuit is barred.' In a social media post, Griffin praised the high court's decision, which allows his suit to continue. 'I sued the Board of Corrections to defend our Freedom of Information Act. I am thankful for today's Arkansas Supreme Court decision, which will allow that lawsuit to go forward,' Griffin wrote. 'I take defending the FOIA seriously, and I will not tolerate those who violate it.' The lawsuit is part of a dispute between the corrections board and the executive branch that started in late 2023 over who has ultimate authority over the state's prison system. The board's refusal in November 2024 to approve a request to increase prison capacity by 500 beds prompted public criticism from Griffin and Sanders. The board responded by hiring an outside attorney the following month to represent it in employment matters. The board voted 3-2 to hire Abtin Mehdizadegan, a labor and employment lawyer with the Little Rock firm of Hall Booth Smith. The vote came with almost no discussion after a 45-minute closed-door session. Griffin quickly questioned the board's authority to hire outside counsel without obtaining his office's consent, citing state law that says the attorney general's office represents state officials and entities. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pulaski and Izard Counties subject to election integrity review by state board
From left, Chris Madison, director of the State Board of Election Commissioners, and commissioners William Luther, Jamie Clemmer and Bilenda Harris-Ritter. (Photo by Sonny Albarado/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas State Board of Election Commissioners on Wednesday authorized election integrity reviews for Pulaski and Izard counties. The board also voted unanimously to decertify all three members of an unnamed county's election commission after hearing the results of its staff's investigation of complaints about the 2024 general election. The board doesn't name counties when levying sanctions until the affected county and individuals have an opportunity to respond and either accept or challenge the proposed sanctions. State law allows the board to conduct election integrity reviews in the odd-numbered years following an election. The board can choose the counties randomly or by a two-thirds vote if it has received information a substantial violation of election or voter registration laws has occurred. The board issued a letter of reprimand earlier this month to Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth over violations of state election law during early voting last year. A deputy clerk changed the street addresses of 132 voters in a precinct file without authorization, according to the SBEC letter. Other clerk's office employees caught the changes two days later but not before four voters had cast the wrong ballots. The employee resigned shortly after the incident, the letter says. Unauthorized changes to voter records are considered a felony under A.C.A. 7-1-104, and the SBEC referred the matter to the Pulaski County prosecutor and the attorney general's Election Integrity Unit. The SBEC also issued a letter of warning to the Pulaski County clerk for failing to prevent unauthorized changes to voter records. The election integrity reviews approved by the state board Wednesday will seek to identify errors and any evidence of fraud in voter registration records and absentee voting documents as well as verify the accuracy and integrity of election results, according to ACA 7-4-124. No specific mention was made about the reason Izard County will be the subject of an election integrity review, but the board voted at its December meeting to refer complaints from election monitors to SBEC staff for investigation. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Separate votes by the seven-member SBEC mean the chairman of the unnamed county's election commission won't be able to work in an official election role for 14 years and the other two commissioners for eight years. SBEC Director Chris Madison said it would be up to the respective county political party committees to appoint new members to the election commission if the sanctions are accepted. County election commissions are composed of three members, two from the majority political party and one from the minority party. County election officials were the subject of six complaints to the state board, including two that referred to a hostile environment created by the election commission chair and poll supervisors toward poll watchers. The allegations included 'hostility and [an] overall lack of professionalism in dealing with poll watchers' and a failure by the chair and poll supervisors to 'recognize the rights and responsibilities of the poll watchers, thereby preventing the poll watchers from performing their duties,' SBEC legal counsel Waylan Cooper said. Cooper said the investigation found evidence supporting the allegations, including an incident when the county commission chairman called sheriff's deputies to remove a poll watcher after the poll supervisor tried to prevent the watcher from sitting in a chair that allowed a full view of the voting process. The chairman also raised his voice while telling poll watchers they were being ejected from the location, intimidating at least one potential watcher from participating further, Cooper said. 'The hostility toward poll watchers later spread' to another voting site in the same city on Election Day, Cooper said, when a disagreement between the poll supervisor and a poll watcher led to the supervisor's husband, who was also a poll worker, verbally accosting the watcher with profanity and telling the watcher to leave. 'The backstory is that there's two political factions in this community, and the election officials are on one side of a local issue and the poll watchers on the other,' Madison told the board. Madison made a similar remark about Izard County during the board's December meeting: '[Izard County] has a city that has two very engaged factions, and Hatfields and McCoys kind of comes to mind.' 'They have to be professional and adult enough to put aside that they don't like the people who are poll watchers and allow them to do their jobs,' SBEC member Sharon Brooks said. The law requires it and their training demands it, 'and they're not doing that,' she said. The board voted unanimously to decertify the supervisor and her husband for four years. Madison noted that the couple has since moved to another county and Clemmer's motion applies statewide. Regarding the allegations against the county commission chairman, SBEC member Bilenda Harris-Ritter said, 'I think it's unconscionable that the chair of the election commission is behaving like this … and encouraging other officials to behave like this.' Harris-Ritter offered the motion to decertify the commission chair for seven two-year federal election cycles, the maximum the state board can impose. Madison said the action was appropriate 'to help solve some problems up there.' The SBEC staff will be intimately involved in the county's election processes going forward, he said. The board voted separately to decertify the other two members of that county's election commission over a complaint that the commission didn't deliver provisional ballots to the clerk and secretary of state until a week after the deadline. Unlike in many Arkansas counties, the clerk there is not the election coordinator; another member of the election commission is the coordinator. In another case, the board voted to decertify an election commissioner in a different county for 14 years over his failure to show up on time to open a polling place at the start of early voting. Board members in support of decertification noted similar issues had happened in previous years. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Arkansas to test surface waters for PFAS, identify contamination sources
Arkansas will begin testing surface waters for PFAS using $1.8 million in grant funding. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission approved a $1.8 million grant to test surface waters for PFAS, the first known statewide effort to catalogue potential contamination from these 'forever chemicals.' PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of thousands of chemicals that don't break down naturally and have been linked to a number of health concerns, such as cancer. Revelations of PFAS' health implications — and how chemical companies knew for decades about the dangers they posed — have led to thousands of lawsuits, with many claiming it caused cancer. States, including Arkansas, have also sued. The Division of Environmental Quality will use the funding to test surface waters for contamination. DEQ submitted a pilot project proposal to the commission last year requesting funds from the emerging contaminants allocation of the state revolving loan fund, said Melony Martinez, Department of Energy and Environment spokesperson. The multi-year project will use a 'phased approach to evaluate potential sources of PFAS' along with how it enters state waters. 'DEQ proposes to evaluate the status of PFAS in Arkansas' waters before considering implementation of monitoring requirements, pretreatment requirements, or other permit conditions for PFAS as recommended by the EPA,' Martinez said. The Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration moved aggressively to regulate PFAS in drinking water and surface waters, and classified the chemicals as a hazardous substance under the federal Superfund law. The Trump EPA has begun efforts to roll back some of those policies. The EPA announced last week that drinking water limits on four PFAS chemicals would be scrapped, while limits on PFOA and PFOS — two of the most common chemicals in the group — would be kept, but would not go into effect until 2031, two years later than originally scheduled. However, the EPA also said in April that it plans to take extensive action on PFAS. 'We are tackling PFAS from all of EPA's program offices, advancing research and testing, stopping PFAS from getting into drinking water systems, holding polluters accountable, and providing certainty for passive receivers,' EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a press release. The EPA plans to list PFAS on the Toxic Release Inventory, a list of hazardous chemicals and substances, while making efforts to hold polluters responsible for PFAS contamination, according to the release. Arkansas, Tennessee, Wyoming and Washington D.C. do not have existing or planned PFAS standards or limits for drinking water, according to an April report by the Environmental Council of the States, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan association of state environmental agency leaders. Stacie Wassell, head of DEQ's Office of Water Quality, told commissioners Wednesday that identifying and addressing PFAS contamination at the source was more cost-effective than trying to do so during the drinking water treatment process. 'It would be much cheaper to prevent it from contaminating our waters of the state than to remove it on the backside after it's already been contaminated,' Wassell said. State regulators have suspected that sources of PFAS contamination exist in the state, outside of two known sites — the Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville and a former BASF facility in West Memphis. 'There are likely numerous other AFFF contamination sites in Arkansas that are yet to be investigated,' according to a DEQ memo written in March 2023 that was obtained via an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request. 'At present E&E has no information regarding dumping sites or industrial users of PFAs,' the memo reads. 'Industrial contamination sites likely exist in Arkansas, but due to lack of funding, equipment and human capital, no concerted, widespread investigation of PFAs contamination has occurred. … To date no field work has been done regarding PFAs.' AFFF is a type of firefighting foam used by the military and other entities due to its efficiency in putting out jet fuel fires, and is a leading cause of PFAS pollution.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas coalition submits proposal to protect ‘fundamental right' to direct democracy
Arkansas Public Policy Panel Executive Director Bill Kopsky discusses a proposed constitutional amendment to preserve direct democracy in Arkansas during a press conference at the state Capitol on May 19, 2025. Kopsky's organization is a member of Protect AR Rights, the ballot question committee that submitted its proposal to the attorney general's office on Monday. Other coalition members, including Kymara Seals (right) stand behind him. (Sonny Albarado/Arkansas Advocate) An Arkansas ballot question committee announced Monday it had submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to protect voters' right to direct democracy. The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment, sponsored by Protect AR Rights, would amend Article 5 Section 1 of the Arkansas Constitution, the section that governs the state's initiative and referendum process, to designate voters' right to propose laws and constitutional amendments that can be put to a statewide vote as a 'fundamental right.' This is the second such effort proposed this year in response to state lawmakers approving about a dozen direct democracy-related laws during the 2025 legislative session. Supporters of the new laws have said they will ensure the integrity of the initiative and referendum process, while opponents have argued it will make it more difficult for citizen-led initiatives to qualify for the ballot. The direct democracy process allows Arkansans to propose new laws or constitutional amendments and put them to a statewide vote. Arkansas is one of 24 states that allows citizen-led initiatives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Members of the six organizations that comprise the coalition behind Protect AR Rights gathered inside the Capitol to formally announce their ballot measure Monday. During the press conference, Arkansas Public Policy Panel Executive Director Bill Kopsky said their proposal 'strengthens three fundamental citizen rights' in the state Constitution — the right to propose ballot measures, the right to gather signatures on petitions and the right to sign a ballot measure petition. 'Sadly some politicians don't trust voters…and they've stripped the right to the ballot measure process away from us,' Kopsky said. 'They are rigging the rules to make it nearly impossible for everyday Arkansans to propose ballot measures to ask their fellow citizens to sign and support measures and to even sign one themselves. We must stand up to this unprecedented power grab.' Arkansas grassroots organizations seek to intervene in lawsuit challenging direct democracy laws The Arkansas Ballot Measure Rights Amendment would make several changes to the state's initiative and referendum process, including prohibiting the General Assembly from amending or repealing constitutional amendments that voters approved; current law allows lawmakers to do so by a two-thirds majority vote. The proposed measure would only grant that authority for initiated acts. The measure would also make changes to the signature-gathering process by prohibiting a requirement that signatures be collected from more than 15 counties. A 2023 law, which is being challenged in court, increased the threshold to 50 counties. If a qualified voter's signature is deemed insufficient and therefore will be disqualified and not counted, the proposed measure would require the elector to be notified and given at least 10 business days to correct 'any identified insufficiency.' Notification and a minimum cure period of 10 business days would also be required for the sponsors of a measure if there is a filing error. The proposed constitutional amendment would also require a ballot title challenge to be filed within 10 business days of the title's approval and be 'tried at once with expedited review if appealed.' Additionally, the measure defines petition fraud and declares it a criminal offense. The League of Women Voters of Arkansas is also pursuing its own proposed constitutional amendment aimed at protecting voters' right to direct democracy. Attorney General Tim Griffin has rejected the measure three times. In his most recent rejection earlier this month, Griffin cited a new law that prohibits ballot titles from being written above an eighth-grade reading level. This was the first time he rejected a proposed ballot measure under Act 602, which became law in April. Protect AR Rights tried to make its proposal 'as readable as possible,' but Kopsky said he doesn't think it's possible to meet the eighth-grade reading level and the clarity standard. For that reason, Protect AR Rights last week filed a motion to intervene in a League of Women Voters of Arkansas lawsuit challenging new state laws, he said. 'We believe we'll get injunctive relief,' Kopsky said. 'If we don't, we'll have to rethink our strategy.' The League of Women Voters of Arkansas' lawsuit alleges eight recently approved laws governing direct democracy violate the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution. Protect AR Rights noted in its motion to intervene that the committee wants to challenge additional laws not included in the lawsuit, including Act 602 of 2025. Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families is a member of the Protect AR Rights coalition. Executive Director Keesa Smith-Brantley said Monday that the group's goal is for the proposals from Protect AR Rights and the League of Women Voters of Arkansas to work together. 'We do not want there to be any confusion. We believe that they have critical components,' she said. 'There were things that we felt like we needed to equally add to make sure that we enshrine the rights of Arkansans in the Constitution, but we are hopeful to be able to work together in this process and talk about ways that we can make sure that both of the measures that we're working on get passed.' Under state law, the attorney general's office has 10 business days to approve or reject the proposed ballot measures. The League of Women Voters submitted the latest version of its proposal May 7 and is owed a response from Griffin by Wednesday. The deadline for a response on Protect AR Rights' measure is June 3. The attorney general's office does not have any other pending ballot title proposals, Griffin's communication's director Jeff LeMaster confirmed Monday. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Traditional ‘Tornado Alley' shifts eastward as climate changes, says meteorologist studying trend
Arkansas has become more prone to tornadoes and hail storms as climate change and other weather phenomenon shift storms farther east and south, experts say. A rainbow appears after a March 31, 2023, tornado tore a path through Little Rock. (Photo by John Sykes/Arkansas Advocate) In the 30 days after several damaging twisters hit Arkansas on March 14, the state saw nearly four times as many tornado warnings as Texas did. The National Weather Service issued 144 warnings in Arkansas, compared to 39 in Texas from March 14 to April 14. Mississippi also recorded 144 warnings over the same period and Tennessee saw 125 warnings. Alabama noted 57 warnings. It's an indication that the classic 'Tornado Alley' region — the area from central Texas through Oklahoma and Kansas, so named because of the number of tornadoes there — is shifting eastward. The shift is attributed to climate change, the warming of the Gulf of Mexico's waters and a dip in the cold jet stream pattern. Arkansas, scientists say, is nearly in the bull's eye of a new tornado-prone area that's referred to as 'Dixie Alley.' The region, which has seen a vast increase in tornadoes over the past several years, also encompasses Mississippi, Alabama and western Tennessee. Weather Service survey teams have already confirmed 35 tornadoes have touched down in Arkansas through April. The state averages 42 twisters per year. The storms have also been larger. Arkansas was hit with two EF-4 twisters on March 14 — one in Jackson County and one in Izard County The last time a tornado of that strength hit the state was on April 27, 2014, when a tornado cut a 41-mile path of destruction through western Pulaski County, Mayflower and Vilonia in Faulkner County, and on into White County. Sixteen people died in that storm. Victor Gensini, a professor of meteorology at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, conducted research about the shift, authoring a paper in 2018 that noted the change. Since then, he's continued to monitor the trend and says the trend is ongoing. 'It's still more prevalent in the southeast,' he said. 'And we're seeing more evidence of that each year.' Gensini tracked tornado reports from 1979 to 2018 for his initial study, but also noted atmospheric conditions in the areas at the time that were favorable for the formation of tornadoes. Gensini blames a combination of weather phenomenon for the increase in Arkansas' tornadoes. A drought in the southwest is taking away needed moisture for the formation of twisters in the traditional Tornado Alley region. More than 67% of Arizona is experiencing 'extreme' and 'exceptional' drought conditions — the two highest levels of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The Drought Monitor is based at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln and records weather conditions and patterns weekly. Three months ago, only 17% of Arizona was under the same two drought conditions. A year ago, the state was considered free from extreme and exceptional drought. New Mexico, Texas and Utah have also seen increases in drought in their respective states. Thirty percent of Texas is in 'extreme' and 'exceptional' drought, an increase from 14% three months ago. 'The most intense levels of drought now cover a broad area from southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Utah through much of Arizona, New Mexico and the Texas Big Bend, said Richard Tinker, a meteorologist with the Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, and the author of the latest drought report. 'The southern Great Plains are drying up,' Gensini added. The dry atmospheric conditions in the southwest create a dome of high pressure over the western U.S., sapping energy from the atmosphere and forcing potential tornado-producing systems to move further east. The jet stream, a strong current of frigid Arctic air, is also dipping further south into the Mississippi delta region because of the Southwestern drought. Water temperature in the Gulf has also increased on average by one or two degrees, creating the moist, humid air needed for tornadoes. 'One or two degrees may not seem much. But think of the difference between 32 degrees and 33 degrees,' Gensini said, referring to the temperature when water freezes. 'It's early in the season, and the waters are warmer. That warm, humid air is heading into Arkansas where the air has been unstable already. It makes things more potent. 'We're seeing weather pattern changes over the last 70 to 80 years that didn't happen in 100,000 to 120,000 years before,' he said. 'There is such a rapid rate of change, and it's not lessening.' Of the 144 warnings issued in Arkansas between March 14 and April 14, not all produced tornadoes, said Dennis Cavanaugh, the National Weather Service warning coordinator in North Little Rock. In fact, the Weather Service strives to keep its 'false alarm' rate of tornado warnings to less than 80%. Warnings are issued when Doppler weather radar picks up rotation in clouds, signature 'inflow notches' that indicate the building of cyclonic air patterns, hail cores and other indicators. The Weather Service also must balance the need to warn people while also not unnecessarily alarming them. Issue too many warnings that don't produce tornadoes, and the public may become complacent and not heed future warnings as seriously. John Robinson, a former Meteorologist in Charge at the North Little Rock station, used to say that more people were injured in tornadoes while gawking at clouds for confirmation of those tornadoes rather than seeking shelter when warnings were issued. On the other side, if the Weather Service curtails its warnings and an unwarned tornado does form, results could be devastating. 'Radar can't see tornadoes,' Cavanaugh said. 'It can see circulation aloft when it's likely a tornado is forming. If we wait to see the debris cloud from a tornado that's on the ground to issue a warning, it's much too late.' Cavanaugh said continued advances in technology should help the Weather Service lower its rate of false alarms. But the service will always rely on trained storm spotters who can see the lowering of wall clouds — a first step in the formation of tornadoes — and any circulation of clouds overhead. 'That's really not applicable to this year,' he said of the fear that the scores of warnings issued may eventually be ignored. 'I don't think the average Arkansan thought he or she was not warned unnecessarily.' During a round of storms one April evening, Ryan Vaughn, the meteorologist for KAIT8 in Jonesboro, was broadcasting live storm coverage. At one point, most of northeast Arkansas was placed under a myriad of tornado warnings. Vaughn took a deep sigh on air. 'I don't think I've ever said this before, but if you're anywhere in northeast Arkansas, take cover now,' he told viewers. Tornadoes are formed by opposing winds at various levels. Strong winds in opposite directions cause a shear and a horizontal column of air circulating overhead. Warm, humid air feeds the twister and eventually the column of air begins tilting vertically and lowering to become a destructive tornado. And if the increase in tornadoes in Arkansas and the Delta is not enough, Gensini said the ingredients for twister formation should also cause larger hail storms. Hail is formed inside supercell thunderstorms. The rising air inside a building storm lofts raindrops into freezing air. It causes hail, which falls to the ground. Many times, a frozen raindrop falls in the size of a pea or gravel. But with more convection inside the stronger storms, that pea-sized bit of hail is lofted over and over again inside the system, growing larger as more water freezes on it. That's what causes the golf ball- and baseball-sized hail and are indicative of stronger storms and tornadoes. Gensini is about to embark on a 40-day field study this summer of hail storms. 'Tornadoes get all the attention on the news because of the visual destruction,' he said. 'You see a path of destruction with shattered homes. But hail is much worse overall. It damages roofs, cars and agriculture in a much larger area. 'I think the south and southeast will see a lot more problems in the years coming,' he said. This article is republished from the Arkansas Advocate, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network. 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