Latest Arkansas Headlines
All the headlines from our Arkansas Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Arkansas Workers’ Comp Rates to Drop
Apr 15 2015 // The Arkansas Insurance Department announced a decrease in workers’ compensation rates effective July 1, 2015. The overall loss cost decrease in the voluntary market is 2.1 percent, while the overall decrease in rates...
Crop Insurance Uncertainty Hindering Arkansas Farmers
Apr 14 2015 // Lower commodity prices and uncertainties about new federal crop insurance programs are making it tougher for Arkansas row crop farmers to secure operating loans. Tight cash flow has already struck some growers as the...
‘Religious Freedom’ / Discrimination Battleground Shifts to Arkansas
Apr 1 2015 // Arkansas is the latest battleground over “religious freedom” laws that are coming under criticism from businesses and advocates who call them a license to discriminate against gays and lesbians. The southern...
Ex-AG Says Arkansas Religious Protection Bill Would Allow Discrimination
Mar 31 2015 // Several dozens of people, including former Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, gathered in Little Rock to show their distaste for a proposed law that critics say would sanction discrimination against gays and lesbians. They...
Arkansas, Oklahoma, Warned of Hail, High Wind-Packing Storms
Mar 25 2015 // While there has been a curious lack of tornadoes throughout the country’s midsection, that may soon change, according to federal weather forecasters. A cold front approaching Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri is...
Arkansas Bill Would Prevent Claim Denial for Damage by Stolen Vehicle
Mar 25 2015 // A bill to be considered by the Arkansas Senate today would prevent auto insurers from denying a claim for damage caused by a stolen vehicle even if “a valid police report of the theft of vehicle has not been...
People – South Central
Mar 23 2015 // Waco, Texas-based Insurors Indemnity Cos. named Dave Talbert as president and chief executive officer. Talbert joined Insurors Indemnity in February 2014 with more than 25 years of industry experience, having previously...
Judge Dismisses Mayflower, Arkansas Oil Spill Lawsuit
Mar 19 2015 // A federal class-action lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corporation over a 2013 crude oil spill in central Arkansas has been dismissed by a federal judge, who acknowledged in his ruling that his decision seems unfair. U.S....
Arkansas Senate OKs Plan to Create New Agency to Regulate Title Insurance
Mar 19 2015 // The Arkansas Senate is backing a proposal to set up a new commission that would supervise the title insurance business. The body approved Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson’s bill on a 20-11 vote on March 17. The bill had failed...
Blasingame to Retire as Arkansas Chief Deputy Commissioner
Mar 10 2015 // Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Allen Kerr announced that long-time insurance employee, Chief Deputy Commissioner Lenita Blasingame, has decided to retire at the end of June after nearly 50 years with the Arkansas...
Arkansas Senate Votes to Delay State Insurance Exchange Plans
Mar 6 2015 // Arkansas lawmakers voted to put the state’s plans to set up its own insurance exchange under the federal health law on hold while the nation’s highest court weighs a legal challenge over tax subsidies granted...
Car Cellphone Regulations Rejected by Arkansas House Committee
Feb 26 2015 // A dashboard video showing a state trooper narrowly avoiding a head-on collision with a driver who was using a cellphone wasn’t enough to sway an Arkansas House committee that tougher laws are needed. The Public...
Arkansas Gov.’s Prison Overcrowding Plan Would Tap Insurance Department Fund
Feb 20 2015 // Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Feb. 18 proposed tapping more than $33 million in state reserve funds — including $31 million from the insurance department’s reserve fund — to ease a backlog of state inmates at...
Voter ID, Tort Reform Among Amendments Filed in Arkansas
Feb 17 2015 // Reinstating Arkansas’ voter ID law, imposing new restrictions on lawsuit damages and eliminating the lieutenant governor’s office are among the dozens of ideas lawmakers would like to put on the ballot in...
Arkansas Bill Would Jeopardize Local Gay Anti-Discrimination Laws
Feb 13 2015 // An Arkansas municipality’s effort to protect its gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender residents from discrimination would be nullified under a bill presented by the town’s state representative. The House...
Arkansas Senate Bill Would Allow Armed Teachers, School Staff
Feb 11 2015 // The Arkansas Senate passed legislation aimed at clearing the way for districts to use teachers, administrators and other staff as armed guards and eliminating the regulatory panel that had resisted similar efforts. By a...
Arkansas Senate Votes to Continue ‘Private Option’ for Healthcare Insurance
Jan 30 2015 // The Arkansas Senate voted to continue the state’s compromise Medicaid expansion another year and create a task force to look at alternatives for the hundreds of thousands of people receiving coverage through the...
Study Finds Workplace Trust a Predictor of Comp Outcomes in Arkansas
Jan 25 2015 // A new study from the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) identified new predictors of worker outcomes that can help public officials, payors, and health care providers in Arkansas improve the treatment and...
Exxon Mobil Seeks to Bar Release of Files in Arkansas Pipeline Case
Jan 2 2015 // Exxon Mobil said it shouldn’t have to release any further information on a proposed but abandoned pipeline intended to run alongside the Pegasus pipeline that ruptured in 2013 in central Arkansas. The company is...
‘Throwing Money’ at Data Breach Victims May Not Be Best Response
Dec 28 2014 // Offering customers discounts in future purchases and free credit monitoring —strategies used by Target after its large-scale data breach — may raise suspicions rather than satisfy customers’ sense of justice,...
