LONG BEACH (AP) – The Long Beach City Council unanimously approved a resolution supporting same-sex marriage on Oct. 10.

The council is urging passage of state and federal laws to legalize the unions.

Councilmemeber Patrick O’Donnell says it’s a civil rights issue he calls pretty black and white.

The measure has no legal force but backers say it symbolizes support for the city’s tens of thousands of gay and lesbian residents now that a state appeals court has upheld a ban on same-sex marriage.

Similar measures have been passed in 38 other California cities.

HARTFORD (AP) – The father of a man killed by a police officer was arrested at Hartford Superior Court Oct. 10 on allegations he shouted racial and homosexual epithets at the officer and his lawyer as they approached the courthouse.

Keith Thomas, 42, was charged with breach of peace and intimidation based on bias, state police said. He is accused of making comments that were “offensive based on bias and causing alarm and concern for public safety” at the courthouse, authorities said.

Hartford police officer Robert Lawlor, who is white, is charged with manslaughter and first-degree assault in the shooting death of Thomas’ son, Jashon Bryant, who was black, in May 2005. Lawlor is free on bond and has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case.

Bryant, 18, was sitting in the passenger seat of a parked car in May 2005 when Lawlor and a federal agent approached the vehicle with the belief that Bryant and another man, Brandon Henry, had a gun.

Georgetti has said that Lawlor opened fire when Henry drove directly at the officers and Bryant reached down and pulled up what the officer believed to be a gun. A weapon was never found.

When he was arraigned in July, Lawlor was surrounded by city police officers during his court appearance. Thomas then was restrained by family members as he confronted Lawlor while the officer was walking to the courthouse.

Lawlor’s lawyer, Michael Georgetti, said Thomas and his supporters confronted him and his client as they were walking to the courthouse for a pre-trial conference. He said he expected Hartford police and judicial marshals to provide security outside, but they weren’t there.

Georgetti said the group blocked the entrance to the courthouse, yelling and trying to assault the two, before state police broke it up and arrested Thomas.

“I think it’s outrageous that someone would behave like this,” Georgetti said. “I think he should be prosecuted.”

Lawlor’s case was continued to Nov. 20.

Thomas was released on $1,000 bond. His next court appearance is set for Oct. 24.

BOSTON (AP) – A former five-time Boston city councilor has been charged in Lawrence with trying to lure someone he believed was a teenage boy into meeting him for sex.

David Scondras pleaded not guilty to the charges Oct. 10 and was released on $1,500 bail.

Police said he used a screen name “Topdadd” to send pornographic images and messages on the Internet to someone he believed was a 15-year-old boy, and arranged a meeting with him at the parking lot of the Day Charter School in Lawrence, where he was arrested.

Lawrence police said the person Scondras was sending messages to was a 20-year-old hospital security guard who showed the messages to police.

“I categorically deny everything. Those were lies,” Scondras told The Boston Globe.

Scondras, a Harvard-educated tenant activist, was Boston’s first openly gay councilor when he was elected in 1983. He was voted out of office 10 years later, after he was caught making rambling calls to police and disclosed that he had a drinking problem, had been taking pain medication and that his partner had been diagnosed with AIDS.

He has run a nonprofit AIDS organization from his Cambridge home since leaving government.

Several officials who served with Scoundras praised his talent and dedication.

“He still has a lot to live for, and he has an awful lot to offer,” former Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn told the Globe.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The city of Minneapolis has settled two of three harassment lawsuits against Fire Chief Bonnie Bleskachek.

The City Council voted unanimously on Oct. 6 to compensate firefighters Jennifer Cornell and Kathleen Mullen, and promote them to battalion chief. Both women had claimed in lawsuits against the city and Bleskachek that the chief retaliated against them by preventing their promotions to battalion chief and throwing out the results of an advancement test.

Under the settlement, Cornell will receive $65,000 and Mullen, $29,000. A third lawsuit by firefighter Kristina Lemon that makes similar allegations is still in litigation.

Bleskachek’s lawyer, Jerry Burg, said his client threw out the test results because they were flawed – not because Cornell and Mullen passed while Bleskachek’s partner failed, as alleged. Burg said he understands why the city settled but that he believed Bleskachek would have been cleared in court.

Bleskachek, who is openly gay, has been on paid administrative leave since March while the city conducts an internal investigation of her behavior. All three lawsuits alleged discrimination and sexual harassment on her part.

NEW YORK (AP) – Four young men were arrested for luring a gay man to a remote location with an online promise of a sexual encounter, then attempting to rob him – an incident that left the victim in critical condition after he ran into traffic to escape the attack, a police commander said.

The four, who range in age from 16 to 20, were arrested on Oct. 10, according to a police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity because the charges were still pending. Police had said they were investigating the Oct. 8 attack as a possible bias incident, but it remained unclear whether the four would be charged with a bias crime.

Michael Sandy, 28, remained in critical condition after the confrontation spilled onto a parkway and he was hit by a vehicle as he tried to escape, the commander said. That vehicle fled the scene, and police were also searching for the driver.

The four attackers, who said they were heterosexual, made incriminating statements and indicated they had previously used the Internet to lure and attack gay men, the commander said.

The commander said one of the men had met Sandy on a street corner and convinced him to drive to an isolated parking lot in New York’s Brooklyn borough, where the other three were waiting. His car was later discovered at the former rest stop near Plumb Beach, N.Y., with the motor still running.

The spot, just east of Sheepshead Bay, N.Y., is known as a gathering point for illicit drug use and sexual encounters, officials said.

Witnesses told police the dispute spilled onto the six-lane Belt Parkway and halted traffic as Sandy backed away from his assailants when they grabbed at him. A motorist who was forced to stop said Sandy was struck after breaking free and ending up in a lane where cars were still moving.

The four, who were not identified by police, were expected to be arraigned.

MOYOCK (AP) – The American Civil Liberties Union plans to support a high school student who’s trying to start a Gay-Straight Alliance club in Currituck County, school officials said.

ACLU officials have told school authorities that the organization was committed to putting its “full resources” behind the effort, said Sharon Martz, a member of the county board of education.

Student Danielle Smiley says she began thinking about putting together the club at Currituck County High School after being harassed at school. That, she said, has included students putting chewing gum on the lock on her wall locker and teachers forcing her to tell her parents about her sexual orientation.

The club wouldn’t be a “gay club” for recruiting homosexuals and promoting sexual activity, but instead would focus on raising awareness about homosexuality among all students, according to Smiley.

More than a dozen people spoke against the proposal at a school board meeting Oct. 2.

The school board has not reached a decision on whether to allow the club.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court refused to intervene on Oct. 10 in a legal fight over same-sex marriage, declining an appeal from a gay California couple who were denied a license to wed.

The justices declined without comment to take the case of Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer of Mission Viejo. The men had sought a marriage license in Southern California’s Orange County in 2004 and, after they were turned down, filed a federal lawsuit that challenged federal and state laws against same-sex marriage.

A U.S. District judge said the federal Defense of Marriage Act was constitutional but declined to rule on the state ban because a separate legal challenge is making its way through California state courts.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed in May that the couple should await the outcome of the state court challenge.

A California appeals court upheld the state ban on same-sex weddings on Oct. 5. That case appears headed for the California Supreme Court.

A trial judge in San Francisco last year declared the state marriage ban invalid because it violated the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

Major civil rights groups opposed the federal lawsuit, preferring to fight for recognition of same-sex marriage in several states before the Supreme Court is asked to weigh in.

PLATTEVILLE (AP) – University of Wisconsin system regents voted Oct. 6 to oppose the ban on same-sex marriage on the November ballot. The regents say it will hurt their ability to recruit and retain gay and lesbian employees.

The regents have long lobbied the legislature to lift a ban on health and other benefits for partners of gay and lesbian employees.

UW Madison is the only school in the Big Ten conference that doesn’t offer the benefits – a policy that recently prompted a star nanotechnology researcher to leave.

Regents approved a resolution on a voice vote at their meeting at UW Platteville. Regent Gerard Randall is one of the few Republicans on the 17-member board. He was the only one to vote no.

The regents govern the UW system of 13 four-year universities and 13 two-year colleges.