Alisha Hessler says she'd never met Gabriel Urena before Saturday night.

A federal judge just struck down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage. "The state's current laws deny its gay and lesbian citizens their fundamental right to marry and, in so doing, demean the dignity of these same-sex couples for no rational reason," U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. Shelby wrote.

"We're going to be the hippest city in the United States!"—Vincent Gray, the mayor of Washington, DC, speaking to a hip local crowd last night. What does he mean, "going to be?"

Red balloons are magical — everyone knows that — but one California kindergartner learned that fact first hand after her red balloon helped make her Christmas wish come true.

One day, a man came to a door. He opened the door. And behind the door he found: a room. Yes. A perfectly silent room. This story continues... in hell.

Mike Bloomberg likes his privacy. For ten years, the outgoing mayor of New York has refused to disclose when he visits Bermuda to golf, going so far as to hide his private jet from FAA’s public database. He threw a $160,000 hissy fit over releasing emails related to his appointment of Hearst executive Cathie Black, the failed almost-chancellor of New York City’s public schools. So it’s all the more satisfying that his administration’s records—letters, travel logs, internal memos—will soon come under the supervision of his liberal successor—and enormous Bloomberg hater—Bill de Blasio. That’s because of a law Bloomberg himself signed ten years ago.

Ned Vizzini, best known for his 2006 young adult novel It's Kind of a Funny Story, committed suicide on Thursday. He was 32.

Sure, you could talk up their soft, aerodynamic design. Or their strength in the face of even the most violent of sneezes. But we all know what those white Kleenex-brand facial tissues are really being used for.

Welcome to The 12 Days of Thatz Not Okay, a special holiday edition of a regular column in which I school inquiring readers on what is and is not okay. Check back Monday for our next seasonal installment. As always, please send your questions (max: 200 words) to caity.weaver@gawker.com with the subject "Thatz Not Okay."

Another big Edward Snowden reveal: Between 2008 and 2011, the NSA and British surveillance group GCHQ targeted the Israeli Prime Minister, German government buildings in Berlin, officials from international charity organizations, heads of state from various African countries, and top-ranking European Union officials.

Batkid. Remember Batkid? A sick child, running around San Francisco, living a wonderful dream? Terrible use of resources, that kid was.

Operational security, ladies and gentlemen. We have secrets, and we need to keep them! We also need to log them all. Now... where do I register this unredacted treatise on how to interrogate an Arab?

The forced resignation of a popular high school vice principal in Washington prompted hundreds of students to stage a protest that effectively shut the school down.

More than you ever wanted to know about how to make good chocolate chip cookies.

What with the big uproar over Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson piping up against gay sex, let's all remember: sodomy is still illegal down there in Louisiana. Phil Robertson for Louisiana Attorney General!

With Christmas right around the corner, most news outlets have already checked out, as evidenced by the fact that this week's biggest story by far was something some backswamp redneck reality show "personality" said about his juvenile aversion to putting his penis inside a man's anus because vaginas are better.

South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela secretly traveled to Ethiopia and received paramilitary training from Israeli spies shortly before he was arrested in 1962, according to a memo that was reportedly just unearthed from Israel's State Archives.

We've seen our share of Harvard-themed Craigslist ads that seem too good to be true, but this one just has to be. It just has to.

O Peggy, my Peggy, so heady—gentle Peg! She travels, unravels, then babbles—is she dead?

Police in Oklahoma say a domestic violence victim managed to fend off her husband's vicious assault by roughing him up in return, resulting in this priceless mugshot of the suspect.