In brief: Trial begins for militia members

DETROIT – Displaying guns, vests and other military gear, a prosecutor told jurors Monday that members of a Midwest militia were willing “to go to war” in an extraordinary plot to kill a police officer as a springboard to a broader rebellion against the U.S. government.

Some of the evidence was placed directly in front of the jury box as trial opened for seven members of a group called Hutaree who are charged with conspiring to commit sedition as well as weapons crimes.

Still, defense attorneys dismissed any talk by the defendants as little more than fantasy and equated the group more to a “social club” than a militia.

The defendants, who were arrested in southern Michigan, Indiana and Ohio in March 2010, are accused of conspiring to someday ambush and kill a police officer, then attack the funeral procession with explosives and trigger a broader revolt against the U.S. government.

Quake strikes Northern California

HOOPA VALLEY INDIAN RESERVATION, Calif. – A moderate earthquake hit Northern California’s coast Monday afternoon, rattling nerves around the Oregon border but yielding no immediate reports of major injuries or damage, officials said.

The magnitude-5.6 quake struck at 1:07 p.m. about 18 miles east of Trinidad, in Humboldt County, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The epicenter was near the small community of Weitchpec on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, about 60 miles south of the Oregon border.

The temblor was widely felt within a 100-mile radius, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it wasn’t large enough to generate a tsunami.

N.J. Senate passes gay marriage bill

TRENTON, N.J. – In a move that supporters called a civil rights milestone, New Jersey’s state Senate on Monday passed a bill to recognize same-sex marriages, marking the first time state lawmakers officially endorsed the idea – despite the promise of a veto by Gov. Chris Christie.

Monday’s vote was 24-16 in favor of the bill, a major swing from January 2010, when the Senate rejected it 20-14.

While New Jersey has no law or state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, neither its court nor lawmakers have allowed gay nuptials. Seven states and Washington, D.C., allow gay marriage. Washington state joined the list Monday.

Christie last month said he’d veto the legislation if it passed. Gay-rights supporters are hopeful that they can get enough lawmakers on their side to override Christie’s expected veto.

It would take two-thirds of both chambers of the Legislature and would have to happen by the time the current legislative session ends in January 2014.

Two Democrats voted no and two Republicans voted yes in an otherwise party-line vote.