In the News

U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-AR) sought information on Friday from the Treasury Department and State Department amid reports that the Obama administration made a $400 million cash payment to Iran. In letters to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Secretary of State John Kerry, Hill wrote that the administration had demonstrated “a lack of negotiating prowess” that delivered a blow to… Read more »

Pediatrics Plus celebrated the grand opening of its expanded 40,108-square-foot Conway facility Wednesday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The specialized health care provider will now serve 400 families and employ 174 in Conway for a total payroll of more than $6 million,” a Pediatrics Plus spokesman said. Owner Todd Denton said the location of the building brings back… Read more »

CONWAY, Ark. (KTHV) - Pediatrics Plus had its grand opening on the newly expanded 40,108 square foot facility in Conway today. Executive director of the AEDC Mike Preston and U.S. Congressman French Hill helped the grand opening today. Pediatrics Plus' new location will employ 174 people and serve 400 families in Faulkner County. “Conway has been Pediatrics Plus’… Read more »

A lot can be done with four years and eight million dollars — except putting solar panels on a Veterans Affairs parking garage, apparently. The project began in 2012 at the John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock, Ark., and isn’t expected to be finished until early 2017. But the lagging construction in Little Rock turned out to be the tip of the… Read more »

Under a mandate to increase its use of renewable energy, the Department of Veterans Affairs has spent more than $408 million on solar panels over five years, despite significant delays and some projects not being operational years after construction began. The agency’s inspector general found that 11 of 15 solar projects awarded between fiscal 2010 and 2013 under the… Read more »

Count delayed and still-inoperable solar panel projects are among the ways the Department of Veterans Affairs have wasted taxpayer dollars—spending $408 million from 2010-15—amid a VA scandal that has infamously featured vets dying in wait to see doctors. "Whether it is a project as complex as hospital construction or one as simple as the proper installation of… Read more »

A small group of family and friends turned out to see eight Arkansans age 80 and over honored for their service to others during the Golden Achievers Celebration, a ceremony held July 30 in the second-floor rotunda of the Capitol. On hand to receive their propers were Lula Mae Glenn, matriarch of a family of 14 children; Berthena Clark Walker, a retired elementary school teacher; the… Read more »

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its report on the VA Green Management Program Solar Panel Projects. The report was completed at the request of U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) and Congressman French Hill (R-AR) following a 2015 news report that the Little Rock VA Medical Center tore down solar panels at the facility that sat there for… Read more »

The lawmakers who called for the VA Office of Inspector General to review Little Rock's solar panel project and others around the country responded to Channel 7 News about the results of the report. The report showing the Little Rock VA's project was "not adequately planned or managed." "It makes people cynical about government decision making," said… Read more »

A solar panel project at Little Rock's veterans hospital is four years behind schedule and expected to go $1.5 million over budget, an agency watchdog entity reported Wednesday. Included in unplanned costs is a $906,000 charge to disassemble and reassemble nonfunctional panels to make way for a parking garage at John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital in Little Rock. About… Read more »