  The physics of the solar chromosphere is complex from both theoretical and
modeling perspectives. The plasma temperature from the photosphere to corona
increases from ~5,000 K to ~1 million K over a distance of only ~10,000 km from
the chromosphere and the transition region. Certain regions of the solar
atmosphere have sufficiently low temperature and ionization rates to be
considered as weakly-ionized. In particular, this is true at the lower
chromosphere. In this paper, we present an overview of our data-driven
magnetohydrodynamics model for the weakly-ionized chromosphere and show a
benchmark result. It utilizes the Cowling resistivity which is orders of
magnitude greater than the Coulomb resistivity. Ohm's law therefore includes
anisotropic dissipation. We investigate the effects of the Cowling resistivity
on heating and magnetic reconnection in the chromosphere as the flare-producing
active region (AR) 11166 evolves. In particular, we analyze a C2.0 flare
emerging from AR11166 and find a normalized reconnection rate of 0.12.
