Kaitlyn Hunt, a Florida teenager, is facing felony charges and has already been expelled from school for her lesbian relationship with another, younger student.

Hunt, who is 18, has reportedly been charged with two felony counts of “lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 to 16.” The charges stem from her relationship with her 15-year-old girlfriend.

“These people never came to us as parents, never tried to speak to us… and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating,” Kaitlyn Hunt’s mother, Kelley Hunt-Smith, wrote in an statement posted to Facebook. “…They were out to destroy my daughter. [They] feel like my daughter ‘made’ their daughter gay.”

Hunt was arrested on Feb. 18 and charged with the two felony charges. She was expelled from school weeks before graduation and was sent to an alternative school to finish out the school year.

Hunt-Smith insists that the relationship was consensual and that that both sets of parents knew about it in the beginning. Many internet activists have spoken out about the charges and think that they are too harsh, which I fully agree with.

If Hunt is found guilty, she will most likely have to register as a sex offender for a seemingly normal, teenage relationship. The only thing that is different here is that they are lesbians and if that is why she is being charged so harshly, then that is just plain wrong. PERIOD.

The state’s attorney’s office is pushing Hunt to take a plea deal that involves two years of house arrest and a year of probation, which would stay on her adult record, which could subsequently ruin her future, as Hunt will have limited college and career choices with such harsh charges attached to her record.

Ultimately, Hunt’s conviction could potentially ruin her life. She has yet to go to trial, but a lot of reports point to a consensual relationship between two teenage girls. Nothing more, nothing less. Why should that ruin one of their lives? If it turns out there were criminal acts committed, that’s a different story, but if there weren’t, is all of this really fair?

[Huffington Post]

As you have probably heard by now, Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, was recently captured on video smoking crack cocaine, and the shocking video could make its way to the Internet if Gawker is able to get its hands on it.

Using the website indiegogo.com, the folks over at Gawker have kicked off what they’re calling a “crackstarter” campaign — a play on words, in reference to the popular crowd-funding platform KickStarter.

The heading at the top of the campaign’s page on indiegogo reads: “Rob Ford Crackstarter — Please help us raise enough money to purchase and publish a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine.”

So far, as of Saturday night (May 18), the campaign has raised nearly $70,000 of its $200,000 goal, with 9 days left. If Gawker is able to successfully raise the $200,000 the owner of the cell phone video footage is willing to let it go for, the world will be able to watch Toronto’s “conservative” mayor smoking crack cocaine.

In the meantime, when asked to comment on the scandal, Ford told a group of reporters that gathered outside his home early Friday morning (May 17) — just hours after the story broke on Gawker and subsequently The Toronto Star — that the “allegations are absolutely not true.”

Ford added before getting into his Cadillac Escalade, CBC News Toronto reported, “It’s ridiculous, it’s another Toronto Star whatever.”

Later Friday, as Ford was leaving his downtown Toronto office, he gave another brief statement to reporters:

“Anyways, like I said this morning, these allegations are ridiculous, it’s another story with respect to the Toronto Star going after me,” Ford said. “And that’s all I’ve got to say for now.”

It’s worth noting that Ford never outright DENIES the allegations. He simply says that they’re “ridiculous,” and he’s right, the allegations are “ridiculous.”

It’s ridiculous that the mayor of one of the biggest metropolitan areas in the world has been recorded on video smoking crack cocaine, and it’s even more ridiculous that we’ll all be watching said video footage it any day now.

Gotta love that “new media.”

Click here if you would like to contribute to Gawker’s crackstarter!

At least 50 to 60 people were injured after a car plowed through a group of hikers at a parade at a small town in Virginia. Among the injured were at least five or six reported “trauma victims,” according to police dispatchers who said the injuries ranged critical to superficial.

Three of the victims were reportedly flown by helicopter to regional hospitals, while another 12 to 15 were taken by ambulance. The rest were treated at the scene. The status of the driver wasn’t released, however multiple witnesses have described him as an elderly man.

Pokey Harris, the director of emergency management for Washington County, told the Associated Press that authorities are still investigating the incident, but they believe the man behind the wheel of the car may have suffered a medical emergency before the accident, which happened early Saturday afternoon, at around 2:30 p.m., during the Hikers Parade at the annual Trail Days festival in in Damascus, Va.

It wasn’t immediately known what exactly caused the man to drive into the crowd, but witnesses say he came out of nowhere from a side street and “thuds” could be heard as he ran over a large number of hikers, while people were screaming “Stop! Stop!” After going for more than 100 feet, the man eventually stopped, but not before injuring over 50 people.

“He was hitting hikers,” said Vickie Harmon, a witness from Damascus. “I saw hikers just go everywhere.”

As reported by the Associated Press:

“He was hitting hikers,” said Vickie Harmon, a witness from Damascus. “I saw hikers just go everywhere.”

Damascus resident Amanda Puckett, who was watching the parade with her children, ran to the car, where she and others lifted the car off those pinned underneath.

“Everybody just threw our hands up on the car and we just lifted the car up,” she said.

Keith Neumann, a hiker from South Carolina, said he was part of the group that scrambled around the car. They pushed the car backward to free a woman trapped underneath and lifted it off the ground to make sure no one else was trapped. Another person jumped inside to put it in park. “There’s no single heroes. We’re talking about a group effort of everybody jumping in,” he said.

Thankfully, there were already ambulances ahead of the hikers in the parade, and paramedics on board were immediately able to respond to the crash.

Story developing…

I’m not that deep into politics, so before now, I’ve never heard of this Rob Ford guy, who is the mayor of Toronto, but all of that is beside the point. There’s a video out there of a mayor — a CONSERVATIVE mayor — smoking crack from a pipe!

And if Gawker has its way, the world might see this video very soon so that we can all watch it and point and laugh … because who doesn’t want to see a major political figure smoking crack on camera? I most certainly do, and you know you do.

But before I get into this hell of a story — and boy is this a big one — let me put it like this. Toronto is basically the Canadian version of New York City, with a metro population of about 6 million people. That’s about 2 million less than NYC, and about 2 million more than Los Angeles.

So the fact that the mayor of a city with a population density akin to New York City — the biggest and most famous city in the entire world — has been captured … on video … smoking CRACK COCAINE (not a cigarette, not weed, not even cocaine, but CRACK cocaine) is a pretty big deal.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get into the meat of this here mountain of a story.

Gawker editor John Cook was recently tipped off about the existence of video footage taken within the past six months showing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine (and it’s the real deal). To make an extremely long story short … Gawker wants to buy it.

But there’s only one problem. The guy who owns the video wants at least 6 figures for it. And the owner is so serious about their hefty price tag that he turned down a $40,000 offering from a Canadian media outlet that he refused to name.

Cook actually traveled to Toronto so that he could verify the authenticity of the clip in person, and he is 1,0000% certain that the man in the video is Rob Ford. He was even given a nice photo (at the top of this post) showing Ford hanging out with a bunch of college-aged twenty-somethings in an area that looks to be prime for crack smoking. (FYI: The gentlemen on the left, Ford’s right, flipping the bird was shot and killed two months ago outside a Toronto nightclub)

After going back and forth for days with the “tipster,” Cook eventually got a chance to personally meet up with the holder of the video camera that contained the 100% legit footage of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine:

We sit idling in his car, making small talk. The tipster calls the owner and talks in language other than English. “He’ll be right down,” he says. Fifteen minutes pass. “Waiting for the elevator,” he says. Ten minutes pass. A young gentleman opens the rear door of the car and gets in. The two men speak in a language other than English. The young gentleman immediately exits the vehicle. No video.

The tipster looks at me: “The battery is dead.” The young gentleman—the owner of the video—needed to go back upstairs to charge the battery on the device that contained the video. We wait. More small talk.

The owner of the video returns. He thrusts a device, a phone with a touchscreen, in my face. “Can I hold it?” I ask. “No.” I crane my neck. It plays.

Here is what the video shows: Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, is the only person visible in the frame. Prior to the trip, I spent a lot of time looking at photographs of Rob Ford. The man in the video is Rob Ford. It is well-lit, clear.

Ford is seated, in a room in a house. In one hand is a a clear, glass pipe. The kind with a big globe and two glass cylinders sticking out of it. In the other hand is a lighter. A slurred voice off-camera is ranting about Canadian politics in what sounds like an attempt to goad Ford. “Pierre Trudeau was a faggot!” is the one phrase the lodges in my mind.

Ford, pipe in one hand and lighter in the other, is laughing, and mildly protesting at the sacrilege. He seems to keep trying to light the pipe, but keeps stopping to laugh. He is red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath. Finally, he finds his moment and lights up. He inhales.

In one move, the owner stops the video and draws the device back into his pocket.

“You took this?” I ask. “Yes.”

“When?” … “Within the last six months.”

“You’re sure it’s crack?” … “Yes.”

“You’ve seen him smoke crack before?” … “Yes. Gotta jet.”

And he is gone.

Well damn. It looks like Toronto has the Canadian version of Marion Berry running wild up there.

Gawker is looking for a partner to help offset the cost of the video, so if anyone out there wants to help out with this great this cause, feel free to reach out to them! The world needs to see this. Seriously.

The confusing and head-scratching campaign that Wade Robson is launching against the Michael Jackson estate just got kicked up another notch now that Wade has sat down for an interview with the Today Show’s Matt Lauer.

While Wade might be best known for being a choreographer for Britney Spears and ‘NSYNC or as a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, he started out as a Michael Jackson protege. He was groomed by Michael Jackson for years and for a long time, Wade regarded the late King of Pop as a mentor figure.

He defended Michael vigorously against molestation allegations brought against him in 2005 and he pulled out that “Smooth Criminal” routine at every MJ tribute he was asked to.

Which makes his allegations of molestation all the more confusing.

In his interview with Lauer, the best that Wade could offer was that he “understands” how confusing this appears to be. But he insists his memories of the molestation weren’t repressed. Rather, he just suffered brainwashing that made him not realize that it was molestation.

“This is not a case of repressed memory,” said Robson. “I have never forgotten one moment of what Michael did to me, but I was psychologically and emotionally completely unable and unwilling to understand that it was sexual abuse.”

WATCH WADE’S TODAY SHOW INTERVIEW BELOW

Um….sir, that might’ve made sense if you were all of 10 years old. Or even a teenager still. But when Wade took the stand in 2005, he was a GROWN ASS MAN. Wade gave testimony UNDER OATH stating that Michael Jackson never touched or sexually molested him in any way.

This is a point that Howard Weitzman, the Michael Jackson estate’s lawyer, pounced on:

“Mr. Robson has adamantly denied under oath and in numerous interviews over the past 20 years that Michael Jackson ever did anything inappropriate to him. He now wants us to believe that he committed perjury at least twice and has been lying to anyone and everyone about Mr. Jackson since the early ‘90s so he can file a claim for money. Mr. Robson’s transparent lawsuit comes nearly 4 years after Michael passed. His claim is outrageous and sad.”

Wade falls back on psychology textbooks to claim that it’s “typical” for child sexual abuse victims to only realize their molestation later in life.

Yeah, this shit sounds wack and fake. It’s clear that Wade was coached and media trained very well but unfortunately, there’s really no sidestepping the fact that Wade testified in Michael’s defense under oath in 2005. Either he was purposely lying then or he’s lying now. Regardless, it’s clear that he’s not an honest person.

If Wade hadn’t taken the stand, then maybe this might’ve held a bit more weight. But given Wade’s dire financial straits, this seems more like a desperate attempt to grab a piece of Michael’s fortune.

Baltimore police arrested a 31-year-old man who tried to pimp his teen wife out to an undercover cop for $100 at a hotel, which would have been a pretty common news story had the husband-pimp not been a Baltimore City cop himself.

The Maryland State Police Child Recovery Unit was reportedly working their normal proactive child prostitution/human trafficking operation last Thursday (May 9) when they came across a young-looking woman offering her services as an escort on a website known for prostitution, authorities said.

The cops responded to the ad and arranged a meeting. An undercover officer met with the woman from the ad, 19-year-old Marissa Braun, who called herself “Lexi,” at a hotel room near the Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport while Braun’s husband, Lamin Manneh, waited outside in the parking lot.

Police said they arrested Braun after she allegedly told the undercover cop “You give me the $100 and then you can (have sex) with me.”

She also told the undercover that she was working for her husband, who uses his credit cards to post the ads online, and also “drives her from date to date since she cannot drive.”

Police eventually found Manneh in the parking lot of the same hotel, and he admitted to police that he was indeed pimping his wife out and corroborated her story. Manneh was arrested and charged with human trafficking and prostitution, while Braun was charged with one count of prostitution.

Manneh was reportedly booked and released on his own recognizance, but authorities said that he would be suspended without pay pending an internal affairs investigation from the Baltimore City Police Department.

Manneh is said to be in a probationary period with the department, so his arrest will likely lead to dismissal.

A spokesman from the Baltimore City Police Department released the following statement from Deputy Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez:

“This allegation is a disgrace and embarrassment to every member — both current and retired — who serve with the Baltimore Police Department. The alleged actions and criminal charges brought against Mr. Manneh are serious and undermine the integrity and pride of this organization. We expect every member of this department to hold themselves to the highest of professional standards. Our colleagues and our community deserve nothing less.”

Baltimore City police have been in the news a lot lately for criminal activity. Early last week, a Baltimore cop killed his girlfriend and held a toddler hostage before he engaged in a standoff with the SWAT Team.

And just last month, a woman recently filed a million-dollar lawsuit against the Baltimore City Police Department on claims that she was assaulted by four officers when she tried to record them with her cell phone while they were allegedly assaulting a juvenile suspect.

All of which raises this burning question: What the f**k is going on with Baltimore police?!?

Florida man isn’t the only one causing trouble in The Sunshine State. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Florida WOMAN, and she’s just as dangerous/crazy as her male counterpart.

37-year-old Deborah Ann Burns, from Immokalee, Fla. — looking lovely as ever in her mugshot (right) — is accused of throwing an 8-inch-long kitchen knife at her boyfriend because he farted in her face. That nasty mofo.

According to the police, Burns told Collier County detectives that she and her boyfriend were watching TV last Tuesday night (May 7) when the boyfriend purposely passed gas right in her face while he walked by her on his way to the kitchen. An argument ensued and police were called.

When the police showed up responding to a report of a possible stabbing, they found the boyfriend in front of the house, with multiple cuts on his abdomen and left arm.

The victim told police that he and Burns were arguing in the kitchen over money and she threw a knife at him, left the house, but then came back and hit him in the arm with a stick.

The police report states that the victim made no mention of the alleged flatulence, but he “continually stated if [Burns] returned he would kick her ass,” naturally.

Burns’ side of the story, however, is a bit different. She told detectives that their argument had nothing to do with money, and her boyfriend had become loud and agitated after she confronted him about him farting in her face.

Following the incident, Burns was arrested and charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon — a felony. She remains in the county jail on a $50,000 bond.

According to The Smoking Gun, Burns is a convicted felon, and previously spent 21 months in state prison for aggravated assault with a weapon and battery on a law enforcement officer. It isn’t known whether or not he too farted in her face.

Although I wasn’t exactly a huge fan or avid viewer of the “Black In America” series that aired on CNN, I do salute Soledad O’Brien for telling white people to get over the fact that she dared to bring up racial issues and not worry as to whether or not it made them uncomfortable.

In a chat over at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Soledad noted that some folks have told her that the documentaries were “divisive” and that they think Black Americans should stop differentiating themselves from white Americans.

How cute. White people built this entire country off the backs of African slaves for centuries then proceeded to continue treating them as second class citizens under the law, yet they want us to stop thinking of ourselves as outside of your average American. This despite the widening socioeconomic disparities, lingering racism, and orchestrated targets to diffuse our voting rights and diversity initiatives. Why? Because, because, because…Obama! And some other nonsense you can insert here.

On that, Soledad said:

“First of all, it’s only white people who ever said that — ‘if we could just see beyond race. If only people didn’t see race, it would be such a better place, and you are responsible for bringing up these icky race issues, Soledad, you should just let sleeping dogs lie.’

I was like, again, ‘OK, white person, this is a conversation you clearly are uncomfortable with, and I have no problem seeing race, and I think we should talk about race.”

Damn right.

Soledad went on to explain:

“You know, white people really have a luxury in that they get a range of stories, that they’re not defined by five stories. So I think that the difference with ‘Black in America’ was the filter did matter. That there are only going to be five stories and we want to know exactly who you are and what your credentials are to be telling our story.”

Watch Soledad discuss the “issue” in the clip below:

[H/T: HuffPo]

Over the past year or so, it seems like Burger King has been copying and pasting the McDonald’s business model, but now they’re just getting desperate.

Beginning May 21st, USA Today reports, Burger King will begin selling its own version of the world famous McDonald’s McRib sandwich, called the “BK Rib Sandwich,” which is basically a carbon copy of the McRib, featuring a boneless pork product covered in a tangy barbecue sauce topped with “butter bread” and “sweet pickles.”

Our guests have grown to look for a variety of options,” said Eric Hirschhorn, BK’s vice president of global innovation. “It’s not just about beef anymore, but other proteins like chicken and turkey and pork.”

Whatever dude. Just keep copying McDonald’s. It seems to be working.

Meanwhile, McDonald’s is all “F**k that. we ball.”

Mickey Dee’s Spokeswoman Danya Proud said in a statement, “We know our customers love McRib and we won’t disappoint them.” Proud said that the McRib is “returning,” though she declined to say exactly when.

On Monday, Barbara Walters announced on her show “The View” that she’ll be retiring from television in 2014. During the 83-year-old’s remarkable broadcast career, which began in 1976, she has interviewed numerous high profile figures. From political leaders to pop culture phenomenons, here’s a look back at five of her most controversial interviews.

5. Hugo Chavez

In 2007, Barbara Walters became the first American to interview Hugo Chavez following his statement that President George W. Bush was “the devil.”

Walters asked Chavez about the poor opinion the U.S. has of him and why he called the American president, among many names, a “coward” a “donkey,” and a “murderer.”

Chavez (via a translator) asked if his name calling could possibly be more damaging than the actions undertaken by President Bush. He also called the President a “political corpse” and said that he would “never” invite him to Venezuela.

Surprisingly, she was able to get Chavez to open up about his personal life.

4. Bashar al-Assad

In 2011, Walters sat down with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and remarkably, no topic was off-limits.

At the time, the leader had reportedly ordered a brutal crackdown against those that believed he should resign. During the interview, Walters showed footage of civilians being viciously gunned down, including children. Al-Assad pleaded ignorance to the killings, asking for “evidence,” which existed in the form of countless videos and photos taken by citizens.

When Walters brought this up, he claimed that those outside of Syria, couldn’t possibly know what has going on within the country’s borders. He also brushed off the UN’s report that accused him of “crimes against humanity.”

3. Fidel Castro

In 1977, Walters conducted the first American TV interview with Cuban President Fidel Castro. Remarkably, the five-hour interview was shown on Cuban TV, with only minor alterations.

The two sparred over issues such as Freedom of the press and 25 years later, they resumed their discussion about the Cuban media, much to Castro’s dismay. The interview became quite heated when they discussed the dismissal of The Varela Project in the country and whether or not socialism is an effective economic system.

2. Monica Lewinsky

In 1999, Walters conducted an emotional interview with Monica Lewinsky for “20/20.” Viewed by 74 million, it remains the most watched interviews in TV history.

The two addressed the questionable conduct of her lawyer Bill Ginsberg, her feelings towards Linda Tripp, the “blue dress” and the moment she “fell out of love” with Bill Clinton.

Walters also played footage of Clinton’s infamous denial that his relationship with Lewinsky was of a sexual nature. “I think he could have taken a higher road in his denial,” Lewinsky said.

1. Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin

Another 1977 milestone involving Walters included her interview with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Sadat was the first Arab leader to visit Israel officially and the journalist conducted an unprecedented discussion with the two leaders.

Unfortunately, the historic moment is nowhere to be found on the web but Walters told the fascinating story behind the interview for the “Archive of American Television.”

There’s a reason why some people only vacation as south of the border as Houston, Texas. No shade to our Mexican readers, but y’all know some of your folks love to target tourists. Sadly, the most recent victim was the grandson of the great Malcolm X.  Representatives close to the family confirmed that Malcolm Shabazz, who was 28, was killed Thursday morning in Mexico City.

Labor activist Miguel Suarez told the AP that “he was with Shabazz when his friend was beaten up during a dispute over a bill at a Mexico City bar.”

According to Suarez, the owner demanded they pay a $1200 bill. A fight ensued and Suarez claims he found Shabazz injured outside of the bar. He was taken to the hospital where he died.

Shabazz was the son of Qubilah Shabazz, one of six daughters of Malcolm X and wife Betty Shabazz. In 1997, Malcolm, then 12, reportedly set fire to the home of his grandmother Betty Shabazz, who ultimately died of severe burns.

Malcolm served four years in juvenile detention and later expressed regret for his actions, telling the New York Times, ”I just wanted her to know I was sorry and I wanted to know she accepted my apology, that I didn’t mean it. But I would get no response, and I really wanted that response.”

Malcolm would go on to face other legal trouble, though more recently revealed plans of writing a memoir and attending John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

His family released the following statement:

“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved El Hajj Malcolm El Shabazz. To all who knew him, he offered kindness, encouragement and hope for a better tomorrow. Although his bright light and boundless potential are gone from this life, we are grateful that he now rests in peace in the arms of his grandparents and the safety of God. We will miss him.”

On Thursday’s episode of “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart pointed out something that has been obvious for quite some time … Nancy Grace gets off on gruesome murder trials.

“Nobody slurps each lurid detail like it was a perverse joy, like they were an engorged tragedy tick — wait a minute, is that Nancy Grace?” Stewart said. Stewart also added that Grace, “draws youth and vitality from human tragedy.”

While most people have now heard of Jodi Arias, the victim’s name seldom makes headlines. In June 2008, Travis Alexander was found brutally murdered in his bathroom. Police determined that he had been shot and viciously stabbed multiple times.

Arias lied repeatedly about what happened to Alexander. First she claimed that she was not anywhere near the his house the night he died. But police found a camera containing photos of the two together that were taken on the date Alexander was killed.

Shockingly, some of the photos appeared to have been taken during the murder.

After she was caught, Arias said she witnessed two intruders stab him but that she was able to escape (but not before grabbing her purse, we may add). Arias drove away and went to her lover’s house. She didn’t call the police and didn’t tell anyone what happened.

One of two things was obvious at this point. Either Arias hated her ex so much that she watched him get stabbed and left him bleeding on the floor never to look back, or she’s a total fucking liar.

The latter seemed to be correct when she changed her story yet again — claiming that she in fact stabbed Alexander but only because he was abusing her. That totally makes sense because everyone knows that the only way to stop someone from hurting you is to stab them roughly 27 times (the number of times Alexander is believed to have been stabbed) and then shoot them (some investigators have determined that Travis was dead by the time he was shot).

We’re no crime experts, but we’re going to assume that it takes about one, maybe two stabs to let someone know to step off.

On Wednesday (May 8), a jury found her guilty (surprise!) of first-degree murder. Sadly, Arias (probably false claims) could have a hand in discrediting women who have really been abused and are forced to kill in order to defend themselves.

Angie Gress, the daughter of Ariel Castro, who kidnapped and held captive three young women, says she has severed ties with her father.

“He is dead to me,” Gress said of Castro, who reportedly beat and raped the girls, in an interview with CNN.

She also added that she knew nothing of the shocking activity that was taking place in her childhood home.

“There will be no visits; there will be no phone calls,” she said. “He can never be Daddy again. I have no sympathy for the man.”

“I wonder this whole time, how he could be so good to us, but he took young women, little girls, someone else’s babies, away from these families and over the years never felt enough guilt to just give up and let them free.”

Gregg added that she “feels so much sorrow” for the girls.

All three women disappeared around the same time in roughly the same location in Southwest, Cleveland about ten years ago.

In 2002, Michelle Knight, 20, became the first young woman to be captured. The following year, Amanda Berry was abducted at the age of 17. In 2004, Georgina DeJesus was kidnapped at just 14-years-old.

Remarkably, the house were they were kept was barely three miles from where they went missing. However, the house had been so quiet that some believed no one lived there.

Though a few neighbors have now spoken about strange occurrences in the house — like a little girl peering from an upstairs window, and sealed up windows — few inquires as to what was going on in the house were made.

It has been disputed whether or not police adequately investigated calls regarding the mysterious house.

Berry gave birth to Castro’s daughter six years ago.

If you haven’t heard already, famous choreographer Wade Robson is reportedly suing and seeking monetary damages from the estate of Michael Jackson, claiming that he was molested by the late Pop icon when he was a child.

According to TMZ, Wade’s lawyer filed the actual complaint under seal, preventing its contents from being made available to the public, but their sources say that it “specifically outlines the alleged abuse at the hands of Michael Jackson.” The lawsuit is also said to mention a “leading” psychiatrist who treated Wade.

Robson, who is now 30 years old, met Michael when he was five, and the two developed a “friendship” that lasted for nearly 10 years until Wade was 14 years old.

Wade says by the time he was seven, he was going for sleepovers at Jackson’s famous Neverland Ranch home in Santa Barbara, Calif., as well as the singer’s homes in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. During that time is when the alleged molestations occurred.

If you’re wondering “why now?” keep reading. The story gets even more “interesting” from here.

Apparently, Robson had a total mental breakdown in March 2012 that pushed him into complete seclusion and ruined his career.

According to Robson’s friends and family, he was unable to fulfill his work commitments and ended up breaching a number of contracts, including a deal he had to write three songs. They say he lost “a ton of money” and hasn’t earned hardly anything since.

After his breakdown, Robson went to a psychotherapist over the course of several weeks and that’s when the “floodgates” opened. That was when he told his family that he had been molested by Michael Jackson between the ages of 7 and 14.

Robson’s attorney, Henry Gradstein reiterated to TMZ that Michael Jackson was a “monster who sexually abused Wade for seven years as a child and threatened him if he ever went public.”

Gradstein said:

“Last year, on a career trajectory that was off the charts, he [Wade] collapsed under the stress and sexual trauma of what had happened to him for seven years as a child. [Wade] lived with the brain washing by a sexual predator until the burden of it all crushed him.”

…Michael would tell Wade, “If anyone ever finds out about what we did we will go to jail for the rest of our lives” and “our lives will be ruined forever.”

…the threats worked, and Wade kept his mouth shut, adding, “This kind of intimidation of a child by a sexual predator is tragically characteristic and effective, keeping them quiet about the abuse – often for a lifetime.”

…”Michael Jackson was a monster and in their hearts every normal person knows it.”

This is where the “interesting” part comes in. Wade actually DEFENDED Michael Jackson and actually DENIED being molested by the icon in 2005 during the singer’s infamous second child molestation case, when Jackson’s former housekeeper Blanca Francia testified that she witnessed Jackson in the shower with Wade when he was 8 or 9 years old.

Wade, who also testified in defense of Jackson during his 1993 trial, explained the reason why he took so long to file the molestation allegations, saying that he “repressed” the memories for two decades.

Wade’s lawyer says Wade hasn’t asked for a specific amount of money from Jackson’s estate, which is currently embroiled in a wrongful death lawsuit worth $40 billion against AEG, and he’s making it clear that “the Jackson money machine” — as he calls it — won’t be able to “keep the truth from coming out.”

Wade’s attorneys are also making it clear that the lawsuit isn’t about money, as Wade has “substantial savings.”

As for lawyers for the Jackson estate, they are denying the allegations, saying that they are “outrageous and pathetic.”

James Holmes, the man accused of being responsible for the Dark Knight Massacre, will pursue a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict when his case goes to trial this month.

“Mr. Holmes intends to tender a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity,” attorneys for Holmes said in a court document filed on Tuesday.

Of course he’s mentally insane. He shot up a movie theater, killing adults and young children. It’s just a question of whether or not he should be executed or given life in prison.

Last year on July 20, Holmes is believed to have shot and killed 12 people and injured 70 during a midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Colorado.

Mass shooters of this caliber often take their own lives at the end of their killing sprees and seldom face rotting in prison afterwards, so a trial like this one isn’t too common.

In March, Judge William Sylvester denied Holmes’ attorney’s request for more time to build an insanity defense and enter a plea of not guilty on his behalf.

It April, the Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler announced that the prosecution is seeking the death penalty for the 25-year-old.

“In this case, for James Egan Holmes, justice is death,” George said.

He faces 24 counts of first-degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder. Holmes will also face charges for having explosive devices.

[NBC]

Whatever you do today, if you haven’t already, make sure you watch this video. All four minutes of it.

Meet Ronald Davis — a man from Chicago who fell on rough times a couple of years ago, and ended up homeless and living on the streets. A couple of weeks ago, an interview Davis did in 2012 went viral on Reddit, then got picked up by Gawker, then Huffington Post, and it continued to spread from there.

In the 4-minute clip, Davis talks about the trials and tribulations of living as a homeless man in Chicago, explaining how it’s hard for him to get a job without a phone, but then it’s also hard to get a phone without a job, which truly puts things in perspective and gives you (the viewer) something to think about.

“I start out my mornings about six o’clock… It’s really humiliating to be shaking a cup 24 hours a day, and people just look at you’re like some kind of little bum… I’ve had people walk past me and say, ‘Get a job bum!’ I’m not a bum. I’m a human being,” he said, fighting back tears.

He continued, “At the end of the day, when people go home, and everybody gets on the metro train, I just feel so bad that I can’t be going home… It’s real emotional because I’m really trying to get myself together and get off this street… You just lose all humility when you’re shaking a cup begging.”

He added:

“You can look at a person and tell if they’re giving you respect or not. A lot of people look at you like you’re a piece of crumb … I had one guy walk past me, and he talked about me so bad, and I just looked at him, and I said ‘God bless you sir.’ He walked past me, went down the street and came right back, and he said, ‘You know what man? I had a bad day, I’m sorry for even [talking about you] like that, because I know you’re a human being. He said, ‘Would you accept my apology?’ I said ‘Apology accepted.’ He went in his pocket and gave me 30 bucks and said, ‘Go get you a room and get you something to eat. No matter what people think about me, I know I’m a human first. And just ’cause I’m down on my luck don’t give nobody no excuse to call me no bum. Because I’m not.“

Ronald Davis’ heartbreaking interview reportedly inspired a PBS series on social policy called “Big Questions,” which according to PBS is a “Part documentary, part talk-show” that “draws you into some major issues facing the world today, and many episodes offer piece-meal solutions.”

After the interview went viral on Reddit last month, the users on the Internet community came together and set up a fund for Davis, which has so far raised close to $8,000 from over 300 donations, with more than 50 days left to raise more.

“God Bless you Mr Ronald Davis and thank you for courage and inspiration. You are a gift and more than a “human being”. You are a great man of strength and humility and your honesty and heart has awakened compassion for those less fortunate in the hearts of many. Thank you. I humbly salute you,” wrote one anonymous donor, who gave $1,000.

It just so happened that the day after the video went viral was “National Pay It Forward Day” (Apr 25), but one Redditor took it upon himself to go out and find Davis a day early.

23-year-old Manny Huismann, who goes by the name “EuroDucky” on Reddit, eventually tracked down Davis (pictured here to the right) and was able to personally deliver a care package to him of snack foods that included fruit, warm waffles and blueberry muffins, Arizona sweet tea, a bar of German chocolate and more.

From the Huffington Post:

Curious as to how Huismann knew Davis and was able to spot him in a crowd, Davis’ friend pressed the do-gooder for details, which Huismann said prompted Davis to tell the story of being filmed last year as part of an assignment from a media ethics course at DePaul University.

Huismann told Davis of the response his story was generating and told HuffPost, “We as a community wanted to let him know that he is human, and that we care.” Huismann said he didn’t linger with Davis and his friend after handing off the care package:

“After that I just left to continue to explore downtown with a feeling of — I don’t know how to describe it — just that there’s still good in the world out there.”

Most people avoid looking pan-handlers in the eye and ignore their presence, but hearing Ronald Davis’ story should make you wonder: “Am I being an asshole?” As one Redditor noted:

I am one of those people who avoids eye contact with pan-handlers and this video has made me realize what an asshole I am. If other people who pass by this guy daily see this he is surely going to get a lot more hello’s.

According to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, there were more than 105,000 homeless people in Chicago in 2012, at least 12% more than the 94,000 who were homeless the year before.

Click Here if you would like to contribute to the fund to help Ronald Davis get back on his feet.

UPDATE: Apparently there are TWO separate funds set up to help Ronald Davis. The other one is here.

Mountain Dew‘s parent company PepsiCo has announced that they are pulling an offensive commercial advertisement that has sparked a ton of outrage online from viewers who feel as though the ad is racist.

Pepsi released the following statement:

“We understand how this video could be perceived by some as offensive, and we apologize to those who were offended. We have removed the video from all Mountain Dew channels and have been informed that Tyler is removing it from his channels as well.”

The 60-second spot, which was created by controversial Hip Hop artist Tyler the Creator, shows a battered woman on crutches who is asked to pick her assailant out of a police lineup of five black guys (one named Beyonte?) and a crazy goat named Felicia.

The five black guys are members of Tyler the Creator’s music group Odd Future, and that particular ad is one of several commercials devised by the rapper.

In the commercial, Felicia the goat — in a male voice — taunts the battered woman, using phrases like “You betta not snitch on a playa!”, “Snitches get stitches, fool!” and “Keep your mouth shut!” In all honesty, it’s really stupid and not even in the least bit funny. I think “pointless” is the real word we’re looking for here.

Your Black World‘s Dr. Boyce Watkins had this to say about the ad, which he considers to be “arguably the most racist commercial in history”:

In the world of Mountain Dew, every single suspect is black Not just regular black people, but the kinds of ratchety negroes you might find in the middle of any hip-hop minstrel show: Gold teeth, “mean mugging,” sun glasses wearing, white-t sportin, hard core n*ggaz ready to “get into some ol gangsta sh*t.” Apparently, this is the kind of ad you put out if you want to appeal to the black male demographic.

In response to the controversy, Odd Future’s manager released a statement via Tumblr. Read an excerpt below:

It was never Tyler’s intention to offend however, offense is personal and valid to anyone who is offended. Out of respect to those that were offended and the ad was taken down. For those who know and respect Tyler he is known for pushing boundaries and challenging stereotypes thru humor. This is someone who grew up on David Chappelle. This situation is layered with context and is a discussion that Tyler would love to address in the right forum as he does have a point of view. As someone who hasn’t had the experience of being discriminated against I choose to respect the opinion of those who have… what I can speak to is Tyler who represents much more than the current narrative this story suggests. Contrary to what many may discern from this Tyler is the embodiment of not judging others, his delivery may not be for everyone (which is true for anyone who pushes boundaries) but his voice is nonetheless important to the conversation since his demographic understands what he ultimately stands for and sees the irony of it all.

With members of law enforcement on high alert for potential terrorists, the public has been reminded who the real dangerous individuals are … high school girls who are into science.

Miami News Times is reporting that Kiera Wilmot, a student at Miami’s Bartow High School, was expelled from school and is facing criminal charges, after a science experiment she was conducting exploded.

The incident has generated widespread attention and is shaking up the blogosphere.

The so-called “crime” occurred on Monday (Apr 29) when the 16-year-old mixed common household chemicals into a water bottle to see what would happen. The mixture of random chemicals apparently caused the cap on the bottle to fly off and some smoke appeared, but no one was hurt.

In a statement, the principal of the school said that Wilmot simply made a bad decision.

“She made a bad choice. Honestly, I don’t think she meant to ever hurt anyone,” principal Ron Pritchard told the station. “She wanted to see what would happen [when the chemicals mixed] and was shocked by what it did. Her mother is shocked, too.”

Unfortunately, police saw the situational differently. The teen has been charged with “possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device.”

Those words carry a whole lot of weight these days, when on-campus violence is not only prevalent but has manifested in horrific ways. It’s likely that Wilmot’s future is in jeopardy, since she has been expelled from school and will now have to complete her diploma through an expulsion program.

We’re guessing that’s not going to look too great on a college application. Not to mention getting a job is also going to be a challenge, considering one has to inform potential employers if they have ever been convicted of a crime.

Thankfully, the school district is fighting for her and won’t let her suffer for the rest of her life for what was a harmless act.

Oh wait, no … they actually support the girl being punished as if she were a dangerous, life-threatening criminal. Go figure.

The district said in a statement:

“Anytime a student makes a bad choice it is disappointing to us. Unfortunately, the incident that occurred at Bartow High School yesterday was a serious breach of conduct. In order to maintain a safe and orderly learning environment, we simply must uphold our code of conduct rules. We urge our parents to join us in conveying the message that there are consequences to actions. We will not compromise the safety and security of our students and staff.”

You would think that all of the attention that the case has gotten would force authorities and the school to take their hardcore punishment down a notch, but nope. The Polk County School District tell Miami News Times that kids should learn “there are consequences to their actions.”

Where is that criminal sensitive CNN coverage when you really need it?

[Miami News Times, WTSP]

According to police in Cumberland County, Kentucky, a 5-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his 2-year-old sister Tuesday afternoon (Apr 30) with a gun that was given to the boy as a gift last summer.

“It’s a Crickett,” Cumberland County Coroner Gary White said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. “It’s a little rifle for a kid … The little boy’s used to shooting the little gun. Just one of those crazy accidents.”

The children’s mother was reportedly home at the time of the shooting, but had stepped out on the front porch for a few minutes. That’s when “she heard the gun go off,” White said.

The gun, a .22-caliber youth-model rifle called a “Crickett,” or “My First Rifle,” (a pink version for girls is pictured above) was kept in a corner and the family didn’t realize a bullet was left inside, White said. Police said the shooting happened when the boy was “playing” with the rifle, but didn’t elaborate further in their report.

The little girl, identified as Caroline Starks, was rushed to Cumberland County Hospital where she was later pronounced dead. Her death will be ruled accidental.

Amid the national debate on gun control laws, White had this to say:

“Down in Kentucky where we’re from, you know, guns are passed down from generation to generation. You start at a young age with guns for hunting and everything,” White said Wednesday. What is more unusual than a child having a gun, he said, is “that a kid would get shot with it.”

“Accidents happen with guns. They thought the gun was actually unloaded, and it wasn’t,” the coroner said.

Sadly, this marks at least the third incident in the past month in which a young child has accidentally shot someone, Gawker notes.

In Early April, a four-year-old mistakenly fired upon a deputy’s wife, killing her instantly.

The next day, a young mother was hospitalized after her two-year-old son shot her in the stomach with a Glock 9 mm he apparently found hidden underneath a pillow.

Then, a couple of days later, a six-year-old boy was shot in the head by a four-year-old. He was rushed to the hospital where he died the next day.

“Florida man“ strikes again!

Apparently confusing 911 for a “Kool-Aid, burgers and weed” delivery service, a man from Florida thought to dial the emergency number — not just once, or twice, or even ten times, but 80 TIMES — to request those three things, and now he’s in jail for it. Stupid Florida Man.

According to the police affidavit, obtained by the Tampa Bay Times, 34-year-old Jarvis Sutton of St. Petersburg, Fla. called 911 on Sunday (Apr 28) “approximately 80 times” because he wanted “Kool-Aid, burgers and weed to be delivered to him.”

Somethin’ to smoke on. Somethin’ to snack on. Then somethin’ to sip on. This guy wanted it all.

Sutton never got any of those things, of course, but what he did get was a nice trip down to the Pinellas County Jail. Police said on the way there, Sutton started chewing on the foam attached to the metal caging in the back of the police cruiser.

Sutton faces a charge of misusing 911, and was reportedly still in jail as of Wednesday, May 1st … even though his bail is only $150.

Mugshot via WTSP

An 80-year-old woman from Florida was left embarrassed after she accidentally a REAL diamond worth $5,000 at a charity event in Tampa, Florida.

According to USA Today (via Newser), the octogenarian attended a fashion show fundraiser in Tampa on Saturday (Apr 27), and purchased a $20 flute of champagne with a small, but potentially very valuable, prize inside.

Of the 400 glasses, 399 contained a measly $10 cubic zirconia, and 1 lucky glass held the $5,000 diamond. Miriam Tucker had that lucky glass … but the only problem was that she accidentally swallowed the diamond.

“I thought I’d drink a bit of champagne so I didn’t have to stick my finger so far into the glass,” Tucker tells the Tampa Bay Times. “We were laughing and talking when I realized I swallowed it.”

Embarrassed, and assuming she’d only ingested cubic zirconia, Tucker stayed quiet and waited for the winner’s excited scream. None came, and jewelers with probes and a loupe could not find the winner, so Tucker was finally forced to admit what happened.

She already had the colonoscopy scheduled, so she warned her doctor what he might find; he did indeed locate the missing diamond, which was sent to the jewelry store in a biohazard bag, cleaned, and returned to Tucker.

Yikes … Talk about a diamond in the rough!

Forget deadly cab drivers, crazy people on the subway, and falling cranes. The Big Apple now has horrifying fish! As if New Yorkers didn’t already have to face 1,000 possible ways to be freaked out during any given day.

NBC NY is reporting that environmental officials will search a Central Park lake this week because it is believed that the snakehead fish, native to China, North Korea and Russia, may be lurking in a man-made marsh.

Signs around the Harlem Meer warn that anyone who sees the fish, nicknamed Fishzilla, should “secure” it and “keep it in a secure container until it is picked up by officials.”

Sorry, but only a crazy person would “secure” one of these things and put it into a giant container. Honestly, the best thing to do would be to KILL IT WITH FIRE. IMMEDIATELY.

But anyway, here are five reasons to avoid what seems like something out of a B horror movie.

1. They can survive on land for days (DAYS!) because they BREATHE FREAKIN’ AIR (LIKE LAND ANIMALS!)

Thought that fish only lived under water? Well apparently you’ve been misled your whole life, and you should hold every science teacher that has been in  your life accountable. The snakehead fish can live out of water for up to four days. Can you say “yikes?”

2. Their slimy little fish bodies can crawl

That’s right, these creepy creatures — who can grow up to three feet long — can use their fins to slither on land and get to water. Oh yeah, and they climb trees too. Are you scared yet? No? Well, you should be.

3. They look like this

4. This National Geographic video of them exists

5. And, did we mention that they LOOK LIKE THIS?!?

Anything that has been dubbed “Frankenfish” simply can’t be good. But in all fairness, there have been no ACTUAL sightings of this thing … yet (at least from people who aren’t looking for them).

Honestly, this could be one of the many ways the media scares the hell out of people. Still, these things are pretty damn freaky!

A young mom from Michigan disappeared from the gas station where she worked on Friday night and police suspect she was abducted.

According to Huff Post Crime, 25-year-old Jessica Heeringa went missing just before she was set to close up the Norton Shores Exxon Mobil.

Heeringa, the mother of a 3-year-old child, reportedly made her last customer transaction at 11 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, police received a call from a customer who informed them that the gas station was vacant but still open.

ABC News reports that police suspect foul play and they are on the lookout for a silver minivan that might be connected to the mysterious incident.

Investigators have indicated that robbery was not a motive in the crime, since Heeringa’s belongings were found at the scene and no money was taken from the register.

Heeringa’s mother, Shelly, told Michigan Live that she believes someone her daughter had seen before at the gas station “lured [her] out back and shoved her in the back of [a] van.”

Local Michigan news station WOOD TV has released this description of the woman to aid in her search:

Jessica is a 25-year-old female, 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighing about 110 pounds, and has blonde, shoulder-length hair, blue eyes and wears wire-rimmed glasses. She may be wearing a blue-collared shirt that says Sternberg Exxon.

The case is eerily similar to a  couple of other mysterious incidents.

For instance, in 1999 case in a 19-year-old Minnesota woman named Kathlyn Poirier was kidnapped from the gas station where she worked and was later murdered.

And in 1990, a woman named Deborah Poe vanished while working the graveyard shift at a gas station in Orlando, Florida. Her possessions and the store’s register were left untouched. To this date, she has never been found.

Anyone with information on Heeringa’s disappearance is asked to call, Silent Observer at 231-72-CRIME (231-722-7463).

[HuffPost, Unsolved Mysteries, Minnesota Public Radio]

A 22-year-old South Carolina man was arrested and charged with sexual battery of a student Wednesday night (Apr 24) after the police were tipped off about an inappropriate relationship he was having with a 17-year-old high school student, which is pretty bad already.

But then it gets a bit worse, as the man was also charged for having sex with another student at the same school, this one aged only 15.

William Jesse Baber, of North Charleston, S.C. was a substitute teacher for South Carolina’s Dorchester District 2.

According to court documents, the man developed a relationship of sexual nature with two students at Ashley Ridge High School between last December and the time he was arrested.

The police affidavit states that Baber met the 17-year-old while he was a substitute teacher for one of her classes.

As for the 15-year-old, though it wasn’t explicitly stated whether or not he was a sub for any of her classes, Baber communicated with her through “numerous Facebook messages” in which he would ask her when and where they could meet with the intent of performing “a sexual activity.”

Investigators said the incidents with the 15-year-old started in late January. Baber was charged with solicitation of a minor in connection with that case. He could face up to 10-15 years in prison if he’s convicted in both cases. His bond has been set at $70,000.

A spokesperson for the local school district said that Baber’s name has since been removed from their database of substitute teachers, and he has also been served with a trespassing notice barring him from setting foot on ANY school district property.

It isn’t clear where the alleged incidents took place, but Baber had reportedly been subbing for the entire district since last November.

If you didn’t know any better, you might say that Mr. Baber took on the subbing job just so he could fuck high school girls. Because he clearly wasn’t there to help anybody with their Spanish vocabulary or pass along insights on the history of the Civil War.

[WCSC, Mugshot via: Post Courier]

A man from Michigan recently found out he was facing up to 15 years in prison after he was convicted of raping with two of his pet dogs on two separate occasions. The same (unfortunate) person caught him both times.

According to Michigan Live News, 37-year-old Kurtis Peterson, a convicted sex offender, was first caught “penetrating” one of his dogs — a bluee heeler — by a woman named Joyce Yeaw at his apartment in Muskegon, Mich. on his bed in April 2012.

At the time, Peterson told her he was “just hugging his dog.” (Right…) But he was busted again by Joyce just two months later when she was returning keys she borrowed from his roommate, and she walked in on him having sex with his pit bull.

Las Vegas Woman Caught Having Sex with Pit Bull in Her Backyard in Broad Daylight

This time she called the cops (honestly she should have called them the first time…) and Peterson was arrested. Yeaw said, “He was having sex with the dog, it was disgusting.”

Kurtis Peterson’s mugshot

When Peterson was questioned by police, he claimed he was “just playing with the dog” in the April incident, but he became “sexually aroused from accidental contact from the animal’s rear,” which led to the later assault.

It isn’t known whether Peterson sexually assaulted his pets on other occasions, but he was convicted of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct in 1996 in another Michigan county, so yeah … he probably did. The sick bastard.

Back in March, Peterson pleaded no contest to “the abominable and detestable crime against nature,” also known as sodomy or bestiality, and on Monday (Apr 22), he was handed a one to fifteen year prison term by 14th Circuit Judge Timothy Hicks.

Judge Hicks said that he went above and beyond state guidelines in his ruling because “I fear for what he might do in the community,” and also, Peterson hasn’t been adjusting well to life in jail.

Hicks said since Peterson’s been in jail, “there have been many complaints of unwanted and inappropriate touching,” which literally proves his point.

Meet your new $100 bill!

The Federal Reserve has finally unveiled the first images of the newly redesigned $100 bill, which is scheduled to go into circulation starting in October — more than two years after its initial February 2011 release date.

Uncle Sam has been working on the new $100 bill since 2003, and it’s taken so long for it to reach this point because it’s loaded with a ton of high-tech features that no one other than counterfeiters care about — like a blue 3-D security ribbon on the front that moves when the note is tilted in any direction, and an image of a color-changing gold inkwell (it changes to green when tilted), making it damn near impossible to successfully duplicate. Sorry counterfeiters!

Other features include (via The Week):

1. A blue, three-dimensional security ribbon that’s woven — not printed — into the note’s fabric.

2. Another security strip to the left of Ben’s face. It’s only visible when held up to the light.

3. A faint image of Ben’s face in the black space on the right, which can be seen on both sides of the bill.

4. Alternating images of bells and the number 100 that change as the viewing angle is tilted.

5. A liberty bell inside an inkwell that changes from copper to green when tilted.

6. A large “100″ on the front that also changes color when tilted.

7. An even larger “100″ vertically positioned on the back to help those with visual impairments identify the currency.

8. Raised “intaglio” printing throughout the bill to give the note its “distinctive texture.”

9. Microprinting reading “The United States of America” on Ben’s collar, “USA 100″ on the watermark, and “ONE HUNDRED USA” along the golden quill.

This is only the fourth time the $100 bill has been redesigned, with the last three revamps occurring within the past 20 years alone due to the Feds having to react quickly to improved counterfeiting technology.

As far as all of those old $100 bills are concerned … the billions of notes already in circulation will remain legal, The Week reports, but starting on October 8th, when the new ones go into circulation, the old ones will be destroyed and replaced when they reach the Feds.

Contrary to previous reports, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect has begun to respond to questions from investigators as of Sunday, April 21st.

Early Sunday it was reported that 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — who along with his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev killed three people and injured more than 180 others at the Boston Marathon last Monday (Apr 15) — had suffered traumatic injuries so bad before his arrest on Friday night that he would be unable to successfully communicate with investigators.

26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed after he and his brother got involved in a shoot-out with police early Friday morning.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev pictured here in an undated photo

Tamerlan was reportedly run over by an SUV being driven by his younger brother as he was being arrested by police. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he died. An extremely graphic photo showing his injuries and the extent of damage that was done to his body has been floating around the Internet all weekend.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — who initially escaped arrest and was on the run — is alive, but in critical condition. Investigators believe that that the teen attempted suicide before he was captured, as evidenced by a serious gunshot wound to the throat that has prevented him from speaking to anyone.

Boston mayor Tom Menino had said that Dzhokhar’s injuries were so severe that federal agents would never be able to properly interrogate him. “We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to question the individual,” he said.

But as of late Sunday, nearly 48 hours after he was taken in to custody following an intense manhunt last week and subsequent gun battle that resulted in the death of his brother, federal officials were saying that Dzhokhar has been communicating with them, responding to questions in writing due to his throat wound.

Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the scene of the Boston Marathon bombing in a picture released by the FBI.

Law enforcement sources have said that they are putting the final touches on charges against Tsarnaev and will announce them today (Mon, Apr 22).

More details about the Thursday night car chase that ended in Dzhokar’s brother Tamerlan’s death and later, Dzhokar’s arrest, emerged over the weekend.

The brothers hurled a pressure-cooker bomb similar to the two that went off at the marathon during the firefight, Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau said on Saturday. The men were in two cars when confronted by a lone police officer, Deveau said, and later threw four grenade-like explosives at pursuing officers.

NBC News contacted the driver of an SUV who allegedly was carjacked by the brothers hours before the shootout. The driver, who asked that his identity not be revealed, said he escaped after the brothers drove his car to a gas station in Watertown. He described them as “brutal and cautious.”

Also on Sunday, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said that surveillance video clearly puts Tsarnaev at the scene of the attack, acting suspiciously.

“It does seem to be pretty clear that this suspect took the backpack off, put it down, did not react when the first explosion went off and then moved away from the backpack in time for the second explosion,” Patrick said on “Meet the Press.” “It’s pretty clear about his involvement and pretty chilling, frankly.”

Patrick noted that while he had not personally viewed the video recordings, he was briefed by law enforcement on their contents.

Still, much remains unknown about what drove the Tsarnaev brothers to violence, though investigators believe that Tamerlan may have taken a trip to Russia in 2012 under an alias, and that trip may have been when he “got that final radicalization to push him to commit acts of violence and where he may have received training,” said Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense, said he hasn’t seen evidence to link the bombings to any terrorist groups, and declined to speculate on whether or not Tsarnaev could be sent to Guantanamo Bay if he recovers from his injuries.

“We just don’t have the facts, and until we get the facts, then it will be the responsibility of law enforcement, DOJ, and other institutions to make some determination as to how that individual should be treated, detained, charged, and all that goes with it,” Hagel said. “But right now we just don’t know enough about it.”

A fertilizer plant explosion in the small town of Waco, Texas last night (Wed, Apr 17) killed about 15 people and injured more than 160. Early Thursday morning rescue workers searched the rubble for any possible survivors after the explosion left many homes and business ruined as many of them caught on fire.

According to the Associated Press, the explosion erupted like an earthquake, shaking the ground, and could be heard/felt from 45 miles away.

“They are still getting injured folks out and they are evacuating people from their homes,” Waco police Sgt. William Patrick Swanton said early Thursday morning. He continued, “At some point this will turn into a recovery operation, but at this point, we are still in search and rescue.”

With the recent Boston Marathon bombing, which is being viewed as a terrorist attack, the explosion in Texas had many wondering whether this was this strike two on the United States in such a short period of time, but according to Swanton there isn’t any indication that the blast was anything other than an industrial accident.

Among those that died were three to five volunteer firefighters and a law enforcement officer. It’s still to early to determine just how many lives were lost as the rescue workers are still searching.

The AP reported that the explosion that struck around 8 p.m. leveled a four-block area around the plant that a member of the city council, Al Vanek, said was “totally decimated.” The toll included 50 to 75 houses, an apartment complex with about 50 units that one state police officer said was reduced to “a skeleton,” a middle school and the West Rest Haven Nursing Home, from which first-responders evacuated 133 patients, some in wheelchairs.

McLennan County Sheriff Parnell McNamara told the Chicago Tribune: “I’ve never seen anything like this … It looks like a war zone with all the debris.”

Julie Zahirniako, who survived the explosion said she and her son Anthony were playing at a school playground near the fertilizer plant when the explosion hit. She said as she was walking and her son was kicking a football, the explosion threw her son four feet in the air, breaking his ribs.

“Hit the ground, hit the ground!” Zahirniako said she heard a neighbor yell. “The fire was so high,” she said. “It was just as loud as it could be. The ground and everything was shaking.”

In a statement released Thursday morning, President Obama thanked first responders in the “tight-knit” Texas community.

“I want to thank the first responders who worked tirelessly through the night to contain the situation and treat the wounded,” the statement read. “My Administration, through FEMA and other agencies, is in close contact with our state and local partners on the ground to make sure there are no unmet needs as search and rescue and response operations continue. West is a town that many Texans hold near and dear to their hearts, and as residents continue to respond to this tragedy, they will have the support of the American people.”

PHOTOS OF THE BLAST AND ITS AFTERMATH:

Well this is an interesting dilemma: Is it worse to be considered a child molester or a racist? One Texas teacher opted to out herself as the latter to avoid being pegged as the former.

Esther Irene Stokes, 61, was charged with inappropriately touching a 6-year-old girl at the Northwest Preparatory Academy Charter School in Humble, Texas.

“The victim said that she was in the classroom alone with the teacher and that the teacher touched her on the outside of her clothes, on what she called her ‘private part,’ her vaginal area,” a detective told KHOU.

The whole incident came to light when the girl’s mother was watching an episode of “Law & Order,” which dealt with molestation.

“[While watching the show] I start telling my kids, if anyone touch you like that let me know,” the mother told KHOU. That’s when her daughter burst out crying and confessed that her teacher had touched her inappropriately.

But Stokes claims she’s innocent because she’s actually a racist and generally tries to avoid touching black children.

The girl’s mother, however, says that claim is utter bullshit because the school is majority black, so if Stokes had a problem with black children, it’s highly unlikely she’d work at that particular school in the first place.

Despite Stokes’ attempt to deflect the charges by claiming racism, the school has decided to terminate her after completing an internal investigation.

[Gawker]

In a truly unsettling story, a hospital in St Paul, Minnesota accidentally tossed a stillborn baby in with its dirty laundry.

According to a report from Associated Press, the stillborn baby boy was delivered at 22 weeks at Regions Hospital on April 4.

The body was wrapped in linen and sent to the hospital’s morgue but tragically, it was mistaken for laundry, and sent offsite to Crothall Laundry in Red Wing — about 45 miles away — for cleaning.

Frighteningly, the baby’s body was discovered by staff members after it reportedly fell out of a bed sheet.

It is still unclear how such a mix up occurred, and hospital officials were still trying to reach the deceased child’s family. The hospital’s chief nursing officer Chris Boese expressed his apologies in a statement.

“This was a terrible mistake, and we are deeply sorry,” said Boese. “We have processes in place that should have prevented this but did not. We are working to identify the gap in our system, and to make sure this does not happen again.”

“We are really sorry and saddened that this event happened,” Boese added. “This has never happened before that I am aware of, this unfortunate event.”

NOTE: Image of sleeping newborn baby above (via Shutterstock) used for illustrative purposes only

Hopefully putting to rest the drama that surrounded Beyonce and Jay-Z’s trip to Cuba, President Barack Obama made his first comments about the Hip Hop couple’s controversial trek to Cuba.

“I wasn’t familiar that they were taking the trip,” the president said in an interview with the Today Show’s Savannah Guthrie. “My understanding is I think they went through a group that organizes these educational trips down to Cuba. You know, this is not something the White House was involved with. We’ve got better things to do.”

WATCH HERE:

Jay-Z and Beyonce took a trip to Cuba at the beginning of the month for their anniversary and caused a media frenzy that drew heavy criticism.

Many Cuban celebrities and anti-Castro activists spoke out against the trip and politicians even wanted the trip investigated; something Jay-Z responded to in a song.

“Politicians never did sh-t for me / Except lie to me, distort history,” Jay-Z rapped. “Wanna give me jail time and a fine / Fine, let me commit a real crime.”

“Obama said, ‘Chill, you gonna get me impeached,’’ he continued.”But you don’t need this sh-t anyway / Chill with me on the beach.”

The song itself sparked more controversy as it even prompted reporters to ask White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about it.

“I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury, because Treasury offers and gives licenses for travel and the White House had nothing to do it,” Carney said.

But now that Jay-Z and Beyonce have created a headache for the Obama administration, will they ever be invited to the White House again or have Hov and Bey been Jeremiah Wrighted?

Earlier today, several major news outlets — including the Associated Press, CNN, Fox News and many others — reported that a suspect had been arrested in the Boston Marathon bombing incident killed 3 people and injured 176 others on Monday.

But now the FBI and Boston police are denouncing those reports, saying that even though they have “identified a suspect,” NO ARRESTS HAVE BEEN MADE as of yet, which has everyone scratching their heads going “huh?”

Here’s the FBI’s full statement:

Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack. Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.

According to the New York Times, investigators believe they have video footage of a man who they believe may have planted the bombs, but he hasn’t been identified by name.

Meanwhile, CBS News is reporting that the “possible suspect” is a “WHITE MALE, wearing white baseball cap on backwards, gray hoodie and black jacket.”

JUST IN: Man sought as possible suspect is WHITE MALE, wearing white baseball cap on backwards, gray hoodie and black jacket.

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 17, 2013

The FBI is pleading with the public to submit all photos, videos and any other evidence they may have gathered before and after the attack occurred at around 2:50 pm Monday.

Who knew a simple kids toy could incite life-threatening violence?

Huff Post Crime is reporting that 35-year-old Efrain Burgos-Delgado pulled a gun on a 16-year-old boy in order to steal his remote control car. The puzzling incident took place in Kissimmee, Florida on Saturday evening (Apr 13).

If that’s not enough, after the perp stole the car, he came back and robbed the boy of his cell phone.

So why on earth did this man go to such great lengths to steal something that he could have bought for $19.99 – $39.99 ($59.49 if you want to be fancy) on Amazon? Authorities say Delgado quickly sold the toy in order to buy drugs.

So if you thought you couldn’t buy cocaine with a used kids toy, you were mistaken.

Of course he probably sold the car and used the money to score a fix, but it’s funny to think of a man paying for illegal substances with a toy.

Unfortunately for Mr. Delgado, there’s nothing funny about the charges he’s facing, which includes armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, grand theft, dealing in stolen property, petty theft and resisting without violence.

[Huffpo Crime via Sun-Sentinel]

This story is almost a month old … but who cares? THIS SH*T IS NUTS! (No pun intended)

A prostitute — who probably calls herself an “escort” in her listing on Backpage.com (think Craigslist, but for hookers) — was arrested and charged with attempted murder back in March after she nearly bit a man’s penis off during a sexual encounter at an Orange County Hotel in Florida.

Now, after reading that line, I’m sure you have a few questions running through that innocent little inquiring mind of yours.

First off, did the woman look like that mugshot before or after the man agreed to pay her for sex?

Secondly, what. the. f*ck?

To answer those burning questions, here’s how it all went down, according to the Orlando Sentinel:

Deputies were called to the Crestwood Suites on University Boulevard after multiple 911 callers “reported screaming and growling sounds from a room on the second floor” of the hotel.

They arrived to find the victim “covered in a significant amount of blood, with numerous bite wounds,” the report states. He was rushed to the Orlando Regional Medical Center trauma center.

The man had “significant” bites to his penis and testicles, the report states, as well as damage to his leg, abdomen, chest and fingers.

His alleged attacker, Priscilla Vaughn, “was nude, and had blood around her mouth, which had spread to her face and head,” the report states, adding Vaughn “growled and snarled” at deputies.

The victim later told deputies his attacker was an escort he’d hired for Monday evening. After dinner, they returned to her hotel room, where they drank alcohol and Vaughn used Ecstasy, the report states.

During consensual sex, the escort “became more aggressive, and she began to bite his genitals. He described it as if she were trying to eat his penis and testicles,” the report says.

The victim tried to get away, the report states, but Vaughn “was too powerful and he could not get her off of him.” She also took his cell phone away when he tried to call for help, the report says.

The Sentinel is not naming the victim because of the sexual nature of the crime.

When deputies searched the room later, they found “a significant amount of blood, knocked over furniture, and strewn belongings,” as well as a sex toy that had been severely damaged by bite marks.

“The damage to the toy indicates a desire to cause severe damage,” the report says, adding it appeared the damage to the toy was done prior to the attack.

In addition to a second-degree temporary murder charge, 29-year-old Priscilla Vaughn also reportedly faces charges of false imprisonment and tampering with the victim’s ability to contact law enforcement. She was jailed without bail.

[Orlando Sentinel]

On Monday a fake post emerged on the web that was supposedly written by famous Texas pastor Joel Osteen.

In the message, Osteen “wrote” that he was leaving the church because he had come to the realization that there is a lack of evidence that God exists.

The message read:

As many of you may know, and may have heard in the news recently, many of my sermons have deviated from traditional Christian doctrine. I have been accused of altering the ‘message’ to fit my own doctrine and dogma. Others have accused me of preaching ‘feel good Christianity’. I have also been accused of profiting greatly from my ministry, with my books and television deals. Many of their criticisms are legitimate. [...]

No God worth believing in is going to send you to Hell for not believing in him. Not even the worst sinner and scum of the Earth deserves eternal torment in Hell. In fact, God is more likely to congratulate you upon entering Heaven for doubting, questioning and not believing the religionists and their flimsy facts, demands of blind faith and lack of hard evidence.

Even without knowing it wasn’t posted on his official site, it’s pretty obvious this statement isn’t legit.

First off, when has a career Christian ever just suddenly snapped out of it?

I’ll answer that one for you … Never.

Of course the media has sensationalized this as the latest monstrous internet hoax when really it’s a total bore.

Yes, it was “elaborate” (complete with a fake website, fake Twitter account and a fake YouTube video showing fake headlines from credible news sources) and yes, it fooled many many people … but it was moderately amusing at best, and it’s certainly no Manti Teo scandal. (That one was nuts!)

According to ABC news, Osteen has shrugged off the incident.

“You know, I’m really not angry. I don’t feel like a victim,” Osteen said. “I feel too blessed, that life is too short to let things like this get you down.”

The whole thing will likely be forgotten about by next week when the next Twitter death hoax roles around. That is, if it doesn’t start an intricate debate about the way religious figures carry themselves and the messages they choose to promote.

Meryl Streep played Margaret Thatcher in the critically acclaimed and commercially successful 2011 film ‘The Iron Lady’ and won an Oscar for her portrayal. And with yesterday’s passing of the UK’s first female Prime Minister, Streep has released a statement remembering the “Iron Lady.”

“Margaret Thatcher was a pioneer, willingly or unwillingly, for the role of women in politics,” she said in a release obtained by Huffington Post.  “It is hard to imagine a part of our current history that has not been affected by measures she put forward in the UK at the end of the 20th century. Her hard-nosed fiscal measures took a toll on the poor, and her hands-off approach to financial regulation led to great wealth for others. There is an argument that her steadfast, almost emotional loyalty to the pound sterling has helped the UK weather the storms of European monetary uncertainty.

“But to me she was a figure of awe for her personal strength and grit. To have come up, legitimately, through the ranks of the British political system, class bound and gender phobic as it was, in the time that she did and the way that she did, was a formidable achievement,” she added. “To have won it, not because she inherited the position as the daughter of a great man, or the widow of an important man, but by dint of her own striving. To have withstood the special hatred and ridicule, unprecedented in my opinion, leveled in our time at a public figure who was not a mass murderer; and to have managed to keep her convictions attached to fervent ideals and ideas — wrongheaded or misguided as we might see them now — without corruption.

“I see that as evidence of some kind of greatness, worthy for the argument of history to settle. To have given women and girls around the world reason to supplant fantasies of being princesses with a different dream: the real-life option of leading their nation; this was groundbreaking and admirable. I was honored to try to imagine her late life journey [in 2011's The Iron Lady], after power; but I have only a glancing understanding of what her many struggles were, and how she managed to sail through to the other side. I wish to convey my respectful condolences to her family and many friends.”

Margaret Thatcher passed away on Monday, April 8th at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke. Thatcher rose from a working-class childhood to serve as the United Kingdom’s first female Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990.

Annette Funicello, best known as one of the members of the original 1950′s “Mickey Mouse Club,” died Monday at a hospital in California. A statement from the Walt Disney Co. said that Funicello, who was 70 years old, “died peacefully from complications due to multiple sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years.”

According to Extra, Annette had been in an MS coma for years, and her family was by her side Monday as she was taken off life support. Funicello’s only daughter, Gina Gillardi, said in a statement, “She’s on her toes dancing in heaven… no more MS. My brothers and I were there, holding her sweet hands when she left us.”

Annette Funicello first revealed that she suffered from multiple sclerosis in 1992. She lost the ability to walk in 2004, and by 2009, she could no longer speak and required 24-hour care.

More from CNN:

Funicello was just 13 when she was selected by Walt Disney himself to be one of the original Mouseketeers of the “Mickey Mouse Club,” the 1950s television variety show aimed at children.

Funicello, who had a background in dance, quickly became one of the most popular Mouseketeers.

She “was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word Mouseketeer, and a true Disney Legend,” Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger said.

She remained with Disney after leaving the “Mickey Mouse Club,” appearing in TV shows including “Zorro” (1957), “The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca” (1958) and starring in the Disney feature films “The Shaggy Dog” (1959), “Babes in Toyland” (1961), “The Misadventures of Merlin Jones” (1964) and “The Monkey’s Uncle” (1965).

The most enduring images of Funicello, though, may be of her in a swimsuit, her primary wardrobe when she co-starred with teen idol Frankie Avalon in beach party movies in the early 1960s. These included “Beach Party” (1963), “Muscle Beach Party” (1964), “Bikini Beach” (1964), “Beach Blanket Bingo” (1965), and “How to Stuff a Wild Bikini” (1965).

Although she started out in a more modest version, each movie revealed a bit more, leading eventually to Funicello in a bikini.

The movies helped sell her music. Funicello had Top-40 hits including “Tall Paul,” “First Name Initial,” “How Will I Know My Love,” and “Pineapple Princess.” Along with the singles, she recorded several successful albums, including “Hawaiiannette” (1960), “Italiannette” (1960) and “Dance Annette” (1961).

Funicello reunited with Avalon in 1987 to star in “Back to the Beach,” in which the two former teen idols played as parents of a pair of troublesome teenagers. Avalon and Funicello followed the movie with a nostalgic concert tour in 1989 and 1990, singing their hits from the 1960s.

“We have lost one of America’s sweethearts for generations upon generations,” Avalon said of her death. “I am fortunate enough to have been friends with Annette as well as appear in many films, TV and appearances with her. She will live on forever, I will miss her and the world will miss her.”

Funicello moved with her family from her birthplace of Utica, New York, to Los Angeles when she was 4.

Walt Disney saw her dancing the lead in “Swan Lake” at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank when she was 13. Disney asked her to audition for a new children’s TV series he was developing called “The Mickey Mouse Club.” She was hired on the spot to become a Mouseketeer, Disney’s statement said.

She became the viewers’ favorite soon after the show debuted in October 1955. Although only three original seasons were produced, the show continued to be see in reruns for another four decades.

Doctors diagnosed Funicello with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease, in 1987. She kept the illness a secret until 1992, the year she established The Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases. The charity, which is still active, supports research into the cause, treatment and cure of multiple sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

Funicello made few public appearances by the late 1990s as she became more debilitated by the disease. She lived under the care of her second husband Glen Holt, a rancher she married in 1986.

She had three children — Gina, Jack Jr. and Jason — from her first marriage to Jack Gilardi, which ended in 1981.

“It hurts me deeply in the passing of Annette,” Jack Gilardi said. “She was such an important love in my life and blessed me with three beautiful children. I will remember her always and she will live in my heart forever.”

“It is so sad to lose a wonderful lady like Annette Funicello,” said comedian Don Rickles. “I had so much fun working with her in those beach party pictures. She was a great trooper. My wife Barbara and I send our thoughts and prayers to her family.”

“Annette’s sweet, unassuming spirit, her love of people, and her capacity to exude kindness and good feelings to everyone she met was part of her beautiful charisma, said Richard Sherman, the Oscar-winning composer who wrote many of her hits. “Because the songs we wrote for her brought us to the attention of Walt, Bob and I always referred to Annette as our ‘lucky star.’”

The popular furniture chain IKEA was forced to recall at least 17,000 containers of “moose lasagna” from its stores in Europe after traces of pork were found in a batch that was tested in Belgium.

A spokeswoman for IKEA said the product had only been on sale for a month before it was pulled off the shelves on March 22nd.

What makes this scandal even worse, is the fact that IKEA didn’t announce the withdrawal to the public until a Swedish newspaper reported about it Saturday (Apr 6).

IKEA spokeswoman Tina Kardum admitted the company found out Friday that a follow-up test in Belgium confirmed that their moose lasagna contained 1.6 percent pork. “We have more information now. That’s why we choose to inform now,” she said.

Now. Like us, you might be wondering … ‘WTF IS MOOSE LASAGNA?’ and ‘WHY ARE PEOPLE BUYING FOOD FROM A FURNITURE STORE???’

Well, to answer that first question, according to the Associated Press, moose meet is “common in Sweden though it’s not typically used in lasagna.” No official word on why “moose lasagna” is a thing, or why it was such a big deal that it had pork in it though.

No answer for that second question either. But what makes this “pork meat found in the moose lasagna” scandal even MORE worse (like it could already get any worse, right?) is the fact that this isn’t the first time IKEA has had to recall food products from its stores.

Just six weeks ago, the Swedish furniture giant was caught up in yet another scandal over its food products when some of their meatballs tested positive for horse DNA in several European stores. A week later, they had to recall some almond cakes after tests revealed they contained a bacteria that is normally found in poop.

Dear IKEA: More furniture. Less food. Plzkthxbye.

[H/T: Gawker via AP]

Remember that disturbing video of the father who viciously whipped his teenage daughters after he “caught them twerking” on Facebook? Well thanks to the power of the Internet, that man has now been arrested.

35-year-old Greg Horn, of Dayton, Ohio, was reportedly arrested this week and charged with child abuse, child endangerment and corporal punishment, after police say he used an audio/video connector cord (like what you use to connect your TV to your DVD player) to beat his young daughters, purportedly for doing what is known as “twerking.”

For those who may not know, twerking is a dance move in which mostly women shake and/or move their hips and thighs in a way that makes their butts “bounce” up and down” in what many see as a racy or sexually suggestive manner.

There’s this rumor floating around the Internet that the man brutally beat his daughters over a twerk video they posted to Facebook, but as it turns out, that’s actually not true.

The girls told police their father beat them as punishment for sneaking out of the house … though it isn’t known exactly why he decided to post it on the Internet for all the world to see.

The video footage, which went viral within days and was posted to WorldStarHipHop, shows the man beating his young daughters — whose ages are unknown — one-by-one as they holler out in pain.

According to the police report, Greg beat one of his daughters so hard that she had visible welts on both her thighs with open wounds. And all of this was just was because they snuck out late?

Whatever they did … they didn’t deserve to be whipped and beaten into submission like that.

[WKEF-TV]

A man has finally been sentenced for a brutal crime he committed over 20 years ago.

According to the Associated Press, Philip Ward killed his six week pregnant girlfriend, Veronica Bowen, on a New York City rooftop in 1989. At the time, he and Bowen had two children together.

The 46-year-old, pleaded guilty to the crime last month and was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison on Friday (Apr 5).

Bowen’s naked body was discovered on the roof of a Manhattan apartment building. Eerily enough her head had been cut off and it was never recovered.

So what took police so long to sentence this monster?

Investigators apparently did not have enough evidence to convict him until recently, when he confessed. According to Ward’s lawyer Franklin Rothman, he decided it was time to own up to the crime so that he could build a better relationship with his children.

“I killed Veronica Bowen,” Ward confessed in a New York prison.

Police now know that Ward and Bown were having severe domestic issues at the time of her death. The two, who met as teens while residing at a foster home, were raising their children together until she moved out of the apartment they both shared.

Bowen, 21, is believed to have been visiting her children on the night she was murdered. Ward purportedly believed that the child she was carrying belonged to another man.

Ward reportedly beat Bowen with a pipe and then stabbed her with a dagger. According to the prosecutor in the case, Bowen cried out “I’m sorry!” as she was being beaten by Ward; and in one heated final act of rage and aggression, he cut off her head with a knife.

He then scrubbed himself of evidence using the building’s water tower and changed his clothing. He also removed the victim’s clothing and trashed them.

Bowen was initially reported missing because her body was not discovered until 15 days after she was killed. Though Ward told investigators he buried her head in Riverside Park, they have yet to find it.

At Ward’s sentencing, Bowen’s sister said that the woman loved being a mother, adored her kids and was deeply in love with Ward, whom she trusted until the end.

“I am haunted by thoughts of what she must have felt in her last moments,” Bowen’s sister said to the judge. “I wish I could hug her again, talk to her, hear her voice and see her lovely face. She was my best friend. To die is one thing, but to die like that is the worst thing I can think of; it’s inhuman.”

All the more disturbing is that Ward is currently serving time for killing another woman, whom he started dating after he murdered Veronica Bowen.

Ward shot and killed girlfriend Sheila Jackson in 1994 and if that’s not horrific enough, he committed the murder in front of Jackson’s 11-year-old daughter and subsequently raped the little girl. It’s unfathomable to imagine what that poor child has had to deal with in her now adult life.

It would be nice to believe that a horrific crime like this one isn’t very common but unfortunately there have been a number of similar cases in recent years.

In 2008, a Greek man, 31, beheaded his 25-year-old girlfriend and her dog. The man then walked around with her severed head until he was apprehended by police.

In April 2011, a 23-year-old engineering student in India sliced off his 18-year-old girlfriend’s head with a dagger in front of his classmates.

This past January, a Niger man was arrested for cutting off his girlfriend’s head after he had sex with her. And just last month a 29-year-old Ghana man beheaded his estranged wife while in the midst of a love triangle.

The Roger Ebert film festival known as Eberfest will kick off in Chicago, Illinois as scheduled despite the famed critic’s death on Thursday (Apr 4) following his battle with cancer.

The event, which first began 15 years ago, will run from April 17-21 and will be attended by such celebs as Jack Black, Shailene Woodley and Tilda Swinton.

Ebertfest organizers have released a statement on what is to become the annual festival:

“All of us at Ebertfest are very saddened by the news of our dear friend Roger’s passing. He was a remarkable man who influenced journalists and film lovers the world over. The 15th annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival will take place as scheduled April 17–21.”

As a legendary film commentator and critic, the Chicago Sun Times reporter was indisputably one of the most well-known film reviewers of all time.

The day before his death, Ebert announced via his blog that he was undergoing radiation treatment. His last written words were: “So on this day of reflection I say again, thank you for going on this journey with me. I’ll see you at the movies.”

Ebert had been battling cancer since 2006 and had portions of his jaw removed, which took away his ability to eat, drink or speak.

The Chicago Tribune called the Pulitzer Prize winner “a film critic with the soul of a poet.”

Ebert was 70 years old.

According to a new report from Reuters, North Korea has said that it has “ratified” a merciless attack against the United States, potentially involving what the delusional country describes as a “diversified nuclear strike.”

A spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by the English language service of the state news agency KCNA:

“We formally inform the White House and Pentagon that the ever-escalating U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK (North Korea) and its reckless nuclear threat will be smashed by the strong will of all the united service personnel and people and cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means of the DPRK and that the merciless operation of its revolutionary armed forces in this regard has been finally examined and ratified.”

Silly Koreans.

Mexican authorities say that the bodies of seven men were found sitting in plastic chairs on display along the side of a street in the Mexican state of Michoacan.

According to the Michoacan attorney general’s office, the victims had all been shot in the head (execution style) and were placed individually in the sitting position in chairs on the side of the road near a traffic circle in the city of Uruapan, which is a known drug zone.

Shocking photos released to the media show a gruesome scene — all of the men, reportedly aged between 15 and 40 years old, are tied to the chairs by their hands and feet, and some have threat messages nailed to their chest with ice picks.

According to local authorities, a placard on one of the bodies, which were found early Saturday morning, read: “Warning! This will happen to thieves, kidnappers, sex offenders and extortionists.”

Sadly, this wasn’t the only instance of mass violence in Mexico. The night before in the neighboring Mexican state of Guerrero, armed men opened fire at a bar in Ciudad Altamirano, killing a total of seven people, including three off-duty federal agents.

The attorney general’s office have no clear motives for these recent killings, but if you know anything about Mexico, one would assume that they were drug-related.

Mexico has an extremely bad name, as it is one of the most dangerous places to be with its heavy drug war, which has been going on for years among the drug cartels — large organizations that control major drug trafficking operations.

Mexico has seen a surge of violence in recent years attributed to drug cartels. After former president Felipe Calderon launched a nationwide crackdown against traffickers, drug violence escalated, and over the past seven years, an estimated 70,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence.

The country’s new president, Enrique Pena Nieto, who took office last December, has vowed to put an end to the rampant murders that have tainted Mexico’s image as a popular tourist destination and rattled investors.

While thousands of soldiers have been sent out to patrol the streets, the number of fatalities continues to rise.

Just earlier this month, a 13-year-old self-confessed hitman who had been arrested after he confessed to a series of killings, escaped from prison and was found tortured and killed shortly thereafter.

According to Mississippi police, state lawmaker Jessica Upshaw was found dead on Sunday with a single gunshot wound to the head in the home of former legislator Clint Rotenberry.

It’s unclear as to why Upshaw was at Rotenberry’s home in Mendenhall, Miss. — which is about 110 miles away from her home district in Diamondhead — but he hasn’t been charged with anything, as police believe her death to be a suicide.

According to Simpson County sheriff Kenneth Lewis, Upshaw appeared to have shot herself in the head  “It appeared she had a gunshot wound to her head; it appeared to be self-inflicted,” he said.

Jessica Upshaw, a conservative Republican, practiced as a lawyer before she became a state lawmaker in 2004. In that same year she chaired the Legislature’s Conservation and Natural Resources Committee.

Upshaw wasn’t married, but she had a daughter and son in law working in South Korea as engineers, and she was also a grandmother who was spoken very highly of by her friends and fellow politicians.

“She was very close with her daughter and with her mother — just loved her family,” Mississippi Rep. John Read told the Clarion-Ledger. “Her heart was just so big. She’d do anything for you. She was just a sweet person.”

“I have known Jessica for many years as an unselfish and dedicated public servant,” Miss. Gov. Phil Bryant said in a statement. “This is a tragic loss for her family and all Mississippians, and our thoughts and prayers go out to her family during this difficult time.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating Upshaw’s death, spokesman Warren Strain said.

In more appalling Steubenville rape trial news… As if two rapists getting intense media sympathy wasn’t enough, it appears the 16-year-old victim has to face cyber bullies too.

Jezebel reports that two teenage girls have been charged with using Facebook and Twitter to threaten the young woman. As if the footage of a group of young men bragging about the rape and CNN seemingly forcing sympathy for the men men that assaulted her wasn’t enough.

The fact that it was two teen girls who were tearing the victim down just goes to show you that women’s cruelty towards one another is sometimes just as powerful as the misogyny at the hands of men.

Attorney General Mike DeWine announced that a 16-year-old girl has been charged with aggravated menacing after weaponizing her Twitter account to threaten the rape victim’s life.

DeWine added that a 15-year-old girl has also been charged with one count of menacing after making a similar threat on Facebook, because nothing cheapens the modern age’s miracles of instant communication more than using them for petty acts of cruelty.

“Let me be clear,” DeWine said. “Threatening a teenage rape victim will not be tolerated. If anyone makes a threat verbally or via the Internet, we will take it seriously, we will find you, and we will arrest you.”

The girls appeared before a juvenile court Tuesday.

A house that sits right across the street from the infamous Westboro Baptist Church just got a brand new paint job.

WBC is known for their protests (or threats to protest) against what they describe as America’s “pro-gay, anti-God agenda” outside gay pride parades, soldier funerals and other events like the Sandy Hook memorial services.

So a nonprofit group from Destin, Florida called “Planting Peace” has decided to give the controversial congregation a taste of its own medicine by purchasing a house that sits directly across from the church’s compound in Topeka, Kansas, and giving it a fresh paint job to resemble the gay pride flag.

Aaron Jackson, founder and president of Planting Peace, told the Huffington Post that he got the idea after he discovered that a home across from where the church is located was for sale when he was reading about a young boy who counter-protested the church last year.

“I read a story about Josef Miles, a 10-year-old kid who counter-protested the Westboro Baptist Church by holding the sign that says ‘God Hates No One,’” Jackson told The Huffington Post.

“I didn’t know anything about the church or where they were located, but that story kept popping up. And one night I wondered, Where is this church?

“I got on Google Earth, and I was ‘walking down the road,’ and I did a 360 view. And I saw a ‘For Sale’ sign sitting in the front yard of a house. Right away it hit me, Oh my gosh, I could buy a house in front of the WBC! And immediately I thought: And I’m going to paint that thing the color of the pride flag.”

Jackson said he’s always wanted to get involved in gay activism, but hadn’t been sure of how to do it until this opportunity presented itself.

“The reason I haven’t gotten into the gay rights activism is because, in a sense, it’s almost silly — it’s 2013, are we really still in this position? It just seems ludicrous,” he said.

“But it is a real issue and kids are killing themselves. I’ve wanted to do something, and I knew when I saw that house for sale that it all came together. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m a little crazy and there’s no red tape in my charity. When I want to do something, I do it.”

Planting Peace bought the house for roughly $83,000, and Jackson has been living in Topeka for just over a month.

As he waited for the perfect time to transform the house into a very visible celebration of gay pride — and a direct challenge to what Westboro preaches — he encountered members of the group, including the Phelps family, which has run the church since it was established in 1956.

“They own the majority of the homes in the community, and I walk through the area every day, and I see them running in between each other’s houses,” he said.

“One day I was walking, and Shirley Phelps [one of Westboro's main spokespeople and the daughter of the church's leader, Fred Phelps] was on her four-wheeler. And I said, ‘Hey guys, how are you?’ And [she and her husband] responded, ‘Oh, we’re good. How are you?’ We had a short conversation, and she was extremely nice, and she made a joke and we all laughed.”

“It’s the craziest thing — and it really throws you off — because she’s the type of woman who calls you “hun” and “darling” — she’s very Southern,” he said. “It’s like, aren’t you the lady that’s supposed to be casting me into hell? It’s truly mind-boggling, but I can’t say anything personally bad about her because she was kind to me and she made me laugh. She’d probably be fun to hang out with.”

Aaron Jackson and his colleagues have named the property “Equality House,” and to match the home’s paint job, the group plans on flying a huge rainbow flag outside on an industrial 30-foot flagpole.

“The view is what I bought the home for,” Jackson said in an interview with Gawker.

“We want this house to be a message that where there’s hate, there’s also love. But we also want to raise awareness and capital, and we want to put all that money into creating and sustaining anti-bullying programs, along with supporting anti-bullying programs that already exist,” he told HuffPo.

“Beyond the symbolic message of the home, [the house] will be utilized by volunteers to live here, and these volunteers will work on promoting equality anywhere in the world and managing these anti-bullying initiatives that we plan on creating.”

While Jackson and his Planting Peace group don’t plan on living in Equality House, they are working towards making it a center for equality LGBT rights.

And what does Westboro as a whole think of Aaron Jackson and his friends’ new rainbow-colored house, located right across the street from their HQ?

“We thank God for the Sodomite Rainbow House! Think about it! This is not a novel idea – there are hundreds of similarly-painted houses around the world – the ONLY reason why this one is a story is because of WHERE it is! It is right across the street from the ONLY church that loves people enough to tell them the Bible truth about the filthy, soul-damning, nation-destroying sin of sodomy,” the Church said in a statement provided to TRNS.

It goes on to state, “the Sodomite Rainbow house is another instance where someone has declared their sin as Sodom – and it shines a huge spotlight on our message – you can paint rainbows on every house in America, and homosexuality will still be an abominable sin in the eyes of God. Ultimately, no other perspective matters.”

Just Westboro being Westboro.

Check out some pictures of Equality House below:

Darien Long — also known as “KickAss Mall Cop” by his supporters on Reddit, has reportedly been fired from his job as a security guard at a strip mall in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

Long became an Internet celebrity last month after video footage showing him tasering an unruly hoodrat mother in front of her kids went viral when it was uploaded to YouTube. Other videos showed Long also battling with groups of street thugs and chasing known drug dealers away from the area.

The no-nonsense approach Long takes with his job earned him the nickname “KickAss Mall Cop” from the Reddit community, who all banded together and raised close to $24,000 for Long through a crowdfunding campaign on CrowdTilt so that he could purchase “better and more gear.”

Long carries a firearm, a Taser stun-gun and has a Go-Pro camera mounted on a bulletproof vest, and regularly uploads his videos to YouTube, which are then picked up by other people who post them all over the Internet.

Here are some of the most recent videos posted to the KickAssMallCop YouTube channel – which is not run by Long (FYI):

Long says that he was given a pink slip by his employers for financial reasons. “They lost three vendors. They can no longer afford to pay me. So that’s why they’re letting me go,” he said. But some have questions whether Long’s aggressive method of keeping the peace could be the reason for his dismissal.

Long made a pretty good point though, saying, “This environment made me very, very aggressive. But when you need someone to handle a situation so you don’t have to call the police, then you want somebody there that’s going to be willing to handle it.”

Reactions to Darien Long losing his job have been mixed. While some members of the Reddit community believe that Long losing his job was the best thing for his safety, others were critical of his approach at cleaning up the streets.

“The last video I saw [the] dude went way too far. He was instigating the arguments and fights, putting his hands on people, pushing them when there was no reason for it. He tazed the one guy for no reason,” Reddit user philhouse64 wrote. “Just goes to show what a little power and fame can do to a person. He was security guard, not a cop.”

Another Redditor, ServerGreek, wrote, “Getting laid off may have just saved his life. Hope he is able to rebound and get a better job..”

Long said in an interview with Right This Minute that his last day on the job will be March 31st, and he fears that in his absence, crime will return to the mall.

T.J. Lane doesn’t seem to feel any sorrow or remorse for murdering three students and wounding three others in a school shooting last year.

Lane appeared in court Tuesday morning wearing a T-shirt with the word “KILLER” scribbled across the front of it in black marker, and he had a visible smirk on his face as an Ohio judge told him that he would spend the rest of his life in prison for his crime.

Against the recommendation of his counsel, the 18-year-old addressed the courtroom before learning of his fate, telling his victims’ families directly: “This hand that pulled the trigger that killed your sons now masturbates to the memory. Fuck all of you,” which was met with gasps and cries, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

WATCH THE DISTURBING CLIP HERE:

On February 27th 2012, Lane, who was 17 years old at the time, entered Chardon High School, located about 30 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio, and opened fire, killing Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, both 16, and 17-year-old Russell King Jr, and wounding three others, including one student — Nick Walczak — who remains paralyzed in a wheelchair.

Chardon High School Shooting: Several Students Shot, 3 Dead Following Violent Shooting Rampage

Nearly one year later, Lane, now 18, plead guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the shooting, Lane was ineligible for the death penalty, but Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David Fuhry did give Lane three life sentences without the possibility of parole.

In court, Dina Parmertor, mother of victim Daniel, told Lane:

“You murdered my son Danny. You are a killer! You are a pathetic excuse for a human being. In fact you’re not a even human being. You don’t deserve to be called human. You’re a monster, and will forever to be titled a triple murderer.

“I have many more words that I wish I could say that would express my pure disgust and hatred for you, but unlike you, as we’ve seen today, I obey the law, and that’s why I am standing here a free person — something you will NEVER be.

“I hope you have a cold, rough, unkind, harsh prison life with monsters like yourself. I want you to be ensured years and years of pain, and abuse, which is, in my opinion, not harsh enough.

“If I had my choice, you would die an extremely slow and torturous death. You don’t deserve to take another breath while my 16-year-old son Danny lies in the ground because of your disgusting, selfish and cowardly actions. You are a weak, pathetic, vile coward.”

Spoiler alert: Yes. They did.

CNN has come under fire for its appalling coverage of the Steubenville rape trial that was shockingly sympathetic towards the two teen athletes who were convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl.

As HyperVocal points out, before even mentioning the victim, three CNN personalities spent several minutes lamenting on how much the guilty verdict would “haunt” the two young football players, and their reactions in court, which included them breaking down into tears.

“Incredibly difficult, even for an outsider like me, to watch what happened as these two young men that had such promising futures, star football players, very good students, literally watched as they believe their life fell apart,” CNN correspondent Poppy Harlow said after the guilty verdict was announced Sunday.

Anchor Candy Crawly then turned to legal expert Paul Callan who weighed in on the “lasting effects” being convicted rapists will have on the lives of the “sixteen-year-olds just sobbing in court.”

Poor them, right? Wrong.

Instead of using their coverage as an opportunity to solicit sympathy for the victim in the situation, CNN — arguably one of the biggest news media organizations in the entire world — chose to solicit sympathy for a pair of athletes whose lives were “ruined” because they chose to rape someone, instead of doing something more productive, like, I don’t know, posting selfies to Instagram, or ranking up on Call of Duty Multiplayer, or something.

What makes CNN’s ridiculous coverage of the Steubenville rape trial particularly interesting though, is the fact that The Onion — the infamous (but HILARIOUS) satire news site — covered a faux rape incident in the same exact manner back in 2011.

The description of the pseudo video report on YouTube reads:

I was a staff writer on the Onion’s show “SportsDome” which aired on Comedy Central in 2011. This is one of the stories we did–full credit to David Iscoe (twitter.com/realhumanbeing) for the idea and script. It could have been produced by the CNN team covering the Steubenville rape verdict.

The resemblance between the clips are uncanny. As BroBible put it, “The two videos could easily be swapped. You’d never know.”

In the small town of Steubenville, Ohio, two high school football players were found guilty in the rape of a 16-year-old girl. Trent Mays, 17 and Ma’lik Richmond, 16 were sentenced to at least a year in juvenile prison. Mays was ordered to serve an additional year for taking a picture of an underage girl naked.

The investigation in the case is ongoing, because some people failed to report the allegations initially, and they too could face some charges.

According to the Associated Press, Attorney General Mike DeWine said he was continuing the investigation, and anyone who failed to speak up about the attack from last summer could face charges.

The investigation will look into teens, parents, school officials, and coaches who might have been aware of the incident that took place.

A grand jury is set to meet in mid April, which will provide all evidence gathered by investigators from interviews, and the football team’s 27 coaches.

In a statement to the Associated Press from the city’s manager Cathy Davidson, she said, “Football is important in Steubenville, but I think overall if you looked at the community in and of itself, it’s the education process, the moral fiber of our community, and the heritage of our community, that is even more important.”

During the trial, text messages were provided, which indicated the head coach was aware of the rape allegation.

Steubenville schools Superintendent Mike McVey released a statement earlier today that read: “What we’ve heard so far is deeply disturbing … At this time, we believe it is important to allow the legal process to play out in court before we as a school district make any decisions or take action against any of the individuals involved with this case.”

After their guilty verdict was read Sunday morning (Mar 17), the two football players broke down in tears. Malik Richmond, who apparently took the verdict the hardest, struggled to even say a few words.

“My life is over,” he said as he collapsed in the arms of his lawyer. “I had no intention to do anything like that … And I’m sorry to put you guys through this,” he said, apologizing to the victim and her family.

The assault took place last summer, which shocked the city of Ohio, as students actually took out their cellphones to record the attack and gossiped about it online. What brought the case to light was the social media posts, online photos and video.

AP reports that Mays and Richmond were both charged with penetrating the girl with their fingers in the back seat of a moving car after an underage drinking party, and then also in the basement of a house in August 2012.

“They treated her like a toy,” prosecutor Marianne Hemmeter said.

Of course the young girl was so intoxicated, according to prosecutors, that she couldn’t consent to sex that night, while the defense argued the girl realized what she was doing and was also known to lie. According to the girl she could not recall what happened, but woke up naked in a strange house after a drinking party.

“It was really scary,” she said. “I honestly did not know what to think because I could not remember anything.”

This is a familiar case dealing with athletes and “rape victims,” one similar to the story that broke a few years ago of four football players from Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY who were facing charges of allegedly raping a girl in one of the dormitory bathrooms after an on campus party.

It was later revealed the girl lied about being raped, and she was very aware of what she was doing, but didn’t want to face the reality of her boyfriend finding out about her whoreish act on campus.

Not saying this is the case in this story but its very hard to prove whether or not a girl is completely drunk to the point where she has no knowledge of what she is doing, or if she was aware of her actions but is just too embarrassed to face the fact of everyone knowing what she consented to.

These two high school football players have officially ruined their football careers by this foolish act. Hopefully they’ve learned a valuable lesson from this mess.

And of course our thoughts and prayers go out to the victim in the situation. No one deserves to go through something like that.