These signs are posted on a landowner’s fence directly across the highway from 6310 Arkansas 215 South, near Vesta and about eight miles north of Charleston. The middle sign says, “Blindsided without a say.” The site across the road opposite these “no prison” signs now is marked with “no trespassing” signs from the State of Arkansas. The 815 acres were purchased Nov. 1 as a site for a proposed new 3,000-bed prison. (River Valley Democrat-Gazette/Penny Weaver)
CHARLESTON — A River Valley coalition fighting the state’s plan to build a prison in Franklin County called Wednesday for an Arkansas official’s job to be terminated after he sent an email mocking area residents with a link to “white trash redneck” cartoon characters.
Rex Nelson has been senior editor and columnist at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette since 2017, and he has a biweekly podcast called “Southern Fried.”
After graduating from Ouachita Baptist University in 1981, he was a sportswriter for the Arkansas Democrat for a year before becoming editor of Arkadelphia’s Daily Siftings Herald. He was the youngest editor of a daily in Arkansas at age 23. Rex was then news and sports director at KVRC-KDEL from 1983-1985.
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He returned to the Democrat as assistant sports editor in 1985. From 1986-1989, he was its Washington correspondent. He left to be Jackson T. Stephens’ consultant.
Rex became the Democrat-Gazette’s first political editor in 1992, but left in 1996 to join then-Gov. Mike Huckabee’s office. He also served from 2005-09 in the administration of President George W. Bush.
From 2009-2018, he worked stints at the Communications Group, Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities, and Simmons First National Corp.
Dylan Sherman is a business reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He is based in Northwest Arkansas and focuses on Tyson Foods Inc. and the transportation industry. A graduate of the University of Missouri, he has been with the newspaper since 2023.
