PHOENIX (AP) – A woman who was spearheading the ballot effort to prohibit same-sex marriage and define traditional unions in Arizona has been killed in a rollover crash outside Seligman, authorities said.

Lynn Stanley, chair of the Protect Marriage Arizona Coalition, died in a crash early on the morning of July 3 on Interstate 40, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

Authorities said Stanley, 58, was returning to Phoenix from Las Vegas, where she was visiting two sisters, at the time of the accident.

The Protect Marriage coalition collected some 300,000 signatures to place its measure on the November ballot, said Nathan Sproul, a political consultant for the effort.

Amending the state constitution, as the Protect Marriage coalition intends, requires at least 183,917 valid signatures.

The group planned to submit its petitions July 5, with Stanley on hand to celebrate the accomplishment.

Her death led the initiative to delay its submittal until July 6, the deadline to turn in signatures.

FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) – A man with the virus that causes AIDS who had been arrested for spitting on a hospice worker died in his cell at the Sebastian County Jail, authorities said.

Christopher Keith Forbis, 42, was found dead by a guard, Coroner A.J. Parish said.

“He [Forbis] was in there by himself,” Parish said. “The guard opened the door and he was sitting on the floor with his head slumped forward and it was apparent he was dead.”

Authorities arrested Forbis on April 12 after he allegedly spat on a hospice worker, charging him with knowingly exposing a person to HIV. Forbis, who was a convicted sex offender, was also charged with changing addresses without notifying police.

In April 1997, Forbis pleaded no contest to a charge brought for allegedly having sex with a woman without telling her he was HIV positive. He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.

Two months before he was sentenced, Forbis sued the Sebastian County jail in federal court, claiming he was not receiving adequate medical attention. The court action was dismissed.

Sebastian County Sheriff Frank Atkinson said state police and a prosecutor will investigate Forbis’ death, as a matter of routine.

“Foul play is not suspected,” Atkinson said.

HONOLULU (AP) – A jury took less than 10 minutes to acquit a gay man who was accused of spiking the drink of an acquaintance with a date rape drug and sexually assaulting him.

Honolulu nightclub owner Jack Law, 60, was found not guilty of three second-degree sex assault charges in Circuit Court.

“This can happen to anybody, gay or straight, to be accused of rape and have no way to defend themselves,” said Law, owner of Hula’s Bar & Lei Stand in Waikiki.

The quick verdict prompted Law’s attorney, Todd Eddins, to denounce the prosecution’s case against Law, who would have faced up to 10 years in prison for each of the three charges.

“There was nothing to this case whatsoever,” Eddins said. “His name was dragged through the mud, and we are just grateful that the jury saw the truth.”

Jurors said they didn’t believe the story of the accuser, who testified he blacked out and regained consciousness enough to know he was having sex in a hot tub and a bedroom. The man said he is not gay.

“It just didn’t seem to be enough evidence to bring this case to court,” said jury foreperson Robyn Kikumoto. “It wasn’t a very strong case to begin with.”

Deputy Prosecutor Lucianne Khalaf said the jury should have taken more time to consider the accuser’s symptoms, which were consistent with someone who had been drugged.

“We felt confident that, if they had taken the time to examine that evidence closely, piece together the facts, which are undisputable, that they would reach a more favorable verdict,” she said. “But it’s a jury trial and we are accepting it.”

Law was accused of slipping a date-rape drug into the drink of the man who gave him a ride home the night of May 21, 2005. Toxicology tests didn’t detect any drug.

Law maintained that the sex was consensual and that he never forced or drugged the man.

COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho (AP) – Former U.S. Congress candidate Cecil Kelly noticed something strange growing next to the cucumbers and squash in his garden last week – a marijuana plant had sprung up in the corner of his front yard.

“I’ve pulled a lot of weeds, but never that type of weed,” Kelly told the Coeur d’Alene Press. Kelly lost to Larry Grant in the Democratic primary in May.

Suspecting the seven-leafed plant wasn’t a legal weed, Kelly checked a science magazine to confirm that it did indeed look like the illicit drug. Then he considered his options: Throw it away, ignore it or call the police.

Kelly, who lives on a street with a fairly busy sidewalk near some local bars, decided that like the biblical burning bush, the pot plant was a sign from God telling him to publicly express his views on drug laws. He called local media and then called police.

“I think we should turn marijuana over to the tobacco companies,” Kelly said. The profit from sales could be used to fight harder drugs such as methamphetamine, he said.

“Take it out of the hands of the drug dealers and into the hands of the business community. Punishing people for smoking marijuana is the same as putting a child in reform school for jaywalking,” he said.

Opponents of legalizing marijuana contend that the drug is bad for the health and serves as a “gateway” drug, luring users onto harder substances.

Detective Eric Paull with the Kootenai County Joint Drug Task Force said it was surprising that the plant could have grown so tall without being noticed. He said a wayward seed from a patron at one of the nearby bars was the likely culprit.

“They usually pop up in closets. This is just blatant,” Paull said. “I think somebody was making a statement for sure.”

Kelly, who garnered 25 percent of the Democratic vote in the primary, hasn’t talked much about drug laws in the past.

“It’s going to make some community people mad at me,” Kelly said about speaking out. “These tests come along and sometimes you have to bite the bullet and do what’s right and fair and not worry about the consequence.”

Despite his support for legalization of marijuana, Kelly said he does not partake.

“I don’t do it. I’ve never done it and I don’t intend to do it,” he said. “But it’s like me defending the civil rights of homosexual men. I’d defend his rights, but I don’t plan on climbing into bed with him.”

NEW YORK (AP) – The city and a conservative legal group have settled a lawsuit in which the city was accused of violating laws against segregation by establishing a public high school for gay, bisexual and transgender students.

In the settlement, the city and a group calling itself the Liberty Counsel agreed that the Harvey Milk High School was open to students of any sexual orientation, said Kate O’Brien Ahlers of the city’s Law Department.

“The city is pleased that the litigation involving Harvey Milk High School has been resolved,” city lawyer Emily Sweet said in a statement released by Ahlers.

“Harvey Milk High School has always been open to all students and the terms of the stipulation are designed to ensure that all Department of Education staff and students are aware of the nondiscrimination policy,” the statement said.

The Liberty Counsel and Democratic state Sen. Ruben Diaz of the Bronx filed the lawsuit in August 2003 after the city announced a month earlier that the high school would be a publicly funded school for “gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning” youth.

The Liberty Counsel’s lawsuit challenged the legality of funding a “gay” high school with tax dollars. In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court, the group said keeping heterosexual students out of the school would violate laws that bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The school was an expansion of a two-room program that began in 1984 and formerly had been managed and financed by the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a gay-rights youth advocacy group.

The Liberty Counsel released a statement saying the settlement requires school officials to acknowledge in materials that they cannot discriminate against straight students and to make sure staffers follow nondiscrimination rules.

Neither Diaz nor a spokesperson for the Liberty Counsel could be reached for comment.

SEATTLE (AP) – Ric Weiland, one of the first five Microsoft Corp. employees and a major local philanthropist, has died.

He was 53 when he committed suicide June 24, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office said. Friends said he suffered from depression and died at his Seattle home.

Weiland went to high school with Microsoft co-founder and good friend Paul Allen. Allen and Bill Gates hired him in 1975, the same year they founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, N.M.

Weiland moved with Microsoft to the Seattle area in 1979. After a stint at Harvard Business School, he rejoined Microsoft in 1982 and worked as the project leader for Microsoft Works, the company’s second-tier word processing and spreadsheet software.

Weiland was a lead programmer and developer for the company’s BASIC and COBOL systems, two of the first personal computing interfaces.

“Ric was certainly a key contributor to Microsoft’s early success and was a brilliant programmer,” Allen said in a statement. “I have many fond memories of Ric and all the things we did together, and I will miss him.”

After leaving Microsoft in 1988, Weiland dedicated most of his time to philanthropy.

He donated tens of millions of dollars to a number of local charities, including the Pride Foundation, the Lifelong AIDS Alliance, United Way of King County and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He was an influential member of the gay community.

Weiland was a member of the Pride Foundation’s board of directors from 1997 to 2002 and helped the foundation persuade General Electric Co. to include sexual orientation in its nondiscrimination policy, said Audrey Haberman, the foundation’s executive director.

“He never wanted any special recognition for his giving,” Haberman said. “He loved the idea of helping other people. He had sort of a tremendous compassion in his life.”

Weiland was a regular contributor to the Lifelong AIDS Alliance from the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and had increased his donations in the past few years, said Lifelong AIDS Alliance executive director Tina Podlodowski, who worked with Weiland at Microsoft from 1984 to 1988.

Weiland also gave to his undergraduate alma mater, Stanford University; the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network; the American Foundation for AIDS Research; and the National Audubon Society.