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Virginia governor Mark R. Warner says he hasn't fully decided to sign the bill and worries about constitutional boundaries. But he supports an amendment added to the bill that tacks "National motto enacted by Congress, 1956," to the end of the signs.

Last week, a similar bill made it through two key panels in the Florida legislature. Other such bills are moving in Indiana and elsewhere.

Are Olympic athletes planning abortions for a competitive edge?
For prolife activists, there's an even bigger scandal at the Olympics than Jamie Sale and David Pelletier's silver medal. "Female Olympic athletes [are] deliberately getting pregnant and having abortions—just to boost their red blood cell count for an edge on the competition," claims Celeste McGovern in The Report, a conservative Canadian magazine. "Early on, pregnancy has the effect of boosting a woman's blood volume tremendously to fuel her unborn baby's growth. Getting pregnant two or three months before an event and having an abortion days prior to it can grant as much as a 10 percent performance enhancement." U.S. rules ban the scheme, and there's no evidence that any North Americans have ever done it, McGovern writes, but at least 14 Russian gymnasts were ordered to do it in the 1970s.

Church and state:

• Newport to fight parking-meter suit | Resident says churchgoers should be charged, while officials say practice ensures free spaces for residents. (The Orange County Register)
  
  
• Keeping government out of religion—and vice-versa | Simple message high atop Bill of Rights sometimes seems lost on public officials (Ken Paulson, Freedom Forum)
  
  
• Blair told to surrender Church power | Lord Faulkner of Worcester, a new Labour peer, told the House of Lords it was time for the Church of England to devise a new "democratic structure" to allow it to choose its own bishops and archbishops without the Government's involvement. (The Daily Telegraph)
  
  
• Atheist says he acts in good faith | Mitchell Kahle added another scalp to his belt when restrictions on apparel and accessories depicting Satanism were yanked from Kaimuki High School's dress code last week. (The Honolulu Advertiser)
  
  

Politics:

• Clergy is divided on gay marriage bill | Dozens of religious leaders speak to Connecticut legislature (The Hartford Courant)
  
  
• 'I could fill your ear' | Quotations from the files of the Reverend Lou Sheldon (OC Weekly)
  
  
• NPR's anthrax smear | Last month, the station aired a slanderous "report" suggesting that the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) may have been involved in sending anthrax-tainted letters to two Democratic senators, Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. Patrick Leahy (Editorial, The Washington Times)
  
  
• Muffled sermons in the pulpit? | I am of two minds when it comes to North Carolina Republican Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr.'s bill to repeal a 1954 law strictly regulating the political speech of churches and ministers (Cal Thomas, The Washington Times)
  
  

Crime:

• Church not to blame for genocide, Catholic priest says | "When we say too much we risk being thrown out, when we say too little we are criticized for it." (Internews, Arusha, Tanzania)
  
  
• Also: Church didn't participate in genocide, priest testifies (Hirondelle News Agency, Arusha, Tanzania)
  
  

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February (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46