A federal jury has rendered a verdict of guilty for Gamal Abdelaziz and John Wilson, the first defendants to go to trial in the Varsity Blues college admissions cheating case. The two businessmen were convicted on charges of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud and bribery after being accused of bribing officials to get their
Lifestyle
The sun had only just risen over Rosarito, Mexico, on August 9th when a neighbor told Roberto Salinas Ramirez about the blood spattered across the dry creek outside his small pink home. Ramirez, 47, lives on a farm next to fields of tomatoes and lettuce, in full view of the mesa-colored Cerro el Coronel, the
“A large sum of money is coming to you,” the letter read, the words bolded alongside a headshot of an alluring woman with a subtle, knowing smile. “Please refer to the enclosed document for the latest directives to receive the check for $7,800!” Another promised $31,790.99, bestowed unto the reader by Belisama the Very Brilliant,
Eighteen former NBA players have been accused of defrauding the league’s Health and Welfare Benefit Plan out of almost $4 million, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York announced Thursday. Among the players are Terrence Williams, Sebastian Telfair, Glen “Big Baby” Davis, Tony Allen, Ruben Patterson, Shannon Brown, Will Bynum, Christopher
The U.S. Marshals have determined that the guy sitting behind home plate at a Dodgers game that everyone thought might be one of America’s most-wanted fugitives was not, in fact, one of America’s most-wanted fugitives. ABC News reported the development on Thursday. Prior to the Dodgers’ wild card game against the St. Louis Cardinals on
Los Angeles will require proof of Covid-19 vaccination to enter indoor venues, such as concerts, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, gyms, and more, as Los Angeles Times reports. On Wednesday, Los Angeles City Council passed the new ordinance, which goes into effect on November 4th. Under the ordinance, which Mayor Eric Garcetti is expected to sign into
Despite what you may have read today in the news, the Zodiac Killer has not been identified. That’s according to an expert on the infamous, still-unknown serial killer who murdered at least five people in northern California in the late-Sixties. Earlier today, a team of cold case investigators announced, via press release, that a now-deceased
If you’ve spent some time on TikTok, you’ve probably come across the VIP List, two influencers who post — let’s say exuberant — New York City restaurant reviews on the app. The ladies behind the VIP List, Meg Radice and Audrey Jongens, are longtime friends who started posting old nightlife reviews on TikTok during the
Jussie Smollett, who faces felony disorderly conduct charges over what prosecutors allege was staging an attack in 2019 while in Chicago, is headed to trial, as Chicago’s WTTW reports. On Tuesday, Cook County Judge James Linn said jury selection for the case will begin on November 29th. Smollett has pleaded not guilty. The charges stem
Seattle has officially become the largest U.S. city to allow for the cultivation and consumption of mushrooms and other psychedelics in non-commercial instances. The City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Monday to decriminalize non-commercial use around an array of psychedelic substances, as Marijuana Moment reports. The city had already taken decriminalization steps when it comes
UPDATE: Facebook and Instagram are back as of nearly 6 p.m. ET. The world was offered a respite from crippling FOMO and democracy-destabilizing disinformation Monday, October 4th, when Facebook and other apps that it owns — including WhatsApp and Instagram — suffered simultaneous outages. As The New York Times reports, users began seeing error messages
A Facebook whistleblower said that during her time at the company she “became increasingly alarmed by the choices the company makes prioritizing their own profits over public safety, putting people’s lives at risk.” Frances Haugen, a former product manager who worked on protecting the platform from election interference starting in 2019, revealed her identity as
On TikTok, the user @tythecrazyguy has amassed 3.7 million followers talking about one of the internet’s most popular topics: conspiracy theories. But Ty is not a typical conspiracy theorist. He’s a high school senior who posts rainbow flags during Pride Month, supports Black Lives Matter, and condemns Trump. In videos that often garner millions of
On September 8th, Jordana Victor, a 22-year-old criminology student at Carleton University in Canada, uploaded a video of herself on TikTok taking a Church of Scientology personality test. Called the Oxford Capacity Analysis assessment (despite the fact that it has no affiliation whatsoever with Oxford University), the test presents itself as a “factual, scientific analysis”
This column is a collaboration with DoubleBlind, a print magazine and media company at the forefront of the psychedelic movement. As the world of psychedelics matures to include both a grassroots movement and a burgeoning legal industry — echoing the process that cannabis went through a few years ago — many are wondering what kinds of
In real life, Brendan Dassey is a 32-year-old convicted felon serving a life sentence at the Oshkosh Correctional Facility on charges of mutilation of a corpse, second-degree sexual assault, and being a party to first-degree murder. His lawyers have argued that Dassey, who has a borderline deficient IQ, was steamrolled by police officers into falsely
Joe Rogan dialed up his hot take machine to 11 and suggested that President Joe Biden faked getting his Covid-19 booster shot during a live televised event. During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan asked his guest, former CIA agent Mike Baker, if he thought Biden actually received “a real booster,” adding,
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has lost two lawsuits brought by family members of two victims killed in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, HuffPost reported. The court issued a judgment against the Infowars host because he did not produce discovery records, causing him to lose the suits by default. The rulings were issued Monday
Because we live in an alternate timeline, today Lindsay Lohan tweeted an image of herself as an anthropomorphic dog, or her “fursona,” to promote an auction for the Canine Cartel, an online community that offers NFTs (non-fungible tokens) of special dog avatars. “It’s official, I’m a Friend of The Cartel!!,” Lohan tweeted alongside a dog
After reopening the investigation into the death of Tamla Horsford last year, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI) concluded their inquiry earlier this year. No charges will be filed in the case of the 40-year-old mother of five, found face-down in the backyard of a friend’s Forsyth County home the morning after an adult sleepover