Tess Vrbin / Arkansas Advocate
ReporterTess Vrbin is a reporter for the nonprofit news organization Arkansas Advocate. She previously worked for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette where she reported on low-income housing and tenants' rights, and won awards for her coverage of 2021 flooding and tornado damage in rural Arkansas. She previously covered local government for The Commercial Dispatch in Mississippi and state government for the Columbia Daily Tribune in Missouri. A Midwesterner by birth, she graduated from the University of Missouri's journalism school in 2019.
Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers. The Advocate retains full editorial independence.
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Bill sponsors say they do not intend to ask their colleagues to override the vetoes -
REAL IDs will be required for all Americans to board flights or enter certain federal buildings starting May 7. -
Separate bill concerning gender-affirming health care for transgender minors heads to the governor’s desk -
Human Services Department opposed the bill; Arkansas remains only state without some version of this coverage option -
Committee approves separate bill to give parents the right to sue social media platforms over harm to their children -
After more than two hours of debate, an Arkansas Senate committee advanced a proposal on Tuesday to abolish the Arkansas State Library and its board, which disburses state funding to local public libraries. -
Civil rights attorney Austin Porter Jr. represents the plaintiffs, who previously filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -
Department of Education would oversee state aid to public libraries based on their policies, hours of operation and availability of certain content -
Meanwhile, lawmaker introduces language in appropriation bill to prohibit funds to ALA-affiliated libaries -
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, introduced Senate Bill 184 to transfer the Arkansas Educational Television Commission’s powers to the Department of Education.
