SAN FRANCISCO--A perfect alignment of advantageous factors enabled opponents of capital punishment to place its abolition on the ballot for the first time in California.

NEW ORLEANS, LA. -- Last April, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed a new voucher program considered to be the most sweeping in the country.

Decades after rights activists first began to refer to the practice of solitary confinement as "torture," the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights held a hearing on June 19 to "reassess" the fiscal, security and human costs of locking prisoners into tiny, windowless cells for 23 hours a day.

CHELTENHAM, Pa. (AP) -- Richard Vanderlippe Washington is a consummate gentleman. He rushes to stand when a visitor enters his family room; his ancient but smooth and nimble hands quickly reach to tie his necktie. His handshake is strong and firm.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The pass rate for California's high school exit exam increased slightly for the class of 2012, marking the sixth straight year of gains, state education officials announced Wednesday.

NEW YORK (AP) -- For years, anti-gay epithets and sentiments in rap have largely been accepted, along with its frequent misogyny and violence, as part of the hip-hop culture -- a culture that has been slow to change, even as gays enjoy more mainstream acceptance, particularly in entertainment.

(CNN) -- Michelle Obama met privately Thursday with victims and surviving family members of the mass shooting at a Wisconsin Sikh temple earlier this month.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A group of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents filed suit Thursday against new policy directives on removing illegal immigrants.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Top Republicans investigating the botched "Fast and Furious" gun-running sting have demanded that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives explain why an official at the center of the controversy remains a government employee while apparently working for a top financial firm.

(CNN) -- A federal judge is once again weighing arguments over the "show me your papers" provision in Arizona's controversial immigration law.