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Trump announces new auto tariffs in major trade war escalation; Florida child labor bill advances amid exploitation concerns; Indiana sets goal to boost 3rd grade reading proficiency; Kentucky doctors say GOP lawmakers' attempt to clarify abortion ban confuses instead.

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Newly released Signalgate messages include highly classified data. Americans see legal political spending as corruption. Activists say cuts to Medicaid would hurt maternity care, and cuts and changed rules at Social Security are causing customer service problems.

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Rural folks face significant clean air and water risks due to EPA cutbacks, a group of policymakers is working to expand rural health care via mobile clinics, and a new study maps Montana's news landscape.

AR's 95th legislative session begins today

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Monday, January 13, 2025   

Arkansas lawmakers are at the Capitol today for the start of the 95th Legislative session. Over the next 88 days, legislators will discuss more than 2,000 bills that have been filed since November.

University of Arkansas Political Science Professor Andrew Dowdle said legislators will also attempt to implement bills passed during the first term of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

"Part of that is the Learns Act, where about half of all new state spending is going to private school vouchers," said Dowdle. "There was also an Arkansas Forward report to try to find savings in state government."

He said the report includes measures to slash $300 millions from the state's budget in six years, and a plan to pay state workers more competitive salaries.

One of Sanders' more controversial plans is to build a new 3,000-bed prison in Charleston, in Franklin County. Dowdle said the proposal has received pushback from residents in the area.

"Nobody seems to want a prison in their own neighborhood," said Dowdle. "You usually end up finding more support for prisons in rural areas at times where you end up having higher times of unemployment, and I don't think Charleston would really see itself in that light."

State Sen. Bryan King, R-Green Forest, has filed a draft bill opposing the new prison.

His proposal addresses reducing overcrowding in county jails by investing in new construction, expansions, or renovations in jails with the highest prisoner backlog.


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