Micah Neal
Hot Springs Reveals Top 5 Restaurants & Hotels in 2024
Arkansas law blocks cities from sharing local-option tax data, but Visit Hot Springs reveals its top five restaurants and hotels for 2024—minus the dollars. read more >
Biggest Scoops (40 Years of Arkansas Business)
A scoop is a story so important that other news organizations are forced to follow. Here are some of our biggest. read more >
Freedom of Information (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
If the cost of performing FOIA requests is burdensome, the answer is to come up with the money, not to keep chipping away at the public’s right to know. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
El Dorado A&P Leaves Light On Hotel Revenues
Candlewood Suites in El Dorado is the city's top hotel by gross receipts, according to a list released by the El Dorado Advertising & Promotion Commission. read more >
Ecclesia Moves to Convert Property to Cash, Shed Debt
New leadership at Ecclesia College plans to sell Benton County acreage linked with a grant kickback scandal that ensnared the president of Ecclesia College, two state legislators and a lobbyist middleman. read more >
by George Waldon -
How Quapaw Is Picking Up Preferred Family Healthcare’s Pieces
The end of Preferred Family Healthcare’s implosion in Arkansas, which jolted the state’s Medicaid service industry and scarred its political landscape, came not with a bang, but with a text. read more >
by Kyle Massey -
Chocolate and Peanut Butter (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
I have a couple of favorite topics: white-collar crime and personal finance. A story that combines the two is as irresistible as chocolate and peanut butter. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Update: Judge Grants Ex-Lawmaker’s ‘Pipe Dream’ of Probation
Former state Rep. Micah Neal, who pleaded guilty last year to a corruption charge related to a kickbacks scheme involving Ecclesia College in Springdale, was sentenced Thursday to three years of probation. "I threw it all away, there are no excuses on my part," Neal told the court. read more >
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Updated: Oren Paris III Sentenced to 3 Years for Kickbacks
Oren Paris III, the former president of Ecclesia College in Springdale, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for his role in a corruption scandal involving kickbacks on state grants. read more >
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Say Hooray For Our Side (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
I never want anyone to be a crook, you know, but nothing pleases me more than seeing crooks get caught and punished. If there was a radio call-in show for federal court spectators, I’d be on a first-name basis with the screener. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Consultant Sentenced to 6 Years for Role in Kickback Scheme
A consultant who was convicted of funneling kickbacks to Arkansas lawmakers in exchange for keeping some of the money has been sentenced to six years in prison. read more >
by Associated Press -
Update: Jon Woods Sentenced to 220 Months in Prison for Kickback Scheme
Jon Woods, the former state senator from Springdale, was sentenced Wednesday to 220 months in prison for what U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks called “bastardization” of the legislative process. read more >
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Former State Sen. Jon Woods to Be Sentenced Wednesday
Jon Woods, the former state senator from Springdale, is scheduled for sentencing Wednesday in Fayetteville, and his co-defendant in a notorious public corruption case will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks on Thursday. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Sentencing Set for Jon Woods, Others in Bribery Scheme
Sentencing dates have been set for two former Arkansas state lawmakers and two others accused in a bribery scheme. read more >
by Associated Press -
Medicaid Suspends PFH After Former Exec Charged with $2M Fraud
Robin Raveendran has been charged with scamming almost $2.3 million from the Arkansas Medicaid program, and his former employer, enmeshed in corruption prosecutions in Missouri and Arkansas, has been suspended from the program. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
Governor, Ex-Prosecutor, Uncle: What Does Asa Hutchinson Do? (Analysis)
Every minute of every day, Asa Hutchinson is a governor, a former federal prosecutor and an uncle. With a nephew implicated in a bribery and corruption case, holding all three roles cannot be easy for him. read more >
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Rusty Cranford Pleads Guilty to Bribing Arkansas Legislators
Former lobbyist Milton Russell "Rusty" Cranford of Rogers pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to bribing Arkansas elected officials in what prosecutors called a "multimillion-dollar scheme." read more >
A Fish Rots From The Head (Editorial)
Leadership, like expectations, matters. It matters greatly. read more >
Jon Woods, Randell Shelton Found Guilty in Kickback Scheme
Former state Sen. Jon Woods and his co-defendant, Randell Shelton Jr., have been found guilty of a dozen or more counts each of fraud, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. read more >
Gavel-to-Gavel Obsession (Gwen Moritz Editor’s Note)
The public corruption being described in fascinating, horrifying detail in a federal courtroom in Fayetteville illustrates how public officials counted on public money and conspired to get it. read more >
by Gwen Moritz -
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![Darren and Kelly Brown, the married owners of Arkansas Air Flow, discovered that their former bookkeeper and employee, Amy Trammell, embezzled from their business over six years.[Karen E. Segrave]](https://arkansasbusiness.wppcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/ARBusiness-Embezzled-25_opt-150x150.jpg)
