MESA, Ariz. (AP) – A proposal for a domestic partner registry in Mesa is being criticized after a national Christian group urged residents to oppose it.

Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh proposed the registry to ensure visitation rights for domestic partners at medical facilities.

Kavanaugh cites Phoenix’s registry for unmarried couples, both straight and gay. Tucson also has a registry.

Mesa’s Human Relations Advisory Board has been considering the idea for months, but e-mails blasting it began coming in late last month.

Family Watch International, which has a mailing address in Gilbert, released an e-mail Aug. 25, urging Mesa residents to stop “a ‘domestic partner registry’ ordinance that the city is quietly trying to enact.”

Kavanaugh says many e-mails he received against the idea came on or shortly after the religious group’s mass e-mail.

CHICAGO (AP) – A group of scientists at three Chicago institutions has received a nearly $4 million federal grant to start a Developmental Center for AIDS Research – one of just two in the Midwest. The other is in Cleveland, Ohio.

Researchers from Rush University Medical Center, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Cook County Health and Hospitals System are involved.

The money will fund research to improve prevention, detection and treatment of HIV infection and AIDS.

Alan Landay, chairman of immunology and microbiology at Rush, will direct the new center, to be headquartered at Rush. Landay says it gives Chicago the chance to be “an epicenter for AIDS research.”

Chicago ranks sixth among U.S. cities in the number of HIV cases, with approximately 21,000 known infections and another 5,000 presumed infections.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – The Catholic church in Maine is stepping up its effort to defeat a same-sex marriage law in November.

The WBLZ News Center reports that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland is asking its parishes to take a special second collection next weekend to help pay for a campaign to use a statewide referendum to reverse a same-sex marriage law passed by the state Legislature.

Money raised in the effort will go to Stand for Marriage Maine, which is leading the effort to repeal the law allowing same-sex marriage.

Stand for Marriage also is planning a rally next Saturday, Sept. 19 at the Augusta Civic Center.

BOLTON, Mass. (AP) – It has no corporate sponsors, paid staff, or advertising.

But the 500-mile Ride FAR bicycle trek for AIDS and HIV awareness has lasted two decades and raised more than $1 million.

The five-day ride begins in Provincetown on Sept. 16 and ends Sept. 20 in Stow.

Ride founder Suzy Becker of Bolton said when she started the ride in 1989, she figured there would be a cure or vaccine by now. Though progress has been made, Becker said the lack of a vaccine is discouraging and more motivation to keep the ride going.

Becker, an author, said the ride aims to keep HIV-AIDS in the nation’s ``nation’s conscience and consciousness.’’

The ride is limited to 25 riders, who must raise $2,000 each.

Cyclists travel through Cape Cod, Rhode Island and central Massachusetts.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A 1976 Springfield law aimed at preventing gays and lesbians from soliciting same-sex encounters was expected to be removed from that city’s ordinances.

The ordinance, which makes it illegal to solicit sex from someone of the same gender, came under fire in June during the annual PrideFest celebration. City Attorney Dan Wichmer has called the law unconstitutional.

Councilman Doug Burlison told the Springfield News-Leader that the law came to his attention amid the outcry in June, and he has called for its removal.

“I’m looking forward to getting this action completed,” he said.

In July, the Gay and Lesbian Center of the Ozarks praised the potential removal of the ordinance from Springfield’s books.

“It’s definitely discriminatory against the LGBT community,” center spokesman Michael Siepel said in a statement in July. “One of the GLO Center’s purposes is to continue to work towards equal rights for all.”

Wichmer said the ordinance has not been enforced in years. Instead, the city follows an ordinance that bars sex in public places and is not exclusive.

Burlison said he has received feedback from people on both sides of the issue and has tried to explain to everyone what removing the ordinance would do.

“This is not a measure approving same-sex marriage,” Burlison said. “We’re not giving gay people any additional rights. This is a measure, in my mind, that keeps everyone on a level playing field and keeps social engineering out of local law.”

Another ordinance that’s expected to get the boot is one requiring the city to conduct inspections of beer kegs.

“We don’t have the financing to provide personnel to do that,” Burlison said.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union wants reality TV star Richard Hatch freed from a jail where he has been held on charges of giving unauthorized interviews.

Lawyers for the ACLU of Massachusetts on Sept. 9 sought the ``Survivor’’ winner’s release from the Barnstable County jail in Bourne, Mass.

Hatch was taken into custody Aug. 18 at his sister’s Newport home after giving TV interviews that the federal Bureau of Prisons said it had not approved. He was serving home confinement for failing to pay income taxes on his $1 million prize for winning the first season of the show. He was convicted in Providence in 2006.

During the interviews, Hatch said the trial judge discriminated against him because he was gay. The ACLU says Hatch has a right to criticize the government.

SEATTLE (AP) – The Washington state attorney general’s office says it is appealing a federal judge’s decision to keep secret the names of people who signed petitions calling for a public vote on expanded domestic partnership benefits.

Spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie says Attorney General Rob McKenna will ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the decision on a fast track, and in the meantime, he wants the appeals court to lift an injunction that blocks the release of the names.

U.S. District Judge Ben Settle ruled Sept. 10 that the petitions should not be released because it would likely chill the First Amendment rights of petition signers. He said people have a right to participate anonymously in the political process.

WASHINGTO, D.C. (AP) – The government proposed Sept. 9 to have Medicare cover tests for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

“This proposal to cover HIV screening for our Medicare population has great potential in terms of saving lives and improving the quality of life for many seniors, as well as beneficiaries under age 65,” said Charlene Frizzera, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Most cases of HIV infection occur in younger people, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 19 percent of all U.S. residents with AIDS were age 50 or older.

“Knowing about their HIV status can help patients live longer, fuller lives as well as avoid unintentional transmission of the virus to others,” Frizzera said.

The Health and Human Services Department said coverage would extend to Medicare beneficiaries who are at increased risk for the infection, including women who are pregnant, as well as beneficiaries of any age who voluntarily request the service.