Several counties across Arkansas have issued burn bans and much of the state, excluding the northeast corner, is at a moderate or high level of wildfire danger.

Over 20 counties, including Washington, Pope, Garland, Clark, Hempstead and Union County, have a burn ban in place as of Monday just after 12:30 p.m., according to a map posted online by the Arkansas Department of Agriculture.

Another map from the department showed much of Arkansas is at a high or moderate level of wildfire danger as of Monday afternoon, with Northwest Arkansas and southwest portions of the state at a high level of wildfire danger. Central Arkansas, including Pulaski, Faulkner and Jefferson, are at a moderate level of wildfire danger.

Chris Buonanno, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in North Little Rock, said Monday that a large amount of the state is abnormally dry or drier than usual and that around a third of the state is facing moderate drought conditions.

“We’ve had a dry summer and recent conditions have enhanced drought conditions,” he said. “We haven’t had much precipitation since July with the remnants of Beryl and parts of eastern Arkansas saw some remnants from Helene.”

Buonanno added that Hurricane Milton — which is anticipated to strike Florida this week and has just been upgraded to a Category 5 hurricane — is not expected to impact Arkansas at all.

The forecaster said that while it is dry, it is not unusual for the Natural State to be dry in September and October.

“The best thing to do is be mindful of burn bans that are set by county judges and also pay attention to the folks at the forestry division, in the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, about the levels of wildfire danger,” he said.

Buonanno said that the dry and warm conditions are expected to remain in Arkansas.

“It’s looking like it is going to be dry possibly for the next several weeks,” he said.

A cold front will enter the state and might lower temperatures slightly in Central Arkansas for Tuesday, but then they will slowly climb back up to normal or above normal.

The race to represent Arkansas’ 2nd Congressional District is the contest between the current congressman and the former Army officer, the incumbent and the hopeful.

Democrat Col. Marcus Jones and incumbent Republican Congressman French Hill are vying for a seat representing Arkansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. The two will face off in a debate held by Arkansas PBS Monday.

On one hand, Rep. French Hill has been serving Arkansas from Washington, D.C. since 2015.

“We were all taught in fifth grade when we did Arkansas history,” he said. “That you could build a wall around Arkansas and live independently of the rest of the universe.”

Hill is the Republican in the race, once serving as an advisor to former governor Mike Huckabee. Before serving in Congress, Hill was a banker. Now, he uses this knowledge to chair the House Financial Services Committee.

On the other side of this contest: Ret. Col. Marcus Jones. He’s running as a Democrat.

Jones said he felt called to challenge Hill after serving in the military for almost 30 years. His retirement became official a year ago.

“There was a lot of discussion in our house,” Jones said. “A lot of soul searching on the part of me and my entire family.”

While in the Army, he traveled the world, lived in eight different states and deployed to Iraq twice as a field artillery officer. In describing that job, Jones said “imagine rockets.”

Both Hill and Jones have similar stances when it comes to hot-button foreign policy issues. They both support aid for Ukraine after the country was invaded by Russia.

“Vladimir Putin has shown in Georgia, in Crimea, that unless he is stopped he will continue an expansion,” Jones said.

“Defeating Putin [in Ukraine] is to defeat Putin elsewhere,” said Hill.

Both also support aid for Israel to help the country fight the terrorist group Hamas, but Jones especially supports humanitarian aid for Gaza along with military aid to Israel.

But Jones disagrees with Hill on more specific policy issues. In his ad, Jones says the incumbent “isn’t a bad guy, he is just the wrong guy.”

“Polling data indicates that the majority of Arkansas are in support of women’s reproductive rights,” Jones said. “My opponent clearly is not. Is it in the interest to put prohibitions in place on whether or not members of Congress can trade stocks, my opponent voted against that.”

Jones supports progressive policies like expanding access to healthcare and addiction services. He wants to pass legislation to lessen food insecurity in children and would vote to expand the child tax credit.

Jones described the role of government this way:

“The first thing the government ought to do is not hurt people and the second thing is it ought to work to make things better for us.”

Congressman Hill says the role of government is to protect individual rights.

“We the people rule, and our government is set up as a strict separation of powers.”

Both candidates had childhoods in Arkansas. Hill grew up in Little Rock. He said he first became civically minded when he was a Boy Scout in his youth. Jones said he has been repeatedly taken with the “optimism and spirit” of the state’s culture.

Unlike Jones, Hill has a deep well of conservative credentials that have helped him to get repeatedly elected in Arkansas, even against well known local democrats like Clarke Tucker and Joyce Elliott.

One analysis showed that Hill has voted with former President Donald Trump 95% of the time. He supports legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote, wants to strengthen border security, and be tough on China.

He called the guilty verdict against Trump a “political gotcha game.”

Right now, Hill says one of his biggest priorities is easing inflation for working families.

“The Federal Reserve kept interest rates too low,” Hill said. “The Biden Administration spent too much money.”

He thinks this can be accomplished by making more energy at home and minimizing banking regulations. He also believes strongly in minimal government spending.

“And that takes bipartisanship,” he says.

In 2021, he broke with some of his colleagues in voting to support an investigation in the January 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol. But after it was over, Hill found fault with the committee handling of the investigation.

“The January 6th commission that former Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi created was a very political, one-sided investigation.”

Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told his fellow Republicans to stay away from the commission.

But, Jones said he would have made the same call to vote in favor of the commission.

“As someone who, since they were 17 years old, swore an allegiance to the Constitution,” Jones said. “I am an absolute believer that the January 6th commission needed to investigate.”

The 2nd Congressional District covers eight counties including most of Pulaski, Saline and Faulkner counties.

Tennessee suffered their first football loss of the 2024 season. That loss would come from the hands of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The final score was 19-14 and the Vols would drop down to No. 8 in the AP Poll.

The defensive effort was judged differently by many social media entities which led to Tennessee on SI bringing their opinions on the defensive grade report of each position group.

This group played well for the majority of the contest only giving up a few big plays in the run game. They did a great job limiting Taylen Green’s running ability holding him to -5 yards on the day with 9 attempts to break through. That was the clear game plan coming into the game as they would hope to stop Green’s passing ability and would struggle to do so. Tennessee would sack Green only twice. Once from star edge rusher James Pearce Jr. and another from Daevin Hobbs. Tennessee also did a good job with tackles for loss having seven total. Even the ones that were credited to the defensive backs or linebackers were thanks to a great defensive line play a majority of the time. Bryson Eason would have an injury in this one and wouldn’t return which isn’t a good sign.

The Vols linebackers did a great job stopping anything that got through the defensive line. Not many plays made it past the second level in the run game. Keenan Pili would have an amazing game having 14 total tackles with 4 solo tackles on the day. Arion Carter would have 1.5 TFLs, 8 total tackles, and 1 pass deflection on the day to be the complete counterpart to an already solid version of Pili. Jeremiah Telander wasn’t a drop-off when subbing in and he looked like he belonged out there. The worst factor about this is the amount of passes across the middle. Overall it was a solid day for this group.

This was the worst Tennessee group of the day. Tennessee could not get a stop in the secondary. Multiple players would dominate the defensive backroom. Tennessee would not only get beat in the pass game but they would be exposed. There weren’t many bright spots in this group and a lot of this is because of great passes from Green. Andre Armstrong would have 9 catches for 132 yards on the day and Isaiah Sategna would have 5 catches for 72 yards. Tennessee cannot struggle like this when they play even more talented groups such as Alabama when they will face players like Ryan Williams. If this carries over it will be a long season.

Tennessee is set to take on the Florida Gators in their next contest as they return to Neyland Stadium after a two game and three week road stretch.

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