SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The campaigns for and against a November ballot measure that would outlaw same-sex marriage in California are picking up financial steam.

The sponsors of Proposition 8 announced Aug. 19 that they have received their largest campaign contribution to date: a $1 million donation from the Knights of Columbus

The money comes on top of $250,000 the New Haven, Conn.-based Catholic fraternal organization gave in January to help qualify the measure for the November election.

Last month, the founder of the WordPerfect software company, Bruce Bastian, pledged $1 million to help defeat the initiative, which would amend the state constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman.

Bastian’s gift is the largest single contribution received so far by the amendment’s opponents.

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) – At least 10 people have received automated calls purportedly from the St. Joseph County Health Department telling them they might have contracted a sexually transmitted disease.

The health agency says the messages are a hoax and that it would never leave personal medical information on an answering machine or through an automated system. The calls reportedly tell people they have had exposure to an STD or HIV virus.

Health Department nursing director Barb Baker says at least some of those receiving the calls took them seriously.

She says the calls seem to have been made at random, going to people ranging from 11 to 70 years old.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – An anti-discrimination order put in place by former Gov. Kathleen Blanco four years ago was not renewed by Gov. Bobby Jindal when it expired Friday.

The order – enacted by Blanco on Dec. 6, 2004 – bars state agencies and contractors from various sorts of harassment and discrimination by race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation or disabilities.

Jindal said Aug. 20 that discrimination is prohibited under state and federal laws and he doesn’t want to create more special categories by executive order. He also said he worried it could cause problems with faith-based organizations’ ability to contract with the state, a concern he raised when Blanco issued the order and when Jindal was a congressman.

“We’re not going to renew it. That shouldn’t come as a surprise,” he said when questioned about the order’s expiration. “We oppose discrimination. I think we’ve got strong federal and state laws that protect our people.”

The order by Blanco stirred up complaints at the time it was issued, modeled after a similar anti-discrimination order issued in 1992 by then-Gov. Edwin Edwards. Conservative groups derided the executive order while gay rights groups applauded it.

When it was issued in 2004, Blanco’s office said much of the language already was covered under federal law, and the governor said she was stating a policy that everyone should be treated fairly in the workplace.

The legislature has in recent years rejected several proposals aimed at ensuring equal legal protections for gays and lesbians.

BOSTON (AP) – The same-sex marriage fight in Massachusetts may not be over after all.

Opponents of same-sex marriages have filed paperwork for a ballot question that would repeal a new law that nullified a 1913 statute that prevented gay and lesbian couples from getting married here if their union wouldn’t be legal in their home state.

Brian Camenker of the group Mass Resistance says lawmakers and Gov. Deval Patrick bowed to the will of the “gay lobby” by approving the repeal of the 1913 law last month.

Gay Massachusetts residents have been allowed to legally marry since 2004. Opponents such as former Gov. Mitt Romney said the 1913 law prevented Massachusetts from becoming the “Las Vegas of same-sex marriage.”

“The Legislature and the governor changed our marriage laws to please the well-connected minority and force a social experiment into other states that’s very offensive to a majority of the people, at least the way the votes have been going,” Camenker said, referring to recent votes in favor of gay marriage bans in other states.

He was particularly critical of an emergency preamble attached to the repeal. It bypassed a normal 90-day waiting period and made the law effective immediately. Opponents typically use the 90 days to present signatures and delay the law until it can be put to a ballot vote.

“The fact that this happened the way it happened just adds to the sense of sleaziness and underhandedness of the whole process,” Camenker said.

The group will need about 32,000 signatures to get their question on the ballot.

Mass Resistance filed paperwork with the secretary of state’s office on Aug. 13. It is unlikely any question would go on the ballot before 2010.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – The University of New Hampshire will now ask partnering agencies if they do background checks on employees.

The move comes after learning convicted child rapist 39-year-old Jeremy Semprebon, of Rye, was involved with a UNH HIV-testing program.

UNH spokesperson Kim Billings says if agencies don’t perform the checks, the school will have “to rethink things.” She says university employees have always been screened.

Semprebon has been charged with five felonies after he allegedly failed to disclose his sex offender status to his Portsmouth employer, AIDS Response-Seacoast.

Police say he had access to minors twice while working at the agency as an education prevention coordinator.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Memphis police say a community center employee is charged with sexually assaulting a teenager and exposing her to the virus that causes AIDS.

According to police, 37-year-old Timothy Bernard Payne was jailed Aug. 19 on charges of aggravated rape and criminal exposure to HIV.

A 17-year-old girl told police Payne assaulted her after offering her a ride home from the Westwood Community Center in Memphis.

Police say Payne was employed at the center’s swimming pool.

WINCHESTER, Va. (AP) – A judge has dismissed the latest attempt by a woman to deny visitation rights to her former lesbian partner.

Frederick County Circuit Judge John Prosser on Aug. 18 dismissed Lisa Miller’s request to halt efforts to enforce a Vermont court’s orders granting Janet Jenkins visitation with the daughter born to her and Miller in April 2002. Prosser agreed with lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, who argued that lower courts and the Virginia Supreme Court already had ruled in Jenkins’ favor.

Prosser remanded the case to the county juvenile court for enforcement of the Vermont orders.

ACLU attorney Rebecca Glenberg said Miller’s lawyers were trying unsuccessfully to re-litigate the case, attempting an “end-run” around the state Supreme Court decision.

Mathew Staver, founder of Liberty Counsel and dean of the law school at conservative Christian school Liberty University, said his client plans to appeal the case, arguing that Virginia courts shouldn’t enforce Vermont’s custody orders because of a state constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage and the enforcement of same-sex civil unions.

Jenkins has been fighting for visitation rights since the dissolution of the civil union she and Miller obtained in Vermont in 2000. The legal battle is closely watched by national conservative and gay-rights groups.

Miller renounced homosexuality and moved back to Virginia with now 6-year-old Isabella after the couple split, and she has fought Jenkins’ visitation efforts. However, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled in June that a federal law aimed at preventing parents from crossing state lines to evade a custody ruling requires Virginia courts to enforce Vermont’s order.

The Virginia Court of Appeals twice ruled in favor of Jenkins. Miller’s attorneys missed a deadline for appealing the first ruling to the Virginia Supreme Court, so they filed a second appeal on different grounds. The appellate court ruled that the second case raised no new issues, and the Supreme Court agreed. In 2006, the Vermont Supreme Court also ruled in favor of Jenkins.