On May 8, we became less of a country as North Carolina passed a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Instead of America, we should drop the "A" and call ourselves "'Merica," a crude and tacky denomination of our country that better reflects dogmatic beliefs getting more weight than public opinion. With North Carolina's amendment, we give one more reason why European nations such as France, Portugal and Sweden think we're dumb.

Everyone has moments of their lives that they are not proud of. For Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, some of those moments are coming back to haunt him on the campaign trail.

When people already have to pay for rising medical bills and ridiculous amounts of medication, adding another fee for emergency services would seem to be excessive. However, on April 17, the Montgomery County Council reintroduced executive Isiah Leggett's proposed legislation to establish an ambulance fee. He asked the Council to reconsider the fee because of state actions that have intruded on Council taxing authority and a possibility of a shift in half of teacher pension costs.