On June 15, 2011, Vancouver burned. The riots that followed Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final turned parts of the British Columbia city into chaotic scenes of looting, arson, violence, and clashes with overwhelmed police.

It was there, amid the anarchy, that Alex Thomas fell to the ground and was too frightened to move. Scott Jones, her Australian-born boyfriend of six months, comforted her with a kiss as riot police marched around them.

Instant sensation
Photographer Richard Lam preserved that moment in the most iconic image from the riots, one that became an instant sensation around the world and was recently named Esquire magazine's photo of the year.

It was a singular, beautiful moment -- which is something Jones has had to explain to the couple's fans since they became the Kissing Couple of the Vancouver Riot.

"Just about everyone has asked us to re-create the photo," said Jones, speaking from Australia this week. "It was just in the moment. It would be just so cheesy for us to do it again."

From Vancouver to Melbourne
Jones and Thomas now share a flat in Melbourne, having relocated there over the summer. "The picture was taken about three days before we planned to leave Vancouver. We were going to holiday in California for three weeks and then leave for Australia," he said.

They had hired a manager to handle press requests and explore opportunities to profit from the kiss. Upon arriving in Australia, they were met with more media attention. "We didn't know if it was going to carry on," said Jones.

The local fame lasted only a few weeks longer. Today, Scott Jones and Alex Thomas are random citizens again, albeit ones with an extraordinary tale.

Thomas, who graduated with a degree in environmental engineering from the University of Guelph in Ontario, is doing water management work for Yarra Valley Water. He's also managing a bar called the Green Room, located in Back of Chapel.

"Riot Romeo"
While his standup comedy career is dormant at the moment, he shares some thoughts and images on his Facebook page, where he jokingly refers to himself as the Riot Romeo.

"I think looking back on it, it might be a funny situation. But it wasn't a particularly funny moment," he said.

Jones, who said he and Thomas don't have wedding plans yet, hopes their moment from the riot is a lasting one.

"It would be good if it's a photo everyone talks about. If the photo carries on," he said. "That would be quite special."

Photo: Rich Lam/Getty Images

Greg Wyshynski is editor of the Puck Daddy blog on Yahoo! Sports.

The Fennville Blackhawks' team motto is "Never Forgotten."

A two-word tribute to a 16-year-old athlete in the small western Michigan town of Fennville. Wes Leonard hit a game-winning shot in overtime to end a perfect season -- only to collapse moments later on the basketball court and die from sudden cardiac arrest due to dilated cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart.

His story of triumph turned tragedy didn't end on March 3, when an exuberant home crowd turned silent as he was carted from the court. It didn't end at Wes's funeral days later, which drew hundreds of mourners. Nor did it end a week later, when Fennville High School's playoffs run ended short of the state finals.

Saving future lives
Wes's life and sudden death prompted his family and loved ones to start the Wes Leonard Heart Team, a foundation committed to placing an automated electronic defibrillator (AED) in every public and private school in Michigan. The hope is the devices could save the lives of those who collapse with heart failure and get them to a medical facility.

"For sure, an AED would've saved his life," Jocelyn Leonard said in an interview shortly after her son's death. "We all know his heart was damaged, but he could've lived with that heart a little longer while we figured out what to do with it."

According to an ABC report, dilated cardiomyopathy -- an inherited condition for 30 percent of those afflicted -- has been seen in only 2.3 percent of athlete deaths. Among young athletes, that number seems to drop to 0.5 percent. Leonard had been sick with the flu a week earlier, and a cardiology expert said illnesses like that could inflame a susceptible heart.

Heart awareness
So far, the foundation has raised money through donations, T-shirt sales, and fundraisers to give 13 schools AED devices, which they say should be on hand in case other young athletes collapse from heart-related issues. The Heart Team also raises awareness of the importance of AEDs and even cardiology screening in schools, to identify heart disease and to prevent future tragedies.

On December 7, Fennville High School began its season with a special pregame tribute to Wes Leonard. Fennville coach Ryan Klingler gave a brief, emotional tribute: "We carry on with Wes in our hearts," he said, holding back tears.

Wes Leonard is scheduled to be inducted into the Fennville High School Hall of Fame in February. But his legacy is apparent not just in the record books of Fennville sports, but also in other schools. The Heart Team efforts could prevent similar tragedies and give student athletes another shot in life.

Photo: Dennis R.J. Geppert/AP

Ron Recinto is the Detroit editor for Yahoo! Local. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Ron was a print journalist and an online editor for more than 15 years at publications including the Detroit Free Press, the Charlotte Observer, and Red Herring magazine.

The sighting of a Loch Ness monster lookalike in England made quite a splash this year. Tom Pickles and Sarah Harrington told The Telegraph they saw an “enormous snake” the size of three cars speed past them on a kayaking outing at Lake Windermere.

“Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and it was swimming fast,” Pickles said. “Its skin was like a seal’s, but its shape was completely abnormal – it’s not like any animal I’ve ever seen before."

Terrified, the two rowed back to shore right away, but not before Pickles took a photo of the slippery creature with his camera phone.

The snapshot was called the best evidence yet of England’s version of Nessie. There have been seven other sightings in this lake of an apparition known as the "Bownessie" in the past five years. Is it possible this unsuspecting couple stumbled upon the missing link?

Mythical creature expert Loren Coleman called this sighting pure fish tale. “I was very suspicious from the beginning. There was a lot of publicity and it seemed too good to be true,” he said. Coleman has been studying creatures elusive to science, a discipline known as cryptozoology for 51 years. He went on a two-week expedition in search of the Loch Ness monster in 1999, studied numerous sightings, and wrote books on the topic.

The smoking gun against this claim was the discovery by a family walking by the lake of cut tires that could’ve been used to fake the grainy photos about a month after the sighting.

That is not to say there is not very good evidence that unexplained sea creatures exist in Loch Ness and other lakes around the world, Coleman says. He categorizes those sightings about “20 percent of cases.” The other 80 percent are  “misidentifications.”  And, “fakes and hoaxes make up 1 percent, but the get the most media attention.”

Of the credible cases, Coleman says some have described what they saw as creatures with “whiskers and manes on the back of their heads,” “a giant walrus or a snail that can travel across land from loch to ocean.”

“The key element is that they are not isolated in the loch but can go up and down in water and on land,” he says. “This is definitely some kind of mammal.”

Perhaps it is this mobility has kept the creature ever elusive.

Photo: Tom Pickles

Pueng Vongs is the San Francisco editor for Yahoo! Local. She has spent the past 20 years in print and online media, working at such outlets as the MercuryNews.com, Pacific News Service, CBS.MarketWatch.com, and Money magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

Bad fashion and bad TV pilots: Is that any way to treat our favorite Amazon warrior princess, who turns 70 this month? (Unless you count October 25 as her "real-world" debut, or January as her independent premiere.)

Wonder Woman fans revolted in March when they caught a glimpse of the newly designed costume for the updated TV series. The red-starred tiara and flashy bodice were accounted for, but the superhero was now touting blue spandex leggings with blue boots to match. Holy hot mess!

After the outcry, creators changed the boots back to the more familiar red. Unfortunately, even this quick change could not save a weak TV pilot, and the series was canned for good.

Wonder Woman made her debut in All Star Comics No. 8 in December 1941, and she remains the third most famous name in the DC Comics collection. The native of a mythical island of women with superhuman strength also enjoyed tremendous popularity in the '70s series starring Lynda Carter. But while two of her Justice League counterparts, Superman and Batman, have had their own film adaptations, Wonder Woman is still waiting for her big-screen break. What's a femme crusader gotta do?

DC Entertainment co-publisher Jim Lee has a theory about the heroine's super snub. "The action-adventure genre still skews toward the young, male demographic, who are looking to identify with the main character," he says. "It's trickier when you adapt a female hero.  You want to make sure you have it right."

While Wonder Woman waits for her call from Hollywood, DC has given her a makeover in the series "The New 52." In it, the butt-kicking brunette gets a edgier, harder look. Her tiara and bracelets have less bling and more metal for combat.

"We've accentuated the WW symbol so it reads like a warrior's breastplate, while the boots are tall and extend slightly past her kneecaps, like greaves," says artist Cliff Chiang.

Writers have also upped Wonder Woman's street cred by changing her origins; she is now said to be a daughter of Zeus. Maybe the sharp, new update will be just what it takes for Wonder Woman to finally lasso a movie deal.

Photo: Warner Brothers/Everett Collection

Pueng Vongs is the San Francisco editor for Yahoo! Local. She has spent the past 20 years in print and online media, working at such outlets as MercuryNews.com, Pacific News Service, MarketWatch.com, and Money magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

The year started with a bit of bathroom humor when, in the wee hours of a Minnesota morning, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson needed to, well, wee.

And just as he couldn't make it to the end zone 12 hours earlier, in a loss to the Detroit Lions, Peterson apparently couldn't rush the last few blocks to his house on January 3 without risking an excretory emergency. So he homed in on a glowing golden "M" -- a sign, no doubt, for a men's room. Or a McDonald's.

Assistant manager Tiffany Langeslay was working the window at about 3 a.m. when Peterson walked up. "Sir, you can't be in my drive-through," she told Peterson, according to a KTSP newscast. After Peterson explained his situation and another McDonald's worker identified him, Langeslay let the star inside to do his business. "He's a public figure," she said. "I know him more than I know some of the maintenance people who come through."

Nevertheless, letting a patron into the Eden Prairie, Minnesota, restaurant at that hour violated company rules, and Langeslay, a seven-year employee, was fired a few days later. "I never thought in a million years that that decision was going to cost me my career," she said.

Langeslay posted on Peterson's Facebook wall, but she didn't hear back from him. Eventually, a tip about her story made its way to the KTSP assignment desk.

"Everyone in the newsroom was talking about it," reporter Jennifer Griswold recalled. "People were laughing about it, wondering why [Peterson] had to use the bathroom so bad. But as we talked about it more, you started feeling for her."

"Anyone in that position would do what she did," Griswold added. "Everyone in Minnesota knows who [Peterson] is."

Griswold and her team turned the story around in five hours, talking to Langeslay and capturing her message to Peterson. "She was so committed to her job," Griswold said of the interview. "It really meant a lot to her."

Just before the piece aired, the news team got a call from McDonald's. The upshot: Langeslay was getting her job back.

"There was that immediate satisfaction of being able to help someone -- to have a woman call that day and get her job back that night," Griswold said. "She had been trying to get answers and wasn't able to. We had enough pull that we were able to help in this situation."

One Minnesotan in particular had reason to celebrate the happy ending. Though he didn't respond to Langeslay's online plea, Peterson was quick with a two-part tweet on the news of her reinstatement.

"Feel terrible about the nice lady at McDonald's losing her job," he said. "Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the situation or I would have definitely helped in any way possible. I'm very happy she has been re-hired and wish her the best."

Almost a year later, Langeslay confirmed that she is still an assistant manager with McDonald's.

As for Peterson, he has faced his share of restroom-themed ribbing.

A few weeks after the incident, he excitedly tweeted, "So I made my first trip to McDonald! Since the incident last month! And it went smoothly! I was able 2 just walk in n use D Restroom!"

One follower's response: "Number one or number two?"

Photo: Scott Boehm, Getty Images

Caroline Que is the D.C. editor for Yahoo! Local. Before joining Yahoo!, she worked at the Washington Post.

Live shots are supposed to be routine for broadcast journalists, especially for those who have won Emmy awards and have years of experience. But a shot outside the Grammy Awards on February 13 was anything but routine for CBS Los Angeles correspondent Serene Branson.

Instead of giving viewers a recap of the night's award winners, when the broadcast was tossed to her, Branson spoke slurred and incomprehensible gibberish for 10 seconds before producers cut away. The episode was replayed millions of times across the Internet, leaving viewers wondering if she had suffered a stroke or a seizure on the air.

Migraine aura
It turns out Branson had suffered a migraine aura at an unfortunate time.

"I knew what I wanted to say, but I didn't have the words or the ability to say what I wanted to say," Branson said just days after the incident. "I wanted to say that Lady Antebellum swept the Grammys tonight, and the words were just not there. It was surreal. It was like I was in a movie watching myself, and I couldn't change what was going on."

About 30% of women suffer from migraine headaches, and of those, up to 20% suffer migraine auras before a full-blown migraine, explained Dr. James Gebel, a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic's Lakewood Hospital. The symptoms of migraine auras -- blurred vision, nausea, temporary numbness, and slurred speech, as in Branson's case -- are often misdiagnosed as strokes and seizures, he said.

Unintentional great service
And, for that reason, as scary and as embarrassing as it may have been for Branson to suffer on live TV, it was a positive thing for others who endure migraines.

"She has unintentionally done a great service," Dr. Gebel said. The migraine aura "is really an underappreciated and underdiagnosed condition among us physicians. ... From that point of view, it is absolutely wonderful that this happened."

After the on-air incident, Branson was inundated with greeting cards, letters, and phone calls from people around the world who not only wanted to offer their support but also to say thanks for talking about migraines and making the issue public.

"I became aware of how many people have migraines," Branson said in an interview with Yahoo! in November. "There needs to be more education about it."

From gibberish to spokesperson
Shortly afterward, the National Headache Foundation asked her to become its spokesperson. The organization, based in Chicago, promotes migraine research and education.

"A big part of me wanted to just put it behind me," Branson said. "But I couldn't. That's the first thing that people want to ask me about."

She signed on with the National Headache Foundation, becoming the face of the organization's "More than just a headache" campaign, which began in June and is intended to educate people on the personal and societal costs of migraines.

Branson has had a couple of migraines since February. She now has medication to control the migraines when she starts to feel the symptoms. And she doesn't worry about having another episode on the air.

"I know how I felt that night, and I would never go on the air if I felt that way," she said. "I've learned to listen to my body."

Photo: KCBS TV/AP

Jeff Stacklin is the Cleveland Local editor for Yahoo!. Jeff has been an online and print journalist for the past 20 years.

Just the words "deadly brain-eating amoeba" can create enough panic to cause a national stir. Still, health officials know that 2011's death toll of four attributed to the Naegleria fowleri is not uncommon.

"That's pretty typical," Jonathan Yoder of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Yahoo!. Yoder is the CDC's coordinator of waterborne disease and outbreak surveillance systems.

The organism, which causes brain infection, is especially deadly: Of 122 documented cases since 1962, only one person has survived. According to the CDC, the amoeba is commonly found in warm freshwater areas such as lakes and ponds but can also be found in rivers and hot springs. The organism affects people by entering the system through the nose. Once the organism hits the brain, the ensuing infection is usually fatal. Symptoms include fever, nausea, stiff neck, and a frontal headache.

Four cases were confirmed by the CDC this year:

• A Kansas resident died in early September after swimming in a lake. It was the first confirmed case in Kansas.
• In August, a 16-year-old girl from Florida died after swimming in St. John's River in Brevard County.
• Also in August, a 9-year-old boy from Virginia died shortly after attending fishing camp.
• In June, a 20-year-old's death was later linked to the infection. He was infected after using a neti pot and officials found the amoeba in his home's water system.

"You would see this in the South more ... because water would stay warmer longer [there]," Miranda Myrick, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, told LJWorld.

According to Yoder, the Kansas death, coupled with a death in Minnesota the previous year, has officials eyeing how the organism survives in colder areas.

Prevention is tricky, Yoder says -- we can't simply shut down all summertime swimming in ponds and lakes. Yoder also clarifies that people should be aware of the danger when swimming, in the same way we might caution against risks such as drowning or thunderstorms.

He suggests that people swimming in freshwater areas during the summer should consider not putting their heads underwater and should wear nose plugs.

Photo: CDC

Mike Benzie is a Yahoo! editor covering Atlanta. He has been an editor and reporter for more than 15 years.

A family featured in the tear-jerking ABC series "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" became the focus of national attention in May during an Oregon court case that questioned the family's need for intensive medical care.

Because of that court case, it became natural to wonder whether the show itself -- and the many sponsors that helped finance the new home -- had been duped by parents who were overaggressive in the diagnosis of their children's illness.

Chuck and Terri Cerda appeared on the show in a March 2009 episode with their young daughters Molly and Maggie, who the Cerdas said suffered from a rare immunodeficiency disease. The disease was pretty serious stuff, and it was clearly a factor in the show's decision to build them a beautiful new home in Las Vegas.

From the show's website:

"The Cerdas' scenario is an extraordinary one: Their two daughters suffer from such a severe immune deficiency that their house itself is a life-threatening danger. Molly and Maggie Cerda were each diagnosed with Combined Immune Deficient Disease when they were just 3 years old. This disease is so intense that even a simple cold can be a disaster. We can't even begin to imagine what it'd be like to have to stay inside to avoid germs at all costs, and often even wear masks in our own homes!"

As in some other documented "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" cases, the new home proved to be a financial burden -- increased tax payments and utility bills are often cited -- so the Cerdas sold the home and moved to Oregon.

But according to a May 2010 story in the Oregonian, doctors  there questioned Terri Cerda's belief that her daughters had any chronic health problems when tests and examinations indicated otherwise. In January 2010, a pediatrician reported the Cerdas to state child-welfare authorities, and in February, the state took temporary custody of the two girls, said the Oregonian report.

The ensuing case in Clackamas County Circuit Court was revealing and, according to Oregonian reporter Steve Mayes, "told a story much different from the one presented on television."

The judge in the case called Terri Cerda's actions "obsessive and unjustifiable" but said Chuck Cerda was a capable parent. The girls were returned to their parents.

Shortly after the trial, Terri Cerda and the daughters moved back to Nevada, according to the Oregonian. The family's lawyer in the Oregon court case no longer represents the Cerdas and declined comment for this story. The Las Vegas "Extreme Makeover" home sold in 2010 for $317,000, according to Zillow.

Photo courtesy of Cydney Capello/Las Vegas Sun.

Mike Benzie is a Yahoo! editor covering Atlanta. He has been an editor and a reporter for more than 15 years.

A woman attempting a secret marriage had her plans altered in an earth-shaking manner, and a photographer was there to capture the moment.

So much for the secret part.

The "earthquake bride," Valerie Shevchenko, and her husband, Dmitriy Grif, 19, have been adjusting to married life since the 5.8 tremor that had hit the east coast in August. The couple first caught the public's eye when 18-year-old Shevchenko was photographed running in her wedding dress, carrying a cell phone and bouquet. She was dubbed the Runaway Bride, although she wasn't running away but searching for her groom.

"They said they had stopped the train -- and my husband was on the train," said Shevchenko, a biology student at Brooklyn's Kingsborough Community College. "I ran all the way to Chambers and Broadway in my wedding dress and with my long veil to make sure he was OK."

The focus on that photo escalated when reporters discovered the two planned to get married on the sly. "They’d said we’re too young and not for each other," Shevchenko said, telling reporters at the time that her mother-in-law didn't like her and would "go crazy" over the news.

Shortly after the story broke and broadcast across the Internet, Grif's parents indeed discovered the marriage. Having everything out in the open may actually help the couple gain parental approval in the long run, and the couple accepted that the news couldn't stay hidden forever. Shevchneko also says she found another happy side effect: Dmitriy wears his wedding band.

The two say they are still very much in love and still celebrate their first few months of marriage, now that things have quieted down. Grif is also a college student, and they face their share of obstacles. They are renting an apartment in New York City (where rent is high even in a recession), and they are admittedly "broke," with no plans for a honeymoon. But even with a few challenges, their life together is off to a dramatic start.

Photo: Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

Kwala Mandel is an editor for Yahoo! who works on special projects ranging from the royal wedding to the remembrance of September 11 to the latest "Twilight" premiere and live-streamed Decade of Difference concert. Mike Benzie is an Atlanta local news editor.

A private investigator tracks down a homeless man and tells him a long-lost relative has left him a small fortune.

If this were a movie, you'd roll your eyes at the far-fetched plot. But Max Melitzer's story is no Hollywood fantasy. The Utah man was literally pushing a grocery cart filled with his possessions in June when private investigator David Lundberg found him in a Salt Lake City park.

Tragedy to transience
Details quickly emerged: Melitzer was the only survivor of a car crash that killed his wife and two other people in 1990. Before the accident, "he had an apartment, and he had a wife and a life," his friend Karol Behling told the Deseret News. "I don't think he had a place to live after that. I think that's probably when he started the transience."

Melitzer bounced around the Salt Lake area for years, often staying in shelters and occasionally doing odd jobs. That is, until Lundberg found him.

The private investigator told Melitzer that his brother, Morris Melitzer of Schenectady, New York, had died in 2010. Morris, a veteran and a longtime General Electric employee, left Max an estate estimated to be worth $100,000.

In shock
Although Melitzer "ate his first seafood in over 25 years when Mr. Lundberg took him out for dinner," as his cousin Richard Goldfarb told the Daily Mail, he was "in shock" after receiving the news. "This came out of nowhere," Lundberg told the Associated Press. "He's a really mellow guy in his 60s, very sweet and more articulate than I thought for a man in his position."

Of course, it takes more than a shrimp cocktail to help someone adjust to such a dramatic life development. While media outlets seized on the story's Cinderella angle, some bloggers pointed out that the mental and emotional issues that landed Melitzer on the streets wouldn't be fixed by receiving a check.

And sure enough, the story has a cryptic ending. After taking a Greyhound bus from Salt Lake City to Albany (arriving nine hours late thanks to mechanical issues), Melitzer told his cousin that two lawyers were "trying to scam him out of two-thirds of his money," the Daily reported. Melitzer has declined to give interviews until the legal issues are worked out.

Several of his friends in Utah said they haven't been in touch with him since news of the inheritance broke. Lecia Beckstrom knew Melitzer from the time he spent at her family's business, Beckstrom Body Shop in Ogden, Utah.

"We haven't heard a word from him," she said. "No phone call, no nothing. ... I wish he would stop by so we'd know what happened to him."

Jason Florez, leader of the homeless ministry at the Mountain View Christian Assembly of God in Sandy, hasn't seen Melitzer since a meeting with him and Lundberg, the private investigator.

"He said he was going to come back shortly," Florez said. "I just thought he'd want to come back, because it's familiar and to see his friends, but he never came back. He's probably back to being elusive, just in an another town."

Lundberg did not return messages seeking comment.

Preparing for the windfall
If Melitzer's story has you daydreaming about receiving such a windfall, you should double-check that family members have your current phone number. In New York, where Morris Melitzer lived, an estate's administrator -- often a family member or a trusted friend -- is charged with locating heirs. If an heir can't be found, his or her inheritance can be ordered held by the court or state controller. Furthermore, if there is no will and and the deceased has no close relatives, the state becomes the heir.

"You don't want your estate plan dictated by circumstance," said Richard A. Fuerst, an attorney in the Schenectady area. "It's important that everyone sit down with a lawyer and think about how they want their assets distributed."

Fuerst, a partner with Schenectady law firm Higgins, Roberts, Beyerl & Coan, stresses the importance of having an up-to-date will or will substitute, a power of attorney, and a health care proxy. "Those three documents are very, very important," he said. "If you don't have a will and you pass away with property that's just in your name, New York will impose a will upon you and tell you who's going to receive your property."

And if you're considering leaving all or part of your estate to someone whose mental or physical health makes him or her subject to predators or unable to manage an inheritance, consider setting up a trust. Just make sure the trust is properly drafted and controlled by someone who would be prudent with the funds and sympathetic to the beneficiary's needs.

"Think about the way you want to pass your wealth," Fuerst said, "and plan accordingly while you're alive."

Photo: Weber County Sheriff's Office/AP,
David Lundberg/AP

Caroline Que is the D.C. editor for Yahoo! Local. Before joining Yahoo!, she worked at the Washington Post.