California's Supreme Court declared Thursday that gay couples in the nation's biggest state can marry - a monumental but perhaps short-lived victory for the gay rights movement that was greeted with tears, hugs, kisses and at least one on-the-spot proposal.

The state of New York has outlawed the display of a noose as a threat, following several high-profile cases involving the symbol of racist lynchings.

A federal commission is siding with Maryland regulators in a complaint about wholesale electricity market rules.

A forensic psychiatrist testified for the defense Thursday that a Maryland prison inmate accused of strangling another aboard a prison bus had told him two months earlier that his demons would make him kill unless he got psychiatric treatment.

Verizon doesn't repair phone lines quickly enough, Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a filing with state regulators Thursday seeking a fine against the phone giant.

The Washington region celebrated a milestone in the $2.5 billion Woodrow Wilson Bridge project in appropriate fashion - by inadvertently creating a massive traffic jam.

A group opposing slot machines in Maryland says the state's plan for slots won't raise as much money as supporters claim.

Family members of slain veteran Baltimore Police Officer Norman Stamp have notified the city they intend to file a wrongful-death lawsuit, their attorney said Wednesday.

The alleged illegal immigrant charged with killing a Marine and his date in a drunken-driving collision on Thanksgiving Day 2006 again will plead guilty to two counts of negligent manslaughter, his attorney said Wednesday.

“The Derby is a race of aristocratic sleekness, for horses of birth to prove their worth to run in the Preakness.”