In a major shift in America's culture wars, advocates of gay marriage won in at least three states Tuesday, as voters in Maine and Maryland voted in legal recognition of same-sex marriage, while Minnesotans shot down a proposed amendment to the state constitution to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. Voters in the state of Washington also had an initiative to legalize same-sex marriage on their ballots, and as of Wednesday afternoon the tallied votes were showing a slight lead in favor of the measure.

While Democrats won the war for the White House, Republicans claimed victory in the battles for the State Houses in Tuesday's elections. Former Charlotte Mayor Pat McGrory's win over Lieutenant Governor Walter Dalton in North Carolina will give the GOP the governorships of at least 30 of the 50 states.

Presidential candidates Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein of the Green Party agreed during Monday night's alternative candidates debate that liberty in America is endangered by a growing police state, while disagreeing over fiscal and economic issues.

Should our federal government be big and "green" or small and frugal? That question is likely to be at the heart of the final debate of the 2012 presidential campaign, when candidates Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party meet in an election eve debate between "alternative candidates" for president.

The bishop of Peoria, Illinois, is urging Catholics in his diocese to approach Tuesday's elections as a matter of life or death. Indeed, he suggests, their eternal lives may depend on it.

"For those who hope for salvation, no political loyalty can ever take precedence over loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ and to his Gospel of Life," wrote Bishop Daniel R. Jenky in a letter to be read during all Masses in the diocese this weekend.

If, as is claimed by the U.S. government, Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons because its leaders are zealots who relish death, why is it likely that sanctions will deter it?

On January 1, 2013, many new taxes are set to begin. Unless Congress and the White House can agree by year's end on an extension of tax cuts that have been in place for most of the past decade, workers will see an increase in the taxes taken out of their paychecks next year and a loss in the amount they claim for deductions when it comes time to pay their 2013 taxes.

There may have been more talk about dogs at the U.S. Supreme Court than at the American Kennel Club Wednesday, as the justices heard arguments in two cases involving the state of Florida and drug-sniffing police dogs.

How far may police officers with drug-detecting canines go in sniffing around the outside of a home before obtaining a search warrant?

The Supreme Court will decide whether to allow a constitutional challenge to the government's warrantless surveillance to go forward.