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An Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questions President Barack Obama's citizenship pleaded guilty Tuesday to one of two charges against him.

Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin of Greeley, Colo., pleaded guilty in a military court to a charge that included not meeting with a superior when ordered to do so and not reporting to duty at Fort Campbell.

Lakin faces up to 18 months in prison and dismissal from the Army. He pleaded not guilty to a second charge of missing a flight he was required to be on, and the court-martial proceeding continued on that count.

In videos posted on YouTube, Lakin had aligned himself with so-called "birthers" who question whether Obama is a natural-born citizen as the U.S. Constitution requires for presidents. The veteran of 18 years in the Army disobeyed orders to report earlier this year to Fort Campbell in Kentucky to prepare for deployment, saying he believed the orders were illegal.

Lakin said in the videos that any reasonable person looking at available evidence would have questions about Obama's eligibility to be president and that he had "no choice" but to disobey orders. He said he would "gladly deploy" if Obama's original birth certificate were released and proved authentic.

Officials in Hawaii say they have seen and verified Obama's original 1961 birth certificate, which is on record with that state. But birthers have not been satisfied with that assurance or the "Certification of Live Birth" Obama has released, a digital document that is a record of a person's birth in the state but that does not list the name of the hospital where his mother gave birth or the physician who delivered him.

Hawaii law has long barred the release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest.

In September, a military judge ruled the president's birth certificate is irrelevant in Lakin's case. His lawyer will therefore not be able to raise the issue as a defense for why Lakin, a flight surgeon, did not report for what would have been a second tour of duty in Afghanistan.

 

Investigators are considering the possibility that a serial killer may have dumped four bodies along the same quarter-mile stretch of beachside road, a police official said Tuesday.

Police looking for a missing prostitute on Long Island's Fire Island have found four badly decomposed bodies near Cedar Beach since Saturday. All four were found only feet from the roadway, and it appears each had been thrown from a vehicle, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said.

The beach is about three miles from where the missing woman was headed when she disappeared May 1, but Dormer said there is no indication yet that hers was one of the four bodies.

Forensic experts have determined that at least two of the four bodies are female, but identifying them could take weeks, Dormer said. Experts were taking DNA samples and examining dental records.

"We're looking at that — that we could have a serial killer," Dormer said in response to a reporter's question.

Dormer said the four appeared to have been killed elsewhere and then brought to the site, a wind-swept strip of land less than 1,000 yards wide that divides the Great South Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The roadway connects the landmark Jones Beach State Park with several state and town-run beaches to its east, including Cedar Beach.

The remains were badly decomposed, but appeared to have been dumped over an 18-month period, Dormer said.

The first set of remains were found Saturday as police were following up on a missing-person report. The three other bodies were found Monday.

Dormer said police had been looking for 24-year-old Shonnan Gilbert, of Jersey City, N.J. He said Gilbert worked as a prostitute and arranged through Craigslist to meet a client on Fire Island.

Police officers returned to the scene Tuesday with a cadaver dog, searching the area for additional bodies. Despite a howling wind, temperatures in the low 20s and a coating of snow on the ground, Dormer said the dog, a black Labrador, would still be able to do its work. He said the search of the vast, remote area could take days or longer.

 

On the surface, the new tenant at the storefront where Harvey Milk waged his historic political campaign would seem like the last organization to anger people in the gay community.

The Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights lobbying group, wants to open up an information center and a gift shop in the building that would pay tribute to the slain gay rights leader.

But Milk's friends and admirers are so incensed at the group taking over the slain San Francisco supervisor's stomping grounds that they would rather see a Starbucks there, underscoring the tensions that exist within the various factions of the gay rights movement.

The organization is a frequent target of criticism from gay rights activists who consider its mainstream, "inside the Beltway" style ineffective. They believe the organization's philosophy of incremental progress in the gay rights movement runs completely counter to the uncompromising message of gay pride championed by Milk.

"It's spitting in the face of Harvey's memory," said AIDS Memorial Quilt founder Cleve Jones, who received his political education at Milk's side in the 1970s.

"What's next? Removing the Mona Lisa's face and replacing it with the Wal-Mart smiley face?" asked Bil Browning, the founder of a popular gay issues blog.

The Washington-based nonprofit organization announced last week that it was moving its San Francisco "Action Center" and gift store into the site of Milk's old Castro Camera.

It's a historic site in the gay rights community. A sidewalk plaque outside that marks the spot's historical significance and encases some of Milk's ashes is a popular stop for visitors making pilgrimages to San Francisco gay landmarks.

In the 32 years since Milk was assassinated at City Hall along with Mayor George Moscone, the building has housed a clothing store, a beauty supply shop, and most recently, a housewares emporium.

HRC President Joe Solmonese said the new location will stock items bearing Milk's words and image, with a portion of the proceeds going to a local elementary school named in Milk's honor and the GLBT Historical Society. The organization also plans to preserve a Milk mural the previous tenants installed, Solmonese said.

"People are rightly protective of the legacy of Harvey Milk, and we intend to do our part to honor that legacy," Human Rights Campaign spokesman Michael Cole-Schwartz said. "Bringing an LGBT civil rights presence to the space that has previously been several for-profit retail outlets is a worthwhile goal."

Not according to activists like Jones and Dustin Lance Black, the screenwriter who won an Oscar for "Milk" — the 2008 Sean Penn movie about the first openly gay man elected to a major elected office in the U.S.

During his life, Milk railed against well-heeled gay leaders he regarded as assimilationists and elitists — Black devoted two scenes in "Milk" to the subject. Some of the leading activists he crossed swords with went on to launch the Human Rights Campaign, which sometimes is criticized for focusing on lavish fundraisers and political access at the expense of results, Jones said.

"He was not an 'A-Gay' and had no desire to be an A-Gay. He despised those people and they despised him," he said. "That, to me, is the crowd HRC represents. Don't try to wrap yourself up in Harvey Milk's mantle and pretend you are one of us."

The Human Rights Campaign has been struggling to regain its credibility with gay activists who favor a more grass roots approach since at least early 2008, when the group agreed to endorse a federal bill that included job protections for gays and lesbians, but not transgender people.

The disillusionment grew later that year with the passage of a same-sex marriage ban in California. Although HRC donated $3.4 million to fight Proposition 8, the devastating loss provoked young gay activists to take to the streets and to question the organizing and messaging abilities of established gay rights groups.

Since then, HRC has been accused of taking too soft an approach with President Barack Obama and the Congress that until last month's election was controlled by Democrats. To some, the group's failings were epitomized by the U.S. Senate failure last week, for the second time this year, to repeal the ban on gays serving openly in the U.S. military.

Black said HRC's failure to talk to anyone close to Milk before it leased the Castro Street storefront demonstrates that it is out of touch. He and Jones think the space would be put to better use as a drop-in center for gay and lesbian youth, or if HRC partnered with another local nonprofit to ensure its sales benefit San Francisco.

"If any LGBTQ political organization is to move into Harvey's old shop, there is a higher standard to be met, because such a move begs comparisons," Black said. "Because it has become a tourist destination, whoever moves in that's a political organization is in some way adopting Harvey as their own."

HRC creative director Don Kiser understands the concerns and says he is open to suggestions, but thinks the criticism is overstated. The group obtains about one-third of the new names on its mailing lists from visitors to its retail stores in San Francisco, Provincetown, Mass., and Washington. Each tourist who goes in to buy a Harvey Milk T-shirt or an HRC tote bag is a potential activist, Kiser says.

"They live in small towns in Texas and flyover states. Those are the people we need to help find the spirit that Harvey Milk had," he said. "If they can go back and take a little of the spirit the Castro has, we will see sea changes."

 

The tax package negotiated by President Barack Obama and GOP lawmakers is headed toward passage in the Senate even as House Democrats consider changes to the estate tax.

The bill could be passed and sent to the House by Tuesday. The Senate voted 83-15 Monday evening to advance the package, which would provide a two-year reprieve from tax increases scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1 at all income levels.

"This proves that both parties can in fact work together to grow our economy and look out for the American people," Obama said. "I recognize that folks on both sides of the political spectrum are unhappy with certain parts of the package and I understand those concerns. I share some of them. But that's the nature of compromise."

House Democrats are scheduled to meet in a closed-door caucus Tuesday evening to discuss the package. Last week, House Democratic leaders said they would not schedule a vote on the tax bill without changes to make it less generous to the wealthy.

Assistant Democratic Leader Dick Durbin of Illinois told CBS' "The Early Show" Tuesday that the wide margin by which the measure cleared the procedural vote should help facilitate its passage in the House.

"I think the House takes notice," he said, adding that he believes the bill will be passed by Christmas.

Durbin said he understands opposition to the bill from liberal Democrats outraged over the substantial relief given the wealthy in estate tax provisions. "In the spirit of the season, it does say `God bless Tiny Tim and Donald Trump," he said.

This week, several Democratic leaders said they may settle for a vote on an amendment that would impose a higher estate tax — a vote that would face an uncertain outcome.

"I think, frankly, that ultimately we will pass legislation," House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday. "The vote in the Senate indicates an urgency that is felt by a broad spectrum that the middle income taxes not be increased come Jan. 1. In order to affect that, you've got to pass the bill."

Hoyer said many House Democrats still have concerns about passing a lower estate tax. But, Hoyer said, killing the package would be bad for the nation's fragile economy.

"We believe that there are provisions within the bill which are very, very helpful to growing the economy, to step in to assist those who have lost their unemployment insurance," Hoyer said.

The most sweeping tax cuts in a generation, enacted under former President George W. Bush, are scheduled to expire Jan. 1. The $858 billion package negotiated by Obama would extend them for two years.

It would also renew a program of jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed that is due to lapse within days and enact a one-year cut in Social Security taxes.

"It is a substantial victory for middle-class families across the country who would no longer have to worry about a massive tax hike come Jan. 1," Obama said. "It would offer hope to millions of Americans who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own by making sure that they won't suddenly find themselves out in the cold without the unemployment insurance benefits that they were counting on. And it would offer real tax relief for Americans who are paying for college, parents raising their children and business owners looking to invest in their businesses and propel our economy forward."

At the insistence of Republicans, the plan includes a more generous estate tax provision: The first $10 million of a couple's estate could pass to heirs without taxation. The balance would be subject to a 35 percent tax rate.

The lower estate tax infuriated some Democrats who were already unhappy with Obama for agreeing to extend tax cuts for individuals making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000.

The estate tax was repealed for 2010. But under current law, it is scheduled to return next year with a top rate of 55 percent on the portion estates above $1 million — $2 million for couples.

House Democratic leaders want to bring back the 2009 estate tax levels. That year, individuals could pass $3.5 million to their heirs, tax-free. Couples could pass $7 million, with a little tax planning, and the balance was taxed at a top rate of 45 percent.

Senate Republicans, however, warned that any changes to the estate tax provisions could unravel the deal.

"If the House Democratic leadership decides to make partisan changes, they will ensure that every American taxpayer will see a job-killing tax hike on January 1," said Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.