California

Attorney general target of recall campaign

A pair of conservative Republicans who helped organize last year’s gubernatorial recall election said Tuesday that they would try to remove California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer from office for failing to enforce the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

U.S. Senate hopeful Howard Kaloogian and political consultant Ted Costa opened a petition drive seeking to recall the two-term attorney general even as Lockyer was preparing court papers seeking to stop same-sex marriages.

Lockyer said he would ask the state’s highest court on Friday whether San Francisco’s issuing of same-sex marriage licenses violates state law.

New York City

Salvation Army accused of religious discrimination

Current and former Salvation Army employees sued the organization Tuesday, alleging the government-funded group preached religious and sexual intolerance to its staff.

The workers accused the Salvation Army of creating a hostile work environment for about 600 employees who provided social services for more than 2,000 children in New York state.

The charitable organization required employees to pledge to preach the Gospel, to identify their church affiliation and to authorize their religious leaders to reveal private information to the Salvation Army, according to the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union’s New York chapter.

One plaintiff, Margaret Geissman, said she quit her job as a human resources manager last year after she was harassed by her bosses for refusing to reveal staffers’ religions and sexual orientations.

Florida

Report finds slavery still a problem in U.S.

Modern-day slavery is alive and well in Florida, the head of a human rights center said Tuesday as it released a report on people forced to work as prostitutes, farmworkers and maids across the state.

Human traffickers bring thousands of people into the United States each year, and Florida is believed to be one of the top three destinations, along with New York and Texas, according to the Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University.

In south Florida, federal prosecutions have indicated hundreds of farmworkers were victims of human trafficking, and a forced prostitution ring identified as many as 40 young women and girls brought from Mexico.

St. Louis

Teacher’s firing upheld

A Missouri appeals court upheld the firing of a teacher who told her eighth-grade class she opposed interracial marriage and believed such couples should be “fixed” to prevent them from having children.

Attorneys for Crystal City school district teacher Jendra Loeffelman had argued her reported classroom comments were constitutionally protected free speech.

The appellate court rejected that Tuesday, declaring that the First Amendment right applied only to public concerns — not Loeffelman’s discussing a private matter that was not part of the lesson plan.