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• Democrats: Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire.
• For the GOP, often accused of waging a "war on women," this advantage offers a powerful tool in the competition for female voters.
• "We have to show the fact there is no war on women," said Haley, who is in her first term. "The more Republican women out there, the better our case is."
• ___

• WEST MONROE, La. (AP) -- "Faith. Family. Ducks." It's the unofficial motto for the family featured in the TV reality show Duck Dynasty and that homespun philosophy permeates nearly everything in this small north Louisiana town.
• It's perhaps most on display at the White's Ferry Road Church of Christ in West Monroe, where the Robertson family prays and preaches most Sunday mornings.
• The family -- including patriarch Phil Robertson, who ignited a controversy last week when he told a magazine reporter that gays are sinners and African-Americans were happy under Jim Crow laws -- were in a front pew this past Sunday. And standing by beliefs they say are deeply rooted in their reading of the Bible.
• The rest of the flock, decked out in Duck Dynasty hats and bandannas, stood by the family and the sentiments Phil Robertson expressed.
• Alan, Robertson's eldest son, helped deliver a Christmas-themed sermon. He started off by referring to last week's controversy.
• ___

• HOUSTON (AP) -- He usually has black hair and a black beard, sometimes just a mustache. Like Santa, he wears a hat -- though often it's a sombrero. He dons a serape or a poncho and, in one case, a red and black zoot suit. And he makes his grand entrance on lowriders or Harleys or led by a pack of burros instead of eight reindeer.
• Meet Pancho Claus, the Tex-Mex Santa.
• Amid all the talk about Santa Claus' race, spawned by a Fox News commentator's remarks that both Santa and Jesus were white, there is, in the Lone Star State, a Hispanic version of Santa in cities from the border to the plains -- handing out gifts for low-income and at-risk children.

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