SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Mayor Gavin Newsom was sworn in for his second term on Tuesday, pledging to lead the way on a number of national issues including health care for the uninsured, the environment and public safety.

Standing in the cavernous, domed rotunda inside City Hall, Newsom was joined by his new fiancée, 33-year-old actress Jennifer Siebel, and local, state and federal officials.

The 40-year-old mayor was sworn in by his father, then delivered an inaugural address that touted ``San Francisco values,’’ like his fight for same-sex marriage, that he said, while threatening to the values of some, served as inspiration for many others.

``The world didn’t become worse when over four thousand lesbian and gay couples were allowed to express their love and responsibility for each other right here in this building,’’ he said. ``It became better.’’

Despite a 2007 marked by a highly publicized affair with the wife of his former campaign manager, Newsom glided to victory in November’s election. After acknowledging his affair, Newsom pledged to enter treatment for alcohol abuse and has set about trying to repair his image and personal life.

But the mayor faces a number of potent political challenges as he embarks on his second term in office: a rising murder rate, a $229 million budget deficit and a court setback to his health care program for the city’s uninsured.

Healthy San Francisco, the mayor’s plan to provide basic health care to the city’s uninsured, recently stalled when a federal judge ruled that it violated federal law.

While admitting the ruling had slowed his plan, Newsom pledged on Tuesday to move it forward.

``Universal health care has never happened in America; it will happen here first in the city and county of San Francisco.’’

The mayor also pledged to make city government carbon neutral by the year 2020, and said the city has already planned to fuel its fleet of vehicles on biodiesel.

Newsom has already set about shaking up key city posts and his staff after promising to do so during his campaign for re-election. Newsom had asked for resignations from all his department heads and commissioners.

The mayor recently tapped Kevin Ryan, the former chief federal prosecutor for Northern California who oversaw the investigation of Barry Bonds, as his new criminal justice director.

``On the most important issues of the day,’’ Newsom said in closing, ``San Francisco is providing leadership for our nation and the world.’’

MADISON (AP) – A judge has denied a motion to overturn the guilty plea of a woman serving 60 years in prison for the 1992 torture-murder of a 12-year-old girl.

Melinda Loveless, now 32, contended at a hearing last month that she received ineffective legal counsel and signed a plea deal under duress, believing she might face execution.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Ted Todd denied the motion Tuesday. Mark Small, Loveless’ lawyer, said the decision will be appealed.

Loveless, then 16, was among four teenage girls who abducted Shanda Renee Sharer of New Albany, tortured her and set her on fire in a dispute stemming from a lesbian triangle.

She testified that she didn’t remember most of the legal proceedings before she signed the plea deal that sent her to prison. However, she said that at the time she was told she would be sentenced to death if she did not sign the agreement.

Prosecutor Chad Lewis said he was pleased with the judge’s ruling. ``Given the facts, we believe it’s the right decision,’’ he said.

``This was my Christmas present,’’ Jacque Vaught, Shanda’s mother, said of the ruling.

Loveless will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

Loveless and three others abducted Sharer after luring her from her home following a punk rock concert in Louisville, Ky. According to court testimony, Loveless was jealous of Sharer and wanted her killed because she was involved in a lesbian relationship with Loveless and another girl.

Before dawn on Jan. 11, 1992, they bludgeoned and sodomized the girl with a tire iron and sliced her legs with a knife, then drove around with the girl locked in the car’s trunk.

Hours later, they doused the girl with gasoline and burned her alive along an Indiana road, about 40 miles northeast of Louisville.

Of her three co-defendants – Hope Rippey, Laurie Tackett and Toni Lawrence – only Tackett also remains in prison. Rippey was released last year, while Lawrence was released in 2000.

BOSTON (AP) – A Boston man has apologized for filing a federal lawsuit that claimed he failed the Massachusetts bar exam because he refused to answer a question about same-sex marriage for moral reasons.

In a letter published in Bay Windows, a weekly Boston newspaper for the GLBT community, Stephen Dunne said his “misguided” lawsuit “regrettably perpetuated intolerance and animosity.”

Dunne sought $9.75 million in the suit against the Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He was denied a license to practice law in May after scoring 268.866 on the exam, just shy of the 270 passing grade.

The lawsuit was dismissed in October at Dunne’s request.

Dunne did not immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.

An editor for Bay Windows called the mea culpa “unusual.”

CONCORD (AP) – Less than two weeks into the new year, nearly 100 same-sex couples have sought civil unions in New Hampshire.

Civil unions for same-sex couples became legal on Jan. 1. Since then, at least 95 ceremonies have taken place, according to New Hampshire’s Division of Vital Records. The vast majority of those ceremonies – 63 – happened on Jan. 1.

William Bolton, who oversees vital records for New Hampshire, says most of the 95 couples are from New Hampshire. He says in all, 183 civil unions licenses have been issued since Dec. 10, when the paperwork first became available. The licenses are valid for 90 days.

SPARTANBURG (AP) – Republican Mike Huckabee spoke from the pulpit Sunday, not as a politician but as the preacher he used to be, and delivered a sermon on how merely being good isn’t enough to get into heaven.

Huckabee is vying for support from the Christian conservatives who dominate the GOP in South Carolina, which on Saturday chooses a Republican presidential nominee. A former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor, Huckabee is competing for their votes with fellow southerner Fred Thompson.

As in Iowa, where Huckabee won the Jan. 3 caucuses, Huckabee is rousing pastors to marshal their flocks for him. He pitches himself as someone who not only shares their views against abortion and same-sex marriage but who actually comes from their ranks.

On Sunday, Huckabee avoided politics entirely, instead preaching about humility and trusting in Jesus to open the gates of heaven.

“The criteria to get into heaven is you have to be not good, but perfect. That’s the real challenge in it,” he said at First Baptist North Spartanburg, a megachurch with 6,000 members.

“On that day, when I pull up, I’ll be asked, ‘Do you have what it takes to get in?”” Huckabee said. “And if I ask, ‘Well, what does it take to get in?’ ‘Gotta be perfect.’”

“Well, I’m afraid I don’t have that, but you know what, I won’t be there alone that day. Somebody is going to be with me. His name is Jesus, and he’s promised that he would never leave me or forsake me,” he said.

Huckabee didn’t ask for votes or discuss the campaign, but senior pastor Michael S. Hamlet encouraged the congregation to vote according to how they try to live their lives, by the principles of Bible scripture.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A woman who said she suffered discrimination at work because she is transgender has been fired as a nursing assistant.

Ariana Losco, a man before a sex-change operation in 1994, was quoted in a recent Associated Press story about a Utah lawmaker’s effort to ban discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Losco said her transgender status led to verbal abuse and fewer work hours at Rocky Mountain Care, a nursing home in Tooele.

“I spoke out about my treatment and got fired because of it,” she said Friday. “Management is the one who should be embarrassed.”

Personnel manager Don Huntley denied Losco’s accusation that her sexual identity is the reason her hours were cut while she worked there. He said she was fired Thursday because she had disparaged the company, although Rocky Mountain Care was not named in the AP story.

Will Carlson, policy director for the gay rights group Equality Utah, said Losco’s firing demonstrates a need for Rep. Christine Johnson’s bill to become law.

“It is illustrative of the kind of thing people are going through,” Carlson said.

“We had a call this morning from a gay man who had been fired basically because he’s gay. ... People are coming out of the woodwork to tell their stories,” he said.

There are 20 states that include sexual orientation in their antidiscrimination laws, and 11 of those include transgender people, according to the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender civil rights organization.