Thursday Morning News Round-up

Here are some links to stories or essays of interest:

• Jonathan Turley has a piece in USA Today on the Representative Ellison-Qu'ran matter.
• The New York Times editorializes on Saddam Hussein's execution.  Included in the editorial is a mention of  the "internal F.B.I. investigation that revealed a pattern of deliberate taunting of the religious beliefs of Muslim prisoners at Guantánamo."  (See here and here for posts related to the Guantanamo issue.)
• The Christian Science Monitor publishes an article entitled Atheists Challenge the Religious Right.
• NPR carried a report last night on a New Jersey panel's recommendation to abolish the state's death penalty.
• Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) are urging their colleagues to continue the level of funding for HIV/AIDs at the 2006 fiscal year level, rather than reduce the amount of such funding in FY 2007.
• On the op-ed page of the Washington Post, George Will argues that the "minimum wage should be the same everywhere: $0."  On this same page, Senator Barack Obama sets out some standards for ethics reform, and Bob Novak asks how incoming Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) will vote on stem cell research legislation.
• Today incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will sponsor "[a] prayer service at St. Peter’s Catholic Church [in Washington, D.C.] . . . in 'honor of U.S. men and women in uniform.' "  (That's how the service was described in a Jan. 1 report from the New York Times.)
• The New York "Subway Savior" gets more national attention.  If you haven't read the underlying story, you should.

AND ONE MORE: Here's the video of Charlie Rose's interviews with Rick Warren and Greg Boyd on religion in American politics and the relationship between church and state.  The date on the interviews is August 2006.