Group says it will sit out Iowa race

An influential evangelical Christian group says it’s standing by a pledge to sit out the governor’s race this fall because neither of the major party candidates share its view on social issues.

The decision by the Iowa Family Policy Center is a blow to Republican Terry Branstad, who is relying on religious conservatives to be among the base of his support as he faces Democratic Gov. Chet Culver.

Danny Carroll, chairman of the Iowa Family Policy Center, has criticized Branstad for not giving greater emphasis to issues such as gay marriage and abortion. Carroll said in a statement it would take a “fundamental transformation” for the group to back either candidate.

Another powerful evangelical group, the Iowa Christian Alliance, supports Branstad.

from AP and WiG reports

Vt. hearing in lesbian custody case begins

Lawyers for a Virginia woman who has disappeared with her 8-year-old daughter went back to a Vermont courtroom in late June to argue that she never should have been stripped of custody.

Lawyers for Lisa Miller are challenging a Family Court judge’s decision to award custody to former partner Janet Jenkins, of Fair Haven.

Miller, of Forest, Va., and daughter Isabella Miller-Jenkins failed to appear for a court-ordered Jan. 1 custody swap in which Jenkins was to get the girl. The girl is now listed as missing, and Jenkins’ attorney has said the two are believed to have moved to El Salvador.

The Vermont Supreme Court was to hear arguments from Miller’s attorneys who say Judge William Cohen erred last November in awarding custody to Jenkins, who is not the biological mother.

from AP and WiG reports

Charges dropped in US Elton John threat case

Charges have been dropped just before the trial of a Georgia man accused of threatening Elton John on the Internet and outside the singer’s Atlanta condominium.

The case against Neal Horsley was dismissed by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams before a trial was due to start last week.

Horsley was apparently angered when John told an interviewer that he believed Jesus was gay. The judge said Horsley’s actions didn’t warrant criminal charges.

The 65-year-old Horsley had been charged with making terroristic threats, criminal defamation and using the Internet to disseminate threats.

Prosecutors say Horsley posted threats against John online and that he picketed outside John’s Atlanta property with a sign that said “Why Elton John Must Die.”

from AP and WiG reports

Marriage group to ask Maine to dismiss complaint

A group that helped fund a successful effort to repeal Maine’s gay marriage law is going to ask the state ethics commission to dismiss an investigation into the fundraising techniques it used prior to last year’s vote.

An attorney for The National Organization for Marriage, Barry Bostrom, tells the Portland Press Herald the group doesn’t want to reveal the names of donors because they fear harassment and because there is a constitutional privilege not to.

Maine law says groups that raise or spend more than $5,000 to influence elections must register with the state and disclose their donors.

The Organization for Marriage donated more than $1.9 million to Stand for Marriage Maine, a political action committee that helped repeal Maine’s same sex marriage law.

from AP and WiG reports