MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama has shed the distinction of being the only state to bar inmates with HIV from work release programs.

The American Civil Liberties Union has fought to end the practice for decades and on Aug. 13 praised the Alabama Department of Corrections for doing so this week.

Corrections officials say all eligible prisoners with HIV have been approved to participate in the work release program and will be transferred to work release facilities as beds become available.

Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU National Prison Project, said the organization is thrilled with the overdue change and that Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen deserves credit for taking a stand.

Work release allows eligible inmates to hold free-world jobs, earn money, wear plain clothes and spend the day without supervision of corrections staff.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The judge deciding the fate of same-sex marriage in California said Aug. 12 he is dissatisfied with all the court filings meant to lay out the important legal issues and key evidence.

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ordered new submissions with more details by Aug. 17.

Walker said the filings made last week “fail to get down to the specifics of how we are going to proceed in this case.” He faulted lawyers on all sides, including those representing Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown.

The judge said he wants detailed information about what effects Proposition 8 has on the couples suing as well as “opposite-sex couples and others not in same-sex relationships in California.”

He said he wants names and titles of the witnesses expected to testify and what legal standards should be used to decide the case, among other details he said were missing from the original filings.

Two same-sex couples who want to wed are challenging the state’s same-sex marriage ban put in place by passage of Proposition 8 in November. They’re represented by prominent lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies.

The judge complained that the five so-called case management statements he received didn’t cut to the heart of the case.

The governor and attorney general, who are supposed to defend state laws, submitted separate but similar filings saying they would leave it to the conservative legal group the Alliance Defense Fund to take the lead in defending California’s same-sex marriage ban.

Lawyers representing county clerks, who license marriages in California, filed a short statement saying they also planned to play a passive role.

Submissions from the two groups leading each side essentially boiled down to a disagreement over whether a trial would be necessary to decide the issue. Olson and Boies contend a trial before the judge could start this year, while the Alliance Defense Fund argued that the judge could decide the case on court filings and oral arguments.

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) – An HIV-positive Lakeland man allegedly had unprotected sex with a 13-year-old boy he met volunteering at a gay youth ministry.

Jere Michael Temple, 58, faces six counts of custodial sexual battery. He’s also charged with having intercourse without disclosing HIV.

Police said the boy spent weekends at Temple’s home over several months. The boy’s mother called police Aug. 7 after he told her about his sexual relationship with Temple.

Neither the boy nor his mother knew Temple had HIV, but he has purportedly known more than eight years. The Ledger of Lakeland featured him in a March article on HIV and AIDS patients.

Karen Ducham, pastor of the Rainbow Promise Community Church, says the congregation is “in shock.”

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) – A group fighting to keep Maine’s same-sex marriage law on the books has opened its third campaign headquarters in as many weeks.

NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality held an open house Aug. 12 for its newest office in Lewiston. The other offices are in Portland and Brewer.

Maine’s law was scheduled to take effect next month, but it has been sidetracked as state election officials verify petitions submitted to force a statewide referendum in November.

The law will be stayed pending the vote if state election officials certify the signatures of at least 55,087 registered voters. That’s all but certain, since same-sex marriage opponents say they collected more than 100,000 signatures.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The Anoka-Hennepin School District has settled a lawsuit filed by the family of a high school junior who said he was harassed by teachers who thought he was gay.

The district agreed to pay $25,000 to the family after an investigation by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found two teachers made the boy the subject of classroom jokes and innuendos about sexual orientation.

The state investigation showed that one teacher told her class the boy’s “fence swings both ways.” It said another teacher told her class the boy enjoyed wearing women’s clothes.

The school district denied it violated the state’s Human Rights Act.

Anoka-Hennepin Superintendent Dennis Carlson says the two teachers remain employed in the district.

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) – A Duluth man infected with the AIDS virus is charged with failing to tell his girlfriend about his disease before they had sex.

Jessie Allen Tuff, 39, faces a misdemeanor charge of knowingly transferring a communicable disease.

Tuff’s girlfriend told police she had a consensual sexual relationship with Tuff from October through November 2008. She said she learned Tuff was HIV positive when she read an e-mail he received from his ex-wife.

The woman says she has tested negative for HIV.

Tuff is scheduled to be arraigned in St. Louis County District Court on Sept. 8. He’s currently serving a nine-month sentence at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center for violating probation in an earlier case.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – A new poll finds former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey is more unpopular now than when he resigned after acknowledging an extramarital affair with another man.

The Fairleigh Dickinson-PublicMind Poll released Aug. 12 – the fifth anniversary of McGreevey’s stunning coming out as “a gay American” – finds 62 percent of Garden State voters have an unfavorable opinion of him now, compared to 53 percent who held an unfavorable view when he resigned.

McGreevey has since been through a bitter divorce and child custody battle.

Now openly gay, he lives with his partner and is enrolled in an Episcopal seminary.

The telephone survey of 803 registered voters was taken June 22-29 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

CLEVELAND (AP) – A conservative legal group is suing the city of Cleveland over its domestic partner registry, claiming it violates the state constitution.

The Alliance Defense Fund says it filed the lawsuit on Aug. 12 on behalf of taxpayers. The alliance is also asking the court for injunctions to shut down the registry.

Cleveland’s domestic partner registry, which began operating in May, provides official records of same-sex relationships. In December, the Cleveland council voted to make a registry available for unmarried couples of whatever sexual orientation. Same-sex marriage is not allowed in Ohio.

The Alliance Defense Fund has been a vocal opponent of same-sex rights across the nation.

Ask Cleveland, a gay rights group, says the registry does not violate the constitution. City officials did not immediately return a request for comment.