Every year, the New York Police Department steals millions of dollars from poor New Yorkers. The code governing this ability was written in 1881, and ruled unconstitutional twice—and yet the seizures are still happening. Former Gawker weekend editor Max Rivlin-Nadler takes a look at the NYPD's civil forfeiture industry.

More domestic airline flights are running late these days—17%, as compared to 14% a year earlier—but fewer passengers are filing complaints about it to the government, probably because they have suffocated in their seats.

Sources tell Valleywag that after housing and transportation, the latest slice of public infrastructure to get the VIP, front-of-the-line treatment is healthcare. We hear Oscar Salazar, an Uber cofounder who helped design and implement the e-hailing prototype, is working on a startup that will offer personalized house calls from doctors. It plans to launch imminently.

As of last month, Salazar had at least 40 doctors lined up for the New York City-based company. "It will work like Uber, but with doctors coming to you. I mean it will start out for the 1%, clearly," said the source. Doctors make the house call and then direct you the emergency room, if necessary. The chance to invest in the stealth startup is "becoming a hot deal now," the source added.

Initially, I hear Salazar's venture would be called Housecall or Doctor Housecall. A trademark for "Housecall" was filed on June 24, 2013 for a similar sounding healthcare product using mobile devices and push notifications.

Goods and Services

IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer software for coordinating health services, namely, software for the automated scheduling and dispatch of health service providers IC 038. US 100 101 104. G & S: Telecommunications services, namely, routing calls, SMS messages, video calls, and push-notifications to local third-party health service providers the vicinity of the caller using mobile devices IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Providing a website featuring information regarding health services and scheduling for health services; Providing temporary use of online non-downloadable software for providing health services, bookings for health care services and dispatching health care providers to customers

Owner

(APPLICANT) Techcare Inc CORPORATION DELAWARE 55 W 5th Avenue 18th floor, C/O 8an Capital New York NEW YORK 10044

The trademark was filed by Techcare Inc., a Delaware corporation, but c/o 8an Capital. Some digging into 8an Capital lead us to an investment firm called Abundance Partners, where Oscar Salazar is listed as an advisor. As it turns out 8an Capital is the "family office," i.e. an advisory firm for ultra-high net worth investors, for Philip Eytan. who also happens to an advisor at Abundance Partners. Eytan once worked as a VP at the high-profile private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, helping them invest in early stage tech companies like Livestream.com.

On Eytan's LinkedIn profile, he now describes himself as a cofounder and president at techCare Inc, which "Providing a platform to allow house calls for doctors and patients."

Perhaps the company is doing business as techCare until they launch as Housecall? Archives show that the URL Housecall.com used to be redirect visitors to a site from another medical care company. Now it's just turning up a blank page.

Salazar's LinkedIn profile doesn't mention anything about techCare or Housecall. Rather he describes himself as the chief product officer of RIDE. However, Gleb Chuvpilo, who currently serves as the director of engineering at RIDE, says he's been an advisor to techCare Inc. since May. I've contacted Salazar andEytan and will update the post when we hear back.

As the mythology of Uber's rebel libertarian faction takes shape, Salazar's name has been lightly erased from the history books. These days only CEO Travis Kalanick, who stepped down as head of the company for a time, and Garret Camp are the only ones called cofounders.

Regardless, Uber has been the most successful startup to popularize the idea that technology can solve gaping holes in civic infrastructure—for those that can afford it. So the involvement of Uber's "founding architect" will no doubt bring a fanfare of attention and funding, especially after the disastrous rollout of healthcare.gov.

Let's just Taskrabbit and Uberize the Government.

— Shervin Pishevar (@shervin) October 2, 2013

According to our source, Housecall (or whatever it's called) may start with the 1 percent:

"...well paid doctors going to rich people. But most illness is solved quickly over the internet and such imagine the Uber X [lower cost option] scenario of Housecall. Someone out of school with training coming over for $50 instead of $500 bucks to evaluate and decide whether you need more attention. It will get tricky if someone misdiagnoses, but no more tricky than a hospital. This is why i think out of all the Uber for X co's, this is the most viable"

Housecall isn't even the first New York startup to reanimate the 1950's doctor at your doorstep model. Jay Parkinson, the hipster version of the Hippocratic oath, started a healthcare company called Sherpaa that began by selling 24/7 customized care to coddled Tumblr employees over the Internet.

Just last week, Oscar Health, the most high profile of all the New York contenders, announced that it had raised another $30 million in capital, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund. That brings its total funding to $75 million since July, so roughly 10 millie a month. Other investors include Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital, Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst Partners. Foursquare cofounder Naveen Selvadurai is working on product for the company.

According to Dealbook, the new funding was because Oscar Health "had thousands of customers and tens of millions of dollars in revenue," not because it had a high burn rate. Currently, the product is only available through New York State's health insurance exchange, but that hasn't stopped Kushner from giving it that future perfect solutionism sheen:

Oscar still charges deductibles and monthly payments. But the company focuses on offering other services intended to make life easier for patients, including free generic drugs, free calls to doctors and a handful of free primary care appointments.

The start-up also focuses on design and technology, including an online search function that lets patients type in their symptoms in natural language, then being steered to a doctor that suits their needs.

To Mr. Kushner, such services are meant to undercut the idea of insurance companies as faceless middlemen. "People just don't have a relationship with this kind of entity," he said. "The existing players don't care about satisfying the customer."

Is there any problem that user experience can't solve?

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

[Image via Shutterstock.com]

When Curtis Reeves Jr. killed a texting moviegoer and wounded a bystander at a theater outside Tampa yesterday with a .380 pistol, it sounded like a clear case of rage. But the 71-year-old retired cop may have been in fear for his life—and he may be able to take advantage of Florida's gun-friendly self-defense law.

Reeves' initial statement certainly indicates he'll claim self-defense, according to an analysis by the Tampa Bay Times' Jessica Vander Velde:

Reeves told Pasco Sheriff's deputies Monday that Oulson stood up and struck him in the face with an unknown object when they were arguing inside a Wesley Chapel movie theater during previews. Reeves said he was "in fear of being attacked," according to an arrest affidavit.

But the county police aren't buying it, in part because the "unknown object" was a bag of movie popcorn:

Reeves wanted Oulson to stop texting. He walked out and complained to theater management. When Reeves returned to the 1:20 p.m. showing of Lone Survivor, "words were exchanged" and Oulson threw a bag of popcorn at Reeves, an arrest affidavit states.

Witnesses say the pair did not throw punches. Then Reeves pulled a gun and shot Oulson, who was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Under Florida's stand your ground statute—an expansive cover-all advanced by the state's top NRA lobbyist in 2005—anyone can shoot to kill, assuming they reasonably feared for their physical well-being. And the definition of "reasonably" is quite elastic, law professor Charles Rose told Vander Velde:

Many factors could come into play, he said.

For one, when Oulson threw popcorn, that was technically assault under state law. Was it reasonable to respond with deadly force simply because of the popcorn? No, Rose said.

However, if Reeves considered the popcorn throwing to be one step in an escalating response from Oulson — and if the 71-year-old man feared that Oulson would come over the movie theater seats and physically attack him next — and if Reeves felt he wouldn't be able to handle such an attack from a younger man, then jurors might consider deadly force reasonable, the attorney said.

"Here's the problem: We're trying to look into the mind of the defendant and posit what the thought was happening," Rose said.

Looking into the mind of an elderly man who comes armed to a matinee showing of "Lone Survivor" shouldn't take long, really. But then again, this is Florida, where George Zimmerman was found not guilty, and where lawmakers are currently considering adding warning shots and the brandishing of weapons to the list of acts that could be protected under the stand your ground law. Until it all shakes out, residents are probably best served by a Redbox. Or kevlar.

[Photo credit: dno1967b/Flickr Commons]

"Mistakes were clearly made," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said of Bridgeghazi/Bridgegate in his State of the State address this afternoon. Yes, benevolence and competence can be really difficult sometimes. As can the avoidance of clichés and the passive voice.

A 17-year-old girl was found guilty of distributing child pornography after she "sexted" pictures of her boyfriend's underage ex-girlfriend during a jealous fit last year.

The girl, who lives in Victoria, British Columbia, reportedly stole the pictures from her boyfriend not long after they started dating last year. She then sent the pictures to a friend and posted one to the ex-girlfriend's Facebook page, allegedly as a sort of warning. The girl, who was 16 at the time of the crimes, also threatened to "stomp" her boyfriend's ex.

"It's something she regrets. … Neither she nor any of the youths involved realized the jeopardy they were placing themselves in," the teen's defense attorney, Christopher Mackie, told reporters outside the courthouse, according to CBC. "These child pornography laws were intended to protect children, not to persecute them, and again it seems the criminal justice system, it's a heavy hammer to be using."

The prosecutor hopes the punishment will serve as a warning to other teens.

"(Teenagers) need to be careful what they send, what they send to each other and where it might end up," Fisher said after the ruling. Mackie, the teen's attorney, plans to appeal the verdict.

[Image via Shutterstock]

"I think this world would be better off having more young women holding a fish in a picture than holding their camera in front of a bathroom mirror, taking a selfie." -Sarah Palin. No PR people are writing her quotes! Never change, fish lady. [FB]

[Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States, competes on her way to set the fastest time during the first run of an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom in Flachau, Austria, on Tuesday. Image via Marco Trovati/AP.]

It's been two decades since Dr. Jim Withers first coined the term "street medicine," and he is still out there practicing what he preaches.

Withers believes that "the best way to care for the homeless is to treat them where they live."

Rather than wait for the homeless to come to him — something Withers knows many are unlikely to even consider doing — he decided to hit the streets of his hometown of Pittsburgh and find them.

With a backpack full of remedies and the help of outreach workers and a crew of medical students, Dr. Withers continues his mission of making homeless "house calls" to this day.

[H/T: Devour]

Meth fans in the Southwest: Do not be misled. Despite what your tweaked brain may be telling you, the blue meth you're buying was not actually made by Heisenberg or Jesse Pinkman. In fact, it's likely more dangerous than regular meth.

According to law enforcement officials, a group of sort of savvy meth dealers have been dyeing their drugs blue to make it look like the Walter White-created meth on Breaking Bad.

"We are seeing an increase in blue meth up in the Four Corners, and into the Farmington region. It's actually being moved and pushed by various distributors," Homeland Security agent Kevin Abar told KOB in Albuquerque.

Unlike the high-quality meth on Breaking Bad, the blue dye likely just makes the drugs more dangerous. "It's truly bad," Abar said, adding that the dealers are dyeing it with potentially unsafe chemicals. "It's a bad meth that's created a lot of individuals getting sick from utilizing it."

[Image via AP]

Dozens of gay men in Nigeria reportedly have been arrested under the country's new Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, which sentences people to jail for 14 years for being married to a person of the same sex, and 10 years for belonging to gay-oriented groups. This is disgusting.

When Path sprayed a cheap bottle of champagne in its own face over the weekend, touting a new, loathsome investor, it ended on a positive note. Not only is the superfluous social network staving off death a little longer, it's hiring! But will anyone fall for this dreck?

This is sort of a trick question, because if you're using something you found on Vimeo to make a major career decision, your life is probably already skidding towards catastrophe. But really, this is the pitch to join Path, to leave your current job and join Dave Morin on a downward slide—"We have this vast amount of connecting for the sake of connecting, but not connecting for the sake of meaning and developing depth in your relationships." Inspired yet?

The first part of the job interview is this: can you derive even a single coherent idea from this incoherent motion picture clusterfuck? You're hired.

If you like the homicide cop reality show The First 48, you'll love this wholesale indictment of the police work it depicts. "In Miami...at least 15 men have walked free of murder charges spawned under the program's glare."

Sure, this is an obvious promotion for a horror movie when you're watching it safely at home. But would it scare the hell out of me if I just randomly saw it in the street? Yes, of course.

The robotic hell child was designed by "viral marketing company" Thinkmodo—who made last fall's Carrie prank—to promote the awful looking horror movie, Devil's Due. Using a three man team—one for the stroller and two for the demon baby—the company terrorized unsuspecting people throughout Manhattan earlier this winter.

My advice? In addition to steering clear of that movie, stay away from all strollers, just in case this thing is hiding inside.

A U.S. district judge has ruled Oklahoma's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional. But same-sex couples can't head to the courthouse just yet, as the ruling is on hold pending appeals.

Late night talk show host Conan O'Brien took to Twitter this afternoon to officially address a claim that he fathered an illegitimate son with a 30 Rock employee some 20 years ago.

"A kid in New Jersey is falsely claiming to be my illegitimate son," Conan tweeted, referencing a YouTube video uploaded last week by Greg Keating. "For the record, I have three children: Neve, Beckett, and @RonanFarrow."

Conan's less-than-serious response to Keating's claim likely stems from the fact that Keating is probably kidding.

But, then again, maybe he isn't.

Speaking with Boston Magazine, Keating insists his mother really was a 30 Rock employee, and he has the pay stubs to prove it.

He says the idea that Conan might be his dad came to him after years of being told he looks suspiciously like him (so much so that he began calling himself Greg O'Brien).

One day he was snooping around and found "old NBC files in the cabinet upstairs." He told Boston Magazine he isn't "too clear on that time of [his mother's] life [because] she doesn't like to talk about it."

Keating hopes Conan will submit to a blood test so they can settle this matter once and for all.

[screengrab via @ConanOBrien]

The first viral public proposal of the new year is officially here — and it's spectacular.

Literally: A performance of Peter Pan: The Never Ending Story in Glasgow's Hydro arena was abruptly paused last weekend so the actor playing Peter could propose to the actress playing Wendy.

"So, ladies and gentlemen, normally this show would continue with Peter Pan watching Wendy and giving her a kiss," Sandor Sturbl, 28, told a stunned audience of thousands. "Although this is not a normal show this evening."

He then took a knee and popped the question, to which Lilly-Jane Young, 22, responded affirmatively.

"I thought it was a technical hitch and was staring to panic," she later told the Scottish Daily Record. "I feel like the luckiest girl alive and can't wait to marry Sandor."

[H/T: The Daily Dot]

The 34^th annual Razzie nominations were announced Wednesday morning, highlighting the terrible films we've watched on planes, in theaters with our parents, and alone, all alone, on Saturday nights. As expected, Grown Ups 2 and The Lone Ranger dominate the competitive field, but it's really hard to celebrate the worst of 2013 when the so-called "best" movies weren't even particularly exciting.

Here are the nominees:

WORST PICTURE


• After Earth

• Grown Ups 2

• The Lone Ranger
• 
A Madea Christmas

• Movie 43

WORST ACTOR


• Johnny Depp: The Lone Ranger

• Ashton Kutcher: Jobs

• Adam Sandler: Grown Ups 2

• Jaden Smith: After Earth

• Sylvester Stallone: Bullet To The Head, Escape Plan, Grudge Match

WORST ACTRESS


• Halle Berry: Movie 43, The Call

• Selena Gomez: Getaway

• Lindsay Lohan: The Canyons

• Tyler Perry: A Madea Christmas

• Naomi Watts: Diana, Movie 43

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS


• Lady Gaga: Machete Kills

• Salma Hayek: Grown Ups 2

• Katherine Heigl: The Big Wedding

• Kim Kardashian: Tyler Perry's Temptation

• Lindsay Lohan: In-App-Propriate Comedy, Scary Movie 5

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR


• Chris Brown: Battle Of The Year

• Larry the Cable Guy: A Madea Christmas

• Taylor Lautner: Grown Ups 2

• Will Smith: After Earth

• Nick Swardson: A Haunted House, Grown Ups 2

WORST DIRECTOR


• The 13 People Who Directed Movie 43

• Dennis Dugan: Grown Ups 2

• Tyler Perry: A Madea Christmas, Temptation

• M. Night Shyamalan: After Earth

• Gore Verbinski: The Lone Ranger

WORST SCREEN COMBO


• The Entire Cast of Grown Ups 2
• The Entire Cast of Movie 43

• Lindsay Lohan & Charlie Sheen: Scary Movie 5

• Tyler Perry & EITHER Larry the Cable Guy OR That Worn-Out Wig & Dress: A Madea Christmas

• Jaden Smith & Will Smith on Planet Nepotism: After Earth

WORST SCREENPLAY


• After Earth: Screenplay by Gary Whitta and M. Night Shyamalan, Story by Will Smith

• Grown Ups 2: Written by Fred Wolfe & Adam Sandler & Tim Herlihy

• The Lone Ranger: Screen Story & Screenplay by Ted Elliott, Justin Haythe & Terry Rosso

• A Madea Christmas: Written by Tyler Perry

• Movie 43: Written by 19 "Screenwriters"

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL


• Grown Ups 2
• 
Hangover III

• The Lone Ranger
• 
Scary Movie 5

• Smurfs 2

It always seems like the Razzies go for the easy kill; sure, The Lone Ranger was a huge financial disaster, but was it actually worse than R.I.P.D., A Good Day to Die Hard, or Planes? What about Jack the Giant Slayer? And in terms of cinematic disappointments, how can we leave out Internship and Man of Steel?

Did the Razzies get it right? What was the worst movie you saw in 2013?

[Image via AP]

Rap Genius is a terrifically helpful website with the misfortune of being run by evasive wackball Yale dudes. Interviews with the crew rarely go beyond goofing around and bizarre outbursts—which is why this very un-TechCrunch podcast Q&A, that doesn't allow horse-shitting answers, is so nice to hear.

The hip hop-centric Combat Jack Show hosted the Rap Genius inner circle to talk Googleghazi. As usual, they start out with the dissembling clown routine—but Reggie Ossé (a.k.a. Combat Jack), isn't taking it: he repeatedly, calmly, tells them to just shut up and answer the fucking questions he's trying to ask. It works!

At around the 10 minute mark, Reggie gets the founders to talk about how exactly they fucked up their Google connection (and the aftermath).

At around 25 minutes, we get some straight talk about why the RG trio play up their indoor-sunglasses-douchebag personas.

At 31 minutes, everyone starts shouting about whether Rap Genius is, as they claim, the greatest site on the internet.

What we see, over the course of an hour, is a group of smart guys, insulated by VC prestige, who let media hamming and postured assholery overshadow the fact that they have the best lyrics website on the internet. If they just shut up and talk about that, it's fascinating.

It's a long interview, but worth at least skipping through, and certainly more illuminating than anything you'll see onstage at Disrupt—or anywhere else an interviewer lacks the guts to tell someone he sounds like an asshole. And it makes you wish every prominent tech figure would be interviewed by Combat Jack, who could not care less about what office your investor walked out of.

Photo: Getty

The 71-year-old ex-cop who killed a fellow moviegoer and injured the victim's wife for texting in the theater will remain in custody without bail, because "the evidence of guilt is significant," according to the judge who arraigned him. He reportedly also had threatened movie patrons before.

Curtis Reeves Jr. faces second degree murder charges for fatally shooting 43-year-old Chad Oulsen in the chest, according the the Tampa Bay Times. Reeves claims he feared he was being assaulted by the younger man, but the police timeline told a different story:

Neither man threw a punch, according to the report. Witnesses said Oulson hurled a bag of popcorn at Reeves, who then pulled a .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol from his pants pocket and fired once, the report states. The bullet struck Oulson's wife, Nicole, in the hand, which was on her husband's chest as she tried to break up the argument.

Sumter County sheriff's Cpl. Alan Hamilton was sitting five seats away and grabbed the gun from Reeves, deputies say. The two struggled for control for a few seconds before Reeves let go. The gun was jammed when Hamilton turned it over to deputies.

The Times says that after the shooting, another local woman, Jamira Dixon, came forward to say Reeves had accosted her weeks earlier for the same offense:

On Dec. 28, she said Reeves confronted her for texting during a movie. She said he was glaring at her, and that he even followed her to the restroom.

Dixon said her husband thought of confronting Reeves, but didn't. "It could have been us," she told Bay News 9.

[Screenshot courtesy of the Tampa Bay Times]