And then there was one. Earlier this week, only two states were left with an unchallenged ban on same-sex marriages—North Dakota and South Dakota. That changed yesterday. Six couples from South Dakota have filed a lawsuit in the name of marriage equality, leaving North Dakota all by its lonesome. Same-sex marriage is legal in 19 states—and it's in court in 30 others.

Firing squads and the electric chair, old-timey instruments of state-sanctioned murder, could make comebacks in Wyoming and Tennessee, respectively. Neither state feels like patiently waiting out a shortage in the nation's supply of lethal injection chemicals.

Ukraine will vote for a new leader this Sunday. More important, Russia's Vladimir Putin says he'll allow it.

Botched force-feedings left a Guantánamo hunger striker in debilitating pain and with a chest infection so severe he actually vomited up blood over a period of several days. And they were probably on tape, thanks to court records from the that continue to fill in a picture of horror at the extra-judicial prison.

Beware a Nazi in a businessman's clothing. In Greece, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn political party has decided to class up its image among middle-of-the-road types by wearing suits and not talking so explicitly about being a bunch of neo-Nazis.

Homeland Security "fusion" centers kept a disturbingly close watch on the minutia of the Occupy movement nearly three years ago, according to newly released federal emails. The feds spent time charting "specific known threats"—"threats" like protesters' willingness to boycott big stores the day after Thanksgiving.

Detroit has decided not to countenance a seeming surge in carjackings, putting suspects faces and names on giant billboards and arming gas stations, in particular, with security cameras and decals marking them as safe haven "lighthouses."

Peep the heavens this weekend. The planet's soon to pass through a passing comet's century-old debris field. And if enough of the space dust scorches earthward through our atmosphere, North America in particular might be treated to a handsome nighttime meteor show.

This story about New Jersey rabbis accused of torturing Orthodox husbands so they agree to divorce their unhappy wives—a long and awful tradition, apparently—somehow failed to mention a first-season Sopranos episode dealing with the same.

A baby in China fell from a second-floor window—and into the miracle of waiting arms. A man walking by had seen the kid on a ledge and run over just in time. Someone even recorded the crucial moment.

An Iowa weatherman figured out some weirdo was using his name to meet women on the internet after one of the fake weatherman's marks irately complained to the real weatherman about the real weatherman's real girlfriend.

FIRST HE HAS A DEEP VOICE. THEN HE HAS A HIGH VOICE. OH MY JESUS THAT'S JUST CRAZY.