Arkansas

Arkansas Hosts World's Shortest St. Patrick's Parade

Published

1 year ago

March 18, 2025

Arkansas Hosts World's Shortest St. Patrick's Parade

Thousands descended on a resort town in Arkansas Monday to watch what it bills as the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This 98-foot parade in the city of Hot Springs manages to pack in 40 different floats, and it’s exploded in popularity since its inception in 2004, growing from just 1,500 spectators per year to over 30,000, the AP reports. This year, actor Valerie Bertinelli acted as the grand marshal, while rap icon Flavor Flav was the official starter. Past grand marshals have included Kevin Bacon, George Wendt of Cheers fame, and country musician Justin Moore.

Other participants this year included 100 members of the International Order of the Marching Irish Elvi, an Elvis Presley impersonator group, and the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, who have joined annually for the past few years. This year, the parade featured a green version of Flavor Flav’s signature clock necklace. “I can have fun in a five-foot parade. Ninety-eight feet gives me a little bit more time to have more fun,” the Public Enemy rapper said before the festivities, which also featured a concert and a Blarney Stone kissing contest. As for whether Hot Springs’ parade is still officially the shortest, that’s not clear: It has the title copyrighted, but the city of Bemidji, Minnesota, reportedly held its own “78-pace” parade Monday. The route takes just a minute and a half to traverse, Lakeland PBS reports. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)

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Arkansas

Arkansas Governor joins national A.I. workforce initiative

Published

7 hours ago

June 25, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas Governor joins national A.I. workforce initiative

LITTLE ROCK, AR (KATV) — Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has joined a new national artificial intelligence initiative that launched Thursday, June 25.

RAISE US, started by former Governor Eric Holcomb of Indiana and Gina Raimondo, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce is a nonpartisan national organization that will partner with governors, employers, workers and training organizations to help the workforce transition to an AI economy.

“As artificial intelligence transforms America’s economy, we have one clear message: technology should empower people, not replace them. By leveraging our Arkansas LAUNCH initiative, and with the resources and expertise provided by RAISE US, Arkansas will turn that mission into reality. We want the Natural State to be a leader on education, workforce training, and up-skilling, and this new partnership gives us the tools we need to build a model for the entire nation.”

The organization will design and pilot incentives to retrain workers, new approaches to support job transitions, and training models tied to employer demand.

RAISE US launches with more than two dozen American companies and philanthropies and initial state partnerships in Connecticut, Maryland and Utah.

“America has a technology strategy for leading the global AI competition. It does not yet have a people strategy — and we cannot lead without one,” Raimondo, who will serve as CEO of RAISE US, said.

“If we build the best AI systems in the world and leave millions of Americans behind, we won’t have won anything; we’ll have automated our own decline. I believe AI will create new jobs and industries over time, but the transition could be disruptive, and it’s already underway. We shouldn’t fearmonger, but we can’t pretend our training and worker support systems are ready either. It’s time for innovative and practical solutions. This moment demands ambition, urgency, and creativity. We’ve assembled the country’s top companies, best economists, and bipartisan governors at a scale rarely seen — all to advance new ideas and incentives, pilot them with governors and business, and scale what works.”

Governor Sanders is partnering with RAISE US to support Arkansas LAUNCH, an AI-powered career navigation platform that connects students and jobseekers to personalized learning and employer-linked career pathways.

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