The line is open. Final shot: * REPUBLICANS AND UNEQUAL RIGHTS: This looks like a loser to me, but Republican messaging has triumphed before over common sense. Sen. Mitch McConnell says Republicans will fight to the death to allow an opt-out for preventive health care for women (birth control pills and other contraceptive devices) from employer-provided [...]

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Nothing else to do, so I scanned the weather sources for the Little Rock forecast on Monday. As ever, Pulaski seems to sit on a dividing line that could go in many directions: * Weather Channel — high 36, 1 to 2 inches of snow and ice. * Weather Underground — high 32, ice pellets. * AccuWeather — [...]

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Nixon did. Why not Gov. Mike Beebe? Roby Brock reports on the governor’s planned trade trip to Asia. Everybody does them so they must be productive, right? I notice the item mentions Beebe’s trade trip to Europe and credits it with job creation, including at Dassault Falcon. Actually, there have been big layoffs at Dassault Falcon, no [...]

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There’s something for just about everyone in a New York Times examination of the growing safety net cost in the federal government. I naturally love the anecdote about the Tea Party sympathizer, with his disdain for government spending on the non-productive, who enjoys the earned income tax credit, free breakfasts and lunches for his children and [...]

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Today’s THV NEW LOTTERY DIRECTOR: Bishop Woosley FLASH NEWS RELEASE: The Arkansas Lottery Commission tonight at 7:45 p.m. named William Bishop Woosley as the new Director of the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery. Woosley, the Lottery’s Chief Legal Counsel since its startup in mid-2009, will be paid $165,000 annually. The decision followed a day-long meeting of the Commissioners with all [...]

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Your comments welcome. A few things: * HOMELESS COALITION BACKS VETS CENTER ON MAIN: The Arkansas Homeless Coalition has voted to support location of a VA day center at 10th and Main Streets, a location opposed by Mayor Mark Stodola and U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin. In a letter to Stodola, the coalition said the VA [...]

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OK, why not help the poor Arkansas lottery and mention that April Burnside won $1 million by buying a $20 lottery ticket at a tobacco store in Hamburg. (She actually only got to keep about $680,000 after tax withholding.) And why not mention that the Powerball jackpot to be drawn for today is up to $325 [...]

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I’m not sure I totally agree with Gail Collins of the New York Times — I do think a lot of the tempest over birth control was about birth control and some religionists’ desire to cram their faith down the throats of those who don’t share their opposition to birth control pills. But she makes [...]

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I guess you noticed that Jason Rapert and Co., who propose to put state legislatures like Arkansas’s in charge of the federal budget, brought in a hired hand from the Koch-financed American Legislative Exchange Council (a thinly disguised lobby for anti-tax, anti-regulation and other pet billionaire causes) for their publicity stunt this week. More on ALEC’s [...]

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YOUR MONEY: Questions on how Attorney General Dustin McDaniel chose to spend it. Belatedly last night, I began thinking about the 49-state settlement of a legal action against five major banks over mortgage foreclosure practices. The proposed terms await approval by a federal judge. Specifically, I started thinking about Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel’s decision [...]

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