The sheriff of Pender County, N.C., was unhappy about a dispatcher. She was living with her boyfriend. So the sheriff gave her a choice: move out, get married, or find a new job. Dispatcher Deborah Hobbs chose another option: quit her job, and file a lawsuit. The American Civil Liberties Union joined in. The sheriff says he’s simply enforcing a North Carolina law, which bans living in sin. It’s been on the books for 200 years.

Listen (NPR)

A chartered jet carrying 289 Gambian soccer fans pretended it needed to make an emergency landing so they could watch their team play.

Read (CNN)

Fridays are divorce days in Bellingham, Wash. If you want to dissolve your marriage in Belingham, you have to show up in court on a Friday, with all of the other couples who are divorcing that week.

Read (NPR)

A man has been arrested in Japan on suspicion carrying out a virtual mugging spree by using software “bots” to beat up and rob characters in the online computer game Lineage II. The stolen virtual possessions were then exchanged for real cash.

Read (New Scientist)

A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday in Richmond, VA. People getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over to get a chance to buy a 4-year-old iBook for $50.

Read (MSNBC)

…only in Richmond…

…update…The Richmond Times Dispatch has a couple of (http://timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD/MGArticle/RTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031784465530) of the chaos.

This summer, 16-year-old Eben Fogg of North Yarmouth has been making the rounds in Casco Bay aboard a 25-foot floating hot-dog.

Read (USA Today)

A 75-year-old German was so shocked he had accidentally run down his wife he started forward and drove over her again.

Read (Reuters)

A DIY enthusiast working on his flooring shoots himself in the heart with his nail gun. Doctors said the two-inch nail was embedded in his heart like a nail in a car tire. A surgeon at the hospital said: “When you take a nail from the tire, the air will rush out. It would have been the same with his blood.”

Read (BBC)

A U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of Florida has ordered O.J. Simpson to pay DIRECTV $25,000 in damages, plus attorneys’ fees and cost for stealing DIRECTV’s programming.

What an idiot…

Read (Business Wire via Globeinvestor)

From the outside, Ruth Knueven’s Mount Vernon home has real charm: a verdant lawn, manicured hedges, flowers blossoming from fresh mulch beds and, near the front door, a garden ornament depicting two playful cats. Hidden behind that garden ornament was a house bursting with 303 real cats

Read (Washington Post)

A mother is under arrest on charges of driving from Alabama to Virginia with her children in the trunk. Because the compact car she rented lacked enough seating, she required two of her girls, ages 8 and 10, to take turns in the trunk.

Read (WTOP)

Ed Hicks is married to two women: one in Fairfax County and one in Utah. He previously has been married to at least five other women in this country, and, three times, he did not manage to get divorced from one before hitching up with another.

Read (Washington Post)

Police in Las Vegas say a man named Alejandro Martinez walked into a pizza parlor. He ordered a slice of pizza and started filling out a job application. Apparently he decided he didn’t want the job, because allegedly, he then pulled out a gun and demanded money. A clerk gave him $200, and Martinez fled. But he was not too hard for the police to find. Authorities say he left behind that job application, which included his real name and address.

Read (NPR)

DNA from leftover burgers that were served a year ago has led to the arrest of three Emporia, VA men on charges of robbing a Suffolk, VA fast-food restaurant on May 2, 2004. The food, along with other evidence, was enough to nab the suspected robbers, but it took about a *year* to get the information back because of the long line at the state crime lab.

Read (HamptonRoads.com/Pilot Online)