SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) – A Riverside County doctor who admitted giving 21 AIDS, HIV or hepatitis patients diluted doses of medication has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.

Prosecutors say 59-year-old Dr. George Kooshian of La Quinta was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana on Monday.

Kooshian pleaded guilty last year to improperly billing his patients’ health insurance companies for medications used to treat problems relating to AIDS, HIV and hepatitis.

The judge also ordered Kooshian to pay about $660,000 in restitution to 18 insurance companies that he billed for the full dose.

His co-defendant and assistant, Virgil Opinion of Anaheim, pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme. He was sentenced in September to three years of probation and ordered to split the restitution with Kooshian.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A federal appeals court says a pilot who lost his license for failing to disclose that he was HIV-positive can sue the government for improperly disclosing his medical records.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday that the Social Security Administration improperly turned over Stanmore Cooper’s medical records to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The San Francisco man disclosed to Social Security officials his condition to receive medical benefits but withheld his HIV status from the FAA.

A lower court had agreed that Cooper’s medical records were handle inappropriately, but tossed out the case because he couldn’t prove any out-of-pocket expenses.

The appeals court ruled that Cooper can recoup unspecified damages by claiming the disclosure caused him emotional distress.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) – Less than a year after dethroned Miss California USA Carrie Prejean stirred up controversy with her remarks against gay marriage, a similar war of words is brewing in Beverly Hills.

Beverly Hills Mayor Nancy Krasne said Wednesday she is outraged over a Miss California USA contestant who is claiming to represent the city in the upcoming pageant and who spoke out against same-sex marriage in recent media interviews.

Krasne said in a statement that 23-year-old Lauren Ashley does not live in Beverly Hills or represent the city in any capacity. Krasne said she was shocked to see statements made by a beauty pageant contestant under the name of Beverly Hills, ``which has a long history of tolerance and respect.’’

Ashley recently told Fox News and other media outlets that same-sex marriage goes against God and the Bible.

Keith Lewis, a K2 Productions stage director for the Miss California USA pageant, told the Los Angeles Times that contestants choose the area they represent and Ashley chose to compete as Miss Beverly Hills in November 2010.

A phone listing for Ashley could not be found.

Krasne said the city has contacted Miss California USA pageant officials to determine ways to formally prevent any beauty contestants from claiming the title of Miss Beverly Hills in the future.

Ashley’s comments came just months after Prejean, the former Miss California USA 2009, reached a confidential settlement with pageant organizers on dueling lawsuits over her outspoken stance against gay marriage.

Prejean sued Miss California USA organizers in August for libel, slander and religious discrimination. She accused them of telling her to stop mentioning God even before her controversial remarks against gay marriage.

Prejean was fired in June after pageant officials accused her of missing events, an allegation she denied. The pageant later countersued Prejean.

Prejean said she was dethroned because she said during the Miss USA pageant that gays shouldn’t be allowed to marry.

CHICAGO (AP) – When federal officials studied housing discrimination based on race, the setup was simple.

They sent in testers of different backgrounds and gauged how landlords and real estate agents treated people of color compared with whites.

As the government prepares for a first-ever study of housing discrimination against gays, however, the issue is more complex. How do you design a study to make an applicant’s sexual orientation or gender identity as obvious as race and color?

Starting Thursday, the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department will enlist the help of residents in Chicago, New York and San Francisco to come up with ideas on how such a study should be conducted.

HUD hopes to begin collecting data from the study next year.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler says he believes Maryland’s highest court likely would rule that gay marriages valid in another state would be valid in Maryland.

However, Gansler writes in a 45-page opinion on Feb. 24 that while he doesn’t know for sure how the Maryland Court of Appeals would rule, he’s outlining his view of how the court ``would likely resolve this issue.’’

Maryland law defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. But the state also generally acknowledges couples married elsewhere.

Maryland has extended a variety of protections to same-sex couples in recent years, but it has stopped short of legalizing marriages or civil unions.

An attorney general’s opinion is not itself a law, but an interpretation that can guide a state agency and may be persuasive to the courts.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – More than a year after disclosing he is gay, Clay Aiken is speaking before a gay-rights event in his North Carolina hometown.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that Aiken will deliver a speech about gay rights this weekend at the Human Rights Campaign Carolinas gala in Raleigh.

The 31-year-old Raleigh native, pop singer and 2003 ``American Idol’’ runner-up says he wrote his own speech after remarks provided for him proved too political, including a slam aimed at former President George W. Bush.

Aiken says his goal is to urge Americans to support equal rights for all. He says that means allowing homosexuals to marry and enjoy rights that heterosexual couples take for granted like inheritance and hospital visitation.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – A Pennsylvania appellate court has rejected a 25-year-old legal precedent and ruled that a parent’s homosexual relationship cannot be used against the parent in determining child custody.

The eight-judge Superior Court panel issued its decision last month in a custody battle between a mother and father who were identified only by their initials.

It also reversed the lower court ruling that awarded the father primary custody of their daughter, and granted the appeal of the mother to continue shared custody.

In doing so, the judges overruled a 1985 Superior Court decision that said a parent must prove that their gay relationship is not detrimental to the child.

That presumption ``is based upon unsupported preconceptions and prejudices – including that the sexual orientation of a parent will have an adverse effect on the child, and that the traditional heterosexual household is superior to that of the household of a parent involved in a same sex relationship,’’ Judge Christine Donohue wrote in the Jan. 21 opinion.

The state Supreme Court also advises against relying on presumptions in deciding child custody cases between the parents, Donohue wrote.

The trial judge – who was not identified – had relied, in part, on the 1985 case. In it, the Superior Court rejected a woman’s contention that sexual orientation should not be a consideration in a custody determination, Donohue wrote.

A three-member panel, voting 2-1, dismissed the notion that a ``homosexual relationship could ever be the equal of the traditional family as a suitable family arrangement, and indicated that it was ‘inconceivable’ that a child could be exposed to a homosexual relationship ‘and not suffer some emotional disturbance, perhaps severe,’’’ Donohue wrote.

The father is a sergeant in a police department in suburban Harrisburg and the mother is a state police lieutenant, according to the court.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning about potential heart risks of combining two anti-HIV drugs.

The agency says preliminary data suggest Roche’s Invirase and Abbott Laboratories’ Norvir can effect the electrical activity of the heart when used together. The FDA is reviewing data submitted by Roche on heart activity of patients using its drug with Abbott’s Norvir.

FDA says the HIV drug combination can lead to irregular heart rhythms which can cause lightheadedness, fainting, and in some cases death.

The FDA says its review is ongoing.

Invirase was approved in 1995 and is used in combination with Norvir and other anti-viral drugs to control HIV in adults. HIV attacks the body’s immune system, eventually causing AIDS.