Appearing on our doorstep a few days ago was a charming orange-and-yellow colored carved bird, sitting on its own branch. We had no idea how it got there. But the mystery has been solved. Our own friend Wesley Mason made a post on Facebook identifying himself as the woodcarver who had placed…

A convergence of local and statewide news events provides an opening to address the mental health evaluation and treatment crisis in Arkansas. We reported during the weekend the case of a former Magnolian who made a Facebook post in which he said that he’d killed his family and planned to ki…

We had some fun with the readers of our Magnolia Reporter on Facebook page this weekend. We invited them to cite a random line from a movie that fans of it would recognize instantly. There were almost 200 responses. Among the fan favorites:

Today was our first compilation of regional COVID-19 numbers in a week. It’s too early to make a declarative statement that COVID is on the run, especially since the snowstorms disrupted family, school, business and social interactions. The storms slowed testing and vaccinations. It’s going …

Southern Arkansas University’s plans for an indoor training facility have become official, which means that Mulerider athletes will soon have an all-weather training venue of the style already enjoyed by most universities and many high schools. It’s a bit of catching up that SAU has needed t…

The Magnolia Advertising and Promotion Commission will not meet this month due to a lack of funding requests. Organizations generally ask for Magnolia A&P funding two-to-three months out, which suggests to us that many of the springtime and summer festivals to which we’re accustomed will…

Things you think about when contemplating what you should do and what you should have in case a foot of snow falls:

We have, aw, maybe hundreds of batteries of various sizes. So naturally at about 2 a.m. Monday, we had a dire need for the one we didn’t have -- a 9-volt battery. We were disinclined at that hour to go out and find one. Our sole outside-the-house chore for Monday, which entailed clearing vit…

Now, here’s where climate science gets important – right here in Magnolia, Arkansas. Two things kill giant salvinia, the invasive water plant that is trying to choke South Arkansas waterways. The first is herbicides. The second is prolonged exposure to cold weather. Well, the herbicides got …

Great news for Hope and the South Arkansas timber industry. Dansons, a Canadian and U.S. company that’s mostly interested in outdoor grilling, said Wednesday that it will take over the vacant Georgia-Pacific particleboard mill in Hope and install wood pellet machines. It will employ 50 peopl…

Lt. Gov. Tim Griffin, the former gubernatorial candidate who has now set his sights on perhaps the more easily-obtained position of attorney general, was touting on Tuesday an out-of-state endorsement from Louisiana AG Jeff Landry. They served together in the U.S. House, which Griffin gave u…

It’s going to be cold during the weekend, relatively speaking. Overnight lows will be in the 20s Friday through Sunday. The National Weather Service in Shreveport speaks of a brief window for frozen precipitation on Thursday, and perhaps light snow on Saturday in South Arkansas. It all sound…

Word has been received in Magnolia of the death on January 24 of Dr. Winston T. Wilson, PhD. Wilson, 84, a clinical psychologist in private practice, died in Little Rock. There was no funeral service. Dr. Wilson was born to the late Cecil Traylor and Winston Olen Wilson, graduated from Magno…

The number of Columbia County residents who have experienced COVID-19 passed the 2,000 mark on Thursday. Of even greater concern was the rise in currently active cases to 133 – a one-day jump of 18. The number of active cases in Union County was up by 30, to 220. There were deaths reported T…

We were unable to cover in person the official opening of the First Financial Bank Poultry Education Facility at Southern Arkansas University – actually, the first phase of a poultry science complex that will expand beyond the new hatchery. Broiler and processing facilities will come later a…

Readers will recall that Big Creek Rental Properties built five duplexes, valued at $140,000 each, at 1405 Shady Lane south of West University near Asbury United Methodist Church last year. Now, land has been cleared between those duplexes and Bluebird Hill Drive, which is also owned by Big …

The Springs of Magnolia let us know that residents have received their first round of COVID-19 vaccinations, and expect to receive the second round on Wednesday. That is great news. Big drop in Magnolia School District COVID-19 cases over the weekend. Also good news. More in our daily report later.

We were unable to get around to our daily update of regional COVID-19 figures. We’ll publish a complete update on Saturday. Briefly, the total Columbia County case count was up seven to 1,894. Total active cases remained unchanged at 90. Total recovered cases were up seven to 1,755. In the M…

Jason Ray is resigning from his District 11 position on the Columbia County Quorum Court. He is moving out of the district, but not out of the county. The Quorum Court will declare a vacancy during its meeting on Monday. Justice of the peace vacancies are filled by gubernatorial appointment.…

Leading news on our website is a report from J.D. Bailey about comments made Monday by Ellie Baker, who is the City of Magnolia’s Economic Development director. CLICK HERE to see it. We’re going to ditto what she said, with the following additions. Historically, Magnolia has always depended …

It was just an off-the-cuff comment we read (on Facebook, where else?) that to our understanding criticized a local happening as no big deal. We despise with red-hot passion the person who makes a throw-away comment like that. People are so prone to criticize events in their local communitie…

A reader let us know that he, and several other drivers, saw a panther along U.S. 79 near the Albemarle South Plant entrance on Friday morning. Yes. Horsehead Creek strikes us as perfect panther prowling grounds. This is an opportunity to write about the potential in South Arkansas for more …

Among our favorite one-liners is the joke about the man who said he thought about going to the meeting of the Optimist Club, but he didn’t think it would do any good. And lately, we’ve been on a YouTube kick to watch performances by the king of self-depreciation humor, the late Rodney Danger…

A little dive into the reported fundraising by the two announced Republican candidates in the 2022 race for governor of Arkansas. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge has reported raising just a little over $1 million for her campaign, including $195,000 in the last quarter of 2020. Lt. Gov. Tim…

Leesa Stephens, the owner of Stephens Country Store on the Magnolia Square, died over the weekend from COVID-19 complications. Leesa was a leader on the square for two decades, in two different locations. She was a key organizer of activities during special events such as the Fall Festival, …

We can’t give you a direct link for legal reasons, but we can tell you that today, Argus Media published an article by Elliott Blackburn headlined, “CVR Energy Urges Delek to Shut Refineries.” The gist is that CVR, owned by corporate raider Carl Icahn, recently acquired a 15 percent stake in…

We had to ban someone from our Magnolia Reporter page on Facebook last night for using vulgar language about another poster. Generally, we take a look at someone’s Facebook page before we ban them to have a better idea of whom we’re dealing. We went ahead and informed the poster he was being…

We’ve often said that the best thing that could happen to American politics would be the emergence of a strong third (and fourth, and fifth) political party – strong defined as capable of electing candidates at the state and federal level. A huge problem with the “two-party” system is that t…

Someone asked us whether there will be a Magnolia Blossom Festival this year. We don’t know. It’s on the calendar but there’s no telling whether COVID-19 conditions will allow for it. We do know that people are planning ahead as though the normal schedule of public events will come off as pl…

Beau Wise (with Tom Sileo) has written a book, “Three Wise Men: A Navy SEAL, A Green Beret and How Their Marine Brother Became a War’s Sole Survivor.” Beau Wise appeared this morning on the Today Show to promote the book, which will be released nationally on Tuesday. For those who don’t reme…

We enjoy and appreciate our relationships with all four Columbia County funeral homes – Henderson’s Mortuary, Lewis Funeral Home, Marks Funeral Home and Reed Funeral Home. There is a large amount of “behind the scenes” work that goes into making sure that the obituaries we publish are accura…

A rule that has stood us in good stead through the years is to never write when angry. We can’t do that now. Responsible Americans must take a stand about the attack on the United States Capitol on Wednesday by supporters of President Donald Trump. This wasn’t a peaceful protest gone bad. It…

COVID-19 continues to run mostly unchecked across South Arkansas and the nation. At least 43 Columbia County residents have died from the virus since April and sadly, we expect that number will double before enough vaccines are available to immunize most of the population. The vaccines provi…

We welcome back one of our seasonal advertisers, the Magnolia accounting firm of Wood & Wood located on North Washington Street. This has been a strange year for Americans, with some even stranger implications for taxes. It’s important to have experts assisting you with tax reports durin…

Let’s pretend for a moment. Suppose public officials, in whom we bestow trust to keep watch on our behalf, alert us to a looming public health emergency. We know the threat is real because we can see the impact. There are things we can do to stop the spread of this new virus, but it’s up to …

We had to make a day run to Shreveport on Monday. First time we’ve been to Shreveport in four years – we seldom have any reason to go there. We also bagged a nice doe past the Albemarle West plant. Impressive to see everything that’s happening in Taylor, including the Tiger Den, which has ce…

Reviewing the news of the past year has, in part, been a sad exercise as we remember all of the annual events and pieces of social fabric that got ripped up by the COVID-19 pandemic. But there’s a new year ahead, and maybe by the second half of 2021 civic and community life will attain whate…

We can’t give you a direct link for legal reasons, but we can tell you that on October 28, Dave Thompson of Prairie Public Radio wrote an article headlined, “Researchers Study ‘Rare Earth’ Element in Lignite Coal.” The article says the North Dakota Energy and Environmental Research Center is…

Today’s current top story salutes Southern Arkansas University graduate Caroline Lester, who graduated in May 2017 and who was just named the Arkansas Farm Bureau’s 2020 Outstanding New Ag Instructor of the Year. We received the Farm Bureau’s annual educators’ award list on Monday. We weren’…

The merger announced Sunday between Lockheed Martin and Aerojet Rocketdyne has big implications for South Arkansas, as the two military-aviation technology companies become one. They employ more than 1,000 people in the Camden area, and no doubt being able to more smoothly integrate Aerojet’…

Nothing about COVID-19 has been pleasant at all, but something we’re glad to note is that the physical conduct of school classes wasn’t the super-spreader event people feared they could be. Sure. Many cases have been spread through schools and events. Many students, faculty and staff who wer…

Columbia County received on Wednesday the first 50 of more than 20,000 doses of a vaccine that will be needed to wipe out COVID-19 locally. We couldn’t help but think about the history of vaccines. There was a time when people were inoculated against smallpox through the insertion of a dead …

Interesting news out of El Dorado on Monday regarding Murphy USA’s $645 million purchase of New Jersey-based QuickChek Corporation. Nope. It’s not likely that Murphy USA signage will pop up around Jersey and New York City. It’s more likely that future Murphy USA locations will step up to loo…

On Saturday night, our desktop computer was hooked into Panther TV as we watched the Magnolia-El Dorado basketball games from the comfort of our office/home. Meanwhile, on our smart phone, we turned to the Arkansas PBS app to monitor the Class 2A football championship between Fordyce and Des…

Nah. We will continue rag Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge for setting a bad example when she fails to wear a mask at public events. And we’ll continue to insist that Gov. Asa Hutchinson, the titular head of Arkansas Republicans, put his foot down and call out Rutledge and other ant…

Today’s current lead story reports on the results of FCC action to award bids for broadband service subsidies around the state. The Rural Electric Cooperation Consortium received almost $11.7 million to provide broadband internet service to 3,242 Columbia County households and businesses wit…

Wilson-Bearden Pharmacy, one of Magnolia’s most storied businesses, joins the ranks of magnoliareporter.com advertisers today. There may be no more iconic storefront and building – the former Magnolia Post Office – as Wilson-Bearden. Ivy Moore and her stafff accept transfers of prescriptions…

Magnolia suffered a terrible tragedy over the weekend when a 16-year-old youth was shot and killed at the Preston Apartments, and another 16-year-old was held for questioning in the case. We can’t imagine what the families of the victim and the alleged gunman are going through. There really …