A Texas man has now been arrested and jailed two separate times for having sex with the same horse. Hidalgo County sheriff's deputies arrested Cirilo Castillo earlier this week after they allegedly caught him – on video, no less — having sex with the horse, named Nadia, in her corral.

Castillo is apparently obsessed with Nadia. So obsessed that he returned to have sex with her just three months after he was jailed for having sex with her, or, more specifically, after he was jailed for cruelty to animals. (Texas, as it turns out, does not have a law against bestiality).

Nadia's owners realized Castillo might be back when they found a "mysterious bucket" in her corral, though they didn't specify what made the bucket mysterious. The owners then set up a video camera to catch Castillo in the act and contacted the Hidalgo County sheriff's department.

“We have a hell of a surveillance tape,” Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino told the Houston Chronicle. “It is not going to go to, ‘America’s Funniest Videos,’ that is for sure.”

Trevino went on, describing Castillo as a laborer with prior arrests for minor crimes like theft and marijuana possession.

“The guy is practically harmless, except for the horse,” Trevino said.

Because there's no law against bestiality in Texas, Castillo can, according to Trevino, only be charged with trespassing and maybe cruelty to the horse, if there's evidence the animal was hurt. Trevino didn't say if the “hell of a surveillance tape” included such evidence.

Either way, Trevino wants to help Castillo, if only to prevent the crime from happening again.

“I can’t just ignore this and allow it to keep happening," he said. "Maybe we can get him some help, whatever we can do, we are going to try and do.”

To contact the author of this post, email taylor@gawker.com

The chief justice of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court was sworn in as president today, after four days of protest led to a military coup against the democratically-elected Mohamed Morsi.

The army, which laid out a road map back towards democracy on Wednesday, has suspended the constitution and placed president Morsi and other prominent members of his party under arrest. It is possible they will now be tried for conspiring to kill protesters.

The acting president, Adli Mansour, told Egyptians Thursday that they had “corrected the path of its glorious revolution,” as the military took control of the country for the second time in less than three years following popular upheaval. Once again, protests focused on the dismal state of Egypt's economy, as president Morsi failed to lessen shortages of electricity and gas.

Members of both the liberal and ultra-conservative wings of Egyptian politics endorsd the military takeover, which the United States has not acknowledged as a coup, while military tanks run through the streets of Cairo as the military begins cracking down on Islamist political groups and media.

"We are deeply concerned by the decision of the Egyptian Armed Forces to remove President Morsi and suspend the Egyptian Constitution,” President Obama told reporters yesterday.

Mr. Morsi released a final speech Wednesday night before his website was shut down by the military, condemning the military action as “a complete military coup which is categorically rejected by all the free people of the country who have struggled so that Egypt turns into a civil democratic society.”

Crowds in Tahrir Square have thinned as Egyptians returned to work on Thursday, once again under control of a military that has never stepped too far away from the leadership of the country.

The Statue of Liberty has reopened to the public for the first time since Superstorm Sandy. It had only been open for a few days last October after a year of renovations when Liberty Island was pummeled by the storm, leading to another shutdown of the statue.

Dale Irby, a gym teacher in Texas, retired earlier this year after 40 years on the job. And 40 years of taking his yearbook picture in the same disco-era outfit.

“I was so embarrassed when I got the school pictures back that second year and realized I had worn the very same thing as the first year,” Dale, 63, told The Dallas Morning News.

But after his wife, a fellow teacher at the school, dared him to do it again, Dale never stopped. “After five pictures, it was like: ‘Why stop?’”

The Dallas Morning News is running an outstanding slideshow of Irby's outfit, which made it to forty picture days.

And the get-up still fits. "Uh, yeah, if I suck it in a little,” Irby said.

Joey Chestnut has won the Nathan's hot dog eating contest for a record 7th straight year.

On Monday, Costa Rican lawmakers passed a bill that concerned various social services for young people. On Tuesday, they woke up to the realization that they had pretty much legalized gay marriage.

Conservative lawmakers were appalled when they found that the law they had voted on had language inserted into it by liberal politicians that expanded social rights for gay people as well as extending the benefits of a civil union to gay couples.

“During the discussion in the first debate, we explained that the Law of Young People should be interpreted with this sense of opening to gays and no one objected,” explained liberal politician José María Villalta.

Conservatives are calling on the president of Costa Rica to immediately veto the bill. Recent surveys show that the population of Costa Rica is opposed to gay marriage.

If approved by the president, the law would have to withstand court challenges, which it would most likely lose. Still, the accidental legalization has given advocates a platform to discuss the need for gay marriage and maybe change the minds of Costa Ricans.

“It is a big step forward for gay rights in Costa Rica,” Costa Rican gay rights advocate Marco Castillo said in an interview.

Gay marriage is on such a roll lately, it even accidentally becomes law.

[Photograph of Costa Rican politician José María Villalta]

A rising wind raises all rideshare helicopters—or so the pixel Pollyannas of the Valley would have you think, all progress and prosperity. And the fact that they're raking in more money than when gold was actually falling out of the ground. But if we're in boom times, what's up with all this bummer poverty?

With the help of the Urban Institute's stellar "Poverty and Race in America, Then and Now" map, you can see just how little has changed, even as every young bright person says they're changing the world.

For ordinary people who don't need crowdfunded toothbrushes or a delivery service for soap, the wealth boom has meant unaffordable housing and shredded culture. Not anything remotely halcyon.

Take San Francisco proper. The left side of the divider shows data from 1990, and the right is from 2010.

Each dot represents 20 residents living below the poverty line—blue is white, yellow is black, green is Hispanic, and red is Asian/Pacific Islander. They haven't been uplifted so much as just shifted around and priced out here and there. It's even more evident when you move down towards Facebookville.

With the exception of the enormously sought after turf around Stanford, where it appears poverty was declared illegal, the dots have mostly just been shuffled.

Fortunately for the WiFi-bussed, these dots will never have to appear as anything more than an abstraction, if that.

The doctors of Nelson Mandela report that he has entered a "permanent vegetative state" as his family has resolved a conflict over the final resting place of his three children who predeceased him. He wishes to be buried in the same plot.

Joey Chestnut retained the mustard-yellow belt and broke his own record with an astounding 69 hot dogs today at Coney Island, earning the praise of competitive eating mavens worldwide as he cruised to his seventh straight victory at Nathan's.

He also earned the praise of ESPN commentators Paul Page and Rich Shea, who we think take this all a bit too seriously. After all, everyone in their heart of hearts knows if Kobayashi were permitted to compete, he'd be right there next to Chestnut.

[ESPN]

Some people on Twitter are confused. Is America a wizard? Highlander? Jesus's twin brother?

They're probably making a pretty good joke.... but maybe they aren't?

After being called to a house on a report of a disturbance last Saturday, a Florida woman kissed a police officer on his nose (against his will).

Peggy Hill, 62, not a cartoon character, encountered the deputies when they came to her house after a fence dispute with a neighbor (Hill already had a case against her for allegedly stealing livestock from the same neighbor). The deputies spoke to the neighbor and then went to interview Hill. That's when things got all Florida.

Hill went over to one of the deputies and kissed him on the nose. The deputy wiped her saliva off and arrested her.

Hill was arrested for battery of a police officer, and admitted that she'd had a few glasses of wine before the officers came to her property. Hill said in the police report that the idea to kiss the officer's nose just popped into her head, so she went for it.

She will be spending 4th holiday in jail, contemplating her misplaced kisses.

[Manatee County Sheriff's office]

Late popes John Paul II and John XXIII will be made saints, the Catholic Church declared on Friday, conferring on both men a special "VIP status" that gives them discounts on select concession stand items and access to the shorter VIP line on all the rides.

An accidental fireworks explosion in Simi Valley, California sent 20 people to the hospital and injured eight more, leading a bomb squad to removed the leftover fireworks.

As many as 10,000 people were in attendance at the show when some fireworks accidentally shot down, into and near the crowd, exploding by the ground:

Another witness, Annisa Wynn, told KTLA-TV Channel 5 that the explosion occurred about two minutes into the show. Fireworks suddenly began shooting sideways along the ground into the crowd instead of up in the air, she said.

“The fireworks were so close, you could see them on the ground," Wynn said. "It never happens this way. People were screaming."

The park was evacuated, and most of the injured were taken to the hospital—four with moderate to severe injuries from shrapnel or burns, and 16 others with minor injuries. Police don't think foul play was involved. No fatalities were reported.

The U.S. economy added 195,000 jobs in June.

The AFP reports that at least three people were killed when the Egyptian army opened fire on protestors demonstrating in favor of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi outside the barracks where he's being held.

According to the AP, the forces opened fire when the crowd approached the barbed wire fence around the barracks:

An Associated Press photographer at the scene Friday says the Republic Guard forces opened fire when protesters approached a barbed wire barrier around the facility and hung a picture of Morsi on it.

BBC reporter Jeremy Bown, who was at the demonstration, says that the protestors were "disciplined" and "hotheads" were "under control." According to his account, relayed by ABC's Jon Williams, the "[a]rmy leveled guns and opened fire without warning."

Earlier today, armed attackers stormed the el-Arish airport near the Gaza border, resulting in one death, and the military is said to have declared a state of emergency in the Suez and south Sinai.

Morsi, a moderate Islamist who was elected president just over a year ago, was removed from power by the army on Wednesday and arrested the following day, alongside other prominenet members of the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party, after widespread protests against the organization and Morsi's regime. In response, pro-Morsi demonstrators numbering in the hundreds of thousands have gathered around Egypt

Why did 19 elite firefighters die in an Arizona wildfire on Sunday? Not to save lives—no, they died protecting "people’s summer homes and year-round retreats."

Trayvon Martin's mother testified this morning in the murder trial of George Zimmerman, the man who is charged with shooting the 17-year-old last year. Just before speaking in court, Sybrina Fulton tweeted:

Day 19 - I pray that God gives me strength to properly represent my Angel Trayvon. He may not be perfect but (cont) http://t.co/dMKHkvOqrg

— Sybrina Fulton (@SybrinaFulton) July 5, 2013

She began her testimony with a simple and emotional introduction: "My youngest son is Trayvon Benjamin Martin. He's in heaven.”

Fulton and Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, have been in attendance for every single day of the trial so far, sitting through days of testimony about the shooting. They have reportedly left the courtroom abruptly during some of the testimony.

George Zimmerman claims that he shot the unarmed 17-year-old on February 26, 2012 in self-defense.

A serious point of contention in the case is which voice is screaming in the background of the 911 tapes from that evening. Fulton says that her son is screaming for help, and Zimmerman's father says that his son is the one yelling. Trayvon's brother, Jahvaris Fulton, also said he recognized Trayvon's voice on the tapes.

During the cross-examination today, Fulton reported: "I heard my son screaming."

The prosecution is expected to wrap this case today. If convicted, George Zimmerman, 29, will face life in prison for second-degree murder.

[image via AP]

Breaking Bad begins when a high school chemistry teacher finds out that he has a fatal form of cancer and decides to manufacture and sell high-grade meth in order to provide for his family after he passes away. It's about mortality, power, violence, and the insidious methamphetamine market. As it happens, all of these themes are actual real-life themes in actual real-life America.

Since it first aired in 2009, there have been an astounding number of life-imitates-art cases in which meth dealers and manufacturers are caught in plots strikingly similar to a prototypical Breaking Bad episode. Many of these real-life Walter Whites are teachers. Some have terminal illnesses, some use campers to manufacture the product, most are absolutely crazy. One is even named Walter White. Read more about all the outrageous real-life WWs below.

Stephen Doran

Stephen Doran, a 57-year-old middle school tutor with stage III cancer, was arrested for trafficking meth in late May of 2013. He's also bald. He received a package of meth at the school. After his arrest, authorities discovered $10,000 in cash and some more meth at his home. Doran was a former Massachusetts State Representative.

Eden Bloom

This 45-year-old teacher was arrested at Newton High School for refusing to leave the campus long after the buildings were locked down for the evening. After Bloom was arrested, police officers found meth in her possession.

Walter White

Walter White is actually the name of this meth-peddler. White is on the Sheriff's top-ten most wanted to meth production in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He was arrested in 2008, the same year AMC began the show.

Johnie Mason IV and Jason Edward McClanahan

Johnie Mason IV and Jason Edward McClanahan were arrested for attempting to operate a mobile meth lab in West Virginia. The police received tips about suspicious activity in a camper and discovered meth manufacturing materials inside the vehicle. Also one is bald and the other is wearing a shower cap.

Marc Hodges

Hodges, a teacher's assistant, was arrested for manufacturing meth after weeks of police investigation. A neighbor tipped off the police when he discovered meth ingredients in his trash, and a local business warned the authorities after Hodges purchased over 1000 boxes of matches and peroxide (the strike plates on matchbooks can be used to make meth in some way that's probably really dangerous). His students were perplexed: "I liked him. He wasn't that bad of a teacher," reported one young learner, "He was nice and all." Hodges was arrested at Charlotte Douglas International Airport after a weeklong trip to Cozumel, Mexico, where he was celebrating spring break.

Irina Kristy

In December 2011, a 74-year-old mathematics professor at Boston University and Suffolk University was caught running a dangerous meth lab. She worked with her 29-year-old son to manufacturer the drug out of their suburban home. Kristy had taught at the universities for over twenty years.

Jason Hart

Jason Hart, who was arrested for murdering his girlfriend and trying to dispose of her body in a plastic container of acid, was allegedly inspired by a Breaking Bad episode. In "Cat's in the Bag," which was cued on his DVR, Walter White instructs his assistant Jessie to dispose of a body in such a way. The roommate of the alleged murder says Breaking Bad was Hart's favorite show.

Misti Bynum

Bynum was a teacher in Piedmont, Oklahoma who was arrested for trading prescription pills for meth. The 37-year-old had taught at the school for one year.

William Duncan

This 43-year-old chemistry teacher was caught selling homemade meth to undercover officers outside Mae Luster Stephens Junior High in Texas. He'd reportedly been selling his products at the school for a long time. "We were surprised. I've known him for a long time and I'd have never thought it," reported Police Chief Linden Alton McWaters.

To contact the author of this post, email maggie@gawker.com.

On Wednesday, Bolivian President Evo Morales was geopolitically stopped-and-frisked in Austria on his way home from Moscow, which Bolivia has claimed was because the U.S. believed Ed Snowden was aboard his plane. Conflicting information has since emerged, with some claiming it was a routine stop that got blown out of proportion, others a flagrant abuse by U.S. imperialists. Today, however, it is clear that someone was telling Europeans governments that Edward Snowden was aboard Morales' flight, and it looks likely it was the U.S.

Today, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said on television that "they told us that the information was clear, that he was inside." He didn't say who they were. Hopefully he wasn't referring to "random people on Twitter." But the obvious culprit would be the U.S. During an interview in Moscow, Morales had suggested that he'd be willing to consider a possible Snowden asylum request. He claimed that France, Portugal, Spain and Italy had then all denied permission for his plane to enter their airspace after being pressured by the U.S. because they suspected Snowden might be stowed aboard.

Morales' flight was redirected to Vienna, where authorities attempted (either successfully or unsuccessfully—it's unclear) to search the plane. According to Firedoglake, Austria's leading daily paper, Die Presse, reported that the U.S. Ambassador to Austria had personally called the Austrian foreign department after Moarles' plane landed in Austria and "claimed with great certainty that Edward Snowden was aboard."

Of course it's possible that Ed Snowden, bored after almost two weeks in Sheremetyevo Airport, decided to prank call European leaders and claim he was on Evo Morales' plane himself.

[Image via Getty]

New York Times columnist David Brooks is "defending the coup" today. Why? Because "Egypt... seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients" for democracy.

It's not just that, as Brooks writes, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists "lack the mental equipment to govern"—"Once in office, they are always going to centralize power and undermine the democracy that elevated them," which, heh, sounds like a good line from a column about the modern American presidency!—it's that all all of Egypt does:

"It’s not that Egypt doesn’t have a recipe for a democratic transition. It seems to lack even the basic mental ingredients."

It's worth asking here if Brooks himself has the basic mental ingredients for democracy. He seems confused about what democracy actually entails, in particular when he attempts to contrast "those who emphasize process," (the softies who argue that Morsi was democratically elected) "those who emphasize substance" (the keen-eyed realists who understand that what democratic values really call for is people with tanks and guns who are willing to remove elected Islamists from power).

The problem with this distinction, beyond the glib oversimplification, is that it makes no sense at all. There can't be a distinction between "those who emphasize process" and "those who emphasize substance" because the "process"—you might know it as "democracy"—is the substance. This is, in fact, the point of democracy!

When an election produces a terrible, misguided, incompetent government, the democratic thing to do is to elect another government. Even the Egyptian Army seems to understand this, which is why it has been careful to frame its seizure of power in democratic terms—that the military removal of Mohamed Morsi from power was the will of the people, and the procedures that followed were constitutionally correct, and the entire episode is merely a brief state of exception until a new, better government can be chosen by Egyptians. General Sisi, who undertook a coup on Tuesday, is one of Brooks's people "who argue process"!

Brooks, on the other hand, is arguing that the army was right to take over because Egyptians are children unable to self-determine. Brooks, King of Substance People, is arguing against democracy itself:

The substance people are right. Promoting elections is generally a good thing even when they produce victories for democratic forces we disagree with. But elections are not a good thing when they lead to the elevation of people whose substantive beliefs fall outside the democratic orbit. It’s necessary to investigate the core of a party’s beliefs, not just accept anybody who happens to emerge from a democratic process.

This would be a decent seminar for Brooks himself, who seems disinclined to "investigate the core" of the beliefs of America's two major political parties. But it's not a great introduction to democracy. What does it mean to "accept" whoever emerges from a democratic process? Something like ... "allow to hold elected office until the next scheduled democratic transition," maybe. Unfortunately, with a childlike and incompetent people like the Egyptians, that kind of patience cannot be indulged.

Shall we note here, the day after Independence Day, that it took the United States of America 13 years after rejecting monarchy to settle on a stable constitutional form of government?