Twilight Fans Flock to Gloomy Town

(NEWSER) - Author Stephenie Meyer had never even been to Forks, Wash., when she chose it, with a little help from Google, as the setting for her wildly popular Twilight books. But that hasn’t stopped fans of the series and the movies it has spawned from flocking to the town, population 3,120, in droves and spawning a cottage industry of tours and Twilight -theme motel rooms that have boosted tourism threefold, the New York Times reports. More»

If it leaves the eurozone, it'll be a real bargain, experts say

(NEWSER) - These days you probably think of Greece as the place threatening to set the euro on fire. It's easy to forget that it's also a pretty beautiful tourist destination, loaded with ancient ruins and sunny beaches—and soon, NPR points out, it could be a pretty cheap destination, too. If Greece leaves the euro, the value of its currency would plummet between 30% and 50%, analysts predict. More»

Seems Peter Keller shot himself during standoff with deputies

(AP) - Authorities in Washington state say they've found a body in an elaborate bunker they had surrounded in the Cascade Mountains, and it appears to be that of a man wanted for killing his wife and teenage daughter last weekend. The King County Sheriff's Office sent word via Twitter today that they'd found the body, nearly 23 hours after they first located the structure carved into the side of Rattlesnake Ridge east of Seattle. More»

Dean Heller, Shelley Berkley fight for the government's right to party

(NEWSER) - No one is actually talking about outlawing government travel to Las Vegas or Reno in the wake of the GSA scandal, but a pair of Nevada lawmakers want to ban such a banning, just in case. Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Shelley Berkley are putting forward bills in their respective chambers making it illegal to ban travel to any particular US city, USA Today reports. More»

But experts mystified as to what killed young gray whale in Puget Sound

(AP) - A gray whale found dead in Washington state's Puget Sound had been scarfing down shrimp—and also a golf ball, woody debris, algae, pieces of rope and plastic, and some sort of flat spongy material. The garbage was minimal and not the cause of death, which remains under investigation, a NOAA Fisheries spokesman says. But it's common for whales to pick up debris near urban areas because they are filter feeders. "Whatever trash and debris sitting on the sea floor in that sediment is trapped inside the mouth, and it will then swallow," says a NOAA coordinator. More»