SXMElections.com

INDIANAPOLIS--Indiana's Republican Governor Mike Pence, responding to national outrage over the state's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act, said on Tuesday he will "fix" it to make clear businesses cannot use the law to deny services to same-sex couples.
  Pence, in a news conference, said the law he signed last week had been unfairly "smeared" but he called on the state's Republican-controlled General Assembly to come up with clarifications this week. "I believe it would be appropriate to make it clear that this law does not give businesses the right to deny services to anyone," he told reporters at a testy, nationally televised news conference in the state capital, Indianapolis.
  Arkansas' Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson may soon face a similar firestorm after his state's Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday passed a similar bill and sent it to his desk. Hutchinson has signaled he would sign the bill but opposition mounted on Tuesday when the Democratic mayor of Little Rock said the law was too divisive and asked the governor to veto it.
  Pence, who was brought up Catholic but is now an evangelical Christian, faced massive pressure from businesses over the bill, which passed with an overwhelming majority in the state's legislature. Major companies including Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Apple Inc, Angie's List, diesel engine-maker Cummins Inc, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and drug-maker Eli Lilly and Co have called on him to clarify or repeal the law.
  Rock band Wilco canceled a show in Indianapolis and Democratic governors from both coasts, joined by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday, banned official travel to Indiana. Auto racing company NASCAR and the Indianapolis-based NCAA, an organization for university athletic programs, expressed concern over the law.
  At the news conference Pence said the law protected people of all faiths from being forced by the government to go against their beliefs. The lawyer and one-time radio talk-show host, seen as a moderate on education and health-care, repeatedly denied that the intent of the law was to allow discrimination.
  Critics said Indiana's law as it is now written would allow businesses to deny services such as wedding cakes or wedding music for gay marriages on religious grounds.