AP - California's highest court agreed Wednesday to hear several legal challenges to the state's new ban on same-sex marriage but refused to allow gay couples to resume marrying before it rules.

AP - A 30-day age limit in the Nebraska safe-haven law appears headed for final approval. The state Legislature voted 41-6 Wednesday to give second-round approval to the limit. A final vote is expected Friday and then the bill will go to Gov. Dave Heineman, who has said he would support a 30-day age limit.

AP - "Sewer" has always been a dirty word in this celebrity-studded community, which has avoided the sprawl that pervades much of the Southern California coast in part because it has refused to install the plumbing for it.

AP - An FBI agent was fatally shot Wednesday as he tried to arrest an alleged cocaine dealer at a home near Pittsburgh.

AP - It seems as if the gracious couple has told the story a thousand times — how the crack of an assassin's bullet struck the president just a few feet from where they stood.

AP - An irate traveler once raised his hand threateningly at Kaisy Belfon when told a flight was overbooked. Another petulant passenger tossed a piece of luggage at her.

AP - Opera-loving philanthropist Alberto Vilar was convicted on fraud charges Wednesday for swindling investors, including the mother of actress Phoebe Cates, out of millions of dollars.

AP - City and county workers across Minnesota began a laborious recount Wednesday of more than 2.9 million ballots in the tight U.S. Senate contest between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

AP - Frugality is making a comeback.

AP - The U.S. government has not found a "shred of evidence" that a Pakistani woman accused of trying to kill a U.S. soldier and FBI agents was abducted or tortured in the five years before her arrest, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

AP - Bringing "Jurassic Park" one step closer to reality, scientists have deciphered much of the genetic code of the woolly mammoth, a feat they say could allow them to recreate the shaggy, prehistoric beast in as little as a decade or two.

AP - A painting forcibly auctioned by Germany's Nazi government should remain with the estate of a late Jewish art dealer who lost it when his gallery was liquidated, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

AP - The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admitted Wednesday that she made a mistake by not checking to see if the sack was tied down, and said she's still smarting over the whole thing.