DENVER (AP) — A federal appeals court has ruled that states must allow gay couples to marry, finding the Constitution protects same-sex relationships and putting a remarkable legal winning streak across the country one step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The three-judge panel in Denver ruled 2-1 that states cannot deprive people of the fundamental right to marry simply because they want to be wedded to someone of the same sex.

The judges added they don’t want to brand as intolerant those who oppose gay marriage, but said there is no reasonable objection to the practice.

The decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld a lower court ruling that struck down Utah’s gay marriage ban. However, the panel immediately put Wednesday’s ruling on hold so it could be appealed.

STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press

LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Army sergeant recently released from captivity by the Taliban is in something of a legal limbo as the investigation continues into why and how he left his post in Afghanistan five years ago and ended up in insurgents’ hands.

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – An inmate has been indicted for first-degree murder for a slaying at the Jefferson City Correctional Center.

Twenty-three-year-old Ryan Vaught was indicted Tuesday by a grand jury for the Feb. 16 killing of 65-year-old Daniel Skipper.

The Cole County sheriff’s office has said that Skipper was found in his cell with multiple stab wounds to his head and with a piece of fabric wrapped around his neck.

Skipper had been in custody since 2001 for statutory rape and sodomy convictions in Lawrence County.

Vaught has been serving sentences for armed criminal action and assault from Mercer County.

LEAWOOD, Kan. (AP) — A widespread trend of sharing books through small homemade structures has been shut down in a Kansas City suburb.

However, Leawood officials say they will reconsider the decision to tell a 9-year-old boy to remove his “Little Free Library” from his family’s front yard.

Spencer Collins and his family erected a little blue box on red stilts on Mother’s Day, asking people to read and share books for free. The small libraries are springing up around the world.

Leawood officials said the family had to take the library down because it violates a city ordinance. The city said Collins’ neighbors complained about the library.

The Kansas City Star reports the Collins family will ask the Leawood City Council next month to reconsider the ordinance.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City man was critically injured after being shot by police.

Police say 37-year-old Anthony Contreras was shot Tuesday after officers went to his home because he had warrants out for his arrest. Sgt. Kari Thompson says Contreras was shot when he tried to flee from officers.

However, Contreras’ family and friends say he was unarmed and are questioning why officers shot him. They say he was shot in the face and underwent surgery Tuesday evening.

KCTV5 reports police would not say if Contreras was armed, or how many times he was shot. An officer who fired the shot is on administrative leave, which his normal procedure after a shooting.

Contreras’ girlfriend, Katherine Burriss, says the family has contacted a lawyer because of the shooting.

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — A new study says 3-D mammograms may be better at finding cancer than regular scans, but whether that means saving more lives isn’t known.

The study involved almost half a million breast scans. More than one-third used relatively new 3-D imaging along with conventional scans. The rest used regular mammograms alone.

The 3-D combo detected one additional cancer per 1,000 scans, compared with conventional mammograms. There were also 15 percent fewer false alarms.

But the study wasn’t designed to determine whether the combined 3-D scans resulted in better long-term outcomes.

Still, the researchers say their results are promising.

The study was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

ARRIAGA, Mexico (AP) — Children and teenagers are flooding out of Central America and heading north to the Texas border, where their crossings in record numbers have sparked a bitter political debate in the United States.

The Obama administration says crime at home is driving the migrants north. Congressional Republicans say the president’s policies are leading migrants to believe children and their mothers will be allowed to stay.

Interviews with dozens of migrants indicate both sides are right. A vast majority say they are fleeing gang violence that has reached epidemic levels in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. But the migrants also uniformly say they decided to head north because they have heard the U.S. Border Patrol is required to swiftly release children and their mothers and let them stay in the United States.