SOCIETY

Democratic leaders say Minnesota Rep. Kerry Gauthier should not seek re-election after the lawmaker admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old boy.

Here's a look at photos of the Miss World 2012 winner, Wenxia Yu, and past winners throughout the years.

Sunday marked the finale of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition," ending with 28-year-old Jarvez Hall, who weighed well over 500 pounds before undergoing the fitness challenge with celebrity trainer Chris Powell. With the help of Powell, Hall began to shed the pounds, dropping down to 267 pounds and size 38 waist (from a size 70) within a year. In the 365 days of the program, Hall lost nearly 300 pounds and showed it off on "Good Morning America" on Monday.

The decades-long intrigue behind America Earhart?s sudden disappearance may be coming to a close as researchers found debris they believe to be parts of her plane off Nikumaroro Island in the Southwestern Pacific.

Kaitlin Nootbaar, the Prague High School valedictorian who was denied her diploma from the Oklahoma school for saying "hell" in her graduation speech is not apologizing for her use of the word.

Friends and family were mourning the death of St. Louis University volleyball player Megan Boken as police search for her killer after the 23-year-old Illinois woman was shot to death Saturday before an alumni game in St. Louis.

Seventy-six people were rescued on Sunday from a sightseeing vessel that ran aground in Alaska's Glacier Bay and began filling with water, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Colleen Shannon, who was a Playboy Playmate in 2004, was arrested on Thursday for allegedly smuggling a man across the U.S. border.

Shanghai police has sparked a controversy for publishing a rank list of beggars most frequently caught begging on the city's metro trains since 2008, with many criticizing the authorities' lack of respect toward the disadvantaged, the Chinese media reported.

Life has become other-worldly for NASA flight director David Oh?s family, after switching their biological clocks to ?Mars time.? The change is protocol for a cadre of scientists who spend the first three months of every Martian mission living longer days, but it?s unusual for an entire family to jump along.

A second United flight departing Newark in as many days has had to make an emergency landing Sunday morning.

Apart from destroying hundreds of homes and parched forest area, recent wildfires sweeping western United States, encroached national parks, recreation sites, and campgrounds thereby, adding to woes of communities dependent on summer tourism.

Students with concealed-carry permits are allowed to pack firearms on campus - so said the Supreme Court. But to prevent the dangerous mixing of alcohol, drugs and guns in the hands of young people, UC-Boulder is taking an unusual step

Catherine Bosley, a television news anchor, recently won a case against Hustler Inc. who had published a photo of her dancing in a wet T-shirt contest without her permission. On Thursday a federal appeals court ruled against the photographer, who argued that the image was protected under the First Amendment, according to Reuters.

Kathleen Miskell, a 28-year-old Connecticut woman, was killed while parasailing with her husband over the Atlantic Ocean just off Pompano Beach, Fla., on Wednesday.

Angela Prattis, a Pennsylvania lunch lady has been fined $600 per day for handing out food to needy children. Officials are claiming that the generous lunch lady did not obtain an ordinance variance which Chester township officials maintain she needs to conduct such charitable activities.

Catherine Bosley, an Ohio TV newswoman, won a lawsuit against Hustler over publication of a picture showing her naked in a wet T-shirt contest.

Let's face it, hipsters are taking over. New Yorkers have already abandoned much of Brooklyn to their ironic mustaches. But one coffee shop is fighting back. San Francisco coffee shop Four Barrel has banned "talking about annoying hipster topics" from their back alley coffee shop on Caledonia Street.

A murder in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, that saw a young man allegedly kill his girlfriend over the July 4 weekend, may finally see justice as a month-long, nationwide search finally resulted in the arrest of the alleged murderer this week in Ohio.

Unabashed Obama hater and Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine accused the president of "staging" the Aurora, Colo., massacre and the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting as part of a twisted plot to pass a ban on guns, the singer theorized during a concert in Singapore.

Vice President Joe Biden was unwelcome at a Virginia bakery Wednesday, not because he said Republican policies would put middle-class Americans "back in chains" but because of President Barack Obama's "you didn't build that" comments made in July.

Two sheriff's deputies were shot dead and two others wounded early on Thursday in LaPlace, Louisiana, a spokeswoman for the state police said.

The winning numbers for the Powerball, August 15 drawing will reportedly make someone in Lapeer, Michigan, a very rich person according to lottery officials. The winning ticket for the estimated $337 million Powerball jackpot was purchased at a Sunoco gas station in the Michigan town, but the lucky person has yet to be identified.

It's time to check your Powerball tickets as the winning numbers were released at 11 p.m. ET Wednesday. The $320 million Powerball numbers are - 6, 27, 46, 51, 56 and 21.

Alexa Dell, the daughter of Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) CEO Michael Dell, had her Twitter account taken down after sharing an Instagram photo on the Tumblr Rich Kids Of Instagram.

John Wayne Gacy, Jr., who was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering at least 33 young men and teenage boys in the 1970s, had apparently tried to get his case seen by a new lawyer that might help him find justice. On Wednesday, Reddit user "Shipyaad" submitted a photo of an aged, worn-down letter, allegedly written from Gacy to Mr. Luis Kutner, the famous lawyer and activist from Chicago who co-founded Amnesty International.

Mississippi is the most obese state in America, with an obesity rate of 34.4 percent, according to Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2011." The Magnolia State is one of a dozen states that have an obesity rate above one-third its population.

Mountain Dew and its parent company, Pepsi Co., launched a pretty pathetic attempt for a crowdsourcing campaign on Monday, called "Dub The Dew." Essentially, Mountain Dew and Pepsi wanted customers and fans to create, submit, and vote on names for the company's newest flavor, a "green-apple-infused beverage." Mountain Dew had essentially lobbed up a ball for any decent troll, either from 4Chan or Reddit or elsewhere, to spike it back at the company. And that's exactly what happ...

Nate Summerfield, the boyfriend of murdered Ashland, Ohio, resident Lynn Jackenheimer who is suspected of killing the 33-year-old, has been arrested by U.S. Marshals following a month-long search for the fugitive.