By Marice Richter GRAPEVINE, Texas (Reuters) - The Boy Scouts of America voted on Thursday to lift a century-old ban on openly gay scouts in a major victory for gay rights activists, but the decision means a sea of change for an organization that depends heavily on faith-based groups. More than 60 percent of the group's National Council, comprised of some 1,400 delegates, voted in favor of ending the ban, effective January 1, 2014, the group said in a statement. A prohibition on openly gay adult leaders remains in place. ...

By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - Part of a four-lane freeway bridge over a river in a rural area north of Seattle collapsed on Thursday, sending vehicles and people into the frigid water below, authorities said. The collapse on Interstate 5 over the Skagit River happened at about 7 p.m. local time between the towns of Mount Vernon and Burlington, 55 miles north of Seattle, Washington State Patrol spokesman Trooper Mark Francis said. "I've got reports of vehicles and people in the water," Francis said. He added that he did not know if anyone was injured. ...

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — An Interstate 5 bridge over a river collapsed Thursday evening, dumping two vehicles into the water and sparking a rescue effort by boats and divers who searched the chilly waterway north of Seattle.

By Steve Neavling DETROIT (Reuters) - As part of his efforts to solve Detroit's financial crisis, the city's emergency manager Kevyn Orr has asked for an appraisal of the collection at the Detroit Institute of Arts, sparking fears in artistic and philanthropic circles that he means to auction off the city's artistic jewels. Orr was appointed in March by Michigan's Republican Governor Rick Snyder to tackle the shrinking city's long-term debt problem, which the emergency manager estimated at $15 billion in a recent report on the state of Detroit. ...

By Tim Gaynor and David Schwartz PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona jury failed on Thursday to reach a unanimous verdict on whether Jodi Arias should be put to death for the brutal murder of her ex-boyfriend, prompting the judge to set a date for a new sentencing phase of the trial. Arias, a former waitress from California, was found guilty this month of murdering Travis Alexander, whose body was found slumped in the shower of his Phoenix-area home in June 2008. He had been stabbed 27 times, had his throat slashed and been shot in the face. ...

PHOENIX (AP) — Jurors who spent five months determining Jodi Arias' fate couldn't decide whether she should get life in prison or die for murdering her boyfriend, sending prosecutors back to the drawing board to rehash the shocking case of sex, lies and violence to another 12 people.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — At one bar, a mixture that included rubbing alcohol and caramel coloring was sold as scotch. In another, premium liquor bottles were refilled with water — and apparently not even clean water at that.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey company that operates 13 TGI Fridays restaurants accused of secretly replacing premium liquor with low-quality booze says it's shocked at the allegations.

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:

NEW YORK (AP) — Anthony Weiner set out to reintroduce himself to voters Thursday as he embarked on a mayoral bid after leaving Congress in a sexting scandal. He found a much more supportive reception in his first day of campaigning than he did from the state's top Democrat, who bluntly criticized his candidacy a day earlier.

NEW YORK (AP) — A businessman was snatched from a New York City street in broad daylight, then held captive for more than a month in a warehouse where he was bound and burned with acid as he was held for a $3 million ransom his family back in Ecuador did not have, authorities said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Queen Elizabeth's youngest son, Prince Edward, has visited Tennessee to promote one of the British royal family's charities, the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.

GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - The father of a Chechen immigrant killed during questioning over his links with one of the Boston Marathon bombings suspects said on Thursday he plans to travel to the United States where he thinks his son was tortured and killed. Ibragim Todashev, 27, was killed by a federal agent in his apartment complex when he became violent during questioning over his ties to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of two brothers suspected of planting two bombs at the marathon on April 15. ...

CHICAGO (AP) — An 87-year-old grandmother took on billionaire Donald Trump. And on Thursday, she lost.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine's governor, who has gained attention in the past for telling the NAACP to "kiss my butt" and comparing the Internal Revenue Service to the Gestapo, has moved out of his office at the State House and says he'll work out of the governor's mansion because of a dispute over a television screen.

GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) — The Boy Scouts of America threw open its ranks Thursday to gay Scouts but not gay Scout leaders — a fiercely contested compromise that some warned could fracture the organization and lead to mass defections of members and donors.

By Keith Coffman CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - Lawyers for accused Colorado movie theater gunman James Holmes argued on Thursday the state's insanity defense law was unconstitutional because it forces him to cooperate with court-appointed psychiatrists or forfeit the right to raise mental-health issues at sentencing. Prosecutors countered during a hearing before Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour Jr. that without an independent examination, there would be no way to evaluate defense claims that Holmes was legally insane at the time of the crime. ...

By M.B. Pell (Reuters) - A dispute between government agencies over the investigation into the deadly explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant intensified on Thursday when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives hit back after being criticized by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB). The board's allegations that its investigation into the causes of the April 17 tragedy was hindered by the ATF or the Texas State Fire Marshal's Office is a misrepresentation of what actually occurred, the ATF said. ...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — St. Paul authorities shut down a popular fossil-hunting area in a riverside park Thursday, one day after two children were killed and two others injured by a landslide.