EL DORADO, Ark. — Outdoor enthusiasts, families and community members from across South Arkansas are gearing up for the return of one of the region’s most anticipated fall events as the 27th Annual SouthArk Outdoor Expo comes to the El Dorado Conference Center on Saturday, September 12.

Hosted by the South Arkansas College Foundation, this year’s Outdoor Expo will run from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will feature a full day of activities celebrating the outdoors, local organizations and the South Arkansas community.

The annual event is designed to offer something for the entire family, with activities and attractions including the Hero 5K Walk/Run, rib cook-off, live music, car show, vendors and exhibitors, food trucks, children’s activities and more.

The Expo also provides an opportunity for local organizations and outdoor-related groups to showcase their work. The 2026 exhibitor lineup includes organizations such as the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Delta Rivers Nature Center, Arkansas Road Team, El Dorado Police Department, Union County Public Library, Area Agency on Aging of Southwest Arkansas, Veterans Upward Bound and American Legion Auxiliary Unit 10, among others.

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A Day of Family Fun

The Outdoor Expo has become a yearly gathering point for families looking to enjoy a variety of activities under one roof.

In addition to the outdoor-themed exhibits and demonstrations, visitors can enjoy the event’s Kids World, food trucks, live entertainment, the auto show and other activities throughout the day.

The event also includes a student art competition centered around the theme of recognizing everyday heroes. The contest is open to K-12 students from Union County schools, with students encouraged to create artwork highlighting someone they consider courageous — including military personnel, first responders, health professionals, family members or friends.

Supporting SouthArk Students

While the Outdoor Expo is designed as a day of entertainment and community engagement, it also serves an important purpose for South Arkansas College.

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The event is an annual fundraiser organized by the South Arkansas College Foundation, with proceeds supporting educational opportunities for SouthArk students and the general operations of the SouthArk Foundation.

The Foundation’s 2026 Outdoor Expo sponsors include the City of El Dorado, Clean Harbors, Delek & Delek Fund for Hope, Lanxess, Lawrence Electric, LSB, RightFiber, TCW and The Systems Group, with additional sponsors supporting the event.

By attending and supporting the Expo, community members are helping the Foundation continue its work of providing educational opportunities and resources for students throughout the region.

Mark Your Calendar

The 27th Annual SouthArk Outdoor Expo will take place Saturday, September 12, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the El Dorado Conference Center.

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With live music, food, competitions, exhibits, children’s activities, vehicles, vendors and plenty of opportunities to enjoy the outdoors, organizers are inviting South Arkansas families to come out and make a day of it.

For more information about the 27th Annual SouthArk Outdoor Expo, visit the South Arkansas College Foundation’s Outdoor Expo website.

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EL DORADO, AR –

UPDATE: 8:02 PM the child has been located and is safe!!!

Union County Sheriff Charlie Phillips says his department is currently searching for a missing 4 year old. River Downs, a white female child, has been reported as missing from the area of Hayes City Rd. Last seen around 6:00pm playing in her driveway, wearing a diaper. River is autistic and non verbal. If seen or located, please make contact with the Union County Sheriff Office at 870-864-1990

EL DORADO, AR – Verizon customers across a large portion of the United States are reporting problems with wireless service Thursday afternoon, including failed phone calls, mobile data disruptions and connectivity issues.

Reports of service problems are coming from communities stretching from Oklahoma and Texas to Arkansas and Georgia, with additional complaints being reported along the Eastern Seaboard. Customers in the South Arkansas area have also reported difficulty completing calls and accessing Verizon services.

The widespread reports appear to indicate a network-related outage rather than an isolated problem affecting individual customers.

Verizon confirmed to South Arkansas Now that the company is aware of the disruption.

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“We are aware of a wireless service interruption impacting some Verizon customers,” a Verizon automated response stated. “Our engineers are engaged and working to quickly resolve the issue. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Verizon’s own network-outage information confirms that a mobile network outage can affect voice, data and messaging services for mobile customers, as well as Verizon Home Internet users in an affected area. The company defines a mobile network outage as an unexpected disruption affecting multiple cell sites at the same time.

Thousands Reporting Problems

Independent outage-monitoring service Downdetector was also showing a significant increase in reports involving Verizon Thursday. A report published Thursday afternoon indicated that more than 2,000 users had reported problems, providing another indication that the issue was affecting customers beyond a single geographic area.

The reports appear to involve several Verizon services, including traditional wireless calling and mobile data. Customers using Verizon’s 5G Home Internet service have also reported connectivity problems.

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At this point, Verizon has not publicly identified the cause of the interruption or provided a specific timetable for a complete restoration of service.

The breadth of the reports is notable. Problems have been reported in major metropolitan areas including Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Dallas-Fort Worth, Little Rock and Atlanta, with reports also appearing farther east.

What Customers Should Do

Verizon recommends customers experiencing service problems check the company’s network-status tools through My Verizon. According to Verizon, customers who are in an area affected by a known outage should receive a network notification identifying the affected services and providing information about the status of repairs.

Customers whose service remains unavailable after the network issue is resolved may also want to restart their phones to allow the device to reconnect to the network.

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For now, Verizon customers experiencing failed calls or data connections may simply be caught in the middle of a larger network disruption.

South Arkansas Now will continue monitoring the situation and will provide updates as Verizon releases additional information.

This is a developing story.

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Based on reporting by Sydney Sasser of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with additional reporting from KATV

New details about the massive power agreement between Google and Entergy Arkansas are shedding more light on the cost of Google’s planned West Memphis data center and have now led to a legal battle over the release and publication of confidential documents.

At the center of the dispute is Cypress Solar, a planned 600-megawatt solar facility paired with a 350-megawatt battery storage system in Jefferson County.

The project is expected to cost about $1.6 billion and will help provide electricity to the massive Google data center being constructed in West Memphis.

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According to documents obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Google will make substantial payments toward the Cypress Solar project.

Central Arkansas resident Jessica Kivell obtained the documents through an Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request to the Arkansas Public Service Commission. Some of the documents were marked confidential.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Sydney Sasser reported that the documents showed Google would pay approximately $526 million toward Cypress Solar, consisting of $443 million in accelerated payments and $83 million in minimum demand payments.

However, Entergy now disputes the way those payments were characterized and calculated.

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Entergy says Google will pay more than $2 billion

Following publication of the Democrat-Gazette’s report, Entergy Arkansas filed a lawsuit against the newspaper and the Arkansas Times, alleging that the publications obtained and disclosed confidential trade-secret information.

Entergy also argues that the Democrat-Gazette made a mathematical error in calculating Google’s total payments under the agreement.

According to Entergy, the $443 million upfront payment and $83 million in annual minimum payments must be considered over the full 20-year initial term of the contract.

Using that calculation:

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$443 million + ($83 million × 20 years) = approximately $2.103 billion.

Entergy told KATV that the distinction is significant and argued that Google will ultimately pay substantially more than the $1.6 billion cost of constructing Cypress Solar.

The utility also says the Google agreement provides approximately $1.1 billion in additional net benefits to Arkansas customers.

Entergy requested that the Democrat-Gazette correct its calculation and apologize for what the utility described as misinformation that caused unnecessary concern among customers.

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What Google previously promised

The dispute is particularly notable because Google publicly stated during the October 2025 groundbreaking ceremony for its West Memphis data center that it intended to cover the full cost of powering the facility.

Google President and Chief Investment Officer Ruth Porat said at the ceremony:

“We are also collaborating with Entergy, an amazing partner, the power distributor for customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas to ensure that we cover the full cost of powering the facility to keep rates down for ratepayers.”

Entergy says the newly released information does not contradict that commitment because Google’s payments extend throughout the 20-year agreement.

Entergy sues over release of confidential documents

Entergy’s lawsuit goes beyond the disagreement over the numbers.

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The utility alleges that the Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Times obtained nonpublic documents from a private citizen who received them from the Arkansas Public Service Commission through a public records request.

Entergy argues that the commission mistakenly released highly sensitive information that contained trade secrets belonging to both Entergy and Google.

The utility asked a federal court for a temporary restraining order and preliminary and permanent injunctions preventing the newspapers from further using or publishing the alleged trade-secret information.

Entergy said disclosure of the information could cause irreparable harm to both its business and Google.

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However, the case raises an important question about the intersection of government transparency and private-company confidentiality:

If a government agency mistakenly releases information in response to a public records request, can the government or a private company later prevent the person who received that information from publishing it?

According to Robert Steinbuch, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law, there are competing interests involved.

Steinbuch told KATV that while Entergy and Google could potentially suffer harm from the disclosure of legitimate trade secrets, the public also has an interest in information obtained from the government.

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The key question, he said, is whether the information actually qualifies as a legally protected trade secret.

Trade secrets generally receive protection under the law, but that protection does not automatically apply simply because a company considers information confidential.

Steinbuch said any injunction would likely need to be narrowly tailored to specific information that actually qualifies as a trade secret.

He also questioned whether information concerning how much Google pays for electricity would meet the legal definition of a trade secret.

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Judge denies Entergy’s request for restraining order

The initial court battle has already produced a ruling.

On Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky denied Entergy’s request for a restraining order against the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and Arkansas Times.

That ruling means Entergy did not obtain the immediate restriction on publication that it requested.

The broader legal dispute, however, remains significant because it could ultimately address what information obtained through an Arkansas public records request can be withheld or protected when private companies claim trade-secret protections.

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Entergy says Google is protecting other ratepayers

Entergy maintains that the Google agreement was structured to protect existing Arkansas customers from the cost of serving the enormous new data center.

In a statement provided to KATV, Entergy said Google is:

• Paying for 100% of its power needs and more.
• Subject to termination penalties and guarantees designed to protect other customers.
• Making monthly payments throughout the 20-year contract.
• Contributing to fixed system costs, which Entergy says reduces costs for other customers.

Entergy described the Google agreement as the single largest benefit to existing Entergy Arkansas customers in the company’s history, saying it aligns with its Fair Share Plus Pledge and federal Ratepayer Protection Pledge.

The utility also emphasized that although portions of the contract may be confidential to news organizations, the agreement has been reviewed by public officials responsible for regulating Arkansas utilities, including the Arkansas Public Service Commission, its staff and the Arkansas Attorney General.

The enormous electricity demand behind the deal

Regardless of the ongoing dispute over the payment calculations, there is no question that Google’s West Memphis data center will require an enormous amount of electricity.

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According to documents reviewed by the Democrat-Gazette, Google is expected to begin taking electric service in February 2027.

Initially, the facility is expected to have a minimum bill demand of 40 megawatts, with a maximum contract demand of 50 megawatts.

Over the following two and a half years, Google’s electricity demand is expected to increase significantly.

By October 2029, the data center is expected to reach a minimum bill demand of 480 megawatts, with a maximum contract demand of 600 megawatts.

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The documents indicate that Google’s demand is expected to grow faster than Entergy can bring new generation online.

As a result, Entergy plans to purchase additional electricity from the market to serve the data center until additional generation becomes available.

Why Cypress Solar matters

Cypress Solar is one piece of the larger power system that will serve Google’s West Memphis operation.

The facility will consist of a 600-megawatt solar field and 350 megawatts of battery storage and is currently scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2028.

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Google’s interest in Cypress Solar also involves renewable energy credits, which provide documentation that electricity is generated from renewable sources such as solar power.

Google can use those credits to support its corporate clean-energy goals, including offsetting reported greenhouse gas emissions associated with its data centers.

Arkansas customers are already paying more

The Cypress Solar project is also significant to Arkansas residents because it is one of three new generation projects contributing to higher Entergy residential bills.

Beginning in June, Entergy residential customers began paying an additional $5.77 per month associated with the three new generation projects.

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That makes the financial structure of the Google agreement an important issue for Arkansas ratepayers.

Entergy says Google’s long-term payments will ultimately more than cover the costs associated with serving the data center and will provide substantial benefits to existing customers.

The Democrat-Gazette’s reporting raised questions about the amount Google would pay toward Cypress Solar and how those payments would be treated under the agreement.

Entergy has strongly disputed that characterization, arguing that the full 20-year payment commitment means Google will pay approximately $2.1 billion under the figures cited in the documents.

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A 20-year agreement with a potentially massive termination fee

The Google-Entergy special rate contract has an initial term of 20 years.

After that, the agreement automatically renews in successive three-year terms unless either party provides notice of termination or non-renewal.

The contract also contains significant financial protections for Entergy.

According to the documents, Google could face a termination fee of approximately $2 billion if it breaches the agreement during the first 13 years. That fee gradually declines during the remainder of the initial 20-year term.

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Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, will guarantee the payment.

A deal that will continue to draw scrutiny

The Google data center represents one of the largest economic and infrastructure developments in Arkansas in recent years.

It also creates an unprecedented demand for electricity and requires billions of dollars in investment in generation, transmission and infrastructure.

Entergy says the agreement will ultimately protect existing customers and deliver more than $1.1 billion in net benefits to Arkansas customers.

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Meanwhile, questions remain about the agreement’s confidential provisions, how Google’s payments are classified, the effect on Entergy’s rate base and what information the public should be able to access regarding a deal involving significant public utility infrastructure.

The legal battle between Entergy and Arkansas media organizations could provide additional answers as the case moves forward.

Source Articles Linked Below

Arkansas Democrat Gazette: https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2026/aug/31/google-to-pay-entergy-arkansas-526-million-for/

KATV: https://katv.com/news/local/entergy-sues-democrat-gazette-ar-times-for-publishing-secret-google-data-center-details

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South Arkansas Now credits Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Sydney Sasser for the original reporting and reporting that brought the details of the Google-Entergy agreement to light. Additional information regarding the lawsuit and Entergy’s response was reported by KATV.

EL DORADO, AR – As Wildcats fans prepare for another season of Friday night football, the El Dorado School District has released its Memorial Stadium guidelines for the 2026-27 school year.

The guidelines are designed to help provide a safe, organized and family-friendly environment for students, parents and community members attending events at the stadium.

One of the biggest changes fans will notice during Friday night varsity football games involves access to the area underneath the home bleachers.

The area, which includes the concession stand, restrooms and snow cone stand, is intended for guests to access those services and is not designated as a student gathering or hangout area.

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Under the new procedures:

• Students in grades K-6 must be accompanied by an adult when going underneath the bleachers.
• Students in grades 7-12 may go underneath the bleachers without an adult, but only five students will be allowed down each ramp at one time.
• Once a student returns to the bleachers, another student may enter the area.
• The procedures will remain in effect throughout the game, with the exception of halftime.

Admission and Re-Entry

For regular-season games, El Dorado School District teacher and staff ID badges will admit the employee only. Family members and guests must purchase tickets.

District-issued sports passes, senior citizen passes and Arkansas Activities Association passes will also be accepted during regular-season games.

For playoff games, only purchased tickets or AAA passes will be accepted. Staff IDs and name tags will not be accepted.

AAA passes may be presented digitally on a phone or as a paper copy accompanied by a valid ID. National Federation of State High School Associations cards will not be accepted.

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The district also reminds families that students in Pre-K through sixth grade must remain with a parent or adult guardian throughout the event. Students in grades 7-12 cannot serve as the adult guardian for younger students.

Fans should also plan carefully if they leave the stadium. Guests who leave must pay to re-enter, while students who leave the stadium will not be readmitted. Suspended or expelled students are not permitted to attend stadium events.

Clear Bag Policy and Other Rules

The district’s Clear Bag Policy will be enforced at all events. Outside food and drinks, including tumblers, are not permitted.

Diaper bags and medical supply bags are allowed but will be subject to inspection. Large signs, including posters and “fatheads,” are also prohibited.

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Only registered service animals are permitted inside the stadium.

Smoking and vaping are prohibited, although smoking passes may be issued to adults age 21 and older at halftime.

The district’s dress code and discipline policies will also be enforced at Memorial Stadium.

The El Dorado School District said the rules are intended to help keep the stadium safe and organized while allowing fans to enjoy Wildcat football.

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The district encourages fans to familiarize themselves with the guidelines before attending games this season.

REMEMBER: IF YOU CANNOT MAKE IT TO THE GAME, THE ENTIRE GAME WILL BE STREAMED LIVE VIA SOUTH ARKANSAS NOW’S YouTube and Facebook pages! Go Wildcats! 💜🏈