A Michigan Senate bill introduced Tuesday seeks to guarantee students the freedom to express their religious beliefs at school -- a right that students already have. The bill, which was referred to the state's Senate Committee on Education, says its purpose is to "ensure the freedom of worship and religious belief" guaranteed by the Constitution and to prohibit a public school or university from "[discriminating] against a student ... on the basis of a religious viewpoint or religious expression."

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calls "misguided" and unfounded an ACLU-backed federal lawsuit stemming from a woman's alleged experience at Muskegon's Mercy General Health Partners before she miscarried in 2010. The ACLU lawsuit against the U.S. bishops' conference, filed on behalf of Tamesha Means of Muskegon, claims the conference's religious-based policy banning abortions prevented her from getting appropriate care.  

To mourn the 20 children and six educators killed a year ago at Sandy Hook elementary, residents of the Connecticut suburb of Newtown will take a quiet action on Saturday: placing candles in windows to remember the lives lost. But who will put a candle in the window for the hundreds of American children each year killed in everyday violence, closer to home, usually by someone they knew?