After filing a Right to Know request, the American Civil Liberties Union found 188 such citations between March 1, 2005, and Oct. 31.

"Nobody likes to get sworn at, but you can't make it a crime," said Witold Walczak, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Foundation of Pennsylvania.

The ACLU's request came in connection with a federal lawsuit involving David Hackbart, who was cited after allegedly making an obscene gesture at another driver, and then at a police sergeant. In a recent court filing, the city said the citation was not for Hackbart's gestures, but because he was blocking traffic.

Walczak told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the city had initially claimed it had only one disorderly conduct citation involving rude remarks to police or other people over that period. He called the additional citations evidence that the department had failed to adequately train its officers.

Walczak said officers were wrong to cite a woman who said, "I'm a (expletive) passenger," during a traffic stop; a woman who was "swearing profanities to a companion in front of the Girl Scouts"; and a man who "engaged in loud noise, racial slurs and pig remarks."

City attorney Michael Kennedy declined to comment on Hackbart's case and told the newspaper he could not explain the difference between the 188 citations found in court records and the one citation claimed by city police.

In 2002, a Pittsburgh man won a $3,000 jury verdict for malicious prosecution after being cited for a traffic dispute in which he cursed at officers.

A decision by gay couples to wed represents "a personal expression of emotional devotion, support and interdependence and a public commitment," state Supreme Court Judge Lucy Billings wrote in a decision issued Tuesday. "With that validity, they expect equal treatment with other married couples."

Thousands of gay New Yorkers over the next few years are expected to make use of Massachusetts' recent decision to let out-of-state gay couples marry there. The Christian legal organization that brought the New York case said it would appeal, while gay-rights and civil-liberties groups hailed the ruling as strengthening legal support for same-sex couples.

In a statement, Gov. David Paterson called it "a wise and fair determination."

Same-sex couples cannot marry in New York, and the state's highest court has said only the Legislature has the authority to change that. But Paterson's counsel told state agencies in May that a recent state appellate court ruling required them to recognize gay marriages legally performed elsewhere or risk discrimination claims.

The directive prompted a lawsuit from the Alliance Defense Fund, an Arizona-based group that has repeatedly challenged attempts to extend spousal rights to gay couples in New York. Several Republican state senators had signed onto the latest suit.

The alliance is involved in cases around the country that concern gay marriage, abortion, school prayer and other social issues. It already had several ongoing cases over attempts to extend spousal rights to gay couples in New York.

Gene Bush, 52, was charged Tuesday with shooting at a traffic light and at a university building. No one was injured.

Police searched him, his van and a storage unit, finding weapons, ammunition and what police called an anti-government manifesto.

"Given the situation, with the amount of guns and ammunition involved, we thought it best that he remain in custody until we know the full story behind him," said UCLA police Sgt. Phil Baguiao. "We would consider him a danger to society given the circumstances."

Police said officers found Bush carrying the pistols — which were equipped with laser sights — and 400 bullets. They also found another 7,800 rounds of ammunition in his van and 3,000 more in his storage locker, police said.

A UCLA police news release said Bush appeared to have no criminal history and was living out of his van.

After his arrest Sunday, Bush made anti-government statements and told police to look in his nearby suitcase for "the secret," the release said. A Los Angeles police bomb squad found timers, paint thinner and other suspicious items inside, as well as his manifesto.

UCLA police spokeswoman Nancy Greenstein said police believe Bush was acting alone and didn't have a specific target. "He had writings and a lot of them seemed to be anti-government, talk about 9/11," she said.

It wasn't known if Bush had an attorney. He is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Darryl Burton, 46, was scheduled to appear Tuesday at a news conference in Kansas City along with the lawyers and supporters who fought for eight years to have his conviction and life sentence thrown out.

Burton was released from the Jefferson City Correctional Center on Friday, the same day prosecutors in St. Louis decided against trying him a second time.

Attorney Cheryl Pilate, of suburban Kansas City, said Monday night that she and co-counsel Charlie Rogers picked Burton up at the prison, along with a Columbia pastor who had befriended him.

"He had his first meal in Columbia with us," Pilate said. The group then went to St. Louis so that Burton could visit with family members, including "nieces and nephews he had never seen before. That was wonderful." He also has family in Kansas City and will live there, she said.

No physical evidence or suggested motive had ever tied Burton to the June 1984 shooting death of Donald Ball at an Amoco station in St. Louis. Instead, he was convicted solely on the testimony of two men who claimed to have witnessed the shooting.

But one of those witnesses, Claudex Simmons, lied during Burton's 1985 trial in St. Louis Circuit Court when he testified that his own criminal history consisted of just two convictions.

Simmons had actually been convicted of at least seven felonies and five misdemeanors — information that should have been disclosed to the jury, Cole County Circuit Judge Richard G. Callahan wrote in an Aug. 18 ruling accompanying a writ of habeas corpus.

U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent plans to keep hearing court cases while facing prosecution on charges he fondled a former court employee, according to the chief judge for the Southern District of Texas.

"The only way he doesn't receive cases is if he's no longer a judge," U.S. District Judge Hayden Head Jr. said in Saturday editions of the Houston Chronicle.

Following a Department of Justice investigation, a federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Kent on two counts of abusive sexual contact and one count of attempted aggravated sexual abuse. His attorney, Dick DeGuerin, has said Kent is innocent.

Kent has been ordered to appear before U.S. Circuit Judge Edward C. Prado on Wednesday. DeGuerin said that, by agreement, Kent will be released without bond on his own recognizance.

Kent, a federal judge for 18 years, is not planning to take the day off, according to the newspaper.

"The choice is his," said U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, one of Kent's colleagues in Houston. "After all, he's (presumed) innocent. That's how we work around here."

The indictment came after a Justice Department investigation of Kent that began in November.

The investigation was prompted after Kent's former case manager, Cathy McBroom, accused the judge of repeatedly harassing her over a four-year period. McBroom has said the harassment culminated in a March 2007 incident in Kent's Galveston court chambers, where the judge allegedly pulled up her blouse and bra and tried to escalate contact before being interrupted.

DeGuerin, Kent's attorney, has said that everything that happened between Kent and McBroom was consensual.

McBroom's allegations were first investigated by the Judicial Council of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which reprimanded Kent in September 2007. The council gave no details about the allegations, only saying a complaint alleging sexual harassment had been filed against Kent.

The council ordered the judge to go on leave for four months. Kent still collected his $165,000 annual salary.

McBroom was transferred to Houston, located 50 miles northwest of Galveston, after reporting her allegations.

Kent, as part of his punishment by the judicial council, also was relocated to Houston.

Sanjeev Nanda, 30, faces up to 10 years in jail on manslaughter charges, according to his attorney, Ramesh Gupta. Judge Vinod Kumar was expected to announce the sentence Wednesday, along with those of three other defendants who were convicted of destroying evidence.

Nanda is the son of arms dealer Suresh Nanda and a grandson of India's former naval chief, S. M. Nanda.

The high-profile case has been seen as a test of whether India's judicial system, which has a long history of favoring the well-connected, is willing to hold the wealthy accountable.

Many saw the ruling as an encouraging sign that India's two-tiered justice system was becoming a thing of the past.

"The fact that justice has prevailed will give some hope that the powerful can't get away with manipulating the system," said Ved Marwah, a retired police commissioner.

Prosecutors said Nanda and two of his friends were returning from a party at 4:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, 1999 when their BMW, speeding at roughly 85 miles per hour (135 kilometers per hour), crashed into seven people standing along an empty street. A witness reportedly saw the men stop, examine the damage to their car, then speed off. The victims, three policemen and three laborers, died.

Nanda and two friends who were with him in the car, Siddharta Gupta and Manik Kapoor, were classmates at an elite New Delhi private school. Nanda was home for the holidays from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business.