Whoa! Calm down there, Kim. Don’t have too much fun.

She loves Obama. She can’t help it.

Photo via AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

Michigan governor Rick Snyder has activated the National Guard to help distribute bottled water and filters in the city of Flint, the Associated Press reports. The governor has been accused of mishandling the city’s lead-poisoning crisis—ongoing since April 2014—which he may have known about long before declaring a state of emergency last week.

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So far, NBC News reports, 2,200 blood tests have turned up 43 children with elevated levels of lead in their blood, although only 2 percent of the population has been tested.

According to NBC, the state did not begin handing out bottled water until five days after the emergency declaration. Meanwhile, some residents are still being charged for water that they cannot drink or even use to brush their teeth.

At a press conference yesterday, where he said he would ask for aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Snyder admitted, “I have a degree of responsibility.” He did not specify what he would kind of aid the state would be asking FEMA for.

Photo via AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

At 9 p.m., President Barack Hussein Obama will have his seventh and final chance to address the country about his Muslim roots in this year’s State of the Union address. Will the “non-traditional” speech consist entirely of interpretive dance? Is Kim Davis planning to streak? Will Obama reveal his Kenyan birth certificate for a final mic drop? And did Paul Ryan manage to get his shift covered at Hollister? We’re about to find out.

Contact the author at ashley@gawker.com.

Tonight’s state of the union rebuttal was delivered by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. And truthfully, she could have said anything tonight and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Because tonight, America only had eyes for Nikki Haley’s incredible, unmoving jaw.

As you can see from the speech below, if politics doesn’t work out, Haley has a long and illustrious career in ventriloquism ahead of her.

The difficulty of delivering an entire speech without moving your mouth aside, the real question is: What the hell was Haley doing? And America demanded answers.

In addition to offering some relatively plausible theories.

No matter the reason, there is one thing we know for certain: No republican should give a State of the Union response. Ever.

http://gawker.com/5983926/heres-...

Contact the author at ashley@gawker.com.

Steve Grasty, an administrative judge in Harney County, said at a community meeting on Monday that he intends to bill the armed militia occupying a bird sanctuary as much as $75,000 per day.

According to the Guardian, Grasty, who opposes the militia, said that the occupation costs the community somewhere between $60,000 and $75,000 each day. The militia has been holed up in the federal wildlife refuge for 10 days. (It’s starting to get testy.)

The end may be in sight, though: Robert “LaVoy” Finicum announced on Tuesday that the militants would hold a community meeting on Friday at 7 o’clock to discuss their exit strategy. “I think there should be a dialogue,” Finicum—who, the Oregonian reports, was visibly armed—said. All, he added, are invited to attend.

Photo via AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

At a hearing in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, the New York Times reports, one of the five teenagers accused in the gang-rape of an 18-year-old woman introduced a smartphone video that his owner and defense lawyers said showed a brief exchange with the victim before the suspected attack.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, at a news conference outside City Hall, Commissioner William J. Bratton conceded that the NYPD should have informed the public more quickly of the alleged attack at Osborn Playground, in Brownsville, around 9 p.m. last Thursday.

“There’s no denying that the department should have—I, police commissioner, the department, our press office—put some information out on Friday,” Bratton said. While the early information was “extraordinarily minimal,” nevertheless, “that would have been sufficient to alert the neighborhood, the community, and to also, if anybody had seen something, to possibly give us assistance.”

Kenneth Montgomery, a lawyer for Denzel Murray, 14, described the smartphone video as “compelling” evidence for his client’s innocence. From the Times:

The smartphone video that emerged on Tuesday was brief and cryptic and showed only the woman, who could only be heard mumbling at times. Whether it might help the defense or the prosecution was unclear.

Billy Sullivan, 24, said the video, less than 30 seconds long, was recorded Thursday at Osborn Playground by his younger brother, Ethan Phillip, 15, one of the five suspects. He said it portrays a fresh snippet of dialogue that would help the argument that any sex was consensual.

“She said yeah,” an unidentified male voice is heard saying on the video, played for a reporter on Tuesday by Mr. Sullivan as he and his mother stood in the doorway of her home. Then a male voice is heard saying: “If you said yeah, it’s lit, like, you know what I mean. I could tell you a freak.”

The department’s chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, confirmed reports that detectives are investigating claims that the woman had been having sex with her father when the five suspects came upon them. “That came from two individuals that were arrested,” Boyce said. “That’s the only place we’ve got that from so far.”

http://gawker.com/the-case-of-th...

An unnamed law enforcement official told the Times that, even if those accounts are true, it “does not mean she was not a victim of a pretty horrific attack.”

“What appeared to have happened is that the father may have put her in that compromised position,” the official said. The father was reportedly drunk at the time of the attack, which impeded his ability to communicate to people nearby what was going on. “He’s like that, a drunk, yes,” a next door neighbor said.

An NYPD spokesman, Deputy Chief Edward Mullen, said that investigators were “aware of claims” that videos of the incident had been made, but that they had not seen them. “We are in the process of obtaining search warrants for some of the suspects’ phones.”

Photo via AP Images. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.

During an interview on Morning Joe today, flailing Republican presidential candidate and self-professed tall boy Jeb Bush made yet another rude comment about his rival, Sen. Marco Rubio. When asked if he owns any high-heeled boots like the senator, he responded, “I don’t have a height issue.”

He also called Joe Scarborough “big Joe” for some reason—not rude, just weird.

What’s your damage, Jeb? (Literally every poll, I guess.)

http://gawker.com/how-tall-does-...

H/t Politico. Contact the author at allie@gawker.com.

With a jackpot hitting upwards of $1.5 billion, tonight’s Powerball drawing is the single biggest jackpot ever to grace these United States. And considering the stock market is going to shit, we could all use a little extra cash. Too bad we won’t be getting it!

This evening, there is a one in 292.2 million chance that you’ll be holding those lucky, life-changing numbers (maybe a little lower for Jeb). But odds that small can be hard to wrap your head around. So to help you see just how screwed you really are, we’ve rounded up a bit of context for you.

Here’s a list things more likely to happen to you than waking up tomorrow filthy rich:

Flying with a drunk pilot: 117-to-1

Dying a virgin: 320-to-1

Being deemed possessed by Satan: 7,000-to-1

Winning an Academy Award: 11,500-to-1

Suffocating in bed: 2,000,000-to-1

Dying from coming into contact with hot tap water: 5,000,000-to-1

Dying from using a right-handed product when you’re actually left-handed: 7,000,000-to-1

Killed by the leaked radiation from a nearby nuclear power plant: 10,000,000-to-1

Having identical quadruplets: 15,000,000-to-1

Being canonized by the Catholic Church: 20,000,000-to-1

Being burned to death by your pajamas spontaneously combusting: 20,000,000-to-1

Being crushed to death by a vending machine: 112,000,000-to-1

So good luck tonight, kids—not that it’ll do you any good.

Contact the author at ashley@gawker.com.

Back in October, Sean Penn landed a blockbuster interview with Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, but new texts released by a Mexican newspaper show that to the drug kingpin the actor might as well have been Seann William Scott.

Grupo Milenio (via NBC) received a series of Blackberry texts intercepted by the Mexican government. One set of texts show Guzmán inviting actress Kate del Castillo to visit him in Sinaloa; in the other, Guzmán and his attorney Andrés Granados discuss that potential meeting.

When Granados tells Guzmán that del Castillo wants to bring along the actor Sean Penn, he finds himself in the position of having to clarify exactly who Penn even is. Granados explains that Penn was in the movie 21 Grams. Guzmán asks in which year 21 Grams was released and Granados states that he will have to check, before noting that the movie came out in 2003. Granados also says that aside from acting, Penn is a political activist who was critical of the Bush administration.

NBC also reported today that sources within the Justice Department indicated to them that Penn wasn’t the only one in the film industry with an interest in El Chapo, and that the drug lord’s reported desire to finance a biopic about himself might have led to a bunch of Hollywood power brokers ratting him out to the feds:

According to multiple officials, several production companies contacted the Justice Department to express an interest in producing a film. At least one of those companies — and a well-known actor — were in contact with associates of El Chapo.

At least one source says the information gleaned through the Hollywood contacts may have helped lead to Guzman’s recapture.

Other sources say it is unclear just how much help, if any, the information may have been.

Meanwhile, El Chapo is being held in the same prison from which he escaped last July. In order to prevent that from happening again, the jail is basically putting Guzmán through an elaborate game of musical chairs. Per Mexican government spokesperson Eduardo Sanchez, El Chapo is being constantly rotated between eight different prison cells so that he can’t, you know, dig a tunnel in the shower and drop into a mile-long tunnel leading to freedom. Via the AP:

“He is being changed from cell to cell without a pattern … he is only spending hours or a couple of days in the same cell,” Sanchez said late Tuesday.

Sanchez also said that Guzman’s cells have 24-hour surveillance and, unlike the room he broke out of last year, don’t contain any blind spots. Good luck.

[image via AP]

Contact the author at jordan@gawker.com.

Numerous outlets—including The Intercept, Politico, and The New York Times—are reporting that Al Jazeera executives have decided to shutter its U.S. cable news operation, Al Jazeera America, on April 30. According to a memo obtained by the Times’ John Koblin, the Qatari media conglomerate determined that the channel’s finances were “unsustainable”:

In a memo to the staff, Al Jazeera America’s chief executive, Al Anstey, said the “decision by Al Jazeera America’s board is driven by the fact that our business model is simply not sustainable in light of the economic challenges in the U.S. media marketplace.”

“I know the closure of AJAM will be a massive disappointment for everyone here who has worked tirelessly for our long-term future,” he continued. “The decision that has been made is in no way because AJAM has done anything but a great job. Our commitment to great journalism is unrivaled.”

Since it went on-air in 2013—via Al Jazeera’s acquisition of Current TV—the channel has posted universally disappointing ratings, a phenomenon driven in part by its leaders’ desire to counterbalance the flashier, less thoughtful content of more popular cable news outlets. It has faced other troubles as well: Last year, for example, AJAM faced a wave of lawsuits filed by former employees, who alleged that the channel tolerated, among other things, sexist and anti-Semitic comments from managers. And it has never shaken itself of outside suspicions that its content is controlled and sometimes censored by the House of Thani, the ruling family of the State of Qatar and the channel’s largest stakeholder.

http://jezebel.com/how-al-jazeera...

According to Brian Stelter and Tom Kludt of CNN, however, the central factor in today’s decision is the recent shock to the petroleum commodity market:

The reason for the channel’s suddenly questionable future appears to be the plunging price of oil, which dropped below $30 a barrel on Tuesday for the first time in 12 years. That’s significant because Al Jazeera America is owned by Al Jazeera Media Group, which in turn is owned by the government of Qatar.

(Qatar’s economy is almost entirely reliant upon the small country’s immense reserves of natural gas and oil, so it is particularly sensitive to price fluctuations of fossil fuels.)

AJAM’s finances were not exactly sound before today, though. According to Glenn Greenwald, who appears to have broken the news of AJAM’s demise for The Intercept, the channel “as been losing staggering sums of money from the start.” And while it’s digital division has enjoyed more successes than its cable counterpart, “all of AJAM is terminating, and both the TV and digital employees are expected to lose their jobs.”

The channel will remain on-air through April.

Image credit: Al Jazeera

Zoning laws, governing how we use our land, are often thought of as mundane drudgery, or as opportunities for civic-minded people to help “Keep Our Neighborhood Beautiful.” In fact, they can also be a powerful driver of inequality.

Unsurprisingly, since land use determines patterns of housing, and housing is one of prime determinants of whether we live in a society that is economically and racially segregated and unequal or not. Policies that promote access to affordable housing and integrated neighborhoods will combat inequality; policies that do the opposite will tend to promote inequality. Even when it’s not intended.

A recent study out of UCLA looks at land use regulations in cities across the country to determine precisely which kinds of zoning laws drive economic segregation. From Noah Smith: “Somewhat surprisingly, ‘open space’ restrictions, which set aside land that can’t be built on, turn out not to be that important. Instead, the most effective way of restricting housing supply is to simply require more levels of approval for new development. The authors generally conclude that local governments are of critical importance in determining housing segregation: when governments try to restrict overall population, it’s the working class and poor who get pushed out, but when they work to increase housing supply and boost growth, income segregation is lower.”

Additionally, Richard Florida points out that restrictions on density actually work to isolate not the poor, but the rich, by allowing them to “wall themselves off from other groups.” The study finds that zoning laws that pull less affluent people into richer neighborhoods are more effective at achieving integration than attempts to spread wealthier residents out into poorer neighborhoods.

In other words: density in desirable neighborhoods is generally a social good. Too often, people who already own property in a popular neighborhood or city hide under the cover of “concerned civic involvement” to lobby for restrictions that have the effect of keeping everyone else out (hello, San Francisco!). Beautiful neighborhoods are a good thing—but only if we make them accessible to as many people as we can.

Nobody gives a shit about a pretty walled-off palace except the royal family.

http://gawker.com/affordable-hou...

[Photo: Flickr]

Andrew Cuomo didn’t get far into his state of the state address this afternoon before the heckling began. The New York governor had spoken for about 10 minutes before assemblyman Charles Barron’s impassioned voice could be heard shouting at him on TV broadcasts.

“You were wrong!” Barron shouted. “Everybody heard you. Have a seat, assemblyman,” Cuomo shot back.

The content of Barron’s remarks is hard to parse over Cuomo’s speech and the ensuing roar of the crowd, but according to public radio reporter Karen DeWitt, he was upset over Albany’s failure to comply with a court order to increase funding to school districts.

Barron, who is no stranger to provocation, was escorted out, at which point Cuomo ratcheted up the rhetoric. “We refuse to be shouted down,” he said, to wildly escalating cheers. “We said we are New Yorkers first, and we’re going to come together and we’re going to kick the extremists to the side.”

Video via NY1. Contact the author at andy@gawker.com.

Was I raped?

In 1998, I was 24 years old. Somehow, though I have zero musical talent, I found myself in a band—as the vocalist, no less. We didn’t perform anywhere, although I think that might have been the ultimate goal. Really, we just met up at a studio in Jersey City, where I lived at the time, and jammed out on a few late ‘90s R&B songs.

Dave, a friend-of-a-friend from college, was the guitarist and band Svengali, and my lack of vocal talent became a bit of an issue. So each Sunday morning, before band practice, I would meet Dave at his apartment in Jersey City so we could practice the songs (Mary J. Blige’s My Life, Erykah Badu’s, Tyrone, SWV’s Love Like This) before wasting time and money rehearsing in the studio.

Dave had made a play for me from day one. I turned him down decidedly.

One day, at his apartment before rehearsal, he asked, sincerely, why I wouldn’t have sex with him. I told him, sincerely, that I wasn’t attracted to him in the least. And that was that. But Dave wanted to negotiate.

“Do you have to be attracted to me to have sex with me?” he asked, looking down at his guitar.

“Well. Yeah,” I said. “That’s usually how that goes.”

Dave looked up at me, his face brightening: “How about you just have sex with me as a favor.”

“A favor to whom?” I asked.

“To me.”

I blinked, sincerely not understanding.

“You’re asking me for a sexual favor.”

“Yes.”

“No, Dave.”

“Why not?”

I bristled. “Because just no, dude. Like, no. Ever. No. Not interested.”

Dave put his guitar down and gave me serious puppy-dog eyes. “Give me one good reason why you won’t take pity on me and have sex with me.”

“One?” I asked. “Okay. I’m not attracted to you. At all.”

“You said that already. Give me another one.”

(At this point, my present 41-year-old self is screaming, just get the fuck out of there! Don’t sit on this motherfucker’s couch discussing this shit! Just say, “No motherfucker, I ain’t fucking you.” And be out!)

Instead, I gave him another reason. “Dave, I dated your friend for like two years.”

“But Jack hates me anyway.”

“No he doesn’t,” I said.

“Yes, he does,” said Dave. “Watch.”

Dave picked up the phone and called Jack, my ex.

“Hey Jack. What’s up. Aliya is here and she said she wouldn’t fuck me because—”

“—Yo get the fuck off my phone. Fucking bitch-ass.” Jack hung up.

Dave smiled at me. “See, I told you. Not an issue.”

“I’m on my period,” I said.

“You’re lying.”

He was right.

For the next hour, we practiced. At least five times, I swatted Dave away as he stopped playing and tried to lean in for a kiss or a hug. I never felt endangered. I was just annoyed. I wanted to hurry up and practice my songs so the rest of the band wouldn’t be pissed because I couldn’t hit that low note on the Mary J. Blige song and we’d have to do that part over and over.

Finally, Dave put the guitar down and said we could take a break. He edged closer and closer to me on the couch. Touched my shoulder. Kissed my neck. I didn’t say no. I didn’t say yes. I didn’t say anything. I just sat there and dealt with it. I figured once he saw I’d be as responsive as a corpse, he’d give up.

He didn’t.

Dave leaned into me until I was on my back on the sofa. He pulled my pants down. He pulled my panties down. I provided zero assistance. (Picture trying to get a denim pantsuit off of a Barbie doll). Dave pulled his own pants down. He pulled his boxers down. He put on a condom, parted my legs with his own, held himself and guided his way inside me.

I said nothing. And I didn’t move a single muscle from start to finish. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. I just know I held my breath because his natural odor turned me off. And I stayed rigid because I didn’t want him to think for one second that I was enjoying any part of it. I went blank. I thought we could just “get over with it,” the way a woman might do if her husband or boyfriend was in the mood and she wasn’t. Except he wasn’t my husband, or my boyfriend, at all.

Then it was over. He pulled his boxers and pants up. I pulled my underwear and pants up. He kissed me on the cheek.

He got the guitar out. He played some chords. I sang Mary J. Blige’s My Life while he played.

If you look at my life/and see what I see...

The question I’ve held on to for 17 years is this: Was I raped?

At no point did he force me down. He eased me down onto my back and I didn’t try to get back up. He never made me feel like he was going to physically injure me. And even though I’d rebuffed him for hours and swatted away his attempts to kiss me, once he put the guitar down and leaned into me, at no point did I ever say, “No, don’t do this. Please stop.” Then and now, my gut and my instincts tell me that if I’d told him to stop, he would have. Immediately.

But, at the same time, he did know. He knew I didn’t want to. Is that enough to make it rape? In a court of law, no jury would have convicted him. I didn’t give him verbal consent, and I never gave him verbal non-consent either. I’ve heard there are some athletes and musicians who actually require consent forms between two parties before anything goes down. If that had been the law, I would not have signed. He would not have consent. And that would have been that.

But it wasn’t like that. There was no paperwork to sign. So it was up to what went unspoken. We didn’t have the kind of established relationship required to suggest non-verbal consent. But when he leaned me back onto that tattered sofa—and I didn’t push back up—was that the moment of consent for him? Did he think my non-verbal cues said yes, while I thought any decent person would see they said no?

That day, we went to rehearsal as usual. The band broke up when one of us went off to grad school and I lost touch with Dave. Whenever his name came up in casual conversation, I always shuddered. Still, I never felt like he raped me. I felt like we had sex and I just wasn’t into it.

Over the years, my thoughts on the situation have become more muddled. Do I think Dave raped me? No. I don’t think that. He didn’t rape me. Do I think he’s an asshole who knew I didn’t want to have sex with him? Yes. Do I also blame myself for not being assertive and pushing him off of me and leaving his place? Yes. I absolutely do.

Here’s the thing. There were times with men, before and after Dave, that were very similar to that day in his apartment. The difference was: these were times when I knew I wanted to have sex with the guy—but I still played coy in the same way. I played the cat and mouse game, enticing the man to do exactly what Dave had done—beg.

In these instances—even though, again, I gave no verbal consent, I gave in. And it was different, because I wanted to give in. More importantly, it was my intention from the very beginning.

So inadvertently I taught those men that pressing for sex could sometimes end well for both parties. I was the queen of saying things like, sex on the first date? I’ve never done this before. Or things like, I don’t know, maybe we shouldn’t. I have contributed to a culture that produced guys like Dave as a result of being shaped by that culture. I’m sure that, before me, there were women who wanted to have sex with Dave and still swatted him away for an hour beforehand. Women aren’t conditioned or taught to have a pure and simple, yes-I-want-to-fuck-you approach to sex. At least, I wasn’t. The unequal power dynamic of the cat-and-mouse game hurts both men and women. When I was younger, it was the only game I knew.

I wish I’d known then the things I’ve tried to teach my daughter. I wish I had known how much freedom was available to me to draw clear lines in the sand. I wish I had grown up with stronger nos and stronger yeses in my mouth more often. I wish I had learned the things I learned in easier ways.

I got a Facebook friend request from Dave years ago and I accepted, rolling my eyes. He comes across my feed maybe twice a year. Sometimes I get flashbacks to that night. I don’t feel terror or rage or even uncomfortable. I just feel like, Oh. There’s that asshole Dave I gave into and had sex with because he wouldn’t stop begging me.

I belong to a private group of women writers on Facebook. I shared the story about Dave and asked them all point blank. Was I raped?

None of us could come up with a clear answer.

Seventeen years later, I can’t come up with a clear answer either.

Aliya S. King, a native of East Orange, N.J., is the author of two novels and three nonfiction books, including the New York Times best-seller Keep the Faith, written with recording artist Faith Evans. She lives with her husband and two daughters in New Jersey. Find her on Twitter and at aliyasking.com.

This piece was illustrated by Aliya’s daughter, Skye Volmar.

Dave’s name has been changed.

In response to the news Monday that Chris Hughes, the owner of the New Republic since 2012, no longer wished to own the magazine, the writer Jonathan Chait supplied an entertaining quote to the New York Times:

“A business is something that is trying to make money,” he said. “If you’re in a town and you’re trying to sell hamburgers, and everyone wants pizza, you’d switch to pizza. But The New Republic believes in hamburgers. We think you need hamburgers, and we will continue to make hamburgers and try and persuade you to eat them.”

Some people thought that the most amusing word in that quote was “hamburgers,” but the most amusing word in that quote really was “we.” In 2011, six months before Chris Hughes bought the magazine, Jonathan Chait left the New Republic to become a full-time writer for New York magazine.

Three years later, Hughes dismissed editor Franklin Foer in an unpopular and awkward shakeup, leading much of the magazine’s staff to resign. In solidarity, Chait demanded to be removed from the New Republic’s masthead, where he had been listed as a contributing editor. His contributions over the previous year had amounted to one byline, in the magazine’s 100th anniversary issue, on an essay about how important the New Republic was to him, and how it was “an irreplaceable institution in American intellectual life.”

Joining Chait in that protest was Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker, who’d left the New Republic in 2007, and who had written nothing for it for more than a year before he surrendered his contributing editorship. Contributing editors Ruth Franklin and Robert Kagan likewise resigned with zero bylines in the previous 12 months. Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum, another renunciant, had contributed three pieces to the New Republic in that span.

So much for irreplaceable institutions. If you wanted to make hamburgers, to paraphrase the Wizznutzz, you would make hamburgers, and if you wanted to talk about how you want to make hamburgers, then that’s what you’d do, and you do do that.

Chris Hughes is certainly a fool and a perfect mascot for our current, downy-cheeked accidental plutocracy. Having written a memo confessing his inability to find a “sustainable business model” for the New Republic, he chose to publish that memo for free on Medium. The way he framed his decision to quit—that having sunk, by his account, $20 million of his Facebook fortune into the magazine, he was looking for “a larger digital media company” or “another passionate individual” to take it off his hands—is a vapid fantasy.

But Hughes and his generation have no monopoly on self-parody. Here, in the mix of reactions, is the Twitter opinion of one Tina Brown:

“Dilettante smashes toy,” writes the editor who shut down Newsweek’s print edition (only to see it revived after she was gone).

If the New Republic is the story of a vanity owner who got in over his head and decided he couldn’t keep losing money, that’s not the story of Chris Hughes. It’s the story of Marty Peretz selling the magazine to Chris Hughes in the first place.

The New Republic is a shadow of its former self. It was a shadow of its former self in 2012, too—a weekly cut back to biweekly, fumbling for a digital plan, the writers who identified with it preferring to actually work elsewhere.

Pizza and burgers aside, Chait wasn’t entirely wrong about the magazine being irreplaceable, in the sense that nothing fills the role it used to. At the height of the New Republic’s power, Peretz could force the world of politics and journalism to pay attention to his opinions, no matter how terrible and destructive they were.

It’s not clear that Hughes has any opinions, but even if he did, there’s no comparably effective way to inflict them on the public. Hamburgers aren’t losing out to pizza, in this world; hamburgers are losing out to Soylent and Instagrams of cappuccinos. Facebook can make a fellow rich, but he can’t buy back the world as it was before Facebook.

Even so, influence journalism is not entirely dead. The president still gathers key columnists to him, off the record, when he feels the need to make a case. When President Obama was pushing for the nuclear agreement with Iran, for instance, he reportedly summoned a group of journalists to the White House to discuss it. The New Republic of Chris Hughes was not invited. But Jonathan Chait of New York magazine was.

Photo via Getty. Contact the author at scocca@gawker.com.

On April 29, 2013, National Airlines Flight 102 lifted off from Bagram Airfield, in northeast Afghanistan, carrying several tons of U.S. military equipment destined for the Emirati city of Dubai. Within minutes of liftoff, at 3:27 p.m. local time, the Boeing 747 aircraft suddenly stalled before crashing into one of Bagram’s open fields. The fuselage exploded upon impact, killing all seven crew members. You may remember watching a dramatic video of the crash captured by a nearby vehicle’s dashboard camera that was uploaded to the video website LiveLeak a day later.

Two years later, in July 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded its lengthy investigation into the catastrophe’s main cause, finding that the aircraft stalled because “five large military vehicles it was carrying were inadequately restrained. This led to at least one vehicle moving rearward, crippling key hydraulic systems and damaging the horizontal stabilizer components, which rendered the airplane uncontrollable.” This was hardly a revelation: For the past two years, coverage of the crash has focused on the shifting of heavy cargo in the plane’s rear bulkhead, where the flight’s crew had placed the armored vehicles, including three mine-resistant trucks known as Cougars, each weighing between 13 and 21 tons.

But why were the vehicles inadequately restrained, causing them to shift in the first place? In a statement delivered on July 14 at the N.T.S.B. headquarters in Washington, D.C., board chairman Christopher A. Hart said that the crash victims “lost their lives not to enemy fire, but to an accident.” The official accident report, published on August 26, likewise blamed crew error: “The NTSB concludes that there is no evidence that an explosive device or hostile acts were factors in this accident.”

A review of recent N.T.S.B. investigations suggests it is unusual for the agency to clarify, either in press releases or completed reports, that an incident classified as an accident was not caused by explosives or some other hostile act. In the investigation of the Flight 102 crash, however, this question was actively explored (and diligently addressed) by the agency. This could be chalked up to the fact that the crash occurred in a military theater, or the dramatic nature of the plane’s sudden descent and destruction. But perhaps the most significant factor in this arm of the investigation was National Airlines, the company that owned and operated the destroyed Boeing 747.

In the course of the N.T.S.B.’s fact-finding mission, just as the agency began to form a clearer picture of what happened in Bagram Airfield, the Orlando-based airline latched onto a very different theory about the crash’s cause. The Flight 102 disaster, one of the company’s top executives repeatedly insinuated in documents submitted to the agency, may have been perpetrated by Taliban militants.

In a 31-page report submitted to the National Transportation Safety Board on March 19, National Airlines’ director of maintenance alleged a litany of errors with the federal agency’s investigation of the crash, including its alleged refusal to consider foul play and its apparent inability to protect the evidence of the crash from contamination. The director, Steven Santangelo, also revealed previously undisclosed events, including the discovery of an I.E.D. on a subsequent National Airlines flight and the mysterious death of an Afghan official who initially oversaw the crash investigation. At the end of the document, which was made public on May 27, Santangelo asserts that “terrorist activity, such as explosive damage or sabotage to the aircraft or its cargo, cannot be ruled out” as a cause of the flight’s crash.

Santangelo, who has worked in the airline industry since 1985, belonged to a three-person investigative team that arrived in Bagram four days after the crash and surveyed the accident site for the following nine days. The chairman of the team, Tom Jacky, is an N.T.S.B. employee. The third member, Rick Mayfield, works for the Boeing Company. The same trio inspected the craft’s wreckage at an N.T.S.B. facility in Ashburn, Virginia in September 2013. These inspections, along with interviews of Bagram personnel, generated hundreds of documents related to the crash.

The conclusion at which Santangelo arrived—that it was essentially impossible to rule out foul play—would, of course, be immensely helpful to National Airlines’ bottom line if the N.T.S.B. were to concur. “The purpose of the N.T.S.B.’s investigation is to try to figure out what happened,” the aviation expert Jeff Wise told Gawker. “They’re specifically not out to assign blame or culpability. But obviously their finding is going to be a major factor if someone gets sued.”

Aerial view of Flight 102 wreckage · Photo Credit: NTSB

Santangelo’s conclusion also happens to align with the statements of an unlikely group: The Taliban. Within hours of the crash, the terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the aircraft’s destruction. American authorities quickly rebutted this claim by pointing out, accurately, that the Taliban demands credit for virtually every setback to the U.S. military. But Santangelo’s report introduces information that has never been disclosed to the public—some of which we were unable to corroborate—that significantly muddles this narrative.

Among his report’s most noteworthy allegations:

• Some time after Flight 102’s crash, a National Airlines employee discovered an improvised explosive device (IED) on another armored military truck that the airline had transported from Afghanistan to the United Arab Emirates. According to Santangelo, “the fact the device went undetected through security sweeps out of Afghanistan and into the UAE lends support to the view that terrorism should not have been discounted in the accident investigation.”
• Members of the Taliban “threatened the investigator-in-charge for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Transportation and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) to coerce him into accepting the Taliban’s claim.”
• The same investigator-in-charge, whom Santangelo does not name, “was subsequently killed” under unknown circumstances.

Wreckage of destroyed Cougar · Photo Credit: NTSB

These disclosures help set up the (still fairly shaky) idea that a hostile act may have been the cause of the crash. Santangelo then goes on to argue that N.T.S.B. officials ignored this very possibility, thereby compromising the integrity of the entire investigation. “The following basic investigative actions were not taken following the accident,” he writes, “to rule out potential terrorist claims”:

1. Determining whether the military conducted a security sweep of the [Cougars] prior to loading.
   
2. Determining the security situation on the ground during the two hour loading delay before the Atlas loader began loading the Cougars. (National Airlines uses a Security Checklist, which is signed by the loadmaster and carried on board the aircraft; this document was not recovered.)
   
3. Testing items recovered from the runway following the accident in the vicinity of Taxiway C, which was near the point of takeoff rotation, and items found along the flight path, for explosives. (Although bomb-sniffing dogs were used after the accident, dogs cannot detect the residue of a bomb that has detonated.)
   
4. Determining the source of fluid/smoke observed by witnesses during the aircraft’s brief flight.
   
5. Analyzing the CVR [cockpit voice recorder] to detect the audio signature of an explosion.

Later on, he explains how the wreckage’s physical evidence may have been contaminated:

During the post-crash field investigation a crane was used to lift wreckage from the debris field. It was observed that the crane rolled over other pieces of wreckage within the debris field thus possibly damaging or burying physical evidence. Some wreckage was hauled in the back of pickup trucks to a parking lot on Bagram Air Base. There was no chain of custody for the wreckage. Moreover, although the military had posted guards, numerous individuals, such as persons bringing flowers to the wreckage and first responders, had access to the wreckage.

The rest of the report, much of which is written in highly technical language, disputes several preliminary analyses presented by N.T.S.B. investigators, particularly those related to exactly why, and exactly when, the Cougars shifted after liftoff to throw the aircraft off-balance. Many of these analyses remain incomplete because both the flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) stopped recording just seconds after liftoff. The report’s last section, titled “Probable Cause,” reads:

The probable cause of the accident was a departure stall at an altitude that was too low to allow for recovery. The cause of the pitch up and departure stall could not be determined due to the loss of the FDR and CVR information immediately after liftoff and the destruction of the wreckage following impact and post-crash fire. Terrorist activity, such as explosive damage or sabotage to the aircraft or its cargo, cannot be ruled out.

This conclusion is not just noteworthy for its implied corroboration of the Taliban’s claims. In a report submitted on the same day as Santangelo’s, and made available on May 27 as well, a Boeing Company investigator named Paul Richter argues that “hostile acts were not a factor in this accident.” The section detailing this argument reads:

Immediately after the accident, when conditions permitted, U.S. Air Force personnel examined the wreckage at the accident site to determine if there were any indications of weapon effects. The Air Force conducted additional weapon effects inspections on the wreckage and the airplane parts found on the runway on May 11th and 12th. None of these inspections found signs of any weapon effects. A military laboratory also examined two pieces of the airplane that were found on the runway (near rotation) for signs of explosives or other exploitable materials and none were detected.

In addition, no sounds of explosions or weapons effects were recorded on the CVR. Based on these findings, the Air Force concluded that hostile acts were not a factor in this accident. These findings were supported by the absence of any images of explosions or weapons effects (smoke, fire, etc.) in the three videos of the Accident that the NTSB’s Vehicle Recorder Laboratory analyzed.

As noted above, Santangelo’s report disputes nearly all of Richter’s findings. The wreckage was improperly handled. The crash and subsequent fire likely destroyed any detectable residue of exploded ordnance. The cockpit voice recorder stopped recording after the plane became airborne. The only finding from this section that Santangelo doesn’t directly address is the purported lack of “any images of explosions or weapons effects” in three videos of the crash, taken from security cameras placed around Bagram Air Field.

Still from security camera footage of Flight 102’s descent · Photo Credit: NTSB

The lack of “weapons effects” in security footage does not necessarily mean there weren’t observable indications of foul play—or at least something amiss. Indeed, according to witness statements gathered by the N.T.S.B., an Air Force technical sergeant named Michael Zullo observed “a clear colored fluid [or] liquid coming from what looked to be the bottom tail area” of the aircraft sometime after lifting off the ground. Zullo’s statement is likely the one Santangelo is referring to when he criticizes investigators for failing to assess “the source of fluid/smoke observed by witnesses during the aircraft’s brief flight.”

Not all of the available evidence (or deficit thereof) supports Santangelo’s narrative, however. His report claims, for example, that “there is no evidence that any actions by the flight crew contributed to the pitch up of the aircraft or the inability of the aircraft to recover from the stall condition.” This passage appears to refer to the possibility that the craft’s crew members failed to secure the military trucks, which require a complex arrangement of heavy nylon straps to prevent them from shifting during transport. According to Richter’s report, Boeing did not recover definitive proof of such negligence during the flight that crashed, but the company does point to evidence that cargo had been insufficiently secured on the flight immediately preceding it.

Strap fragments recovered from crash site · Photo Credit: NTSB

The Boeing aircraft used for Flight 102, registered under the number N949CA, originally arrived at Bagram Airfield via Camp Bastion, an airbase operated by Britain’s Ministry of Defense in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. According to transcripts of conversations captured by a microphone placed in the cockpit, crew members noted that some straps holding the same military cargo had gone loose. From Richter’s report:

The crew discussed improper cargo movement that had occurred sometime during the flight to Bagram. The crew discussed a “busted” strap and the presence of a “knot.” The crew further discussed a load movement of “a couple inches,” and the fact that “all the [straps] that were keeping em from movin backwards were all loose.” The accident Captain commented about heavy cargo not having a “lock”. Another crewmember said, “I’m getting off this plane, I’m scared,” to which the Captain responded “throw [the broken strap] out man, that’s evidence. The loadmaster don’t want that hangin around either.” Based on the recorded conversation, the crew apparently addressed the cargo movement by replacing the broken item and “cinching them all down.”

Santangelo does not address these transcripts—which are, admittedly, quite damning—in his own report. This omission is particularly noteworthy given his report’s length: it is twice as long as Boeing’s. Then again, much of his report is devoted not to the presence of evidence, but to the lack of it, in order to establish his underlying epistemological argument: that in the absence of proof to the contrary, the N.T.S.B. cannot rule out the potential of foul play.

Jeff Wise, the aviation expert, was highly critical of National Airlines’s apparent strategy. “[Santangelo] is not saying, ‘We think an I.E.D. placed at the roof of the wing would have caused exactly what we saw to have happened,’” Wise added. “This guy’s not saying anything like that. He’s not positing any kind of alternative scenario. He’s just blowing smoke. He’s saying, ‘The government is evil and cannot be trusted, therefore my client has to be let off the hook.’”

However, a third document published by the N.T.S.B. on May 27 suggests Santangelo’s claims were treated seriously enough to trigger an apparently rushed effort to locate any evidence or testimony that would disprove them. Dated May 13, 2013—nearly two years prior to Santangelo’s report—the document lists the results of an extensive chemical analysis performed on two pieces of wreckage recovered from the crash site: a section of the aircraft’s outer skin, and piece of bent metal that belonged to a hydraulic line. Both fragments tested negative for any “explosives or other exploitable materials.”

The analysis carries a notable disclosure at the very end, though. “Although no explosives were identified it does not eliminate the possibility of the preexistence of an explosive,” it reads. “Likewise, if a military-grade ordnance were to explode properly, it is possible all explosives would be consumed in the explosion and no explosive residue remain within a detectable limit.”

Wreckage recovered from aft bulkhead under examination · Photo Credit: NTSB

On June 22, the N.T.S.B. uploaded an undated memorandum prepared by the Joint Combat Assessment Team (J.C.A.T.), a group within the Department of Defense that investigates aircraft failures in war zones. Signed by Lt. Col. Chad Ryther, the memorandum summarizes what Ryther and his J.C.A.T. colleague, Capt. Gary Roos, witnessed at Bagram on the day Flight 102 stalled and exploded. Both men, the memorandum states, had obtained “extensive training in identifying the visual, acoustic and other employment signatures of the full spectrum of weapons known to be employed against aircraft.” And neither of them believe any weapon was used against the Boeing aircraft:

At no time did the JCAT team observe any indications of weapons effects on any portion of the aircraft. Additionally, a JCAT review of numerous witness statements and two videos of the incident indicated no evidence of weapons employment prior to, during or after the event. The final JCAT assessment was that there was absolutely no evidence that any sort of weapon was employed against aircraft N949CA at any time prior to, during or after the event on 29 April 2013.

This would appear to be definitive. But eighteen days later, on July 10, Santangelo provided a “supplemental submission” to N.T.S.B. investigators in which he vehemently questioned not only the contents of J.C.A.T. report, but the fact that National Airlines was only recently made aware of it. “The report does not cite to any near contemporaneous documentation of any of the observations described,” Santangelo wrote, “which is especially troubling considering the report is undated and was received by National Airlines more than two years after the accident.” The submission concluded:

The appearance of this unusual, JCAT “report” does not resolve significant questions about the adequacy of the investigation into possible sabotage of the accident aircraft. National Airlines remains concerned that an improvised explosive device or other sabotage could have caused or contributed to this accident and that this line of investigation never appropriately proceeded. No attempt was made to determine the signature of an improvised explosive device hidden in or on the military vehicles on board the accident flight, or to conduct a comprehensive search for explosives residue and other potential evidence of a low-level explosion.

Four days later, the N.T.S.B. announced its final report’s findings. “The probable cause of this accident,” the finished report states, “was National Airlines’ inadequate procedures for restraining special cargo loads.” The airline has not yet submitted any other statements or documents pertaining to the crash, according to the agency’s online docketing system.

National Airlines did not acknowledge repeated requests for comment. A spokesperson for Boeing declined to comment on Santangelo’s statements submitted to the N.T.S.B., and referred Gawker to the documents it had submitted to the same agency. In an email, an N.T.S.B. representative wrote: “Information added to the N.T.S.B. docket is used for factual information. The information stands for itself without further elaboration.”

Email: trotter@gawker.com · PGP key + fingerprint · Photo credit: LiveLeak

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson is a racist homophobe who has advocated marrying 15-year-old girls. He is also, per the title of the YouTube embedded above, a “Cruz Commander,” which means that Robertson has officially endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz for President.

For a brief period, Robertson was the national face of self-righteous hatred (now often referred to as “religious freedom”). In 2013, after his comments to Drew Magary in GQ about the deviance of gays and their anus-loving ways scandalized liberals, A&E suspended Robertson from Duck Dynasty, only to reinstate him nine days later. By then, bigots like Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee had decried A&E’s decision to turn its back on someone who was merely, to hear them spin it, exercising his freedom of speech. Thus Duck Dynasty became the new Chick-Fil-A.

And now, Phil Robertson is to Ted Cruz as Lena Dunham is to Hillary Clinton. In the last two years, Duck Dynasty’s ratings have plummeted, which makes Robertson’s endorsement especially pathetic, but on the plus side, his endorsement video gifted us with the iconic image of Cruz atop this post.

[h/t Chris Moody]

GOP presidential candidate and sweater ascetic Jeb Bush’s emotional register on the campaign trail hovers between “mildly deflated” to “moderately chagrined”—but LOOK at how his eyes light up as he realizes that the expensive and impractical gadget he’s been wearing can make phone calls.

Finally, a ! moment for our favorite dour Floridian scion!

“My watch can’t be talking,” Bush said, as recognition that our merciless world can still contain a genuine surprise spreads across his face.

“I’ve never had my bat phone turned on,” Jeb continued. “That’s the coolest thing in the world.”

At last a fleeting moment of true joy, brought to Jeb by his trusty “iWatch.”

[USA Today via Cult of Mac]

GIF: Andrew Liszewski

After months of silence, Kristin Cavallari is finally ready to talk about a photo shoot she did last year for her mid-priced shoe line, Kristin Cavallari for Chinese Laundry.

“Starting to talk about my spring look book shoot for my shoe collection, Kristin Cavallari by@chineselaundry,” she wrote on Instagram today. “This was last falls [sic] when I was about 5 months pregnant with Saylor. Wearing the Chandy flat in silver.”

Why has Kristin kept quiet about this photo shoot for so long? Was it traumatic in some way? Bad lighting? Seconds after the above photo was taken, did she accidentally kick off one of her Chandy flats into the valley below, striking a small child?

Who can say but Kristin? I’m glad she is starting to talk.

This has been 500 Days of Kristin.

[Photo via Getty]

A deeply-discounted humidifier, an ultra-cheap pressure cooker, and All-Clad cookware sets highlight today’s best deals. Bookmark Kinja Deals and follow us on Twitter to never miss a deal. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. Click here to learn more.

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If you don’t own a pressure cooker, today’s a great day to fix that. You can score a highly-rated T-fal 6.3 quart model for just $46 today as part of an Amazon Gold Box deal. That’s not just the best price ever listed for that model; it’s actually one of the best deals we’ve ever seen on any pressure cooker, period. [T-fal Pressure Cooker, $46]

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Anyone with even a passing interest in cooking knows that All-Clad is the brand you want in your kitchen when it comes to skillets and pots. Made in America and carrying a lifetime warranty, you’d probably see their wares in the kitchens of most of your favorite restaurants. One of their skillets is also the single most popular piece of cookware we’ve ever listed.

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For a limited time, $700 at Best Buy gets you a flexible Lenovo Yoga 2-in-1 with a 256GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, GeForce 940m graphics, and a 1080p display. That’s a whole lot of computer for the money. [Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 2-in-1 Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State 14" Touch-Screen Laptop, $700]

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There are better kitchen knives out there, but for $10, you could do a lot worse than this Hiroshi Nakamoto chef’s knife. I love my Victorinox Fibrox, but that wooden handle calls to me. [Hiroshi Nakamoto Premium Sushi and Sashimi Chef’s Knife, $10]

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TV’s first great cyberpunk show just won a Golden Globe for best television series (drama), and you can get caught up with the first season on Blu-ray for $30. [MR. ROBOT Season 1, $30]

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The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is getting an HD remake for the Wii U, and its amiibo bundle is back in stock today on Amazon, with a $12 discount for Prime members. Note: Discount shown at checkout. [Preorder The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Amiibo Bundle, $48 for Prime members]

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As if you needed another reason to get Amazon Prime, members can now save 20% on select all video game preorders, including blockbusters like Quantum Break, Uncharted 4, and the open world Legend of Zelda.

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The Philips Norelco Multigroom 5100 is actually seven different grooming tools rolled up into one device, and you can own one for an all-time low $25 today on Amazon. This is a strong contender for your favorite beard trimmer in this week’s Kinja Co-Op. [Philips Norelco Multigroom 5100 Grooming Kit, $25 after $5 Off Coupon]

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It’s tough to find fault with a 4-port car charger for under $10, especially when one of them is Quick Charge 2.0-compatible. [Tronsmart Quick Charge 2.0 54W 4 Ports Rapid USB Car Charger, $9 with code 4PORTCAR]

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Motion-sensing stick-anywhere night lights are super useful for dark hallways, cabinets, and closets, and we’ve found two great options today.

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I have to say, Mpow’s new Magneto Bluetooth earbuds look a lot nicer than the uber-popular Swifts, and at $26, they’re not that much more expensive either. They even snap together magnetically for tangle-free storage! [Mpow Magneto Wearable Bluetooth 4.1 Wireless Sports Headphones, $26 with code B28QLRB7]

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Tech

Storage

• Team 64GB MicroSDXC Flash Card ($15) | Newegg
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Power

• Tronsmart Quick Charge 2.0 54W 4 Port Rapid USB Car Charger ($9) | Amazon | Use code 4PORTCAR
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• AUKEY 20W Dual USB Port Solar Panel ($40) | Amazon | Use code TEEC24N4
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Audio

• Urge Basics Cuatro Bluetooth Portable Wireless Speaker ($20) | Amazon | Use code 5U7P6JVA
• Mpow Buckler Water-Resistant Suction Cup Bluetooth Speaker ($20) | Amazon | Use code DOFICF4X

Home Theater

• Sony 55 Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart TV w/ $250 Gift Card ($998) | Dell
• Refurb Sony 48" 1080p 60Hz LED Smart HDTV ($300) | Walmart
• Insignia 43-Inch LED 1080p HDTV ($250) | Best Buy

Computers & Accessories

• Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 2-in-1 Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - 256GB Solid State 14" Touch-Screen Laptop ($700) | Best Buy
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Mobile Devices

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Photography

• Contour ROAM2 Waterproof 1080p Action Camera ($85) | Amazon
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Home

• IR Motion Sensor Controlled LED Bulb ($5) | eBay
• AmazonBasics Microfiber Cleaning Cloths, 24 Pack ($13) | Amazon
• Insignia 6-Sheet Stripcut Portable Shredder ($10) | Best Buy
• BBQ Pro Deluxe Charcoal Grill ($51) | Sears
• DeLonghi TRD40615T Full Room Radiant Heater ($90) | Amazon
• DBPOWER Electric Cordless Pet Hair Trimmer ($10) | Amazon | Use code JUWIY6EC
• Set of 6 Flameless LED Color Changing Votive Candles with Remote and Timer, Multiple Colors ($14) | Amazon | Use code OXBRDOY5
• Rowenta HU5120 Intense Aqua Control Ultrasonic 360 Humidifier with Unique Baby Mode ($100) | Amazon
• STERLING Southhaven X Self-Rimming Stainless Steel 33 in. 4-Hole Double Bowl Kitchen Sink ($139) | Home Depot
• Infantino Flip Advanced 4-in-1 Convertible Carrier, Light Grey ($20) | Amazon
• Etekcity Wireless Doorbell Kit with 1000ft Operating Range ($14) | Amazon | Use code UHKGFLJI
• Etekcity 3-in-1 Battery Powered Motion Sensor Activated LED Night Light & Handheld Flashlight & Power Failure Emergency Lamp, ($14) | Amazon | Use code S7V6UWMB

Beauty & Grooming

• Philips Norelco QG3364/42 Multigroom Beard Trimmer ($25) | Amazon Clip the $5 coupon
• Pro Hair Brush Electric Comb Hair Straightener ($25) | Amazon

Kitchen

• All-Clad Stainless Cookware Sets ($255-$605) | Woot
• T-fal Stainless Steel Dishwasher Safe PFOA Free Pressure Cooker Cookware, 6.3-Quart ($46) | Amazon
• MIU COLOR® Glass Water Bottle w/ Tea Infuser, 18.5oz ($17) | Amazon | Use code 785KWSCZ
• 1000ml Stainless Steel French Press Coffee & Espresso Tea Maker ($23) | Amazon | Use code RQU4TQRH
• Hiroshi Nakamoto Premium Sushi and Sashimi Chef’s Knife ($10) | Amazon

Fitness

• 20% off Smartypants Multivitamins | Amazon
• $30 to Spend on Vitamins, Food & Natural Products at LuckyVitamin.com ($12) | Livingsocial | Use code POP
• Attmu Waterproof Pouch with Waist Strap ($6) | Amazon | Use code BDYB6T2V

Apparel

• PUMA Semi-Annual Sale is Happening Now
• Sierra Trading Post is Having a Mid-Winter Markdown Sale
• Columbia Women’s Wildflower Woodlands Full Zip Jacket ($20) | Columbia
• Take an Extra 15% off Clearance or 20% off $100 at JCPenney with Code JANSAVE
• Crocs Walu Mens Loafer ($25) | eBay

Camping & Outdoors

• Mountainsmith Travel Duffel - X-Large ($35) | REI
• BV Bicycle 5-LED Headlight and Taillight ($8) | Amazon

Tools & Auto

• Craftsman 82-Piece Socket Wrench Set ($40) | Sears
• Black Craftsman Heavy-Duty Top Chest ($300) | Sears
• BYB Super Bright CREE T6 LED Headlamp, Waterproof ($21) | Amazon | Use code HJKQMK4B
• Esky 170 Degree Viewing Angle HD Waterproof Car Rear View Backup Camera with Shockproof & Anti-freeze Radar Parking Sensor ($20) | Amazon | Use code PF89YLPT
• OXA Safety Hammer Smart Car Charger ($7) | Amazon | Use code PDVJF3WI
• iClever Wireless FM Transmitter Radio Adapter Car Kit ($11) | Amazon | Use code LAXIGF2D
• Mpow Grip Magic Air Vent One Step Mounting Magnetic Car Mount Holder ($5) | Amazon | Use code ZZSRPFAU

Media

Movies & TV

• Sherlock Holmes + Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows ($10) | Amazon
• Oblivion ($8) | Amazon
• Riddick ($7) | Amazon
• The Chronicles of Riddick (Unrated Director’s Cut) ($7) | Amazon
• MR. ROBOT Season 1 ($30) | Best Buy
• Penny Dreadful: Season 2 ($25) | Amazon
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The Complete Series ($29) | Amazon
• Kung Fu Panda 2 ($10) | Amazon
• Jurassic Park ($8) | Amazon

Books & Magazines

• Immerse or Die 9-eBook DRM-Free Bundle ($12) | StoryBundle
• FREE Only Time Will Tell [Kindle w/ Audio] | Amazon
• The Harder They Come Audiobook ($4) | Audible

Gaming

Peripherals

• Corsair Vengeance K65 Compact Mechanical Gaming Keyboard ($70) | Amazon

PC

• TEMBO THE BADASS ELEPHANT ($4) | Steam
• Eight Mini Racers ($1) | Steam
• The Park - The Secret World ($9) | Steam

PlayStation 4

• PlayStation Store Essentials Sale
• Dragon Quest Heroes: The World Tree’s Woe and the Blight Below ($40) | Amazon
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Steelbook Edition ($40) | Amazon
• Need for Speed: Rivals ($20) | Amazon
• Need For Speed - Steelbook Edition ($40) | Amazon

Xbox One

• Xbox One Kinect Sensor with Dance Central Spotlight ($99) | Amazon
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III - Steelbook Edition ($40) | Amazon
• Need For Speed - Steelbook Edition ($40) | Amazon
• NHL 16 - Steelbook Edition ($40) | Amazon

Wii U

• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD Amiibo Bundle ($48) | Amazon | Prime members only. Discount shown at checkout.
• Wii Fit U + Fit Meter + Wii Balance Board ($25) | eBay

Vita

• PlayStation Store Essentials Sale

Board Games

• Simon Swipe with 24 Duracell Batteries Bundle ($15) | Walmart
• Lagoon: Land of Druids Board Game ($12) | Amazon

Toys

• LEGO Star Wars Imperial Shuttle Tydirium 75094 Building Kit ($83) | Amazon
• LEGO City Space Port 60079 Training Jet Transporter Building Kit ($48) | Amazon
• Bounce Back Table Tennis Table ($253) | Sears
• Star Wars The Force Awakens 3.75-Inch Figure Troop Builder 7-Pack [Amazon Exclusive] ($48) | Amazon

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A new “Yoga in America” study finds that there are more than 36 million yoga practitioners in the U.S., which is an increase of more than 50% in just the past four years. At this rate, in 20 years nearly every U.S. citizen will be doing yoga, which is sure to bring us all together.

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