after-words.org

More than 1,000 toads have puffed up and exploded in a Hamburg pond in recent weeks, and German scientists still have no explanation for what's causing the combustion, an official said. Both the pond's water and body parts of the toads have been tested, but scientists have been unable to find a bacteria or virus that would cause the toads to swell up and pop, said Janne Kloepper, of the Hamburg-based Institute for Hygiene and the Environment. "It's absolutely strange," she said. "We have a really unique story here in Hamburg. This phenomenon really doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere before."

The toads at a pond in the upscale neighborhood of Altona have been blowing up since the beginning of the month, filling up like balloons until their stomachs suddenly burst. "It looks like a scene from a science-fiction movie," Werner Schmolnik, the head of a local environment group, told the Hamburger Abendblatt daily. "The bloated animals suffer for several minutes before they finally die."

Biologists have come up with several theories, but Kloepper said that most have been ruled out. The pond's water quality is no better or worse than other bodies of water in Hamburg, the toads did not appear to have a disease, and a laboratory in Berlin has ruled out the possibility that it is a fungus that made its way from South America, she said.

She said that tests will continue. In the meantime, city residents have been warned to stay away from the pond.

BERLIN Apr 28, 2005 — Why are toads puffing up and spontaneously exploding in northern Europe? It began in a posh German neighborhood and has spread across the border into Denmark. It's left onlookers baffled, but one German scientist studying the splattered amphibian remains now has a theory: Hungry crows may be pecking out their livers.

"The crows are clever," said Frank Mutschmann, a Berlin veterinarian who collected and tested specimens at the Hamburg pond. "They learn quickly from watching other crows how to get the livers." [...] Based on the wounds, Mutschmann said, it appears that a bird pecks into the toad with its beak between the amphibian's chest and abdominal cavity, and the toad puffs itself up as a natural defense mechanism.

But, because the liver is missing and there's a hole in the toad's body, the blood vessels and lungs burst and the other organs ooze out, he said. As gruesome as it sounds, it isn't actually that unusual, he said. "It's not unique; it's in a city area, and that makes it spectacular," Mutschmann said. "Of course, it's something very dramatic."...

Leading Republicans in Texas distanced themselves Friday from a proposal to make the state the only one to prohibit gays and lesbians from being foster parents. It appears the plan will die without becoming law.

The Texas House approved the plan this week, despite concerns that as many as 3,000 children could be removed from their foster homes. But amid a groundswell of anger and criticism, conservatives backed away from the proposal Friday. GOP leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry, said the proposal was so flawed it could endanger a broader initiative to overhaul the Texas Department of Child Protective Services. Kathy Walt, Perry's spokeswoman, said the governor believed that a "traditional marriage between a man and a woman is the best environment in which to raise children." However, she added, "He does not want the important focus of reforming CPS to get sidetracked by this debate. We need to focus on protecting children," she said.

Among Republican lawmakers, Perry's response was seen as a message to back off. And a key state senator leading the CPS restructuring effort said that she planned to resist the amendment containing the ban on gay foster parents. GOP Sen. Jane Nelson said that because a similar plan was declared unconstitutional in Arkansas, she feared that the Child Protective Services overhaul would be stalled by legal challenges. "We need these reforms immediately to help those children who are living in danger as we speak," she said in an e-mail. "And we cannot allow this reform bill to be tied up in the courts for years over an issue that was never part of our review." A spokeswoman for Rep. Robert Talton, who proposed the ban, said he no longer wished to discuss the issue.

Stunned that protesters were flashing hateful anti-gay messages to traffic along a busy street Saturday morning, Chris Lucas had to pull over to join a counter-protest.

Then, just as spontaneously, Lucas found a way to stun the protesters. The 31 year-old massage therapist and a man he just met locked in a passionate kiss just feet from the protesters. "I know the protesters were shouting things at me, but I couldn't hear what they were saying," said Lucas, who is gay. "I had my eyes closed. It was actually kind of liberating to do this."

The kiss was one of several creative responses to a demonstration by 20 members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. The group travels the country to rally against homosexuality. "These young adults need to know there is a hell and there is a judgment day on which they will be judged for their sins," said church member Deborah Hockenbarger, 51. "We are trying to warn them about their filthiness. It is not OK to be a fag. God almighty says so." Hockenbarger waved a sign that read: "Fags are worthy of death." Other church members took shots at Catholicism with signs that read: "Pope in Hell" and "Your pastor is a whore." They view the church as a pro-gay institution....

DENVER -- The Air Force Academy, still recovering from rape and sexual harassment scandals, is facing charges that some Christian cadets have bullied and berated Jews and students of other religious backgrounds.

School officials said Tuesday they had received 55 complaints over the last few months and were requiring students -- and eventually all employees -- to attend a course on religious tolerance.

"Some complaints had to do with people ... saying bad things about persons of other religions or proselytizing in inappropriate places," said academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker. "There have been cases of maliciousness, mean-spiritedness and attacking or baiting someone over religion."

About 90% of the academy's 4,300 cadets identify themselves as Christians; the school's commandant, Brig. Gen. Johnny A. Weida, describes himself as a born-again Christian.

Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate and a lawyer in Albuquerque, said that his son Curtis -- a sophomore at the academy -- had been called a "filthy Jew."

"When I visited my son, he told me he wanted us to go off base because he had something to tell me," Weinstein said. "He said, 'They are calling me a ... Jew and that I am responsible for killing Christ.' My son told me that he was going to hit the next one who called him something."

Weinstein, 50, said he wanted Congress to investigate what he said was a pervasive Christian bias at the academy. "When I was at the academy, there wasn't this institutional notion that if you didn't accept Christ you would burn eternally in hell," he said. "I want the generals to come out and say, 'Yes, we have a systemic problem and we are working to fix it.' "

Texas would become the only state to ban homosexuals and bisexuals from becoming foster parents under legislation passed today by the House.

The ban was an amendment tacked on to a bill that would overhaul the state's troubled Child Protective Services agency. The measure now goes to the Senate, which has approved a version of the CPS bill but not the foster parent amendment.

"It is our responsibility to make sure that we protect our most vulnerable children and I don't think we are doing that if we allow a foster parent that is homosexual or bisexual," said the author of the amendment added late Tuesday, Republican Rep. Robert Talton of Pasadena.

If the bill becomes law, Texas would be the only state to ban homosexuals from becoming foster parents, according to the American Civil Liberties Union Lesbian and Gay Rights project. Arkansas had banned gay people or any family with a gay member from becoming foster parents, but a judge in December declared the law unconstitutional....

Attorneys on Tuesday plan to ask Texas Gov. Rick Perry to order DNA testing in the case of a man executed nearly five years ago, when George W. Bush was governor, saying the testing might help determine if an innocent man was executed.

Barry Scheck, co-founder of Benjamin Cardozo School of Law's Innocence Project, is scheduled to make the request before the Texas Senate's Criminal Justice Committee, which is holding a hearing on whether to establish a state innocence commission. In his testimony, Scheck and other witnesses also will highlight the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, whose execution in February 2004 for the 1992 arson murders of his three daughters was the subject of a Tribune investigation late last year. The Tribune investigation found that the forensic evidence the authorities used to show the fatal fire was arson has been repudiated by scientific advances, and was being re-evaluated when Willingham went to trial.

[...] Scheck is requesting DNA testing on a single strand of hair in the case of Claude Jones, who was executed in December 2000 for armed robbery and murder. According to prosecutors, Jones shot and killed Allen Hilzendager while robbing his liquor store in Point Blank, Texas, in November 1989. Jones, who had spent time in prison for robbery and murder, was captured two weeks later in Florida, where he was charged with robberies of several banks.

Jones' convictions were based largely on what Scheck says is dubious evidence. It included testimony from an accomplice who linked Jones to the slaying, and the report of a state forensic scientist who examined a 1-inch length of hair found at the scene and said that it was similar to Jones' hair. Accomplice testimony has proven unreliable, while the method used to analyze hair--microscopic hair comparison--has given way to more precise DNA testing. Hair comparisons have contributed to numerous wrongful convictions. Jones maintained his innocence until his execution on Dec. 7, 2000.

A spokesperson for Perry could not be reached for comment Monday.

[...] Scheck said in an interview Monday that while he is not prepared to argue that Jones is in fact innocent, there is a question of whether then-Gov. Bush knew of Jones' request for the DNA testing when refusing to grant a last-minute plea for a stay of execution. According to records gathered by Scheck, a request for a 30-day stay to allow DNA testing of the hair was filed with the governor's office on the day Jones was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection. [...] But when the final summary of the case was sent to Bush for his decision on whether to stop the execution, there was no mention of the request for DNA testing of the hair, according to a copy of the summary obtained by the Tribune.

"The only decision to be made is whether to grant a 30-day reprieve," the summary, written by an assistant general counsel for Bush, said. "At this time, I do not recommend that a reprieve be granted . . . " That attorney declined to comment Monday.

Sen. Rodney Ellis wants to put some teeth into Gov. Rick Perry's recently created Criminal Justice Advisory Council by giving the panel power to investigate innocence claims. But Perry's office said the council, which has not been named, is not designed to look at individual cases.

At a Senate Criminal Justice Committee meeting today, Ellis will offer a substitute for Senate Bill 1033, legislation to create a Texas Innocence Commission. Ellis has filed similar bills in the past two sessions. The substitute would give the governor's advisory council power to subpoena witnesses and documents to investigate possible wrongful convictions. "What I'm trying to do is strengthen the positive moves that the governor has made," said Ellis, D-Houston.

But Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said Perry created the council to look at changes that might need to be made in the state's criminal justice system to keep pace with advances in forensic science. "The focus of the governor's criminal justice council is not on individual cases but on bigger picture issues," said Walt.

Ellis said it's possible for the council to look at individual cases as well as systemic changes. "The individual cases are what give you some sense of what can be done to improve the overall system," Ellis said....

....you wonder what Disney hopes to gain with this shift. Certainly it will be good for ESPN; it will also be bad for ABC....

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 19, 2005; Page A16

Army intelligence officials in Iraq developed and circulated "wish lists" of harsh interrogation techniques they hoped to use on detainees in August 2003, including tactics such as low-voltage electrocution, blows with phone books and using dogs and snakes -- suggestions that some soldiers believed spawned abuse and illegal interrogations.

The discussions, which took place in e-mail messages between interrogators and Army officials in Baghdad, were used in part to develop the interrogation rules of engagement approved by Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, then commander of U.S. troops in Iraq. Two specific cases of abuse in Iraq occurred soon after.

Army investigative documents released yesterday, as well as court records and files, suggest that the tactics were used on two detainees: One died during an interrogation in November 2003 while stuffed into a sleeping bag, and another was badly beaten by inexperienced interrogators using a police baton in September 2003. The documents indicate confusion over what tactics were legal in Iraq, a belief that most detainees were not covered by Geneva Conventions protections and alleged abuse by interrogators who had tacit approval to "turn it up a notch."

In both incidents, a previously disclosed Aug. 14, 2003, e-mail from the joint task force headquarters in Baghdad to top U.S. human-intelligence gatherers in Iraq is cited as a potential catalyst.

Capt. William Ponce wrote that "the gloves are coming off" because casualties were mounting and officers needed better intelligence to fight the insurgency. Ponce solicited "wish lists" from interrogators and gave them three days to respond. That message was forwarded throughout the theater, including to officials at Abu Ghraib, where notorious abuse followed....

Another interrogator, with the 501st Military Intelligence Battalion, wrote a response to the headquarters e-mail with cautions that "we need to take a deep breath and remember who we are." "It comes down to standards of right and wrong -- something we cannot just put aside when we find it inconvenient," the soldier wrote. "We are American soldiers, heirs of a long tradition of staying on the high ground. We need to stay there."

SEVEN years after he disappeared into seeming political oblivion, Newt Gingrich, the former Republican revolutionary who became President Bill Clinton's congressional arch nemesis, is plotting an eye-catching comeback. The author of the Republican party's 1990s declaration of intent, Contract with America, now has a new political manifesto. He will begin selling it this week in those states that traditionally make or break the ambitions of politicians who want to be president.

Gingrich will arrive in New Hampshire tomorrow and will travel to Iowa next month. His visits to the two states that vote first in the presidential primaries have ignited speculation that he is preparing a bid for the Republican nomination to succeed President George W Bush.

In an interview last week he made no secret of his interest in the 2008 election: "If I want to be effective at defining the idea framework for 2008, there's nothing I can do that's more effective than go to New Hampshire and Iowa. That's the place to get your attention." [...] Although Gingrich’s trademark bombast remains intact, he warned his party not to be overconfident about 2008.

“I think Senator Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee,” he said. “She is professional, smart, systematic and she is moving to the centre in a very rational way.” And he noted that between them Bill and Hillary Clinton have not lost an election since 1980. “Any Republican who thinks we are going to beat her easily does not have a clue about the history of the last 30 years.”

Despite her recent setback in court -- the court declined to relax the terms of her probation, finding that there was no constitutional right to produce a television program, and house arrest is meant to cause difficulty and hardship -- The Martha is not letting that little problem stop her, not one bit.

State Health Department officials are troubled that too many gay men are not getting tested for HIV on a regular basis. The result: Those who don't find out they have the terminal virus until they become quite sick.

According to a February report, 63 percent of New Mexicans diagnosed with AIDS last year were unaware they had HIV, a virus that destroys cells in the immune system. AIDS, a later stage of the virus, takes five to 10 years to develop. The earlier the diagnosis, the better the life expectancy.

Many New Mexicans diagnosed with AIDS hadn't previously been tested for HIV. Then they fell sick enough to seek help. Two of the men with AIDS were already so sick, they died in emergency rooms.

"It's a shock," Lily Foster, HIV/AIDS surveillance coordinator and epidemiologist at the state Department of Health, said about what she sees as a trend.

Nationwide, intravenous drug users make up the largest group of those infected with HIV/AIDs. Not so in New Mexico. Here, the disease hits hardest men who have sex with men -- no matter where you go in the state, according to the Health Department. But with 1,965 residents living with HIV/AIDS, New Mexico is considered to have a low prevalence of the disease. For years, the virus has been present in all ethnic groups in proportion to the HIV demographics of New Mexico. Differences have shown up, however, within the group of New Mexicans diagnosed with HIV and AIDS simultaneously. Every year since 1998, more Hispanic gay men than Anglo gay men have been diagnosed with HIV and AIDS simultaneously. The Health Department didn't recognize this as a trend until 2003. "Hispanics are rising in the proportion of cases they contribute to the state," Foster said. "Not only are there more cases, but they're coming in sicker. Hispanics definitely have much more concurrent diagnoses."

The problem is strongest among Hispanic gay men, between the ages of 30 and 49, who live in Bernalillo County and southern parts of the state. Some might not consider themselves gay but practice gay sex, according to the Health Department. An estimated 4 percent of adult males, (34,000 in New Mexico), have sex with men.

Health Department officials speculate that complacency about the disease and its stigma keep people from getting tested. Access to HIV testing doesn't seem to be the issue, Foster said. Public-health offices offer free, anonymous screening to everyone in New Mexico....

...But first, Health Department workers must hold study sessions in communities to understand what's going on. They want to know why some Hispanic men who have gay sex aren't getting tested. From that deeper understanding, prevention workers will have a better idea on how to reach this group.

What's happening here reflects a national trend, Foster noted. The numbers of people sick with AIDS, before they know they have HIV, is on the rise everywhere and is prompting a push for routine testing....

Combining two of the largest makers of software for creating and delivering digital content, Adobe Systems Inc. said Monday it will acquire Macromedia Inc. in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.4 billion.

Shares of Macromedia, known for its Dreamweaver Web-design program and Flash, which animates and adds interactivity to Web pages, rose more than 8 percent in early trading, while Adobe shares sank 11 percent. Both companies said the long-rumored acquisition was not to consolidate and cut costs but to help Adobe expand into new markets, particularly in the area of providing content to mobile phones and other handheld devices. [...] There is some product overlap, including Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand in graphics design, Adobe GoLive and Dreamweaver for Web page creation, and Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks for working with photos and other graphics...

Apparently, there's some use for "Will and Grace" after all. Who knew?

It's the kind of spat that flares thousands of times a day in schools all over the country.

But at Public School 34 in Queens Village, Assistant Principal Nancy Miller's ghastly way of handling a minor scuffle between two Haitian fourth-graders has sparked fury.

According to parents and students, Miller, who is white, chose to punish all 13 Haitian pupils in the school's only fourth-grade bilingual class - even though just two were involved in the March 16 incident.

She ordered all 13 to sit on the cafeteria floor, then made them use their fingers to eat their lunch of chicken and rice, while all the other students watched.

"In Haiti, they treat you like animals, and I will treat you the same way here," several students recalled Miller saying.

Some of the punished fourth-graders were so humiliated they began to cry. A few begged Miller for spoons to eat.

Her behavior has triggered a probe by the schools' office of special investigations, as parents accused Miller of racial bias and demanded that she and the principal be fired.

One of those punished was Woosvelt Isac. His father, Sony Isac, noticed the boy was upset that night.

"He was almost crying," Isac said yesterday. "I asked him what was wrong. Then he told me, 'They put me sitting on the floor. They put me to eat with my hands.' I couldn't believe it."

At the suggestion of a teacher, several children wrote their accounts of the incident that afternoon in their bilingual class.

This is what one child wrote:

"Mrs. Miller made me and our classmates sit on the floor to eat our lunch. She said that we are animals and we got it from our country. ... I was hurt, and when I got to my class I told my teacher about what happened. I did not like what she said about my country."

Isac and other parents complained to the principal, Pauline Shakespeare. They claim that Shakespeare, who is black, tried to cover for Miller.

They also claim school officials tried to bribe the kids with ice cream to deny the incident happened!

An April 1 note written by one of the children, Ronald Destine, backs that claim:

"Today after questioning my friend and I for the fourth time, the principal [Mrs. Shakespeare] sent the guidance lady [Mrs. Gilbert] to get me in my classroom while I was reviewing math.

"When we got to her room, Mrs. Gilbert asked me what the school could do to have us change my story.

"I answered, nothing because I want the truth to come out! At this time, she offered free ice cream to us so we could say something else.

"I have a big math exam coming this month, and I would like for the principal to stop harassing my classmate and I. Please do something."

Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.

Mr. Finkelstein, 59, who has made a practice of defeating Democrats by trying to demonize them as liberal, said in a brief interview that he had married his partner of 40 years to ensure that the couple had the same benefits available to married heterosexual couples. "I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners," he said. He declined further comment on the wedding, which was in December.

Some of Mr. Finkelstein's associates said they were startled to learn that this prominent American conservative had married a man, given his history with the party, especially at a time when many Republican leaders, including President Bush, have campaigned against same-sex marriage and proposed amending the Constitution to ban it. Mr. Finkelstein has been allied over the years with Republicans who have fiercely opposed gay rights measures, including former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, and has been the subject of attacks by gay rights activists who have accused him of hypocrisy. He was identified as gay in a Boston Magazine article in 1996....

SPRINGFIELD -- Prostitutes would be able to sue their pimps for emotional anguish and other damages under a measure that the Illinois House overwhelmingly passed Tuesday.

Rep. Constance Howard (D-Chicago), the bill's sponsor, said her intent is to empower men, women and children trapped in desperate situations. "This is for someone who says, I cannot take this any longer. I've been used and abused. I'm ready to try and get some help," Howard said.

Under the measure, which now goes to the Senate, the prostitute would have to prove in court that the pimp profited from the sex trade, recruited prostitutes or trafficked and maintained them. The pimp could be held accountable for his victim's financial losses, personal injuries, diseases and mental and emotional anguish. [...] While most House lawmakers supported the idea, Rep. Patricia Bailey (D-Chicago) expressed concerns about Howard's measure. During floor debate, Bailey made the point that some pimps take care of the sex workers who work for them. "Do you know that when a prostitute gets arrested, it is that pimp who gets them out of jail?" Bailey said. "Also, when that prostitute gets sick, it's the pimp that takes care of her. But the problem I'm looking at is that if the prostitute turns on that pimp, you've created another situation whereby you're jeopardizing the reality, the safety and well-being of that prostitute, who by choice is doing what she's doing."

After casting a "present" vote, Bailey told reporters the bill has sweeping implications. "It's going to legalize prostitution," she said.

... House lawmakers gave tentative approval to a bill that would ban fake guns in schools. Under the measure, students who bring look-alike weapons to schools could be charged with a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to 30 days in jail.

Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) is worried the bill might be enforced differently across the state. She said that for the same offense, white suburban students might get a simple slap on the wrist, while black students in the inner city would be hauled off to jail. "In black neighborhoods, the kids are going to be handcuffed, arrested, taken to jail for 30 days," she said. Davis argued it would be more effective to ban retailers from selling fake guns to children.

But Rep. Roger Jenisch (R-Bloomingdale), the bill's sponsor, defended the measure, saying he is just trying to make schools safer. "It's an issue of creating safe schools so every child can have a safe environment to learn in," he said. "It doesn't matter if you're white, black or Hispanic."

Lawmakers agreed to make an amendment to correct a typographical error in Jenisch's bill, but they left the question of final passage for another day....

Rocky Mountain News: Owens vetoes contraception bill

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News
April 6, 2005

Gov. Bill Owens on Tuesday vetoed a bill requiring hospitals to provide information about emergency contraception to rape victims. "This bill does not give patients all the information that they deserve, nor does it safeguard basic freedom of conscience," he said in his two-page veto letter.

His action thrilled the Catholic Church and lawmakers who believed the bill sanctioned abortion, but crushed Democratic and Republican supporters who said the measure was about about providing information to women. The veto also drew praise from Republican lawmakers who have been bashing Owens in recent weeks over his landmark budget compromise deal with Democrats.

The bill sponsors, Rep. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, and Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, said they do not have the votes to overturn the veto. "Doggone it," Boyd said, vowing to come back next year with similar legislation.

Gov: Pharmacies must fill birth control orders quickly
By Maura Kelly Lannan
Published April 1, 2005, 2:41 PM CST

Gov. Rod Blagojevich filed an emergency rule Friday requiring pharmacies that sell contraceptives to fill prescriptions for birth control quickly, following recent incidents in which a Chicago pharmacist refused to fill orders for contraceptives because of moral opposition. "Our regulation says that if a woman goes to a pharmacy with a prescription for birth control, the pharmacy or the pharmacist is not allowed to discriminate or to choose who he sells it to or who he doesn't sell it to," Blagojevich said. "The pharmacy will be expected to accept that prescription and fill it ... No delays. No hassles. No lectures."

Fernando Grillo, head of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, said the emergency rule clarifies an existing requirement. "This rule is in response, a very affirmative and strong response, that we will not tolerate pharmacies and drug stores in the state of Illinois not meeting their obligation to the women of this state in providing them good health care," Grillo said.

His department also filed a formal complaint against an Osco pharmacy in Chicago's South Loop where a pharmacist did not fill orders for contraceptives. The pharmacy was cited for "failing to provide appropriate pharmaceutical care to a patient," Blagojevich said. An Osco spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment Friday. [...]

Blagojevich's emergency rule requiring birth control prescriptions be filled without delay at pharmacies that sell contraceptives takes effect immediately, spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said. It will remain in effect for 150 days, and the administration will seek to replace it by a permanent rule. Under the emergency rule, if the contraceptive is not in stock, the pharmacy must order it or transfer the prescription to another local pharmacy of the patient's choice, Blagojevich said. If the pharmacist does not fill the prescription because of a moral objection, another pharmacist needs to be available to fill it without delay...

The California chapter of the NAACP has endorsed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in the state, marking the first time an arm of the venerable civil rights group has lent its political clout to the issue that has divided the black community.

Members of the California State Conference of the NAACP narrowly voted at their convention last fall to support the pending "Religious Freedom and California Civil Marriage Protection Act," but the group did not make its position public until this week, in advance of the bill's first legislative hearing. "In a place like California, you can not possibly work for rights if you don't work for gay rights," said Alice A. Huffman, California NAACP president. "You either believe in the rights of everyone or you are in the wrong business."