U.S. Rep Mike Ross, D-Prescott, honored former state legislator James Jordan of Monticello and former Navy SEAL Jeremy Wise of Virginia, an Arkansas native, with separate entries today in the Congressional Record.

Jordan died Dec. 27 at the age of 84. He was elected to the state House in 1986 and served for 12 years.

Wise, a 35-year-old private contractor, was killed Dec. 30 in an attack on a CIA outpost near Khost, Afghanistan. He was raised in Arkansas and graduated from Hendrix College in Conway.

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s first Arkansas endorsement of the 2010 political season, Republican Rick Crawford against Democratic incumbent Marion Berry in the 1st District congressional race, has family ties. Jason Tolbert reports.

Scantily clad women with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals braved frigid weather in downtown Little Rock today to promote veganism and hand out free Tofurkey sandwiches — though the women did not appear to be wearing only lettuce leaves, as PETA had announced. The Arkansas Blog has a photo.

Responding to a revenue shortfall in Oklahoma, a legislator has filed a bill he says would boost lottery ticket sales in that state.

Oklahoma Sen. Richard Lerblance’s bill would eliminate a requirement that at least 35 percent of lottery ticket sales go to schools and colleges in the state. Lerblance says the change would allow the lottery to offer bigger prizes and attract more players.

Arkansas’ lottery to fund college scholarships, which launched in September, has no restriction on the percentage of proceeds that must go to the state. Lottery officials say about 25 percent of ticket sales will fund scholarships.

U.S. Sen Blanche Lincoln, still the focus of national attention in the health care debate, says today her office has been flooded with so many calls and e-mails that her phone and computer systems have crashed several times.

Most of the calls and e-mails causing the crashes are from out of state, Lincoln told the Downtown Kiwanis Club in Little Rock. Many are in response to e-mails circulating across the country urging the recipients to contact her, she said.

“We’ve tried to devise multiple ways to be able to collectively and respectfully push those people to the side so that we can actually address Arkansans that are calling or sending e-mails in to the office, but it’s been very difficult and we haven’t figured out just exactly how we can do that without just simply hanging up on people,” she said.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says women wearing “nothing but strategically placed lettuce leaves” will hand out freebees Wednesday in downtown Little Rock to promote veganism.

PETA says the women will hand out free Tofurkey sandwiches beginning at noon at the intersection of Center Street and Markham Avenue.

Weather could have a chilling effect on the event. The National Weather Service is predicting a high temperature of 39 degrees in Little Rock on Wednesday.

No word from PETA on whether medical personnel will be on hand to treat the women for frostbite.

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln revved up her re-election bid today, figuratively speaking, with announcement of her 2010 campaign team and campaign headquarters.

Former Lincoln congressional aide Steve Patterson is back to head the group as campaign manager, as he did in Lincoln’s previous Senate bids in 1998 and 2004.

The two-term senator says she plans to run a “positive, aggressive campaign that competes for every vote.” Her base of operations will be Little Rock’s historic Union Station.

“I realize that the national Republicans have put a target on my back so we have our work cut out for us,” Lincoln says.

Seven Republicans are seeking the GOP nomination to challenger her next year, and the party’s field is likely to grow with former state senator and 2004 Lincoln challenger Jim Holt apparently primed to make another U.S. Senate run.

Lt. Gov. Bill Halter and state Senate leader Bob Johnson may be mulling whether Lincoln is weak enough for them to challenge her in a Democratic primary. She has not fared well in recent political polls and has come under criticism for supporting the Democratic push for health care reform.

Her fight-back position includes having more than $4 million in campaign cash in the bank.

The Democratic Party of Arkansas reports it has hired Gabe Holmstrom, former spokesman for Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, to serve as senior adviser for the 2010 campaign year.

Holmstrom will focus on the U.S. Senate race.

“I am happy to have Gabe back on the team,” state party chairman Todd Turner says in a news release. “I look forward to having him on board to ask all of the Republican Senate candidates the tough questions.”

Holmstrom, a Cabot native, has also served as executive director of the state Democratic Party and as campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Marion Berry.

Republican congressional hopeful Tim Griffin has added a couple of aides with presidential contest experience to his campaign to unseat 2nd District incumbent Democrat Vic Snyder.

Griffin today announced Bryant Adams as his campaign manager and Ryan James as deputy campaign manager and communications director. Both are Arkansans.

Adams was a field director in Arkansas and Colorado for the Bush-Cheney 2004 presidential campaign, and previously served at the Republican National Committee and Department of Homeland Security.

Adams most recently served as the political affairs manager at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and as a consultant for corporate and political clients.

James was part of the regional press operation at McCain-Palin 2008 headquarters in Virginia after serving as deputy director of communications for the 2008 Republican National Convention.

He previously served as communications director for Republican Congressman John Boozman and briefly as campaign manager for Republican Conrad Reynolds, an announced candidate for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination in 2010.

Rich Huddleston, executive director of Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, has complied a list of what he considers the most positive developments for Arkansas’ children in the years since Gov. Mike Beebe took office. Expansions of pre-K and ARKids First are among his picks.

Huddleston also names two developments he thinks were bad for kids: Passage of a constitutional amendment to create a state lottery and passage of an initiated act banning unmarried couples from adopting or being foster parents.