2:30 P.M. UPDATE:
Arkansas' junior U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton says he's running for reelection in 2020, but that his focus now is on helping Republicans win state and national offices in this year's midterm races.
Cotton appeared at a political event Wednesday and said he thinks Republicans will hold their majority in the House of Representatives and expand their majority in the Senate.
Cotton discussed overseeing the return of fallen soldiers' remains at Dover Air Force Base but shied away from questions about some of President Trump's more contentious statements about the military, instead focusing on the president's successes in persuading allies to spend more on NATO.
Cotton, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, also addressed personal and election cyber security and stressed the importance of paper voting records and two-factor authentication.
Read Thursday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.
— The Associated Press
EARLIER:
U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland toured the Arkansas Crime Lab in Little Rock on Wednesday, learning about law enforcement's efforts to process evidence and catch felons.
The workload is heavy, and it's getting heavier, according to authorities.
"As a lab, we get about 31,000 cases a year," Crime Lab executive director Kermit Channell said.
In the basement, chief medical examiner Charles Kokes showed the visitors around the morgue. In one piece of equipment, blood-stained articles of clothing were drying so they could be properly preserved. Left untreated, the evidence would become moldy, Kokes explained.
The workload in the morgue is also climbing.
In 2016, the lab investigated 206 deaths caused by alcohol and/or drugs, Kokes said. By 2017, that figure had climbed to 286.
"We see that number creeping upward every year. Most of those are what we call polypharmacy," he said, meaning the death was caused by a combination of substances, legal or illegal.
— Frank Lockwood