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in effect while it mulled the appeal. On Thursday, the appeals court ruled that the law "on its face does not impose an undue burden on the life and health of a woman."
• The case, however, will likely end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.
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• BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) -- In this lakefront city once nicknamed the People's Republic of Burlington for its liberal politics and social services, a long bus strike is testing the community's ability to care for its neediest and youngest.
• New immigrants have waited for transportation that never came, food shelves are overwhelmed by demands for delivery and cab companies are backed up by calls from people trying to reach their low-wage jobs.
• Perhaps most impactful, the majority of the city's schoolchildren rely on public buses because the district doesn't operate its own fleet. During one of the coldest Marches on record, students are walking or getting rides and showing up late in large numbers.
• "The community is suffering from this," said Gracie Rebecca Cade, 19, a receptionist at a South Burlington car dealership who is almost 7 months pregnant and has doled out more than $150 for taxis to get to work. "I am just worried about being able to get to my appointments and getting to work."
• Burlington, on a hill along Lake Champlain with about 42,000 residents, holds the distinction of being the smallest U.S. city to be a state's largest. It anchors a metro area with a population of about 165,000, mostly within Chittenden County. About 9,500 people a day use the bus system.
• ___

• KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, women rarely left their home.
• When they did venture beyond their four walls, they wafted through crowded markets covered from head to toe in the all-encompassing burqa. While most women in conservative Afghanistan may still wear the burqa, today's Afghan woman has choices she didn't have during the Taliban rule that lasted from the mid-1990s

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