LITTLE ROCK (AP) – Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment that would exclude unmarried couples from adoptions or foster care submitted a revised version Wednesday that would declare married couples the best guardians for Arkansas children.

Arkansas Family Council submitted the revised ballot proposal, along with a new popular name, although Attorney General Dustin McDaniel had certified the group’s original proposal last week, clearing the way for supporters to collect voter signatures.

“We believe that the proposal we sent over today is a much better proposal than the one the attorney general approved initially,” Arkansas Family Council director Jerry Cox said. “I don’t think there is going to be a problem.”

The revised version includes the sentence: “The people of Arkansas find and declare that it is in the best interest of children in need of adoption or foster care to be reared in homes in which adoptive or foster parents are not co-habiting outside of marriage.”

Family Council organizers had second thoughts about the popular name, which McDaniel had recommended and the group adopted, and the group revised the name in the interest of clarity, Cox said.

Cox noted that Arkansas law does not allow same-sex marriages, and said the original name included an unnecessary reference to individuals living outside a valid marriage “with an opposite-sex or same-sex partner.” The phrase was deleted in the revised proposal.

Days after he certified the proposal, McDaniel said he personally opposed the ban. “Foster parenting and adoption should be based on qualifications and what is in the best interest of a child, not sexual orientation,” he said.

Gov. Mike Beebe also opposed the measure, saying it goes too far with its adoption restrictions.

“We have a thorough system in place where child-care professionals and judges work diligently to place these children in caring and nurturing homes,” Beebe said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. “This proposal aims to override that process and dictate the perceived best interests of these children to the courts and to the state of Arkansas. We should not undermine the current deliberative system and replace it with a rigid, blanket policy that does not allow full consideration for the circumstances of each child.”

McDaniel was out of the country Wednesday, but spokesperson Gabe Holmstrom said McDaniel will reserve comment on the revised measure until after it goes through the certification process in his office.

Family Council will have to collect more than 61,000 signatures of valid voters by July 7, 2008, to get the measure on the general election ballot. Cox said if the second version is certified, the group would circulate it rather than two similar measures.

The initiated act would effectively reinstate a ban on gay foster parents that Arkansas’ highest court has struck down. The Family Council this year had backed legislation that would have banned gays and lesbians, as well as unmarried couples living together, from adopting or fostering children.

During the legislative session last spring, the state Senate voted to pass the ban but the plan failed in a House committee after Beebe said the measure had constitutional problems.

Wednesday, Cox predicted that if the new proposal becomes law and faces a court challenge, it will pass review. He said many laws state reasons for their passage, such as laws that declare smoking bad for a person’s health or laws setting certain ages for people to drive or marry as in the public’s best interest.

“This is an extremely reasonable finding,” Cox said of the revised version that finds married couples make the best parents for children.

LOWELL (AP) – Eight prison guards have been disciplined for their part in a same-sex wedding ceremony for two female inmates at Lowell Correctional Institution in Marion County.

Department of Corrections officials say the discipline was handed out because the officers allowed the inmates to perform, decorate and participate in an unauthorized ceremony in a close-management dormitory.

One officer has been fired, another has resigned and six have been suspended. Officials say allowing the inmates to gather for the event placed officers at risk. One of the two inmates who participated in the wedding has been transferred to another prison.

LEXINGTON (AP) – An attorney representing a woman convicted in a high-profile murder in 1986 argued before the Supreme Court that she should get a new trial because she got bad advice from her former attorney.

Karen Brown is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 25 years for her role in a notorious love triangle murder case in Lexington.

Brown, her lesbian girlfriend, Elizabeth Turpin and their friend, Keith Bouchard, were accused of the February 1996 murder of 22-year-old Michael Turpin. Prosecutors said the three plotted Michael Turpin’s death for six months to collect $60,000 in insurance money.

Brown and Elizabeth Turpin, who was married to Michael Turpin, were convicted of murder. Bouchard pleaded guilty and testified against the women.

Public defender Marguerite Neil Thomas noted in appeal briefs that Brown’s former attorney, Julius Rather of Lexington, did not call a single witness, while Elizabeth Turpin’s attorney called 17. He did not question Bouchard’s credibility despite evidence of mental illness.

An attorney for the state said Rather probably saved Brown’s life by not putting her on the stand. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Brown and Elizabeth Turpin.

Assistant Attorney General Todd Ferguson said Wednesday that Rather successfully suppressed part of Brown’s confession to police, which would have become admissible for impeachment purposes had she testified. Michael Turpin’s father, Don, said it’s the second time Brown’s conviction has been before the Supreme Court.

“It’s just a continual replay,” Don Turpin said. “In the 20 years, they have never brought up a new argument that they didn’t make before. It frustrates you and infuriates you that you have to keep going through this.”

In 2003, Brown asked Fayette Circuit Judge Gary Payne for a new trial. She said she had no knowledge of the murder plot and thought only that Bouchard would “rough up” Michael Turpin.

Brown said her confession was a lie she made to protect Elizabeth Turpin.

Payne granted a new trial, but the Kentucky Court of Appeals later overruled him. The Supreme Court agreed to consider the case on discretionary review.

The justices seemed skeptical of Brown’s story. Justice Mary Noble said “it’s a no-brainer” that Brown could come up with a better story after 17 years to reflect on it.

Rather has said that he had a weak case and that he wanted to avoid the death penalty. He has said that he did not question Bouchard’s mental stability because he feared that might convince jurors that Brown was the ringleader. And he did not want jurors to hear Brown’s confession.

In death penalty cases, “you try not to give them (prosecutors) any peg to hang their hat on,” Rather said.

EXETER (AP) – Kevin Daly got a lesson Thursday in Presidential Politics 101.

The sophomore at Phillips Exeter Academy pointedly asked Republican candidate Mitt Romney about his shifting positions on abortion and gay rights.

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney indicated he would not change state laws on abortion rights, now he opposes abortion. During the 1994 Senate campaign in Massachusetts, Romney indicated he would be a better advocate for gay rights than rival Democrat Edward M. Kennedy.

“How can any of your campaign promises be trusted?” Daly asked.

Romney suggested the 15-year-old from Weston, Mass., had falsely stated that he favored same-sex marriage in 1994.

Around and around the two went, with Daly referring to a New York Times report about the gay rights pledge. The second time through, he mistakenly said the story detailed a “gay marriage” pledge.

That was enough for Romney.

“Even The New York Times hasn’t said I’ll be stronger on gay marriage than Ted Kennedy, even The New York Times,” Romney said. “I’ve never been an advocate of gay marriage.”

WASHINGTON (AP) – In response to an uproar from gay activists, Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign on Wednesday added a gay minister to the lineup for its weekend gospel tour.

Gay activists had criticized Obama’s “Embrace the Change” tour in South Carolina because the performers included gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who says homosexuality is a choice.

Obama’s campaign invited Rev. Andy Sidden, a South Carolina pastor who is openly gay, to appear on Sunday in Columbia. Obama discussed Sidden’s inclusion Thursday with Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, which supports gay rights.

In a statement, Solmonese said he thanked Obama for including Sidden but told the Illinois senator he was disappointed McClurkin will remain part of the program.

“There is no gospel in Donnie McClurkin’s message for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their allies,” Solmonese said. “That’s a message that certainly doesn’t belong on any presidential candidate’s stage.”

McClurkin is a Grammy Award winner who performed at the Republican National Convention in 2004. He told AP Radio in an interview that September that he was “once involved with those desires and those thoughts,” but God turned him away from them.

Obama has spoken out against homophobia, including in the black community. He supports civil unions for same-sex couples but not the right for same-sex marriage.