SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California's same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for a likely appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- After five years of legislative struggling, 23 stopgap measures and a two-week shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration, Congress finally has passed a bill aimed at prodding the nation's aviation system into a new high-tech era in which satellites are central to air traffic control and piloted planes share the skies with unmanned drones.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is increasing spending on Alzheimer's research - planning to surpass half a billion dollars next year - as part of a quest to find effective treatments for the brain-destroying disease by 2025.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The recording was forgotten, and so, too, was the odd twist of history that brought together Malcolm X and a bespectacled Ivy Leaguer fated to become one of America's top diplomats.

PHOENIX (AP) -- Police have started methodically searching a landfill south of Phoenix for the body of a 5-year-old Arizona girl who has been missing for more than four months and who authorities now believe is dead.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- A coalition of black ministers in Detroit called Monday for U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra to apologize for his Super Bowl ad featuring a young Asian woman speaking broken English to describe the impact of the Democratic incumbent's economic policies.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Legislation that would ban insider trading by lawmakers and thousands of executive branch officials headed for what could be a more contentious debate in the House after sailing through the Senate on a 96-3 vote.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Voter turnout numbers are pointing to a potential enthusiasm deficit for Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney.

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- The remnants of Hurricane Irene did what policymakers hadn't been able to accomplish for more than a decade - close the state's antiquated psychiatric hospital.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the most impressive surge for the job market since early last year, the United States added 243,000 jobs in January, far more than economists expected. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent, the lowest in three years.