The Week: Most Recent from Samantha Rollins

Handicapped poseurs

The Week — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:45:00 -0400

Wealthy Manhattanites are paying handicapped tour guides to help their kids circumvent long lines at Disney World. The guides charge $130 an hour to pose as family members and use their handicapped privileges to get on rides without waiting. "You can't go to Disney without a tour concierge," one parent told the New York Post. "This is how the 1 percent does Disney."

Put down the pencil!

The Week — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:15:00 -0400

A Virginia second-grader was suspended from school for pretending to be a Marine and making "gun noises" while pointing his pencil at another student. The father of 7-year-old Christopher Marshall thinks the school's zero-tolerance policy for weapons goes too far, but a school spokesman disagreed, calling a pencil "a weapon when it is pointed at someone in a threatening way and gun noises are made."

8 contenders for 2013 song of the summer

The Week — Thu, 16 May 2013 14:20:00 -0400

It's that time again, when radio DJs pull together the soundtrack to your sun-soaked road trips, barbecues, and pool parties. While 2012 brought us Carly Rae Jepsen's ubiquitous "Call Me Maybe" and Gotye's alt-anthem "Somebody That I Used to Know," this year's song of the summer contenders have been relatively low-profile by comparison. As temperatures rise, we're sure to see some of these songs ascend the charts. Here, eight earworms that will likely be inescapable by the end of the summer:

1. Mariah Carey feat. Miguel, "#Beautiful"

Mariah's "breezy duet" with rising R&B crooner Miguel...

A slice of bacon a day...

The Week — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:22:00 -0400

A 105-year-old woman told a local TV station that her secret to longevity was "hard work and bacon." Pearl Cantrell of Richland Springs, Texas, was given a lifetime supply of Oscar Mayer bacon after the company got wind of her statement. "I love bacon," the centenarian added. "I eat it every day. It's got to be crispy."

WATCH: Bill Hader's 6 best Saturday Night Live characters

The Week — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:52:00 -0400

Bill Hader, the Saturday Night Live oddball who's best known for his giggling turn as Weekend Update's flamboyant city correspondent Stefon, announced today that he will depart SNL after this season (his last episode will be this Saturday's season finale). "It was a hard decision, but it had to happen at some point," Hader told The New York Times. But instead of wondering how we'll find out about New York's hottest club without Stefon, let's take a look back at some of Hader's funniest characters:

1. Stefon
While Hader hardly made it through a single Stefon sketch without choking back laughter...

7 curious currencies from around the world

The Week — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:20:00 -0400

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the opening of its Parliament House, Australia has released its very first cornered coin. The $5 triangular coin's shape is an homage to the Canberra Parliament House's triangular flag pole. (See a photo here.) And while the coin is strange, it's far from the first piece of unconventional currency. Here, a look at some of the world's weirdest money:

Canada's polymer bills

(REUTERS/Chris Wattie/Files)

In late 2011, our neighbors to the north started replacing their paper-cotton $100 notes with bills made of polymer plastic, and soon followed up with plastic...

Twerk at your own risk

The Week — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:00:00 -0400

A California high school suspended 33 students and banned them from the prom for making a video demonstrating "twerking," a dance move that involves popping one's hips suggestively. "It was just expression," said one puzzled parent, "maybe overly expressive I guess."

The felonious science experiment

The Week — Sat, 11 May 2013 10:00:00 -0400

A Florida high school student was expelled, handcuffed, and charged with two felonies after mixing two chemicals to see what would happen. Kiera Wilmot, a straight-A student, combined aluminum foil and toilet bowl cleaner in a plastic bottle, producing a popping sound and a small amount of smoke. No one was hurt and nothing was damaged, but the school said expulsion and felony charges would teach Wilmot that there are "consequences to actions."

A cold war

The Week — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:55:00 -0400

An ice-cream truck operator in upstate New York was arrested for repeatedly intimidating and harassing a rival vendor. Joshua Malatino, who owns the Sno Cone Joe franchise, reportedly tailgated and threatened the owner of a Mr. Ding-A-Ling truck in an attempt to steal his customers. According to court documents, Malatino screamed, "You don't have a chance!" and "This is my town!"

The whites-only prom

The Week — Sun, 05 May 2013 14:00:00 -0400

Students at a Georgia high school held the school's first-ever integrated prom, but a large group of white parents refused to participate, staging their own, whites-only prom. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal called the separate proms a "private issue" and said this was "not something state government needs to have its finger involved in."

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's... illegal

The Week — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:45:00 -0400

The Seattle Police Department announced that it will "restrict superheroes from interfering with law enforcement operations." The announcement was deemed necessary after Phoenix Jones, a self-styled superhero, took to the city's streets to push back rioters last year. Jones responded in a video by calling the author of the report a "superhero hater."

The most fashionable state

The Week — Thu, 02 May 2013 09:21:00 -0400

A Missouri state senator decided to make his sartorial preferences known by amending an education funding bill to include a provision that would ban adults from wearing seersucker suits. Senator Ryan McKenna later withdrew the provision, saying that "it probably wasn't germane to the bill" and "it was all in jest, anyway."

Gambling your life away

The Week — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:24:00 -0400

A New Hampshire man lost his life savings on a carnival game as he tried in vain to win the grand prize, an Xbox Kinect. Henry Gribbohm, 30, was playing a game called "Tubs of Fun," in which you throw balls into tubs. He quickly lost $300, then went home to get the rest of his life savings — which he subsequently lost. All told, Gribbohm lost $2,600 and left with only a stuffed banana.

A year without internet: One man's fascinating journey

The Week — Wed, 01 May 2013 15:50:00 -0400

One year ago today, The Verge's Senior Technology Editor Paul Miller unplugged his Ethernet cable, disconnected his Wi-Fi, swapped his smartphone for a dumbphone, and gave up the internet cold turkey. Since then, he's continued his web-free existence by filing numerous stories about his offline experiences via USB drives. He even set up a snail-mail P.O. box for reader comments. Through it all, readers wondered: Once his year-long personal experiment was over, would Miller return to the web enlightened, or ravaged? Was he just trolling us? How would he remember all his passwords? And how, one outspoken...

Weird news photo quiz

The Week — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:20:00 -0400

WATCH: Amanda Knox opens up in interview with Diane Sawyer

The Week — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:35:00 -0400

In this preview clip from Amanda Knox's first TV interview since her 2011 return to the United States, the 25-year-old discusses her time in prison, her acquittal recently being overturned by an Italian court, and how she's trying to return to a normal life.

"I want the truth to come out. I want to be reconsidered as a person," Knox says tearfully.

Knox, who was charged in the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, her roommate while studying abroad in Italy, spent nearly four years in jail before being acquitted by an Italian court. Knox was allowed to return home to Seattle in October...