Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Dousing the blaze
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire following a Russian drone attack in Odesa region, Ukraine, on Saturday.
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Trump ‘not satisfied’ with Iran’s latest offer
ISLAMABAD — U.S. President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to end the war between the countries, saying Friday he still was not satisfied while blaming Iran’s “fractured” leadership. Trump turned back the latest proposal almost as soon as...
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Paying their respects
Britain’s Queen Camilla is presented flowers to lay after King Charles III laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Thursday.
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Bill to help pay for PBS fails again in House vote
A bill to help the state’s public broadcasting network pay to keep PBS shows on its airwaves failed for the third time to pass the Arkansas House of Representatives. Senate Bill 77 would have created a fund where the state could match private...
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2 bills to raise revenue budget to $6.7B OK’d
The Arkansas House of Representatives and Senate on Tuesday approved identical proposed Revenue Stabilization Acts that would increase the state’s general revenue budget by $211 million to $6.7 billion in the next fiscal year. The measures also would...
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Public voices worries over proposed IDA
HIGHFILL — Concerns ranging from control over private property to defense contractors potentially operating in the city drew people to a town hall meeting on a proposal to create an industrial development authority in Highfill. Residents of Highfill...
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Suspect’s anti-Trump texts reported by kin
WASHINGTON — The man accused of opening fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner railed against Trump administration policies and referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in writings sent to family members minutes before...
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Slot machines reign supreme in Arkansas casino industry
Slot machines have been king in the Natural State since Arkansas legalized casino gambling, and it doesn’t look like they’ll be giving up their crown anytime soon. Terminal games, commonly called slots, have evolved over the years, and while some...
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US envoys dispatched to planned Iran talks
ISLAMABAD — President Donald Trump is sending his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Pakistan to meet with Iran’s foreign minister, the White House said Friday, as officials in the South Asian nation pushed to revive ceasefire talks between the...
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Panel OKs bills to bolster West Memphis site odds
Up to $300 million in surplus state funds could be allocated to bolster the odds of a sprawling manufacturing facility being built in West Memphis under legislation that cleared the Arkansas Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee on Thursday. Arkansas’...
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Proposal to ban funds transfer at UA rejected
A legislative subcommittee on Wednesday voted down a proposal to block the transfer of University of Arkansas, Fayetteville institutional funds to Razorback athletics next year. In a split voice vote, the Joint Budget Committee’s special language...
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Ceasefire extends as talks hold
ISLAMABAD — President Donald Trump said Tuesday the United States was indefinitely extending its ceasefire with Iran — a day before it was to expire — as a new round of peace talks was on hold. The announcement appeared to ease fears that the fighting,...
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Trump’s war messages mixed
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump offered mixed messages on Monday about the path ahead for the U.S. war against Iran, declaring that he was in no rush to end the conflict while also expressing confidence that further negotiations with Tehran will...
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Louisiana shooting leaves 8 children dead
SHREVEPORT — A Louisiana father fatally shot eight children, including seven of his own, during an early morning attack on his family Sunday that stretched across two houses in a Shreveport neighborhood left shaken by one of the nation’s deadliest mass...
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Arkansas legal professionals note promise, pitfalls of AI
In recent years, research and development in the field of artificial intelligence have brought forth huge leaps in the technology that, while seemingly miraculous, can be a minefield for the unwary. AI technology enables computers and machines to...
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Burns praises state’s strong support of PBS
BENTONVILLE — Ken Burns, the documentary filmmaker, said Friday he was moved by the support Arkansans showed for the Public Broadcasting Service when the Arkansas Educational Television Commission met March 12. A large, overflow crowd came to the...
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House passes tax credit resolution
Homeowners could soon get a small tax break after the Arkansas House of Representatives advanced legislation Thursday to increase the homestead property tax credit. The House voted 92-0 to pass House Resolution 1006, sponsored by Rep. Bart Schulz,...
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Trump official: Military in need of budget boost
WASHINGTON — An effort to ramp up U.S. weapons production and build more ships, planes and drones will require a major upfront investment, President Donald Trump’s budget director told a House committee Wednesday. The testimony from Russell Vought...
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Panel moves to limit prison funds
The Joint Budget Committee on Tuesday directed legislative staff to draft a reappropriation measure under which the Arkansas Department of Corrections would be barred from spending any of the $73.7 million in state funds for construction of a prison in...
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Iran threatens region’s ports amid blockade
CAIRO — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the American military had begun a blockade of Iranian ports as part of his effort to force Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz and accept a deal to end the war that has raged for more than six...
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Hungary votes to oust Orbán, concluding 16 years in power
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian voters on Sunday ousted long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power, rejecting the authoritarian policies and global far-right movement that he embodied in favor of a pro-European challenger in a...
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Public decries proposed agency during town hall in Bella Vista
BELLA VISTA — Dozens of residents came to vent their grievances against a proposed authority that would finance and build large-scale real estate projects to attract businesses to Benton County. Joseph Bollinger, Benton County District 7 justice of...
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Vance sets off as US, Iran prepare for talks
ISLAMABAD — With the ceasefire in Iran still shaky, U.S. Vice President JD Vance headed to Pakistan Friday for high-level talks with Iranian officials, as Israel and Hezbollah militants traded fire and Tehran maintained its hold on the Strait of...
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Account program rule changes OK’d
A slate of proposed changes to the Educational Freedom Account program are one step closer to becoming reality after Arkansas education officials voted to approve them Thursday. The proposed rule changes would make fees for certain community or...
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$3.4 million facility to wrap up in November, mayor says
LITTLE FLOCK — The city expects its new municipal campus will be up and running by the end of the year, allowing it to replace the City Hall building destroyed during the 2024 Memorial Day weekend storm. Mayor Jeff Van Sickler said the first component...
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We have liftoff
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Four astronauts embarked on a high-stakes flight around the moon Wednesday, humanity’s first lunar voyage in more than half a century and the thrilling leadoff in NASA’s push toward a landing in two years. Carrying three...
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Shepard wins by landslide
FAYETTEVILLE — The party started with the early vote totals, and supporters of Tim Shepard celebrated throughout the evening in anticipation of a landslide victory in his race for the Republican party nomination for county judge. A live band on the...
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Passengers find airport lines much shorter as TSA is paid
Frustrating security lines dwindled at U.S. airports Monday, clearing the worst bottlenecks as Transportation Safety Administration officers began receiving back pay for working during the government shutdown. Checkpoint lines that at times stretched...
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Catholic leaders barred from Jerusalem church
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israeli police prevented Catholic leaders from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate a private Mass on the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday for the first time in centuries, setting off a wave of criticism from the...
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Nicaraguan asylum seeker left in limbo
7:20 a.m. Dec. 26, Katherine Baker drove Meslier Salinas from his southwest Little Rock home to an appointment at the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office. Together, they walked into the brick and aluminum-sided building set between...
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Israel, Iran trade threats, fire
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel struck Iran’s nuclear facilities hours after threatening to “escalate and expand” its campaign against Tehran on Friday. Iran vowed to retaliate and struck a base in Saudi Arabia, wounding U.S. service members and...
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War with Iran rages on as US stalls on threat
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — As thousands more U.S. troops neared the Middle East and Israel poured more troops into southern Lebanon to fight the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, Iran tightened its grip Thursday on the crucial Strait of...
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Iran dismisses US truce offer
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran on Wednesday dismissed an American plan to pause the war in the Middle East and launched more attacks on Israel and Gulf Arab countries, including strikes that hit a fuel tank at Kuwait International Airport, sparking...
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Senators chase deal to end standoff, travel disruptions
WASHINGTON — Travel disruptions deepened Tuesday as senators raced to salvage a proposal to end the Homeland Security shutdown by funding much of the department, including airport workers going without pay, but excluding immigration operations that...
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ICE at airports leads to feelings of unease
NEW YORK — Armed federal immigration officers in tactical gear moved through terminals at some of the busiest U.S. airports Monday, standing near security lines and checkpoints after President Donald Trump ordered their deployment during a partial...
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Bigger tax refunds to be offset by high gas prices
WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy was supposed to start the year with a bang, fueled by an unusually large jump in tax refunds from President Donald Trump’s tax cut legislation. Yet spiking gas prices are on track to eat up those refunds, leaving most...
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Training in Ukraine
KYIV, Ukraine — Russia and Ukraine traded attacks that killed at least four people Saturday, officials said, ahead of expected U.S.-Ukraine talks on ways to end Russia’s invasion of its neighbor. A man and a woman were killed and six people wounded,...
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Iran threatens tourism sites around world
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Three weeks into an escalating war in the Middle East, Iran threatened Friday to expand its retaliatory attacks to include recreational and tourist sites worldwide, as the U.S. announced it was sending more warships and...
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Israeli strikes pound Tehran
United Arab Emirates — Israel pounded Tehran with airstrikes Friday as Iranians marked Nowruz, or the Persian New Year, in the midst of a war that has sent shock waves through the global economy and risked drawing Iran’s Arab neighbors directly into...
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Stocks slump as worries rise after inflation report
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks slumped Wednesday after a report said inflation was primed to worsen even before the war with Iran caused oil prices to spike. That and comments from the head of the Federal Reserve pushed Wall Street to see less chance of...
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Israel kills 2 Iranian officials
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel killed two senior Iranian security officials in a major blow to the Islamic Republic’s leadership as it faces its greatest test in decades, and Iran responded Wednesday with renewed missile and drone attacks on its...
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Judge strikes law requiring school posters
A federal judge on Monday struck down an Arkansas law requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, saying there are no “historical practices and understanding to support” the posting of the document in a public school context. U.S....
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SEC Tournament champs
Arkansas guard Darius Acuff Jr. (center) celebrates after being named tournament MVP after the Razorbacks’ 86-75 win over Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., on Sunday.
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Tehran urges people to flee ports in UAE
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran urged people Saturday to evacuate the Middle East’s busiest port and two others in the United Arab Emirates, openly threatening a neighboring country’s non-U.S. assets for the first time as its war with the U.S. and...
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Sites on island key to Iran oil exports struck
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump said the U.S. bombed military sites Friday on an island vital to Iran’s oil network, while an American official said 2,500 more Marines and an amphibious assault ship are being sent to the Middle...
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Iran’s leader offers remarks
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world...
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Open Turning Point clubs, Sanders urges state’s schools
Calling its late founder an inspiration to the state’s youth, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a proclamation Wednesday calling on every high school and college in the state to open a chapter of Turning Point USA. Sanders signed the proclamation at...
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US says 16 Iran vessels destroyed
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. said it took out more than a dozen mine-laying Iranian vessels Tuesday, and the Islamic Republic vowed to block the region’s oil exports, saying it would not allow “even a single liter” to be shipped to its...
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Trump: War to end ‘very soon’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said he plans to waive oil-related sanctions, have the U.S. Navy escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and predicted the war with Iran would resolve “very soon” as he confronted mounting economic and political...
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Iran assembly names choice for new leader
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late supreme leader, has been named his successor, Iranian state TV announced early Monday, as the war that began a little over a week ago with his father’s killing took a dramatic...
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Wind farm opponents point to property values, legal concerns
LINCOLN — Carolyne Wilson of Lincoln experienced firsthand wind turbines in west Texas and is against a wind farm that is being proposed 5 miles north of town. “I’m very emotional about this,” Wilson said during a community meeting of the Concerned...
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Trump refuses any deal until Iran surrender
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not seek a deal with Iran without the country’s “unconditional surrender” as Washington warned of a forthcoming bombing campaign that officials said would be the most intense of...
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Israel strikes Tehran, Beirut
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Intense Israeli airstrikes pounded the capitals of Iran and Lebanon early Friday as the U.S. apparently struck an Iranian drone carrier at sea, intensifying its campaign targeting the Islamic Republic’s fleet of...
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Iranian missiles fired at Israel
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran launched missiles at Israel early Thursday as aerial attacks in the Middle East commenced for a sixth day as the Islamic Republic continued to threaten the destruction of military and economic infrastructure across...
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Fayetteville bond issue passes, including new aquatic center
FAYETTEVILLE — The development of an aquatic center was approved by voters in a tight race, along with several other bond issues items that were handily approved, according to Tuesday’s unofficial election results. There were nine questions included...
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Attacks widen across Mideast
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Israel and the United States pounded Iran in an escalating campaign that U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday would likely take several weeks. Tehran and its allies hit back across the region, striking Israel and a...
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Iranians express hope, fear amid bombardment
CAIRO — Some of the jubilation was open and even raucous — people dancing in Iranian streets, honking car horns in celebration and screaming joyfully from windows and rooftops over the killing of the country’s supreme leader. But as bombardment by the...
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US, Israel strike Iran, kill leader
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, a top security adviser and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei were killed in Ameri- can-Israel airstrikes on the country, state media reported Sunday. The state-run IRNA news...
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Clinton: ‘Nothing wrong’ in Epstein ties
WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton told members of Congress on Friday that he “did nothing wrong” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse as he faced hours of grilling from lawmakers over his...
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Rogers man, 61, dies when plane crashes into area lake
ROGERS — A member of the Arkansas Air & Military Museum Board of Directors died Thursday when his plane crashed into Beaver Lake. A Jodel D-11 crashed into the lake around 1:30 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Benton County...
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Rubio defends Maduro ouster at summit
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday defended the Trump administration’s military operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, telling Caribbean leaders, many of whom objected to that move, that the...
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Trump speech aims to soothe economy fears
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump declared during Tuesday’s State of the Union that “we’re winning so much,” saying he’d sparked a jobs and manufacturing boom at home while imposing a new world order abroad. His main objective in the...
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Mexico unrest upending life for residents
TAPALPA, Mexico — Heavily armed security forces kept up their battle with cartel gunmen a day after the Mexican army killed the country’s most powerful drug lord, sparking a surge in violence and putting the country on edge. Cartel fighters continued...
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Portis inked columns before lauded fiction
Charles Portis wrote about hypnotizing chickens. He also wrote about how chickens perch on poles in hen houses all facing the front, like they’re riding a bus or an elevator. Portis first documented these avian observations in the pages of the...
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Lunar New Year traditions
Dancers perform a lion dance during Lunar New Year celebrations in La Paz, Bolivia, on Saturday.
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Legal alternatives remain for Trump’s use of levies
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump still has options to keep taxing imports aggressively even after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs he imposed last year on nearly every country on earth. The court didn’t support the president’s sweeping...
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Former Prince Andrew arrested on Epstein ties
LONDON — The former Prince Andrew was arrested and held for hours by British police Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office related to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, an extraordinary move in a country where authorities once sought to shield...
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Investigator is hired to probe petition fraud
Volunteers canvassing for a pair of constitutional amendments were caught off guard Friday when a state official approached them and asked to see their ID. The man in question, Patrick Hall, was not a voter looking to sign one of their petitions, but...
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First day voting numbers up
Tuesday marked the first day of early voting in the March 3 primary election and nonpartisan judicial election with some local voters eager to get to the polls and encouraging others to do the same. Misha Gardner came to the Washington County...
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