It’s now official: Former Arkansas first lady Hillary Clinton will campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama in Little Rock on Oct. 10. The announcement came today from state Democratic Party Chairman David Pryor.
“We’re very, very pleased that she’s coming. She’s going to stir up a lot of interest here in the campaign,” Pryor said.
State party spokeswoman Darinda Sharp says Gov. Mike Beebe, Pryor and other elected officials and Democratic leaders are expected to join Clinton for a get-out-the vote rally. The time and location haven’t been determined, but she says the rally likely will be about 5 p.m. at the Capitol.

The House just rejected a Bush adminstration-backed plan to shore up the nation’s financial institutions by buying up bad debts.

The vote was 228 to 205.

Reps. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, John Boozman, R-Rogers, Mike Ross, D-Prescott, and Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, all voted for the bill.

The stock market fell sharply in response to the House vote.

The White House and congressional leaders pushed the plan as a “necessary evil” to protect the economy from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Opponents said the government shouldn’t be responsible for saving Wall Street firms that caused the crisis in the first place. Other bailout foes demanded more help for American homeowners threatened with foreclosure.

The Senate on Friday approved a bill that forces the Federal Emergency Management Agency to come up with a plan to get rid of its mobile home and trailer stockpile in Hope.

But what is perhaps the world’s largest trailer park may not go away so quickly. The passage came in the waning days of this congressional session, and House aides said it “would be difficult” to put the measure on the crowded House calendar before adjournment.

Without House passage, the bill dies.

The measure, sponsored by Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., requires FEMA to say within nine months to either use, sell or dispose of its housing units located across the country.

Nearly 20,000 units are in Hope, where many have collected dust since 2005. FEMA purchased the units for victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but red tape and concerns about chemicals in the trailers have rendered thousands unusable.

Pryor has called the trailer collection at the Hope Municipal Airport an example of government waste that’s “beyond silly.”

Hope officials, however, don’t complain too much. FEMA estimates it spends $1 million a month to maintain the trailer site.  The city receives $25,000 a month in rent.

Five callers to Sen. Mark Pryor’s Washington office got quite the surprise this afternoon when Pryor answered the phone himself.

Constituents rarely have such access to U.S. senators, who are usually shielded from public phone calls by an army of gatekeepers. Aides almost always field phone calls to an office’s main line.

Pryor’s spokeswoman, Lisa Ackerman, said the state’s junior senator wanted to answer his own phone to get a feel for what constituents think about the proposed government bailout of imperiled financial institutions.

They were all uncomfortable with the proposal, she said.

“Some wanted him to do what’s best for the country. Others were just all-out opposed to it,” Ackerman said.

She said Pryor didn’t identify himself as the senator until after callers voiced their concerns. He answered the phone with, “Sen. Pryor’s office,” Ackerman said.

The calls came from all three of the state’s area codes, she added.

Now if Pryor ever loses his Senate seat, he might qualify for a job at a call center.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., was critical Thursday of John McCain’s decision to suspend his presidential campaign to return to the Senate as Congress considers a massive bailout of financial institutions:

“I think he’s distracting things (with) the idea he’s got to stop what he’s doing and come back and rescue the Congress,” Lincoln said during a conference call with reporters.

McCain is a Republican senator from Arizona.

Lincoln said members of Congress have been working for nearly a week to find a solution to the nation’s economic crisis. The Bush administration’s $700 billion bailout proposal was met with tepid support on Capitol Hill.

“There’s a lot of us that have been working on this over the past five to six days,” she said. “We certainly hope Sen. McCain will come back and vote on it and participate if he wants. We’re doing that now. I don’t think he needs to halt this campaign.”

Congress is set to approve a major appropriations package before lawmakers leave Washington for the year, which means press offices are eager to hit the send button on e-mail press releases that herald the dollars obtained for projects back home.

Thanks to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, here’s a list of the earmarks in the three appropriations bills headed for the president’s desk — a first look at what Arkansas lawmakers will be touting when they return to the Natural State.

Nearly $50 million worth of earmarks for Arkansas projects are contained in the Defense, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security fiscal 2009 appropriations bills.

Lawmakers are expected to take up the eight other spending bills when a new Congress convenes in January.

Here are the projects for Arkansas, listed by sponsor:

Rep. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, and Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark.:

$1.6 million for biological air filtering system technology;

$800,000 for spectroscopic materials identification center;

$2.8 million for a standoff hazardous agent detection and evaluation system;

$10.9 million for a new National Guard readiness center in Cabot.

Berry:

$50,000 for pre-disaster mitigation for the city of Wynne.

Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers:

$750,000 for Sebastian County’s emergency operations center.

Boozman, Lincoln and Pryor:

$3.2 million for development of mobile combat support hospitals, which could be manufactured in Russellville;

$204,000 for a infantry platoon battle course at Fort Chaffee;

Boozman and Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott:

$800,000 for the center for nanoscale biosciences at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and UA-Pine Bluff.

Ross, Lincoln and Pryor:

$8.8 million for mortar and grenade production at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

Ross:

$1.6 million for development of a lightweight, unmanned ground robot;

$1.6 million for grenade production.

Rep. Vic Snyder, Lincoln and Pryor:

$2 million for advanced functional nanomaterials for biological processes;

$1.6 million for silicon carbide torso plates;

$1.6 million for information quality tools for persistent surveillance data sets;

$4 million for the engine shop replacement at Little Rock Air Force Base.

Lincoln and Pryor:

$1.6 million for advanced field artillery tactical data systems;

$2.5 million for nanoscale biosensors;

$800,000 for nanotech lubricants designed for durability, energy-saving and sustainability of oceanic vehicles.