LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A former Associated Press bureau chief who covered Arkansas politics for nearly a half-century at the AP and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette has died. Bill Simmons was 71.

His son says his father died Monday at his home in Little Rock.

Simmons joined The Associated Press in Little Rock in 1962, then worked briefly in Detroit before requesting a transfer back to his home state. He took over the Capitol beat in 1968, and covered state government and politics until becoming the Little Rock bureau chief for the world's largest news-gathering organization in 1990.

Simmons retired early from the AP in 1996 and the next year was named political editor at the Democrat-Gazette, the state's largest newspaper.

He'd covered every Arkansas governor since Orval Faubus.

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