A North Carolina National Guard member thought to be the first United States soldier convicted of murdering an Iraqi said he 'snapped' and shot the 17-year-old boy after they had consensual sex, The News & Observer reported. Pvt. Federico Merida, 21, of Biscoe, pleaded guilty during a court-martial in Iraq to shooting the Iraqi national guard private, whose name the Army withheld. The 'gay panic' motive was the third that Merida offered after saying that the boy attempted to rob him and that they boy forced him to have sex. In an agreement with the Army that limited his prison sentence to no more than 25 years, Merida pleaded not guilty to premeditated murder but guilty to murder without premeditation. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of giving false statements in his initial explanations. He was found not guilty of dereliction of duty for having consensual sex while supposedly guarding the camp.
For the second consecutive year, President Bush approved a budget that results in funding cuts for nearly all federal AIDS programs, according to a news release from the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. The only agency that received an increase in funding is the AIDS Drug Assistance Program ( ADAP ) , whose increase was nominal. Congress finally passed the federal budget at the end of November, two months into the new fiscal year. The president signed the bill into law on Dec. 8. ADAP received an increase of $38.7 million for a total appropriation of $787 million.
Speaking of President Bush, his job performance gets approval from 49 percent of U.S. adults in a Time magazine poll, and half of those surveyed say the country is headed in the wrong direction, Bloomberg.com reported. Bush's approval rating is about the same as it was before the Nov. 2 election. Forty-three percent of adults say they disapprove of how he is handling the presidency. More than half of those surveyed—53 percent—say the conflict in Iraq is the biggest challenge he faces. Bringing troops home from Iraq and the war there topped the concerns of those surveyed, followed by jobs and the economy at 11 percent, and terrorism at 7 percent. Only 2 percent viewed moral issues like gay marriage and abortion as his biggest issue.
Some of the largest employers in Massachusetts have decided not to extend health benefits to spouses of gay and lesbian employees, saying their federally regulated health plans are not bound by the Massachusetts court ruling permitting gay marriage. The Boston Globe reported that NStar Corp., General Dynamics Corp., FedEx Corp., the Adecco temporary employment agency, and Caritas Christi Health Care are among employers that do not provide the same health benefits to spouses of married gay workers in Massachusetts available to heterosexual married couples. These employers provide medical care through what are known as self-insured health plans, in which the employer, not an insurer, collects the premiums and pays the medical and hospital bills of its workers. These employers said they are not required to cover same-sex spouses because self-insured plans are regulated by federal law, which defines marriage as a union only between a man and a woman.
In New Mexico, Sandoval County clerk Victoria Dunlap and state attorney general Patricia Madrid have reached a tentative settlement in their dispute over same-sex marriage. However, neither side would discuss details of the tentative agreement, the Advocate reported. The dispute began after Dunlap issued marriage licenses to about 60 same-sex couples Feb. 20. She stopped issuing the licenses late in the day after receiving an advisory letter from Madrid that said such licenses were illegal. Dunlap, a Republican, contends state law does not prohibit same-sex marriage and that not allowing those couples to marry violates their civil rights and is unfair.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reiterated that he does not support amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage in Florida because he believes a 1977 state law already does that, the Palm Beach Post reported. However, Sen. Daniel Webster, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he thinks the statute may not be enough.
Virginia Rep. Edward L. Schrock, R-2nd, is not leaving Capitol Hill after all, following his unexpected decision in August not to seek re-election to a third two-year term, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Schrock, a conservative lawmaker and retired Navy captain, will become a subcommittee staff director on Rep. Thomas M. Davis' House Government Reform Committee, beginning in the Congress that starts in January. Schrock, 63, withdrew from his re-election bid amid allegations on a gay activist's Web site that Schrock had sought gay sex through a telephone dating service.
The defrocking of United Methodist Church pastor Irene Elizabeth Stroud of Philadelphia has caused a schism in among conservative and liberal Methodists, CNN.com reported. Conservatives thought that the church-trial verdict showed that 'we will not surrender to the popular culture on matters of sexual ethics,' according to Mark Tooley, the Methodist specialist at the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy. However, liberal groups such as the Reconciling Ministries Network labeled Stroud's ouster as blasphemous.
A judge who disclosed that he contributed to a group opposed to Kentucky's constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage has been asked to remove himself from hearing a lawsuit challenging the amendment, according to the Associated Press. Franklin County Circuit Judge William Graham told lawyers in the case that he had made a modest contribution to the Kentucky Fairness Alliance. He told the lawyers he was giving them time to decide whether to seek to disqualify him. The Kentucky Code of Judicial Conduct says a judge 'shall disqualify himself in a proceeding in which the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned.'
There can be hundreds of marital rights, obligations, and benefits that the state of California will now also give to registered domestic partners—depending on how one counts them, according to the Bakersfield Californian. Some of the major categories of rights that will now be shared by registered domestic partners as of Jan. 1 will include: joint ownership of property acquired during the partnership; authorization of medical treatment for the partner's children; exemption from federal gift and estate taxes on transfers to a partner; and joint parenthood of children born during a partnership.
Conservative forces, hoping to chill the judiciary across California, are attempting to recall a Sacramento County judge who upheld domestic-partner laws, Copley News Service reported.
