SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) – California’s newly sworn legislature on Dec. 4 picked up where the old one left off, introducing an emotional bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

While legislative leaders struck a bipartisan tone for the session that gets under way in January, rank and file members revived bills that have divided the Capitol.

Assemblymember Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, reintroduced legislation that would allow same-sex couples to marry in the state of California. And Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill that would let unmarried, heterosexual couples register as domestic partners.

Leno said he hoped the Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vetoed a nearly identical same-sex marriage bill in 2005, would change his position on the new bill. Schwarzenegger has said it is up to voters or the courts, not lawmakers, to settle the contentious issue of same-sex marriage.

California law does not permit same-sex marriage, but same-sex couples who register as domestic partners are given most of the same state rights as married couples.

A Superior Court in San Francisco ruled last year that having separate rules for same-sex and straight couples was unconstitutional. But an appeals court reversed that decision in October, saying it was up to the legislature, not the courts, to decide whether to change the traditional definition of marriage.

EAGLE (AP) – Employees of Eagle County will be able to apply for insurance benefits for same-sex partners next year.

“It had been requested, and the direction came from the county commissioners to do this,” County human resources director Nora Fryklund told the Vail Daily.

Same-sex couples who ask for benefits will be treated like heterosexual couples in common-law marriages and will be interviewed to determine whether they qualify, Fryklund said.

“We’re just trying to be fair to everyone who works here,” she said.

Eagle County has more than 425 workers but Fryklund doesn’t expect many to apply.

“We might have had two people request them,” she said. “Maybe a half-dozen might qualify.” Some private businesses in the Vail area also provide same-sex partner benefits but few other governments do.

“We’ve done it for several years now,” Vail Resorts spokesperson Kelly Ladyga said. “It’s important for us, and it is used.”

CONCORD (AP) – City officials are cracking down on “cruising” activities at a park known as a hotspot for men seeking sex with other men.

Soon, visitors to Terrill Park will notice a heavier police presence, extended closing hours and blocked access to the most popular sex areas. Work to clear brush from overgrown paths – another part of the plan to curb public sex, will begin once the city has made new signs detailing the park’s new hours. Violations of the new rules could result in a $100 fine.

“What is dictating this is a concern for the quality of life at Terrill Park,” said Concord Police Maj. John Duval. “We want to change the reputation of the park.”

The changes build on efforts in the last three years to clear overgrowth from trails, add trails along the river’s edge and remove a road passing the length of the park, which stopped drivers from pulling into private clearings.

At least two Web sites advertise Terrill Park, along the Merrimack River, as a good “cruising” spot for men seeking sex with men, according to the Concord Monitor. The area behind the parking lot is littered with sex-related trash and a reporter who visited the park for two months this summer frequently spotted men meeting in the woods at all hours. Police arrested and charged a man there with indecent exposure last month.

Though the illegal activity has been obvious, officials have been concerned about cracking down. Police worry the extra enforcement will be seen as targeting the gay community and not an attempt to stop public sex in general. It’s also hard to charge offenders who stop what they’re doing when they see officers pull into the park.

Duval said he’s aware the changes will shift the activities elsewhere, not end them.

“We understand that it will be pushed elsewhere,” he said. “But we hope that people won’t use the public parks or public places for it.”

TRENTON (AP) – A state Assembly committee approved a bill on Dec. 7 that would allow same-sex couples the benefits of marriage – but not the title – in a move that places the measure on a fast track for possible approval by the end of the year.

The 4-2 approval of the civil unions bill came as a result of the objections of every single person who testified in an emotional three-hour hearing before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Lawmakers see the civil unions as a compromise, which four recent independent polls have shown the state’s voters approve.

The measure comes in reaction to a landmark October state Supreme Court ruling that required lawmakers to grant same-sex couples access to the same rights as married couples. The court left it up to the Legislature to decide whether to call the unions marriage.

Most of the majority Democrats in the legislature seem to prefer calling the arrangements civil unions instead.

The bill laying out the details was introduced late on Dec. 4. It is scheduled to be on the agenda for the Senate Judiciary Committee on Dec. 11 and could be brought to a vote before the full Assembly and Senate by the end of the year.

Gay rights advocates say civil unions stop short of marriage, and they do not support the bill. But some said they were even more strongly against the bill that was introduced because it referred to couples as “parties in a civil union” rather than “spouses.”

Lawmakers amended the bill before the Dec. 7 vote to change several items – mostly at the behest of gay rights activists. On the “spouses” issue, there was a compromise. The bill now calls the people in the unions “civil union couples.”

NEW YORK (AP) – City health officials Nov. 5 backed off a plan that would have allowed New Yorkers to switch the sex on their birth certificates without undergoing sex-change surgery.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said the issue needed further study, in part to guarantee it wouldn’t conflict with federal rules now being developed.

Like most other cities and states, New York has long allowed people who have undergone sex-change surgery to get a new birth certificate reflecting the change.

The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had proposed in September that the policy be liberalized further to include people who had taken other steps short of surgery to irrevocably alter their gender identity.

The new policy, for example, would have allowed birth record changes for people taking hormones to alter their appearance.

The plan would have made the city the first in the country with such a policy, health officials said.

While it delayed making that change, the Board of Health went ahead with a related policy revision that for the first time will allow people who have undergone sex-change surgery to list their new sex on their birth documents. Previously, the city had simply issued a new birth certificate that removed any reference to gender.

Cole Thaler, a transgender rights attorney, said he was disappointed by the board’s decision not to implement the new policy.

“Some people are physically unable to have the surgery, for health reasons,” Thaler said. “I’m hopeful that time will lead to a more fair result.”

WASHINGTON (AP) – The House ethics committee reported Dec. 8 that Republican lawmakers and aides failed to protect young male pages from former Rep. Mark Foley’s improper advances, concluding an investigation into a scandal that convulsed Congress and contributed to the GOP defeat in last month’s elections.

The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct among many “to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences” of the Florida Republican’s conduct.

Foley hurriedly resigned his seat Sept. 29 after the existence of sexually explicit computer messages sent to teenage pages came to light.

He quickly entered an alcoholic treatment program.

But the scandal damaged Republicans politically, and raised questions about whether Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., or his aides had done enough to investigate reports of improper advances by Foley.

Florida authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether Foley broke any laws related to his communications with the teens. Federal authorities are also investigating.

The report found that Hastert was likely told about Foley’s e-mails by two Republican leaders last spring.

Hastert has said he doesn’t recall the conversations. But both Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York have said they informed the speaker last spring.

“The speaker’s reported statement in response to Majority Leader Boehner that the matter ‘has been taken care of’ is some evidence that the speaker was aware of some concern regarding Rep. Foley’s conduct” even prior to the spring conversation, the report said.

The report was the result of numerous interviews conducted over nine weeks. Most of the witnesses answered question without being subpoenaed.