One bride wore a knee-length lace dress and pearls. The other bride wore a yellow shirt and white suit. And when a pastor pronounced them “partners in life this day and for always” Tuesday they hugged and smiled as wedding guests and nearly a dozen TV cameras and reporters looked on.

At least 50 same-sex couples were lined up to apply for marriage licenses when city offices opened Wednesday, the day the unions became legal in the nation’s capitol.

Authorities say two men have been seriously injured after falling 30 feet from a construction site.

A D.C. fire official says three children are hospitalized — two of them in critical condition — after a fire in an apartment building.

D.C. police are investigating a report that weapons were found inside a locker room at the Verizon Center.

The Washington, D.C., City Council voted Tuesday to legalize gay marriage in the nation’s capital, handing supporters a victory after a string of recent defeats in Maine, New York and New Jersey.

On a Christian pilgrimage with her church group, Kristin Toorop looks up to Calvary, and her eyes open wide. She listens as tour guide Gloria Harrington tells the story of where Christ was crucified, with Mary Magdalene kneeling at his feet. “I’m sure you recognize the scene of Jesus on the cross, between two thieves,“ Harrington says, before leading the group to take a closer look. “Let’s go up to Calvary.“

Take the terms “bride” and “groom” off D.C. marriage licenses and replace them with the word “spouse.“ That’s one change being suggested as supporters and opponents of a proposed bill to allow same-sex marriage in Washington take a hard look at the bill’s language. The bill was introduced this month and had its first hearing in a City Council committee Monday. Part of the reason for the hearing is to rigorously examine the bill’s language and propose changes.

A D.C. City Council committee held its first hearing yesterday on a bill that would allow same-sex marriage in the city, a hearing with a marathon list of witnesses and strong emotions on both sides of the issue. The chairman of the committee said that the number of witnesses—including religious leaders, community activists and residents—who had signed up to speak may set a record.

Same-sex couples would be allowed to marry in the nation’s capital under a bill introduced Tuesday by a District of Columbia councilman.

A window washer had to be rescued after the scaffolding he was working on came loose, stranding him above the ninth story of a District office building.

A city report says inadequate water flow from fire hydrants hindered the effort to stop a destructive blaze at the mansion of a civic leader and arts patron.

Classes start later this month at a reinvented University of the District of Columbia.

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty was involved in a minor car accident last night.

A federal appeals court has strongly denounced, as it should, the roadblocks set up by the District of Columbia around the crime-plagued Trinidad neighborhood last summer. While the roadblocks were in effect, officers would stop motorists driving into the neighborhood, demand to see ID, and turn back those who could not produce what, in the officers’ opinion, constituted a legitimate reason for being in the area. Although governments can impose cordons for specific reasons, they can’t do so merely to reduce the possibility of crime in general and in the abstract—nor should they be able to.