A menstruation fairy left baskets of free tampons and pads at the Arkansas Capitol today in response to Sen. Bob Ballinger’s odd attack on a bill to exempt feminine hygiene products from sales taxes.
Austin Gelder
Austin Gelder is the editor of the Arkansas Times and loves to write about government, politics and education. Send me your juiciest gossip, please.
Posted inArkansas Blog
UAMS experts predict hundreds of COVID-19 deaths in Arkansas in coming weeks
While Arkansans set their hearts on hopeful news about vaccines, public health experts at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences warn we still haven’t seen the worst of what COVID-19 will bring us.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Arkansas teachers scramble for COVID-19 vaccines
Lacking a top-down plan from the federal or state government, school districts in Arkansas have to vie for their own vaccine sources from the limited number of pharmacies and hospitals that have them.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Ultrasound abortion bill stalls in Arkansas Senate committee
Not a single advocate for reproductive rights signed up to testify Wednesday in a committee meeting where state senators were expected to pass a bill requiring doctors to show women ultrasounds of their fetuses before those women can secure abortions. It’s hard to blame them. The eight-member committee is a solid red block, and Arkansas Republicans tend to fall in line on this issue.
Posted inArkansas Blog
‘Stand your ground’ bill clears Senate
It took state senators less than an hour on Tuesday to pass a “stand your ground” bill that would allow Arkansans to kill if they feel threatened, even if they could safely escape.
Posted inArkansas Blog
Q&A with Angie Maxwell, author of ‘The Long Southern Strategy’
Author Angie Maxwell is the true ideal Southern woman, albeit the modern version: brilliant and accomplished, but not at all fragile. A mix of buttoned-up academic and in-the-moment political decoder, you might find her crunching polling data on campus in Fayetteville, or you can find her blowing everyone’s minds in the pages of The Washington Post, where earlier this month her explanation of “Why Southern white women vote against feminism” riled up more than 1,000 commenters. She’ll talk about her new book “The Long Southern Strategy” Thursday at the Clinton Center.
Posted inGuest Writer
Safe schools
A truth all teachers know: If you want to see the secrets and shortcomings of any community, just take a peek inside its classrooms. You’ll find poverty, lack of education, substance abuse, unstable families and socioeconomic segregation. Children have no choice but to bear the brunt of social ills, making schools the easiest places to spot and measure our failings.
Posted inGuest Writer
More guns than sense
Let’s be honest: It’s a tough time to be a gun safety advocate in Arkansas.