The line is open. A few other things:
* ASA! REPORTS HIS MONEY: Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson reported raising $445,000 in the lat quarter of 2013 and $1.3 million in the bank for his coming campaigns. Wednesday is the filing deadline, but he’s already certain to lag behind Democratic candidate Mike Ross. In October, he reported raising more than $3 million in his first six months in the race and $2.4 million on hand. He’s continued to raise money and has also begun advertising along with other expenditures.
* THAT’S OUR GUY: A tip of the hat to Times columnist Jay Barth. The Hendrix politics professorreceived the Diane Blair Award from the Southern Political Science Association this week. It goes to a political scientist who has played an outstanding role in politics or government.
* VICTIM IDENTIFIED: Jan Lowe, 48, has been identified as the woman whose body was found after a fire was extinguished earlier this week in a fire in an apartment at 3421 Fair Park Boulevard. The death has been ruled a homicide, but police haven’t released details about the cause and have no suspect. That death, and the recent shooting of a Hanger Hill resident when he answered knock at his front door, were highlighted at a news conference today by Arkansas Stop the Violence. The group, which targets violence in the inner city, urged people with information to come forward to help police.
* ANOTHER AIRPORT GUN: Little Rock police today arrested Pamela Stamp, 30, for carrying a weapon, a misdemeanor, after TSA officers found a pistol while X-raying her purse at the security checkpoint at Clinton National Airport. She readily mentioned the purse after a officer saw a suspicious shape on the x-ray, according to an account in the Democrt-Gazette.