MESA (AP) – A police investigation is under way in Scottsdale after a 27-year-old Phoenix man told police he was punched in the jaw after leaving an establishment.

It’s the second such incident in Scottsdale since December.

Nicholas Gearing said he was walking early in the morning of July 16 with two friends in downtown Scottsdale.

Gearing said he stopped to hug one friend goodbye when two men came around a corner and started hassling them.

The men began yelling anti-homosexual remarks, Gearing said.

They followed Gearing’s friend to his car, and that’s when Gearing said he yelled at the men in an effort to stop them.

Instead, the men approached Gearing’s car and began kicking it and one punched through the back window.

Gearing said he rolled down a window to tell them he was calling police. The man who broke the window punched Gearing in the jaw, he said.

Gearing said he’s met with representatives from groups including the Scottsdale Human Rights Commission and gay rights group Equity Arizona to discuss the crime and what he’ll do next.

Scottsdale police are also still investigating a December incident when two men were attacked after leaving a steakhouse.

CEDAR RAPIDS (AP) – Trial began Tuesday for a man whom authorities say exposed three teenagers to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The trial comes a day after Ronald L. Lord, 36, of Cedar Rapids, pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree sexual abuse. He admitted that he sexually abused three teenage boys between September 2005 and August 2006.

Lord also was charged with three counts of criminal transmission of HIV, which were being tried separately from the abuse charges.

He waived his right to a jury trial. A trial before a judge began Tuesday in Linn County District Court.

BOSTON (AP) – Couples from New Mexico can marry in Massachusetts because their home state has not explicitly banned same-sex marriage, officials said.

New Mexico joins Rhode Island as the only states whose GLBT residents are allowed to marry in Massachusetts, which is the only state that allows same-sex marriage.

Massachusetts’ city and town clerks were instructed by the state registrar to give licenses to same-sex couples from New Mexico in a July 18 notice.

The United States has a patchwork of same-sex marriage laws, and New Mexico and Rhode Island are the only two that have not specifically banned or allowed the practice. A handful of states recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships with many of the benefits of marriage. They do not recognize marriages from Massachusetts.

It was not immediately clear if any same-sex couples from New Mexico have ever been married in Massachusetts. In February, two measures that would have banned same-sex marriage in New Mexico were killed when a House committee tabled them.

Rhode Island has not yet decided whether to recognize same-sex marriages from Massachusetts, although the state’s attorney general recommends they should.

The marriages of more than 170 couples from New York were deemed valid because they got married in Massachusetts prior to a New York appeals court ruling in 2006 that banned same-sex marriages.

Massachusetts began marrying same-sex couples in 2004. Gov. Mitt Romney then prohibited out-of-state couples from marrying in the state, citing a 1913 law that bars Massachusetts from marrying couples who would be prevented from marrying in their home states.

In March 2006, the state’s highest court ruled that same-sex couples from other states could not marry in Massachusetts if their home state expressly prohibited same-sex marriage.

LANSING (AP) – The Michigan Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled against 17 taxpayers who filed a lawsuit challenging the Ann Arbor school district’s same-sex benefits policy.

The justices agreed the citizens cannot proceed with the suit, although some disagreed with regard to the reason why.

The case involved whether the taxpayers followed the proper procedure to stop Ann Arbor Public Schools from offering benefits to same-sex couples.

The state appeals court dismissed the case in 2005 and ruled the taxpayers

didn’t “demand” that the district stop providing the benefits to same-sex partners before filing suit, as required under state law. They had sent letters to school board members asking them to stop the policy.

The high court’s majority said the taxpayers did enough to challenge the policy but still ruled the plaintiffs lacked standing, or the right to sue.

The broader issue of same-sex benefits stems from a 2004 voter-approved constitutional amendment making the union between a man and a woman the only agreement recognized as a marriage “or similar union for any purpose.”

The Supreme Court will hold oral arguments on the constitutionality of same-sex benefits in the next term.

BUFFALO (AP) – A former U.S. border officer is suing the government, saying he was wrongly targeted for firing and criminal charges after an incident with a Chinese tourist at the U.S.-Canada border.

Robert Rhodes was acquitted in 2005 of charges he violated the tourist’s civil rights by pushing her head into the pavement as several officers sought to control her after she ran from a checkpoint.

But instead of returning to work, the 17-year veteran of Customs and Border Protection said he was fired. His lawyer said Rhodes was considered expendable because he had filed a federal complaint against his employer alleging unfair treatment because he is gay.

“I lost my home, my pension. No one will hire me. No one will even talk to me,” Rhodes said Wednesday. His lawyer filed a pair of $25 million civil suits against the United States and three Homeland Security officers in U.S. District Court on Monday.

Rhodes says he was selectively prosecuted by the government under pressure from Chinese authorities, who expressed outrage over the July 2004 incident after news photos of a battered-looking Zhao Yan caught their attention.

While several officers were involved in Zhao’s detention, only Rhodes was charged.

Rhodes’ legal action also targets three CBP agents he said conspired to arrest him.

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection, Kevin Corsaro, declined to comment on the Rhodes case, citing departmental policy that prohibits discussion of ongoing litigation.

During Rhodes’ criminal trial, a federal prosecutor denied the allegations, saying Rhodes was charged almost immediately after the incident and before Chinese officials noticed.

Meanwhile, a $10 million civil suit filed by Zhao Yan against the United States is pending.

During the trial, Zhao said she ran from the customs building because she was frightened by the border agents who beckoned her and two traveling companions inside. The agents were trying to determine whether the group had been traveling with a man found carrying drugs.

FRISCO (AP) – A suburban Dallas man accused of having unprotected sex while aware of being HIV positive has been charged with four counts of aggravated assault.

Philippe Padieu, 51, of Frisco, is accused of having sex with four women, at least one of whom has tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, said Frisco police Sgt. Gerald Meadors.

Padieu was being held Tuesday night in the Collin County Jail in McKinney on $50,000 bond for each charge. A jail spokesperson said she had no records that indicate whether he has an attorney.

Padieu, a martial arts instructor, was arrested at an Addison nightclub last week. He has known since the fall of 2005 that he is HIV positive, Frisco police said in a news release.

MONTPELIER (AP) – The leaders of the Vermont House and Senate on Wednesday announced the appointment of a commission to decide whether the Legislature should consider allowing same-sex marriage in the state.

The 10-member commission will be led by former state Rep. Tom Little, who served as chair of the House Judiciary Committee, when the Legislature passed the law legalizing civil unions in the state in 2000.

“Their charge will be to review and evaluate Vermont laws with relationship to same-sex couples and their families,” House Speaker Gaye Symington, D-Jericho, said.

The volunteer commission is to complete its study by next spring, so it’s unlikely the Legislature could consider a same-sex marriage bill before 2009.