February 15, 2008

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Ex-GOP Candidate Romney Endorses McCain
Liz Sidoti/Associated Press (02/15/2008: abcnews.go.com)
Republican campaign dropout Mitt Romney endorsed John McCain for the party's presidential nomination and asked his national convention delegates to swing behind the likely nominee.

Huckabee Keeps Fighting
Brian Montopoli/CBS News (02/15/2008)
Huckabee has vowed to keep fighting at least until McCain has every single one of the 1,191 delegates necessary to clinch the nomination. He says voters deserve an election, not a coronation.

Huckabee's Strength Spotlights New Generation of Evangelical Christians
Liz Halloran/U.S. News & World Report (02/15/2008)
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee's unexpected resilience has influenced this election in myriad ways. But one of the most intriguing side effects of the Baptist minister's tour in the spotlight has been the attention it has brought to an evolution occurring inside the white Christian evangelical movement.

IMMIGRATION
Debate resumes over illegal immigrants' status in LDS Church
Dennis Romboy/Deseret Morning News (02/15/2008)
Comments made by an LDS Church leader this week again stirred debate in Mormon circles about whether the church should baptize illegal immigrants or allow them to enter its temples.

LDS Church asks lawmakers to weigh morality, ethics in immigration reforms
Matthew D. LaPlante/Salt Lake Tribune (02/14/2008)
A prominent leader from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has implored Utah's overwhelmingly Mormon Legislature to "slow down, step back and carefully study and assess the implications and human costs involved" in a slew of immigration bills they are considering on Capitol Hill.

Oklahoma's crackdown on illegal immigration draws Texas lawmakers' interest
Robert T. Garrett/Dallas Morning News (02/14/2008)
OKLAHOMA CITY – Welcome to the nation's laboratory for a crackdown on illegal immigration. Last year, Oklahoma's Legislature passed, by huge margins, the nation's toughest law on illegal immigrants, making it a felony to harbor, transport, shelter or conceal undocumented immigrants.

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
Two Sides Testify on Same-Sex Marriage
Lisa Rein/Washington Post (02/15/2008)
Supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage clashed before a Maryland Senate committee yesterday, with traditionalists invoking religious convictions and gay rights advocates describing their cause as a civil rights struggle.

California groups aiming for gay marriage ban amendment
Lisa Leff/Associated Press (02/14/2008: mercurynews.com)
SAN FRANCISCO - As California's highest court prepares to take up a case seeking to legalize same- sex marriage, two groups that failed to get gay marriage bans on the state ballot two years ago are trying again, one with backing from a prominent Christian conservative organization. The groups, ProtectMarriage.com and VoteYesMarriage.com, have filed ballot language with the California Secretary of State that would, if approved by voters, amend the California Constitution to limit marriage to one man and one woman regardless of how the Supreme Court rules.

EDUCATION
Public: Faith trumps science
Ron Matus and Donna Winchester/St. Petersburg Times (02/15/2008)
Florida parents don't have much faith in evolution. Only 22 percent want public schools to teach an evolution-only curriculum, while 50 percent want only faith-based theories such as creationism or intelligent design, according to a new St. Petersburg Times survey.

DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE
Jehovah's Witnesses Fastest-Growing of U.S. Faiths
Brittani Hamm/Religion News Service (02/15/2008: pewforum.org)
Jehovah's Witnesses are the fastest-growing church body in the U.S. and Canada, now with more than 1 million members, according to new figures that track church membership in the U.S. and Canada.