Arkansas
Jana Duggar marries Stephen Wissmann in Arkansas wedding
Jana Duggar is a wife!
The 34-year-old tied the knot with Stephen Wissmann in Prairie Grove, Ark., on Thursday, People reports.
The couple said “I do” in front of 500 guests during a “classic, elegant” ceremony at The Grand at Willow Springs, per the outlet.
Jana’s father, Jim Bob Duggar, walked her down the aisle to the song “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
The bride’s sisters were also involved in the nuptials, with Jessa Duggar Seewald serving as the maid of honor. Joy-Anna Forsyth, Johannah Duggar, Jinger Duggar Vuolo and Jordyn Duggar were bridesmaids along with Jana’s sister-in-law Abbie Duggar.
The wedding news comes after the US Sun reported that the newlyweds obtained their marriage license in their home state of Arkansas on Wednesday.
Duggar and Wissmann, who got engaged in June, first sparked romance rumors after they were spotted together in December 2020. However, they have kept their romance off of social media and never publicly addressed their relationship status.
People reports the two first met years ago through their families. The “19 Kids and Counting” star’s brother Jeremiah Duggar is married to Wissmann’s sister Hannah.
Like Jana, Wissmann also comes from a large, religious family with 13 children. According to his Instagram, he owns a business and is a private pilot.
Jana sparked engagement rumors last month after posting a series of photos with a diamond ring on that finger.
In the pictures, the soon-to-be bride posed with her brother John and his wife, Abbie. Although she hid her left hand in two of the pictures, eagle-eyed fans still noticed the sparkler in one of the pictures.
Jana is the eldest daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and was often called “Cinderella Duggar” for not prioritizing marriage like a lot of her siblings, who mostly wed in their early 20s.
However, in July 2020, the TLC star told Us Weekly she was “not that worried” about finding “The One.”
“Yes, I long to be married and one day I think that will come, but I think … I’m just also just trying to stay busy with whatever comes along my path,” she told the outlet.
Despite feeling “a little more pressure” to find a husband, Jana said she wanted to make “the most” of her single years.
“I think if I sit there and I’m like, ‘Oh no, I’m not married’ and just [get] all worried about it, it makes things way worse,” she shared.
Jana explained that she didn’t want to settle and hoped to find a love as strong as her parents, who wed in 1984.
“The genuine love that they still have for one another … this young love and they still have that, you know, today. I think that’s rare to see couples that are their age and been married that long.”
Arkansas
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.
Arkansas
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Arkansas
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