General Motors filed on Wednesday to go public.

The long-awaited event marks the biggest step by the car maker to date in its effort to shed the government’s controlling ownership stake and resume life as a public company.

Many details were missing from Wednesday’s filing, including the number of shares it plans to sell in the offering. But G.M. said it plans to sell both common stock and preferred shares, which are considered bond-like instruments.

Rod R. Blagojevich, the ousted former governor of Illinois, was convicted of making false statements to federal agents, but the jury in the corruption case against him also reported that it was hopelessly deadlocked on 23 other counts against him.

Two sonic booms were heard throughout the Puget Sound region shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday caused by two fighter jets that “scrambled” because another plane had entered restricted air space at Boeing Field, where Air Force One was parked.

A suicide bomber blew himself up Tuesday among dozens of Iraqi army recruits who had gathered near a military headquarters in downtown Baghdad in a strike that officials said killed at least 51 people and wounded 119.

The massive morning blast took place just outside the former Iraqi Ministry of Defense building that now houses the army’s 11th division headquarters. The site receives about 250 new recruits each week as Iraqi security forces try to bolster their ranks to prepare for the U.S. military’s looming withdrawal after seven years of war.

A peer-reviewed paper to be published Wednesday in a leading journal of neuropathology suggests that Lou Gehrig’s demise — and that of some other athletes and soldiers given a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — might have been catalyzed by injuries only now becoming understood: concussions and other brain trauma.

Although the paper does not discuss the Yankees slugger specifically, its authors in interviews acknowledged the clear implication: Lou Gehrig might not have had Lou Gehrig’s disease.

A U.S. appeals court panel on Monday ruled that same-sex couples could not marry in California while the court considers the constitutionality of the state’s gay marriage ban, according to wire reports.

But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel set a relatively aggressive schedule for hearing the case, ordering lawyers to produce a series of briefs between Sept. 17 and Nov. 1.

The Monday decision by the appellate panel reverses a ruling last week by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn Walker, who had said marriages could resume while higher courts considered the matter.

The Mets’ 2010 season continued its downward spiral Monday with the disclosure that closer Francisco Rodriguez tore a ligament in his right thumb last week during an altercation with the father of his common-law wife.

The incident took place last Wednesday night at Citi Field and led to misdemeanor assault charges against Rodriguez, a ton of bad publicity for the Mets, an agreement by Rodriguez to enter anger-management counseling and, now, in all likelihood, surgery that would probably end his season.

After three decades of spectacular growth, China has passed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.

The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

The milestone was reached early Monday, when Tokyo said that in the second quarter, the Japanese economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion, slightly below China’s figure of $1.33 trillion. The gross domestic product of the United States was roughly $14 trillion in 2009. Japan’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the second quarter, Tokyo said, substantially less than forecast.