ArklatexPolitics.com

Posted 6 days 7 hours 24 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Finance officials say Arkansas'
revenues came in slightly ahead of forecast and of last year's
figures in January -- the month the state cut its budget by $106
million.
The Department of Finance and Administration on Tuesday said the
state's net available revenues were $14.9 million above last year
and $1.8 million above forecast.
Individual income tax collections were below last year, but
above forecast. Sales tax collections didn't change from last year
and were above forecast by $8 million.
Gov. Mike Beebe announced the $106 million cut after the state
saw a drop in its tax collections. Lawmakers meet at the Capitol
next week for a roughly month-long session focusing on the budget
for the coming fiscal year.

Posted 6 days 7 hours 25 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Gov. Rick Perry is pulling ahead of Sen.
Kay Bailey Hutchison in the money race.
Campaign finance reports posted by the Texas Ethics Commission
on Tuesday show that Perry raised more than twice that of Hutchison
during the first three weeks of January.
The two are locked in a heated battle to be the Republican
nominee for governor.
Perry had raised about $735,000 from Jan. 1 to Jan. 21 and had
$10.4 million in the bank at the end of the reporting period.
During the same period, Hutchison raised almost $270,000 and had
$10 million in the bank. The reports show the Hutchison campaign is
spending at almost twice the rate of Perry's.
Also running for the GOP nomination in the March 2 primary is
libertarian-leaning activist Debra Medina.

Posted 6 days 7 hours 27 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) -- Louisiana consumers now can compare the
costs and quality performance measures of hospitals and health care
facilities against each other.
Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state health department Tuesday
launched a new Web site at www.HealthFinderLA.gov that allows
people to compare the patient safety measures and prices of
hospitals, nursing homes and health plans.
The site also allows for comparisons of prices for the 100 most
commonly prescribed drugs in the state.
At the urging of the Jindal administration, lawmakers in 2008
passed a law backing the creation of the Web site.

Posted 6 days 7 hours 28 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- FBI agents flew to Nigeria in the days
following a failed Christmas Day terrorist attack and got the
alleged bomber's family to help them persuade him to cooperate.
It worked. A senior Obama administration official says the FBI
and family members have been talking to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab
for a week and he's provided fresh intelligence for FBI terrorism
investigations. The official spoke on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation.
The Obama administration has drawn criticism for its handling of
the Christmas Day attack. Republicans say it showed terrorist
suspects can't be treated like criminals.

Posted 6 days 7 hours 35 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the Pentagon launches a year-long study on
how the "don't ask, don't tell" policy can be repealed without a
major upheaval, that idea isn't sitting well with one Republican
senator.
At a hearing today, John McCain of Arizona told Defense
Secretary Robert Gates that the policy on gays has been an
"effective" one, even if it hasn't been "ideal." And he said
that by determining how to end it, the Pentagon is taking
responsibility from Congress, which put the policy into law.
At today's hearing, the military's top uniformed officer -- Adm.
Mike Mullen, who heads the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- made a plea for
allowing gays to serve openly.
He said it's wrong to force people to "lie about who they are
in order to defend their fellow citizens."

Posted 6 days 7 hours 38 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, National

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A leading House Democrat says lawmakers hoping
to revive President Barack Obama's stalled health care overhaul
have started writing a compromise bill.
But in a brief interview Tuesday, Rep. Charles Rangel says he
did not know when the measure might be ready for votes. He said
leaders have to decide whether the health package would begin
moving before or after Congress tackles legislation aimed at
creating jobs.
The New York Democrat said the measure would change the massive
Senate-approved health bill that bargainers from the White House,
Senate and House agreed to last month. Negotiators had agreed to
ease a new tax on high-cost health insurance policies and remove
special treatment for Nebraska for an expansion of Medicaid
coverage

Posted 1 week 6 hours 27 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Attorney General Buddy Caldwell says the
NFL is conceding that it has no ownership rights to the
fleur-de-lis or the popular New Orleans Saints phrase "Who Dat."
Caldwell said Monday he had a conference call with the NFL's
general counsel to clarify recent cease-and-desist letters received
by some T-shirt makers in the state that demanded they stop selling
shirts with the traditional cheer of Saints fans.
Caldwell says the letters were confusing. But he says the NFL is
only objecting to shirts that are marketed or presented as an
official Saints or NFL product. So, those shirts that are black and
gold and say "Who Dat" can be sold, he says, if they don't
purport to be Saints gear.

Posted 1 week 10 hours 42 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Arkansas

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Republicans hoping to challenge U.S.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln are struggling in fundraising compared to the
incumbent Democrat's $5 million war chest.
Most of the Republican Senate candidates reported over the
weekend raising less than $100,000 in the final months of 2009,
lagging behind the $1.3 million Lincoln announced raising during
the same period.
One candidate, state Sen. Gilbert Baker, reported last week that
he raised nearly $300,000 during that period. A report wasn't
immediately available for state Sen. Kim Hendren, who has loaned
his campaign $200,000.
Nine Republicans are running for the GOP Senate nomination, and
a source told The Associated Press last week that Republican
Congressman John Boozman will announce Saturday he's joining the
race.

Posted 1 week 10 hours 46 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Gov. Rick Perry implored a roomful of
doctors to lend their skills to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
Perry made the "special request" after giving a speech to the
Texas Medical Association on Saturday.
He asked doctors "who are willing, able or know people who are
willing and able, to lend your skills to the people in truly
desperate need right now."
The governor said Haiti has a particular need for medical
professionals who "are really good at French Creole translation."

Posted 1 week 11 hours 2 minutes ago
Posted In: Home, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is getting
into the "Who Dat" fray with the NFL. He is asking the state
attorney general to look into a possible lawsuit over the ownership
rights to the popular New Orleans Saints phrase.
Jindal spokesman Kyle Plotkin said the Republican governor's
executive counsel contacted Attorney General Buddy Caldwell's
office Saturday about the matter.
The call came within hours of the Louisiana Democratic Party's
governing body calling on Jindal to defend the "rights of the
citizens of the state of Louisiana" to use the term "Who Dat"
and the fleur-de-lis symbol.
Some T-shirt makers in the state have been hit with
cease-and-desist letters from the NFL demanding that they stop
selling shirts with the traditional cheer of New Orleans Saints
fans. The NFL claims the shirts infringe on a legal trademark it
owns.
Louisianians, including members of the state's congressional
delegation, say it's ridiculous for the NFL to claim ownership of a
saying or symbol that predates the Saints.