Arkansas House Democrats Promote Bad Legislation As Part of 2025 Agenda

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The Arkansas Democratic House Caucus is promoting a slate of bad legislation as part of its “2025 Better Arkansas Agenda.”

The caucus is made up of Democratic legislators serving in the Arkansas House of Representatives. On Tuesday the caucus held a press conference unveiling its legislative package for next year. The caucus also posted a statement on social media promoting three bad bills that violate the sanctity and dignity of human life — H.B. 1011, H.B. 1013, and H.B. 1014.

H.B. 1011 — the “Restore Roe Act” by Rep. Andrew Collins (D — Little Rock) — is a bad bill that would repeal Arkansas’ pro-life laws and legalize abortion throughout the state.

H.B. 1013 by Rep. Collins is a bad bill that would let fertility clinics in Arkansas create and kill human embryos as part of unethical in vitro fertilization — or IVF — practices, and H.B. 1014 by Rep. Collins would require the State and Public School Life and Health Insurance Program to pay for these IVF practices.

IVF labs in America often operate almost as if human embryos were a factory product that lab workers can create, implant, freeze, or kill at will. But people aren’t products. There are ethical fertility treatments out there — including ethical approaches to IVF — but H.B. 1013 and H.B. 1014 fail to distinguish ethical fertility treatments from from unethical ones.

Unethical IVF will not improve maternal health in Arkansas. And abortion hurts women and takes the lives of unborn children. Laws like these simply will not make Arkansas “better” in 2025.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Walmart Becomes Latest Corporation to Roll Back Pro-LGBT, DEI Policies

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News outlets report Walmart is the latest company to roll back pro-LGBT “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies in the face of public backlash.

The Associated Press reports that the retail giant also will stop participating in the Human Right’s Campaign’s “Corporate Equality Index” that rates how pro-LGBT different corporations are.

Walmart is not the only major corporation to move away from radical DEI and pro-LGBT policies.

Newsweek reports Toyota has announced that it will withdraw from HRC’s corporate equality index along with other DEI measurements.

This year Target quietly reduced its LGBT Pride-themed merchandise as a result of backlash from its customers.

Home-improvement giant Lowe’s recently revised its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies amidst growing pushback from consumers, and in July, John Deere — the world’s largest seller of farm equipment — announced it was moving away from pro-LGBT and pro-DEI activity as well.

It’s deeply troubling when multimillion dollar corporations use their wealth and influence to promote radical, pro-LGBT ideas, but it’s also encouraging when companies like Walmart rethink their positions and change course. With that in mind, we believe Walmart is making the right decision.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Casinos See Increase in Mobile Betting, First-Time Gamblers

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Casinos in Arkansas took in more money from July to September this year, according to an article in Sunday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

The article analyzed revenue data from Oaklawn Casino in Hot Springs, Southland Casino in West Memphis, and Saracen Casino in Pine Bluff.

All told, the casinos took in more money during the third quarter of 2024 compared to the same timeframe in 2023.

However, the article indicates that casinos saw an increase in mobile gambling and first-time gamblers this summer, noting,

Robert W. Powell III, a lecturer and instructor of hospitality management at the School of Human Environmental Sciences in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas, . . . said the state’s casinos saw increases in mobile betting and those gains didn’t seem to negatively affect other betting options, which is a positive sign. Powell said anecdotally he saw more first-time players in the state’s casinos during the quarter, noting attempts to lure younger players seem to be working well across the board.

All told, people gambled more than $2 billion at casinos in Arkansas from July to September. That is a staggering figure.

In spite of the millions upon millions of dollars that casinos make, casino tax revenue has not improved Arkansas’ roads or boosted the economy.

A while gambling has increased in the state, the Arkansas Problem Gambling Council has also seen an increase in calls for help with problem gambling this year.

Unless Arkansas’ lawmakers and its people take a stand, gambling and gambling-addiction are simply going to continue wrecking lives and hurting families across the state.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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