LATEST NEWS

Time: 9 - 11 AM, or until all boxes have been distributed. Residents who wish to participate in this food box distribution in Lafayette County must enter the Fairgrounds building to check in first. After checking in, you can return to your vehicle and line up. Important Note: You must...

Harvest Regional Food Bank will distribute TEFAP USDA Commodities directly from their truck from 9-11 a.m. Wednesday, July 17, 2024 or until all boxes have been distributed. The truck will be parked at the Lafayette County Fairgrounds in Lewisville. Recipients must come inside the Fairgrounds building to check in. Once...

Tropical Storm Beryl is expected to regain hurricane strength before slamming into the South Texas coast north of Corpus Christi on Monday morning, July 8, 2024. The current forecast track of the storm indicates that Beryl will be at tropical depression strength about 7 a.m. Wednesday, July 10, 2024 when it will be centered over Lafayette County in South Arkansas.

LifeShare Blood Center plans its largest promotion of the year this week, called “United We Give.”. The event runs July 1-5, 2024, with the exception of a closure on July 4. The Texarkana LifeShare Blood Center will have extended hours from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. where walk-ins are...

Columbia, Lafayette and Union counties, with neighboring North Louisiana parishes, will be under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday. The National Weather Service in Shreveport said heat index values of up to 109 are expected. Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses. Widespread rain...

Many readers insist that the lithium boom will never happen and we can appreciate the cynicism. We were all disappointed when the Lower Smackover Brown Dense saga failed to play out a decade ago. The LSBD seemed a hot prospect to produce copious amounts of oil from deep beneath South Arkansas and North Louisiana. Lots of wells, but disappointing results. These same people see lithium wells being drilled, but no production plants being built in Columbia or Lafayette counties, while at the same time hearing that lithium prices have fallen. Prices have fallen, but that’s not always going to be the case since the demand for lithium is still there. We’ve said previously that 2024 was going to be the “get ready” year for lithium in South Arkansas. Lots of planning. Lots of behind-the-scenes work. This includes finding where the best lithium concentrations are, consolidating lithium brine leases into production units, creation of a lithium royalty structure for the benefit of landowners, and in the case of some smaller players, rounding up financing for facilities that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Now we have a new burst of local lithium news. It seems to come in bursts. ExxonMobil says it has a buyer for up to 100,000 metric tons of Mobil Lithium. Exxon vows that it will produce enough lithium in South Arkansas to make 1 million electric vehicle batteries annually by 2030 from a plant that has, as yet, not been built. Today comes word from a different company, EnergyX, that it will build a lithium facility atop the Smackover formation – we suspect somewhere in the northeast corner of Texas. And we can tell you: If you own property on the western side of Columbia County, keep a watch on your mailbox for an important announcement. It won’t be from the Publishers Clearing House.

One of the large pioneer families of Doddridge was that of Lawrence and Nancy Luisa Dodd Templeton. Before Lawrence Templeton was born, his grandfather, John Templeton, of Laurens, South Carolina, made preparations to move his family to Arkansas. At the age of fifty John was an adventurous man, who joined westward pioneers to find land in Lafayette County, Arkansas, where he could later bring his family and settle. John found some desirable land about a mile southwest of Black Diamond, and about two miles northwest of Doddridge. He was one of three men who, in 1837, made the first land entries...

ExxonMobil has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with SK On, an electric vehicle (EV) battery developer. The energy giant said in a statement that the agreement opens the door to secure a multiyear offtake agreement of up to 100,000 metric tons of Mobil Lithium from the company’s first planned project in Arkansas.

Two men have been charged with drug and firearm offenses by Lafayette County authorities. Lafayette County Sheriff Jeff Black said in a statement that at 6 a.m. Tuesday, June 18, 2024, Lafayette and Miller County officers executed a search warrant at 123 W. 3rd Street in Bradley. Officers found approximately...