New York town scraps health benefits for gay couples


Four years after Eastchester, N.Y., became one of the first small towns to extend health benefits to city employees' same-sex partners, the rights were rescinded in a new labor contract. Only two employees had been receiving the benefits, and the Civil Service Employees Association and the police union agreed to drop the language conferring the benefits in contracts that were approved 3-2 Tuesday night by the town board. The two employees, whose names have not been made public, will continue to receive the benefits until age 65, and other employees have 60 days to sign up for them before the offer is revoked.