LOS ANGELES (AP) – The state has violated a six-year-old law intended to provide medical care to impoverished people with HIV, according to a Superior Court judge’s ruling announced Dec. 4.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last year by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation that alleged the Department of Health Care Services had failed to implement a program expanding Medi-Cal coverage to eligible HIV patients in California.

Before the state law passed in 2002, HIV-positive people were disqualified from the Medi-Cal program until they developed full-blown AIDS.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant ordered the AIDS foundation to develop a plan to help the state comply with the law. The foundation is scheduled to submit that plan Dec. 17.

“The ruling is a scathing indictment of the state for not doing anything to comply with this law that went into effect five years ago,” foundation spokesman Ged Kenslea said. “DHCS can’t pick and choose which laws they follow.”

The law required the coverage expansion to be budget-neutral and outlined a plan to move Medi-Cal AIDS patients into managed care and use the savings to provide more coverage for HIV-positive patients.

The state agency argued that federal medical privacy laws prohibited it from contacting AIDS patients on Medi-Cal directly or with mailings.

Norman Williams, a deputy director for the state health agency, also argued that officials met their requirements by performing a cost analysis that showed the plan would not work without additional funding.

In a Nov. 25 decision, Chalfant wrote that the state had “arbitrarily failed to meet its statutory duties” because it did not conduct outreach to recruit AIDS patients into managed care.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – San Francisco’s Roman Catholic archbishop says he invited leaders of the Mormon Church to get involved in the campaign to pass a same-sex marriage ban in California this year.

Archbishop George Niederauer said he issued the invitation at the request of his fellow bishops.

Niederauer wrote a column to be published in a diocesan newspaper Friday. In it, he says staff from the California Catholic Conference informed him in May that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had actively supported a similar measure eight years ago.

Niederauer served as bishop of Salt Lake City for 11 years before moving to San Francisco. He says his service in Salt Lake City prompted him to send a letter to Mormon leaders there asking them to cooperate again.

DURANGO, Colo. (AP) – The city of Durango plans to extend health insurance benefits to domestic partners of its employees starting next year.

The City Council is expected to approve the move next month, joining more than 60 other state municipalities who already make the option available to same-sex couples. City Councilmember Michael Rendon says the change is the right thing to do and it will make a statement that Durango is inclusive.

Human Resources Director Linda Crouse says the financial impact will be minimal and about less than 1 percent of the city’s 308 full-time employees are expected to benefit.

Last month, Colorado State University also passed a measure extending health care benefits to domestic partners of its employees.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – The state Department of Public Health has launched a program for routine HIV testing in three Connecticut hospitals.

The state says the program is being offered to identify and treat people who have been infected with HIV, which can develop into AIDS.

Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Waterbury Hospital and Yale-New Haven Hospital have been selected to begin the testing in their emergency departments for a two year period.

Patients who want to be tested will be given a mouth swab in a private part of the emergency department. Their test results will be available in as little as 20 minutes.

State health officials say more than 56,000 people in the United States become infected with HIV each year.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – A gay rights group that wants all Floridians to have the right to marry says it will hold a demonstration outside Gov. Charlie Crist’s wedding.

A spokeswoman for Impact Florida says the group plans to demonstrate at Crist’s December wedding because he supported Amendment 2, which bans same-sex marriage in the state.

Crist plans to marry his fiancée Carole Rome on Dec. 12 at the First United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg.

Impact Florida says its gathering outside the church will be peaceful and that advocates will wear pink.

WHEATON, Ill. (AP) – Theological conservatives upset by the liberal views of the Episcopal Church are forming a rival denomination.

The new Anglican Church in North America will include four Episcopal dioceses that recently split from the U.S. church, along with breakaway Anglican parishes from Canada.

The Dec. 3 announcement in Wheaton, Illinois, comes after decades of debate over what Episcopalians should believe about issues ranging from salvation to sexuality. Tensions erupted in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the first openly gay bishop, New Hampshire’s Gene Robinson.

The world Anglican Communion is a fellowship of churches with roots in the Church of England. The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States. But the new North American church says it represents true Anglican beliefs.

RED WING, Minn. (AP) – Red Wing High School officials have said “no” to Rent.

The Broadway hit was supposed to be Red Wing High School’s spring musical. But school administrators scuttled those plans last month amid concerns over its content.

The musical was to be a toned-down version of the original script, but would have still centered on a group of young artists and musicians struggling to succeed on New York’s Lower East Side.

Superintendent Stan Slessor and Red Wing High School Principal Beth Borgen say the play’s homosexual elements were not behind their decision. Instead they say the main problem was the issue of drug use.

A new musical will be selected. The last time a musical was rejected by the administration was in the 1990s, when West Side Story was struck down.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The legislator who sponsored New Hampshire’s civil union bill will push next year to legalize same-sex marriage.

But Portsmouth Democrat Jim Splaine will face a fight, as those opposed to civil unions vow to try to pare the law down.

Splaine says civil unions give same-sex couples about 90 percent of the benefits and obligations that heterosexual couples get through marriage. He says same-sex marriage is the only way for same-sex couples to attain full equality. Splaine describes the bill as necessary to propel debate.

Meanwhile, there will be debate on the current law.

Hooksett Republican David Hess has filed a request to repeal a portion of the law that recognizes same-sex marriages from other states as civil unions in New Hampshire.

SOUTH MILWAUKEE, Wis. (AP) – Prosecutors have dropped charges against a man accused of having sex with a teen without revealing that he was HIV-positive.

Prosecutors decided there wasn’t enough evidence to convict Rick Allen Brown, 19, of Milwaukee. The charge of second-degree reckless endangerment, to which Brown had pleaded not guilty, was dismissed Dec. 3.

Defense attorney Russell J.A. Jones said Dec. 4 his client was pleased but not surprised by the dismissal, although the charges forced Brown to move from Milwaukee to northern Wisconsin.

“He’s obviously pleased that justice was done, but he had to change his entire life,” Jones said. “The district attorney, before charges are issued and my client is vilified in the press, has to make sure he has evidence to support his claims.”

A message left for prosecutor Paul Tiffin was not immediately returned.

The woman claimed the couple had sex three times last year, according to the criminal complaint. Brown told investigators he only kissed her on the cheek.

The woman said Brown’s aunt informed her Brown is HIV-positive, the complaint said. The woman claimed Brown later acknowledged knowing he was HIV-positive.