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The state of Ohio was told by a federal judge Monday that it must recognize same-sex marriages legally performed in other states, Ohio Public Radio and TV's Jo Ingles reports.

The decision follows similar rulings by federal judges in other states and was not a surprise. Judge Timothy Black had said earlier this month that he would soon issue such a ruling.

For now at least, Black's decision applies only to the four couples who brought the case. They want their names on their children's state-issued birth certificates.

"The federal court has stayed the order for everyone except the 4 couples named in this suit," Ingles wrote as she tweeted the decision. The state will argue against expanding the ruling in its appeal of Black's decision.

In his ruling, Black said that "Ohio's marriage recognition is facially unconstitutional and unenforceable under any circumstances," The Columbus Dispatch reports.

In 2004, Ohio voters approved a ban on same-sex marriages in the state. As WVXU notes, the lawsuit at the center of Judge Black's ruling "did not seek to allow same-sex partners to get married in Ohio, just the recognition of marriages from other states."

[This piece discusses the plot of both the Alice Munro short story on which Hateship Loveship is based and the film itself, although it's frankly nothing you can't intuit from the trailer.]

The Alice Munro short story "Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage" begins with a plain and awkward woman named Johanna arranging a shipment of furniture and shopping for a dress. She's leaving town to go to the man she expects to marry, though he hasn't yet asked. The story shifts to follow the nasty fellow she's been working for, who's angry about her departure, and then it makes its way to Edith.

Edith is a young teenager, and with her at the center of the narrative, we leap back in time to learn how Johanna came to be leaving: Edith and her friend Sabitha played a cruel joke in which they made it appear that this man, Sabitha's father, was writing Johanna love letters. He was not. But, fooled into believing she's been carrying on a long-distance romance, Johanna made plans to leave all she knows and head off to what appears certain to be abject humiliation.

We then jolt forward to the present, where Johanna arrives at her destination, and we follow her for a short time again. But then we leap ahead two years. And those two years later, we learn, through a notice in the paper read to Edith by her mother, what became of Johanna and Ken.

Alice Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature. To adapt her work, as screenwriter Mark Poirier and director Liza Johnson have done for the film Hateship Loveship, is a hugely daunting thing. The risk is that there is a way to look at this story that would rob it of everything about it that's interesting, and that way to look at this story is the way this trailer looks at it.

Don Draper finally told the truth, and it ruined his life.

Perhaps that shouldn't have been such a surprise. Because Don has mostly been a master of the lie — especially in the form of an ad pitch. And he never lost his touch: He suckered everyone last season with one of his best pitches for Hershey's chocolate bars.

Facing a roomful of Hershey's executives, he told a heartwarming story of getting one of their candy bars as reward for mowing the lawn. "And as I ripped it open, my father tousled my hair and forever his love and the chocolate were tied together," Don said. "That's the story we're going to tell."

But that bit about his dad was a total lie. And as his partners in the advertising firm were practically spending their first check from Hershey's, Don couldn't resist dropping a bombshell that brought it all to a halt.

"I grew up in Pennsylvania, in a whorehouse," he said, voice nearly cracking. "Closest I got to feeling wanted was from a girl who made me go through her john's pockets. If I collected more than a dollar, she bought me a Hershey bar."

This infusion of truth dropped jaws in the boardroom and in the TV audience. Don had never spoken like that in public before.

So when Mad Men returned Sunday, beginning the first half of a final season ending in 2015, any hope Don might have developed a habit of telling the truth was dashed.

He had already found a new lie to tell.

The first hint dropped in the episode's very first scene. We were mesmerized by a near-perfect advertising pitch which had become a Don Draper specialty: "You go into a business meeting. Is there food in your teeth, ashes on your tie? And you've got nothing to say. But you're wearing an Accu-tron. This watch makes you interesting."

Smooth and professional. A Don pitch if ever there was one, only it wasn't Don delivering it. It was Freddie Rumson, a recovering alcoholic who had been forced out of Don's firm long ago.

Turns out Don is still on the outs at his firm, and he's using Freddie as a proxy to deliver his perfect pitches as a freelancer. But Freddie had a few words of advice for Don while the two shared a couple of sandwiches and gossip.

"They had Christmas without you and the Super Bowl,you know, I've been there," Rumson said, pushing Don to find a new job before he got canned. "You don't want to be damaged goods."

This is what will stand out in all the Mad Men talk today; how Don Draper is still stuck living a lie. To the outside world, he still looks like a bicoastal advertising executive married to a rising actress in Hollywood. But just like before, that appearance is a thin facade. He's living in New York, increasingly estranged from his young wife and barred from his job.

As fans obsess over every nuance of new Mad Men episodes, I hope the show answers one of our biggest questions: Whether Draper can find peace in a truthful life or surrender to the lies.

One real-life liar even appeared in the background of a crucial scene. The show's writers slyly staged Don and Freddie's conversation in front of a TV broadcasting Richard Nixon's 1969 inaugural speech.

This is what Mad Men truly does best. Don and Freddie have an important personal moment while a historic event unfolds around them. They see the promise of a new presidency, but we know it all ends in lies.

It's a terrible omen. A brutal future is coming for everyone.

And I can't wait to see more.

воскресенье

In Chile, a large fire that burned forest land and consumed houses has reportedly killed at least 11 people and destroyed 500 homes. Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate areas near the port city of Valparaiso.

The BBC says the death toll had been 16, but it was dropped to 11 after authorities realized a family had been counted twice.

President Michelle Bachelet has declared a state of emergency and put the military in charge of maintaining order. The fire started Saturday afternoon, officials say, and raged overnight.

Reporter John Otis filed this update for our Newscast unit Sunday:

"Firefighters battled the flames that ripped through Valparaiso, located 75 miles northwest of the Chilean capital of Santiago. But their efforts were hampered by strong winds that blew hot ashes onto many wooden homes.

"President Bachelet traveled to Valparaiso to oversee the emergency response. Authorities have evacuated residents of the surrounding areas, including 200 female inmates from a prison. But the historic section of the city, which is home to the country's Congress, was undamaged."

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