LITTLE ROCK — Do you live in a healthy county? If you live in Benton, Washington, or Faulkner counties you can probably answer that with a yes. That's because all 75 counties have been ranked in a newly released study.

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HOT SPRINGS — The pilot of a plane that crashed near Hot Springs and killed him and his wife announced a mayday just before the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board says.

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A Senate committee this morning will consider a Senate bill offering a Democratic-backed congressional redistricting bill identical to Rep. Clark Hall’s bill, which cleared a House committee yesterday and should pass the House. With a 4-4 Senate committee partisan split, the Senate bill won’t clear committee. That sets the stage for the big question: A majority [...]

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Perils of Pauline: A handful of Republican zealots has the insurance industry and a significant chunk of the state budget tied to the railroad tracks. They’ll let the train run over it unless they get their way on removing an appropriation (not spending) of federal money to implement federal health care reform as other states [...]

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I missed the news yesterday that the Senate Judiciary Committee lacked votes necessary to approve the House bill allowing guns in church. Several pastors testified for presence of concealed weapons because of potential for violence. Which, it might be worth noting, is an argument you could make for every venue of human contact. Count me [...]

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Anne Orsi, a member of the Mount Holly Cemetery Association, writes to tell me a vehicle crashed three times Wednesday morning into the historic cemetery’s wall along Broadway. The collisions did catastrophic damage, perhaps as much as $70,000 worth. I’ll have a longer report from her and photos later. Needed: white knights. The association had to [...]

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Now that it’s passed both houses, it’s a good time for John Brummett’s explanation of the bill aimed at collecting sales tax on Internet sales. It’s but a small and limited step toward tax fairness that can only be solved ultimately by Congress. [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

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Here are the 19 Republicans who, in the last roll call, said they’d rather end insurance regulation in Arkansas, shut down a state agency and private insurance companies and strip $100 million from state and retirement funds rather than approve a bill that authorizes (but doesn’t spend) $1 milllion in federal spending on planning for [...]

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The line is open. Closing odds and ends: * TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY: The House meets into the evening. Another vote tonight on the Insurance Department? Don’t know. * HUCK PROMOTES ‘GUNPOINT’ LEARNING: Though someone tried to scrub it, a watchdog group has captured Mike Huckabee saying on video that Americans should be indoctrinated “at gunpoint” to [...]

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On its third try, the Insurance Department appropriation failed the House again this afternoon, once again drawing 70 votes, needing 75. There were 19 nays, with 11 absent or not voting. House Minority Leader Rep. John Burris rose reluctantly to endorse the bill after he failed for the second time to separate from the bill [...]

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