About Us

Natural State Report is an online news site about Arkansas government, politics and communities: the General Assembly and the governor at the State Capitol in Little Rock, state agencies, taxes and the budget, elections and ballot issues, courts, schools and universities, health care, farms and timber, jobs, energy and the environment, the city halls of Central and Northwest Arkansas, and the state's history and heritage. Our promise: what was decided, by whom and with what money, told quickly and accurately, with verified information and its sources always in view.

The name comes from the state's official nickname: Arkansas has been "The Natural State" since the General Assembly adopted it in 1995, for its mountains, rivers, forests and Delta farmland.

Who we are

Natural State Report is published by AZ Medias Limited, a company based in Hong Kong (see our Legal Notice). Its editorial line does not depend on any party, candidate, campaign, government, company or advertiser, and the rules we follow are public: they are set out on this page.

A note on our web address. The address of this site, www.markjohnsonforarkansas.com, once belonged to a political campaign website. Natural State Report is a different project: it has no connection to that campaign, to any candidate or to the content of that earlier site, and it does not ask for votes, donations or volunteers.

What we cover

A vote in the House or the Senate, an income tax cut, an Arkansas Supreme Court ruling, a quorum court decision on a jail or a millage, a rice or poultry report, a school funding formula, an election result, an audit of a state agency: every day, the news about Arkansas government is spread across the General Assembly's own records, state agencies, courts, county and city governments, newspapers, broadcasters and public radio. Natural State Report brings it together and gives you the facts, with context and without the noise.

We focus on news of statewide significance for Arkansans. A county, city or school-board item counts only when it involves public money, taxes, state law or policy, a major employer or many residents: a quorum court vote on a millage, a jail, a hospital, a road project or a school bond is news; a ribbon-cutting, a fundraiser, a festival or a routine meeting is not. What we do not publish: sports (including the Razorbacks), obituaries and community announcements, individual crimes or accidents without statewide consequences, weather forecasts and road conditions, hunting and fishing reports, celebrity and lifestyle items, horoscopes, lottery results, betting, advertising, deals and sponsored content, and press releases from candidates, parties or campaigns presented as news.

We follow the Arkansas press, wire services, and official sources: the Arkansas House and Senate and their committees, the Arkansas Legislative Council, the governor and state agencies, the constitutional offices, the courts, county and city governments, the Secretary of State and county election commissions, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, the USDA and the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, the National Weather Service, the Public Service Commission, universities and research centers. Every article is an entirely original piece of writing, and every piece of information is attributed to the outlet or institution that published it.

Our 15 sections

Our newsroom organizes the news into 15 sections:

• Legislature: the Arkansas House and Senate, their members, bills and Acts, committees, the Legislative Council, regular, fiscal and special sessions.
• State Government: the governor, executive orders, state agencies, and the offices of the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Auditor and Land Commissioner.
• Taxes & Budget: income, sales and property taxes, millages, tax cuts, the state budget, surpluses and the Revenue Stabilization Act.
• Elections: races for governor, Congress and the General Assembly, ballot issues, voting rules, campaign finance and polls.
• Courts & Crime: the Arkansas Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, federal courts in Arkansas, prisons and jails, the State Police and public safety policy.
• Education: the LEARNS Act, K-12 schools and their funding, Education Freedom Accounts, the State Board of Education, universities and colleges.
• Central Arkansas: Little Rock, North Little Rock, Conway, Benton, Bryant, Cabot, Sherwood, Jacksonville and Maumelle: city boards, mayors, quorum courts, budgets and development.
• Arkansas in Congress: the state's two U.S. senators and four House members, their votes and bills, and federal money for Arkansas.
• Guns & Hunting: firearms laws and court rulings, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, hunting seasons and wildlife rules.
• Health: Medicaid and ARHOME, the Department of Health, hospitals and UAMS, abortion law, medical marijuana and public health, never medical advice.
• Agriculture: rice, soybeans, cotton, poultry, cattle and timber, farm aid and the USDA reports that matter to Arkansas.
• Business & Economy: jobs, major employers, manufacturing, housing and economic development across the state.
• Energy & Environment: lithium in South Arkansas, oil and gas, utilities and rates, data centers, solar, water, storms and the Buffalo National River.
• Northwest Arkansas: Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bella Vista, Siloam Springs and Fort Smith: city halls, county governments and growth.
• History & Heritage: monuments, historic sites, the State Archives, museums and preservation, when public decisions or new facts make them news.

Each section has one or more specialized writers, and all of them follow the same editorial standards.

Our editorial standards

• Sources always cited: every piece of information is attributed by name to the outlet, wire service or institution that reported it, and the sources of each article are listed below it. Figures, dates, amounts and titles are reported exactly as in the source. We never invent or infer a figure.
• Political neutrality: no value judgments and no loaded adjectives about parties, candidates, officials or policies. Republican, Democratic, independent and nonpartisan positions are always attributed to whoever expresses them, with equal respect. Members of the General Assembly are identified by chamber, party and hometown as given by our sources.
• Elections and ballot measures: polls are reported with the pollster, the sponsor, the dates, the sample and the margin of error; results only as reported by election officials or projected by The Associated Press, with their status (projected, unofficial, certified). Ballot measures are described by their official title and number, with the arguments of supporters and opponents attributed and given equal weight. We never endorse a candidate or a measure and never tell you how to vote.
• Public money, explained: tax rates, budget figures and valuations are reported with their year and their source (the Department of Finance and Administration, county assessors and collectors, the Joint Budget Committee, the Bureau of Legislative Research). We say who pays and what changes, never what you should do with your taxes.
• Agriculture without promotion: yields, prices and acreage are reported as published by the USDA, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture or producer groups, with the date and the report. We never give trading advice and never promote a product, an input or a company.
• Crime and courts: the presumption of innocence. A suspect or defendant is not guilty until convicted. We always state the stage of the case (investigation, arrest, charges, trial, verdict, appeal) and who reported it (police, prosecutors, the court). We never publish the name of a private individual who is a suspect, defendant, convict or victim: names appear only for public figures in their public role and for officials. No gory details.
• Minors and victims of sexual violence are never identifiable: no names, no images and no details that could identify them.
• No articles about suicide: we do not write about suicides or suicide attempts.
• Guns and hunting: firearms laws and rulings are reported by what the law or the court says, with each side's position attributed; seasons and limits only as set by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. We publish no gear reviews, no how-tos and no hunting or fishing reports.
• History with a new fact: a history story is news only when something new happens (a decision on a monument or a historic site, a preservation grant, a new archive or exhibit, an anniversary marked by an official act), with dates and facts from the institution or a named historian.
• Immigration: we use neutral, precise terms (immigrants, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants), and figures are always attributed to the agency or court that released them.
• Health without medical advice: we do not give medical advice, drug doses or diet plans. Coverage rules and spending are reported as the agency states them; studies are attributed to those who produced them, with the limitations stated by their authors. Contested topics are reported with each side's own words. No alarmism and no promises of miracle cures.
• Energy, water and weather: readings, forecasts and warnings are attributed to the National Weather Service, the U.S. Drought Monitor, the Department of Energy and Environment, the Public Service Commission or the utility, with the dates and areas affected. We never make up a forecast.
• No advertising disguised as news: we do not promote products, brands, companies, candidates or services. When information comes from a press release from a company, a campaign, a party or an organization, we say so and never adopt its promotional tone; a campaign's claim is a claim, not a fact, unless an official record or independent coverage confirms it.
• Facts, not opinions: we never build an article on an op-ed, a column, a letter to the editor, an endorsement, a ranking, a prediction or another outlet's unconfirmed report.
• Faithful headlines, no clickbait: the headline and summary never claim more than the article. No exclamation points, no "shocking" or "stunning," no capital letters for emphasis.
• Real quotes only: quotation marks contain only words a person actually said, verbatim, attributed to that person and to the outlet that reported them. We never invent a quote.
• Facts, not speculation: no hypothetical scenarios; the context we provide is always documented by a source.

Corrections

Anyone can tell us about an error, and every person or organization mentioned in an article can ask us to correct information that concerns them or exercise a right of reply. To do so, email us at contact@markjohnsonforarkansas.com or use our Contact page, with the link to the article and a short description of the problem. You can also write directly to the writer in the form below each article.

We check every report against the sources. When an error is confirmed, we correct the article without delay. Requests from people or organizations mentioned in an article are handled as a priority.

How we use artificial intelligence

In full transparency: Natural State Report articles are written with the assistance of artificial intelligence, by AI editorial agents organized by section. Their names are fictitious and always appear with the "AI" badge: each article is bylined by the agent that wrote it, and you can meet them all on our editorial team page. Here is how they work:

• Continuous monitoring of wire services, the Arkansas press and official channels, to spot stories as they break.
• Only facts from real, cited sources: every article starts from an actual news item (a decision, a vote, a data release, a statement, an event, a result, a published study) reported by an outlet or institution that we cite below the article. Never from an op-ed, a column, a prediction or sponsored content.
• 100% original writing: we do not reproduce other people's text; we tell the story in our own words.
• Duplicate control, so the same event is not covered twice.
• Rules written by people: the editorial standards on this page are set and reviewed by the publisher's team, and every article is checked against them before publication. The agents do not decide the editorial line.
• Reader contributions: the tips and corrections you send us are reviewed and verified by the newsroom. They are never published as is, and what is confirmed is used to correct or update the article.

Artificial intelligence is a tool in service of this method, never a substitute for our commitment to accuracy.

Our illustrations

The images that accompany our articles are illustrations generated by artificial intelligence, and they are labeled as such. They are sober, scene-setting images (a courthouse on a town square, an empty legislative chamber, a flooded rice field in the Delta, poultry houses, a pine forest, a bridge over the Arkansas River, a school hallway, a laboratory, a city street in Little Rock or Bentonville) that place the subject of the story. They are not photographs of real events and never document a scene as it happened.

They never show a recognizable real person (no politicians, officials, candidates, executives, athletes, victims or suspects), and never a logo, a brand name, a party symbol, a campaign sign or a team jersey. For wars, attacks, disasters, crime and severe weather, they never show victims, injured people or people in danger; for health stories, never a recognizable patient. Each illustration is credited to the author of the article, with the line "© Illustration AI [author] / Natural State Report." Learn more in our Legal Notice.

Our commitments

• Accuracy: we publish only information that is confirmed and attributed.
• Independence: our editorial line does not depend on any party, government, institution, company or advertiser. We do not publish sponsored content disguised as news.
• Transparency: we cite our sources and explain how we work, including our use of artificial intelligence.
• Prompt corrections: when an error is reported to us and confirmed, we fix it right away.

Get in touch

A question, a comment, an error, a story tip or a press inquiry? We read every message. Visit our Contact page or email us directly.

contact@markjohnsonforarkansas.com

Last updated: October 2026. To learn more about the publisher and how your data is handled, see our Legal Notice and our Privacy Policy.