Free Republic

<p>Just before he recently departed ABC Studios to embark on a rich overall deal at Netflix, Black-ish creator Kenya Barris sold one last high-profile project to ABC: Bewitched, a single camera, interracial blended family comedy based on the popular 1960s sitcom of the same name. It took a little while for all the deals to close, but the network has given a pilot production commitment to the new take on the classic supernatural sitcom, from Barris and Black-ish writer/producer Yamara Taylor. The project hails from ABC Studios; Sony Pictures TV, which has the rights to the title; and Sony-based Davis Entertainment (The Blacklist).</p>

It’s probably not the endorsement that incumbent Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch needs right now, as the Republican is locked up in a primary challenge from Dan Liljenquist. But Saturday on Melissa Harris-Perry’s MSNBC show, former Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the co-author of “Life Among the Cannibals: A Political Career, a Tea Party Uprising, and the End of Governing As We Know It,” pleaded with Utah voters to keep their senior senator. Specter told Harris-Perry that the current climate in Washington, D.C. isn’t lending itself to electoral success for moderate incumbents, which he said has been the focus of a crusade...

WASHINGTON - Kansas became on Tuesday the second U.S. state to return a large federal grant meant to help it create a prototype health insurance exchange as part of the Obama administration's healthcare overhaul. Republican Governor Sam Brownback said the state would give back the $31.5 million it received from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to become an early leader, along with six other states, in establishing health insurance exchanges that other local government could use as a model.

DAN Rather could be gone from CBS News by the end of the year. After months of negotiations, the former anchor - now a "60 Minutes" correspondent - has not been able to make a deal to remain with CBS - and is reportedly bothered that the network where he worked for the last 44 years does not seem to want him anymore. Rather, whose contract expires at the end of this year, had hoped to finish his career as a full-time correspondent at "60 Minutes." "But it doesn't seem like [CBS] wants him there" now, says an industry insider.

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan congratulated Iraqis on their election on Sunday and offered U.N. help in future votes and the writing of a constitution. Annan, currently at the African Union summit in Nigeria, released a statement saying the "success of the election augurs well for the transition process." U.N. election specialists had help train Iraqis for the vote, which elects a Transitional National Assembly that will draft a permanent constitution to be approved in a referendum. "It is important to ensure that all individuals, groups and parties who, for whatever reason, were unable or unwilling...