News

It is time for the 5th Annual Bunny Run. There will be a 5K & 1 Mile Fun Run for kids.

Little Rock - The Arkansas State Library will soon be offering a new Continuing Education platform for the Arkansas library community called People Connect Institute, or PCI Webinars, beginning April 1, 2022. PCI Webinars offers four (4) live webinar programs per month on a variety of library-related topics. Live programs are recorded, professionally edited, and made available to the Arkansas State Library on the Niche Academy platform. Participants in the live webinar sessions will receive a professional development certificate from PCI for their records. The Arkansas State Library will be provided access to more than 250 archived webinar programs with 24/7 access from PCI that will be available for the Arkansas library community.

Bull Shoals City Council met March 22, for the monthly workshop. Mayor, David Nixon announced there is a court date May 10 for the Village Mart Shopping Center at 928 Central Blvd (the old Harp’s), so the long-standing issue of the status of the building will be in the Court process. The City has petitioned for a Court order to have the building’s condition inspected. Nixon also said the city received a judgment against a mobile home at 903 Bull Shoals Dam Blvd (Hwy 178). The City now has the legal right to mitigate the condemned mobile home and will follow the correct process to do that.

Washington – The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a pair of legislative initiatives championed by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee senior member U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) to modernize breast cancer screening policies and the delivery of lifesaving care for women veterans.

LITTLE ROCK — For produce growers, keeping their farms free of microbial contamination and reducing foodborne illness outbreaks is key to the success of their crop and business. To support these efforts, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture will offer a two-day, remote produce safety training workshop for fruit and vegetable growers, providing important information on best practices, risk management and regulatory requirements.

Celebrate Women’s History Month with the Arkansas Humanities Council on Tuesday, March 29 at 6 p.m. via Zoom when Dr. Jeannie Whayne will discuss the history of women’s suffrage in Arkansas. Sign-up for the virtual event here: https://us06web.zoom.us/ meeting/register/tZUscuGgrjsqE9JojyoOzAADCTmw4Mk9dyns

I’ve written many times about the importance of newspapers to our democracy and communities. For centuries, newspapers have always been there to inform, educate, announce weddings, births, and deaths. An important role of newspapers is to protect citizens by supporting the public’s right to know what their local, state and federal government officials are doing, and the records kept.