State Digest

Arkansas DHS to appeal ban on home-based care method

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — The Arkansas Department of Human Services is appealing a ban on using an algorithm to allocate hours of home-based care to disabled Medicaid recipients.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that the department filed a notice Friday to appeal Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen's order to the state Supreme Court.Griffen ruled May 14 that the department didn't provide adequate public notice before adopting rules allowing the use of the algorithm to award hours to participants in the ARChoices program.

The department responded that week by proposing an emergency rule allowing the algorithm to be enacted without public notice. Griffen suspended the rule and found the department in contempt of court. Department officials say the rulings leave them unable to enroll people in ARChoices. The program provides home-based services to disabled Medicaid recipients who qualify for nursing home placement. Arkansas inmate pleads guilty to killing fellow prisoner

LITTLE ROCK (AP) — An Arkansas inmate has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing a fellow prisoner in 2015 and has been sentenced to an additional 20 years in prison.

Third Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce's office announced Tuesday that 35-year-old Franklin J. Junior pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Joe Kory Harter. Boyce's office says Junior's plea on Monday came moments before a Jackson County jury was to be seated in his trial.

Harter was stabbed with a homemade weapon at the Arkansas Department of Correction Grimes Unit in Newport on June 15, 2015. Boyce's office says the stabbing was suspected to be gang-related.