by Arkansas Business Editors 10/15/2018 12:00 am
Everyone knows the reason for a lobbyist's existence: to persuade lawmakers to do what the lobbyist wants him to do. But when lobbyists actually pay lawmakers — well, that’s influence of a whole other magnitude.
by Kyle Massey 10/4/2018 9:45 am
Quapaw House Inc. of Hot Springs finalizes plans to acquire the Arkansas assets of Preferred Family Healthcare of Springfield, Missouri, the scandal-plagued behavioral health provider that was cut off from state Medicaid payments earlier this year.
by Kyle Massey 10/1/2018 12:00 am
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.
by Gwen Moritz 9/24/2018 12:00 am
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.
by Associated Press 9/17/2018 6:42 am
An Arkansas mental health treatment company says it's working to purchase the Arkansas operations of a similar Missouri company tied to a political corruption investigation.
by Marty Cook and Lance Turner 9/13/2018 1:22 pm
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.
by Marty Cook and Lance Turner 9/12/2018 1:00 pm
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.
by Gwen Moritz 9/10/2018 12:00 am
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.
by Gwen Moritz 9/4/2018 2:14 pm
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.
by Gwen Moritz 8/6/2018 12:00 am
Oh, to have the power to subpoena people who could answer my burning questions and then force them to speak under oath! Some of the questions I still want answered date back a decade and more:
by Arkansas Business Staff 7/19/2018 3:27 pm
Federal prosecutors say Jerry Walsh, the former longtime director of the South Arkansas Youth Services Inc. of Magnolia, pleaded guilty to conspiring to misapply more than $380,000 from the now-defunct organization.
by Kelly P. Kissel, The Associated Press 6/18/2018 6:43 am
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.
by Gwen Moritz 6/18/2018 12:00 am
Is it possible that Rusty Cranford believed he was bribing Jeremy Hutchinson for legislative actions, but Hutchinson thought he was being paid only for legal work?
by Arkansas Business Editors 6/18/2018 12:00 am
Legislative leaders apparently think that one can be elected to the highest deliberative body in Arkansas government and not know that ethics — as in having some — are good.
by Andrew DeMillo, The Associated Press 6/11/2018 6:46 am
A corruption probe that's already ensnared a prolific lobbyist and two ex-lawmakers implicated a state senator who also happens to be a nephew of the governor. A member of the panel licensing medical marijuana facilities says an unsuccessful applicant offered him a bribe that he didn't accept but also didn't immediately report.
by Arkansas Business Staff 6/7/2018 1:32 pm
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."
by Arkansas Business Staff 5/14/2018 12:00 am
Centennial Bank of Conway has sued state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson for $30,037.69, plus interest and late fees, the unpaid balance of a $50,000 business loan made to him in 2011.
by Gwen Moritz 4/30/2018 12:00 am
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.
by Gwen Moritz 4/16/2018 10:08 am
The Missouri company ensnared in federal criminal cases at home and in Arkansas announced Monday that it has hired former state Supreme Court Justice Betty Dickey to help oversee its Arkansas operations.
by Gwen Moritz 3/26/2018 12:00 am
I hope I never get accustomed to public officials being on the take, but it’s especially disheartening when they use religion as part of their rationalization. And I’m detecting a pattern.
Six Arkansas Electric Co-Ops Stringing Broadband 
