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GETTYSBURG, PA (WHTM/CNN) - Tensions ran high during a Confederate flag rally in Pennsylvania this weekend. A Southern heritage group held what it calls Confederate Flag Day in Gettysburg, PA, but there were plenty of vocal opponents to the event. The flag has 13 stars, three stripes and two very different meanings. The refrain is familiar. Supporters such Mark Landree, executive director of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, says it's about history. Opponents like Christina Hansen only see hate.

Supporters and opponents of use of the Confederate flag clashed verbally in opposing demonstrations at Gettysburg National Military Park, with tensions high at times. [...] The Sons of Confederate Veterans Gettysburg group said its Confederate Flag Day gathering at the park's Eternal Peace Light Monument was intended to honor Southern ancestors. A counter-demonstration was organized by a Gettysburg College associate professor of history and Africana studies, Scott Hancock, who said he wanted to offer a different perspective on the flag's meaning. ...

Not only is the assumption "a fundamental mistake", it, by necessity of logic, transfers that same assumption and guilt to many more organizations and persons than just the one displaying the flag . . .

The South was to be Ted Cruz’s springboard to the nomination, his firewall in case the first few contests didn’t quite finish off the competition. After a string of third-place finishes, the boasts are gone. The optimism seems forced. Cruz is now engaged in a long slog, overshadowed by Donald Trump and Marco Rubio and heading into Super Tuesday with dim prospects for retaking control of the Republican presidential race. -snip- Cruz offered a far more restrained assessment Saturday as he stumped in the shadow of Georgia’s gold-domed capitol. The midday rally drew no more than 400 people, even as...

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday defended proclaiming April as Confederate Heritage Month in his state. Earlier this month, Bryant quietly issued his proclamation, saying people should "earnestly strive to understand our heritage." A spokesman for the governor said his predecessors from both major parties have made similar proclamations. "Gov. Bryant believes Mississippi's history deserves study and reflection, no matter how unpleasant or complicated parts of it may be," Clay Chandler said. "Like the proclamation says, gaining insight from our mistakes and successes will help us move forward."

The Maryland House has passed a measure prohibiting the transfer or renewal of a license plate depicting the Confederate battle flag to another vehicle. [...] Maryland does not now offer plates with the Confederate battle flag. But prior to November, the Motor Vehicle Administration offered a Sons of Confederate Veterans organizational special registration plate that included it. ...

Mississippi legislators this year won't attempt to redesign the last state flag that features the Confederate battle emblem because leaders say they can't find a majority to remove the symbol from the 122-year-old banner. Tuesday was the deadline for legislative committees to act on general bills, and flag proposals are among hundreds of measures that died without being brought up for debate. Some bills proposed redesigning the flag to remove the rebel cross, while others would have stripped state money from colleges and local governments that refuse to fly the current banner. One bill offered separate-but-equal flags, keeping the current...

When asked whether he supported South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s decision to call for the Confederate battle flag to be taken down from out front of the State Capitol building, Trump said he did. “I would take it down, yes,” the billionaire real estate mogul said. “I think they should put it in a museum and respect whatever it is you have to respect.”Then, when asked what woman he would like to see on the new $10 bill, he responded — to laughter — “My mother.”The questions came after Trump spoke outside his Trump National Golf Club in Virginia. There,...

The South Carolina primary is about to get under way today, so of course Ted Cruz is up to his last minute shenanigans. You remember Iowa, of course, where he told voters Ben Carson was dropping out of the race and lied that the news came from CNN. This time, according to Schuyler Kropf at The Post and Courier, a Ted Cruz super pac, the Courageous Conservative Political Action Committee, has a new robocall going out to South Carolina voters that the Confederate flag is “Our flag.” Yes, it is your flag, and the first time you ran her up...

WEST COLUMBIA, S.C.-- A super PAC backing Ted Cruz is running robocalls and radio ads that remind voters Donald Trump supported removing the Confederate flag from South Carolina statehouse grounds. "Trump talks about our flag like it's a social disease," intones the spot, which is playing on about 30 radio stations in South Carolina, as well as a few in neighboring states. It includes clips of Trump saying, "Put it in the museum, let it go." "That's Donald Trump supporting Nikki Haley removing the battle flag from the Confederate memorial in Columbia," says the spot, which is paid for by...

A pro-Ted Cruz robocall in South Carolina is slamming Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump — and tying him to Gov. Nikki Haley (R) — for supporting the removal of the Confederate battle flag from public property. The call was put out by the Courageous Conservative Political Action Committee, which supports Cruz.

SEC-wide: Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma all have higher proportions of evangelicals than Iowa. That bodes well for Ted Cruz. (Washington Post) Texas: The University of Houston will host a Feb. 25 GOP president debate, televised by CNN. The host and broadcaster had been in flux, and the event was moved back one day. (Texas Tribune) The mother of Sandra Bland, a Texas woman who died in police custody in a case that made national headlines, will campaign with Hillary Clinton in Chicago. (Associated Press)

Because of their opposition to issues like same-sex marriage, abortion and others, many Christian conservative voters in the South and elsewhere feel their faith and the moral code by which they live is under siege and look to the political arena for support. Inside the Sunshine Coin Laundry near the Piggly Wiggly supermarket, Lagretta Ellington removed her family's clothes from one of the large dryers and began to neatly fold them on a nearby table. The air was moist and smelled of detergent. The floor was concrete. Her views of the presidential race were anything but. She was unsettled, and...

Confederate monuments first erected after the Civil War to honor Southern soldiers have increasingly been targeted by civil rights activists who say they are offensive to blacks and should be taken down. An Alabama legislator wants to make sure that doesn't happen without state lawmakers' approval. Republican Sen. Gerald Allen of Tuscaloosa has proposed a bill that would prohibit the removal of historic monuments, plaques and statues from public property unless a committee of lawmakers grants a waiver. "I think there is an undercurrent, not just in Alabama, but throughout the nation" of people who "want to kind of rewrite...

Andre Perry, a New Orleans education consultant, said he was shocked on Sunday (Jan. 31) afternoon when he noticed that his 5-year-old son had caught a necklace of Mardi Gras beads studded with plastic Confederate flags, thrown from a float in the Krewe of Carrollton parade. "When I noticed what he caught," Perry wrote in a text message, "I took them away from him." Perry, who is African-American, said that he later did his best to help his son understand the implications of the symbol. He also posted a photo of the beads on his social media account, which attracted...

A Republican lawmaker who says he's grown weary of what he calls "Confederate cleansing" is working to preserve the famous carving of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders on Georgia's Stone Mountain. "I'm tired of the anti-Confederate rhetoric toward Stone Mountain and any other Confederate monument that's out there," state Rep. Tommy Benton told the Morris News Service. "We're entitled to our heritage just like other people are entitled to theirs, and there seems to be an attempt to do Confederate cleansing." He continued: "I refer to that more as cultural terrorism than anything. They're attacking us for no...

GREENBRIER, Ark. Recent high school graduate Anthony Bauswell wanted to join the U.S. Marines, but contends he was rejected by a recruiter because of the color of his skin. On his left rib cage Bauswell has a Confederate flag tattoo, with a banner across it reading “Southern Pride,” and he told Arkansas Matters that the Marines recruiting center in Conway insists it disqualifies him from serving his country.

Last July, Anthony Hervey, an outspoken black advocate for the Confederate flag, was killed in a car crash. Arlene Barnum, a surviving passenger in the vehicle, told authorities and the media that they had been forced off the road by a carload of "angry young black men" after Hervey, while wearing his Confederate kepi, stopped at a convenience store en route to his home in Oxford, Mississippi. His death was in no small part caused by the gross level of ignorance, organized deceit and anger about the War of 1861. Much of the ignorance stems from the fact that most...

Civic leaders, activists, artists and others are celebrating, marching and paying homage Monday to Martin Luther King Jr., marking the 30th anniversary of the federal holiday honoring the slain civil rights leader. In South Carolina, civil rights leaders planned a march to their state capitol as in past years when their rally highlighted calls to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds. The King Day at the Dome gathering began in 2000 with that call. Last July, organizers got their wish as South Carolina swiftly removed the flag which had flown at the capitol for more than 50 years after...

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz arrived Jan. 4 at the first stop on a six-day tour of Iowa. The Republican presidential candidate was set to visit 28 counties by bus. (Photo by Patrick Svitek) WASHINGTON — In the more than 200 events he's held since launching his campaign for the White House 10 months ago, Ted Cruz has tested out an unorthodox strategy, one that could rewrite the rules of Republican presidential politics.Since the Texas senator declared his candidacy in March, 40 percent of his public events have taken place in Iowa, according to a Texas Tribune analysis of his travel schedule as of Saturday. But...