Little Rock School Board members are being asked to consider filing a lawsuit against the state regarding a ban on mask mandates. Superintendent Michael Poore made the request in a video released Friday. He said Act 1002, which took effect Wednesday, is unconstitutional. It prohibits state and local government entities, including schools, from enforcing mask mandates.

While Gov. Asa Hutchinson has called for a special session of the Arkansas General Assembly to consider modifying or lifting the ban, Poore said he isn't confident lawmakers will make the right decision.

A nursing home magnate, one of Arkansas’s highest-ranking jurists and a former judge in shackles were among witnesses in the first week of the federal bribery trial of former lobbyist Gilbert Baker.

Prosecutors sought to weave an intricate tale of political ambition and greed while the defense focused on a key witness’ lack of credibility. Both sides struggled at times to jog witnesses’ memories of events that happened as far back as 2013 and 2014.

A judge has ordered Arkansas to resume its participation in supplemental federal unemployment assistance that the state cut off to thousands of workers.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction ordering the state to seek federal approval to continue the payments.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson in May ordered the state’s Division of Workforce Services to end the state’s participation in the program after June 26. The federally funded additional benefits were scheduled to run through early September.

Arkansas on Wednesday reported 1,703 new coronavirus cases as the number of people in the state hospitalized because of the virus continued to climb.

The Department of Health reported that the state’s cases since the pandemic began now totals 379,726. The state said 15,801 of those are active cases, meaning ones that don’t include people who have died or recovered.

The state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations rose by 39 to 1,064 and deaths increased by 12 to 6,099. There are 386 COVID-19 patients in intensive care in the state, and 209 on ventilators.

The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a resolution to leave the statue of former U.S. Sen. J. William Fulbright where it is on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, but to provide “historical context” for the monument to the longtime leader.

Fulbright’s legacy has come under increased scrutiny in recent months.

The Interstate 40 bridge, linking Arkansas and Tennessee over the Mississippi River, is set to reopen next week. The Arkansas Department of Transportation announced Wednesday the eastbound lanes of I-40 will open at 6 a.m. on Monday, while the westbound lanes will open the following Friday.

According to Dave Parker with the department, the staggered opening of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge is mostly due to logistics.

Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Rhonda Wood testified Tuesday that she never talked with former Circuit Judge Michael Maggio about his decision to alter a jury’s award in a nursing home negligence case in 2013 — a ruling that led to Maggio’s imprisonment and to federal bribery charges against former lobbyist Gilbert Baker.

Wood’s testimony for the prosecution came near day’s end at Baker’s trial in U.S. District Court in Little Rock. She is to continue testifying Wednesday.