Gsbt

The Washington Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that a florist who refused to provide services for a same-sex wedding broke the state's antidiscrimination law. Barronelle Stutzman, a florist in Richland, Washington, had been fined by a lower court for denying service to a gay couple in 2013. Stutzman said she was exercising her First Amendment rights, and her lawyers immediately said they would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Thursday's decision. She had previously sold the couple flowers and knew they were gay. However, Stutzman told them that she couldn't provide flowers for their wedding because same-sex marriage was incompatible with her Christian beliefs. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and the couple sued her, saying she broke state anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws, and the lower court agreed. The state's nine high court justices upheld that verdict. The case thrust the great-grandmother into the national spotlight and she te...

David Shepard Toyota's automated driving technology test vehicle on a Lexus vehicle displayed in Tokyo in Nov. 2014.  Photo credit: BLOOMBERG WASHINGTON -- General Motors Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. officials will tell a U.S. House panel on Tuesday that automakers need changes to automotive safety rules to allow the deployment of self-driving cars on American roads. "Without changes to those regulations, it may be years before the promise of today’s technology can be realized and thousands of preventable deaths that could have been avoided will happen," Mike Abelson, vice president of global strategy at GM, said in written testimony released Monday. "It is imperative that manufacturers have the ability to test these vehicles in greater numbers." On Monday, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Senator John Thune, the Republican chairman of the Commerce Committee, said in a joint statement they are exploring legislation that "clears hurdles and advances innova...

(Reuters) - German authorities said on Sunday the leak of a corrosive substance through the air conditioning system at Hamburg airport was not an attack, adding that police were investigating the incident that forced the brief closure of the facility. Firefighters and ambulances were rushed to the scene after some 50 people at one terminal complained of eye irritation and breathing difficulties. "I want to explicitly deny ... that this was a terrorist attack. As far as we know it was at no period considered a terrorist attack," Hamburg fire department spokesman Torsten Wessely told a news conference in the northern city. "A pepper spray-like canister has been found during our investigative searches which might be the source," he added. He said the substance was spread through the facility's central air conditioning system. Lightly dressed passengers were rushed outside the terminal in almost freezing temperatures, leaving their coats and jackets behind in...

Mark Abadi President Donald Trump.Drew Angerer/Getty Images A federal appeals court unanimously ruled against President Donald Trump on Thursday, refusing to reinstate his travel ban affecting people from seven Muslim-majority countries. The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel on the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, means that refugees and citizens of the countries in question can continue entering the US - striking a blow to Trump's ability to deliver on one of his key campaign promises. "We hold that the Government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury, and we therefore deny its emergency motion for a stay,"  the panel said  in its ruling. Shortly after the ruling was announced, Trump posted a defiant message to Twitter: "SEE YOU IN COURT," Trump tweeted, foreshadowing a legal challenge that could play out in the Supreme Court. Th...