A blustery Sunday open line. Final words:

* TOM COTTON ANNOUNCES MARRIAGE ON TWITTER: I haven’t seen a news release yet, but this just popped up on Twitter from U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton.

Here’s a photo from our wedding this weekend! My wife Anna & I want to thank all of our supporters for your well wishes!

His engagement had been announced earlier, but little had been revealed about his bride-to-be except that she worked in the defense industry. I’ve asked his office for the standard wedding page summary, but no response yet. A Google search turned up a photo last May of Cotton with Anna Peckham at an American Enterprise Institute dinner. Looks similar. Mike Allen of Politico Tweets that the ceremony was Saturday, a small one with family and a few close friends. A Google sleuth who posted to our Facebook account finds that Anna Peckham, a member of the 2004 class of Cardozo Law School, was active in the Federalist Society there when it had Kenneth Starr in as a speaker. If this is the same Anna Peckham, sounds like an ideological match made in heaven for the congressman.

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* HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN CALLS ON SHERIDAN TO REVERSE COURSE ON CENSORSHIP: The Human Rights Campaign has written Rodney Williams, principal of Sheridan High School, and urged him to reconsider his decision to censor the Yellowjacket yearbook by removing a profile of junior Taylor Ellis, who talks about his decision to come out as gay. At last word, I think i was too late to salvage the profile. The HRC letter is here. It says the decision sends a message to gay students that they are second-class citizens.  I published the censored piece Friday.

* ASA! Republican gubernatorial candidate Asa Hutchinson doesn’t intend to let challenger Curtis Coleman get to his right. He still won’t come right out and say he opposes the Arkansas version of Obamacare, but he comes as close as he can without revealing the hypocrite he’d be if he became governor and gladly accepted the money delivered by a majority of legislative Republicans in combination with the Democratic caucus. In an interview with Roby Brock today on Channel 7, Hutchinson claims the brand-new program, barely off the ground, is in need of reform. Exactly what reforms? He’s not ready to be too specific just yet. He also doubled-down on his smearing of Arkansas teachers who are members of the Arkansas Education Association. You’ll remember after losing the AEA endorsement following interviews with teachers on the endorsement committee, Hutchinson blasted the organization as nothing but a bunch of liberal tools for labor bosses, thus directly implying that any of its voluntary members are nothing but ignorant liberal labor stooges themselves. He’s unapologetic. He said he didn’t seek an endorsement, merely interviewed with an “adversary.” It’s simple with Hutchinson. If you’re in the AEA, you put “liberal ideals” ahead of children. It’s a blood libel of hard-working teachers. There’s also some personal unpleasantness when Hutchinson chooses to paint with such a broad brush. Hutchinson’s own son is vice president of an honest-to-goodness labor union representing Texas state employees. Surely he thinks more highly of his son. (I certainly do.) It is possible that people who work for the collective good of professionals can also put the public good at the top of their agenda. Every AEA convention I’ve attended demonstrates this. Asa! rejects the notion, clearly. Met one labor boss or one member of a labor organization, you’ve met them all.

* JEFF BRIDGES IN LR FOR HUNGER PROGRAMS: Actor Jeff Bridges and Share Our Strength CEO BIlly Shore will be in Little Rock Monday to talk about the benefits of a good breakfast for children. They’ll meet 3rd graders at Stephens Elementary Monday morning and talk on a panel with Gov. Mike Beebe at noon about ideas for transforming school breakfast and ending childhood hunger.

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