It hasn’t been pretty for John Calipari early into his tenure as the Arkansas head coach, as the Hogs are 11-7 on the year and 0-5 in SEC play. Calipari brought with him a lot of great players and recruits from Kentucky, and these players, on top of some transfers, made up Arkansas’s 2024-25 team.

While former Wildcat Adou Thiero is the leading scorer for the Razorbacks, an argument could be made that Boogie Fland is the best player on the team. The true freshman was previously committed to Kentucky and will likely be Calipari’s first one and done as the Razorbacks coach.

It was announced on Tuesday evening by Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports that Fland will miss the remainder of the season due to a hand injury. This is a massive blow for the Hogs, as Fland was the player that gave them the most upside to turn the season around.

Fland will still be a lottery pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and projects with his ability to create his own shot to be a good player at the next level.

For Arkansas, this means DJ Wagner is going to have to step up and start scoring the ball more. Fland averaged 15.1 points and 5.7 assists per game while shooting 36.5% from three in his freshman season.

Calipari and the Fland-less Razorbacks will take on the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday, looking for their first win in SEC play. Coach Calipari will make his return to Rupp Arena on February 1st to face off with Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats.

On the first day of his second presidency, Donald Trump pardoned all eight Arkansans among more than 1,500 of his supporters convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the nation’s Capitol.

Among them were the state’s two highest-profile defendants, Richard “Bigo” Barnett, who became notorious for a photo taken in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and Peter Stager, who admitted to beating a police officer with a flagpole.

Barnett, 64, of Gravette was sentenced to 54 months in prison after a federal court jury convicted him in May 2023. He has been incarcerated in a prison in Seagoville, Texas. He wasn’t scheduled for release until July 17, 2026.

Stager, 45, of Conway was released from prison in October. He had been jailed since shortly after his arrest in 2021. Stager pleaded guilty in February 2023 to one count of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon in exchange for additional charges being dropped. Stager beat the officer with a flagpole; the officer suffered bruises and abrasions.

Other Arkansans pardoned by Trump were:

Nathan Earl Hughes of Bentonville, who had not yet begun to serve a 25-month prison sentence handed down recently. Hughes pleaded guilty in August to three charges: civil disorder and aiding and abetting; assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers; and impeding passage through the Capitol grounds or buildings.

David Michael Camden of Tontitown, who was sentenced to one year and one day in prison recently after pleading guilty in September to assaulting a police officer, apparently had not gone to prison yet. He is not listed on the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ inmate registry.

Jon Thomas Mott of Yellville, convicted of a misdemeanor, was ordered to serve 30 days in prison and given probation in 2023.

Robert Thomas Snow of Heber Springs was sentenced in 2022 to one year probation for entering the U.S. Capitol during the riots.

This story first appeared on the Arkansas Times Arkansas Blog.

BTC block reward miners have come under fire in the U.S. for their noise pollution. In Arkansas, legislators are aiming at the sector for a new reason: building close to military facilities.

A new bill tabled before the Arkansas Senate seeks to prohibit miners from operating within 30 miles of a U.S. military facility. Senate Bill 60, sponsored by Sen. Ricky Hill and House Speaker Brian Evans, raises national security concerns, which have sprung up elsewhere in the U.S. recently as Chinese miners expand operations in the country.

The bill seeks to amend the Arkansas Data Centers Act of 2023 to add a new section that states: “Operation of digital asset mining business within a thirty-mile radius of a military facility is prohibited.”

It defines a military facility as a physical location in the state that is operated by the United States Armed Forces or the National Guard to house military personnel or equipment, support training and operations or serve as a command center. This includes bases and camps, hospitals and clinics and arsenals.

The bill demands that all miners operating within this radius shut down their mining farms as soon as it’s signed into law by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. However, any miner that was operational before December 31, 2024, can continue to operate, but if the operation changes hands, it must shut down.

According to local outlets, the new bill seems to target a new mining facility under construction in Cabot, Lonoke County. The facility is located just five miles from the Little Rock Air Force Base, which the Department of Defense uses to train pilots, navigators, and flight engineers.

The mine, owned by Florida-based and local businessman Steve Landers Jr.-owned Interstate Holdings, has been heavily criticized by locals and their leaders since construction started. In December, county officials, led by Cabot Mayor Ken Kincade, held a press conference in which they criticized the mine’s noise pollution.

“We will not stand for this, and we will fight vehemently to address this company’s efforts. We will join with our neighbors in Lonoke County and our state senators and our representatives and legally do anything within our power to remove this from our community,” the mayor stated.

Sen. Hill, who sponsored the latest Senate bill, was among the speakers, and he raised national security concerns.

“Why did they pick this facility that’s less than five miles away from our air base? This is a national security concern.”

Interstate has pushed back against the bill, with the company’s Vice President, Dustin Curtis, noting that the company has never violated noise laws and is not linked to China, which are the two most common criticisms for miners.

“This bill would make Arkansas the only state in America with anything like this. No one from the governor’s office or attorney general’s office asked for this,” he told a local outlet.

Landers, the local auto dealer who owns Interstate, further criticized the bill as ‘anti-Trump.’ The Republican president has insisted that he wants to make the U.S. the mining capital.

“We’re proud Americans and just want to be good neighbors and help give Arkansans a chance to take advantage of what we believe to be a good investment,” Landers stated.

Watch: Gorilla Pool provides end to end solution for ASIC mining

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