If you were to pick a U.S. state you think people generally know little to nothing about, which one comes to mind?  If you're like me, Alaska, which became the 49th state in 1959, is a sure contender. Alaska is derived from the Aleut word "alyeska," which stands for "great land." On this day in 1867, the United States formally took possession of what became the largest state in the country after buying the territory from Russia for $7.2 million. Most people assume Texas is the largest U.S. state, but Alaska is roughly twice the size of the Lone Star State in area and about one-fifth the size of the contiguous 48 states combined. So why would Russia want to sell its Alaska territory in the first place? For starters, it was remote, sparsely populated, and hard to defend. Russia preferred selling it to the United States than risk losing it in battle with a rival like Great Britain. Negotiations between secretary of state William Seward and the Russian m...

The things people do these days leaves me utterly flabbergasted. A man named Rogelio Andaverde was abducted from his home -- right in front of his terrified wife no less -- by two masked gunmen in Edinburg, Texas. She immediately called the cops, who undertook a search for the 34-year-old, and was subjected to over 5 hours of questioning.  To his wife's relief, he returned the next morning unharmed, claiming the kidnappers had let him go. But the cops weren't buying it; they found his story suspicious, and their doubts were not unfounded.  Andaverde later confessed to staging the kidnapping just so he could go out for drinks with his friends! Two of his buddies had posed as his abductors, both of whom were wearing masks to hide their faces and carrying guns. Andaverde was arrested on charges of making a false report to police, later to be released on bail. A person truly has to be desperate to pull off a stunt like this. Even if we were to assume that...

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in his sleep last night at the age of 79. He traveled to Texas for a hunting trip with friends, who say he told them he didn't feel well Friday night. When he didn't get up for breakfast this morning, someone at the West Texas ranch went to check on Scalia and found him unresponsive. Scalia was the first Italian-American and longest-serving justice on the nation's highest court; he served from 1986 until his death. He was a fiery conservative known for his brash personality and biting sense of humor. Though many people disagreed with a lot of what he had to say, there's no denying Scalia held a deep respect for American law and was a champion of the Constitution. Chief Justice John Roberts says he and the other justices are deeply saddened by Scalia's unexpected passing. Scalia, who frequently used the phrase "What can I say," was known as "Nino" by many of his colleagues.