December 17

Michael Souza, 44, of Warwick, R.I., was charged with driving under the influence after he was pulled over in nearby Lincoln while driving to pick up his wife Stephanie who had been arrested on the same charge in Cranston.

December 16

Arlene Magdanz, a substitute teacher from California, was found to be the only heir to a fortune of gold coins discovered by a  cleaning crew in the home of Walter Samaszko Jr., a reclusive cousin who quietly stashed away a treasure worth $7.4 million before he died this year.

December 15

Florida tour boat captain Wallace Weatherholt was charged with illegally feeding an Everglades alligator after it bit his hand off.

December 14

A reader board outside the West Greenway Bible Church reads: "No one is beyond God's help, not even the Cardinals."

December 13

Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, told ABC's Barbara Walters that it is "ridiculous" for people to question whether he is too heavy to be president.

December 12

Kristina Green, a Maricopa, Ariz., woman who said she knew she could never compete with her neighbor's elaborate Christmas light display, is attracting attention with her response - about 600 red and green lights spelling out "ditto" and making an arrow that points towards her neighbor's home and its approximately 16,000 lights.

December 11

Lt. J.P. Bevering of the White Settlement, Texas, Police Department, said officers are looking for Darren Porter, 41, a robbery suspect who managed to roll down a back window of a squad car, open the car door and drive off with the vehicle, all while handcuffed.

December 10

Alberto Diaz Gonzalez pleaded guilty in Miami to attempting to import undeclared wildlife and faces up to 20 years in prison for trying to smuggle birds from Cuba into the United States in his pants.

December 9

Ava McCrary, 9, of Little Rock killed her first deer, a big 8 point buck, while hunting with her father in Bradley County.  She used a Rossi single-shot rifle in .223 Rem.

December 8

Sgt. Jim Preston of the Roswell, N.M., police said his office was puzzled about how a handgun and ammunition got inside a package of frozen ribs found at a grocery store.

December 7

Dina Manfredini, 115, of Johnstown, Iowa, has been named the world's oldest living person by Guiness World Records, after the death of 116-year-old Bessie Cooper of Georgia.

December 6

Scott Pipher, 34, of Portsmouth, N.H., has been charged with engaging a prostitute after he called police in Old Orchard Beach, Maine, to complain that a woman he'd hired "shorted him by 10 minutes," authorities said.

December 5

Dan  Motrescu has been sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for climbing naked onto a bronze statue of the 19th century Duke of Cambridge in London, ripping off the duke's sword and biting it.

December 4

The most famous postmark of all has been saved, thanks to the volunteers in the northwest Ohio village of Rudolph.  Thousands of letters flood the village post office every December so they can be stamped with a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer postmark.  But the tradition was in danger of ending when the post office staff was cut down to one and the work became too much to handle.  Local townsfolk persuaded the U.S. Postal Service to allow volunteers to stamp the special Reindeer Station postmark on the nearly 80,000 letters that come from across the country.  Close to 75 people have signed up to work daily shifts.