State briefs

AG approves wording for ballot measures

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas’ attorney general has approved the wording for ballot measures that would raise the minimum wage, legalize casinos and change the redistricting process.

That’s after the state Supreme Court ordered her to certify the wage-hike proposal.

Attorney General Leslie Rutledge certified the measures on Wednesday, hours after justices gave her three days to approve or substitute language for a proposed initiated act to gradually raise Arkansas’ minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022. The sponsor of the measure sued after Rutledge had previously rejected its wording.

Rutledge’s certification means supporters can begin gathering the thousands of signatures needed to get the proposals on the November ballot.

Rutledge said she approved the measures “in an exercise of caution” after the court’s order, which she said didn’t put forth clear standards.

Human remains found in pipe at Little Rock park

LITTLE ROCK — Police have discovered human remains at a Little Rock park while investigating the 2015 disappearance of a teenager who was last seen in the area.

Little Rock Police spokesman Officer Steve Moore said cold case investigators were following up on Ebby Steppach’s disappearance Tuesday when they found the skeletal remains in an underground drainage pipe at Chalamont Park. The pipe opens near where police found Steppach’s car days after she was reported missing in October 2015 when she was 18.

Moore said authorities last searched the park in November 2016, but were following up this week using “gut instinct.”

“We’ve never given up on this,” he said of the disappearance, which is still considered a missing-person case.

Police, volunteers and officials from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have searched the park several times since Steppach went missing.

The Arkansas State Crime Laboratory will examine the remains found this week before police officially confirm the identity. Moore said authorities were still at the scene after digging up the pipe to search for more evidence.

Moore said police have notified Steppach’s family about the discovery. A family representative sent a news release Tuesday saying they are waiting to “confirm the findings of this investigation” before speaking on the matter.

Arkansas judge orders DHS to stop algorithm use

LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas judge has again ordered the state Department of Human Services to stop using an algorithm to award hours of homebased care to disabled Medicaid recipients.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen also ordered the department’s attorneys to explain at a Wednesday hearing why the agency shouldn’t be held in contempt of court for violating an order from just last week.

Griffen’s May 14 ruling barred the agency from using the algorithm until properly adopting an emergency rule governing its use. The department has proposed an emergency rule, but plaintiff Legal Aid of Arkansas alleges the proposal doesn’t meet emergency rulemaking requirements.

The department has used the algorithm since 2016 to award hours of help with home-based care to participants in the ARChoices program.