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Arkansas Supreme Court asked to disqualify ballot measure that would block planned casino

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Arkansas Supreme Court asked to disqualify ballot measure that would block planned casino


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Opponents of a proposal to block a planned casino in Arkansas asked the state Supreme Court Thursday to disqualify the measure from the November ballot.

Cherokee Nation Entertainment, which was awarded a license to build and operate the casino, and a newly formed affiliated group filed a lawsuit challenging the proposed constitutional amendment a day after the secretary of state’s office said it qualified for the ballot.

The lawsuit accuses the ballot measure campaign, which is funded by Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, of violating several laws regarding signature gathering. The suit also challenges the wording of the ballot proposal, calling it “riddled with flaws.”

“Arkansans must be made aware of this deliberate scheme to openly violate Arkansas laws regarding canvassing and to mislead and confuse voters,” said Dover Mayor Roger Lee, an officer with Arkansas Canvassing Compliance Committee, which filed paperwork Thursday with the state to campaign against the measure.

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A spokesperson for Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston, who is named as the defendant in the case, declined to comment. Local Voters in Charge criticized the lawsuit and said said it was committed to fighting the challenge.

“It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that Cherokee Nation Businesses has filed a lawsuit that seeks to silence the voices of 116,000 Arkansas voters who want something that could not be more reasonable: a statewide vote to give local voters the final say on whether a casino should be built in their community, or not,” Hans Stiritz, a spokesperson for the group, said in a statement.

The lawsuit claims that canvassers hired by the campaign were paid or awarded prizes based on the number of signatures obtained, in violation of state law, and that they made repeated false statements about the measure when gathering signatures. The lawsuit also claimed that the initiative campaign failed to register and certify paid canvassers.

Thurston’s office on Wednesday said Local Voters in Charge had turned in more than enough valid signatures from registered voters to put it measure on the ballot.

The proposed amendment would revoke the license granted for a Pope County casino that has been hung up by legal challenges for the past several years. Pope County was one of four sites where casinos were allowed to be built under a constitutional amendment that voters approved in 2018. Casinos have already been set up in the other three locations.

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The state Racing Commission in June awarded Cherokee Nation Entertainment the license for the casino.





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Arkansas

Suspect in Arkansas grocery store mass shooting faces additional charges | CNN

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Suspect in Arkansas grocery store mass shooting faces additional charges | CNN




CNN
 — 

The suspect accused of killing four people and injuring nine others during a shooting at an Arkansas grocery store has been charged with additional counts of attempted murder.

Travis Eugene Posey, 44, now faces four counts of capital murder and 11 counts of attempted capital murder, according to online court records.

Posey appeared before a judge early this week on the additional charges and remains held without bond, according to court records.

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Posey had previously pleaded not guilty to the murder charges, the prosecuting attorney in the case told CNN.

CNN has reached out to Posey’s attorney for comment.

Posey is accused of opening fire at the Mad Butcher in Fordyce, Arkansas, on June 21.

Authorities believe Posey began engaging victims in the parking lot after exiting his truck and then entered the store, Secretary of Public Safety and Director of Arkansas State Police Mike Hagar said.

He then fired “indiscriminately” at customers and employees inside the store, according to Hagar.

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“The suspect arrived at the Mad Butcher armed,” he said. “We believe that most, if not all the rounds fired by the suspect were from the shotgun.”

A motive is unclear, police say.

Law enforcement responded to the shooting around 11:30 a.m. and exchanged gunfire with the suspect, state police said.

“He immediately engaged in a firefight with law enforcement, where they were able to stop the threat,” Hagar said.

Posey was treated for non-life-threatening injuries and taken to the Ouachita County Detention Center, state police said in a news release.

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Walmart Worker’s Zoom Outburst Shows Angst Over Relocation Plan

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Walmart Worker’s Zoom Outburst Shows Angst Over Relocation Plan


Hundreds of Walmart Inc. employees joined what they thought would be a routine Zoom call in May when talk veered to mandatory relocation to Arkansas. The policy is “a bunch of bullsh-t,” blurted out one participant.

Workers on the call were startled, but not surprised, according to people familiar with the matter who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the meeting. Thousands of employees from smaller offices and remote workers around the US have been ordered to the retailer’s corporate hubs, a move by the company to draw more people back to offices.



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Mercy Northwest Arkansas gets $5 million gift from the Walmart Foundation for cancer treatment, advancing the care options in Benton County | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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Mercy Northwest Arkansas gets  million gift from the Walmart Foundation for cancer treatment, advancing the care options in Benton County | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette


ROGERS — Mercy Northwest Arkansas will spend about half of a $5 million donation to add services that will put the hospital “on the map” for interventional radiology, according to the physician tapped to lead the project.

The Walmart Foundation provided Mercy Northwest with the one-time gift to provide Northwest Arkansas residents with access to the best quality of care, said Kathleen McLaughlin, foundation president and executive vice president and chief sustainability officer at Walmart.

The hospital announced in a news release Wednesday it will use some of the money for the construction of an interventional radiology suite. The suite will include a robot-controlled system that uses imaging software to help guide physicians to conduct “minimally invasive” treatments for various conditions, the release said.

Jared Garrett, interventional radiologist at Mercy and project leader, described the machine as a 360-degree CT scanning device that can create imaging of any part of the body and allow physicians to isolate the veins a patient’s tumor is receiving blood from. He said the machine will ultimately allow for treatments to be directly administered to the tumor.

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He said after blood flow to the specific location has been stopped, a catheter will deliver an injection of small, medicine-coated beads. Garrett said the beads travel less than a quarter of an inch, so the imaging machine is needed for precision. The injection is an outpatient procedure, and the beads continue to release the medicine days after the procedure. Most patients need multiple rounds of the treatment, and it depends of the patient for the number of rounds.

Garrett said the treatment will initially only be used on patients suffering from liver cancer, but the machine will be used to treat other types of cancer in the future. He said the liver is the organ with the highest level of metastasis or spreading of cancer in the body.

There are patients in Benton County that need the treatment, Garrett said, but they have had to go to Little Rock or to Missouri to receive it. The service is state-of-the-art but has been the standard in care for a decade, he added.

About half of the money from the Walmart Foundation gift will be spent on the interventional radiology suite, said Ryan Gehrig, president of Mercy Arkansas. He said Garrett is leading the project and will have final say on its various facets.

Gehrig said he recruited Garrett to Mercy in 2019 because he knew the oncology program needed a talented physician to move it to the next level.

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The team is in the final stages of identifying a room in the hospital for the suite, Gehrig said. The suite should be ready for patients in six to seven months, he added.

Mercy does have ideas for the remaining gift funds and will announce them soon, Gehrig said.

Nathan Smith, chairman of the Mercy Health Foundation Northwest Arkansas, said the interventional radiology suite will keep patients from traveling, allowing them to get quality care close to home.

McLaughlin said the advancement will change lives in the community. She added it is inspiring to hear how the money will be practically used.



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