ANCHORAGE (AP) – Alaskans with HIV are more healthy and living longer than they have in the past, a new state report said.

In the early 1980s, about half of the people who contracted the disease died each year, according to the state Epidemiology Section. From 1985 to 1995, 20 to 39 people died annually from HIV.

In recent years, the report said, the number of deaths has dropped to a handful of the 40 to 55 new HIV patients diagnosed annually. In 2005, no one infected with the virus died in Alaska, the report says, although the number of deaths rose to six last year.

“This, I think, is testament to the fact that people are getting care and taking advantage of medical advances,” said Wendy Craytor, state coordinator for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.

The number of deaths began dropping in 1996, after doctors started using a new class of more effective medicines called anti-retrovirals, said Craytor.

Nearly half the Alaska cases, 48 percent, are among men exposed by having sex with other men. Fourteen percent are from injection drug users, and 7 percent are men who fit in both categories.

Fourteen percent of HIV cases can be traced to heterosexual contact. In a few cases, the disease was passed on to babies by mothers or originated in blood transfusions or transplants.

Since 1982, 1,145 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Alaska and 370 have died.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A West Coast seminary for Conservative Judaism has accepted its first openly gay and lesbian applicants since the movement decided to ease its ban on gay ordination.

The Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, based at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, has admitted a gay man and a lesbian for the fall semester, a school spokesperson said Tuesday. The Jewish Theological Seminary, the movement’s flagship school, is still debating its policy.

In December, a panel of scholars who interpret Jewish law for the movement voted to allow the seminaries to decide on their own whether to admit openly gay students.

But the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards left enough leeway to allow synagogues that consider same-sex relations contrary to Jewish law to bar gay clergy from their pulpits.

Conservative Judaism holds the middle ground in American Judaism, adhering to tradition while allowing some change for modern circumstances.

The larger and more liberal Reform Jewish branch, as well as the smaller Reconstructionist wing, allow gays to become rabbis; the Orthodox bar gays and women from ordination.

MADERA (AP) – A club for gay and straight students that was refused official status at Madera High School will be sponsored by the school after all, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU negotiated with Madera school officials on behalf of 10 students who had sought official recognition for the Gay-Straight Alliance, which is designed to give students a place to discuss lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues.

Students applied for official club status in spring of 2005, and were told that all clubs needed the district’s approval, which could take six months.

One year later, officials told students they could meet on campus, but could not make announcements or post bulletins because the club wasn’t “school-sponsored.” In the interim, other clubs were granted those benefits, the ACLU said.

The ACLU and the GSA Network, an umbrella group of gay-straight alliances in California, sent a letter to the Madera Unified School District earlier this year saying that the federal Equal Access Act required that public schools treat all non-curricular student clubs the same.

The district approved the club’s full sponsorship at Madera High School on Tuesday night.

“We’re all just so happy and excited that our school is finally treating us like any other club,” said senior Thalia Arenas, the club’s president.

NEWPORT BEACH (AP) – A mistrial was declared Monday in the case of a former aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy he met over the Internet.

Twelve jurors deliberated for nearly three days but deadlocked on all counts against Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, 36, of Ladera Ranch. Prosecutors said they will seek a retrial.

“I’m disappointed they couldn’t reach a verdict, especially after a long and emotional case,” said Orange County Deputy District Attorney Dan Hess. “But that happens sometimes, so we’ll go forward with the evidence that we have.”

Nielsen remains free on bond. A call to his defense attorney was not immediately returned.

Nielsen was working for a national law firm when he was arrested in 2003 after his accuser told a classmate about the alleged relationship. The classmate told school officials who, in turn, notified police.

Nielsen was charged with six felonies, including committing lewd acts on a child aged 14 or 15, having oral copulation with a person under age 16, and committing sodomy with a person under 16.

During trial, the boy, now 18, testified he had consensual sexual encounters with Nielsen.

Nielsen acknowledged on the witness stand that he chatted with the boy on a gay chat room and later met him on three occasions, but he insisted they never had sex.

In the mid-1990s Nielsen was an aide in the Washington, D.C., office of Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach.

BARTOW (AP) – Authorities are investigating the killing of a central Florida man as a hate crime after interviews with people who knew him revealed he was gay, officials said.

William David Brown Jr., 20, and Joseph Bearden, 21, were being held without bond in the Polk County Jail Saturday after being charged with first- degree murder in connection to Ryan Keith Skipper’s death, authorities said.

They are also charged with the armed robbery of Skipper’s car and computer. If convicted of murder, the two men would be eligible for the death penalty under Florida law.

The body of the 25-year-old Winter Haven man was found on a rural road in Wahneta early Wednesday morning, said Polk County Sheriff’s spokesperson Donna Wood. He had been stabbed about 20 times, she said.

A witness came forward and said Skipper was killed because he made an advance toward Brown, Wood said.

Authorities are treating the killing as a hate crime, according to a sheriff’s office statement.

Skipper was driving around Wahneta on Tuesday and offered Bearden a ride around midnight, the statement said. The two went back to Skipper’s house, where they smoked marijuana and discussed using Skipper’s computer to copy checks, the report said.

The two left Skipper’s house and went to another home where they met Brown and they all left in Skipper’s car, officials said. Once at the remote location, Brown and Bearden allegedly attacked Skipper in his own vehicle, stabbing him and leaving him along the roadside, Wood said.

The suspects allegedly attempted to clean the bloody vehicle and later drove Skipper’s car around and bragged to friends, Wood said.

Skipper’s car was later found abandoned on a dock near Lake Pansy in Winter Haven and Brown’s fingerprints were found inside, she said.

Detectives interviewed Brown and Bearden on Friday, officials said.

It was not immediately known if Brown and Bearden had attorneys.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage will get a key hearing before an Indiana House committee next week. But a provision that critics say could have unintended consequences could be removed, a top lawmaker suggested Thursday.

Proponents of the amendment have said that if any of the language changes, it would restart the lengthy process of amending the constitution. But House Speaker Patrick Bauer, who has consulted attorneys on the matter, said the section that specifically bans same-sex marriage could still advance even if another provision is removed.

“I think that might be the case, but we’ll see,” said Bauer, D-South Bend.

The proposed amendment has two sections. The first states that marriage in Indiana is solely the union of one man and one woman. The second says the state constitution or state law cannot be construed to provide the benefits of marriage to unmarried couples or groups.

Some opponents of the amendment say the second provision is vague and could be used to nullify domestic violence laws that apply to married and unmarried couples. They also fear it could eliminate domestic partner benefits offered by employers and contracts that unmarried senior couples sometimes have to retain inheritances and share legal, financial and health care decisions.

Terre Haute attorney James Bopp Jr. and other supporters of the amendment say the second provision means courts cannot force the government to provide same-sex benefits, but it does not prohibit the government, public employers or anyone else from voluntarily offering such benefits.

Constitutional bans against same-sex marriage have led to lawsuits in some states, and more than 20 have yet to determine how they apply to benefits.

Next week’s committee hearing is a key point in efforts to advance the amendment. Bauer refused to let the issue advance or even be debated in the House in 2004, when Democrats controlled that chamber. He said same-sex marriage already was prohibited by state law and accused Republicans of pushing the proposal for political reasons.

Republicans regained control of the House in 2005, and the current proposal won approval in both chambers that year.

Amending Indiana’s constitution requires a resolution to pass consecutive, separately elected General Assemblies and then be approved in a statewide vote. The Legislature passed the proposal in 2005, so if it is approved this year or in 2008, it could appear on the November 2008 ballot.

The Senate already has approved the proposed amendment this year.

House Minority Leader Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, has said that changing the wording would restart the process and has repeatedly voiced concern that Democrats would alter the proposal’s language.

Bauer said that would occur only through the committee process and if those concerned about the second provision showed up for the hearing and presented a competent case.

“I’ve said before, the process will run its course,” he said.

The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday before the House Rules Committee.