LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Opponents and supporters of an Arkansas law banning unmarried couples from fostering or adopting children are asking a judge for a ruling on the prohibition.

The Arkansas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Arkansas Family Council on Wednesday filed motions for summary judgment with a Pulaski County judge.

The ACLU sued the state on behalf of a group of families seeking to overturn the ban, calling it unconstitutional. The Arkansas Family Council campaigned for the ban, which was approved by voters in 2008.

A hearing on the request is expected to go before the judge April 8.

The measure came after the state Supreme Court overturned a policy by state child welfare officials in 2006 that blocked gays from serving as foster parents.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A judge is dismissing a civil lawsuit filed against a Black Eyed Peas manager who punched blogger Perez Hilton in a nightclub last year.

Attorneys for Hilton and Peas’ manager Liborio Molina announced in court Tuesday they had reached a settlement agreement. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John S. Wiley agreed to dismiss the case but retained jurisdiction in case the settlement falls apart.

The terms were not discussed and Hilton’s attorney, Joshua Blum, declined comment after the hearing.

Molina apologized for punching Hilton last year in a Toronto nightclub as part of an agreement to drop assault charges against the manager. The scuffle happened after the openly gay blogger called Black Eyed Peas’ leader will.i.am a slur for homosexuals.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – Closing arguments began Feb. 10 in the trial of a North Carolina woman charged with killing an Orange County fortuneteller and her daughter five years ago.

Tanya Nelson and her accomplice Phillipe Zamora killed Ha “Jade” Smith because Nelson was upset at losing her lover and the fortuneteller told her she couldn’t change reality, Senior Deputy District Attorney Sonia Balleste told jurors.

Nelson, 45, of Roanoke Rapids, N.C., is described as the mastermind behind the April 2005 slayings of the 52-year-old Smith and Anita Vo, 23, who was a student at Orange Coast College. They were stabbed as many as 10 times and their faces and hands were covered in white paint, which may have been an attempt to cover up evidence, authorities said.

Nelson is accused of persuading her accomplice Phillipe Zamora to take part in the murders by promising to fix him up with gay sex partners.

Defense lawyers will begin their closing arguments Thursday.

Zamora, who pleaded guilty last year to two counts of first-degree murder with a potential sentence of 50 years to life in prison, was the prosecution’s key witness against Nelson. He testified Feb. 1 that Nelson wanted Smith dead because she was angry about her fortune.

Nelson, who also uses the name Phuong Thao Nguyen and used to live in Orange County, is accused of assuming the identities of the victims after the killings, spending more than $3,000 on clothing and buying plane tickets for a family vacation in Southern California.

Smith, known as Miss Ha in the local Vietnamese community, did card and palm readings from an office at a strip mall in Midway City. She was known nationally among Vietnamese-Americans as a skilled fortuneteller and had clients from as far away as New York.

If convicted, Nelson could be eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – The San Francisco Unified School District is strengthening its program to combat discrimination against gay and lesbian students.

The school board on Feb. 9 approved a resolution to guarantee $62,000 in funding for its anti-discrimination program, even though the district faces a $113 million budget shortfall over the next two years.

The original resolution called for $120,000 but was scaled back at last Tuesday’s meeting due to the district’s financial troubles.

The measures provides funding to maintain the district’s existing program, which includes an anti-discrimination curriculum at all grade levels and a Web site to help educators. The program is now funded through grants.

The new policy will require the district to track harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation, provide cultural sensitivity training to school staff and give parents educational materials each year. It also directs staff to seek outside funding for its program.

San Francisco is a famously gay-friendly city, but district officials say gay and lesbian students are more likely to be bullied, skip school out of fear and attempt suicide.

A district survey found that about 13 percent of San Francisco’s middle school students and 11 percent of high school students self-identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

The school board approved the resolution unanimously after hearing testimony from more than two dozen students, teachers and parents who urged support for the measure.

NEW YORK (AP) – Lt. Dan Choi says he took time off from his busy schedule of gay rights work for infantry training with the Army National Guard.

In a phone interview Feb. 9, Choi said he was scheduled to appear at a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force conference over the weekend, but decided to report for training with his Guard unit instead. He said the training at Fort Indiantown Gap near Harrisburg, Pa., was “therapeutic” and his fellow soldiers welcomed him.

A National Guard committee recommended in June that Choi be discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He remains in the Guard while awaiting a final decision.

The Iraq veteran and West Point graduate says his commander has been very supportive and urged him to return to monthly drills.

MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP) – New Jersey’s largest gay rights group is suspending donations to political parties after feeling spurned by Democratic lawmakers who failed to pass a same-sex marriage bill.

Garden State Equality is also asking its 65,000 members not to contribute to parties.

The group has not said it will refrain from donating to individual candidates.

The organization’s leaders expected lawmakers would legalize gay marriage last month. But they saw support erode after Republican Chris Christie was elected in November.

Chairman Steven Goldstein says the contribution decision is to tell political parties they can’t take for granted the support of the state’s gays and their allies.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Both Democrats running for governor and former Sen. Lincoln Chafee, an independent candidate, will publicly pledge to sign a same-sex marriage bill if elected, gay rights activists said Feb. 8.

Attorney General Patrick Lynch and General Treasurer Frank Caprio, the Democrats, and Chafee have been invited to make their promise public at a Statehouse rally scheduled for March 3, said Kathy Kushnir, executive director of Marriage Equality Rhode Island.

Kushnir said Republican candidate John Robitaille has not returned her calls, although Robitaille said he was never contacted by Kushnir’s group. He opposes gay marriage but would consider supporting a domestic parntership system for gay couples.

Although the three candidates previously have said they support gay marriage, the pledges come as gay rights activists hope to capitalize on the departure of Republican Gov. Don Carcieri, a staunch social conservative who opposes such unions. State law requires him to leave office after finishing his second term early next year.

“I think that it’s really important that the people of Rhode Island understand that this can be a reality here sooner rather than later,” Kushnir said. “One of the major obstacles we face right now is a veto from the governor’s office, and that would be gone.”

Rhode Island is the only New England state besides Maine that does not recognize gay marriage. The movement to legalize it has hit a plateau. Legislation that would permit gay marriage has died in the Democratic-dominated General Assembly every year without getting a vote since it was first introduced in 1997.

It seems unlikely the state Supreme Court will legalize same-sex marriage as the courts did in Massachusetts and Connecticut. In 2007, Rhode Island’s top court refused to let a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts get divorced in their home state of Rhode Island because the court said lawmakers have never defined marriage as anything except a union between a man and a woman.

Carcieri has not been the only political obstacle to gay marriage. Many socially conservative Democrats also oppose it, including Senate President M. Teresa Paiva-Weed and House Speaker William Murphy, who intends to step down next year.

House Majority Leader Gordon Fox, a gay man who backs same-sex marriage, is seeking to replace Murphy.