BENTONVILLE (AP) – A Bentonville man wants the city to pay his two sons $20,000 because they found a book on lesbian sex on the shelves of a city library.

Earl Adams says since his 14- and 16-year-old sons found The Whole Lesbian Sex Book while looking for books on military academies, they have been “greatly disturbed … and this matter has caused many sleepless nights in our house.” Adams wants the city to pay each son $10,000 under Arkansas’ obscenity laws and called for library director Cindy Suter to be fired.

Suter, who plans to leave her job May 31 to work at her privately owned art gallery, said Adams’ complaints did not figure into her resignation. She moved the book after the first complaint, but after receiving more letters from Adams, the library’s advisory board voted to take the book off the shelves earlier this month.

Bentonville City Attorney Camille Thompson described Adams’ claim as baseless.

“There is not a valid legal concern here,” Thompson said. “In fact, [the request for money] made me question his motivation.”

In an e-mail Thursday, Adams said that “God was speaking to my heart that day and helped me find the words that proved successful in removing this book from the shelf.”

The book, by Felice Newman, is a sex guide deemed suitable for all public libraries, according to the Library Journal, which the Bentonville library uses to decide what to place on its shelves. Suter said the library aims to have books and other materials to serve a diverse group of library users.

Library Advisory Board member George Spence said he found the book crude, but said it should be replaced with another book on the same topic.

“A more sensitive, more clinical approach to [the] same material might be more appropriate for the library,” Spence said.

NEW CASTLE (AP) – Tensions over a Day of Silence in support of gay rights led to a lockdown at New Castle, Ind., Chrysler High School.

Superintendent John Newby would not confirm students’ claims that a student had threatened to take a gun to school Wednesday.

“We didn’t have a specific threat,” Newby said. He did say that a student was disciplined Tuesday for remarks made during a classroom discussion.

Students were taken to the New Castle Fieldhouse while police searched lockers Wednesday morning. No weapons were found. Police used metal detecting wands on students as they returned to class. Extra police officers remained at school throughout the day and access to the building was limited to three entrances.

About 150 of the 1,000 students at school left early, according to figures reported by the principal’s office. About 80 students did not show up for school. School officials said students would not be penalized for the unexcused absences.

“People were in their shirts for it, people were in their shirts against it, and it just caused a lot of drama that I didn’t think was needed,” said student Kayla Boyles.

Nationally, students from more than 4,000 schools had registered for the Day of Silence, according to an organizer. Many students took a vow of silence for most of the day to support gay, bisexual and transgender students.

Tommie Barnes, mother of a freshman, said she also was concerned about potential conflict over Thursday’s planned Day of Truth rebuttal to the Day of Silence. That also coincides with a national observance, this one planned by the Alliance Defense Fund. Its day is devoted to countering the “homosexual agenda” and presenting an “opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective,” according to the fund’s Web site.

Barnes picked her daughter up at school early Wednesday and planned to keep her home on Thursday.

“I don’t want her singled out as a Christian who is against everybody, because she isn’t. She’s a good witness on her own,” Barnes said of her daughter. “We’re a very openly Christian family. I have a family member who is gay.”

Another parent, Ginney Bledsoe, came to pick up her sophomore son.

“I was really scared. I was watching CNN. With everything going on at Virginia Tech … I know my son’s safe with me.”

DES MOINES (AP) – The Iowa Legislature has nearly assembled a $6 billion state budget, and leaders said they likely will close this year’s session by the end of the week, with efforts to expand gay rights among other measures tossed overboard.

Looking to speed the process and finish the session, leaders narrowed the list of legislation still being considered, deciding not to bring up public funding for campaigns, limits on campaign spending, efforts to expand gay rights and/or giving unions new powers.

There is no statutory ending to the Legislature, but lawmakers’ daily expense payments end on Friday, the 110th day of the session. That traditionally prompts lawmakers to adjourn.

NEW YORK (AP) – Adam Sandler says there’s a moral to his upcoming movie, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, in which he plays a heterosexual fireman who pretends to be gay.

“This movie says there’s nothing wrong with being gay. There’s just something wrong with being gay for Kevin James,” Sandler told Newsweek.

James, star of the CBS comedy “The King of Queens,” and Sandler portray firemen pretending to be a gay couple to receive domestic partnership benefits. The film, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, is scheduled to be released July 20.

“I know Kevin, and it’s kind of a strange thing to have to play. So to ease the tension, before the first day of shooting, we had sex with each other,” Sandler said. “We just got it out of the way so it wouldn’t be an issue. It’s an old tip I picked up from working with [Jack] Nicholson.”

FARGO (AP) – Fargo South High School students Jakob Paper and Steven Goering plan to make history and, hopefully, gain a little acceptance in the process from their classmates by attending the school’s prom together.

Paper, a senior, and Goering, who is getting his high school diploma from the North Dakota Division of Independent Study, plan to attend the prom this Saturday, April 28.

The 18-year-olds will do the Grand March together as boyfriends and be introduced on stage with the other couples.

“Nobody’s ever done it as far as I’m aware,” Paper said of two gay men attending a local prom.

“For the people in Fargo and North Dakota, especially, it’s really important to see this,” he said.

Paper has been open about his homosexuality since eighth grade. Goering, who recently moved to Fargo from Mayville, said he told his parents four years ago and most of his friends in January.

“It’s going to be interesting,” Goering said of the prom. “I figure it’s going to be a good experience. It’s scary because it’s North Dakota and everybody’s hush-hush about it [homosexuality]. But it’s an up-and-coming issue. People are going to have to get used to it somewhere.”

South officials earlier this year approved a request to allow same-sex couples in the march, said assistant principal Jennifer Fremstad.

The principals at South and North High in Fargo and West Fargo High School say they are not aware of any gay male couples taking part in the Grand March in previous years.

Laurie Schlenker, a counselor at South who works with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students, said it is not unusual for two young women to walk the Grand March together.

“They may not be lesbians; they just might be friends,” she said. “There’s that weird standard out there. It seems in our society it’s more acceptable for two girls to do it than two guys.”

Goering said he attended past proms in Mayville with girls who were friends.

“[Prom is] not new to me. It’s new with a guy,” he said. “I’m just going to have fun. I’m not going to make a big deal out of it.”

Paper said he is excited and nervous.

“We’re still trying to figure out what to wear,” he said.

OLYMPIA (AP) – Just a year after gay-rights legislation seemed so controversial in Washington, newly elected Democrats have come right back with a domestic partners registry that gives some marriage-like benefits. But that isn’t all. They also passed “medically accurate” sex education and dealt with medical use of marijuana.

Labor-friendly bills, legislation sought by trial lawyers, pay raises for public employees and labor contracts with increasing sectors of public employment were ratified with gusto, and the Senate held hearings on gun control, a state income tax and possible impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney over Iraq. None of the bills went anywhere, but all three hearings pleased party activists.

The Democrats won supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature and even stronger one-party domination of Olympia last fall. The big question then, ironically enough, was whether it would make much difference.

Dogged by questions about whether they would overreach, overspend and overplay their hand, this breed of New Democrats came to town in January with a cautious, circumspect attitude. In the words of House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, they weren’t going to go nuts, since modern history shows that fickle voters can reverse course at the very next election.

But despite that caution and the ever-present concern about a backlash, Democrats have used their big majorities – 62-36 in the House and 31-17 in the Senate – to produce a broad and ambitious list of accomplishments to take home.

They’ve put their stamp on an enormous budget, spending heavily into a projected surplus for various blue-state priorities, most notably education, health care and the environment.