SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A 35-year-old gay man from Mexico urged a federal appeals court to grant him asylum, saying he fears he would be persecuted if deported to his homeland.

A Los Angeles immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals have rejected the New York man’s request to stay in the United States. An immigration judge last year said Jorge Sota Vega should return, and to avoid persecution he could conceal his sexual orientation.

But Jon Davidson, a lawyer for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the very fact that a judge recognized Vega was being persecuted should help him receive asylum.

Vega, from Tuxpan, Mexico, told the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that he was severely beaten by police and was told by the authorities he would be killed if seen again.

He fled to the United States, requesting asylum in 2002.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A judge has barred a website operator from sending emails requesting the sexual orientation of Missouri public school officials, the attorney general’s office said.

Attorney General Jay Nixon sued the StarProse Corp., saying it sent unwanted emails to several superintendents threatening to describe them as gay if they did not respond with personal information.

Circuit Judge Bruce Colyer permanently barred the Abilene, Texas-based company and its president, Jeffrey Kowalski, from sending email requesting the sexual orientation of any school or government employees in Missouri.

The email messages appeared with the subject line, “Open Records Request”, but actually sought personal information from school officials, such as their age, race, gender and sexual orientation. The lawsuit accused StarProse of violating the state’s anti-spam law, in part by using a misleading subject line.

The judge’s ruling also bars the company from sending email or making threats under the guise of an open records request, and from publishing false information about school or public officials, Nixon said.

A message left with the company was not immediately returned.

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A Catholic abortion-rights group asked the federal tax agency to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and to stop the archdiocese’s attempts to influence the Nov. 2 election.

The complaint said the Roman Catholic archdiocese violated its status as a public charity because such groups are prohibited from acting for or against a certain candidate. The complaint was filed by the Washington-based Catholics for a Free Choice.

The complaint cited an Oct. 1 pastoral letter by Archbishop Raymond Burke, who forbade Catholics to vote for candidates who supported abortion rights, euthanasia, reproductive cloning, same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research – what Burke called the five “intrinsic evils.”

The archdiocese declined to comment.

The Internal Revenue Service reviews all complaints and conducts an investigation if needed, spokesperson John Lipold said.

Catholics for a Free Choice filed a similar complaint against the Archdiocese of Denver.

“Public money should be used for charitable purposes, not for telling people who to vote for implicitly or explicitly,” group president Frances Kissling said at the time.

WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) – A Republican state senator ran newspaper ads the week before Election Day pointing out that his Democratic opponent would be the first openly gay legislator in North Carolina history, adding fuel to what was already a contentious race.

The ad by the campaign of Woody White included a letter from New Hanover County GOP Chair Charlton Allen. It noted that Julia Boseman accepted thousands of dollars in donations from out-of-state gay and lesbian groups and individuals.

“We have chosen to share this information with you because we are proud of Woody White’s conservative, pro-family approach to public service,” the letter stated.

The print ads, which ran in The Star-News of Wilmington and mass mailers prior to the elections, implied Boseman would push a “homosexual agenda” and were paid for by the North Carolina Republican Executive Committee.

The Republicans who sponsored the ad said it was designed to show the source of some of Boseman’s campaign funding – the Washington, D.C.-based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund.

Boseman, a New Hanover County commissioner, solicited the group’s support and cash from around the nation without talking about her sexuality at home, Republicans said.

“It’s not gay bashing. It’s pointing out the disingenuous nature of Ms. Boseman’s campaign,” Allen said at the time.

Candidates who receive support from the Victory Fund must endorse federal gay and lesbian civil rights legislation and state and local anti-discrimination laws, as well as advocate policies for HIV and AIDS research and gay and lesbian health and wellness, according to the group’s website.

Boseman denied her agenda in the state Senate included advancing GLBT interests.

“This race isn’t about me,” she said. “This race is about the citizens of New Hanover County and what is important to them.”

She said if elected she planned to introduce bills to allow a state lottery and to provide incentives to the film industry, among others.

The newspaper advertisement was not intended to indict gay people or their lifestyle, White and Allen said. White said he knew the ads were being produced but didn’t see them before they were mailed or printed in the newspaper.

“Anybody that knows me knows that I have never and will never question her private life or lifestyle,” White said.

White was appointed to the Senate seat earlier this year after his law partner, former Republican state Sen. Patrick Ballantine, resigned to focus on his gubernatorial campaign.

Combined, White and Boseman raised more than $700,000 for their campaigns.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Candidates for North Carolina’s two highest courts appeared on ballots without party labels this year – and the two major parties took radically different approaches to the new order.

Republican judicial candidates made a concerted effort to identify themselves with the party and to make known their stances on certain key issues.

Meanwhile, Democrats seeking the two open seats on the state Supreme Court and the three Court of Appeals seats stressed their experience and resumes, not ideology.

“I don’t think party identification is a proper method of electing a judge,” said state Court of Appeals Judge James Wynn, one of eight candidates who ran for a Supreme Court seat left vacant after Justice Robert Orr retired this summer. “I think what that tends to do is give people an indication that they are electing a Republican judge or a Democratic judge.”

In fact, Wynn added, once a judge puts on robes “they are a judge for the people of North Carolina.”

In April 2003, the state Supreme Court revised the Code of Judicial Conduct to allow those running for judgeships to talk about issues more or less like any other political candidate. That freed candidates to state their opinions on divisive issues like the death penalty, abortion and school prayer – though they stop short of stating how they’d vote on a case before them.

The change, combined with this year’s nonpartisan campaigns and the option for judges to accept public financing, has created a new landscape for judicial elections in North Carolina.

In another Supreme Court race, Democrat Sarah Parker of Charlotte sought a second eight-year term on the high court. She was challenged by Republican John Tyson of Fayetteville.

Parker, the only female justice on the high court, said her track record in 12 years on the court established “that I am an honest, hardworking, capable judge with common sense.”

Parker declined to discuss her party affiliation, her political philosophy or hot-button issues during her campaign.

Tyson said prior to Election Day that he would bring fairness, experience and impartiality to the bench, also volunteering that he held certain “core beliefs,” including that marriage is between a man and a woman, that life is sacred, that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for murder and that citizens have a right to keep and bear arms.

Wynn – one of four Democrats and four Republicans who sought Orr’s seat – said he believed such statements had more to do with sending political signals than with any real judicial philosophy.

In 14 years as a judge on both appeals courts, Wynn said he’s never heard a case concerning abortion or same-sex marriage.

“All they’re doing is pandering to special interest groups,” he said.

State GOP chief of staff Bill Peaslee said voters need to know a judicial candidate’s party identification, even if it doesn’t appear on the ballot. As it is, voters already know relatively little about judges or the work they do, he said.

“When you take the political party of the judicial candidates off the ballot, that gives the voters even less information to go on,” Peaslee said.