NEW YORK—The U.S. News & World Report college rankings for 2007 lists nearly every CCCU (Council for Christian Colleges & Universities) member institution, many of them ranking in the top tier of their category. In addition to ranking well overall, several CCCU colleges were singled out in special categories for excelling in certain areas, including:

• First-Year Experience: Azusa Pacific University (CA)
• Least Student Debt: Gordon College (MA), Southwest Baptist University (MO), Spring Arbor University (MI) and Warner Southern College (FL)

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More Than 40% of Californians Speak a Tongue Other Than English at Home  A full 42% of Californians speak a language other than English at home, with two-thirds of that group (28%) speaking Spanish and the rest speaking some other tongue. Not coincidentally, 27% of Californians are foreign-born, the highest in the nation.

• One in eight residents (12.4%) are immigrants (legal or illegal), up from 11% in 2000
• Latin America accounts for more than half (53%) of the immigrant population

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Immigrants -- legal and illegal -- make up a growing portion of the population in 46 states and the District of Columbia.

• South Carolina's immigrant population grew by 47 percent since 2000, more than any other state.
• The Hispanic population grew by 48 percent in Arkansas, the most for any state.
• Hispanics increased their hold as the country's largest minority group, at 14.5 percent of the population, compared with 12.8 percent for blacks.
  • Such whites are a minority in four states -- Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas -- and the District of Columbia. The share of white people fell below 60 percent in three other states: Maryland, Georgia and Nevada.
  • Nationally, non-Hispanic whites make up about 67 percent of the population, down from 70 percent at the start of the decade.
    California, New York, Texas and Florida have the nation's largest immigrant populations. The new data show that immigrants will travel beyond those states if there are jobs available.
• West Virginia, meanwhile, was one of only two states in which the percentage of white people grew. The other was Hawaii, where whites are an increasing minority.
  
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