News

Benton County has the best health factors and outcomes in the state, according to a report released Wednesday by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

• Meanwhile, Washington County ranked No. 2 for health outcomes and No. 3 for health factors in 2022.

If you've ever been to Cotton Plant, you were probably lost.

• But this speck of a town in east Arkansas may have been the very genesis of rock music.

After years with no nearby place to go, stray cats and dogs have two new temporary homes in Bentonville.

Driving the news: Until this year, the city was without an animal shelter. Now, it's got both a city-run shelter and a separate pet resource center run by Utah-based nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society that serves the region.

Friday marks the 25th anniversary of Arkansas' deadliest school shooting. Four students and a teacher were killed at West Side Middle School in Jonesboro; 10 other students were injured.

Zoom out: More than 600 shootings in U.S. schools have resulted in 375 deaths since the tragedy in Jonesboro, according to an Axios analysis of data from Ballotpedia and Education Week. That's an average of two events and 1.25 deaths per month — including summers.

About 78% of domestic flights departed Northwest Arkansas National Airport on time in December 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That's down 4.4% from 82.4% the month prior, per recently released data from the department's Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

Yes, but: XNA fared better than the national average, which saw just 69.1% of December's flights depart on time.

You can't buy more street cred for a music venue than having the Foo Fighters perform— at least in the opinion of Brian Crowne, who would know. He wears many hats in NWA’s music scene, including vice president of the Arkansas Music Pavilion and co-owner of George's Majestic Lounge.

Driving the news: NWA is beginning to see more prominent headliners on its concert calendar. Tickets for the Foo Fighters' June tour stop at Walmart AMP sold out 22 minutes after going public, Crowne said. It's one of three U.S. non-festival concerts the band announced.

A perfect roadmap for an entrepreneur's journey doesn't exist, but knowing where others have traveled can set a future course.

Driving the news: A report out this month by Endeavor Insight includes a first-of-its-kind visual snapshot of Northwest Arkansas' tech entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Northwest Arkansas poultry companies and the state of Oklahoma last Friday were granted another 90 days to strike an agreement in a lawsuit that dates back to 2005.

• The suit alleges the companies are responsible for polluting water in the Illinois River Watershed, which runs into Oklahoma.