Arkansas

Tyson agrees to settlement with Oklahoma after decades-long poultry pollution lawsuit

Published

4 months ago

February 15, 2026

Tyson agrees to settlement with Oklahoma after decades-long poultry pollution lawsuit

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — It appears the decades-long legal battle by the state of Oklahoma against poultry companies in northwest Arkansas over the pollution of the Illinois River watershed with chicken litter is reaching its conclusion.

Tyson and Cargill are the latest companies to agree to a settlement with Oklahoma after initially fighting a December federal court ruling holding them liable for pollution in the Illinois River watershed.

The new settlement, agreed to on Thursday, is a lot easier for Tyson and Cargill to swallow than that December ruling and the uncertainty it created.

That ruling demanded that farmers contracted with defendant poultry companies in northwest Arkansas be closely watched for at least 30 years by a monitoring team led by a special master to assure compliance with strict requirements for chicken waste disposal and land application and assess its impact on waterways.

What’s more, the December ruling would have had poultry companies pay for the team’s work, with initial payments of $10 million into an account and then $5 million more every time the fund fell below $5 million.

Panicking poultry companies, afraid of such a long period of liability and uncapped costs, began refusing to renew contracts with farmers in the region. Some farmers have already found themselves without a contract after being nonrenewed.

The new settlement helps eliminate the uncertainty by asking the companies for one-time payments—Tyson $19 million and Cargill $6.5 million. Some of that money will fund a special master who will ensure compliance with the settlement, but for a time period of seven years rather than at least 30.

For poultry growers in northwest Arkansas, it’s a relief, relatively.

“With the settlement, like I said, we feel a little bit more confident that Tyson would like to stay in northwest Arkansas,” Cheyenne Holliday, a poultry farmer for Tyson in Washington County, told KATV. Holliday says Tyson has told her family that their contract would not be renewed.

But the lawsuit against poultry companies in Arkansas has already done much damage, and the new settlement restricts the land application and sale of chicken litter as fertilizer, an important source of revenue for poultry farmers.

“I think that this is devastating to northwest Arkansas’s poultry industry. Undoubtedly, it’s going to impact the poultry production in northwest Arkansas. Poultry producers not having the ability to sell their litter is going to be hard on them,” Holliday said.

“If our farm was able to get a contract and able to sell our farm for any amount of money, we would probably leave northwest Arkansas. I don’t think that it would be smart business for us to stay in a place where we’re always going to be under the microscope as far as water quality is concerned,” she told KATV.

Holliday and other poultry farmers contracted with defendant companies don’t feel they’ve been treated fairly by the courts—since the lawsuit’s inception two decades ago, they say they’ve taken steps to better protect waterways from chicken litter pollution and say the Illinois River actually meets the original water quality standards demanded by Oklahoma in 2004.

“This settlement does not mean that poultry farmers are guilty of the water quality issue in the Illinois River watershed,” Holliday said.

What’s more, lawmakers say the state of Arkansas has instituted regulatory reforms to ensure it.

“That initiated a series of laws and changes that I was a part of even before I was in the Legislature to try to address this. I mean, the ultimate part is that we have to do things like we have farm plans that we have to go by. These are soil tests, and these give our application rates that we are supposed to abide by,” State Sen. Bryan King, (R) District 28, told KATV. King himself is a poultry farmer.

It’s not over just yet, as the judge in the case still has to approve Tyson and Cargill’s settlement with Oklahoma. And if he doesn’t do that, the December ruling still stands, and it’s back to the negotiating table.

“There is some relief in knowing that there was a settlement and that Tyson was at least willing to settle and not wait for the appeal process to happen, which could have taken several years. But if the judge doesn’t sign off on this settlement, honestly, the settlements don’t mean anything,” Holliday said.

Tyson, Cargill, and the state of Oklahoma have requested a court hearing for March 2, at which time the judge may decide whether or not to approve the settlement.

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Arkansas

Arkansas driver’s licenses and state IDs now available in Apple Wallet

Published

3 hours ago

June 3, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas driver’s licenses and state IDs now available in Apple Wallet

Arkansans can now present their driver’s licenses and state identification cards on mobile devices using Apple Wallet, state finance officials announced Wednesday.

The Department of Finance and Administration said Arkansans can use Apple Wallet to present their license or ID in person, online and in apps at select organizations, including at more than 250 Transportation Security

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Arkansas

Your Arkansas Driver’s License Can Now Live on Your iPhone

Published

13 hours ago

June 2, 2026

Press Room

Your Arkansas Driver’s License Can Now Live on Your iPhone

IDEMIA Public Security North America and the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration’s Division of Driver Services and Motor Vehicles have launched Arkansas driver’s licenses and state IDs in Apple Wallet, allowing residents to securely store and use their credentials on an iPhone or Apple Watch.

The new feature gives Arkansans the ability to present their identification at participating businesses and venues, at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints in more than 250 airports, and online or within apps when age or identity verification is required.

The launch builds on Arkansas’ ongoing efforts to expand digital identification options. In March 2025, the state introduced the Arkansas Mobile ID app, and officials say adding IDs to Apple Wallet offers residents another secure and convenient way to access their credentials.

“We’re proud to build on our partnership with the Arkansas DFA’s Division of Driver Services and Motor Vehicles, expanding on the launch of the Arkansas Mobile ID app in March 2025. The launch of ID in Apple Wallet in the state provides Arkansas residents a new, secure way to store and present their digital credentials, with transparency and control over how their information is shared at the forefront,” said Rob Gardner, CEO, IDEMIA Civil Identity.

To add an Arkansas driver’s license or state ID to Apple Wallet, users can tap the plus sign at the top of the Wallet app on their iPhone, select “Driver’s License or State ID,” and follow the verification process.

Officials say privacy and security were central considerations in the rollout. Information stored in Apple Wallet is encrypted on a user’s device, and users control when and how their information is shared. When presenting an ID, only the information necessary to verify age or identity is provided.

Apple and the Arkansas Division of Driver Services and Motor Vehicles also do not receive information about when or where residents use their digital IDs.

The technology is also designed to make verification easier for businesses. Participating businesses can use IDEMIA’s Mobile ID Verify app to accept and verify mobile IDs directly from an iPhone without requiring customers to hand over their devices or use additional hardware.

The launch marks another step toward broader adoption of digital credentials in Arkansas, giving residents a secure alternative to carrying a physical driver’s license or state ID while maintaining control over their personal information.

For information on the launch of IDs in Apple Wallet in Arkansas, click here.

READ ALSO: Adam O’Neal Stepping into Chancellor Role at UA-EACC

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Arkansas

Arkansas gymnatics coach Chris Brooks completes staff with hiring of Zan Jones | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Published

23 hours ago

June 2, 2026

Press Room

Arkansas gymnatics coach Chris Brooks completes staff with hiring of Zan Jones | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

New Arkansas gymnastics coach Chris Brooks announced Monday the hiring of Zan Jones to complete his first staff, as well as the promotion of assistants Kyla Ross and Catelyn Branson.

Brooks succeeded his wife, Jordyn Wieber, on April 28 after Wieber stepped down.

Jones joins the Razorback after two seasons as an assistant coach at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. The Pioneers won back-to-back Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics National Invitational Championship titles in 2025 and 2026 with Jones on staff. He has been named a Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association Division II assistant coach of the year three times, including this spring.

Jones also earned Midwest Independent Conference assistant coach of the year in both of his seasons at Texas Woman’s.

Jones served as the Pioneers’ primary vault and uneven bars coach, and the team set a program record of 49.35 on the bars in March.

An Alabama alumnus, Jones served as a student manager for the Crimson Tide gymnastics team. He served a year at Talladega (Ala.) College in its inaugural season of gymnastics and spent time as a recreational and team coach at Trussville (Ala.) Academy of Gymnastics.

Brooks also promoted both Ross and Branson to the title of associate head coach. Ross, a former UCLA gymnast and Olympic gold medalist as part of Team USA in 2012, started at Arkansas as a volunteer assistant in 2022. Ross helped Arkansas produce program records on the balance beam in back-to-back years before taking over the vault squad, which set a program high 49.675 in 2026.

The Razorbacks ranked as high as No. 2 on the vault last season and were never lower than No. 7. Senior transfer Morgan Price landed the first 10 in school history on the vault in February.

Branson returned to the Arkansas staff ahead of the 2025 season, helping lead the floor squad. In that time, Branson has led the Gymbacks to two of their top five best floor scores ever and Arkansas has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the country on floor in the last two seasons. In 2026, over 60% of the team’s scores on floor were 9.85 or better.

Branson served as Lindenwood’s head coach from 2022-24, where she was named 2024 Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association South Central Region Coach of the Year and the Midwest Independent Conference Coach of the Year. She led the Lions to their second consecutive and fifth overall USAG national championship and seventh MIC title in 2024.

Branson had a prior stint at Arkansas from 2020 to 2022, in which time the Gymbacks ranked as high as third on beam and second on floor.

Tom Murphy

tmurphy@wholehogsports.com

Tom Murphy is a sports reporter for WholeHogSports. A graduate of Louisiana Tech University, he is a member of the Football Writers Association of America and voter for the Heisman Trophy and AP Top 25 football poll. He was voted the 2017 Arkansas Sportswriter of the Year.

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