ANCHORAGE (AP) – Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said the state will abide by an Alaska Supreme Court order to provide benefits to same-sex partners of state employees as of Jan. 1. Palin’s decision came one day after the Alaska Supreme Court told the state to stop dragging its feet and implement benefits for state employees’ same-sex partners, first ordered 14 months ago.

“We believe we have no more judicial options,” Palin said. Palin said she still wants voters in a special April election to consider the prospect of a constitutional amendment designed to prohibit such benefits, signing into law a bill passed by state lawmakers in a November special session calling for voters to weigh in.

Voters will be asked if the Legislature should adopt a proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit the state or municipalities from providing these benefits. If there is overwhelming support, then legislators could pass a resolution with two-thirds support that would go before voters in the 2008 general election.

The pending implementation is a long time coming, says Carrie Evans, state legislative director for Washington, D.C.-based gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. “We haven’t seen that kind of defiance by the governor and legislature of a high court ruling; it’s extraordinary,” Evans said. “Some states just grumble. What we saw was Alaska digging in its heels.” Alaska will become the 14th U.S. state that has a law, policy or court decision that provides these benefits, according to the organization.

For now, this ends a six year-battle for the American Civil Liberties Union and nine couples who filed a lawsuit challenging the lack of benefits for same-sex couples employed by the state and the municipality of Anchorage. The high court ruled in October 2005 that denying benefits to same-sex domestic partners violated the state’s guarantee of equal protection for all Alaskans.

PHOENIX (AP) – A Paradise Valley councilmember is offering a $10,000 cash reward in an alleged hate crime reported by a same-sex couple who said several men attacked them outside a Scottsdale restaurant.

Councilmember Brian Cooney said he hopes the reward will urge witnesses to come forward with information about the beating of Jean Rolland, 28, and Andrew Frost, 19.

The couple said they were beaten in the entryway of Frasher’s Steakhouse after they left the restaurant holding hands.

Police said the attackers also shouted an anti-gay slur at the couple.

Frost was taken to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Hospital, where he was treated for wounds on his face and scalp. Rolland suffered minor injuries.

Cooney said he is outraged by the incident and is working with Scottsdale police to coordinate cash rewards for witnesses who give information leading to arrests.

“Scottsdale’s businesses and tourism are welcome to everyone except for violent thugs,” Cooney said.

Frost and Rolland said they want to press charges against their attackers, though Scottsdale police have not arrested any of them.

The Arizona Human Rights Fund and Foundation, a Phoenix nonprofit organization that advocates for GLBT rights, said it will follow the police investigation to determine if the attack was triggered by anti-gay sentiments.

BOSTON (AP) – Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage asked the state’s highest court on Dec. 20 to push lawmakers to vote on whether the measure should be put on the ballot.

John Hanify, an attorney for Gov. Mitt Romney, said supporters are asking the Supreme Judicial Court to clarify what the obligations of legislators are under a state constitutional provision that establishes the rights of citizens to petition for an amendment.

Romney and others sued in November after lawmakers postponed action on the proposed ballot question until Jan. 2, the last day of the legislative session – a move both sides said likely would kill the measure.

The proposed amendment would define marriage in Massachusetts as the union of a man and a woman and ban future same-sex marriages but leave intact those unions made since 2004, when Massachusetts became the only state to allow same-sex marriages.

Supporters of the proposed amendment say voters should decide how marriage should be defined.

Backers of same-sex marriage say civil rights should never be put to a popular vote.

Hanify said with clarification on their duties from the court, the Senate president should direct the body of lawmakers to vote.

“We’re not asking you to tell the legislature how to do its business. We’re asking you only to declare what the constitution requires them to do,” said Hanify, who asked justices to rule by Jan. 2.

But Assistant Attorney General Peter Sacks, representing the Senate president, urged the court not to get involved in the issue, citing the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches.

Voters who are dissatisfied with legislators who failed to vote on the amendment can choose to vote those lawmakers out of office.

“Their recourse is at the ballot box,” he said.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – The nation’s first openly lesbian big-city fire chief was demoted without severance pay on Dec. 22 amid allegations of discrimination and sexual harassment.

City officials approved the deal that stopped short of firing Bonnie Bleskachek to avoid further costly court action, Mayor R.T. Rybak said. The City Council voted 8-5 to approve the deal.

“She will be completely and permanently stripped of ever holding leadership or management in the city,” the mayor said. “She has been severely and significantly demoted, and her pay will be cut by $40,000.”

Bleskachek, 43, has denied wrongdoing, but the mayor said she will not contest the demotion.

Bleskachek’s attorney, Jerry Burg, said his client was relieved. “I’m sure she’s thrilled to have a door closed on all of this,” Burg said.

Hailed as a trailblazer when she was promoted to the top job two years ago, Bleskachek’s tenure was troubled. Four firefighters – three women and a man – sued, alleging various acts of discrimination and sexual harassment.

This summer, an investigation by the city’s Department of Civil Rights found it likely that the department gave preferential treatment to lesbians or those who socialized with them.

The city has spent more than $410,000 on the investigation, legal settlements and compensation for Bleskachek since she went on paid leave March 22.

HOUSTON (AP) – A rapist who preys on young men has struck five times in the Houston area since mid-September, and police said there may be even more victims, but they are too ashamed to come forward.

The rapist typically stalks, robs and sexually assaults his victims at gunpoint, apparently choosing them at random and attacking them near or inside their homes, police said. The most recent attack was Nov. 30.

“I wish we had a link between the victims, because we might have a better chance of catching him,” said Lt. Richard Whitaker of the police department in Baytown, where two of the attacks took place. “We don’t have any affirmative links at all.”

He said some victims may be reluctant to come forward because of their ages and “a pride thing” that makes men more reluctant to acknowledge being the victim of a sex crime.

Investigators believe that rape is the motive, even though some victims were robbed. DNA testing is underway in an effort to identify the attacker.

In some cases, the attacker approached his victim outside their home. Other times, he broke into the home.

“I think he just sees one that he prefers, and then he begins to follow them and gather information, finding out where they live and watching their house,” Whitaker said.

Victims have described the attacker as a clean-shaven African-American man, 18 to 21 years old, 5-foot-6 to 6 feet tall, with a shaved head.

The victims have all been men in their late teens.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne, is dismissing the fuss about her openly gay daughter’s pregnancy, which has rankled conservative groups.

“Well, I think that it’s just very lucky for me that I enjoy being a grandmother and I get to do it for the sixth time,” Mrs. Cheney said. Their daughter, Mary, and Heather Poe, her partner of 15 years, are expecting a baby in late spring.

“Dick and I both very much looking forward to this new baby,” Mrs. Cheney said in an interview on FOX News.

She said her daughter will be a “great mom.”

Asked about the Democratic takeover of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, Mrs. Cheney said scandals cost the GOP many votes.

“I think Iraq was part of it, but I also think that you had some extraordinary ethical failures,” she said. “They were bipartisan, but I do think the Republicans paid a great price for that.”

She noted the cases of former Republican Congressmember Mark Foley, who resigned over sexually explicit messages sent to male pages, and Randy Cunningham, who pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from defense contractors.

“I think those exacted a terrible price,” she said.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Malaria is fueling the spread of the AIDS virus in Africa by boosting the HIV in people’s bodies for weeks at a time, says a new study that pins down the deadly interplay between the duel scourges.

University of Washington researchers estimated the impact of the overlapping infections and concluded the interaction could be blamed for thousands of HIV infections and almost a million bouts of malaria in the last two decades in one part of Kenya alone.

“It’s an important paper,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. government‘s leading infectious disease specialist.

“We really need to be much more serious about what we do about malaria at the same time we’re serious about what we do about HIV.”

Scientists have long suspected the diseases fuel each other. The new Washington study created a mathematical model to figure out just how much.

Why? HIV is most easily spread when patients have high virus levels in their blood, and a bout of malaria causes a temporary surge – a stunning sevenfold increase – in those levels, he explained. The surge may last six to eight weeks, far longer than it takes to recover from a typical malaria bout and feel up to sexual activity again, he added.