Three Pointer: A federal probate judge ruled that Shelley Sterling can sell the Los Angeles Clippers immediately without permission from her embattled husband Donald. Under threat from the NBA to sell the team, Mrs. Sterling agreed in May to sell the team for $2 billion to former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer. Two doctors who examined Sterling said he was incapacitated and Mrs. Sterling used their diagnoses as a reason to remove her husband from the trust that owns the team. It didn’t help Sterling when he acted erratically in court and called his wife a pig.

Shootout: A child molestation suspect recently featured on the John Walsh show “The Hunt” was killed yesterday in a Greenwich Village shootout that left two US Marshals and a New York cop wounded. All three officers were listed in stable condition. The show had produced tips that led to Charles Mozdir where he worked in a smoke shop near New York University. Investigators said Mozdir was behind the counter and began shooting when the officers entered. They returned fire and killed him.

Wedding Bells: A federal appeals court in Virginia yesterday upheld a three-year-old lower court decision throwing out the state’s ban on same sex marriage. It’s an odd case because the state’s new governor is not defending the ban. A couple of county clerks have taken up the cause. This makes the third state in which the ban on same-sex marriage has failed re-instatement on appeal as the issue heads to the Supreme Court.

Although the majority of Virginians appear to be opposed to same-sex marriage, part of the question about banning them is whether a majority can vote to curtail the rights of a minority.

Gaza: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on television last night warned of a “prolonged” campaign against the Hamas organization in Gaza, even as the defense forces carried out one of its heaviest nights of attacks. Sixty targets were hit, including the home of a senior Hamas leader.

Israel also destroyed the Hamas radio and television stations, and hit Gaza’s only power plant, part of which was left in flames.

   Five Israeli soldiers were killed inside Israel when Hamas fighters emerged from a hidden tunnel and opened fire.

Now This: Adding to friction between the two countries, the US has concluded that Russia violated the 1987 ban on testing mid-range ground based missiles capable of striking up to 3,400 miles away. The ban on medium range missiles was considered key in the deal between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev that largely ended the Cold War. What the US does about it is hard to determine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated he wouldn’t mind wiggling out of the deal.

On the Ukraine front, the US and Europe have agreed on stiffer sanctions against Russia after intelligence that Russia is directly involved in the fighting and possibly gearing up for an invasion of eastern Ukraine.

The Obit Page: Margot Adler, one of the familiar voices of National Public Radio for more than 30 years, died of cancer at age 68. Joining NPR in 1979, Adler covered everything from the beginning of the Aids epidemic to the Sept. 11 attacks. Little known about her was that she had a fascination with the occult and was a Wiccan priestess.

Getting Situated: Former “Jersey Shore” star Michael Sorrentino, known in the tabloids and unreality television as “The Situation,” is getting anger management therapy after a brawl in his brother’s tanning salon. Along the Jersey shore getting schooled not to punch people is the equivalent of Harvard degree.

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