WEST PALM BEACH (AP) – Six months after resigning from Congress, former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley remains under criminal investigation for sexually explicit Internet communications with underage boys but has not been charged, authorities said Wednesday.

“I can’t really give any more detail other than to say we’re still in the preliminary investigative stance and we are working with state authorities,” said Debra Weierman, spokesperson for the FBI’s Washington field office.

Florida authorities announced their own criminal investigation in November but have remained tightlipped on the status since then.

Foley resigned Sept. 29 after being confronted with the lurid messages to male teenage pages who had worked on Capitol Hill.

He checked himself into an Arizona facility on Oct. 1 for what his attorneys said was treatment of “alcoholism and other behavioral problems.” At the time, his attorney said Foley was gay, an alcoholic and had been molested by a priest as a teenage altar boy in Florida.

Attorney David Roth maintains Foley never had inappropriate sexual contact with the minors. He has declined further comment on any aspect of the case.

Federal law generally requires a person to meet or attempt to meet a minor for sex for it to be a crime. However, under laws in some states where the Florida Republican communicated with minors, an attempt to seduce the victim might be enough for a criminal case.

Under state law in Florida, where the age of consent is 18, a crime may have been committed if Foley is simply found to have seduced or attempted to seduce a minor using lewd or explicit language.

“It’s definitely still an active investigation,” Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokesperson Kristen Perezluha said Wednesday.

Foley emerged publicly in West Palm Beach on Nov. 17 to attend a wake for his father, Edward, who died of cancer, but has rarely been seen in public since.

DETROIT (AP) – An elderly man whose death became a cause for gay rights advocates died of natural causes, not from being beaten, authorities said.

Police also said Wednesday that they intended to close the investigation into 72-year-old Andrew Anthos’ death.

“There’s no evidence that an assault occurred,” police spokesperson James Tate told the Detroit News.

According to family members, Anthos said he was riding a city bus home from the library on Feb. 13 when a young man asked him if he was gay and uttered a slur.

Anthos said the man followed him off the bus and confronted him again. Anthos said he told the man he was gay as he went to help a friend whose wheelchair was stuck in a snow bank, according to his cousin, Athena Fedenis.

Anthos said the attacker struck him in the back of the head with a pipe and ran off. Anthos died Feb 23.

His death drew wide attention, and was cited on the floor of Congress by Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, as evidence of the need to extend hate crime legislation to gays.

But the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Anthos fell because he had an arthritic neck and detectives were unable to find witnesses to a beating, police said. Medical Examiner Dr. Carl Schmidt said evidence did not support the report of an attack on Anthos and said a head injury likely came from falling.

It was unclear what police made of the friend’s account. Messages seeking comment were left by The Associated Press, but were not immediately returned.

Fedenis said she was shocked.

“I won’t let this rest,” Fedenis said. “I can’t let this tarnish him. I don’t want anyone to think it wasn’t a hate crime.”

CONCORD (AP) – The House soundly defeated a proposed constitutional amendment Wednesday to ban same-sex marriage.

Same-sex marriage opponents argued the voters should decide the issue, but failed to get a majority. The House voted 233-124 to kill it.

Three-fifths support was needed for passage.

“You’re not being a bigot if you say, ‘I think the people have a right to vote,’ and say, ‘That’s how to define a family,’” Windham Republican Anthony DiFruscia said in the losing fight.

Auburn Republican Dudley Dumaine warned amendment opponents they would be held accountable in the 2008 election.

“I want you on record telling the people they don’t have a right to vote on this constitutional amendment,” he said.

But Nashua Democrat Bette Lasky urged its defeat.

“The constitution should never be amended to restrict rights, nor should the house of the people discriminate against anyone in this state,” she said.

Plymouth Democrat Carole Estes recounted her years as a young, black woman treated as a second-class citizen in the South.

“I could not go to a theater or a restaurant where whites were. I was 18 years old before I spoke to a white as an equal,” she said. “I could not attend public college. I could not try on any article of clothing or return it when it was purchased.”

She said it was ironic she now was being asked to vote to discriminate against others.

“For too many years, I have spent time believing I was a second-class citizen. The laws told you so. I cannot perpetuate a travesty even though the people say they should vote. They have voted in the past” and the result was discrimination, she said.

When she was done, the chamber broke into applause.

The House stumbled on an effort to repeal a 2004 law banning out-of-state marriages not recognized in New Hampshire. The ban was conceived in response to the legalization of same-sex marriage that year in Massachusetts.

Repeal supporters say it is needed to eliminate “divorce at the border” for legally married same-sex couples, but opponents worried about wider consequences of eliminating the ban.

A move to pass the bill failed 171-169 after questions arose over whether the bill would mean recognizing polygamous marriages.

The House sent the bill back to the Judiciary Committee for more work.

The House postponed action on a bill to create civil unions for same-sex couples until next Wednesday.

TRENTON (AP) – Former Gov. James E. McGreevey’s estranged wife will take her turn telling tales of life with the closeted gay politician on the ‘Oprah Winfrey Show.’

Dina Matos McGreevey’s appearance on May 1 will coincide with the release of her memoir, Silent Partner, published by Hyperion.

Hyperion spokesperson Beth Gebhard confirmed Matos McGreevey’s upcoming chat with Oprah, as well as two-part “Good Morning America” exclusive on May 2 and 3. The scheduled “Oprah” appearance was first reported Wednesday in the Star-Ledger of Newark.

Matos McGreevey’s book follows by less than a year the splashy confessional written by her husband. His tell-all detailed his rapid political rise as a closeted gay man and his spectacular fall after being threatened with blackmail by a former male lover.

He kicked-off his national book tour with an appearance on “Oprah” last September.

On the program, he shocked the studio audience by telling of an affair with a male aid that he said began while his wife was in the hospital recovering from the difficult birth of their child, now 5.

McGreevey recently filed for divorce, and has asked the judge for custody of their daughter and accompanying child support.

Matos McGreevey has never spoken publicly about her role as the gay governor’s wife. Neither she nor her lawyer returned calls or e-mail requests for comment on Wednesday.

COLUMBIA (AP) – South Carolina officially banned same-sex marriage Thursday as legislative leaders ratified a constitutional amendment approved by voters in November.

New Hampshire, meanwhile, moved in the opposite direction, with a state House panel endorsing the creation of civil unions for same-sex couples.

South Carolina was among eight states with same-sex marriage bans on the ballot last year. The measures passed everywhere except Arizona.

Nearly four out of five South Carolina voters approved the amendment, which reads, “A marriage between one man and one woman is the only lawful domestic union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”

The state already had a law against same-sex marriages, but proponents said the amendment was needed to prevent judges from opening the door to civil unions, which offer same-sex couples the legal benefits of marriage but not the title.

Only Massachusetts allows same-sex couples to marry. Vermont, Connecticut and New Jersey allow civil unions, and California has domestic partnerships that offer similar benefits.

In New Hampshire, the House Judiciary Committee recommended the passage of civil unions Thursday by a bipartisan 15-5 vote.

“I am very pleased that we have taken this step,” said one of the bill’s sponsors, Democratic Rep. Marlene DeChane, who is gay.

A vote by the full New Hampshire House is expected next week. The measure also must pass the Senate, where Republican Bob Clegg has proposed legislation for “contractual cohabitation” giving unmarried adults the same legal rights as married couples.

Gov. John Lynch opposes same-sex marriage but supports providing health care benefits to state workers’ same-sex partners. He has not taken a public position on civil unions.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The U.S. global AIDS initiative has provided therapy and brought testing and counseling to millions around the world. Now the challenge is to move from emergency to sustained efforts, the Institute of Medicine said Friday.

Launched three years ago, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is active in 120 countries, with a concentrated focus on 15, where it seeks to have an impact at the national level, the institute said.

In those focus countries, 800,000 people have received AIDS drugs through the program, another 19 million got testing and counseling, and therapy was able to block transmission of the disease from mother to infant in an estimated 100,000 cases, the report said.