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Yes, this lawsuit is taking place in Southern California. In Encinitas, to be exact, where parents have sued to stop the school district from having kids perform yoga as part of gym class, reports NBC San Diego . The parents are worried that yoga has too many religious connotations from the...

It was a bizarre and brutal kidnapping that lasted more than a month, but at least it has a happy ending. Police say the kidnappers grabbed a 52-year-old businessman in Queens as he was walking to his car last month and brought him to a neighborhood warehouse, reports the Daily...

A coalition of Canadian drug policy experts is calling on the country to decriminalize the use of drugs—not just, say, marijuana or other "soft drugs," but all drugs. Thanks to a "stunning display of unimaginative thinking," Canada has been cracking down on drug users, which has done nothing to...

You know that person at the top of your contact list, the one most likely to get an unintended call from your butt? Well, if you're the murderous type, make sure that number isn't 911. This lesson comes too late for Scott Simon, who unintentionally dialed 911 while still frothing...

He might have claimed to be from the happiest place on Earth, but police say Stephen Urquidez was living in his own little bogus world. The California man was arrested Tuesday on burglary charges, and the story is an odd one: Police say Urquidez went by the name "Stephen Disney"...

The toughest-in-the-nation gun-control law passed in Connecticut in the wake of Sandy Hook shooting is getting its first legal challenge—but state officials don't seem worried. The Connecticut Citizen's Defense League and Coalition of Connecticut Sportsmen have, with an assist from the NRA, filed a lawsuit that claims the law...

One intriguing detail has emerged regarding the death of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's friend during FBI questioning. Various outlets including CNN , CBS , and NBC are reporting that while Ibragim Todashev appeared to have had nothing to do with the Boston Marathon bombing, but he did admit to helping Tamerlan kill three men...

Add yet another case to the military's sexual-harassment file : This time, a sergeant on staff at West Point has been accused of filming female cadets in the shower, reports the New York Times . So far, the Army has warned about a dozen cadets they may have been spied upon, and...

A lesbian couple in Texas is claiming discrimination after a judge told the pair they legally could not live together. Carolyn Compton and Page Price have been sharing a household with Compton's two daughters, ages 10 and 13. But the judge said Price would have to move out, because of...

A valuable lesson in how not to react when a cop pulls you over: A Colorado man who was pulled over for driving without his headlights just after 2am today exited his car and opened fire at a police officer with an AR-15-style rifle. The cop survived uninjured, but the...

One Pistorius brother is free of charges—acquitted yesterday of culpable homicide in the death of a woman in a road accident. Carl Pistorius cried tears of relief as the magistrate ruled that the 28-year-old was not negligent and that Maria Barnard, 32, was driving her motorcycle excessively fast when...

An odd Boston-bombing twist: A man was fatally shot overnight by an FBI agent in Orlando, and multiple sources say the dead man was connected to Tamerlan Tsarnaev in some way. NBC 's anonymous sources say Ibragim Todashev had previously been questioned about his relationship with the suspect and had...

Josh Powell reportedly had an affair just months before his wife disappeared, and his brother may have been "heavily involved" in getting rid of her body, Utah police revealed as they announced they couldn't solve the sensational case. The West Valley City Police Department yesterday opened its books on the...

Pretty much immediately after being convicted of murder , Jodi Arias told a reporter she wanted the death penalty: "The worst outcome for me would be natural life," she said. In the last 12 days she has changed her mind. Arias today made an impassioned, 18-minute plea for her life, telling...

A wooden-spoon spanking is landing a Connecticut foster mom in jail for third-degree assault. Jami Littlefield, 51, will be sentenced to 100 days in prison and two years' probation after she pleaded guilty to hitting a 4-year-old girl with the utensil, the Day reports. The child was "acting out," telling...

Accused Fort Hood Major shooter Nidal Hasan has collected $278,000 in salary from the military in the years since the Nov. 5, 2009, shooting that took 13 lives. The Defense Department confirms the payments to NBC Dallas/Fort Worth , and explains that it's powerless to stop them: The Military Code...

It doesn't look like the CIA's photos of a dead Osama bin Laden will ever see the light of day. A federal appeals court today ruled that the Obama administration's argument that releasing them would incite riots and anti-US violence makes sense, reports Reuters . A conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch,...

Today, in really stupid reasons to end up in jail: A North Carolina woman is charged with trying to poison five family members after one of them refused to share some cheese with her. A statement from the Nash County Sheriff's Office said 24-year-old Tiara Drake wanted some of a...

A 19-year-old college student was flunking English again, so he did what any struggling student fearful of mom and dad's wrath would do: faked his own kidnapping, police say. Aftab Aslam's parents got a text saying the Georgia Gwinnett College student had been kidnapped; if they called police, he'd be...

Your average court may not be able to define "nut" as a verb; it may struggle to figure out why a pair of thieves called themselves "jack boys." That's where the Urban Dictionary comes in. In the former case, its definition of "to nut"—"to ejaculate"—helped a court decide...