Latest news with #Centerton
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Centerton police respond to ‘serious' motorcycle crash on W Hwy 72
CENTERTON, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — Centerton Police are on the scene of a motorcycle crash involving 'serious bodily injury' on West Highway 72 near Versailles Boulevard. The department requested the Accident Reconstruction Team to assist with the investigation, according to a Facebook post from the Centerton Police Department (CPD). W Hwy 72 was closed to all traffic as of 1:23 p.m. on May 17. Drivers are advised to avoid the area and use alternate 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Axios
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
The Agenda: Federal grants
Some of your city councils meet tonight. They're busy trying to get federal funding for local projects. Bentonville will vote on: Accepting a $2.08 million federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grant for stream restoration, land preservation and trail reconstruction for Town Branch Creek. A resolution expressing the willingness of the city to use a federal grant worth more than $2.5 million to make improvements to the Airport Boulevard and Vaughn Road intersections. The city would be on the hook to pay $636,000. A similar resolution, in partnership with Centerton, to use another federal grant worth more than $2.5 million for improvements to Greenhouse Road. The city's share would be about $643,000. Rogers will vote on: A resolution expressing the willingness of the city to use federal money to develop a bicycle and pedestrian master plan. The city expects the project to cost $250,000 with the city covering 20%. Springdale will vote on: A resolution expressing the willingness of the city to use an $8 million federal grant to extend Gene George Boulevard to the south and add a roundabout at New Hope Road. The city's share is $2 million. A similar resolution for a $328,000 federal grant to widen the sidewalk on 40th Street with the city paying $82,000. And another for a $444,800 federal grant with a matching $111,200 from the city to construct a connecting path at Elmdale Elementary, improved sidewalks at Westwood Elementary and a creek crossing and sidewalk at Turnbow Elementary. If you go: 6pm at Bentonville and Springdale city halls and 6:30pm at Rogers City Hall.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Arkansas governor unveils anti-China legislation package
(From left) Republican Reps. DeAnn Vaught, Stetson Painter and Mindy McAlindon listen to Sen. Howard Beaty discuss his legislation that would regulate financial activities and affiliations with Chinese entities within Arkansas during a press conference on Feb. 26, 2025. (Antoinette Grajeda/Arkansas Advocate) Arkansas lawmakers joined the governor Wednesday in announcing legislation that will ban certain interactions between state entities and China. The Communist China Defense legislative package will contain six bills, some of which have not yet been filed, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during a press conference at the Capitol. The bills' lead sponsors are Sen. Blake Johnson, R-Corning, and Republican Reps. Howard Beaty Jr. of Crossett, Mindy McAlindon of Centerton, Brit McKenzie of Rogers, Stetson Painter of Mountain Home and DeAnn Vaught of Horatio. State officials in 2023 took steps to force a Chinese government-owned agricultural company to divest itself of 160 acres in Craighead County, in accordance with Act 636 of 2023, which prohibits certain foreign-controlled businesses from owning Arkansas land. Sanders said she was proud to be the first governor 'to kick China off of our farmland and out of our state.' The proposed legislation will expand on that law by prohibiting the owning or leasing of property near 'critical infrastructure' like military bases and electric substations, and shorten the time a banned company has to divest, according to a press release. The bills will also ban lobbying 'on behalf of communist China, Russia and other adversaries.' State-supported entities, including colleges and state retirement systems, will also be required to divest from China, Sanders said. 'We want to continue to put people on notice. We want China to know we're taking this seriously and that they're not going to be able to set up shop to do Arkansans harm,' she said. 'That's part of the point of today is to make sure they know that we're taking their activity and their role and their proposed interference and influence very seriously and we're not going to tolerate it in the state of Arkansas.' Beaty said a bill he filed last month will 'enforce strict regulations' on financial activities and affiliations with Chinese entities within Arkansas. House Bill 1352 would allow the state to withhold funding for state-supported colleges and universities that have a Confucius Institute or similar institute related to the People's Republic of China, including a Chinese cultural center. A federal government report in October 2023 noted there are fewer than five Confucius Institutes left in the U.S. since Congress restricted federal funding to schools with institutes. Under HB 1352, state-supported institutions of higher education would also be prohibited from investing in Chinese funds, and municipalities would be banned from having sister cities in China. Beaty said he is working on amendments, but plans to run to legislation and get it on the floor 'expeditiously.' 'It's time that we focus on Arkansas and make sure that outside interests that are here for no good other than attacking our state and our nation, they know where we stand, and we point them out and identify them,' he said. Two bills sponsored by McAlindon would prohibit state agencies from using public funds to purchase promotional items made in China, and prohibit procurement of electric vehicles that are linked to forced labor, she said. 'By putting transparency, accountability and economic safety first, we are standing firm against foreign influence,' McAlindon said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Arkansas Senate confirms ex-lawmaker to state prison board over one member's objection
Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, asks a question during a December 6, 2024 legislative meeting. (Mary Hennigan/Arkansas Advocate) The Arkansas Senate confirmed more than three dozen new members to state boards and commissions Tuesday, with the only opposition directed at a Republican ex-lawmaker who now works for a Little Rock lobbying firm. Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, requested that the Senate vote separately on Grant Hodges' appointment to the Board of Corrections, one of many appointments Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced this month. Hodges represented Centerton for four terms in the House, from 2015 to 2020 and from 2023 to this year. King said he did not believe Hodges was qualified to be on the seven-member board that oversees the state prison system. He also took issue with Hodges' work as an account manager at JCD Consulting since November, reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. King has regularly objected to the frequent involvement of lobbyists and consultants in state government affairs. In 2023, he sponsored a bill that would have prohibited former lawmakers from employment 'as a consultant or director with a firm, business, association, or other private entity with the primary purpose of lobbying an elected official of Arkansas.' The bill died in the Senate Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs. 'You can title yourself whatever, but I say if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it's a duck,' King told the Senate on Tuesday. He added that the Legislature should establish a 'clear line' for affiliates of lobbyists not to cross. Republican Sens. Terry Rice of Waldron and Gary Stubblefield of Branch also voted against Hodges' appointment, which passed with a voice vote. Rice said in an interview that he shared King's concerns about the influence of lobbyists, because even if Hodges 'is evidently not one right now, he works for one.' According to JDC's website, the firm is 'the largest Republican campaign shop in the state' and the only Arkansas-based firm Sanders hired for her 2022 gubernatorial campaign. Sanders is running for reelection next year, and one of her campaign's special advisers is Chris Caldwell, who managed her 2022 campaign. The Senate confirmed Caldwell to the Game and Fish Commission in December. Rice said Tuesday that he voted against Caldwell's appointment for the same reason he voted against Hodges, since Caldwell runs a political consulting firm. 'I just think when you're in and around the executive branch, there needs to be separation for the public,' Rice said. Hodges is Sanders' third appointee to the Board of Corrections after Brandon Tollett and Lona McCastlain. Members of both the Board of Corrections and the State Library Board serve staggered seven-year terms. Sydney McKenzie of Rogers, wife of Republican Rep. Brit McKenzie, was confirmed to the library board in a batch of the remaining appointees that the Senate passed with no dissent. Hodges' and McKenzie's terms on their respective boards will expire in 2031. McKenzie is Sanders' third appointment to the library board, which oversees the distribution of state funds to public libraries. The Senate confirmed Jason Rapert, a former Republican state senator from Conway, and Shari Bales of Hot Springs to the board in December 2023. Rapert has called for the state Legislature to abolish the State Library Board in response to other board members, including Bales, rejecting his efforts to withhold state funding from libraries that contain books he considers inappropriate for children. McKenzie told the Democrat-Gazette that she is 'grateful for this opportunity to advance access to safe learning environments and promote greater literacy for children across our state.'
