VAIL, Colo. (AP) – Gay Ski Week is back in Vail this winter.

The mountain resort skipped the weeklong promotion last year because of the economic downtown. But resort tourism officials say they hope to attract 500 to 1,000 attendees during this year’s event, planned for Jan. 27-31.

Aspen, Telluride and Whistler ski resorts have held Gay Ski Weeks for years. Aspen’s Gay Ski Week, planned the week before Vail’s, drew about 2,000 people last year.

Vail also plans a Gay Week in the summer.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – Top Illinois Republicans condemned a perennial candidate’s decision Monday to air a political ad questioning the sexual orientation of the party’s front-runner in the U.S. Senate race.

The Republican Party said it would no longer consider Andy Martin a legitimate candidate.

“His statements today are consistent with his history of bizarre behavior and often times hate-filled speech which has no place in the Illinois Republican Party,” said party chairman Pat Brady.

Fellow Senate candidate Patrick Hughes said the radio ad has no place in the campaign. Dan Proft, a GOP candidate for governor, called it repugnant.

Jacob Meister, a Democrat who is gay, called the ad “an insidious attack.”

Martin’s ad says there are rumors that Rep. Mark Kirk is gay and he should “tell Republican voters the truth.”

Kirk campaign manager Eric Elk issued a statement saying the ad “is degrading to the political process. The people of Illinois deserve better.”

Elk said the ad’s allegation that Kirk is gay is not true.

Martin, formerly Anthony Martin-Trigona, has a long record of running unsuccessfully for public office, making unsubstantiated allegations and suing officials and journalists he dislikes. The federal courts have sanctioned him for repeatedly filing frivolous lawsuits.

On Monday, Martin threatened to sue the party chairman for “abuse of office” for criticizing the ad.

Martin called one federal judge a “crooked, slimy Jew” and expressed sympathy to the perpetrators of the Holocaust.

He got a law degree from the University of Illinois but was denied a license by the state Supreme Court, which found him unfit to practice.

Chicago’s WBBM radio, one of the stations airing the ad, said federal law requires it to provide candidates with reasonable access and run political ads “without censoring them.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Gov. Chet Culver and legislative leaders say the upcoming session will focus on budget problems, but activists are working to get same-sex marriage on the agenda.

Supporters and opponents of an Iowa Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage are planning Statehouse rallies to mark Monday’s opening of the Legislature. A group that supports the decision will gather Sunday, and opponents will rally Tuesday, when Culver gives his condition of the state speech.

The group heading the anti-gay marriage event, the Iowa Family Policy Council, also is criticizing Culver for issuing a proclamation that supports the rights of transgender people.

Culver spokesman Troy Price says Culver believes all Iowans should be protected from discrimination and abuse.

MONROE, La. (AP) – LSU Health Sciences Center police in Monroe have arrested a man who is suspected of trying to expose people to the AIDS virus.

The News-Star reports 41-year-old Ronald Sumler of Monroe was booked late Sunday night on four counts of intentional exposure to the AIDS virus.

According to an arrest affidavit, Sumler was taken to LSU for treatment of a stab wound.

While being treated, emergency room personnel told police the suspect was HIV positive.

They told police Sumler threw his blood-covered identification card into the face of one staffer and that he also tried to spit on three other staff members.

Sumler’s bond is $20,000.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Sumler has an attorney.

HOUMA, La. (AP) – A weekend benefit at a Houma bar raised money for the family of a bartender who died last month after he was beaten and stabbed in the bar where he worked.

Police reportedly have few clues and no suspects yet in the death of 39-year-old Robert LeCompte, who was body was found on Christmas day on the floor of a Houma nightspot called The Drama Club.

LeCompte was well known in Houma’s gay community and Saturday night’s benefit at The Drama Club featured a drag queen who collected money to pay for LeCompte’s funeral, according to The Courier newspaper.

Randall Chesnut, the club’s owner and LeCompte’s roommate, told The Courier newspaper that about $4,000 was stolen from the club.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Gay marriage opponents are organizing a petition drive to put a nonbinding article on the issue before New Hampshire voters at town meetings this spring.

State Rep. David Bates, a Republican from Windham, is organizing the effort to ask voters if they want lawmakers to put a constitutional amendment on gay marriage on the ballot.

Canterbury Town Clerk Cheryl Gordon said Monday she had not received a petition, but she said it only takes the signatures of 25 registered voters for a warrant article to be put before voters.

New Hampshire’s law legalizing gay marriage took effect Friday.

Legislation has been filed to repeal the law. A constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman also has been filed.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey gay rights advocates are making a last-chance push to persuade state lawmakers to legalize gay marriage.

About 150 rallied Monday outside the Statehouse in Trenton to call on lawmakers to vote on the bill. It’s been stalled in both chambers of the Legislature.

In the crowd were clergy from several faiths who said that not all religious leaders condemn same-sex marriage.

Gov. Jon Corzine says he would sign the bill into law if lawmakers can get it to his desk. But he leaves office Jan. 19.

Gov.-elect Chris Christie has said he would veto a gay marriage law.

New Jersey has a civil unions law that gives gay couples the benefits of marriage but not the title.

HARVEY, N.D. (AP) – The congregation of the First Lutheran Church of Harvey has cast the first of two votes to split from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Two-thirds of the congregation voted in favor of the split last month. The congregation must wait 90 days before the second and final vote.

The proposed split follows a national church policy that allows gay and lesbian people to serve as pastors or in other church leadership positions.

Rev. Fred Westerhold says that no matter what the congregation decides, there are no winners.

If the split is approved, Westerhold says the congregation could join another Lutheran denomination or partner with other churches to create its own.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Gay couples in Rhode Island could have the right to plan funerals for their partners, if lawmakers succeed in overriding vetoes by the governor.

The Democratic-dominated General Assembly plans to try to vote down the vetoes by socially conservative Republican Gov. Don Carcieri (kuh-CHEHR’-ee) when it meets Tuesday for the first time this year.

The legislation passed by veto-proof margins last year. Lawmakers backed it after state officials took five weeks to release the body of a man to his partner because they were not married.

Rhode Island does not recognize gay marriage.

Carcieri vetoed the legislation, which he says erodes traditional marriage. He said an existing law provides the necessary protections.