Free Republic

President Obama endured a terrible 2013, raising GOP hopes of a Senate takeover in next year’s midterm elections that would turn him into an early lame duck. The GOP needs to win six seats in the upper chamber to take a 51-49 edge, something clearly obtainable with Democrats defending difficult seats in South Dakota, Montana, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alaska, Louisiana and North Carolina. With the Senate and House in GOP hands, Obama would have little if any hope of moving his legislative agenda, and would be left to play defense against a GOP Congress in his final two years in...

PUBLIC SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK NWS STORM PREDICTION CENTER NORMAN OK 1050 AM CST SAT DEC 21 2013 ...WIDESPREAD SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS EXPECTED OVER PARTS OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI TO OHIO VALLEYS THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... The NWS Storm Prediction Center in Norman, OK is forecasting the development of a few intense tornadoes and widespread damaging winds over parts of the Lower Mississippi to Ohio valleys this afternoon and tonight. The areas most likely to experience this activity include: Northwest Alabama Southeast Arkansas Central and Northeast Louisiana much of Mississippi Western and Middle Tennessee Elsewhere, severe storms are also possible from parts...

Brian Schweitzer, the former Democratic governor of Montana who may run for president in 2016, spoke Wednesday night to Progress Iowa, a liberal grassroots organization, in Altoona, Iowa. In his speech, Schweitzer criticized Democrats who voted for the Iraq war, a group that includes a potential rival for the Democratic nomination: Hillary Clinton.

On a recent weekday in a sunny, computer-strewn classroom at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs, one of teacher Nicholas Seward's printers was busily whirring out a squirrel. Not a picture of a squirrel. Not a drawing of a squirrel. An actual, three-dimensional toy squirrel: bright orange, plastic, tough enough that when the reporter managed to drop a similar piece on the hard concrete, it simply bounced with a bright, ping-pong ball clink. The machine — called "Simpson" after the scientist George Gaylord Simpson, who came up with the idea that when animals evolve,...

The Republican Party has always represented a fusion of two broad groups: those who are driven by ideology and those who grew up in geographic areas that are traditionally Republican and joined the party because it was the obvious way to enter politics. Call them the Nixon Republicans, these folks live in suburbs or small towns and represent the equivalent of the urban big city machines that spawn and nurture Democrats. But this party could not get elected. It would not have defeated Jimmy Carter in 1980 or elected Ronald Reagan. It would not have been the vehicle for the...

SNIPPET: "A federal grand jury has issued an eight-count indictment against a central Arkansas man accused of damaging electric cooperative and other power facilities. Jason Woodring, 37, was indicted on charges relating to sabotage of high-voltage power lines and power stations earlier this year in several cities. Among them: a terrorist attack against a railroad carrier and destruction of energy facilities, including a 115,000-volt transmission line owned by First Electric Cooperative in Jacksonville. Woodring faces up to 20 years in prison on the energy facility destruction charges, and life in prison if convicted on the terrorism charge. According to an...

In an unmarked building on the outskirts of this old railroad town, hundreds of workers are going about the unglamorous work of expanding the United States' social safety net. From morning until midnight, clerks here type up the names, Social Security numbers and other personal details of those who have filled out paper applications for health insurance under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. From the outside, there's no indication that the workers in the three-story brick building are carrying out an increasingly crucial part of the healthcare overhaul known as Obamacare. But as the Obama administration tries to recover...

Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor is trailing Republican challenger Rep. Tom Cotton in the Arkansas Senate race according to a poll released Monday. Forty-eight percent of respondents support Cotton compared to 41 percent behind the incumbent Pryor, according to the poll. The poll shows that the race has taken a turn due to Pryor’s support for Obamacare, according to Politico. The last published numbers from this marquee match-up came in the midst of October’s government shutdown and before the national focus turned to the disastrous rollout of Obamacare, which Pryor voted for. Four polls taken that month showed the race within...

Kellyanne Conway’s group did the polling. It’s not one of the news group polls, which use a Democratic and Republican pollster together. Can’t make Pryor feel good: Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor trails his Republican challenger, Rep. Tom Cotton, by seven points among likely voters in Arkansas, 48 percent to 41 percent, according to a new poll from a conservative group that says his support of the health care reform law is costing him.The survey, shared exclusively with POLITICO, was conducted Friday and Saturday for the Citizens United Political Victory Fund by Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway of the polling company, Inc./WomanTrend....

A swath of ice and a wintry mix later this week threatens to slow travel and cut power from parts of Texas to Kentucky. As dangerous cold sweeps southward and eastward over the Plains and Midwest in the wake of a North Central states snowstorm, it will set up a weather pattern favoring a narrow zone of freezing rain, sleet and some snow late this week.

I’m paraphrasing, natch, but there’s a reason why this ad is heavy on human imperfection and verrry light on party identification. Pryor’s rightly worried about how the Democratic agenda’s playing at home in Arkansas, and by “agenda” I don’t mean raising the minimum wage. Odds that a future ad will include the phrase “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”: 95 percent.Actually, O-Care’s only half his problem. The other half, Sean Trende argues, is that all signs over the past year point to an even steeper than expected drop-off for Democrats in 2014. Taken together, of the...

KATV) Sen. Mark Pryor is out with a new TV ad offering a Biblical solution to the already heated 2014 Senate race in Arkansas. Pryor's campaign said the ad will begin airing on Wednesday. In the 30 second ad, Pryor speaks directly to the camera about his faith in the Bible. The ad is a substantial purchase for the campaign and will run statewide. "I'm not ashamed to say that I believe in God, and I believe in His word. The Bible teaches us no one has all the answers. Only God does. And neither political party is always right,"...

Mike Huckabee’s radio show is done, the former Arkansas governor announced on Wednesday. “The Mike Huckabee Show on radio, which was heard 3 hours a day on over 200 radio stations across the country since April of 2012 will conclude its run at the end of the final show on Thursday, December 12,” Huckabee wrote on Facebook.

An elderly Midland woman was injured Thursday night (Nov. 21) after fighting off a pair of home invaders, according to the Sebastian County Sheriff’s Office. Two men wearing ski masks, black gloves and camouflage clothing entered the woman’s home on Drake Loop near Highway 253 looking for prescription medication, according Sgt. Steve Cox. Authorities said the door to home was not locked. The 70-year-old woman fought the men, at one point throwing a chair at one of the invaders, Cox said. One of the suspects struggled with the woman down the hallway while the other one went straight to the...

LITTLE ROCK (KATV)--After recent dog attacks and even some that resulted in deaths, Channel 7 explains what liabilities dog owners face after their dog attacks. Attorney Gary Green said a common misconception is the "one-bite" rule. Many still believe that if their dog bites for the first time, they're not liable. However, Green said in this day in age, where attacks are becoming too common, that rule is like an old wives tale. In the last year, we have reported at least six dog attacks, the most recent; an attack on Thursday in Hot Springs Village, resulting in the death...

As Democrats on Capitol Hill are growing increasingly angry with the White House over problems with Obamacare — and increasingly uneasy about their individual fortunes heading into 2014 — Colorado Sen. Mark Udall Wednesday became the latest Democratic lawmaker to introduce legislation to change the beleaguered Affordable Care Act... With support building for a plan introduced by Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, that would allow people mislead by the president”s promise to keep their plans to actually do so indefinitely, Udall has come up with a scaled down version that would allow policyholders to keep their current plans, being cancelled under...

Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2014 have been running, hiding, ducking—you name it—to avoid taking responsibility for the health-care overhaul they supported. But Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas might have yet another vulnerability: votes for judicial nominees. An ad released this week by the Judicial Crisis Network slams Mr. Pryor for toeing the line on President Obama's appointments of activist judges. "Mark Pryor voted for every one of Obama's liberal judicial nominees," the 30-second clip begins as a long list of confirmed names rolls across the screen. "Every. Single. One." The ad goes on to criticize Mr. Pryor...

Watch out, 7-Eleven! There just might be a Wal-Mart convenience store opening up next door. According to an Arkansas news site, the retail giant is testing out a convenience store format next to its corporate headquarters in Bentonville. The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal says the new C-store "will offer customers a quick and easy solution for gas, snacks and beverages, and other staples like milk, bread and eggs." As Wal-Mart experiments with smaller-format concepts that step away from the previous superstore expansion model it championed, it's drilling down to the most basic level. While this will be something it uses...

House Republicans are pouncing on President Obama’s apology for cancelled insurance plans to push him into backing legislation that would change ObamaCare. The president on Thursday said he was “sorry” that Americans were losing their healthcare plans despite his frequent assurances that individuals with insurance could keep them. Obama said he was seeking an administrative fix, but Republicans say they have a ready-made solution in the Keep Your Plan bill that they plan to bring up for a vote next week. A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the president can’t address the problems plaguing the healthcare law through...

Nashville, TN – Today, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham introduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The legislation currently has 33 cosponsors – but Senator Alexander is not one of them. Conservative Senate candidate Joe Carr called on Senator Alexander to change his stance and add himself as a co-sponsor. “I’m strongly pro-life and believe it’s imperative the Senate pass this important piece of legislation. When Senator Graham announced his co-sponsors and Senator Alexander’s name was missing, I was disappointed. I am hoping Senator Alexander will change his stance and add himself as a co-sponsor. This legislation is too...