Looks like Maryland residents could be more in favor of allowing same-sex marriage in the state than previously thought.

A new poll found that 46 percent of people support legal same-sex marriage as opposed to the 43 percent that oppose it. This poll marks the state’s move away from majority opposition to the issue. Most people who were polled also said they thought the state should legally recognize same-sex marriages conducted in other states.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) is the state’s only elected official to endorse same-sex unions. Gansler told The Washington Post:

Attitudes are changing, and they are changing rapidly because there is a recognition that it is unfair, legally and morally, to prohibit people from the pursuit of happiness. Twenty years from now we’ll look back and think this was a quaint discussion — every state will have gone this way.

Quick Hits:

>> A study at Berea College in Kentucky found that having a roommate of a different race during the first year of college led to students to create more diverse groups of friends.

>> Things are looking up for our very own Prince George’s County, which has seen the most growth in home sales out of the entire Mid-Atlantic region over the past year.

Information overload and the economic recession are obstacles that this year’s class of graduating seniors must be prepared to overcome, President Barack Obama said at the Hampton University graduation Sunday.

Obama included many Hampton-specific references in his commencement address, but there was also no shortage of comments that will apply to anyone who will soon be forced out of the comfort of academia into the waiting arms of their parents’ basement and the unemployment office.

But even as Obama reminded the Hampton grads of the unpleasant picture — “you’re graduating in a time of great difficulty for America and the world” — he offered optimism to students: things may be bad for everyone, but a college education provides a leg up.

“It’s a period of breathtaking change, like few others in our history,” Obama said. “We can’t stop these changes, but we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time.”

Obama also described all the distractions that face today’s young people, both in a wide variety of entertainment options — “iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations” — and in a barrage of conflicting information in the media.

“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter,” Obama said.

“Fortunately, you’ll be well positioned to navigate this terrain,” he continued. “Your education has honed your research abilities, sharpened your analytical powers, and given you a context for understanding the world. Those skills will come in handy.”

“An education can fortify us to meet the tests of our economy, the tests of citizenship, and the tests of our time,” Obama said.

Let’s hope.

Read the full transcript of Obama’s speech

So far this academic year, the closest thing to a large-scale ’student protest’ was several hundred people peacefully assembling in front of the Administration building.

In this campus, in this day and age, a crowd of 80 students is an unprecedented turnout in local elections and a mass of rowdy demonstrators could only be responding to basketball scores.

At Kent State University, 40 years ago Tuesday, four students were shot dead and nine others injured by National Guard troops as 2,000 students protested the American incursion into Cambodia during the Vietnam War.

Soldiers had fired on the crowd of students — which was throwing rocks and which had rioted destructively the week before — after claiming they were under sniper fire. Two of the students killed were uninvolved in the protests.

The Kent State Massacre sparked widespread protests on and off campuses nationwide, shutting down hundreds of universities.

But 40 years later, even as there are other national and international controversies that would be equally viable targets for student protests, we must make do with less — and be satisfied with police clashes that produce injuries but not deaths.

A university of Virginia women’s lacrosse player was found slain in her bedroom Monday and a member of the men’s lacrosse team has been charged with first-degree murder.

Yeardley Love

Yeardley Love, a 22-year-old senior from Cockeysville, Md. had had a previous relationship with George Huguely, 22, a senior from Chevy Chase, Md., who has been charged with her murder.

Geoge Huguely

Police arrived at Love’s off-campus house that she shared with two roommates after a call from one of Love’s roommates. Though police have not disclosed the cause of death, they said it appeared she had been heavily beaten.

When our officers arrived on the scene, it was readily apparent that this young lady was a victim of something far worse, Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo said. There were obvious physical injuries to her body.

Both Love and Huguely were to play with their respective lacrosse teams in the national tournament later this month. The athletic department, however, will now be questioning whether both lacrosse teams will participate in post-season play at all.

There will be a point when the teams are reconvened, later today and in coming days, when those sort of conversations will take place, said UVA athletic director Craig Littlepage, who appeared at the police news conference.

Huguely is set for a bail hearing later this afternoon.

Quick hits:

>>In other Virginia news, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II is seeking documents from a former University of Virginia professor. Cuccinelli believes that the professor defrauded taxpayers when he was obtaining grants for global warming research.

>> Former Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. is denying democratic party claims that his law firm, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, is donating unreported services to his campaign.

>> A black bear cub was found roaming the streets of Frederick yesterday, before it was hit and killed by a car.

A class where you and your friends assign each others’ grades may sound like a breeze, or a joke — but it’s one Duke professor’s idea of a grading policy, according to this article in Inside Higher Ed.

Cathy Davidson’s plan for her spring semester course called “Your Brain on the Internet” was to leave grading almost entirely up students, with a few caveats: all work and classes were mandatory to earn an overall “A,” with incomplete work resulting in a “B” or lower, depending on just how much a student slacks.

After the 16 students signed contracts, it was up to two students per week to evaluate the work done based on class discussions and blog post reports on what students had accomplished.

Not a breeze: According to Davidson, students wrote about 1,000 words per week, all of which she called “better than the norm” in the creativity and risks students took in their work.

Not a joke: They all got As, pending one incoming assignment.