TUCSON (AP) – A judge sentenced a woman to nearly the maximum prison term for negligent homicide after hearing a recorded jail conversation in which she made light of the cyclist she killed.

Melissa Arrington, 27, was convicted two months ago of negligent homicide and two counts of aggravated drunk-driving in connection with the December 2006 death of Paul L’Ecuyer.

She could have received as few as four years behind bars, but Superior Court Judge Michael Cruikshank sentenced her Tuesday to 10 and a half years – one year shy of the maximum.

Cruikshank said he found a telephone conversation between Arrington and an unknown male friend, a week after L’Ecuyer was killed, to be “breathtaking in its inhumanity.”

During the conversation, the man told Arrington that an acquaintance believed she should get a medal and a parade because she had “taken out” a “tree hugger, a bicyclist, a Frenchman and a gay guy all in one shot.”

Arrington laughed. When the man said he knew it was a terrible thing to say, she responded, “No, it’s not.”

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The executive director of one of the nation’s leading gay rights groups has accepted a new job with a philanthropic foundation in San Francisco.

Matt Foreman has been at the helm of the New York-based National Gay and Lesbian Task Force for five years. In April, he plans to start working for the Evelyn & Walter Haas, Jr. Fund as head of the foundation’s gay and lesbian program.

MIAMI (AP) – Liz Cheney, one of Vice President Dick Cheney’s daughters, has signed onto Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign as a senior foreign policy adviser.

Liz Cheney, 41, is the elder of Dick and Lynne Cheney’s two daughters. Her younger sister, Mary, has been more prominently in the public eye after revealing she is a lesbian and having a son last year with her partner, Heather Poe, despite the administration’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – There might not be enough support in the Legislature for a bill to prohibit businesses from discriminating against workers based on sexual orientation, Republican leaders say.

Lawmakers voted Monday to print the bill, an initial step in the legislative process. But Sen. Curt McKenzie, R-Nampa, and chair of the State Affairs Committee, said the bill might not get a full committee hearing.

“I’m not going to hold a hearing if it’s going to die in the committee,” McKenzie told the Twin Falls Times-News. “I voted to print it as a courtesy to the sponsors.”

Idaho’s 1968 Human Rights Act forbids workplace and housing discrimination based on race, sex, religion, color or national origin. The bill would prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation at businesses with more than five employees. It would not apply to religious organizations.

A recent Boise State University poll found that 63 percent of Idahoans think it should be illegal to fire someone because they are perceived to be gay or lesbian.

Twenty other states have adopted similar laws.

RENO (AP) – A small group of anti-gay protesters gathered Saturday outside a funeral service for a Reno soldier killed in Iraq, but later became surrounded by more than 150 counter-demonstrators, authorities said.

The anti-gay protest was the latest sponsored by the Westboro Baptist Church based in Topeka, Kan., which claims God kills soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to punish America for condoning homosexuality.

There were no problems after three anti-gay protesters became surrounded by counter-demonstrators across the street from St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, where the service was held for Army Staff Sgt. Sean Gaul, according to Washoe County sheriff’s Lt. Dean Spurr.

“They had a little bit of talking back and forth, nothing loud,” Spurr said. “I thought it was very peaceful.”

The 29-year-old Gaul was among six soldiers who died Jan. 9 in Sinsil, Iraq, after an improvised explosive device, commonly known as IED, detonated during combat operations.

Counter-demonstrators showed up with American flags and made it difficult to see anti-gay protesters’ signs that read “God Hates Fags” and “God Loves IEDs.”

SANTA FE (AP) – A proposal to allow for domestic partnerships is advancing to the House for consideration.

Gov. Bill Richardson supports the measure to give unmarried couples – homosexual or heterosexual – the same legal protections and benefits as married couples.

The legislation cleared the House Judiciary Committee on Monday on a mostly party line 9-4 vote. All but one of the panel’s Republicans opposed the bill.

The proposal will allow county clerks to issue certificates of domestic partnership to couples who register with them.

The bill should come up for debate and a vote in the House later this week.

The domestic partnership bill is HB9.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, would add sexual orientation and gender identity to a list of protected classes in Utah’s anti-discrimination law.

On Friday, lawmakers heard testimony about the bill and did the unexpected: They didn’t kill it.

Rather than kill the bill, the committee decided to table it until another meeting. The chair, Rep. Stephen Clark, R-Provo, said he was late because of car trouble and needed more time to study it.

“I take it as a very promising sign that they’re willing to think more on the issue,” said Will Carlson, policy director for the gay-rights group Equality Utah.

The Utah Labor Commission said it has received 14 complaints of discrimination against gays or transgenders since June when Equality Utah asked it to keep track.

Opponents said government shouldn’t recognize homosexuality as a legal status because they contend it’s a choice.

“I think that causes and creates discrimination because we’re segregating them out,” said Dalane England, who has a house-painting business.

“I don’t think it’s the role of government to legitimize sexual choices. Are we going to be doing the same thing next year with polygamy?” England said.

OLYMPIA (AP) – The Washington state Legislature has the second-largest gay caucus in the country after a new representative was appointed to the House this year.

Marko Liias, a 26-year-old Democrat from Mukilteo, started the legislative session earlier this month, replacing former Rep. Brian Sullivan, who left the Legislature for the Snohomish County Council. Liias’ arrival gives Washington six openly gay lawmakers, ahead of California’s five, but still one shy of the seven gay lawmakers in New Hampshire.

That gives Washington state the second largest Capitol gay caucus, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based political action committee.

“Anything that we can do, me as an individual, or us as a state, to be leaders on this issue and be role models is excellent,” Liias told The Associated Press Wednesday. “The message really is, everyone deserves a stake in Washington, and everyone has a stake in Washington’s future.”

Liias joins Reps. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver and Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, and Sens. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, and Joe McDermott, D-Seattle.

Of the approximately 500,000 elected officials in America, about 400 of them are openly gay or lesbian, said Denis Dison, a Victory Fund spokesperson.

Nineteen states don’t have any openly gay lawmakers in their legislatures. Of those, six don’t have any openly gay officials at any level: Alaska, Louisiana, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina and West Virginia.

With 116, California leads the nation as the state with the most elected and appointed officials who are openly gay, according to the Victory Fund. Pennsylvania is second with 37 officials, though none are state legislators. Washington is third with 35, and New York is fourth with 30.

More gay and lesbian candidates are running for office and getting elected because they are becoming more politically sophisticated, better funded and better organized, Dison said.

“Barriers have been broken,” he said. “I think we are in the adolescence of gay and lesbian people stepping up and running for office.”

The group has endorsed 39 candidates in various political campaigns this year, including the re-election of U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, but hopes to support more than 100. It supports two candidates in Oregon, Sen. Kate Brown, who is running for secretary of state, and Portland City Commissioner Sam Adams, who is running for mayor.