By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A judge has invalidated a federal law banning protests on the marble plaza in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. District Judge Beryl Howell said in a ruling issued on Tuesday that the law violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech. Harold Hodge, a student from Maryland, challenged the law after he was arrested in January 2011 for standing on the plaza holding a sign stating that the government "allows police to illegally murder and brutalize African-Americans and Hispanic people. ...

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — Lawyers for a transgender girl and an elementary school that required the fifth-grader to use a staff bathroom instead of the girls restroom clashed before Maine's highest court Wednesday over whether her rights were violated, a case that lays bare the difficult decisions facing school administrators.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dashboard technology that lets drivers text and email with voice commands — marketed as a safer alternative — actually is more distracting than simply talking on a cellphone, a new AAA study found.

By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The National Security Agency contractor who revealed the government's top-secret monitoring of phone and Internet data says he intends to stay in Hong Kong and fight any effort to bring him back to the United States to face charges. Edward Snowden, in his first public comments since he dropped out of view in Hong Kong on Monday, said he did not travel to the former British colony to avoid punishment for leaking details of the surveillance program. "I am not here to hide from justice. ...

CLEVELAND (AP) — A man accused of holding three women captive in his home for about a decade pleaded not guilty Wednesday, and the defense hinted that it would like to avoid trial with a plea agreement if the death penalty was ruled out.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation drew public debate over how organs are allocated was getting a lung transplant Wednesday, her family said.

HOUSTON (AP) — The Southern Baptist Convention has approved a resolution opposing the Boy Scouts of America's new policy allowing gay Scouts.

By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - A former Cleveland school bus driver accused of holding three young women captive for a decade and subjecting them to torture, such as chaining them to a pole, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to more than 300 criminal charges including rape, kidnapping and murder. Ariel Castro, 52, was indicted last week on 329 charges for the abduction and confinement of the women, who were freed from his house on May 6 along with a 6-year-old girl, which DNA evidence later confirmed was fathered by Castro. ...

HOUSTON (AP) — The Southern Baptist Convention has passed a resolution calling on all Southern Baptists to report allegations of child abuse to authorities.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl whose efforts to qualify for a transplant drew public debate over how organ donation should be done is getting a new lung.

BOSTON (AP) — An attorney for reputed mobster James "Whitey" Bulger has told jurors that his client wasn't an FBI informant, as the government has claimed.

HOUSTON (AP) — Southern Baptist Convention leaders have proposed a resolution expressing their opposition to the Boy Scouts of America's new policy allowing gay Scouts.

By Barbara Liston SANFORD, Florida (Reuters) - Prosecutors and defense lawyers in Florida searched for a third day on Wednesday for potential jurors unaffected by blanket media coverage of last year's killing of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin. Six jurors in Seminole County criminal court will decide the fate of George Zimmerman, the former neighborhood watch volunteer who claims self-defense in the February 26, 2012 shooting death of Martin. So far, jury selection for the trial has been moving at a snail's pace. ...