Michael Tilley, with our partner Talk Business and Politics , tells us about the infrastructure plans the city of Fort Smith has in the works for the coming year. He also discusses the name change of a public elementary school and an upcoming tax issue on the Fort Smith ballot.

During his annual State of the University address Thursday, University of Arkansas Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz reflected on how the campus community has adapted amid a pandemic and how that flexibility will need to continue as faculty, staff and students head into an uncertain future. The full speech can be viewed on the U of A's YouTube channel .

According to data published by the Northwest Arkansas Council , the region's diverse populations have increased from making up less than five percent of the overall population in 1990 to nearly 30 percent in 2019. In Springdale, more than half the city's population consists of non-white residents. A person of color has yet to be elected to a city government role, but this election cycle three candidates of color are running for seats on the City Council.

Faith Laukon's father, Adelbert, died on July 20, 2020 due to complications from COVID-19. He was one of the more than 50 Marshallese community members who passed away during the height of the coronavirus outbreak in Northwest Arkansas this spring and summer. Laukon says the pandemic has left behind a devastating legacy in the tight-knit community.

On Wednesday, Governor Asa Hutchinson announced the state will start using antigen testing kits to conduct weekly COVID-19 testing of employees at certain public school districts, as well as at all state prisons and Human Development Centers run by the Department of Human Services. The tests will be performed using BinaxNOW kits made by Abbott Laboratories that return results in about 15 minutes without the use of any other equipment. So far, the state has received about 100,000 kits from the

Issue 1 , which was referred to the voters by the Arkansas General Assembly, proposes amending the Arkansas Constitution to make permanent a half-cent sales tax that currently helps fund the state's four-lane highway system, county roads and city streets. Proponents say every county will receive funding from the tax, so all Arkansans will benefit. Opponents say there are cost-saving measures that can be taken before extending a sales tax that was supposed to be temporary.

For years, many former Arkansas football players have moved into the business world after their playing careers ended. On this week's Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Report, Tyler Wilson discusses how he went from being a quarterback to getting into real estate.

We celebrate the changing of the seasons with University of Arkansas Music Professor Lia Uribe. In this week's Sound Perimeter, we listen to a recent performance of Pepe Rivero's Latin jazz interpretation of Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons, which illustrates how musicians have had to adapt to performing during a pandemic.

During his weekly COVID-19 response briefing yesterday, Governor Asa Hutchinson extended the health emergency he first initiated in March for another 60 days. He said the extension is necessary to allow school children to have the option to learn from home, for small businesses to have a measure of liability immunity, for businesses to accept e-signatures on legal documents and for operations of telemedicine to continue to get reimbursements from Medicare. The extension of the emergency

Within hours of the sign going up in early October, vandals scrawled hate speech using black spray paint on a campaign billboard to elect Kyle Smith to Fayetteville City Council. Smith was appointed to City Council three years ago but is also a noted LGBTQ civil rights advocate. No data yet exists, but this election cycle sign vandalism appears to be statewide occurrence.