A new bill focused on reforms of Arkansas's Freedom of Information Act has passed the House and is now heading to the desk of Gov. Sarah Sanders.

This comes as the legislation, Senate Bill 10 (SB10), passed out of the Senate on Wednesday by a 29-2 margin.

SB10 is the restructured FOIA bill that was introduced by Arkansas Sen. Bart Hester on Tuesday evening. This amended proposal allows the state to deny access to details about the governor's security and other constitutional officers who travel on the Arkansas State Police plane. It also denies access to the cost of trips.

"We all don't agree on everything, right?" Hester said. "And so I think that's exactly what happened, here, but we got a vast majority of legislators and I believe Arkansans support of this legislation now."

Some politicians like Sen. Clarke Tucker described the bill as being "broad," but still voiced his support due to "security concerns" surrounding FOIA as currently constructed.

"We got to a point where everything but the security for the governor was stripped from the bill, and I want to be deferential and make sure that our governor and her family are secure," Tucker said. "So ultimately, that's why I'm going to vote for the bill."

Many Democrats and Republicans were frustrated with the original bill's restrictions on government transparency, including who joins the governor on taxpayer-funded trips.

Senator Bryan King has been one vocal voice against the bill and said more should've been added.

"A sunset clause would have allowed a reset in the 2025 session to relook at this and see how it happens and how it works," King said.

However, supporters claimed the legislation is for the safety of the governor and those around her.

In a classic "solution for a problem that doesn't exist for the purposes of pandering and political theater"...

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) has signed a bill that bans state and local governments from mandating COVID-19 vaccines for workers after a similar ban expired last month.

The legislation signed Thursday is aimed at defending citizens’ “individual liberty,” Sanders said at a press conference prior to its signing.

The legislation also prohibits COVID-19 vaccinations from being required as a condition of education, or for obtaining a service or licensure, permit or certificate of some kind. Any potential risks and harms associated with the shots must also be recorded and published by the state.

... and a minor reference to an actual problem :

A separate bill she signed restricts the public release of her travel and security records.

I'm in the process of building this - should be done within a week if my needles will come in. Really looking forward to it since I started hand knitting a pair of socks ~4 years ago and they're maybe 20% done :D

Prints are pretty easy but two are longish (15hrs and 27hrs on my machine/ settings).

Anyone tried something similar?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2y1gakl4IEw

Producers, marketers and consumers of Delta 8 THC products received some welcome news Thursday after a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing a law -- Act 629 of 2023 -- banning the sale of such products in the state.

U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson issued the ruling in the wake of a motion hearing held Aug. 23 in federal court in Little Rock after a group of four cannabis-related businesses sued the state on the grounds that the law violated the U.S. Constitution's Commerce and Supremacy clauses.

Act 629, passed in the 2023 regular session of the General Assembly, sought to ban the production and sale of products containing Delta 8, Delta 9 and Delta 10 and other THC isomers inside the state of Arkansas. Such products have been legal federally since 2018 under provisions contained in the 2018 Farm Bill that removed hemp containing less than 0.3% dry weight Delta 9 THC as a controlled substance. According to federal law, hemp containing more than 0.3% dry weight Delta 9 is classified as marijuana and remains prohibited federally, despite 38 states -- including Arkansas -- having legalized marijuana for medical use and 21 of those states and the District of Columbia giving the OK for recreational use.

On July 31, the day before the state's ban on Delta 8 products went fully into effect, a group of hemp product marketers in Arkansas, Colorado and Texas filed suit in federal court in Arkansas seeking to overturn the law and asking the court to block enforcement through a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction while the lawsuit moves forward.

Hello fellow Linux Lemmings!

I've been tasked with putting together a 20 hour class for "Introduction to Linux" and I'd like to solicit your opinions for topics that should be covered.

The class is targeted for at least minimally technical people - maybe developers, or future developers, but regardless of background they've never seen or worked with Linux before.

I plan to do a VERY short overview of installing Linux (to a VM - so they have a "real" environment to learn with) and the GUI but the primary focus will be CLI. Imagine tools and tasks you come across while working on a "real" server (or VM).

A high level overview of the topics I currently have allocated is :

• Super brief history of Linux
• Benefits and use cases of Linux
• General overview of the file system and the purposes of the pre-defined directories (/dev, /proc, /etc, /home, /bin, etc)
• "Everything is a file"
• File extensions don't matter (windows users : )
• Note on responsibility - you can delete "in use" files. It will do exactly what you tell it with sometimes minimal guardrails.
• Everything from here down is CLI only!
• What is a terminal/CLI and how do we use it?
• How do we navigate the file system using the CLI
• How to list, create, copy, move, delete, and read files/directories
• EDIT: Basic file editing with nano
• How to search for files (find... maybe locate)
• Archives and compression (tar, gzip, bzip2)
• Overview of permissions (read/write/execute, owner, group, chmod, chown)
• Brief overview of different shells (bash, zsh, etc)
• How to get help on the CLI (man, info, --help)
• Tab completion, history
• Shortcuts / control codes (ctrl+c, ctrl+d, ctrl+a, ctrl+e, and coverage of ctrl+z later)
• grep
• Checking processes (top, ps, kill)
• Signals (sigterm, sigkill, etc - related to kill above)
• Backgrounding and multitasking (ctrl+z, fg, bg, jobs, nohup, &)
• Linking (ln)
• STDIN, STDERR, STDOUT and redirection
• Redirection (>, >>, <)
• Command pipes ( | )
• How to access a remote machine via SSH with UN/PW
• How to access a remote machine via SSH with key auth (think cloud VMs like EC2)
• Administrative commands and tasks (su, sudo, how it works, when to use it)
• Add users and groups
• How to change your passwd (maybe how to change your default shell too)
• Restart, shutdown, halt
• How to install/remove software (package managers, packages, pre-compiled binaries, maybe compilation with make if time allows)
• Configuring your profile for customizing your environment
• ENV variables and aliases
• Network information (ifconfig) and tools (curl, wget, netcat, etc)

Everything from here down is "extra" if time allows (AKA - ensuring I don't run out of material :)

• Encryption (gpg - symmetric and asymmetric)
• Backups (rsync, maybe dd)
• screen/tmux
• How to setup key based logins/auth
• EDIT: More advanced CLI text editing with vim
• sysreq commands
• srm/shred
• Shell scripting basics
• init vs systemd, how to start/stop/status services.
• Maybe how to create a simple service
• Run levels
• sed, awk basics
• File system types, file system checking, formatting... I hesitate to get into partitioning but it's always an option if I need it.
• Alternatives to well known win/mac utilities and how to find them. EG: GIMP to replace Photoshop.

What do you think?

Did I miss anything that you deem super important?

Anything that I should definitely keep in the "only if I run out of material" category?

O, and if you have any good ideas for practical exercises I'd love to hear those too. I want to keep them <15min but things like "create a new directory, cd into it, touch a file, list the contents of / and write the output into the file you just created" are perfect.

Thanks!

After 50 years of serving the central Arkansas community as KUAR/KLRE Public Radio, we are proud to unveil our new identity: Little Rock Public Radio.

This transformative change reflects our deep commitment to the vibrant communities we have been privileged to engage with over the decades. While our name has evolved, our dedication to delivering unparalleled news, informative content, and captivating programming that embodies the spirit of central Arkansas remains unwavering.

Little Rock Public Radio is more than just a name; it's a representation of the heart and soul of our community. Our programming will continue to provide a trusted source of connection and inspiration, weaving together the stories, voices, and music that define us.

Just 48 hours before the first day of school, the Arkansas Department of Education announced that Advanced Placement African American Studies wouldn't count towards graduation. They said they’re reviewing the course for possible indoctrination.

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on Fox News to explain her administration's decision to de-prioritize AP African American studies.

“We cannot perpetuate a lie to our students, and push this propaganda leftist agenda, teaching our kids to hate America, and hate one another," she said.

Sanders has not pointed to anything specific in the AP African American Studies curriculum. The Arkansas Department of Education notified teachers that they’d deleted the course code for AP African American Studies. That means students can’t get graduation credit for taking it.

Just 48 hours before the first day of school, the Arkansas Department of Education announced that Advanced Placement African American Studies wouldn't count towards graduation. They said they’re reviewing the course for possible indoctrination.

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders went on Fox News to explain her administration's decision to de-prioritize AP African American studies.

“We cannot perpetuate a lie to our students, and push this propaganda leftist agenda, teaching our kids to hate America, and hate one another," she said.

Sanders has not pointed to anything specific in the AP African American Studies curriculum. The Arkansas Department of Education notified teachers that they’d deleted the course code for AP African American Studies. That means students can’t get graduation credit for taking it.

UA Little Rock Public Radio welcomes the newest member of the news team: All Things Considered Host Maggie Ryan!

In the summer of 2021, Maggie served as a reporting intern for the San Antonio Heron, a nonprofit newsroom focused on housing and development in south-central Texas. After covering stories ranging from low-income development projects to local politics for the Heron, Maggie continued to develop her reporting skills as a writer and editor for the Profile, the campus magazine at Hendrix College.

Maggie's first day anchoring live newscasts during NPR's All Things Considered will be Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. After that, you can hear her on the air weekdays from 4-6 p.m.

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders appointed a new member of the Arkansas State Board of Education Friday. The governor announced Leigh Keener, an early childhood education teacher, will take on the role.

Sanders said Keener was “one of her best friends,” with their relationship going back 20 years. She grew emotional reflecting on their friendship, explaining Keener is the godparent to her son, Huck.

Keener has worked as a teacher for two decades, and has a certificate in early childhood education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Surrounded by her family, Keener said early childhood education is a complicated part of a child's development.

Sanders said she was excited to have Keener work to implement Arkansas LEARNS, a package of education legislation signed into law earlier this year.

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is celebrating the construction of a new $11.75 million headquarters in downtown Little Rock.

The symphony held a groundbreaking Thursday at the future site of the Stella Boyle Smith Music Center in the city’s East Village neighborhood.

"We're going to immediately have space to fulfill the needs of the E. Lee Ronnel Music Academy, we will have a recording studio with the capability to reach people in their homes, in their schools and in residential facilities from long-term care to rehabilitation clinics to prisons," Robson said.

The symphony joins other notable Little Rock institutions with a presence in the East Village neighborhood, including the Clinton Presidential Center and the headquarters of Heifer International. The new facility will house the symphony’s E. Lee Ronnel Music Academy, and will feature spaces for performance, practice and instrument storage.

Arkansas lawmakers passed 890 laws during this year’s legislative sessions, and most take effect on Tuesday.

The Social Media Safety Act, which requires parental permission for children under 18 to create a new social media account, goes into effect Sept. 1. However, the law could be affected by a federal lawsuit that argues the age verification law violates the First Amendment rights of Arkansans.

I chose a few of the more interesting ones to highlight below.

Act 237 — Commonly called the LEARNS Act, this 145-page piece of legislation brings sweeping changes to the state’s education system. Among other things, the law raises the minimum teacher salary to $50,000, creates a school voucher program that will be phased in over three years, repeals the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act, changes graduation criteria and requires students not reading on grade-level by the third grade to be held back.

There is a group that claims to have gained enough signatures to bring a repeal of Act 237 to the ballot. I won't go into the LEARNS details here but the description above sounds really good where the reality is ... not so much.

"Bathroom bill"

Act 317 — Requires students at public and charter schools to use the bathrooms that align with their gender assigned at birth. Republican legislators have said the law will protect children’s privacy, while LGBTQ+ rights activists and Democratic legislators have said the law is one of several passed this year that discriminates against transgender people.

Act 511 — Prohibits public schools and colleges from requiring employees to participate in implicit bias training. An institution would not be prohibited from requiring implicit bias training if 95% of it “is required by an accreditor, grantor, or licensor.”

Act 542 — Requires Arkansas public school teachers and professors to use the pronouns and names students were assigned at birth.

Act 195 — Removes the requirement for children under 16 years old who wish to work in Arkansas to obtain an employment certificate from the Division of Labor.

Act 274 — Allows minors who receive gender-affirming health care to sue physicians for medical malpractice for providing this care up to 15 years after they turn 18.

The reason PornHub is blocked :

Act 612 — Requires pornography websites to verify that users are at least 18 years old.

Act 629 — Outlaws Delta-8, Delta-9 and Delta-10 THC by classifying them Schedule IV drugs.

Act 777 — Clarifies that you don’t have to hold a permit to carry a concealed firearm in Arkansas.

Act 160 — Requires able-bodied adults between the ages 19 and 64 to work, volunteer or participate in a workforce training program in order to receive federal housing assistance.