A Washington, D.C., area volunteer firefighter had to have his arm surgically reattached after suffering serious injuries in a crash on the Beltway early Wednesday morning.

Several other people were also hurt, though less seriously, when a fire truck was involved in a chain-reaction crash.

The fire crew, from the West Lanham Hills Volunteer Fire Department, had responded to a minor accident on the Beltway early Wednesday near the eastbound exit for John Hanson Highway when their truck was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer, reported News 4's Jackie Bensen.

A Jeep was also involved in the resulting collision and overturned. All the occupants of all three vehicles were injured, including four firefighters.

Read more at NBCWashington.com

The firefighter with the most severe injuries has not been named. But police said he was transported to MedStar Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore to have his arm surgically reattached.

Late Wednesday evening, authorities confirmed that his arm had been reattached and that blood was flowing into it. There was no update on his overall condition or other injuries.

Investigators say the fire truck was making a U-turn in a cut-through labeled "Emergency Vehicles Only" when it was struck. After responding to the earlier crash, the crew put the truck in an "out of service" status, meaning lights and siren were not in use.

The truck is authorized to use the cut-through, authorities said.

The accident is being investigated by Prince George’s Police, Prince George’s County Fire and Maryland State Police.

Education Week

No state received an A in Education Week's annual survey. Click the image for the full-size chart.

For the fifth straight year, Maryland schools were rated best in the nation in closely watched annual rankings released Thursday, which overall gave America's schools a C+.

The biggest improvements across the country last year were in preparing pupils for college, according to an analysis by Education Week, which compiles the survey each year with the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center, the nonprofit research center that publishes the magazine.

The study, called "Quality Counts," which Education Week has conducted annually since 1996, assesses a wide range of data, including  funding; long-range education policy; standards, assessments and accountability for teachers; and safety and security. It also incorporates the results of a survey of 1,300 educators from across the country.

Education Week characterized national progress as "spotty." While many states made significant strides in preparing pupils for college-level courses, funding levels and equality were static. Wyoming and West Virginia led in improving funding, earning A grades, but overall, the national grade held steady at C.

As a whole, the U.S. earned a C+, up from a C last year. But comparisons aren't exact because the study placed added emphasis on what it called schools' climate for learning — safety and security, peer interaction, and positive approaches to discipline.

Related: Interactive state-by-state map

Related: Data analysis by Education Week

The authors explicitly framed those data in the context of the shootings last month that killed 20 pupils and six teachers and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. 

While teacher quality was called the leading factor in a school's success, cited by 92 percent of the educators, school climate also scored high, cited by three-quarters as being "very important."

"For the past couple decades, education reform has concentrated on the obviously academic factors that define schooling," like curricula, accountability and teacher assessments, said Christopher Swanson, vice president of Editorial Projects in Education

"While these issues are clearly important, there is growing agreement that a school's broader climate profoundly affects student achievement and serves as a precursor for effective instruction, deep engagement in learning and academic success,"  Swanson said.

Across all categories, no state earned an A, Education Week found. With a B+, Maryland was No. 1 for the fifth straight year.

"It's just wonderful," Betty Weller, president of the Maryland Education Association, told NBC station WBAL of Baltimore. "It's historic for our educators. It's historic for the state, and it's just fabulous for our students."

State school Superintendent Lillian Lowery said Thursday that she would use the data "to help make certain we have better classrooms for every student."

One of the biggest jumps was in Florida, which rose from 11th in 2011 to sixth last year, even though it was in the bottom third in the funding assessments.

Florida got high marks for closing the gap on math scores for the poverty disadvantaged but its overall achievement gains got just a "C" minus, and it was AP or advanced class performance that saved the state from a worse ranking.

State schools Chancellor Pam Stewart told NBC station WJHG of Panama City that while she was proud of the recognition, "we're never satisfied. We're always moving forward."

The full report is available here at Education Week.

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A young Lancaster County, Pa., girl who police say was hit by a stray bullet during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Maryland died on Thursday, according to authorities.

Family members say 10-year-old Aaliyah Boyer of Manheim, Pa., was visiting her family in Elkton, Md. when she was hit by that bullet.

Aaliyah’s aunt, Ashley Rice, tells Baltimore's NBC affiliate WBAL, her niece went outside with her cousins just after the clock struck midnight to watch a fireworks display. Suddenly, the young girl collapsed.

"At first we were like, 'Hey, what are you doing on the ground? Get up!'" Rice said. "And she didn't get up."

Police say Aaliyah was hit by a stray bullet after local residents living on AJS Court in Elkton fired their guns to celebrate the New Year. Investigators believe one of the rounds from what they call "celebratory gunfire" struck Aaliyah on top of the head.

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After the girl collapsed, the adults carried her inside and performed CPR, believing she had passed out and hit her head. It wasn't until paramedics arrived and took her to the hospital that they realized she had been shot.

"It went in her head and went back through the back of her head into her brain stem," Rice said.

Police are now searching for the people or person responsible for the shooting. Officials are trying to figure out the caliber of the gun used in the shooting and have been going door to door, even confiscating some guns, according to neighbors.

No arrests have been made.

A Maryland first-grader has been suspended for pointing his fingers like a gun at school.

The boy, a student at Roscoe Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, was suspended for one day. The incident happened a week after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn.

The family's attorney says the 6-year-old was playing with friends, not making threats.

"Evidently, he was pointing his finger at someone and saying, 'Pow,'" said Robin Ficker, an attorney for the family.

More on this story from NBCWashington.com | Previous reports

The boy's parents were scheduled to meet with school officials Wednesday.

The school system will not comment on individual disciplinary matters. But they did issue a statement detailing their typical procedure with younger students.

"Generally, in an incident involving the behavior of our younger students, we will make sure that the student and his family are well-informed of any behavior that needs to change and understand the consequences if the behavior does not change," said Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman Dana Tofig in a statement.

BALTIMORE -- Seven gay couples in Maryland rang in the New Year with wedding bells early Tuesday, the first wave of nuptials since voters in the state backed the legalization of same-sex marriage.

The couples were "lawfully married" rather than pronounced "husband and wife" at the 12:30 a.m. ET ceremony on New Year's Day in Baltimore's City Hall.

Patrick Semansky / AP

William Countryman, left, and Roy Neal exchange vows as officiant Jason Caton looks on during a marriage ceremony at City Hall in Baltimore, Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013. Same-sex couples in Maryland are now legally permitted to marry under a new law that went into effect after midnight on Tuesday. Maryland is the first state south of the Mason-Dixon Line to approve same-sex marriage.

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake officiated at the wedding of the first of the couples, 68-year-old James Scales and 60-year-old William Tasker. Scales and Tasker said they had been together for 35 years.

The mayor joked that everyone had come to celebrate a relationship that began many years ago -- "and I mean that, many years ago."

Making a statement
Soon after the November vote legalizing gay marriage, Scales, a longtime city employee, asked the mayor to marry the two.

"She wanted to make a statement to tell gay, lesbian, transgendered couples that they're welcome here," said the mayor's press secretary, Ian Brennan, of her decision.

Maine same-sex couples marry in first hours of law

Voters in Maryland, Maine and Washington state approved same-sex unions on Election Day, becoming the only states to pass such a measure by popular vote.

Nine of the 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., now have legalized gay marriage. Another 31 states have passed constitutional amendments banning it.

Rawlings-Blake called the Nov. 6 vote "a remarkable achievement for Maryland" and welcomed friends and families of the couples to witness history at the early-morning ceremony.

More coverage of gay marriage on NBCNews.com

"We are excited to open City Hall to host some of the first wedding ceremonies in our great state," Rawlings-Blake said.

Shift
Public opinion has been shifting in favor of allowing same-sex marriage. A Pew Research Center survey from October found that 49 percent of Americans favored allowing gay marriage, with 40 percent opposed. In May, President Barack Obama became the first U.S. commander in chief to say he believed same-sex couples should be allowed to get married.

The Supreme Court has agreed to review two challenges to federal and state laws that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

Complete US coverage on NBCNews.com

The nation's highest court said this month that it would review a case against a federal law that denies married same-sex couples the federal benefits that heterosexual couples receive.

It also will look at a challenge to California's ban on gay marriage, known as Proposition 8, which voters narrowly approved in 2008.

Washington state's law legalizing same-sex unions took effect on Dec. 9 and Maine's on Dec. 29.

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Rich Pedroncelli / AP

California hunters will no longer be able to use dogs to hunt bobcats and bears. Here, Josh Brones, president of the California Houndsmen for Conservation, walks his hunting dogs, Dollar, left, Sequoia, center and Tanner right, near his home in Wilton.

With every new year comes a hodgepodge of fresh local laws — many serious, some silly, and others so obvious it makes you wonder what took legislators so long.

The National Conference of State Legislatures has compiled a year-end list of some of the laws that go on the books Jan. 1.

Among the winners: California bobcats and Illinois residents who overshare on Facebook. Losers include randy police officers and sex offenders with Santa suits.

In Maryland, same-sex couples will get the right to marry. In California, clergy who oppose gay unions don’t have to perform them.

California also outlawed hound-hunting of bobcats and bears after deciding it isn’t a fair fight.

"There is nothing sporting in shooting an exhausted bear clinging to a tree limb or a cornered bobcat," state Sen. Ted Lieu said when the bill he authored was passed.

Also now prohibited in California: law enforcement officers having sex with anyone in custody, including prisoners who have been arrested but not yet booked.

California and Illinois have both gone to bat for social networkers who want to keep snarky status updates and bikini photos under wraps, barring employers from forcing job applicants or workers to hand over passwords for Facebook and Twitter.

New Year kicks off on Christmas Island, begins rolling west
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Illinois is also looking out for military re-enactors, expanding an exemption from gun laws to include weapons with barrels less than 16 inches long.

Other new Illinois laws: a ban on shark fins and a law prohibiting sex offenders from handing out Halloween candy or dressing up like Santa or the Easter bunny.

Florida is putting the brakes on swamp buggy drivers who want to tool around on state roadways; they can’t, unless local law explicitly allows it.

But the Sunshine State has some good news for drivers who flash their headlights to let oncoming motorists know that police have set a speed trap up ahead. They can no longer be ticketed for it, come the first of the year.

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It's not just the two jackpot winners who hit big in Wednesday's Powerball drawing. Besides the $587 million grand prize, the lottery offered $131 million in other prizes, and those ended up creating at least 60 other instant millionaires.

M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for NBC News. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Powerball sold 8,924,125 winning tickets for this week's drawing, said the Multi-State Lottery Association, which runs Powerball in the 27 states that participate. 

Nearly all of them are for relatively small returns, but in addition to the two big jackpot tickets, there were 66 million-dollar tickets in 25 states. The winners have 180 days to claim their prizes, so there's no way to track down all of the winners. But a handful have already stepped forward, some of them with stories just as compelling as those of the jackpot winners:

Take, for instance, the 22 Columbus, Ohio, cops who went in on a ticket that hit a million at a gas station in nearby Grandview Heights. They'll take home about $30,000 apiece once they divide up what's left after the government takes its 30 percent cut.

Lt. Kevin Conley, one of the winning officers, said none of the cops likely has grandiose plans — he hopes to finance a few vacations for himself and his wife.

"Remember, you're talking to a whole bunch of cops. We're not a whole bunch of people that'll be jumping around screaming and yelling. We don't do that," Conley told NBC station WCMH of Columbus. "Everybody's happy, and they're smiling. They're doing that."

Almerta Williams of Edgewood, Md., did the double: Because she paid extra for the Bonus Powerball option, her million-dollar ticket is actually worth $2 million. And even that was a mistake.

11 things more likely to happen than winning the Powerball jackpot

Williams told NBC station WBAL of Baltimore that she won only because she marked down the wrong number — she meant to mark down a 3, but instead she marked a 5.

"So I told my kids, 'You all make fun of me because I can't see?' I said, 'Me not being able to see got me $2 million. I'm a rich blind woman,'" Williams said.

For Larry Chandler, 34, of Highland, Ind., the $1 million he scored Wednesday should be enough to put him back in his home. He's been living with his girlfriend because his own home is in foreclosure.

"I've never won anything in my life, and I've played lots of different things. I just never won anything, so finally I won something, and it's pretty cool," Chandler said.

Chandler plans to be back on the line Monday at his job as a union electrician with BP. This week? He's spending it consulting with his dad, a financial planner, about what to do with the money.

That's a common theme. Besides Chandler and the Columbus cops, other million-dollar-ticket winners say they, too, will be back in the office.

Take Jerry Hucks of Rock Hill, S.C., just south of Charlotte, N.C. He also said he wouldn't abandon his job as a truck builder for Daimler Trucks. But he also said wouldn't be accepting overtime anymore, either.

Hucks was in his truck Thursday morning when he flipped on the light and saw the winning numbers on his ticket.

"I didn't even have the truck door locked, and I had a million-dollar ticket out there," Hucks told lottery officials in Columbia. "Then I can't believe I let three or four guys at work hold my ticket and Google the numbers, screaming, 'It's a $1 million!'"

Hucks told NBC station WIS of Columbia that he then called his girlfriend with the news and began driving home. His nerves held out until he hit the road.

Pretty soon, he had to pull over to throw up.

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