HONOLULU (AP) – The state has chosen a church organization to develop a 72-unit housing project to help the homeless and other needy people along Oahu’s Waianae Coast.

The plan to redevelop a 2.5-acre site on ceded land is designed to ease a severe shortage of affordable housing.

The state Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawaii conditionally approved the Hawaii Coalition of Christian Churches’ proposal for the project. It was the only organization to submit a plan for redeveloping the property.

Stephanie Aveiro, executive director of the housing agency, sought to ease concerns that the church group would impose its faith on others through the project.

“They couldn’t not take a homeless person because they are Buddhist,” Aveiro said.

The church coalition will have to abide by anti-discrimination laws that prohibit denial of services based on religion, race and sexual orientation, state officials said.

During a meeting of a legislative task force created to tackle affordable housing and homeless issues, Bill Woods, an advocate for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, questioned the appropriateness of selecting the church group.

Woods said the coalition would create a “gated religious ghetto.”

Woods’ comments were declared out of order by task force chair Rep. Michael Kahikina, D-Kalaeloa-Nanakuli.

Kelly Rosati, executive director of Hawaii Family Forum and the Hawaii Catholic Conference, defended the group.

“Calling the Hawaii Coalition of Christian Churches’ homeless and affordable housing project a ‘gated religious ghetto’ crossed the line from vigorous opposition to hateful and bigoted uncivil discourse,” Rosati said in a statement.

Wade “Boo” Soares, the coalition’s chair and a pastor at Waianae Christian Fellowship, told the task force that it will cost an estimated $14.7 million to build the complex, which will include 32 transitional housing units, 24 affordable rental units and 16 emergency shelter units.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey soon will have a new title to add to his resume: author.

Codey is writing a book about his 31 years in New Jersey politics and his stint as governor. He expects it will hit store shelves in about 18 months.

“It’ll be more than just political stuff,” said Codey, who wants the book to be “light and breezy.”

His wife said that remains to be seen.

“He thinks he’s more funny than anyone else, like he’ll tell a joke and laugh real hard first. He gets a real big kick out of himself,” said Mary Jo Codey, who affectionately calls her husband “Richie.”

Codey remains extraordinarily popular in New Jersey since stepping in after former Gov. James E. McGreevey resigned last November. His approval ratings far surpass those of both gubernatorial candidates. Codey is not seeking a full term.

The governor said he’s hired a literary agent and is working with a ghost writer, but said he does not yet have a publishing deal.

He’s already begun captioning the photos, however. One, of him with former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who visited New Jersey in April, is captioned, “No, I didn’t ask him about the spot on his head.”

He said the book will include major issues he’s dealt with, including the McGreevey resignation. He said he found out only hours before McGreevey resigned amid a sex scandal that the governor would bow out, leaving Codey to finish the remaining 14 months of the term.

McGreevey has his own book deal for a tell-all memoir with ReganBooks.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The Ohio Historical Society has formed an initiative with a gay newspaper publisher to document the history of gays and lesbians in the state.

Organizers will collect mementos and memorabilia and tap the memories of older individuals who experienced what it was like to be gay before society was more accepting of homosexuals.

“This is going to be a way to help people understand we have a history, a culture, and better understand what we are and, most importantly, what we are not,” said Malcolm Riggle, owner and publisher of Outlook Weekly.

Cynthia Ghering of the historical society says the initiative is an extension of the society’s multicultural effort to gather items from various communities.

The society already has copies of gay publications from the 1960s to 1990s; meeting notes from Stonewall Union, a gay-rights advocacy group; and photos and T-shirts reflecting gay pride and AIDS awareness.

Now, Outlook Weekly staff members will collect items significant to the GLBT experience, such as love letters, election-campaign materials from openly gay candidates and tiaras won in drag shows.

“Things that really capture the flavor of what it meant to grow up and come into gay adult life when it was closeted,” said Outlook Weekly editor Chris Hayes.

“We are collecting the history of the 20th century, and this is part of the history in the 20th century,” said the society’s board president, Patricia Eldredge.

Organizers also are attempting to raise funds to store and archive materials because the historical society, which receives some state funding, has a lean budget, Riggle said.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The longtime head of the Christian Coalition of Oregon said he is “withdrawing from public life,” a day after news reports detailed accusations of sexual abuse against him by three female relatives.

“I am thankful for a family that loves and supports me, and intend to withdraw from public life until this is resolved,” Lou Beres wrote in a statement posted on the organization’s Web site, www.coalition.org.

Beres has denied any criminal misconduct and wrote that he will “pursue the Biblical response and do all within my power to reconcile with that person.”

Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk told The Oregonian newspaper that officials are investigating the complaints against Beres.

The three women – now adults – allege they were abused by Beres as preteens. Their families called the child abuse hotline last month, after the three openly discussed the alleged abuse for the first time.

“I was molested,” one of the women, now in her 50s, told The Oregonian. “I was victimized and I’ve suffered all my life for it. I’m still afraid to be in the same room with him.”

Beres, 70, has blamed “personal and political enemies” for the complaint.

Only one of the three cases appears to fall under Oregon’s statute of limitations on sex abuse, which expires after six years. Authorities said that case involves a young woman who was allegedly abused by Beres when she was in elementary school.

A nephew of Beres’ is standing up for the three women.

“My family has gone through hell,” said Richard Galat, 41, of Oakland, Calif., who told detectives that his uncle had molested “several” female relatives over the years.

“Lives have been ruined. Those of us who have come forward have been ostracized, verbally abused and the victims of character assassination…. It must stop,” he said.

In response to Galat’s statements, Beres said on the Christian Coalition Web site, “I am grieved by the false allegations of my nephew, Richard Galat. I am attempting to determine the source of each claim.”

Beres, who did not immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press, is the former head of the Republican Party in Multnomah County, the Democratic stronghold that includes Portland.

Jim Moore, who teaches political science at Pacific University in Forest Grove, said Beres has not been particularly influential in Oregon politics.

“In fact, under his leadership, the Christian Coalition in Oregon has gone downhill,” Moore said.

In state legislative races in 2004, for example, Moore said “we found that Christian Coalition candidates basically did not do as well as they did in the past.”

Oregon Republican Chair Vance Day said Beres hasn’t been much of a factor in state GOP politics since he stepped down as Multnomah County chair about 10 years ago.

“I don’t view this as having any major impact on politics here in Oregon; I don’t think the Christian Coalition has a big footprint here at all,” he said.

The group did support a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage that passed handily with voters in November of 2004, but support for that cause was rallied by another conservative-leaning group, the Defense of Marriage Coalition.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The chief justice of the highest court in Massachusetts says the independence of judges may be more important today than when the nation was founded.

Margaret Marshall is only the second woman appointed to the Supreme Judicial Court since it was founded in 1692, making it the oldest appellate court in the Western Hemisphere. She also is the first woman to be its chief justice.

The court made history again in November 2003 when Marshall led a 4-3 ruling that extended marriage rights to same-sex couples under the Massachusetts Constitution.

The state was the first – and so far the only – to approve same-sex marriage, an issue that prompted 11 other states, including Oregon, to adopt constitutional bans on same-sex unions last November in the 2004 general election.

Marshall since has been speaking about protecting judicial independence, especially when rulings may be unpopular.

“Judicial independence is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end – a government under the rule of law,” Marshall said in a speech at Oregon’s Willamette University.

“When the rule of law is broken, we have government by opinion poll,” Marshall said.

Marshall said that courts have a duty to act as a check and balance on unrestrained majorities.

After delivering the annual John C. Paulus Lecture at the university’s law school, Marshall was asked whether laws against same-sex marriage might eventually be dropped.

“Ask me in 16 years; I do not have a clue,” Marshall said. “The main thing about having decided a case is that you go on to the next case.”

But she noted that it was a state court – the California Supreme Court in 1948 – that overturned a ban on interracial marriage nearly 20 years before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down similar bans in 16 states.

“State courts are proving grounds for a vast array of problems,” Marshall said.

Judges in Massachusetts are screened by a committee, appointed by the governor and confirmed by the governor’s council, an elected body. But unlike their counterparts in Oregon and elsewhere, they do not have to run for election on their own.

Marshall said that provision is in the original 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, which calls for judges “as free, impartial and independent as the lot of humanity will admit.”

It is listed under the state bill of rights, which Marshall said John Adams and others drafted as a safeguard against abuses by the British colonial government.