Free Republic

To finish up the weekend on a bit of a positive note, polling groups around the nation are starting to shift their models from registered voters to likely voters as the days until November shrink. One in particular will be of interest and it’s in the highly contested state of Arkansas. We always thought Mark Pryor was in trouble, but he has been holding on in the polls surprisingly well. This week, the NBC/Marist poll, which previously showed Pryor in a fairly solid position, has taken a big turn and Tom Cotton (who did an interview for Hot Air...

It should not be said that the sight of rank-and-file police officers in combat gear is a sign of our times. But those were the images beamed afar from Ferguson, Missouri, a town of 21,135 located beyond the borders of St. Louis, in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager soon to begin the fall term at Vatterott College, by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. As civil unrest escalated, the police force in Ferguson unveiled an array of weaponry, including Mine Resistant Ambush Protectant Vehicles, which are heavily armed trucks, and a Long Range...

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — After financial losses, fire and special tax passed to support it, Crittenden Regional Hospital is closing. The hospital is no longer admitting people and will close September 7. We are told clinics located within the hospital are looking for alternatives. In a statement, CEO Gene Cashman said, ‘With counsel from national health care consulting firms and the passage of a county-wide sales tax, we had identified a long-term strategic plan that had set our organization on a path to improvement. This summer’s fire and the subsequent shut-down derailed that plan’s success.”

Arkansas—No sign announces the purpose of this little storefront. It's a Democratic Party field office. Democrats aren't advertising this office and 39 others; their locations are a closely guarded secret. Arkansas is home to one of the nation's most intense Senate races. Democrat Mark Pryor and GOP Rep. Tom Cotton. Democrats have mounted an ambitious organizing effort of technology intensive on-the-ground engagement. The Republicans don't have an office in Pine Bluff. They have 11 offices open across Arkansas. They've recruited "hundreds" of volunteers, and the RNC has had staff here for almost a year. "We clearly have the largest mobilization...

Arkansas has had its share of political dynasties, first and foremost the Clintons. The Pryor family may run a close second.David Pryor was a Democratic fixture in the state, serving in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, and as governor. His son, Mark Pryor, now holds the Senate seat he vacated in 1997 and is seeking a third term.Are Arkansans finally getting Pryor fatigue and ready for a fresh face? If so, few Senate candidates nationwide may be more attractive than Republican challenger Tom Cotton.“Roll Call just came out with an article that rated Pryor as the second-most-vulnerable senator...

Late last year, vulnerable Democratic candidates worried that deep problems with the health care law could sink their chances of keeping a majority in the Senate. Now, suddenly, one red-state Democrat is praising the law in a new television ad — an indicator that public opinion of health care reform might have turned a corner. In the ad, Sen. Mark Pryor and his father, former Sen. David Pryor, recount Mark Pryor's own bout with cancer and his struggle finding health insurance that would cover it. "Mark's insurance company didn't want to pay for the treatment that ultimately saved his life," David Pryor says in the ad. "No one should be fighting...

Slip of the tongue? Yesterday on CNN’s “The Situation Room” Hillary Clinton spoke about what she would do about licensing illegal immigrants when she is president again. Watch:

PPP's newest Arkansas poll continues to find an incredibly tight race for the Senate. Republican Tom Cotton is at 41% to 39% for Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor, 4% for Green Party candidate Mark Swaney, and 3% for Libertarian Nathan LaFrance. All four PPP surveys of this race in the last year have found the candidates within 3 points of each other one way or another. When supporters of the third party hopefuls are asked who they would choose between the two major party candidates, Cotton's lead remains 2 points at 43/41, suggesting this may be a race where their presence...

The former Clinton home is now a well-appointed museum. The old two-lane road in front grew into a bustling artery leading to a Wal-Mart. Across the street sits a taco truck, whose owner, immigrant Elvia Bello, sells her famous tamales to the small but growing Latino population in the once-segregated community. But perhaps the biggest change of all in a state that once had reliably elected Democrats is the sandwich-board sign on a corner with hand-painted letters announcing: "Tea Party Meeting 4th Thursday 7 p.m." The Arkansas target is Sen. Mark Pryor thoroughly embraced by his state six years ago...

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) - The Pulaski County Sheriff's Water Patrol Unit, in addition to Little Rock and North Little Rock Fire Departments responded to the Arkansas River for reports of a body in the water. Authorities say the body is that of a Little Rock man who was reported missing on July 10.

PINE BLUFF, AR - A Pine Bluff man has been left with multiple injuries after police say several suspects in an SUV attacked him on June 30. According to the report, 26-year-old Andrew Lawson was forced into a vehicle and then taken to a Pine Bluff hair salon. It was there, surveillance video shows a fight went from the vehicle to the parking lot. Police say Lawson was shot, beaten, and nearly run over. Lawson said, "I was surprised that it happened." "I'm amazed that I survived, and I'm amazed that someone could do that to another person." Lawson doesn't...

BENTON COUNTY, Ark. —The Benton County Health Department is cracking down after a food-poisoning outbreak at the Walmart home office cafe

[Editor's note: Warning: this surveillance video contains graphic content that some may find disturbing.] A River Valley man is behind bars after police said he attacked a woman with a baseball bat at Walmart on Sunday night (June 15).A Fort Smith police report stated Mosley said it was gang related and she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

BRYANT, AR - A Bryant man was arrested after police say he followed a couple around town harassing and threatening them because he thought the car was a spaceship and the driver was an alien. The driver of the car was nervous enough to call police and feel threatened to the point he considered the concealed carry weapon he had with him. The man arrested was James Bushart, 44. When police stopped Bushart, he was found with meth, a pipe used to smoke meth and charged with DWI and Disorderly Conduct.

LITTLE ROCK - A resolution asking the Arkansas Supreme Court to uphold a voter-approved constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, which a circuit judge recently overturned, won support from state lawmakers Friday. The non-binding measure, approved by the panel that represents the full Legislature between sessions, also condemns Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza, who struck down the ban as unconstitutional last month. Piazza's ruling said the government can't give rights to a majority group without also extending them to a minority group, even if unpopular. Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, who sponsored the measure, urged legislators to respect the wish of...

The facts are these. In 1975, before she married Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham defended a child rapist in Arkansas court. She was not a public defender. No one ordered her to take the case. An ambitious young lawyer, she was asked by a friend if she would represent the accused, and she agreed. And her defense was successful. Attacking the credibility of the 12-year-old victim on the one hand, and questioning the chain of evidence on another, Clinton got a plea-bargain for her client. He served ten months in prison, and died in 1992. The victim, now 52, has had...

The Washington Free Beacon, which has broken several scoops related to Hillary Clinton, has been banned from using the Clinton archive at the University of Arkansas: A Hillary Clinton donor who serves as dean of the University of Arkansas libraries has banned the Washington Free Beacon from the school’s special collections archives, after the news outlet published revealing stories about Hillary Clinton based on documents available at the university library. The ban came days after the Free Beacon ran a story about Clinton’s 1975 defense of a child rapist that drew from audio recordings available at the University of Arkansas...

Democrats are trying to turn the critical Senate race here into a personality contest, and Republican Tom Cotton knows he’s got a serious problem if they succeed. A barrage of Democratic TV ads depicting him as a heartless ideologue who votes against farmers and seniors hasn’t helped. For much of the year, Cotton’s opponent, Sen. Mark Pryor, has been seen in many quarters as a dead man walking — a southern Democrat in a state lurching right facing reelection in a year tilted the GOP’s way. But lately polls suggest the race is more like a tossup. So Cotton’s mandate...

The focus of most political observers has been on the primary elections in Virginia last week, and for good reason. But a timezone away, there was another important primary taking place in Arkansas. There, one of the Republican architects of the state’s “private option” Medicaid expansion proposal, state Rep. John Burris, was vying for a state Senate seat that was also being contested by newcomer Scott Flippo. Like Virginia, candidate spending was lopsided with the presumed favorite Burris heavily outspending the challenger. But in the end, the race appears to have hinged on one thing above all else: Burris’...

BALTIMORE, Md. – Southern Baptists elected Arkansas Pastor Ronnie Floyd on Tuesday to be the new president of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Floyd was elected by messengers during the Southern Baptist Convention's 2014 Annual Meeting, beating out SBC presidential nominees Dennis Manpoong Kim of Maryland and Jared Moore of Kentucky. Over 3,000 messengers voted and Floyd won on the first ballot, receiving 51.6 percent of the votes. Dr. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of The Southern Baptist Theological seminary, had praised the Arkansas pastor, whom he nominated, as "dependable" and "faithful" and someone who will "lead all Southern Baptists...