FRESNO, Calif. (AP) – The former volleyball coach at California State University, Fresno, sued the school for discrimination, saying her contract was not renewed because of a perception she was a lesbian.

Lindy Vivas filed suit in Fresno County Superior Court seeking unspecified damages from the CSU’s governing Board of Trustees and 10 unidentified defendants. She is the third former female sports department employee to take the school to court.

“They don’t like stronger women, they don’t like successful women,” said Vivas, who worked at the school for 14 years. “They don’t like women who speak out.”

Scott Johnson, who was athletic director at the time, said her contract wasn’t renewed because she missed work and her performance was lackluster.

Former women’s basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein, who lost her job after a university investigation found she had improperly obtained pain medication from students, sued last year for discrimination. Former assistant athletic director Diane Milutinovich sued after she was shifted to a position as student union director.

The cases are ongoing, and university officials said they cannot comment on pending legal action.

MANCHESTER, Conn. (AP) – A Superior Court judge has cut five years from the prison sentence of Sean Burke, one of two men convicted in a 1988 gay-bashing murder that sparked Connecticut’s hate-crimes law.

Burke and co-defendant Marcos Perez were teenagers when they used a fireplace log to beat Richard Reihl to death outside Reihl’s Wethersfield home in 1988.

In a 17-page decision, Judge Raymond Norko said he was impressed by Burke’s efforts to rehabilitate himself in prison. Burke, now 35, has not received a single disciplinary report while behind bars, and has participated in numerous prison programs.

“If our society believes in the concept of rehabilitation while in prison, rather than just mouthing the concept, then the petitioner’s conduct acquires merit,” Norko wrote. “To not recognize proper rehabilitative conduct is harmful and promotes a dangerous standard of meaningless conduct by all prisoners.”

Burke was due to be released in 2017. His new release date has not been calculated.

Burke sought the “sentence modification” under a little-used law that allows a judge to reopen the case if both the prosecution and defense attorneys agree to a hearing.

Burke had asked for the hearing based on a memo that then-prosecutor Kevin McMahon, now a Superior Court judge, wrote after Burke was originally sentenced in 1989.

In it, McMahon said he would support another look at Burke’s 40-year sentence if Burke could prove that he was not a hardened criminal.

Friends and prison counselors described Burke as a model inmate who has sought redemption since the day he was sentenced to prison, literally becoming an altar boy and counseling children and others.

But Reihl’s family asked the judge not to reconsider Burke’s sentence, saying it would send an inconceivable message about the tolerance for hate crimes.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A lawmaker hoping to ease Florida’s ban on gay adoption delayed a vote on the bill hours before its introduction when it was clear that the legislation would not get past a first committee meeting.

Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, postponed a vote on SB 172, her proposal to allow gay and lesbian foster parents to adopt children already in their care if a judge decides they are the best available caretakers.

Rich’s move left the bill weakened, but also left the door open for a future vote should she gain enough support in the Children and Families committee.

“This bill’s time will come, but it will not come today,” Rich said. “I was hoping that after the testimony and hearing those poignant life experiences, people’s minds would be changed and I’d have the votes. It pains me, I didn’t have the votes.”

Rich has asked the foster parents and child advocates who testified for nearly two hours in support of her bill to lobby committee members over the coming weeks. Florida is one of three states that grant no exemptions to their ban on gay adoption, she said.

HONOLULU (AP) – A state health official said he’s disappointed that the number of new AIDS cases in Hawaii hasn’t fallen over the past six years.

There were 109 new AIDS cases in the state last year, which is also average for the past six years. Of the cases last year, 58 were reported on Oahu, 18 in Maui County, 12 on the Big Island and 21 on Kauai.

“We would think by now we would be seeing fewer cases since treatment has been available for some time,” said Peter Whiticar, head of the Health Department’s STD/AIDS Prevention Branch.

Eighty-nine percent of the new AIDS cases were male. Male-to-male sex remains the most common risk factor, cited in 62 percent of the cases.

More than half, 58 percent, were Caucasian with Asians accounting for 12 percent and Hawaiians-Pacific Islanders 8 percent.

There are an estimated 2,300 to 3,200 infected residents with human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS, in the state. Of that total, 1,305 people with AIDS were known to be living in Hawaii.

Since 1983, 2,847 AIDS cases have been reported in Hawaii, with 1,542 known dead from the disease.

Whiticar said with effective treatments and news of HIV/AIDS largely focused on problems in disadvantaged countries, some Americans have become complacent about avoiding unsafe sexual behavior.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) – A legislative purse-string panel has agreed to let Nevada’s Health Division use $1 million of next year’s budget to make sure low-income AIDS patients continue to get needed medication this year.

The lawmakers’ Interim Finance Committee approved the funding after Health Division Administrator Alex Haartz said the program was hit with unexpected increases in the price of drugs used to control the disease.

Haartz added that more people are qualifying for the program. He said it now costs $941 a month in combined state and federal funds for each of the 735 people in the program.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, and Assembly Minority Leader Lynn Hettrick R-Gardnerville, opposed the funding, urging Haartz to consider delaying payment of the drug bills until after the state gets its new federal appropriation of $2.5 million after April 1.

Beers called for changes in eligibility, saying offering the program to everyone making less than 400 percent of poverty level might be too generous. He also suggested making patients contribute part of the cost, or capping the number of participants and creating a waiting list.

“Being put on a waiting list is waiting to die,” countered Assemblymember Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas. She said AIDS patients can’t be deprived of their medication, and Ways and Means chair Moose Arberry, D-Las Vegas, agreed in urging the committee to approve the money transfer.

Haartz told IFC members he will return to their April meeting with suggestions on how to reduce program costs, including efforts to get better deals on the expensive anti-AIDS drugs. He said he’ll also look into changing eligibility and the possibility of a co-pay for those who can afford to contribute.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – A legislative committee has voted 2-to-1 against a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in New Hampshire.

The vote in the House Judiciary Committee was 14 to 7 to recommend that the amendment not be adopted.

State law already bans same-sex marriage, but opponents want to have the state constitution declare that “a marriage between one man and one woman shall be the only legal union that shall be valid or recognized in the state.”

They say that would keep the issue out of the courts, avoiding situations like those in Vermont and Massachusetts where the courts ruled marriage can’t be limited to heterosexuals.

Gay rights activists say no such lawsuits are planned.

During a recent hearing, most people opposed a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

FARGO, N.D. (AP) – Sunflower industry officials say a German study shows a sunflower plant could be used in new drugs to fight the virus that causes AIDS.

Scientists at the University of Bonn discovered the link while they were looking at antifungal properties the sunflower uses to fight off sclerotinia, a disease commonly known as white mold, the National Sunflower Association said.

Brady Vick, a chemist for the USDA’s sunflower research unit in Fargo, said the results come from reputable scientists who have a tradition of finding natural chemicals to treat diseases.

“It’s exciting for the Germans, they’re the ones who discovered it,” Vick said. “It’s kind of a surprise announcement. I don’t know how they made the connection.”

The findings could help promote further research and marketing for the crop, said Larry Kleingartner, executive director of the National Sunflower Association in Bismarck.

“It’s very preliminary, quite frankly,” Kleingartner said. “We are checking within different levels of Washington to see if there’s potential for some accelerated research on this.”

Sunflower groups spend about $500,000 a year on research to fight white mold, he said. It also affects soybeans, canola and edible beans.

“It’s interesting to see this very complex plant disease as a potential source of medicine for a very difficult human disease,” Kleingartner said.

White mold cost farmers more than $100 million in 1999 and 2004, Kleingartner said. It can show up in the roots during growing season or infect the head during cool and wet weather in late summer.

“It can wipe out a whole field within a couple of days,” Vick said.

The antifungal substance used in AIDS drugs is also found in the artichoke and wild chicory. Researchers said it would be cheaper to make the drug from the sunflower plant.

“It’s important to note that the apparent HIV antiviral compounds identified in the Bonn study occur within the sunflower plant, not the edible seed or oil of sunflower,” Kleingartner said. “However, we already know that sunflower seed and oil have proven nutritional and health benefits unrelated to the defense chemicals within the plant that it uses to defend itself against fungal diseases.”