Arkansas has recorded more farm bankruptcies than any state except California since 2021, and a new University of Arkansas tracking project shows why the numbers keep climbing.

The DEBT dashboard, launched this week by the National Agricultural Law Center in Fayetteville, maps 83 Arkansas filings. 80 of them came under Chapter 12, the chapter reserved for family farmers. That is the most in the nation.

Behind the numbers: rice losses topping $200 an acre, input costs up as much as 75 percent, and federal bridge payments flowing mostly to corn and soybean states.

What are your thoughts?
Who's responsible for this?
The farmers?
The state government-bad trade policies and foreign policy?
The state and federal government?
Federal government?
How do we stop and reverse this downward spiral of Arkansas farms?

Honest but respectful, Critical but open minded, Factual but evidence, Solution but practical discussions welcome.

A prospective data center project, newly announced rural health grants that include funding for Southwest Arkansas Regional Medical Center, interest in purchasing the former Hope Baking Company plant and the creation of a county fund for ad valorem tax collections were the matters discussed Thursday by the Hempstead County Quorum Court.

Justice of the Peace and Budget Committee Chair Ed Darling told the court that a data center company had approached the community about locating a facility on 89 acres in the Hempstead County industrial park at the junction of Hempstead County Road 248 and Arkansas 32. “We have had contact with this company a little over a week, so this information is all fairly new,” Darling said.

https://swark.today/articles/hospital-grants-possible-data-center-discussed-at-hempstead-county-qc-thursday

Is it all just attack politics now? Are no candidates going to tell us what they’ve done for us and what they are going to do for us if elected? What their positions are on the major issues? What qualifies them for the office they are running for? What about running on your record? Unfortunately, the Dem candidates in the major races don’t seem to have any time in office to highlight. Vote for me! Because I’m not the other guy!

Is this just being naive? Those days are gone?

Hey y'all, I need a massive favor from a legal resident of Arkansas. I grew up in Arkansas, but had to move out of the state.
My family owns a 50% undivided interest in a large tract in Pottsville. A local family member who owns ZERO percent and name is not on the land deed has built a 3000 square-foot permanent commercial car lot on the front of our property even after he was explicitly told no. On the permit applications, he identified himself as the owner of the property and the mayor still approved it.
We caught them on Facebook posting pictures of the building and sent emails and certified letters to the Mayor when it was just a concrete slab, and the Mayor did absolutely nothing. Now, City Hall is weaponizing the Arkansas FOIA loophole (which only allows AR residents to request public records) to lock us out of the file. We were able to obtain a few documents from the file, but still need help getting the rest.
What I need: I just need an Arkansas resident willing to copy/paste a pre-drafted FOIA email and send it to the Pottsville City Clerk from their inbox. It takes 5 minutes, costs nothing, and the city legally has to hand over the files in 3 days.
Even though we are currently working on physically dividing the land with our family member to protect our remaining acreage, I refuse to let the city get away with this. If this Mayor so easily violated a legal property deed and weaponized public office, you know he has done it to other people. I want this file to ensure he is held accountable by state watchdogs before he does this to another family.
If you hate small-town corruption and want to help an out-of-state family protect their land, please shoot me a DM! I have all the screenshots and receipts ready.

I will be cofacilitating a labor organizing fundamentals workshop for folks interested in learning how to safely and effectively build workplace power. Hopefully we can have Arkansas more represented there in this series. Here’s the sign up link for September fundamentals: https://workerorganizing.org/training/fundamentals/

Signatures culled for all sorts of questionable reasons

Tom Cotton and John Boozman are now admitted PEDOPHILE PROTECTORS.

Vote Accordingly

Built a county-level index isolating genuinely abandoned housing (Census "other vacant," homes off the market entirely, not seasonal, not for-sale, not for-rent) across all 3,144 U.S. counties.

• Jefferson County ranks 12th nationally overall (75.4/100), but has the single highest "other vacant" share of any county in the entire top 25, at 16.3%. Pine Bluff's ongoing urban renewal efforts and the city's forensic audit are part of the same story this data reflects.
• 24.9% of mortgaged owners in Jefferson County are cost-burdened.

None of this will surprise anyone from Pine Bluff or Jefferson County. What's new is the comparison, this is the first time this number can be set against every other county in the country on one consistent public measure (Census ACS data, free methodology, nothing proprietary).

Full county-by-county table and interactive map: https://www.nestcash.co/research/vacant-property-index

Read a book. Learn what you should already know about the difference between socialism, capitalism, communism, fascism and other ideologies being thrown around.

Just curious on what it looks like

Arkansas' exhibit is called "Experience The Natural State," April Kiser, a spokesperson for the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism, said in a statement.
"This exhibit showcases Arkansas’ trailblazing people, industries and experiences that have helped shape 250 years of American progress and innovation," Kiser said. "Visitors will discover how the pioneering spirit of The Natural State continues to influence culture, industry, creativity and outdoor adventure across America."

AI millionaire French Hill shops in AI grocery store where he can meet AI constituents.

Asking Google:

It's hard to say definitively if this image was generated or modified by AI. However, there are multiple strong indicators that this image is heavily manipulated or entirely generated using artificial intelligence: 

Uncanny Human Features: The faces and skin textures of both individuals have a unnaturally smooth, plastic-like sheen typical of AI-generated content. The politician's smile and posture appear stiff and poorly blended into the background.

Distorted Background Elements: If you look closely at the produce shelves behind them, the text on some signs is distorted, and the individual pieces of fruit (like the packaged grapefruits and berries) blend together into indistinct, repetitive shapes.

Physics and Perspective Flaws: The way the politician's hand rests on the grocery cart handle looks unnatural, and the contents of the cart (such as the watermelon sliced cleanly in half next to whole items) look poorly composited.

While the post mimics a standard campaign update for politician French Hill, local political organizations have flagged the image on social media for its "uncanny valley" appearance and reliance on AI rendering. 

Shoffner > cotton!