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Anheuser-Busch is ripping off beer drinkers by watering down Budweiser, Michelob, and other brands, according to class-action lawsuits from drinkers across America. Lawyers say the company uses technology designed to accurately measure alcohol content to dilute its beers just before bottling, making the beer 3 percent to 8 percent weaker...

Two police officers investigating a sexual assault complaint in Santa Cruz were shot dead yesterday in what the California city's police chief says is the darkest day in his department's history. The two veteran officers, one male and one female, were gunned down when they arrived at the home of...

A Canadian police officer faces serious disciplinary charges on accusations that he failed to investigate racial threats made at a party. The weird part is that those racial threats were hurled at the officer himself, reports the Toronto Star . Dameian Muirhead, who is black, was one of the officers sent...

Movie fans are probably familiar with the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, given that it sits in view of the famed "Hollywood" sign and remains a popular film location year after year. But the Los Angeles Times today offers a interesting peek into the life of Griffith J. Griffith, the...

A Colorado Springs man has been arrested on suspicion of sending harassing emails to a state lawmaker, including one that said, "Hopefully somebody Gifords [sic] both of your asses with a gun." State Rep. Rhonda Fields, who represents Aurora and whose son was shot and killed in 2005 as he...

So many parts of Oscar Pistorius' story of what happened the night he shot Reeva Steenkamp defy rational explanation that it's tough to give him the benefit of the doubt, writes William Saletan at Slate . (For one thing, Pistorius assumes it's a burglar in his high-security apartment, instead of entertaining...

Is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the warrantless wiretapping of US citizens it allows for, constitutional? We may never know, because the Supreme Court just ruled that the law can't be challenged in federal court. In a 5-4 decision, the court today agreed to a government request to throw...

The wife of a New York City police officer accused of plotting rape, murder, and cannibalism has offered disturbing testimony in the case, the New York Times reports. She discovered Gilberto Valle's online chats on her computer, she says; he was discussing his plans with like-minded people. "I was going...

Proving that one man's badge of honor is another man's definition of libel, billionaire Sheldon Adelson has sued a Wall Street Journal reporter after an article suggested he was fond of profanity. The piece, by Kate O'Keeffe and Alexandra Berzon, said the casino honcho was "a scrappy, foul-mouthed billionaire from...

Nineteen teenagers have been arrested following a disturbance that shut down a Chicago shopping mall and left two people with minor injuries. Chicago police spokeswoman Laura Kubiak says the teens arrested Saturday were males and females ranging in age from 13 to 18. Most are charged with misdemeanor mob action....

A 76-year-old Wisconsin woman accused of killing her infant daughter more than a half-century ago will serve 45 days in jail and 10 years' probation, under a plea agreement approved today. Ruby Klokow was charged with second-degree murder in the 1957 death of her 6-month-old daughter, Jeaneen, only after her...

Municipal Judge Vince Sicari has seen success in a very different field: As a comedian and actor, he's primed audiences for Stephen Colbert and appeared on ABC's What Would You Do? But tomorrow, things could change, compliments of the state Supreme Court. That's because New Jersey state ethics officials ruled...

Wondering how safe it is to use your credit card? A long-running study shows that identity theft reached a three-year high in the US last year, striking 12.6 million people, LiveScience reports. Fraudsters ripped off $21 billion, the most in 3 years, and stole an identity every three seconds....

A helicopter attempted to spring an inmate from a Greek prison yesterday, in what would have been a Hollywood-esque caper worthy of James Bond—if it had worked. At first, the helicopter tried to use a hook at the end of a rope to rip down the prison's chicken-wire fence,...

With billions of dollars at stake, the trial to figure out how much more BP and other companies should pay for the nation's worst offshore oil spill began today with the federal government saying the oil giant was mostly to blame for a disaster caused by putting profits ahead of...

Two New York firefighters were going about their work yesterday morning when they heard screams—and looked over to see a man dragging his wife down the street. "Once I got closer, the man starts hacking at the woman" with a cleaver, FDNY veteran José Ortiz recalls. "He hits her...

The Supreme Court has been notoriously friendly to corporate speech rights, but it today rejected two Hillary Clinton donors' attempt to argue that corporations should be able to donate directly to candidates. William Danielczyk and Eugene Biagi, who are accused of illegally funneling $150,000 of corporate cash into Clinton's...

The Supreme Court won't be hearing a defendant's appeal in a drug case—but Justice Sonia Sotomayor made her views clear on a federal prosecutor's earlier comments, CNN reports. The prosecutor had said, "You've got African Americans, you've got Hispanics, you've got a bag full of money. Does that tell...

Warning to all Florida residents: Be sure to express your love in an Earth-friendly way. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that a 40-year-old man faces up to five years in prison because of 12 heart-shaped balloons. Anthony Brasfield was with his girlfriend in the parking lot of a Motel 6...

Police have told Reeva Steenkamp's family that Oscar Pistorius bashed in her skull with a cricket bat before fatally shooting her, the Daily Mail reports. Police withheld that information at Pistorius' bail hearing last week, preferring to conceal their case, but did brief the South African model's family on details...