WASHINGTON (MCT) – Whipsawed by an increasingly heated campaign, Democrats in Iowa and… WASHINGTON (MCT) – Whipsawed by an increasingly heated campaign, Democrats in Iowa and other early voting states are closely divided over which of their three top candidates to support, according to a new series of polls for McClatchy and MSNBC.

The surveys suggest that the Democratic race is so close – and hangs on the candidates’ resumes and personalities as much as it does on issues – that any of them could win or finish third.

Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York retains an edge in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, but her lead in all three is shrinking compared to earlier surveys.

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is close on Clinton’s heels in all three states, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina is close behind Obama in Iowa but farther back in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

No other candidate for the Democratic nomination comes close – at least not yet – though once the voting starts, things can change fast, and one in five Democratic voters remains undecided in New Hampshire and one in four in South Carolina, but only one in 10 in Iowa.

“The Democratic race is quite competitive,” said Brad Coker, the pollster for Mason-Dixon Polling and Research, which conducted the surveys. “We’ve seen a tightening in Iowa. Obama’s gained ground in New Hampshire. And South Carolina is close, as well.”

The contest is closest in Iowa, where the voting begins Jan. 3 in town meeting-like precinct caucuses. Clinton has the support of 27 percent of likely caucus attendees, Obama 25 percent and Edwards 21 percent.

All other candidates were in single digits – not enough to survive a caucus rule that requires support from 15 percent of those attending to win a delegate. If their supporters switch to second-choice candidates, the poll found they’d split evenly among Clinton, Edwards and Obama.

In New Hampshire, Clinton polled 30 percent, Obama 27 percent and Edwards 10 percent.

In South Carolina, Clinton led with 28 percent, Obama had 25 percent and Edwards 18 percent.

The error margin for each state survey was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON (MCT) – Powered by overwhelming support from evangelical Christians, Mike Huckabee has surged to a 12 percentage point lead over Mitt Romney among Republicans in Iowa, the nation’s first voting state, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll.

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor who was struggling for recognition just weeks ago, is now the choice of 32 percent of likely GOP voters in the Jan. 3 caucus. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who’s been leading most Iowa polls all year, is now a distant second in Iowa with 20 percent. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson is third at 11 percent.

Huckabee’s strength rose most from self-described “born-again” Christians, who are expected to deliver about 40 percent of the state’s Republican vote. They preferred Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, by 42 to 8 percent over Romney. But there were signs that his appeal is broader, as Huckabee trailed Romney by only 3 percentage points among Iowa Republicans who said they weren’t born again Christians.

History suggests that the winner of the Iowa caucus often roars into primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina with a blast of momentum that can all but ensure the party’s nomination. Huckabee’s lead exceeds the poll’s error margin of plus or minus 5 percentage points. That would seem to crown him as the undisputed GOP frontrunner in Iowa less than four weeks before voters caucus there.

In the other early voting states, Huckabee is still introducing himself to voters. In the McClatchy-MSNBC survey of New Hampshire, which votes on Jan. 8, he was a distant fourth. Romney was first there with 25 percent, followed by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani with 17 percent, Arizona Sen. John McCain at 16 percent and Huckabee with 11 percent. Some 17 percent were undecided.

David Lightman, McClatchy Newspapers

BALTIMORE (U-WIRE) – Johns Hopkins has no plans to join the more than 50 universities that have formally divested from Sudan, despite a bloody ethnic conflict in that country’s Darfur region that has killed at least a quarter of a million people.

Although Hopkins claims it has no investments in Sudan, it has not adopted a formal policy banning such investments on ethical grounds, nor has it made information regarding such investments public.

When certain companies were first identified several years ago as doing business in the region, the university looked back to see if it had investments in any of those companies.

But at no point has Hopkins ever made it official university policy to ensure that its investments – through mutual funds or other means – do not go to companies that do business in Sudan based on social responsibility.

In the 1990s, Johns Hopkins did make it an official policy that none of its investments would go to tobacco companies, but it has made no such effort regarding Sudan.

“With a university of that size, there will be links to those investments [in Sudan]. There are probably no direct holdings, but there could be indirect ones through mutual funds,” Max Croes, advocacy associate with the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a project of the Genocide Intervention Network, said.

“It’s very ethically reprehensible to continue,” Aaron Martel, director of the JHU Students Taking Action Now: Darfur divestment campaign, said.

The campaign is one of many national efforts focusing on targeted divestment, also known as selective divestment.

Martel hopes the campaign will force the university to divest from companies that the SDTF views as having financial ties to the region. Hopkins could then re-invest the money in more acceptable sources while still yielding reasonable returns.

Still, the university will not take a position on either side. They have neither systematically reviewed their investments, nor made the investments available for public scrutiny.

Lena Denis, The Johns Hopkins News-Letter

PEORIA, Ill. (U-WIRE) – Students in most dorms at Bradley University can use an online monitoring system to see if their laundry is done or if machines are open.

The system, Laundry View, is provided to large institutions through the washer and dryer manufacturer.

For the system to work, machines must be hooked up to a local computer network so the website, www.laundryview.com, can monitor students’ usage.

When students visit the site from a computer on Bradley’s network, they find links to each of the dorms on campus.

Then students can select the nearest laundry room and find out which machines are in use and how much time is left before the load finishes. The page also displays machines that are out of order.

Another link leads to a timetable showing the times during the week when most people do their laundry.

This function shows that in University Hall, for example, most people do their laundry Saturday afternoon.

But the convenient system doesn’t come without a price.

Business Manager Ken Goldin said setting up the system is expensive because every machine has to be wired to connect to the local network.

“The wiring is very expensive in the dorms but because there is such a large volume of laundry, it pays off,” he said.

Brenna Scurlock, The Bradley Scout (Bradley U.)

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (U-WIRE) – All semester, University of Maryland Dining Services officials have been battling what they say is an upswing in the amount of theft in the dining halls.

Now they say they have proof that stealing is rampant, and new measures – including the possibility of cameras in the dining halls – are in the works to curb the trend, beginning in the spring.

In a one-day test case this semester, Dining Services tracked several popular dinner items, including chicken sandwiches and burgers, and found more than $600 worth were stolen, department spokesman Bart Hipple said.

In response, the Residence Hall Association passed a resolution Wednesday supporting Dining Service’s efforts to halt theft, though it stopped short of endorsing cameras.

The newly installed director of the department, Colleen Wright-Riva, says she hopes cameras won’t be necessary and will be rolling out a program to educate students on the cost of theft to the university soon.

Still, she said cameras remain an option and could be an effective theft deterrent.

“In my personal opinion, I do think that cameras deter inappropriate behavior,” she said, pointing out the results they’ve had on other areas of the campus.

However, in a tacit concession to those who raised concerns over the dining halls stepping up enforcement this semester, Wright-Riva said she would also like to introduce a “tiered process” for punishing students.

Instead of referring students caught stealing directly to the Office of Student Conduct, Wright-Riva said dining officials would issue a warning on the first offense.

Dining Services has responded to a jump in the number of thefts in the dining halls this semester, referring 40 students between August and October, compared to seven in all of last year, according to Assistant Director of Student Conduct Tamara Saunders.

Emily Groves, The Diamondback (U. Maryland)

AUSTIN, Texas (U-WIRE) – Seventy thousand Facebook users have spoken, and the popular social-networking site has agreed to allow users to disable a controversial advertising system that many say goes too far in sacrificing privacy for profit.

The system, called Beacon, tracked users’ purchases at many popular websites, such as Fandango and Overstock.com, and shared them with others in their networks via the news feed feature.

In response to privacy concerns, as well as complaints that the feature was spoiling Christmas presents by showing purchased gifts to the intended recipient, the company agreed last week to require users to explicitly consent to these broadcasts.

However, they did not allow users to disable Beacon.

User discontent continued to mount, spawning a petition on MoveOn.org and a Facebook group opposing the feature that reached 70,000 members.

Faced with this and increasingly unfavorable media attention, the company added a full opt-out feature Wednesday.

“Instead of acting quickly, we took too long to decide on the right solution,” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post announcing the change. “I’m not proud of the way we’ve handled this situation, and I know we can do better.”

The system is an attempt to generate advertising revenue from Facebook’s users. Seeing what friends are buying, it is hoped, will be a powerful endorsement of that product for others in the network.

But some students, such as Cristina Corral, a member of the University of Texas Facebook network, are uncomfortable with the loss of privacy.

“Even though people are in my network, I may not really know them,” Corral said.

UT history senior Adrian Cane is also uncomfortable with his information being used as an advertising tool.

“All of our demographics are there for advertisers to look at, and I feel like it’s just another way advertisers can get at you,” he said. “But in the end, it’s something everyone will just deal with.”

By William Gest, Daily Texan (U. Texas)