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<p>CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A jury of eight women and four men convicted Lee Boyd Malvo of capital murder yesterday for his role in last year's Washington-area sniper killings — bringing the teenage defendant one step closer to a death sentence.</p>

<p>Planned Parenthood will shut down 3 clinics Martinsville, Salem and New Castle sites have lost $135,000 in the past 22 months.</p> <p>Citing rising costs and declining demand, Planned Parenthood of Greater Indiana will close three of its locations next month, a spokeswoman for the organization said Thursday.</p>

<p>November 25, 2003 -- WASHINGTON - President Bush signed a huge new defense bill that includes millions of dollars for a small nuclear bomb designed to destroy deep, hardened underground bunkers. Among the many items tucked away in the $401 billion defense authorization act was a $15 million three-year research project by the Energy and Defense departments to create the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator.</p>

BOSTON – Now that Massachusetts' highest court has declared that gay couples have the right to marry under the state constitution, the political debate begins over how the Legislature should react. In its 4-3 decision, the Supreme Judicial Court gave the Legislature 180 days to rewrite the state's marriage laws for the benefit of gay couples. "We declare that barring an individual from the protections, benefits, and obligations of civil marriage solely because that person would marry a person of the same sex violates the Massachusetts Constitution," Chief Justice Margaret Marshall wrote. The seven gay couples who filed the lawsuit...

More than 2,500 casualties in Iraq. Some 2.5 million jobs lost. Nearly half a trillion dollars in federal budget deficits. And George W. Bush could still be a solid bet to win reelection next year. The day-to-day news about violence in Iraq and lingering economic worries at home obscure a fundamental reality about next year's election: Historically speaking, it should belong to President Bush. Since the presidential primary system became influential in 1952, an incumbent president has never lost a reelection bid if he did not face significant opposition in the primaries. This is no nugget of political trivia. Political...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP)--Arnold Schwarzenegger was sworn in Monday as the 38th governor of California, completing a meteoric rise from bodybuilder and action hero to leader of the nation's most populated state in a historic recall election. The 56-year-old Austrian immigrant took the oath of office before an audience of 7,500 dignitaries and supporters on the steps of the Capitol--as millions more around the world watched the event live on television. Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver, held the Bible while California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George administered the oath. ``I am humbled, I am honored and I am moved beyond words...

With a presidential campaign only months away, Republicans picked up two governorships in the South, ousting Mississippi's Democratic incumbent and seizing Kentucky's top job for the first time in 32 years. AP Photo   GOP Washington lobbyist Haley Barbour unseated one-term Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, while in Kentucky, three-term Republican Rep. Ernie Fletcher defeated Democratic Attorney General Ben Chandler. President Bush (news - web sites) loomed large in both campaigns, and he's sure to claim a boost from the victories. He stumped for both GOP candidates, while Democrats in Kentucky tied their opponent to Bush's economic policies and Musgrove...

Rush Limbaugh Poised To Return To The Dial By Paul J. Gough Staff Writer Wednesday, November 05, 2003 Rush Limbaugh will return to the radio airwaves Nov. 17, MediaDailyNews has learned. The move follows the conservative radio talk show host's well- publicized stay in a treatment center for substance abuse. Limbaugh recently celebrated his 15th year in radio and is also the industry's biggest star, garnering top ratings for many of the 650 stations that run his three-hour afternoon talk show and boasting 20 million listeners every week. But in early October, the radio commentator suffered professional and personal reverses....

Pregnancy, birth and abortion rates dropped in the United States from 1990 to 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday. Pregnancies fell 7 percent, from 6.78 million in 1990 to 6.28 million in 1999. The birth rate declined 9 percent in that time, from 70.9 to 64.4 births per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44. The abortion rate went down 22 percent, from 27.4 to 21.4 abortions per 1,000 women. The overall pregnancy rate dropped 12 percent, from 115.6 to 102.1 per 1,000 women. The CDC outlined the birthing trends in a report titled Revised Pregnancy...

In Japan, a senior member of the doomsday cult responsible for a deadly nerve gas attack on a Tokyo subway has been sentenced to death. Tomomasa Nakagawa is the tenth member of the Aum Supreme Truth cult to receive the death penalty. Nakagawa bowed to the judge after the verdict was handed down. The court ruled that the 41-year-old played a "key role" in releasing sarin gas in the Tokyo subway system in 1995. The attack killed 12 people and injured thousands. The trials stemming from the incident will soon reach a climax. Shoko Asahara, the leader of the cult,...

Eleven Russian miners, trapped for nearly a week after a giant underground lake burst into their shaft in southern Russia, have been found alive, local officials said yesterday. One miner was dead and another still missing. Ten exhausted miners, their faces pitch black and hair covered in grime, emerged from the shaft man after man - some wrapped in blankets, some on stretchers, and some smiling broadly as relatives cried out their names. Rescuers have yet to bring to the surface the remaining miner found alive in the Zapadnaya-Kapitalnaya shaft in Novoshakhtinsk, a small town near the Ukrainian border about...

<p>Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. said yesterday he would veto Democratic Party attempts to extend domestic benefits to state workers in civil unions.</p> <p>Mr. Ehrlich, a Republican, told The Washington Times that he has a libertarian view on the issue of privacy in the bedroom but that the administration has no place giving benefits to people who choose same-sex partnerships.</p>

Nine million strong, the highly volatile college-student population is up for grabs in the race for the presidency in 2004. According to a poll released Wednesday by Harvard University's Institute of Politics, college students generally are supportive of President Bush, and they lean slightly Republican in political persuasion - a contrast to the commonly held stereotype of radical campus liberals. But while 46 percent of students agree that the country is on the right track, they remain politically conflicted. In the past year, their trust in the president declined as concerns grew about Iraq. They aren't oblivious to the world...

At least one sponsor temoparily withdrew advertising from the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, after advocates of homeschooling complained about last week's two-part report on the "dark side" of the "largely unregulated" home school movement. Homeschool advocates claim that CBS News' telephone switchboard was so overwhelmed by the high volume of viewer complaints that some calls couldn't get through to its Los Angeles bureau. But CBS News is not backing down, despite the criticism. A network news spokeswoman reiterated on Monday that the network continues to stand by its story. North Carolinians for Home Education proudly announced on its...

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday ordered a feeding tube be reinserted into a brain-damaged woman who is at the center of one of the nation's longest and most bitter right-to-die battles. Bush gave his order after the Legislature rushed to pass a bill designed to save the life of Terri Schiavo, whose parents have fought to keep her alive. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, says she would rather die. With a living will form on every desk, the Senate voted 23-15 for the legislation (HB 35E). The House passed the final version 73-24 minutes later. Bush signed it into...

WBAL flip-flops over Limbaugh Station decides to use local hosts in his absence, then changes its mind -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Dan Thanh Dang Sun Staff Originally published October 18, 2003 Amid national chatter about conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh's addiction to prescription drugs, WBAL radio found itself at the center of an industry storm this week after it pulled his syndicated show from its usual time slot and then flip-flopped on that decision. The Hearst-owned news talk station said it decided to move Limbaugh out of the key early afternoon time slot amid worries that substitutes for the top-rated host would not...

Feminist leader Patricia Ireland was removed as CEO of the YWCA on Thursday. This decision by the YWCA National Coordinating Board (NCB) comes after months of pressure by right-wing groups such as the Traditional Values Coalition. The so-called Traditional Values Coalition went so far as to write Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson, asking him to review $114 million in federal grants to YWCA organizations. The group also urged its members to ask their legislators to restrict funding to the organization, which, through its 302 local YWCAs, provides child care, domestic violence services, employment training, and other programs...

Graham's presidential bid has hurt him in Florida Buddy Nevins October 4, 2003 It's all over for Bob Graham. Democrats say it's time for Graham to end his presidential race, return to Florida and start running for re-election to the U.S. Senate. Graham hasn't committed himself to running for re-election. He may just quit politics. But if he does run, the question now is whether he can win. Unbeaten through three decades in politics, Graham took a dizzying fall in the cornfields of Iowa. His presidential campaign never really got off the ground. He remains in the basement of the...

Fox News Plans to Expand Its Radio Offering Mon Sep 29,12:13 AM ET NEW YORK -- Armed with one of the most powerful brands in news, Rupert Murdoch's Fox News now hopes to do for radio news what it did for television news: deploy a feisty mix of talk and information to unseat the industry's entrenched players, according to Monday's Wall Street Journal. News Corp.'s radio arm, Fox News Radio Service, which launched last spring with one-minute news updates from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, plans to expand in November, selling news updates to radio stations around the clock...