Iowa

A religious organization in Iowa is hoping to bring prayer back to city council meetings after the practice was dropped earlier this year.

Unlike other controversies, however, the prayers were not suspended due to opposition from anti-religious organizations or protest over First Amendment violations, but simply due to a lack of scheduling.

Dubuque City Mayor Roy Buol told a local news station that it became difficult planning what church leaders would recite the prayer for their meetings, resulting in a "moment of silence" rather than a voiced prayer. more >>

An Iowa woman gave birth to one of the biggest babies a hospital had ever seen Jan. 26. At nearly 14 pounds and 23-and-a-half inches, newborn Asher Stewardson is one big baby.

And he was born completely naturally: no painkillers, no cesarean section.

The parents of the infant, Kendall and Joshua Stewardson, say they've been blessed to have not one, but two children born completely healthy, and very, very big. Their other son, Judah, was born at a whopping 12 pounds. more >>

Rick Santorum beat out Mitt Romney and won the Republican Iowa caucus by 34 votes, newly discovered precinct results reveal.

The news came after state GOP officials found reporting errors in 131 precincts. However, the evaluation of one precinct alone shifted the race by 50 votes, the Des Moines Register reported. State officials have acknowledged the shift and certified Santorum's new lead, CNN reported.

The discovery trumps previous reports that Romney pulled off a slim .1 percent victory over Santorum in Iowa. The new certified numbers show that Santorum received 29,839 votes to Romney's 29,805. The new results also challenge the former Massachusetts governor's front-runner status in the GOP Race. more >>

Despite open tension between some evangelical pastors and Mitt Romney, there is a strong likelihood the Mormon bishop will carry more evangelicals in Iowa today than either Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann, who have spent the last month courting them, according to one of the last polls taken before today’s Iowa caucus.

A Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 survey of 1,340 likely Republican caucus voters conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP), shows that a plurality (24 percent) of Iowa evangelicals support Rick Santorum. After Santorum, however, there is essentially a three-way tie between Newt Gingrich (16 percent), Ron Paul (15 percent) and Mitt Romney (15 percent). Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann only received 12 and 11 percent support, respectively, from Iowa evangelicals.

A strong Iowa showing among a split evangelical vote may answer an open question whether Romney can gain the support of the Republican Party's social conservative wing, which includes many evangelical Christians. Romney belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), sometimes called the Mormon Church. more >>

Mitt Romney’s negative ads are not only upsetting Newt Gingrich’s campaign, but they are also hurting Gingrich himself.

On New Year’s Day, Gingrich told a group of reporters in Marshalltown, Iowa, that he felt “Romney-boated” by all of the negative ad campaigns by Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Reporters had asked him if he was “swift-boated” referring to The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group of Vietnam Veterans who by criticizing Kerry’s service record, helped destroy his 2004 presidential bid.

Gingrich said Romney “didn't get rid of me, he just slowed me down,” to reporters, according to msnbc.com. more >>

The Iowa caucus is like a primary election and a party precinct meeting combined. In previous caucus elections, the candidate who had shown a rise in the polls just prior to the caucus outperforms expectations. This suggests that Rick Santorum is the most likely candidate to win the Iowa caucus.

Any Iowa resident who will be at least 18 years of age by the date of the general election, Nov. 6, 2012, can vote in the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3.

Technically, you must also be a registered Republican to vote in the Republican contest, but you can register when you arrive at the caucus. So, there will be some who voted in the Democratic caucus in 2008, or who consider themselves independents or members of a third party who will vote in the Republican contest. more >>