Effort to repeal LEARNS falls short
The effort to place a ballot measure to repeal the Arkansas LEARNS Act did not get enough signatures. Arkansas Secretary of State John Thurston said the campaign was about 978 valid signatures shy of the required number. He said the group collecting signatures, Citizens for Arkansas Public Education and Students, also fell just short of the required 3% representation of voters in 50 different counties.
Arkansas Children's to expand regional services
Arkansas Children’s Hospital will use its largest donation ever to expand its Northwest Arkansas services. The Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation announced at the annual Gala of Hope it was giving it largest single gift, $25 million dollars, to the hospital. Marcy Doderer, the president and CEO of Arkansas Children’s Hospital, said half of the gift will be used to expand the Springdale hospital to be able to treat more children with more serious diagnoses and injuries.
Mandy Mackie, the executive director of the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, said the gift continues the legacy of Pat Walker. Mackie said Pat Walker was a cheerleader for the children of the state.
In honor of the gift, the hospital's northwest campus will be named the Pat Walker Campus.
CDC warns of a possible rise in COVID-19 infections
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning COVID-19 infections might be rising this summer, and reporting that nationwide hospital admissions rose 12% in July. Seven hundred new cases of COVID were reported in Arkansas last week, with 15 new hospitalizations. The Washington County Jail also reported last week that 42 detainees tested positive.
Dr. Robert Hopkins, a professor of internal medicine-pediatrics for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, said it’s hard to know the true number of infections currently.
“The challenge that we have is that the testing is at a far lower rate than it has been all summer," Hopkins said. "Part of that is that home tests is not reported. But I think many have gone down the route and said that you know 'I've heard where the pandemic is over, I've heard it's not an issue,' and I think that's at least somewhat a limitation that is skewing our data.”
Hopkins also said mass immunity might be waning, in part because of less frequent testing and lower vaccination rates. He said if people are experiencing cough, nasal congestion, fever or achiness, they should be tested for COVID. He also said staying up to date on the vaccines is important, especially with a new one expected this fall.
“We have three manufacturers Novavax, Moderna and Pfizer that are all working on developing the vaccine for this fall which will be based on the XBB.1.5 variant," Hopkins said. "Once the initial trials are done, FDA will evaluate it and approve its use and then sometime later on this fall, late this month or in September, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will make recommendations on the use of that vaccine.”
Three hundred and eighty-five Arkansans this year have died from complications because of COVID-19, most in January. Find a link to the weekly data from the Arkansas Department of Health here.
Lawsuit challenges blocking the growth, sale and possession of Delta THC products
Last week a lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Arkansas to block Act 629, which broadly bans the growth, sale and possession of several Delta THC products. The plaintiffs in the suit claim the law conflicts with the 2018 Federal Farm Bill which legalized agricultural hemp across the U.S. Abtin Mehdizadegan from Hall Booth Smith in Little Rock is among five attorneys challenging Act 629.
“The law’s unconstitutional because it violates preemptive federal law and because it is so poorly drafted that a person of ordinary intelligence would have a very difficult time understanding what the law even means," Mehdizadegan said.
He said Arkansas lawmakers could have specifically banned sales of Delta THC products in Arkansas. He claims the law criminalizes Arkansas’s hemp industry because Delta THC products are synthesized from hemp.
“The law will destroy farming in Arkansas because overnight it turned farmers into felons partially in our view because the way the law was drafted it would even go so far as to make CBD itself illegal,” Mehdizadegan said.
Under Act 629, CBD, another common ingredient in cannabis that is not intoxicating, as well as medicinal CBD, can be seized by law enforcement.
U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson, the federal judge assigned to preside over the lawsuit, ordered the defendants to respond to the plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order by tomorrow, Tuesday. So far, 14 states have banned or limited sales of Delta THC products.
