The Kentucky county clerk who made news for refusing to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples lost her county seat to a Democratic challenger this week.

Kim Davis, a Republican, lost her reelection bid for the Rowan County clerkship to challenger Elwood Caudill Jr. She lost by about 700 votes, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.

In 2015, Davis was jailed for five days after she refused to sign marriage licenses for gay couples. She said she acted under “God’s authority” when she refused to sign the marriage licenses. She was released from jail and published a book, “Under God’s Authority: The Kim Davis Story.”

Many conservatives, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, supported her decision to deny the marriage licenses. 

This week, however, Davis lost her county seat for a job that pays about $80,000 annually. She was originally elected in 2014 as a Democrat but later switched to Republican.  

Caudill will now assume the seat. This was his second try at running for the county clerkship. He lost in the primaries to Davis in 2014.

“I believe that as a community we must continue to work together toward a more prosperous and cohesive Rowan County,” Caudill said after his win. “Tonight was awesome.”

Caudill also faced off in the Democratic primaries against David Ermold, one of the men whom…

LAHORE, Pakistan, November 8, 2018 (Morning Star News) – A Christian mother who spent nine years on death row before being acquitted in Pakistan’s most high-profile blasphemy case was released from prison late Wednesday night (Nov. 7), sources said.

Sources close to the family and government officials confirmed that Aasiya Noreen, better known as Asia Bibi, was released from Multan Central Jail late last night and is in protective custody after authorities received release documents. But they denied reports that she had boarded a plane and left the country.

She had remained behind bars despite being acquitted of blasphemy charges by Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Oct. 31.

Earlier reports circulated in local media that Noreen had been flown from Multan International Airport to Noor Khan Airbase in Islamabad on a private aircraft, and that she and her family had then boarded a plane to the Netherlands. An Interior Ministry official initially confirmed that she was en route to the Netherlands, but later the Pakistani Foreign Office rejected as “rumors” that Noreen had been flown out of Pakistan.

“There is no truth in reports of her leaving the country – it is fake news,” Foreign Office spokesman Muhammad Faisal told a press briefing.

Faisal reiterated that Noreen was in Pakistan and “in a safe place.”

“Aasiya Bibi is a free citizen. After the…

Evangelist Anne Graham Lotz has vowed to continue spreading her late father Billy Graham’s message about God through her fight against cancer.

Lotz posted a touching tribute to her father on Wednesday, which would have been his 100th birthday, admitting that she misses him now even more so than when he died in February.

“With a dull ache in my heart, I long to drive up to see him one more time. To tell him about the new journey of faith God has me traveling. To hear him say, ‘I love you, darling,'” she wrote on her website.

“Today, I’m remembering one who was always a farmer at heart. Who loved his dogs and his cat. Who followed the weather patterns almost as closely as he did world events. Who wore old blue jeans, comfortable sweaters, and a baseball cap,” the evangelist continued.

Graham, credited for evangelizing millions around the world, at the end had a “simple faith,” his daughter said.

“He was his message … a simple man who had responded to God’s love by placing his faith in Jesus, receiving the assurance that his sins were forgiven, that he would not perish, but would have everlasting life,” she said.

Evangelicals continued their historical trend of support for Republicans on Election Day, although the percentage was down from President Trump’s victory in 2016 and at its lowest level on a national election day since 2008, according to exit polls.

A full 75 percent of white born-again or evangelical Christians supported Republicans Tuesday, down from the 80 percent that backed Trump, the GOP nominee, two years ago. It is the lowest percentage of evangelical support for Republicans on an election day since 2008, when 74 percent supported Republican nominee John McCain. 

Seventy-eight percent of white born-again/evangelical voters backed Republicans in 2014,  78 percent in 2012 (when Mitt Romney faced Barack Obama), and 77 percent in 2010.

But this doesn’t mean evangelicals sat home. White born-again/evangelical Christians comprised 26 percent of voters Tuesday — the same percentage as 2016, 2014 and 2012. They made up 25 percent of the electorate in 2010 and 26 percent in 2008. 

Additionally, 58 percent of voters who attend religious services (of any kind) weekly backed Republicans, compared to 55 percent who supported Trump in 2016. But that bloc of voters was a smaller percentage of the electorate this year (32 percent) than in 2016 (33 percent). In the presidential election of 2012, voters who attend religious services weekly were 42 percent…

A man dressed in all black walked into a California nightclub on Wednesday, and opened fire killing at least 12 patrons, and one police officer. 

According to Fox News, hundreds of people, many of them college students from local universities such as California Lutheran University, Pepperdine University and California State University Channel Islands, were celebrating “country night” at Borderline Bar & Grill on Thousand Oaks, Calif. Wednesday night when a mysterious man walked into the club and opened fire around 11:20 p.m. without saying a word. 

Reportedly, deputies responded to the call within minutes. Upon arrival, Sheriff’s Sgt. Ron Helus, who was the first to arrive on the scene, heard gunfire and immediately entered the bar with a patrolman. Helus was shot several times by the gunman and was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. 

Fox News reports that 30 shots were fired, and the gunman used smoke bombs to distract and disorient his victims. 

On witness, Teylor Whitter recalled the tragic line of evens saying, “We all just kind of froze for a split second and then everyone booked it and dove to the floor.” 

She continued, “After the first round it was quiet for about five seconds, and then some guys who were next to me on the floor got up and started sprinting toward the back door and yelled at everyone, ‘Get up! Run! He’s coming!’”

According…