Times Record (Ft. Smith Southwest)
Hegseth’s staff damages globe used by Eisenhower
WASHINGTON – Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth’s staff members damaged a standing globe believed to have been used by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower while they were attempting to move the artifact into Hegseth’s office. A Pentagon official acknowledged the...
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Trump approval rating hits career low in poll
President Donald Trump’s approval rating has fallen to a new record low, with less than one-third of Americans approving of the president’s job performance, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll. The poll, released on Oct. 19, found Trump’s approval...
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Two midterms that shook up America
The conventional wisdom is that the Democratic Party has the advantage in the 2026 midterm elections and could become the majority party in one, or both, chambers of Congress. The margin of that anticipated victory is harder to predict. And the size...
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Trump, voters disagree on state of economy
WASHINGTON – Appearing before a crowd in Tennessee this month, President Donald Trump rattled off a list of what he described as “perfect” economic statistics. “Our first term, we had the greatest economy in the history of our country, and we’re...
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Report: Trump tax cuts favor wealthiest
The Trump administration’s economic policies have driven up taxes and costs for all but the wealthiest 1% of Americans, according to a new analysis from an economic think tank. A typical American consumer, someone in the middle 20% by income, will pay...
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BUILDING UP VOTER TRUST
Recently, I moderated a national event that had college students speaking with election officials, something I often find myself doing this time of year. This year, a new question kept coming up: “If I’m voting by mail, can I trust my ballot will...
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Trickle-down effect
Diesel fuel is about as expensive as it has ever been, its per-gallon price ranging so high as to make regular gasoline look positively cheap by comparison. With high-stakes elections approaching, President Donald Trump has reportedly inked a...
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YOUNG INNOVATORS
The 2026 winner of the 3M Young Scientist Challenge has been announced, and the winning project could change the world. h This year, contestants aged 11 to 14 used science to solve everyday problems, from smart utensils that detect allergens to tools...
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No Kings events planned across U.S.
Millions of Americans are expected to gather across the country and vote early Oct. 17 in the newest iteration of the popular No Kings protests. In some cases, they will march to polling locations. Each of the more than 3,000 actions will focus on...
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Labor report shows inflation up again
For the third straight month, workers’ paychecks did not keep pace with rising prices, the Labor Department’s final inflation report ahead of the midterm elections revealed. U.S. consumer prices rose 0.6% from the month before in September, per the...
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Human error cited in failed execution
When it comes to executing death row inmates, pentobarbital is the drug of choice for more than a dozen states and the federal government. It has been used to kill more than 100 murderers in the United States for more than 15 years. So how did Christa...
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Earhart expedition team heads to island of crabs
Could a crab (or crabs) be responsible for the ultimate demise of one of the 20th century’s great American heroes? As researchers make their way to the remote Pacific island of Nikumaroro in search of the famed aviator Amelia Earhart, they’ll contend...
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REBRANDING NICOTINE
An ironic development emerging alongside the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is the portrayal of nicotine as a wellness and performance-enhancing product. Across social media, podcasts, wellness communities and tech startups, prominent wellness...
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Trump uses federal power to boost GOP
Americans are seeing taxpayer-funded television ads promoting President Donald Trump, government checks are hitting nearly 1 million mailboxes across the country, and federal agents are scouring voting rolls as a midterm election marked by Trump’s...
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Cornell investigation draws expert criticism
Cornell University, campus police and the local prosecutor’s office are all facing intense scrutiny over their investigation into 2024 gang rape allegations, and experts say key changes early in the case could have had a big impact on the...
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LGBTQ+ migrants sent to unfriendly nations
DAKAR, Senegal – Two years ago, a mob assaulted Abdou Latifou and threatened to kill him after he was seen kissing the man he loved. He fled his home in the West African nation of Togo and sought refuge in the United States, according to his asylum...
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‘PRETEND I’M ON THE BALLOT’
President Donald Trump traveled to Ohio for a rally on Oct. 3 in hopes of energizing his supporters as Republicans find themselves locked in tight races for governor and U.S. Senate. Trump was joined by GOP Sen. Jon Husted, gubernatorial candidate...
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The AI of the storm
Artificial intelligence has revolutionized weather forecasting in just a few years, with global AI weather models now able to produce forecasts that rival some of the world’s best physics-based prediction systems. h This remarkable progress has been...
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Need a hip or knee replacement?
GETTY IMAGES Physicians groups urging CMS to reconsider its plans
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COMMON CENTS
America may finally have a plan to survive without pennies. The Treasury Department stopped minting pennies in 2025, under orders from President Donald Trump. The coins cost more to mint than they were worth – 3.69 cents to make every penny in 2024,...
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Report: AI is being used to plan violence
Did a college student charged with murder in Florida turn to ChatGPT for help not with homework but with planning a mass shooting that left two dead and five wounded? Evidence against him suggests he did, according to a new report citing court records...
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The long afterlife of QAnon
On Election Day in 2024, as voters cast their ballots, Elon Musk posted a campaign music video supporting Donald Trump’s bid for president. Set to Van Halen’s “Jump,” with a montage of 1980s cultural references and images of Trump in various strongman...
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White Coat Ceremony marks 10th year for ARCOM
The Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine marked its 10th White Coat Ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 26, celebrating a tradition that has included about 1,600 medical students since the college’s inaugural class received their coats in 2017. Arkansas...
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U.K. police probe U.S. airbase attack
FAIRFORD, England – British police said on Sept. 28 they were investigating whether individuals acting for a foreign state were involved in an apparent plot to attack an airbase used by the United States but said five suspects they had arrested would...
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Priorities for Trump, voters differ
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s three-day visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping was filled with pomp and circumstance: a red-carpet arrival, a tour of the National Archives and a state dinner of yellow squash velouté and sesame-crusted sea...
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Positives of play
Demands are high, and school districts are always looking for ways to get the most of their students’ academic performance. That might mean free time and recess could be at a premium, as schools try to eke out as much time for academics as possible. h...
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New report alleges censorship at colleges
A “widespread, McCarthyite censorship” campaign by the Trump administration led to the suppression of speech at colleges and universities across the nation, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International concluded. The...
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Fire near East Camden now 90% contained
A wildfire near East Camden was 90% contained after burning 2,849 acres as the Arkansas National Guard began scaling back a response that dropped more than 400,000 gallons of water on the fire. National Guard helicopter crews dropped 483 Bambi buckets...
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Cursive is making a comeback in schools
Learning to read and write cursive was once a rite of passage for practically every American schoolchild. Until the early 20th century, children in the United States were generally taught to write in cursive or script, rather than the print writing...
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Nine Fort Smith schools, district improve grades
Fort Smith Public Schools improved its overall state letter grade from a C to a B for 2026, and nine district schools also earned higher grades than last year. The Arkansas Department of Education Division of Elementary and Secondary Education...
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Officials report ICE officer shot, injured man in Texas
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and injured a man on Sept. 20 in Austin, officials said, the latest shooting involving federal officers in the United States this year. Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said at a news...
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Trump says arch to also serve as military complex
President Donald Trump announced Sept. 20 that his new 250-foot-tall triumphal arch across the Potomac River from the U.S. Capitol – part of a pending lawsuit – will also serve as a military complex. Trump said in a Truth Social post that the arch...
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President Trump to face skeptical world leaders
WASHINGTON – When President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations a year ago, he touted the U.S. bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites just months earlier as “totally obliterating everything” and said he had brought peace between Israel and...
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U.N. mission details U.S., Iran allegations
MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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USPS mail ballot changes blocked
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 14 declined to let the U.S. Postal Service tighten the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. The ruling was a loss for President Donald Trump,...
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Johnson: Congress shouldn’t lead AI safety
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said that artificial intelligence developers, not Congress, bear responsibility for ensuring their products are safe and rejected a national moratorium on AI buildout during a Sept. 13 appearance on CNN’s “State of the...
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DIGITAL DETOX
A trove of recent articles bemoan the collapse in recreational reading among younger Americans, with COVID-19 pandemic-related reading declines, artificial intelligence and social media often described as causes. But as the authors of “How Gen Z...
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25th anniversary of 9/11 commemorated
JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS Volume 144 | No. 215 Questions? Call 479-785-7700 ©2026
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A GENERATION OF AFTERSHOCK
Aquarter-century later, 9/11 still echoes. h The worst terrorist attack in U.S. history has been followed by other seismic events, from a once-in-a-century global pandemic to the rise of artificial intelligence that is transforming commerce, education...
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SEX-TRAFFICKING CRACKDOWN STALLS
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has repeatedly said the fight against sex trafficking is one of its top priorities. But investigations have stalled and prosecutions declined because of staffing shortages, funding cuts, immigration enforcement...
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‘TRUMPAPALOOZA’
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has a solution for his party’s midterm woes as Republicans struggle to match Democrats’ election enthusiasm and face major headwinds to keep control of Congress: More Trump. It’s almost time for “Trumpapalooza,”...
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Iran aims to tackle economic issues
DUBAI – Iran said it will step up efforts to tackle problems created by the U.S. sanctions that are crippling its economy, while a senior Iranian official warned of a “painful response” if it comes under further attack. Six months after U.S.-Israeli...
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Mandatory water limits imposed south of Zero Street
Water customers south of Zero Street are under mandatory conservation measures through Sunday after a damaged water main caused significant water loss and left reservoir levels serving the area low. The City of Fort Smith announced Thursday that...
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AN IDLE THREAT
Abus company that left its buses’ engines running while parked in Boston neighborhoods has settled a lawsuit by agreeing to pay $5.6 million in damages for the resulting air pollution. The settlement came in a citizen-enforcement lawsuit under the...
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Immigration delays separate couples
Nicholas Miller hasn’t tried Taco Bell. Or Whataburger. Not because they are hard to find; they are everywhere in Austin. He is saving them for Irina Miller, his wife, for when her green card clears and she crosses the border for the first...
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PRESS UNDER PRESSURE
In his White House Correspondents’ Association dinner speech on July 24, President Donald Trump made his usual diatribes against the news media. He derided the “failing” New York Times and reiterated his complaint that CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins...
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Living history group to retrace Civil War journey
More than 1,000 Louisiana soldiers arrived at Fort Smith in the opening months of the Civil War, only to discover there wasn’t enough room for them inside the fort. They camped instead along the Poteau River before continuing north toward one of the...
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Iran still wants a negotiated end to war
DUBAI – Iran is still seeking a negotiated solution to its conflict with the United States, President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Aug. 31, a day after the two countries resumed hostilities for the first time since late July, driving oil prices up more...
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Arkansas National Guard soldiers return to Ebbing
Seventy-eight Arkansas National Guard soldiers returned home Thursday after a deployment to Washington, D.C., where they supported a public safety mission in the nation’s capital. The soldiers, assigned to the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade, arrived...
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Cup of care &ambition
In 1973, Dolly Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You” to soften the blow of leaving her business partner Porter Wagoner after years of producing hit country duets together. Parton was ready to pursue a solo career. So she played the song for Wagoner to...
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Iran urges opposition to new sanctions
DUBAI – Iran condemned the United States’ new economic sanctions on Aug. 28 as “state terrorism” and said other countries were legally obliged not to implement them. The Iranian foreign ministry’s statement came as mediators stepped up efforts to...
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LGBTQ+ community remembers icon Parton
“If I hadn’t been a girl, I’d have been a drag queen.” One of Dolly Parton’s most iconic oneliners is reverberating anew for the LGBTQ+ community. “She was the outsider who made it big by being herself, and leading with love,” the Tennessee Equality...
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Fort Smith fulfills vision for Butterfield monument
Judge Jim Spears won’t see his vision running along Garrison Avenue, but Phil White intends to keep a promise he made shortly before his death. A life-size steel silhouette of a Wells Fargo stagecoach and team of horses soon will rise from the Farmers...
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ATU-Ozark enrollment hits highest level since 2019
Arkansas Tech University-Ozark Campus has recorded its highest total enrollment since 2019, with more than 2,000 students attending the campus this fall. ATU-Ozark reported 2,095 students enrolled for fall 2026, a 12.3% increase from fall 2025,...
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Government efforts converge on one question
Fort Smith voters will see only one question about changing the city’s form of government on the Nov. 3 ballot, despite two separate efforts successfully putting the issue before voters. Mayor George McGill has signed and issued two proclamations...
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‘We call it the Green Door’
For decades, Fort Smith could see its Air National Guard mission in action. Aircraft sat on the ramp at Ebbing Air National Guard Base. People heard A-10s flying overhead. The gates could open, and families could walk onto the base, touch an aircraft...
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GLOBAL REPUTATION
‘Razorback One, checking in.’ For ground forces engaged in combat operations thousands of miles from Fort Smith, Col. Jonathan Esparza said those words have meant something over the past decade. h “The Flying Razorbacks have become a brand,” said...
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Fort Smith voters get to decide government change
third time was the charm for the Fort Smith Board of Directors, which voted 7-0 Tuesday to put a proposed change in the city’s form of government on the Nov. 3 ballot after two previous attempts failed. The vote, however, created an unusual situation:...
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Trump plan could hit science funding
Most Americans don’t read the rules that govern the federal grants funding science. Those rules, called the Uniform Guidance, shape how cancer research is funded, graduate students are trained, clinical trials are sustained, universities stock their...
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Poll: Trump approval rating hits new low
President Donald Trump’s polling woes continue as he fell to a new record low since his return to the White House, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos survey, with only one in three Americans approving of his job performance. The poll, released Aug. 17,...
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Trump orders South Korea drill cuts
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Aug. 16 instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with long-term Asian ally South Korea, citing the cost of the drills and Seoul’s refusal to take part in actions against...
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River Valley filmmaker’s stories take center stage
The Fort Smith International Film Festival will spotlight River Valley filmmaker and pastor Julio Gómez during a free community screening of two of his films on Thursday, Aug. 20, at The Bakery District. h The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and will feature...
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TRACING HISTORY ON THE TRAIL OF TEARS
NEW ECHOTA, GA – Horror lingers in the knotted sweet gum and bent magnolia trees. To stand here is to feel shock, cruelty and despair emanating from the red clay of north Georgia. Blood is as much a part of this landscape as the honeysuckle...
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U.S. tells Iran it will step up pressure
LONDON – Transit through the Strait of Hormuz appeared to grind to a near standstill on Aug. 14 after two more ships were attacked there and the United States said it could maintain a naval blockade of Iran indefinitely. A senior Iranian source said...
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Al-Qaida, Islamic State group adopting AI
Artificial intelligence may not create a new kind of terrorism, but it makes existing tactics cheaper, faster and easier. That is the central argument of a July report from the U.S.-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. h It...
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Black Rodeo USA debuts in Fort Smith with Aug. 22 event
Fort Smith will host its first Black Rodeo USA event later this month as the Fort Smith Invitational Black Rodeo brings competitors from across the region to Kay Rodgers Park. The one-night event is scheduled Saturday, Aug. 22, at Harper Stadium...
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Critics take aim at Trump vaccine order
President Donald Trump hailed his new order on childhood vaccines as a win for parental choice as doctors slammed the move, saying it could lead to greater risk of diseases that were rarely seen for generations. Trump signed an executive order Aug. 10...
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Officials seek to stop mail-in ballot rules
Less than 90 days out from the midterms, election officials are pleading with the Supreme Court to block the Trump administration from making changes that would allow the U.S. Postal Service to decide who gets mail-in ballots. And after the Postal...
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UAFS move-in to slow traffic on Waldron Road, Grand Avenue
Fort Smith residents should expect heavier-than-normal traffic around the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith next week as hundreds of students move into campus housing ahead of the start of the fall semester. The busiest periods are expected from 9...
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Oklahoma’s oil legacy runs deep
On an April day in 1892, near Bartlesville, Oklahoma, in what was then Indian Territory, a drilling crew struck oil at a depth of less than 200 feet. The Nellie Johnstone No. 1 was the start of a transformation. h The first commercially productive well...
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