AGENCY 027 - WEBCAM CHAT ARKANSAS
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Arkansas (IPA: /'??kn??s??/) (are-can-saw) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. The capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state. The name Arkansas derives from the same root as the name for the State of Kansas. The Kansas tribe of American Indians are closely associated with the Sioux tribes. The word is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word meaning "land of downriver people" or "people of the south wind". The pronunciation of Arkansas (ar-kan-saw) was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881 after a dispute between the two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to pronounce the word ar-kan-sas and the other wanted ar-kan-saw.[2]
Arkansas is a land of mountains and valleys, thick forests and fertile plains. Northwest Arkansas is part of the Ozark Plateau including the Boston Mountains, to the south are the Ouachita Mountains and these regions are divided by the Arkansas River; the southern and eastern parts of Arkansas are called the Lowlands. All of these mountains ranges are part of the U.S. Interior Highlands region, the only major mountainous region between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains.[4][5] The highest point in the state is Mount Magazine in the Ouachita Mountains; it rises to 2,753 feet above sea level. The so-called Lowlands are better known by names of their two regions, the Delta and the Grand Prairie. The Arkansas Delta is a flat landscape of rich alluvial soils formed by repeated flooding of the adjacent Mississippi. Further away from the river, in the southeast portion of the state, the Grand Prairie consists of a more undulating landscape. Both are fertile agricultural areas. The Delta region is bisected by an unusual geological formation known as Crowley's Ridge. A narrow band of rolling hills, Crowley's Ridge rises from 250 to 500 feet above the surrounding alluvial plain and underlies many of the major towns of eastern Arkansas. Arkansas is home to many areas protected by the National Park System. These include: Arkansas Post National Memorial at Gillett
Despite its subtropical climate, Arkansas is known for occasional extreme weather. Between both the Great Plains and the Gulf States, Arkansas receives around 60 days of thunderstorms. As a part of Tornado Alley, tornadoes are not an uncommon occurrence in Arkansas, and a few of the most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history have struck the state. While being sufficiently away from the coast to be safe from a direct hit from a hurricane, Arkansas can often get the remnants of a tropical system which dumps tremendous amounts of rain in a short time and often spawns smaller tornadoes. Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Various Arkansas Cities
The Territory of Arkansaw[2] was organized on July 4, 1819, and on June 15, 1836, the State of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state and the 13th slave state. Arkansas played a key role in aiding Texas in its war for independence with Mexico, sending troops and materials to Texas to help fight the war. The proximity of the city of Washington to the Texas border involved the town in the Texas Revolution of 1835-36. Some evidence suggests Sam Houston and his compatriots planned the revolt in a tavern at Washington in 1834.[10] When the fighting began a stream of volunteers from Arkansas and the eastern states flowed through the town toward the Texas battle fields. When the Mexican-American War began in 1846, Washington became a rendezvous for volunteer troops. Governor Thomas S. Drew issued a proclamation calling on the state to furnish one regiment of cavalry and one battalion of infantry to join the United States Army. Ten companies of men assembled here where they were formed into the first Regiment of Arkansas Cavalry. Arkansas refused to join the Confederate States of America until after United States President Abraham Lincoln called for troops to respond to the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina, by Confederate forces. The State of Arkansas seceded from the Union on May 6, 1861. While not often cited in history, the state was the scene of numerous small-scale battles during the American Civil War. Arkansans of note during the Civil War include Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne. Considered by many to be one of the most brilliant Confederate division commanders of the war, Cleburne is often referred to as The Stonewall of the West. Also of note is Major General Thomas C. Hindman. A former United States Representative, Hindman commanded Confederate forces at the Battle of Cane Hill and Battle of Prairie Grove. Under the Military Reconstruction Act, Congress readmitted Arkansas in June 1868. In 1874, the Brooks-Baxter War shook Little Rock and the state governorship which was finally settled when Grant ordered that Joseph Brooks disperse his militant supporters[11]. In 1881, the Arkansas state legislature enacted a bill that adopted an official pronunciation, to combat a controversy then raging around the proper pronunciation of the state's name. (See Law and Government below). In 1905-1911, Arkansas began to receive a small migration of German, Slovak, and Irish immigrants. The German and Slovak peoples settled in eastern part of the state, known as the Prairie, and the Irish found small communities in the southeast part of the state. The German and Slovaks that settled the areas were Roman Catholic families.[citation needed] The Irish were usually protestant of only one or two persons of a certain family from Ulster, Ireland. After the case Brown v. Topeka Board of Education in 1957, the Little Rock Nine incident again brought Arkansas to national attention when the Federal government was forced to again interfere in the Arkansan capital. Orval Faubus, governor at the time, sent the Arkansas National Guard to aid segregationists in preventing nine African American students from enrolling at Little Rock's Central High School. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, after attempting to contact Orval Faubus 3 times, sent 1000 paratroops to escort the African American students on September 25, 1957. This incident eventually led to the closing of Little Rock high schools for the rest of the school year. The Little Rock high schools were completely integrated by the fall of 1959.[12] Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was born in Hope, Arkansas. Before his presidency, Clinton served nearly twelve years as the 50th and 52nd Governor of Arkansas.
The center of population of Arkansas is located in the far northeast corner of Perry County [14].
The five largest ancestry groups in the state are: American (15.9%), African American (15.7%), Irish (9.5%), German (9.3%), English (7.9%). People of European ancestry have a strong presence in the northwestern Ozarks and the central part of the state. African Americans live mainly in the fertile southern and eastern parts of the state. Arkansans of Irish, English and German ancestry are mostly found in the far northwestern Ozarks near the Missouri border. As of 2000, 95.07% of Arkansas residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 3.31% speak Spanish. German is the third most spoken language at 0.299%, followed by French at 0.291% and Vietnamese at 0.13% [15].
Economy Several global companies are headquartered in the Northwest corner of Arkansas, including Wal-Mart (the world's largest public corporation by revenue in 2007[19]), J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods. This area of the state has experienced an economic boom since the 1970s as a result. In recent years, automobile parts manufacturers have opened factories in eastern Arkansas to support auto plants in other states. Additionally, the city of Conway is the site of a school bus factory. Tourism is also very important to the Arkansas economy; the official state nickname "The Natural State" was originally created (as "Arkansas Is A Natural") for state tourism advertising in the 1970s, and is still regularly used to this day. According to Forbes.com [3] Arkansas currently ranks 21st for The Best States for Business, 9th for Business Cost, 40th for Labor, 22nd for Regulatory Environment, 17th for Economic Climate, 9th for Growth Prospects, 34th in Gross Domestic Product, and positive economic change of 3.8% or ranked 22nd.
In addition to the state sales tax, there are more than 300 local taxes in Arkansas. Cities and counties have the authority to enact additional local sales and use taxes if they are passed by the voters in their area. These local taxes have a ceiling or cap; they cannot exceed $25 for each 1% of tax assessed. These additional taxes are collected by the state, which distributes the money back to the local jurisdictions monthly. Low-income taxpayers with a total annual household income of less than $12,000 are permitted a sales tax exemption for electricity usage. Sales of alcoholic beverages account for added taxes. A 10% supplemental mixed drink tax is imposed on the sale of alcoholic beverages (excluding beer) at restaurants. A 4% tax is due on the sale of all mixed drinks (except beer and wine) sold for "on-premises" consumption. And a 3% tax is due on beer sold for off-premises consumption. Property taxes are assessed on real and personal property; only 20% of the value is used as the tax base.
Airports
Both of Arkansas's U.S. Senators are Democrats: Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. The state has four seats in U.S. House of Representatives. Three seats are held by Democrats—Marion Berry (map), Vic Snyder (map), and Mike Ross (map). The state's lone Republican congressman is John Boozman (map). Presidential elections results Year Republican Democratic Most Republican strength lies mainly in northwest Arkansas in the areas around Fort Smith and Bentonville, and especially in North Central Arkansas around the Mountain Home area where voters have often voted 90 percent Republican. The rest of the state is strongly Democratic, especially Little Rock and the areas along the Mississippi River. Arkansas has only elected one Republican to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, Tim Hutchinson, who was defeated after one term by Mark Pryor. The General Assembly has not been controlled by the Republican Party since Reconstruction and is the fourth most heavily Democratic Legislature in the country, after Massachusetts, Hawaii, and Connecticut. Arkansas is also the only state among the states of the former Confederacy that sends two Democrats to the U.S. Senate and the overwhelming majority of registered voters in the state are Democrats. The state is socially conservative – its voters passed a ban on gay marriage with 74% voting yes, the Arkansas Constitution protects right to work, and the state is one of a handful that has legislation on its books banning abortion in the event Roe vs. Wade is ever overturned. In Arkansas, the lieutenant governor is elected separately from the governor and thus can be from a different political party. Each officer's term is four years long. Office holders are term-limited to two full terms plus any partial terms prior to the first full term. Arkansas gubernatorial terms became four years with the 1986 general election; before this, the terms were two years long. Some of Arkansas's counties have two county seats, as opposed to the usual one seat. The arrangement dates back to when travel was extremely difficult in the state. The seats are usually on opposite sides of the county. Though travel is no longer the difficulty it once was, there are few efforts to eliminate the two seat arrangement where it exists, since the county seat is a source of pride (and jobs) to the city involved. Arkansas is the only state to specify the pronunciation of its name by law.[2] This is in response to residents of Kansas who used to pronounce the state's name as ar-KANSAS. Article 19 (Miscellaneous Provisions), Item 1 in the Arkansas Constitution is entitled "Atheists disqualified from holding office or testifying as witness," and states that "No person who denies the being of a God shall hold any office in the civil departments of this State, nor be competent to testify as a witness in any Court," despite unanimous decision by the United States Supreme Court in Torcaso v. Watkins (1961) that a similar requirement in Maryland violated protections under First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. See also: List of Arkansas Governors and United States presidential election, 2004 Metropolitan areas The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan area is increasingly important to the state and its economy. The US Census estimated the population of the MSA to be 420,876 in 2006, up from 347,045 in 2000, making it the sixth fastest growing region in the nation[4]. It is home to the corporate headquarters of Fortune 1000 companies Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt, as well as representatives of numerous vendors drawn by Wal-Mart. It is also home to the University of Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport. See also Arkansas Metropolitan Areas. Top 15 Largest Cities in Arkansas 1. Little Rock 184,422 Central Arkansas 2. Fort Smith 83,461 Northwest Arkansas 3. Fayetteville 67,158 Northwest Arkansas 4. Springdale 60,096 Northwest Arkansas 5. Jonesboro 59,358 Northeast Arkansas 6. North Little Rock 58,833 Central Arkansas 7. Pine Bluff 52,693 Southeast Arkansas 8. Conway 52,430 Central Arkansas 9. Rogers 48,666 Northwest Arkansas 10.Hot Springs 37,847 Southwest Arkansas 11.Jacksonville 30,367 Central Arkansas 12.Texarkana 30,006 Southwest Arkansas 13.Bentonville 29,538 Northwest Arkansas 14.West Memphis 28,181 Northeast Arkansas 15.Benton 27,700 Central Arkansas
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