Don Deane

It’s been 35 years since Elvis Presley died, but the King is still very much a hot commodity. As proof, a pair of Presley’s used underwear will go up for auction in Manchester, England, next month and could fetch tens of thousands of dollars. Oh, and did we mention that the skivvies have visible stains? Eww!

Although details are sketchy at the moment, several news outlets are reporting that a gunman has shot multiple people near the Empire State Building in Manhattan this morning.

In the U.K., a 40-year-old man recently had a plastic fork surgically removed from his stomach after swallowing it. That’s bad enough, but when you consider that he ingested the item a decade ago, the story reaches all new levels of weird. We’ll never look at cutlery the same way again.

Five-year-old Evan loves ‘Cars’ so much that he literally wore out the wheels on his Lightning McQueen Power Wheel toy car. So, his dad Sean, an employee at the aftermarket tuning company FFTEC Motorsports, rebuilt the ride from the ground up, even adding a zippy 500 watt electric motor that’s capable of outputting .66 horsepower.

After an eight month journey, NASA’s multi-billion dollar rover Curiosity made a successful landing on Mars early this morning. Mission controllers cheered after the six-wheeled, one-ton machine made a perilous seven-minute landing involving a parachute, rocket pack and sky crane.

A Chicago Cubs fan named Greg wanted to give his girlfriend a marriage proposal that she’d never forget. So he popped the question via the video scoreboard during a game on Monday night at Wrigley Field. There was just one problem — she wasn’t in her seat at the time.

Beef lovers will soon feel the effects of the worst drought in 50 years as the price of meat rises sharply in the coming months. The ongoing drought gripping two-thirds of the country has caused crops to wither and sent the cost of feed soaring. Experts say this will cause meat prices to skyrocket.

Caleb Medley was one of the 58 people injured during last week’s horrific theater shooting in Colorado. As a result of that terrible ordeal, the aspiring comedian lost his right eye, suffered brain damage and is currently in a medically-induced coma. To make matters worse, he has no insurance and his bills could exceed $2 million. There is a bright spot in this terrible story, however.

More than 200 Chihuahuas were removed from a Benton, Pennsylvania home yesterday after officials deemed the environment dangerous to the dogs’ well-being. While it’s a terribly sad story to be sure, at least the internet community can breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn’t corgis.

While soccer isn’t nearly as popular here as it is in other parts of the world, it seems to get its due in the US during the Olympics, at least. And when the women’s national soccer team won gold after a hotly-contested battle against Brazil at the 2008 Games in Beijing, its members became superstars.

Last night, two dogs got married in what the Guinness Book of World Records said was the world’s most expensive pet wedding at more than $150,000. It’s good to see that, in the midst of a recession, people are spending their money wisely.

Many of the 49 men and women who make up this year’s US swimming squad — like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Jessica Hardy and Rebecca Soni — have years of experience. But fresh-faced Missy Franklin is a relative newcomer to the sport.