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

A Missouri woman was indicted Thursday for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor who committed suicide.

A man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail into the woods as firefighters battled large blazes nearby set several other small fires to throw off officers who were pursuing him, police said Thursday.

A Hollywood private investigator was convicted Thursday of federal racketeering and other charges for digging up dirt for his well-heeled clients to use in lawsuits, divorces and contract disputes against the rich and famous.

Jose Ochoa has parked his taco truck on the same stretch of road since 1989, and, like scores of other lunch vendors around Los Angeles, he refused to pack it up Thursday, the first day for a new law requiring food wagons to move every hour or face $1,000 fines.

In just five years, the West Texas polygamist sect transformed 1,700 acres of scrubland purchased for $700,000 into a bustling ranch with a blazing-white limestone temple, sprawling three-story log cabins, woodworking shops and a dairy.

Two military helicopters were vandalized on the production line at a Boeing factory near Philadelphia, the Defense Department said Thursday as it offered a reward.

A flight attendant angry about his work route set a fire in an airplane bathroom, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said.

A jury convicted a city firefighter Thursday of fatally shooting three people and wounding two others during a late-night Fourth of July celebration, rejecting defense claims that he was angered by the noise and snapped.