The Mormon church for the first time has announced its support of gay rights legislation, an endorsement that helped gain unanimous approval for Salt Lake city laws banning discrimination against gays in housing and employment.

Smokers in New York City may soon have fewer places to light up.

Diplomats say Iran has lifted a ban and allowed U.N. inspectors to visit a nearly completed nuclear reactor as well as granting greater monitoring rights at another atomic site.

An appeals court has ruled in NASCAR’s favor, granting its request to keep Jeremy Mayfield off the race track. The decision Friday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means Mayfield is once again suspended for failing a May 1 random drug test.

The mayor of one South Carolina coastal city says officials may rethink allowing alcohol on the beach, after the Fourth of July weekend left Folly Beach looking like a frat house after an all-night party.

The California Supreme Court has upheld a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage, but it also decided that the estimated 18,000 gay couples who tied the knot before the law took effect will stay wed.

The Pentagon wants more time before the ban on gays serving openly in the military is reversed. A senior military official says that while President Barack Obama has been clear that he wants to repeal the ban, there is no specific timeline to do it. The official says that leaves room that the military wants to use to make sure the eventual change goes well.

A federal appeals court has largely endorsed a landmark ruling that found cigarette makers deceived the public for decades about the heath hazards of smoking. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington on Friday upheld the major elements of a 2006 ruling that found the nation’s top tobacco companies guilty of fraud and violating racketeering laws.

Sen. Charles Schumer has proposed a nationwide ban on a chemical used to make baby bottles and other products for toddlers. New York’s senior senator said Monday that he supports a local initiative on Long Island that calls for fining retailers that sell products containing a chemical known as BPA.

A federal appeals court has dismissed a Georgia gun group’s lawsuit seeking to allow firearms in parts of the world’s busiest airport. The group GeorgiaCarry.org sued after the city of Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport banned guns from even unsecured areas in the terminals.

President Barack Obama is ending Bush-era limits on using federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research. Obama was signing an executive order Monday, with scientists at his side. He said “medical miracles do not happen simply by accident.“

South Carolina lawmakers are considering restrictions or bans on so-called live checks, unsolicited mailings that require only a signature to be cashed at the bank.

A bill allowing mixed martial arts contests in South Carolina has won initial approval. The increasingly popular sport combines elements of karate, judo, jujitsu and kickboxing. Proponents say mixed martial arts has evolved from its no-holds-barred past to a regulated sport broadcast on TV.

The California attorney general has changed his position on the state’s new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8.

South Carolina’s state lawmakers don’t go back into session until next month, but they’re already filing bills that could have a big impact on you if they become law. Tuesday was the final day for House members to pre-file bills before the session. WJBF News Channel 6’s Capitol reporter, Robert Kittle, has the details.