Today, in a ceremony marked with tradition and pomp, the reins of the state will be passed to Utah's 16th governor, Jon Huntsman Jr. But after Huntsman takes the oath, the band plays "Ruffles and Flourishes," and soldiers fire a 19-gun salute, four other elected leaders will put their hands on the Bible to swear an oath of office. Full Story

Today, in a ceremony marked with tradition and pomp, the reins of the state will be passed to Utah's 16th governor, Jon Huntsman Jr.

But after Huntsman takes the oath, the band plays "Ruffles and Flourishes," Full Story

Wind and waves struck devastatingly in 2004 - and not just the sea's year-end ravaging in Asia and the tempests that smashed America's Atlantic and Gulf coasts again and again. Gales of war and suffering battered Iraq and the Sudan; political gusts roiled America and Ukraine. These and countless squalls left many disoriented and disgruntled. Full Story

The year 2004 marked the third straight in which national cameras were fixed intently on an unfolding Salt Lake City crime drama, this time the story of Lori Hacking and her killing - allegedly at the hands of her lying husband. Full Story

WASHINGTON - Opponents of gay marriage concede victory will not be swift in their attempt to amend the U.S. Constitution, even after prevailing in all 11 states where the issue was on the ballot last month. While the Nov. 2 election also increased the ranks of amendment supporters in both houses of Congress, the gains were relatively small. Full Story

Probably no other historical figure has collected as many titles as the holy child of Bethlehem. Pacifist, holy crusader, enlightenment philosopher, Marxist revolutionary - all have been applied to Jesus. The signs are abundant this season that his essential teachings are again being dragooned by the politics of the moment. For many conservatives, Jesus is the great moralist. Full Story

SAN FRANCISCO - Ten months after San Francisco's mayor defiantly granted marriage licenses to thousands of gay couples, a judge began hearing arguments Wednesday in a pair of lawsuits that seek to have California's one-man, one-woman matrimony law declared unconstitutional. Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer's courtroom is only the first stop in what is expected to be a yearlong odyssey that ultimately could reach the state's highest court. Full Story

Now that Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada has been elevated to the top Democratic leadership position in the U.S. Senate, an ugly anti-Mormon bias is beginning to emerge among the very right-wing faction of the Republican Party that Utah Mormons have eagerly embraced. Reid, who becomes the Senate minority leader with the defeat in November of Sen. Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, is a member of the LDS Church, which suddenly is being attacked by conservative Web site WorldNetDaily. Full Story

Now that Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada has been elevated to the top Democratic leadership position in the U.S. Senate, an ugly anti-Mormon bias is beginning to emerge among the very right-wing faction of the Republican Party that Utah Mormons Full Story

Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman Jr. first suggested legislation to grant rights to unmarried, cohabiting adults in the heat of an election-year debate about gay rights and Utah's marriage amendment. But now that a bill has been drafted that would put some of Huntsman's ideas into place, the governor's chief of staff is carefully describing the legislation as an effort to preserve "human dignity" - for a grandmother and her granddaughter, as well as for gay couples. Full Story

Gov.-elect Jon Huntsman Jr. first suggested legislation to grant rights to unmarried, cohabiting adults in the heat of an election-year debate about gay rights and Utah's marriage amendment.

But now that a bill has been Full Story

Some time during the late 1980s, some guy (I don't remember who) from some conservative think tank (Cato? Hoover?) asked me at some Washington reception whether The New Republic, where I worked as the editor, would be interested in publishing an article advocating gay marriage. It was the first that I had heard of the idea. At the time, the virtue of marriage as a civilizer of men was a major conservative theme in the debate about the underclass. Full Story

MASSACHUSETTS State starting to see gay couples divorcing BOSTON - Less than seven months after same-sex couples began tying the knot in Massachusetts, the state is seeing its first gay divorces. Full Story

TORONTO - The Supreme Court gave the go-ahead Thursday to the federal government to introduce legislation that would redefine marriage nationwide to include same-sex couples, but it stopped short of ruling that the traditional definition of marriage was unconstitutional. Full Story

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." - LEO TOLSTOI Anna Karenina But, with all due respect to Count Leo, the law must approach all of those unhappy families in the same way. Full Story

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

-- LEO TOLSTOI

Anna Karenina

But, with all due respect to Count Leo, the law must approach all of those unhappy families in the Full Story

After considering Utah law and the best interests of a 3-year-old girl, 3rd District Judge Timothy Hanson has decided the child is better off with two mothers. One is her birth mother, who conceived her through artificial insemination while in a lesbian relationship. The other is the birth mother's former partner, joined to her in a Vermont civil union before the girl's birth. Full Story

After considering Utah law and the best interests of a 3-year-old girl, 3rd District Judge Timothy Hanson has decided the child is better off with two mothers.

One is her birth mother, who conceived her through artificial insemination Full Story

It's been a month since the gods decreed that, due to the election results, American political life henceforth must be all about something called ''values.'' And I gave it my best. Honest. But I am sick of talking about values, sick of pretending I have them or care more about them than I really do. Sick of bending and twisting the political causes I do care about to make them qualify as ''values.'' News stories about values-mongers caught with their values down used to make my day. Full Story

OREM - A real-estate broker and a Utah Valley State College student are not dropping the lawsuit they filed over filmmaker Michael Moore's appearance at UVSC. Even though Moore has come and gone and the Utah Attorney General's Office is representing the defendants - the Orem college, student government leaders and their adviser, Phil Clegg - Orem businessman Kay Anderson vowed this week that he and Dan Garcia will press on with their case. Full Story