The line is open. Final words:

* SAVING SOULS AND LOSING DAUGHTERS: Eric Francis calls my attention to a fine piece of reporting and writing in Texas Monthly on a cultish church in the small town of Wells, Texas, that has split the community. The story is built around a Huntsville, Ark., couple trying to be reunited with their adult daughter, who’s joined the church.  What in the name of God ….. 

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* FUGITIVE ‘NURSE’ ARRESTED: The U.S. attorney’s office announced today that authorities had arrested a woman indicted for using fake identification to get a job as a school nurse in Searcy. She was arrested in Howell County, Mo., by local officers and Social Security agents. Here’s the news on the original indictment.

* SUFFER THE CHILDREN: Check this compendium of rankings on child poverty in the U.S. and children at risk of hunger. You’ll find Arkansas in the bottom 10 in nearly every case. And then think of Tom Cotton, who thinks the U.S. spends too much on food stamps.

* GUN NUTTERY ON PARADE: The gun nuts who think some poorly drafted legislation opened the door to open carry of weapons in Arkansas (remember that a real open carry bill was killed in the House) are going to have another strap-on display Saturday, with an armed march in the River Market district of Little Rock. City says they haven’t obtained a permit, though one might not be needed if they’re just walking on a public sidewalk. I trust the rules will be applied as strictly to the gun nuts as the city applied rules to Occupy Little Rock, arrested when they tried to stand still in an anniversary observance at the Occupy campground. No stopping in a walk along the sidewalk to harangue people with gun diatribes or to allow weapon fondling.

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* TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE: MSNBC has apologized to the Republican Party for a Tweet the GOP found offensive. Am I the only one who finds it funny that a Tweet about racist right-wingers is taken by the Republican Party to mean THEM? Who said the Republican Party was nothing but right-wingers? Maybe the Republicans were objecting to limiting an allegation of racism to right-wingers. Maybe left-wingers also spewed hate on General Mills for those ads with the mixed-race family?

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