Long before the COVID-19 pandemic put many weddings on hold, in the early 20th century couples with a pressing need to wed would head to one of the towns across the country which had fewer restrictions on marriage licenses.

Elkton, Md., once known as the marriage capital of the East Coast, was one of the busiest of these "marriage mills" due to its geography and the lack of a waiting period, which had become mandatory in neighboring states by the early 1910s.

Welcome to COVID Questions, TIME’s advice column. We’re trying to make living through the pandemic a little easier, with expert-backed answers to your toughest coronavirus-related dilemmas. While we can’t and don’t offer medical advice—those questions should go to your doctor—we hope this column will help you sort through this stressful and confusing time. Got a question? Write to us at [email protected].

All of the things you need to know now from the editors of TIME

The way most people think of vaccines is pretty simple: you get vaccinated, and your immune system is primed and trained to fight off the invisible intruder in question, be it virus or bacteria. If you’re protected, you can’t be infected, and if you’re not infected, then you can’t spread it to anyone else.

And that's true most of the time. But not all vaccines work that way, and it's not actually what the two COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S.

As the House and Senate move toward passage of a $1.9 trillion dollar COVID-19 relief plan, hard-hit states and local government are poised to receive $350 billion, in addition to billions more to assist in safe reopening of public schools. That kind of help from the federal government has been sorely lacking during the pandemic—and is utterly essential to any meaningful and sustainable economic recovery for the whole country.

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If you were like a lot of Washington this week, you haven’t been able to take your eyes off the broadcast of former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. Snap numbers show a larger audience than his first trial, now a year in the past.

For decades, the world has turned a blind eye to India’s abysmal human rights record. This approach draws from a broad perception of India as a strategic ally.

For one, the United States, like much of the global community, sees India as an important counterweight to China. They are the two most populous nations and the fastest growing trillion-dollar economies in the world. Global powers tend to prefer India because of its standing as the world’s largest democracy.

When it debuted on Netflix in 2018, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, the film adaptation of Jenny Han's best-selling young adult novel, in many ways revived the teen rom-com. The sensitive and endearing love story between the introverted, baking-obsessed Lara Jean Covey (Lana Candor) and the popular lacrosse player Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) captured the hearts of millions. The third and final installment of the trilogy, To All the Boys: Always and Forever, drops on Netflix on Feb.

Amanda Gorman moved me deeply, as she did many others, with her inaugural poem “The Hill We Climb.” When I found out that she was nurtured at least partly by the Los Angeles Public Library, whose books I have often borrowed as a fellow Angeleno, I tweeted that “Public libraries and young poets make America great.” Dreams of being a writer were implanted in me when the San Jose Public Library gave me an award for my book “Lester the Cat” in the third grade.

(NEW YORK) — More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York state were released from hospitals into nursing homes early in the pandemic under a controversial directive that was scrapped amid criticism it accelerated outbreaks, according to new records obtained by The Associated Press.

The new number of 9,056 recovering patients sent to hundreds of nursing homes is more than 40% higher than what the state health department previously released.