Loss of family farm leads Shoffner to challenge Sen. Cotton

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Hallie Shoffner, a sixth generation farmer, quit farming this year after she created six different spreadsheets and realized that, in this agriculture economy, there was no scenario where she could turn a profit. Faced with that prospect, she sold the operation and instead is campaigning for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Tom Cotton.

Shoffner officially launched her campaign as a Democrat for the 2026 election Tuesday. Dan Whitfield, who unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination in 2022, has also said he is running.

Shoffner, 37, grew up on her family farm near Newport and spent the last nine years running the operation. She raised rice, soybeans, cotton, corn and grain sorghum. The married mother of a six-year-old also is the founder and owner of Delta Harvest. That’s a business that connects small- and midsize farmers such as specialty rice growers with food buyers. Her experience losing her farm is a big part of her campaign.

“We are living in a time in which hard work does not mean a good life anymore because we live in an economy that’s rigged against real people,” she said. “We live in an economy that helps corporations and politicians, and that does not work for real Arkansans. And as a sixth-generation farmer who knows what that’s like, if I can’t farm, I’m going to fight for the people of Arkansas.” Continue reading →

Blytheville now U.S. home to Cold War’s story

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

For Americans over age 45, our childhoods were defined in part by the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. We grew up knowing the next war could destroy the world, and it could happen with the press of a button.

Now Blytheville is becoming the central place to remember that era as the home of the National Cold War Center.

The center still has a long way to go from being constructed, but it’s making progress. Dr. Christian Ostermann, the new executive director, said it has raised $7 million of the initial goal of $75 million. It soon will start a major fundraising campaign. Continue reading →

Is history being made in south Arkansas?

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Ordinarily, a couple of Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission meetings probably would not merit a comment in this news outlet. But years from now, these two meetings might be part of history.

The latest occurred June 23 at Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia. The commission agreed with a request by Saltwerx to pay Lafayette and Miller County landowners a 2.5% royalty for the sale of lithium extracted from the Smackover Formation. 

The decision follows one in May when the commission agreed to the same royalty rate for Standard Lithium and Equinor to pay landowners in Columbia and Lafayette counties. Not everybody is happy, but the commission has made it clear that 2.5% is the rate. Continue reading →

Going to college while still in high school

Micah Bradley is on track to graduate the Hope Collegiate Academy with her associate’s degree.

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

Micah Bradley played shortstop and third base for the Hope Bobcats softball team this past year as a sophomore. She wants to go to college and become a nurse anesthetist, and she’s getting a head start. Thanks to the Hope Collegiate Academy, she’ll graduate high school in two years with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree, for which her family will have paid nothing. 

Students at Hope can earn a two-year associate of arts degree by taking concurrent classes at the nearby University of Arkansas Hope-Texarkana campus. They get their basic courses done and can be well on their way toward a four-year degree.

Since the academy’s founding in the 2018-19 school year, 89 Hope students have completed the program. This year, 14 graduated with their associate’s degree three days before they received their high school diploma.

Arkansas High School in Texarkana has a similar program. Students take classes at UAHT’s Texarkana campus. Started a year later, 54 students there have graduated with an associate’s degree. Eighteen did this year. Continue reading →

Blind attorney’s tips on remembering what you see

By Steve Brawner, © 2025 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

When school board members and administrators have a question about school law or board policy, they ask Lucas Harder, Arkansas School Boards Association staff attorney. He’s a legal expert, and he’s legally blind. 

Harder’s ability to cite chapter and verse of a particular statute or piece of legislation has made him a trusted source of information and an object of awe for ASBA conference attendees.

Harder, 37, was born blind in his right eye with limited vision in his left. He could read regular-sized print at four inches and said he wasn’t really hindered. 

Then at age 13, he suffered a total retinal detachment that left him blind for nine weeks. Doctors removed his lens, which left him farsighted and substantially more limited. A membrane formed where his lens had been. Doctors removed it, but it returned. He became totally blind his high school senior year in October 2005. 

Continue reading →