AP - Helio Castroneves can leave the country for an IndyCar event this month in Australia after a federal judge agreed Friday to modify bail conditions on tax charges the driver's facing.

AP - Connecticut's Supreme Court ruled Friday that gay couples have the right to marry, making the state the third behind Massachusetts and California to legalize such unions. The ruling comes just weeks before Californians go to the polls on a historic gay-marriage ballot question, the first time the issue will be put before voters in a state where same-sex couples are legally wed.

AP - In his bid to become the next governor of Missouri, Rep. Kenny Hulshof survived a bitter primary that at one point saw the candidates bashing each other for supporting public funding for drugs such as Viagra.

AP - The teachers' union for the nation's largest public school system accused the city on Friday of banning political campaign buttons and sued to reverse the policy, declaring that free speech rights were violated.

AP - Sammy, a Shetland sheepdog, wouldn't touch his food, retreating to a corner of the yard and devouring mouthfuls of dirt — behavioral oddities his owner later learned came from a lifetime of abuse as a "stud" in a large puppy mill.

AP - Lawyers for an Ohio death row inmate who unsuccessfully argued that his obesity prevents humane lethal injection filed an appeal Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, planned for next week.

AP - Prices at the pump are dropping fast, and gas could fall below $3 a gallon in a matter of weeks, if not sooner. Does that mean Americans will return to their heedless, gas-guzzling ways?

AP - A hot air balloon crashed into power lines and burst into flames Friday during Albuquerque's annual balloon fiesta, throwing both men on board to the ground and killing one of them. Witnesses said that many of the balloons were flying low right before the Wings of Wind balloon crashed in Bernalillo, just north of Albuquerque.

AP - When financial panic sweeps Bedford Falls in the 1946 movie "It's a Wonderful Life," the villain, Mr. Potter, moves to snap up the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan, offering a fire-sale price of 50 cents on the dollar.

AP - A Japanese businessman accused of conspiring to have his wife killed 27 years ago was returned to Southern California on Friday to face trial.

AP - Did stocks "crash"?