Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies

2nd judge strikes at ban on gay marriage

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Washington's ban on same-sex marriage was struck down Tuesday by a second judge, who ruled that marriage is a fundamental right that should be available to gay men and lesbians.

The case in Thurston County, along with a similar ruling in King County, will be appealed to the state Supreme Court. One critic of the rulings said a drive to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage is all but guaranteed.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks held that Washington's constitution offers broad guarantees of equality. He said those guarantees are violated by the state's 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman and bars same-sex civil marriage.

In the opinion, Hicks scoffed at what he called the "Lilliputian view" that marriage is meant just for male-female couples to have babies and raise children together.

SAN FRANCISCO - Former Secretary of State George Shultz on Tuesday became the most prominent Republican to endorse a $3-billion California ballot measure that would fund human embryonic stem cell research in the state.

"I don't think of it as an ideological or a political matter," Shultz said. "It's a matter of scientific research."

Former first lady Nancy Reagan and several Republican lawmakers have called on the Bush administration to loosen its funding policies regarding stem cell research but haven't taken a public position on the California ballot measure.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, also has publicly supported the research but hasn't announced a position on Proposition 71.

Shultz was secretary of state from 1982-89 under President Reagan. He is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

If voters approve the measure, the state would borrow $3-billion to fund human embryonic stem cell research and cloning projects designed solely for therapeutic purposes. Cloning to produce babies would be barred from funding.

GENEVA, Ohio - A man opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle on the town's main thoroughfare as residents headed to work Tuesday, wounding three people. The gunman was killed.

Police Chief Dan Dudik would not confirm the man killed himself but said no one else, including police, had fired any shots.

The shootings took place about 500 feet from an elementary school. Several children were on their way to class, but none were hurt.

Michael J. Harwood, 32, of nearby Madison, fired about 50 shots from a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle fitted with a telescopic sight, the police chief said.

Dudik would not discuss a possible motive but said Harwood was aiming at a specific car, whose driver was wounded and in guarded condition at a hospital. A second motorist was wounded and was listed in satisfactory condition. A pedestrian was treated for a gunshot wound and was released.

WASHINGTON - Terrorists still hope to disrupt the U.S. democratic process even though the presidential nominating conventions and other high-profile gatherings this summer went off without incident, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday.

Threat reporting over the last several months has been "consistent, general and credible" and indicated the al-Qaida network is trying to push ahead with its plans, Ridge said.

Although large events this summer were not attacked, he said, "that in no way diminishes the level of vigilance, awareness and concern that we have during this entire process."