This summer, adult amateur kickball leagues are being founded around Seattle at a surprising rate. Thanks to the efforts of the Underdog Sports League, kickball teams have grown from 70 teams in 2005 to 200 this year. Let's face it: the Supersonics are gone, the Mariners are horrible and the Seahawks won't be starting until the kids are back in school. At this point. . . Seattle sports fans just want to kick something.

Five young people have been killed by lightning in five different states in less than a week. On July 3, Landon Dillard, 16, of Macon, Ga. , was struck while riding a bicycle at a summer camp in Colorado.

German authorities are searching for a killer in what is being called one of the worst cases of animal cruelty in the country's history. Since last year, more than 40 pet bunny-rabbits have been killed in the night in their outdoor hutches. Horrified owners found their beloved pets decapitated and drained of all their blood in many cases. The killer takes the head and collects the blood, leading investigators to think that the animal killer is involved in the occult or Satanism.

It's been a hot summer so far in the city. Perhaps the heat motivated a Brooklyn restaurant cook to steal frozen lobster tails from his restaurant by stuffing them down his pants. Raymundo Flores was arraigned by the Brooklyn District Attorney on charges of petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. Police, responding to a 911 from restaurant workers, said they found lobster tails that Flores allegedly stole hidden in his pants and in bandages on his legs.

An estimated crowd of 30,000 revelers welcomed the summer solstice at the megalithic Stonehenge ruins in Salisbury Plain at dawn Saturday. Rain and mist did not deter throngs from welcoming the sun rise above the ancient monument, one of Britain's national icons, on the longest day of the year.