COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The latest on the Confederate flag debate in the South Carolina (all times local):

4:30 p.m.

Republican House members said they spent some of their lunch break from the Confederate flag debate listening to an emotional plea from Gov. Nikki Haley.

The Republican governor asked them to pass the Senate bill that would remove the flag from the Capitol grounds.

It was the second closed-door meeting for GOP members on Wednesday. It came after three hours of debate.

Rep. Mike Pitts, who is offering the amendments and slowing down the debate, said he didn't hear much of what the governor had to say.

"The governor came in and spoke. I was in the back of the room and took my hearing aids out," Pitts said.

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3:40 p.m.

A Republican Nevada Assemblywoman is defending the Confederate flag as a piece of American history.

Conservative Las Vegas lawmaker Michele Fiore sent a campaign email Wednesday discussing the ongoing debate about the flag at the South Carolina Statehouse.

Fiore said citizens need to remember both the good and the bad parts of the nation's past because they shaped the country.

She also vowed to install a horn on her truck that sounds like the one in General Lee, a car in the TV show "Dukes of Hazzard" that features a Confederate flag decal. Reruns of the show were pulled in the wake of the flag controversy.

Fiore didn't immediately return a call seeking further comment.

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2:55 p.m.

The South Carolina House is taking a lunch break, in part so Republicans can meet behind closed doors again to talk about whether to take down the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds.

In three hours of debate, the House took up just four amendments, rejecting them all. One would have planted the state flower — yellow jasmine — in the place where the flag and flagpole now stand. Another would have put a case in front of the monument to Confederate soldiers with a display of historical flags.

Republicans quietly left to take their break, although a few were overheard talking about a meeting with Gov. Nikki Haley, who is urging them to adopt the Senate bill that would remove the flag within 24 hours of the governor signing it into law.

Democrats said they had nothing to discuss because they are united behind the Senate proposal.

House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford said the length of the debate and its slow progress isn't worrisome.

"A bill of this magnitude should take some time," Rutherford said.

Debate is scheduled to start again at 3:30 p.m.

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2:20 p.m.

Dozens of law enforcement officers are posted inside and outside the South Carolina Statehouse as House lawmakers debated the Confederate flag.

Uniformed officers from the State Law Enforcement Division stood inside the lobby space below the chamber where legislators discussed if the flag should be removed. Officers from the Columbia Police Department were also seen walking around the grounds.

Some protesters who support removing the flag waved signs at cars driving past the front side of the Statehouse, where the flag flies next to a monument to Confederate soldiers.

Unlike earlier in the week, no protesters who support the flag were visible.

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2 p.m.

A South Carolina lawmaker who doesn't support bringing down the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol grounds and moving it to a museum without some kind a replacement, has dominated the debate in the House.

Rep. Mike Pitts has been speaking Wednesday for more than an hour in 20-minute segments. The Republican has touched on a number of things not exactly related to the debate on the rebel banner. He has discussed using his hearing aids to ignore his wife, his duck hunting and people who run and workout on the Statehouse grounds.

"I do a lot of curls — with a fork," Pitts said, making an exaggerated eating motion.

Later in the debate, Pitts talked about soldiers, and how female fighters might be better than male fighters. He suggested the meanest Army regiment in the world would have four female companies, sending each one out for a week at the front lines every month.

"If you timed that right, you certainly would have a fighting force I wouldn't want to face," Pitts said.

He then abruptly changed the topic. "I better stop on that one before I get too far," Pitts said.

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1:15 p.m.

State police say they are investigating a number of threats against South Carolina lawmakers debating whether the Confederate flag should stay on the Statehouse grounds.

Chief Mark Keel said Wednesday in a statement provided to The Associated Press that the State Law Enforcement Division is working with various other law enforcement agencies to investigate death threats against a number of legislators.

Keel said threats to kill or injure public officials or their relatives are not protected by free speech rights.

Keel said lawmakers on both sides of the issue had been threatened, but he did not specify which ones.

Earlier Wednesday, officials with the House Democratic caucus posted on Twitter a racially offensive and threatening letter allegedly sent to one of their members.

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12:50 p.m.

The U.S. House has voted to ban the display of Confederate flags at historic federal cemeteries in the Deep South.

The low-profile move came late Tuesday after a brief debate on a measure funding the National Park Service, which maintains 14 national cemeteries, most of which contain graves of Civil War soldiers.

The proposal by California Democrat Jared Huffman would block the Park Service from allowing private groups from decorating the graves of southern soldiers with Confederate flags in states that commemorate Confederate Memorial Day. The cemeteries affected are the Andersonville and Vicksburg cemeteries in Georgia and Mississippi.

Pressure has mounted to ban display of the flag on state and federal property in the wake of last month's shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

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12:20 p.m.

The South Carolina House is hearing proposed amendments to the bill to remove the Confederate flag passed by the Senate.

The first amendment was Republican Rep. Mike Pitts' proposal to redesign the fence around the flagpole where the rebel banner flies. The redesign would honor Stand Watie, a leader of the Cherokee nation who rose to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederacy. It was defeated on a 90-29 vote. There are six more amendments on the desk after more than two dozen were withdrawn.

Pitts said he is friends with many House members in both parties, and he hopes they can remain friends when the debate is over.

"Folks in Charleston, I feel your grief," Pitts said.

Pitts' other withdrawn amendments included removing all monuments on Statehouse grounds, having a popular vote on whether the Confederate flag should stay and requiring that the U.S. flag fly upside down above the Statehouse dome.

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11:45 a.m.

The South Carolina House opened its session to debate the Confederate flag with a speech from the representative whose district included the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church where nine people were killed during Bible study.

Rep. Wendell Gilliard said he wanted the House to remember why they were there a month after their regular session was supposed to end.

"We cannot ever add to what was their sacrifice and their example. They gave their last level of devotion to their church and in doing so, stand as an example of Christian love," Gilliard said.

Gilliard was surrounded by nearly three dozen lawmakers, most of them Democrats.

All House members gave Gilliard a standing ovation when he finished, and Speaker Jay Lucas asked for a moment of silence.