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January 11, 2012 | | CHURCH HISTORY The conservative evangelicals in South Carolina are sure to be leery of Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith, but after this, they may not be the only ones. The Real Romney, a new biography written by a pair of Boston Globe reporters, alleges that as a Mormon bishop in the 1980s, the GOP frontrunner demanded a single mom give up her baby for adoption or face excommunication from the church. “This is not playing around,” the woman said. “This is not like, ‘You don’t get to take Communion.’ This is like ‘You will not be saved. You will never see the face of God.” CASUALTY French TV journalist Gilles Jacquier was killed Wednesday in Homs, Syria, while visiting the country on a government-sponsored trip, French media reported. His death was first announced by human-rights activists in the city, who said he was hit by a grenade or rocket blast. The 43-year-old Jacquier was part of a group of 15 foreign journalists being shown around Homs when a grenade landed near them. They fled to a nearby building, but more grenades hit, killing Jacquier and injuring at least one more European journalist. Two others died in Homs on Wednesday. INFLUENCE South Carolina, which has picked every Republican candidate since 1980, is already seeing ads from Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry, and Newt Gingrich—not to mention the ads by super PACs supporting each candidate. Some candidates are using their personal history: Rick Perry tells his life story in one ad, and Rick Santorum stands on the steps of his house with all seven of his children in another. Perry and Ron Paul are both running ads featuring veterans, and a separate ad touts Paul’s military service. Dominating the blitz is Romney and the super PACs that support him, including Restore Our Future, which reportedly spent $2.3 million in ads in South Carolina and another $3.6 million in Florida. Restore Our Future has been matched by a pro-Gingrich super PAC, Winning the Future, which has spent $1.6 million in ad buys—less than the projected $3.4 million. JUSTICE Joran van der Sloot pled guilty Wednesday to the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old Peruvian woman he met at a Lima casino. Flores was killed on the fifth anniversary of the day that 19-year-old Natalee Holloway went missing in Aruba—a disappearance in which van der Sloot had long been suspected of playing a role. Van der Sloot, 24, said last week he would “sincerely confess” to Flores’s murder in a plea strategy aimed at reducing his prison term—a “sincere confession” is thought to generate less prison time in Peru that a straight guilty plea. Van der Sloot told police he strangled Flores in a Lima hotel room in an attempt to rob her. A judge adjourned the trial until Friday, saying van der Sloot would be sentenced then. STUDY You may cough when you smoke pot, but you’re not killing your lungs, according to a new study published Wednesday. The long-term study examined 5,000 people from three American cities and found no consequences to lung health from smoking pot. Previous studies had mixed results, leaving researchers with major questions about marijuana’s impact on health. Scientists behind the study said pot smokers smoke less than cigarette smokers, and their method of inhalation may help protect their lungs. They also stressed that their work was not a blanket statement about marijuana’s overall long-term healthiness. | | 
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