Latest Arkansas Headlines

All the headlines from our Arkansas Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Despite Energy Job Losses, South Central States Report Some Employment Gains

Mar 21 2016 // While oil and gas industry job losses had an impact in the South Central states over the last year, Arkansas, Louisiana Oklahoma and Texas still saw decreases in unemployment rates in 2015.Year-over-year from 2014 to 2015,...

Water Starting to Recede from Homes in North Louisiana

Mar 15 2016 // Emergency officials in Louisiana and Mississippi were watching the rise of the Pearl River that divides the two states on March 14 amid widespread flooding that has damaged thousands of homes.In north Louisiana, the water...

Weather Service Assessing Possible Tornado Damage in Arkansas

Mar 15 2016 // The National Weather Service is sending investigators to assess damage and determine if tornadoes touched down in Arkansas as a fast-moving storm system brought rain and hail across the state. Meteorologist Michael Brown...

Storm System Dumps Heavy Rain on South Central States, More Expected

Mar 10 2016 // A large storm system has drenched areas in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas that were already inundated with heavy rainfall this week. Two people have drowned in Oklahoma and Texas. Nearly a foot of rain fell over parts of...

Arkansas Insurance Agent Charged with Fraud Ordered to Repay Nearly $128K

Feb 23 2016 // An Arkansas insurance agent has been charged with fraud and ordered to pay $127,748.06 in restitution.The Arkansas Insurance Department revoked the resident producer’s license of Samuel Bowron Phillips of Fort Smith...

Disaster Recovery Center Opens in Arkansas County

Feb 22 2016 // A joint federal/state disaster recovery center opened in Jefferson County Feb. 20 to help those whose homes or businesses were affected by severe storms, tornadoes, straight-line winds and flooding in December and...

Arkansas Commissioner: Cuts Mean Military Members Should Buy Renter’s Insurance

Feb 16 2016 // The state’s insurance commissioner says members of the military stationed in Arkansas should consider buying renter’s insurance because the Basic Allowance for Housing no longer covers it. Insurance...

Arkansas Insurance Department Helped Consumers Recover $3.8M in 2015

Feb 9 2016 // The Arkansas Insurance Department reported that its Consumer Services Division (CSD) recovered $3,843,969 for Arkansas insurance consumers in 2015.Recoveries are dollar amounts in excess of the amounts initially offered by...

Arkansas Aims to Cut Wrong-Way Crashes with $2.8M in Improvements

Feb 9 2016 // Arkansas highway officials have initiated $2.8 million in improvements with a focus on reducing wrong-way crashes on the state freeway system.The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the effort is designed to address the...

38 Arkansas Counties Declared Disaster Areas Due to Severe Weather

Feb 8 2016 // Dozens of Arkansas counties have been declared disaster areas by President Barack Obama after severe weather and flooding inundated the state between December and January. After the president’s disaster declaration...

Special Purpose Captive Insurer OK’d in Arkansas

Feb 8 2016 // Diamond Risk Insurance LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baptist Health, has been approved as a captive insurer by the Arkansas Insurance Department. Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr said Baptist Health is the...

Arkansas Utility Wants U.S. to Uphold Exxon Mobil Spill-Related Fines

Feb 4 2016 // A water utility company in Arkansas is urging a federal regulatory agency to uphold fines and new safety requirements for Exxon Mobil Corp. regarding an oil spill in Mayflower.In a letter to the Pipeline and Hazardous...

Special Purpose Captive Insurer Approved in Arkansas

Jan 27 2016 // Diamond Risk Insurance LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Baptist Health, has been approved as a captive insurer by the Arkansas Insurance Department.Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr said Baptist Health is the...

Funding Plan for Arkansas Fire Departments Proposed by Lawmakers

Jan 26 2016 // Two Arkansas legislators hope the state finds a way next year to distribute excess state funds to volunteer fire departments that suffer funding shortages, impacting the purchase and repair of equipment.The Quail Creek...

Flood Threat Subsiding Near New Orleans, Baton Rouge

Jan 14 2016 // The threat of flooding is subsiding across the lower Mississippi River region just two weeks after high waters devastated parts of the St. Louis area.The Mississippi probably won’t rise as high from Arkansas to New...

Fired Arkansas Cop Sues City for $2.5M

Jan 12 2016 // A former Forrest City Police Department officer who was fired in 2014 over a photo posted on social media is suing the Arkansas city for more than $2.5 million.The Herald-Times reports the photo shows then-officer Aldridge...

Officials: Arkansas Wildfires Burned 14,652 Acres in 2015

Jan 11 2016 // Arkansas forestry officials say wildfires engulfed fewer acres in 2015 when compared to the previous year.Data released by the Arkansas Forestry Commission on Friday said 14,652 acres burned last year, compared to 16,687...

‘Couldn’t Stand the Weather’ Sums Up South Central News in 2015

Dec 30 2015 // If you scan the song/album list of the late, great Texas blues guitar powerhouse, Stevie Ray Vaughan, you’ll get an inkling of what the major stories from Insurance Journal’s South Central region in 2015 were...

Arkansas Court: Labor Can’t Be Depreciated in ACV Claim

Dec 21 2015 // An insurer can’t depreciate labor in calculating the actual cash value (ACV) of an insured property in the event of a covered loss, Arkansas high court justices say.In an opinion delivered Dec. 10, the Arkansas...

Prosecutor to Wait on Charges in Fatal Arkansas Bus Crash

Dec 16 2015 // A state police report into a November bus crash that killed six migrant farm workers from Mexico says the driver was “inattentive” in an unsafe manner, but decisions on possible traffic citations or criminal...