Free Republic

Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin has denied a second attempt to put a radical amendment on the ballot that would allow abortions up to birth. Last year, Griffin rejected a first attempt to legalize abortions up to birth in the Natural State known by the popular name of “The Arkansas Reproductive Healthcare Amendment.” It was shepherded by “Arkansas For Limited Government,” a pro-abortion group explicitly formed to put the measure on the ballot, similar to the group that was behind Ohio’s successful Issue 1 amendment. Now, Griffin has rejected as second amendment — saying it needs further revisions before it...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) endorsed Donald Trump for president Wednesday, the latest high-profile endorsement for Trump leading up to the January 15 Iowa caucus. “When Donald Trump was president, America was safe, strong, and prosperous,” Cotton told Fox News Digital. “With Joe Biden as president, everything has gone to hell: families can’t afford groceries, our border is wide open to a full-blown invasion, and our enemies are starting wars everywhere. “I endorse President Trump and I look forward to working with him to win back the White House and the Senate so we can help hardworking Arkansans suffering from Joe...

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined the slew of anti-Trump Republicans in attributing Daniel Cameron’s loss in Kentucky to a bigger rejection of former President Donald Trump. “Last night the GOP lost Virginia legislative races and got beat in the Kentucky governor’s election,” Hutchinson began, doubting one of the emerging narratives that Democrats were carried to victory on the issue of abortion. Rather, he believes Republican loss is a reflection of the GOP’s sentiments toward Trump.

A group of cowboys and ranchers from Arkansas and Montana arrived in Israel to volunteer to help farmers and ranchers suffering a shortage of workers since October 7; They are not Jewish and all paid for their own...

A driver tried to crash through the exit gates of a South Carolina nuclear plant Thursday night about an hour after security asked the same car to leave when it tried to enter, authorities said. A pop-up security barrier stopped the car with an Arkansas license plate at the Oconee Nuclear Station near Seneca around 8 p.m., Oconee County Sheriff’s spokesman Jimmy Watt said in a statement. The driver backed up and tried to drive down a dirt road as Duke Energy security tried to block him in. The driver tried to hit the guards, then drove through a fence...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — From targeting Chinese-owned farmland to banning gender-neutral terms like “pregnant people” from state documents, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has rolled out announcements in recent weeks in quick succession, cheered on by her Republican base. Washington — has also fielded questions from behind a lectern at the state Capitol. But it’s the lectern she’s not using — a $19,000 purchase that’s led to an audit and claims her office illegally altered public records — that remains a problem for the first-term governor. That lectern hasn’t been seen at Sanders’ public events, and the governor’s office...

A young mother from Oklahoma was found dead on a barge in the Mississippi River after being arrested a few days earlier for making multiple 911 calls pleading for help. Hailey Silas' body was found around 7 a.m. on a Saturday as the crew of the barge was performing an inspection while navigating the Mississippi River near Shelby Forest in Tennessee, WREG reported. A week earlier, Silas was arrested for making multiple 911 calls from a gas station, requesting cops to provide her with a ride out of the city due to her fear of something. When the police arrived,...

Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., an Army veteran who opposed the far-right push for Rep. Jim Jordan for speaker, said he was stunned by Rep. Tom Emmer's exit from the speaker race. "We are hopelessly divided. We are -- we are struggling to find our way," he told ABC's Rachel Scott. The people that are involved in these proceedings are hell-bent on making sure that if it's not their guy, their pick, nothing else matters." "We are hellbent on letting the perfect, or the selfish, get in the way of the good," he said. Scott asked Womack, a six-term veteran, if...

The state of Arkansas is forcing a Chinese-owned seed producer to sell 160 acres of farmland it owns in the state within the next two years over national security concerns. Syngenta, the mother company of Northrop King Seed Co. — which also creates crop-protection ingredients — has owned the land in Craighead County for more than 30 years. But in 2017, it was acquired by China National Chemical Corp. — which is on the US Department of Defense’s list of Chinese military companies that pose a threat to our national security. “Seeds are technology,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said...

A recent study conducted at the University of Arkansas finds that men with heightened physical strength are perceived as more conservative by others. The study found that men who seem fit and healthy and have some bulk are considered right-wing, while thin or svelte and weak-looking men were not assumed to lean right. The results came from a series of four experiments that sought to establish a link between political orientation and a fit physique, according to the Daily Mail. Viewers were presented with photos of male bodies with faces covered and asked to rank which ideology they thought the...

How can educated men like former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and former Texas Representative Will Hurd be so stupid? (I am leaving out former Attorney General Bill Barr since he’s busy looking at bridges.) They have spent much of their lives in Republican politics and yet have a minuscule understanding of the largest grassroots Republican movement in modern history that is embraced and endorsed by more than half of Republicans—primarily the “base.”No Republican can win the nomination without the MAGA base. America First Patriots stand with Donald Trump just...

A federal judge temporarily blocked an Arkansas law that requires parental consent for children to create social media accounts. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks of the Western District of Arkansas granted the preliminary injunction in response to a motion by Netchoice, a trade group for technology companies that has members including Facebook parent company Meta; TikTok; and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The law had been set to go into effect Friday. “We’re pleased the court sided with the First Amendment and stopped Arkansas’ unconstitutional law from censoring free speech online and undermining the privacy of Arkansans, their...

Republican Congressional members have urged President Joe Biden to veto an anti-Israel resolution slated to be brought before the U.N. Security Council on Monday."As the UN Security Council once again moves to consider another one-sided, biased, anti-Israel resolution, it is imperative that the United States maintain its position that only direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians can yield progress," Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy wrote in a letter to the president.The missive was co-signed by Steve Scalise, the Majority Leader and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul."If the U.N. Security Council takes action on Monday to punish Israel,...

Former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) said Wednesday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that he was “embarrassed and disgusted” during the GOP debate when the six presidential candidates raised their hands when asked if they would support former President Donald Trump even if he convicted of a crime. Hogan said, “That was the low light of the entire debate. I was embarrassed and disgusted by it. The fact that we have to let the court cases play themselves out. Everybody is presumed innocent until proven guilty no man is above the law. But for six people to raise their hand and say...

Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Marco Rubio of Florida are teaming up to push the Biden administration to review the planned acquisition of Forbes magazine. The pair sent a letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warning her that the planned buyout involves entities tied to Russia and the Chinese Communist Party, which previously tried to purchase the outlet. "Forbes reportedly holds a significant market share among younger Americans, with tens of millions of monthly users," the lawmakers wrote. "This puts Forbes in a unique position to collect and store sensitive personal data on these populations and influence...

MAGNOLIA, Ark.—Slipping a handgun into his belt, the mayor of this small town hopped out of his 1995 Ford pickup and went in search of further evidence of a new energy boom. On the other side of freshly painted gate, Mayor Parnell Vann pointed out a squat blue spire of valves, bolts and pressure gauges attached to a long-dormant well—a telltale sign someone means to bring it back to life. On the thick-wooded back roads, crisscrossing fields where oil drillers gave up long ago, Vann found two more similar wells that day. These days, companies in the area aren’t looking...

Mark Lowery, Arkansas’ treasurer and a former legislator who sponsored the state’s voter ID law, has died from complications from a stroke, his office said. He was 66. Lowery’s office said the former state lawmaker died Wednesday morning at a Little Rock hospital. Lowery experienced two strokes over the past several months, the most recent in June. His office announced Tuesday he was leaving office on Sept. 30. “We are devastated,” Chief of Staff Stephen Bright said in a statement. “Losing Mark represents a huge loss for the entire staff. Mark was an incredible leader and a humble public servant...

A small, quiet Arkansas town home to just 11,100 people is set to become the epicenter of the US 'white gold' boom. Magnolia, a blue-collar town in the state's southern region, was once a locus for oil but is on track to become a major producer of lithium, dubbed 'white gold' because of its soft, silvery-white look and the fact it powers most modern tech - from cellphones to laptops and electric cars. Exxon Mobil is planning to build one of the world’s largest lithium processing facilities near the town, with a capacity to produce 75,000 to 100,000 metric tons...

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) is planning to build one of the world's largest lithium processing facilities in Arkansas, with a capacity to produce 75K-100K metric tons/year of lithium, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.At that scale, the plant's production would equate to ~15% of all finished lithium produced globally last year.The giant project could be built in stages, with modular trains constructed together or in separate locations near its future lithium production sites in south Arkansas, according to the report.Other companies including Standard Lithium (SLI) and Tetra Technologies (TTI) are planning to build capacity in the area.The Smackover formation, a geologic...

Things are reportedly growing tense between Donald Trump and his former press secretary, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R), who is apparently drawing the ire of Trump’s camp for her neutrality in the 2024 presidential primary. Sanders had told Trump’s campaign that she wouldn’t be making an endorsement until after her first legislative session, two sources familiar with the discussions told Axios. But that session ended in May, and with still no endorsement from Sanders, Trump is reportedly growing increasingly irate. In March, Trump said that he “never asked” Sanders for an endorsement, but “nobody has done more for her...