Arkansas Rep. Tim Griffin to retire

Griffin confirmed his plans with POLITICO. | AP Photo

Arkansas Rep. Tim Griffin, a second-term Republican, announced on Monday that he would not seek reelection in 2014, citing a desire to spend more time with his family.

“It has been an agonizing and difficult decision involving much prayer, thought and discussion. We have decided that now is the time for me to focus intently on my top priority, my family, as Elizabeth and I raise our two young children,” Griffin said in a statement to the Arkansas news site Talk Business.

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“To that end, I will not seek re-election to a third term. I will complete my second term, but I have made no decision as to my plans after Congress except that I will continue in public service, including as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve,” he said.

Griffin confirmed his plans to POLITICO.

The Republican was elected in 2010, succeeding longtime Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder, who retired that year. Griffin held a much-coveted seat on the powerful, tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Griffin, an ambitious up-and-comer who got his start in George W. Bush’s White House and then became a U.S. Attorney, had long been mentioned as a potential candidate for statewide office. But he decided to take a pass on campaigns for governor and Senate in 2014.

Democrats are eying Griffin’s Little Rock-area 2nd District seat, in which Mitt Romney received 54 percent of the vote. Patrick Henry Hays, the former North Little Rock Mayor, has been in talks with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about running for the seat.

POLITICO – Congress

Arkansas Rep. Tim Griffin to retire

Arkansas Poll: Most Blame Obama, Democrats for Shutdown

More voters in Arkansas blame President Barack Obama and Democrats than congressional Republicans for the government shutdown, a poll released Monday showed.

The Talk Business-Hendrix College survey found 40 percent of voters laid the blame for the shutdown on Obama and his party in Congress, while 35 percent pointed the finger at Republican lawmakers.

Twenty-four percent of voters surveyed said both are equally to blame.

The president’s job approval ratings also were dismal in the poll: Only 34 percent of those surveyed approve of how Obama is doing while 62 percent disapprove.

The Arkansas results also found among independent voters, 49 percent blamed Obama and Democrats, while 30 percent blamed Republicans in Congress.

In the Senate race in Arkansas, the survey shows Sen. Mark Pryor, a Democrat from Arkansas, at 42 percent, in a statistical dead-heat with Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, who garnered 41 percent — with nearly a year to go.

“One would assume that such dismal approval numbers would doom an incumbent senator running for re-election,” Jay Barth, professor of political science at Hendrix College, noted in his breakdown of the results. “Yet Pryor continues to hold a sliver of a lead over his challenger.”

The poll found among independents, however, Cotton has a 48 percent to 42 percent lead.
The results defy national polling that indicates more blame being placed on the Republicans in Congress than on Obama and the Democrats.

This survey was conducted Oct. 8, and has a margin of error of 4 percent.

© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

Arkansas Poll: Most Blame Obama, Democrats for Shutdown

107-year-old Arkansas Man Killed in Shootout with Police

A 107-year-old man was killed in a shootout with a police SWAT team at a home in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where he had earlier threatened two people with a gun, authorities said on Sunday.

The fatal shots were fired on Saturday night after Pine Bluff police responded to a report that the man, Monroe Isadore, pointed a gun at two people in the home in Pine Bluff, a city of roughly 48,000 people about 45 miles (72 km) south of Little Rock, according to police who confirmed local TV reports.

When police arrived at the home on Saturday afternoon, they removed the two people from the house and then entered to begin negotiations. Isadore then shot at them through the door, according to the reports confirmed by police.

No officers were struck, and police called for backup, including a Special Weapons and Tactics unit.

Negotiations were started and SWAT officers inserted a camera into the room where Isadore was holed up. Officers saw that Isadore had a handgun, according to the reports confirmed by police.

When negotiations failed, SWAT officers threw gas into the room. Isadore fired and officers entered the room. When Isadore shot at them again, the officers returned fire, killing Isadore, according to the reports confirmed by police.

Police said the coroner confirmed Isadore’s age as 107.

No officers were injured in the incident, which is under investigation, a Pine Bluff police spokesman said.

© 2013 Thomson/Reuters. All rights reserved.

Newsmax – America

107-year-old Arkansas Man Killed in Shootout with Police

Arkansas private school: ‘Staff is armed and trained’

Robby Soave
Daily Caller
August 24, 2013

In the wake of Arkansas’s decision to prevent school districts from proactively arming their teachers, a private school is taking the exact opposite approach.

The pastor of Arkansas Christian Academy in Bryant, Ark., has decided to advertise the fact that at any time, between one and seven school staff members are carrying guns.

“I just felt like with what’s going on in many of the public sectors where there seems to be a lot of shootings we need to take the same stance that we do in church on Sunday for our kids Monday through Friday,” said Perry Black, pastor of the school, in a statement.

Staff members began receiving training and permits to carry weapons earlier this year, in response to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Now, a sign outside Christian Academy stands as a warning to any would-be shooter.

“Staff is armed and trained. Any attempt to harm children will be met with deadly force,” reads the sign.

Full article here

Related posts:

1. Arkansas Houses passes bill on concealed guns on college campuses


2. Newtown Calls for Armed School Officers


3. Arkansas Arms Teachers In Schools; Hiding and Locking Doors “Is Not a Plan”


4. Two soldiers shot at Arkansas recruiting center, one dead


5. Gun Control Laws: Texas ‘Arm The Teachers’ School Policy Uses Concealed Carry Permit

This article was posted: Saturday, August 24, 2013 at 6:04 am

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Arkansas private school: ‘Staff is armed and trained’

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Arkansas to allow guns in universities

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the US.

College and university employees in the US state of Arkansas may be permitted to carry arms on campus, preparing it to be the 24th state to allow such a measure.

The Republican-controlled state Senate voted on Monday, 31 to 4 in favor of a measure that allows colleges and universities to decide themselves whether to allow concealed weapons on their campuses.

The state House previously passed the bill 70 to 11.

The bill now goes to Democratic Governor Mike Beebe who is expected to sign the legislation.

Arkansas would be the 24th state to let colleges and universities decide whether to allow firearms on campus, though some states already allow students to carry concealed weapons.

Supporters of the legislature argue that fatal incidents involving guns such as the shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, in which 33 people died, and at Northern Illinois University, where 6 were killed in 2008, point to the need that students and professors openly bear arms.

Their argument also holds that shooters are less likely to open fire in areas where the population is armed.

The United States experienced several mass killings in 2012, including last December’s elementary school shooting massacre in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 children and six educators killed, and the Colorado cinema shooting in July that killed 12 people and injured nearly 60 others. In August, a killing spree at a Sikh temple left seven people dead.

Every year, more than 30,000 people are shot and killed in the US.

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Arkansas to allow guns in universities