Snoop Dogg is not mincing words about Clippers owner and monster bigot Donald Sterling. Bless you, Calvin Broadus.

[via Instagram]

I thought I'd never see my cult leader again.

And then a month ago, he showed up on my bedroom television. His name is Victor Barnard, and he was on the local news because two women in Pine County, Minn., near where I grew up as a member of his Fellowship church, had accused him of sexual abuse.

He had allegedly chosen a group of adolescent girls—the daughters of church members—to live alone in the church headquarters, where he sexually abused them with their parents' permission. The women said he dressed like Jesus and called them "maidens." He'd been accused before of sleeping with his married female followers, but this was the first time his child sexual abuse was being spotlighted. An investigation was open against him, but nothing had gone forward.

But the news report brought survivors out of the woodwork. Follow-up stories were aired, and Victor Barnard was, last week, officially charged with 59 counts of sexual misconduct. He's now on the run from authorities—maybe being smuggled between the homes of his remaining followers.

I never had a sliver of hope that he would be brought to justice and made to answer for the horrific things he's done to those girls, it's hard to even now, it just seems too good to be true.

My family joined the Fellowship when I was five, in 1985. My mom lost my little brother in childbirth and our preacher at the time told her it was because God was testing her. That hurt my mother, who didn't want to believe in a God that would do such a thing. We switched churches, and got involved with a small Christian group that we called "Twig" or "the Fellowship." Twig was an offshoot of The Way Ministries, another Christian sect.

Twig was different enough for my mother. It preached love, not vengeance and pain, and, at least initially, it was warm and collegial. We became fast friends with another family, the Cheshires—my mother with Jean Cheshire and me with her daughter Jessica, who was a year younger than me. We'd have Fellowship on Sundays at a mix of different leaders' houses. It seemed like anybody who wanted to host and lead Fellowship could.

That was before Victor came along.

I actually know very little about Victor's background. I was so young when we got involved with Twig; it was mostly just my parent's friends who led Fellowship at their houses around Minneapolis. There were little pockets of us all over Minnesota, and eventually we all started to get together in the summer for picnics. That's when we first met Victor, and a few other families that seemed to be very closely tied to the Barnards. The picnics soon turned into weekend getaways every summer where everyone would show up, all of it organized by Victor.When I was 10, the Cheshires moved north of Minneapolis to a tiny town outside of Mora, and my family followed. We were very close, having attended the same Fellowship exclusively for several years now; we rented the house right next to their double wide mobile home on the same plot of grass.

A couple years later, in 1992, Victor moved up north too, to a neighboring rural area called Rush City. Another family the Barnards were close to, the Roarks, soon followed him and built a house on the same plot of land. Not long after that we all began to attend Fellowship at their compound, always in Victor's house and eventually led by Victor only.

Sunday Fellowship became restricted to just the Barnards' house. A slew of other new restrictions arose. We were no longer allowed to have friends outside of the Fellowship—unless we were trying to show them The Light, The Word and The Way. Victor required approval of what we were able to watch and listen to. At first it was just small silly things. We weren't allowed to say something was "awesome," because only God is awesome. Then my sister had to cut the horns off of her My Little Pony unicorns because it was a mythical creature and therefore "devilish." We also could no longer watch the movie Ghost, which wasn't a huge blow, honestly.

Essentially everyone was a mole, even our closest friends. If a friend from Fellowship told her parents that she watched something "bad" at my house, Victor would find out.

Victor's rise to power was gradual and methodical, starting at those group picnics and continuing long-distance even before he moved to Rush City. That's the thing about cults, and about predators. There's a slow but constant grooming. You don't really realize how drastically things have changed, so it feels normal. And all the while you're being reassured that what you believe in—what you've devoted your life to—is real and right. The more you commit to it the more Jesus loves you. The more Victor loves you. Victor became just as much of a focus as God and Jesus. After a while there wasn't a prayer that went by without the speaker thanking God for Victor before they said "amen."

Every Sunday the "horn of plenty" was passed around. It was nothing more than a wicker trinket from Pier One, meant for decorative purposes, but everyone stuffed 10 percent or more of their earnings—in cash—inside to fund The River Road Fellowship. I even put in part of my baby-sitting money.

Victor asked that our parents have us enrolled in the school system in Rush City, where he lived. I was tormented daily by the girls in my grade. Victor made me stay—because, he said, I needed to turn the other cheek and show them Jesus' love and forgiveness. I developed a horrible case of insomnia. My hair started falling out.

At this point Fellowship had become incredibly strict; my mother had been personally reprimanded by Victor for letting us watch Fantasia because it portrayed magic which is a tool of the Devil. While I was being forced to go to Rush City school by Victor in that same year it was also "suggested" that I watch a movie called The Buttercream Gang, over and over until I got it.

The Buttercream Gang is about a friendship between two kids, Pete and Scott. Pete goes off the Chicago and comes back "bad," stealing Scott's bike and selling it. Scott turns the other cheek. Pete sees the error of his ways and changes.

I am here to tell you as Victor's guinea pig that the turn-the-other-cheek shit does not work on eighth-grade girls in a small town. In fact, my Jesus-like approach only fueled their fire. And I was terrified of these girls because I wasn't allowed to retaliate. I was a straight-A student, and I faked illnesses and failed classes until my mom pulled me out.

Many years later, I was passing by Rush City on my way back to Minneapolis and I was starving so I stopped at the freeway-side gas station combination Burger King. I cannot express in human words how satisfying it was to hand my worst bully cash as she passed me a Whopper Jr. and fries. She didn't recognize me. I guess some of us make it out and some of us don't. I'm not a religious person but maybe sometimes you really do reap what you sow.

Eventually, my best friend Jessica and I were allowed to go to the adults-only leadership weekend retreat at Craguns, a resort in Brainard, Minn. At the start of the retreat, Victor announced that Jessica and I would be speaking in tongues in front of everyone on the final day. This was news to us. We were terrified.

We had watched the adults do it every Sunday, but none of the kids had ever been asked to do it ourselves. For the rest of the weekend we tried to slip away when we could into an empty cabin and practice our shubba-lubba gibberish so it would sound authentic. After the shubba-lubba-ing we knew we'd have to interpret the gibberish as if God were speaking directly through us. We tried to come up with anything that sounded like it came from the Bible: "I sayeth unto you, my children, I am the Father, and I hath given you my son to be your Lord and Savior, in his love and light you shall never be lost."

We dreaded it the entire weekend. When it came time to stand up I was terrified, and convinced that everyone would know instantly I was faking it. But the practicing paid off. I made it through, when I was finished my father was so proud of me he started crying. I've never felt like such a fraud in my life.

When Jessica was 13 she told her mother that her stepfather Dirk, who was also a Fellowship leader, had been sexually abusing her. Jean left him immediately. Dirk was charged and convicted with criminal sexual conduct, and when the case was brought to a sentencing hearing in Pine City, Victor showed up to testify on Dirk's behalf, and told Jessica that she needed to forgive Dirk because it's what Jesus would do. Dirk was sentenced to four months in jail, with work release. Last I heard, he'd moved to Kentucky and got a job selling used cars.

Things started unraveling from there. Victor told Jean that she needed to get rid of Jessica, and that Jessica should go live with her father in California because she was a bad influence. This was the final straw for Jean. There was no way anyone was going to tell them they had to abandon their children, not even the all powerful Victor Barnard.

So we all left. On New Year's Eve 1994, my mother was thinking about everything that our family had gone through in the past year when, as she puts it, "God struck me on the head with a hammer": Victor and The River Road Fellowship were wrong. We stopped attending Fellowship immediately, without warning or explanation.

A few weeks later my mother received a phone call from Victor asking why we hadn't attended. She told him God told her she needed to focus on her family; he retorted, "What about my family?" Another congregant, sent by Victor no doubt, came to the house and told my parents that if they didn't come back they would die like Ananias and Sapphira—the Biblical couple who held back on the profit of the sale of their land and were struck dead for lying to the church. This was their plea to come back. How will the Barnards survive without the tithe we gave every Sunday?

After the biblical threat came a nasty letter from Victor's mother, accusing my parents of abandoning her son and his family and the Fellowship. When we still refused to return, Victor himself showed up at our doorstep. My parents let him into the kitchen and told us to go downstairs. The three of them sat at the table, and Victor demanded to know why we'd left the Fellowship. My mother was terrified, but her strength outmatched her fear. She told him he'd have to answer to God for what he was doing—but he and my family were done with one another. He berated my parents more, and told my dad he wasn't a good father because he traveled for his job and wasn't around. But his threats didn't persuade my parents, and eventually he left.

Shortly after that we moved from rural Minnesota back into Minneapolis. We'd lost our friends, our community, our faith. I was 15. My mother was terrified that he'd keep coming after us, stalking and threatening. He probably would have if they didn't think we'd moved out of state. It took my mother several years to even feel safe. We hadn't gone far, and it's a small world even when you're not an ex-member of a cult.

Nobody had left, as far as I can remember, not before us. There were pockets of believers all over the state but the ones closest to Victor, the ones who could be controlled wouldn't even consider it. We were all so tightly knit and secluded in our Christianity, our beliefs. That's how he could threaten and deliver on us losing everything if we left; all the people we'd ever known would stop speaking to us, on his command. If people left after that it was only because he became even more controlling.

A few years later the Fellowship sold its property in Rush City and moved to a campground in nearby Finlayson. By 2000, Victor was living in a separate compound with his 10 Maidens.

Jessica tried to keep tabs on him over the internet. She tracked him through forums started by jilted husbands who Victor had weeded out by sleeping with their wives, and she learned that they'd sold the Rush City houses and moved to a campground in Finlayson. The forums talked about those "Maidens," daughters Victor was taking for himself, and we wondered how many of them were girls we knew and grew up with—the only friends we had at one point.

I don't know if Victor was already abusing children during the time we were involved in the Fellowship. I know that my sisters and I were never groomed or physically abused, but Jessica was molested by her stepfather, a prominent Fellowship leader on whose behalf Victor felt the need to testify in court, against a 13-year-old girl.

The warrant says Victor just stood up one day and announced 10 first-born girls he'd be taking to his private camp. Being the first-born daughter in my family I can't help but think that if we hadn't left when we did my name would have been on that list. So what do I think when I look back? That our parents saved us from unimaginable Hell.

Through Jessica's relentless sleuthing we found out that the reason they sold the campground in Finlayson and moved to Washington state was because those jilted husbands had gone to the Finlayson/Sandstone sheriff back in the early 2000s to complain about Victor and the cult. The consensus seemed to be that the sheriff couldn't do anything about what these women were willingly submitting to, but he did warn Victor that he knew what Victor was up to, and shortly after that the Fellowship moved out of state.

I am in total shock that he has a nationwide warrant out for his arrest. In all of my wildest dreams and fantasies (of which I've had many) I never imagined it would happen like this. He's a monster with a tremendous amount of charisma and power.

But what I personally went through is nothing—nothing—compared to the horrors these girls had to endure. I had parents that saved me from it; they had parents who served them up to it. It's unimaginable, incomprehensible. But it's the power Victor wielded.

[Manipulated image, original screengrab via Fox9]

Chris Plaskon, the 16-year-old student at Jonathan Law High School who is charged with stabbing fellow student Maren Sanchez for denying his prom proposal, is likely to be tried as an adult in the forthcoming trial, his lawyer says.

Plaskon is currently undergoing psychiatric evaluation, potentially for the next 15 days. At the end of that period, as the trial gets underway, he is likely to be tried as an adult.

Richard Meehan, the suspect's lawyer, told the New York Times,

The suspect was initially charged as a juvenile, but Connecticut law allows the authorities to try minors as adults for murder and other serious crimes.

Plaskon's family is reportedly "distraught."

"They're devastated not only for him but they're devastated for Maren Sanchez's family as well," [Meehan] said. "This is every parent's worst nightmare."

[Image via NY Daily News]

A woman who struck three teens on bikes while driving her SUV, killing one and injuring the others, is now suing the deceased teen, his family, and the other two boys. She is claiming $1.35 million in damages for her psychological suffering.

The 17-year-old, Brandon Majewski, and his two friends went out for a bike ride at 1:30AM on the morning of the accident in Simcoe County, Ontario. "I know they should not have been out there that late," Brandon's father said. "But they are good kids."

The group was struck from behind by an SUV, killing Majewski and seriously injuring his friend Richard McLean, 16, who sustained a broken pelvis and other bones. His other friend, Jake Roberts, also 16, was knocked off of his bike but didn't sustain any serious injuries.

According to the Toronto Sun, Sharlene Simon, a mother of three and the driver of the SUV, is now suing Brandon — the dead 17-year-old boy — as well as Brandon's family and his two friends. She is also suing the county of Simcoe for failing to maintain the road.

"In all of my years as a lawyer, I have never seen anyone ever sue a child that they killed," the family's lawyer, Brian Cameron, told the Sun. "It's beyond the pale. I just couldn't bring myself to tell them on the phone."

The parents were told in a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday. Brandon's mother, Venetta Mlynczyk, said:

"I'm devastated, I'm in shock. ... She killed my child and now she wants to profit from it? She says she's in pain? Tell her to look inside my head and she will see pain, she will see panic, she will see nightmares."

Simon is claiming $1.35 million in damages due to "depression, anxiety, irritability and post-traumatic stress."

The South Simcoe Police report shows that Simon admitted to driving at 90 km/h in an 80 km/h zone and also states that no breathalyzer was performed, "although police say no alcohol was suspected and no charges were laid."

The Sun states that the police report mentioned little of Simon's husband, a York Regional Police officer, who was driving behind his wife during the accident. He pulled over when the boys were struck and drove his wife home shortly after.

Cameron, the family's lawyer, has filed a lawsuit against Simon for medical and funeral costs on behalf of the boys and their families. He alleges that she was speeding and may have been intoxicated and talking on her cellphone.

"They did not apply their brakes properly," Simon's claim states. "They were incompetent bicyclists."

Neither party's allegations have been tested in court.

[Image credit: Shutterstock]

The Hollywood Reporter reports (rather, it Hollywood reports) that Steven Spielberg is attached to direct an adaptation of Roald Dahl's The BFG for DreamWorks.

The book, illustrated by Quentin Blake, was first published in 1982 and follows a young orphan girl who befriends a Big Friendly Giant. The live-action film will be based on that story, which was adapted for the screen by Melissa Mathison, screenwriter of E.T.

This will be the second adaptation of the book, the first being a 1989 animated made-for-TV movie in the U.K.

According to THR, Spielberg has committed to an early 2015 start for the adaptation.

[Image credit: Getty]

A dog in a hat and wig, whose name is Lupita and who looks fearful for its life, sits atop a handmade palanquin of sorts, decorated in other hats and garb. Lupita was a contestant in today's Fiesta Pooch parade in San Antonio, to her dismay. Via Eric Gay/AP

A letter written aboard the Titanic, wherein passenger Esther Hart describes her journey as a "wonderful passage" just before the ship hit its iceberg, was just sold in an auction for $200,000.

It was purchased over the phone by an anonymous bidder in an auction in England. As the AP reports,

The letter, on White Star Line notepaper, was tucked inside the pocket of a sheepskin coat Benjamin Hart gave Esther as he put his wife and daughter in a lifeboat. The family had been traveling from England to Canada, where they planned to settle.

Esther and her daughter Eva survived the disaster, but her husband did not. The letter, in its entirety, can be read here. The most tragic part might be seven-year-old daughter Eva Hart's post-script of "heaps of kisses and love to all," but is this relic worth $200,000?

[Images via AP]

Accompanied by a sign that read, "MR. PRESIDENT MAY A HAVE A SELFIE WITH YOU?" on a US army base in Seoul today, 13-year-old Mika Taylor was straight denied a photo with the president in what might be the beginning of a widespread #selfiegate.

After baseball player and Samsung shill David Ortiz mixed business with the pure pleasure of presidential selfie-taking, the White House was suggesting a potential ban on the artform, though they later said it was in jest.

Like a schoolmarm who hates fun, Obama reportedly told Taylor that if he took a selfie with her, he'd have to take one with everyone. He instead suggested she take a picture of him as he was going by.

Is this the definitive moratorium on selfies? Have we reached peak selfie?

[Image via AP]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear arguments next week regarding a 2012 law that would force the only remaining clinic in Mississippi to close, making it the first state in the nation without an abortion clinic. Not one.

The law, passed in 2012, requires doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals and to be certified in obstetrics and gynecology. Lawmakers explained that the requirement was intended to protect the health of women, though, according to the New York Times, the governor and legislators didn't hide their hope that it would lead to the closing of the Jackson Women's Health Organization, the state's only clinic. (Gov. Phil Bryant said he wants to "make Mississippi abortion-free.")

The clinic sued and the law is not currently being implemented after Judge Daniel P. Jordan III issued a preliminary injunction in 2013, saying the law was likely unconstitutional: "Though the debate over abortion continues, there exists legal precedent the court must follow." The state appealed the decision, sending the case to the 5th Circuit.

The Jackson Women's Heath Organization has two providers, neither of which have admitting privileges — though, not for lack of trying. Clinic owner Diane Derzis explains:

"We applied to every hospital—eight to 10 of them. ... The Catholic hospital turned us down immediately. The rest took a while, but turned us down without looking at the physicians. They put in writing that they were unable to handle the public press from this; they were upfront about it. It's clear the politics prevailed with this whole thing."

It is not clear how the 5th Circuit will rule. As the National Journal points out, the court is the same one that recently upheld a law that will close all but six abortion clinics in the state of Texas, but the fact that this is Mississippi's only abortion clinic might work in its favor.

The court will consider the state's appeal beginning on Monday. If the judges uphold the lower court's decision, the law will continue to be put on hold. If they strike it down, the law will immediately be put into effect.

[Image credit: AP]

South Korea's prime minister offered to resign on Sunday, taking responsibility for the government's handling of the ferry sinking that has left 302 people, mostly students, either dead or missing.

The AP reports that Presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said President Park Geun-hye would accept Chung Hong-won's resignation, but did not reveal when Chung would leave office.

The government has been heavily criticized by the victims' relatives for its slow response to the crisis and for its mishandling of the rescue operation's early stages. Chung Hong-won accepted this criticism, offered an apology, and explained the reasoning behind his resignation during a nationally televised news conference in front of reporters in Seoul. Here is the transcript from the AP:

"As I saw grieving families suffering with the pain of losing their loved ones and the sadness and resentment of the public, I thought I should take all responsibility as prime minister," Chung said. "There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deep-rooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again."

[Image credit: AP]

While in Malaysia this week, President Obama was asked what he thought of Clippers' owner Donald Sterling's alleged racist remarks. His response: "They kind of speak for themselves."

At a news conference with Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak, Obama told the press:

"The United States continues to wrestle with legacy of race and slavery and segregation. That's still there. . . . We've made enormous strides, but you're going to continue to see this percolate up . . . We have to continue denouncing it and teach our children differently."

Obama appeared to be at this most dismissive regarding the unforgivable scandal.

"I don't think I have to interpret those statements for you. . . . They kind of speak for themselves . . . When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't have to do anything, you just let them talk."

A number of members of the NBA—including Magic Johnson and Lebron James—have also made statements regarding Sterling's bigotry. But NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has not made motions to discipline the racist yet.

"I have confidence that NBA commissioner [Adam Silver] will address this," Obama said. "Obviously, the NBA is a league that is beloved by fans all across the country. It's got a lot of African-American players, steeped in African-America culture, and I suspect the NBA is concerned and going to be resolving this."

[Image via AP]

Sources have confirmed to People Magazine and US Weekly that George Clooney, a man whom you will likely never meet, is engaged.

An unnamed source told People Magazine that the engagement of the 52-year-old man and his alleged fiancé, a 36-year-old woman named Amal Alamuddin, happened "not that long ago, I think." The source added:

"George and Amal are trying to keep things very low-key but they also aren't really trying to hide this, it doesn't seem. I think it's like they want the people they love to know that this is real, that they plan on being together forever."

Another unnamed source told US Weekly:

"This is the healthiest relationship I've ever seen George in. ... He seems incredibly happy, and Amal is such a sweet and intelligent girl, who has her own thoughts and ideas and doesn't just bow down to everything he says."

The engagement is notable because the man was not formerly engaged. (Excluding when he was formerly married.)

Congratulations to the allegedly happy couple.

[Image credit: Getty]

This is the story of two popes. The first pope: a liberal pope who wanted to modernize the church. The second pope: a Communist-hater and the first non-Italian pope in over 4oo years. Today, a chill pope who is known for his chillness, made them saints.

John Paul II reigned as pontiff for 27 years, while John XXIII was the papal prince for only five years. This doesn't matter, the new chill pope says. The suggestion is that canonizing two popes, of different pope strokes, is a message from Pope Francis: Look at all we can do! Both kinds of poping are working for us!

By pairing their canonizations, Francis sought to de-emphasize their differences, many analysts said, in the service of trying to reconcile divisions within the church and finding consensus as he prepared for the meetings, known as synods, centered on the theme of family.

In his homily, Francis described John XXIII as the pope of "exquisite openness," while he called John Paul II "the pope of the family."

John XXIII, the pope of exquisite popenness. John Paul II, the paternal pope.

This is the first time in history that two popes have been canonized side by side. The ceremony, according to protocol, requires the current pope be asked three times if he's cool with this.

Cardinal Angelo Amato: Are you sure about these two popes?

Pope Francis: Yep.

Cardinal Angelo Amato: How about now?

Pope Francis: Still good.

Cardinal Angelo Amato: This is your last chance to back out. There are hundreds of thousands of people watching.

Pope Francis: Yeah, it's cool. Let's do this.

Now there are two new saints. And more than 1 billion Roman Catholics in the world to pray to them.

[Images via AP]

Rashad Harden, a house music and footwork pioneer who performed under the name DJ Rashad, was found dead Saturday afternoon on Chicago's South Side.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that drugs and drug paraphernalia were found near the body, and police suspect a drug overdose.

He was found unresponsive by a friend around 1:30PM on Saturday and pronounced dead shortly after. An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday.

Harden, who helped to develop and popularize footwork, a style of house music centered around dance battles, recently opened for Chance the Rapper's "Social Experiment Tour" and was poised to have a breakout year. His new EP, "We On 1," was set to be released on Monday. You can stream it here.

Harden was 35.

[Image via Chicago Sun-Times]

Deadpsin has acquired an extended Donald Sterling audiotape, and it reveals an even deeper level of bigotry from the mouth of the Clippers owner. "Evil heart" can't really cover it, but thanks for trying, Sterling.

A Canadian woman has accused two policemen in an elite French police unit of raping her in the police headquarters in Paris at 36 Quai des Orfevres. The officers are being held there, while two additional men have been released.

As was reported in The Guardian,

According to judicial sources, the woman met the officers during a night of heavy drinking at an Irish pub frequented by police from the headquarters, which is widely known by its address: 36 Quai des Orfevres.

They said she agreed to follow them to their workplace, which lies just across the Seine from the pub in the Saint-Michel district, which is popular among tourists.

The 34-year-old Canadian reported the rape not longer after it happened last Tuesday night, and DNA samples were taken but no results have been released.

One policeman in the BRI unit has admitted to having consensual sex with the woman, but has denied rape. France's Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the officers would "face the full consequences" if they were found guilty.

The two officers are also facing investigation in tampering with the scene of the crime, as both the woman's glasses and stockings allegedly went missing after she filed the complaint.

[Image via AP]

Never clean a pasta-making machine again: a teenager in Massena, NY just had his arm severed at the elbow when it was caught in a pasta-making machine while he was cleaning it. He is in serious condition at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Brett Bouchard, 17, was working at Violi's, an Italian restaurant on the Canadian border when the incident happened. The restaurant's manager, Mia Violi, told The Watertown Daily Times that "employees are trying to figure out how the machine got activated while he was cleaning it."

Sleep tight, everyone. Pasta isn't your friend after all.

[Image via Watertown Daily Times]

In an attempt to boost sales through social media buzz and to advertise a chicken product they've created, Burger King is bringing back its bizarre "Subservient Chicken" campaign, originally launched in 2004.

The campaign was centered around a website that featured a human-sized chicken dressed in garters who performed pre-recorded tasks that visitors commanded. (Yum!) It was considered groundbreaking ten years ago, and is being brought back during a time when Burger King is struggling to boost sales, presumably in an attempt to remember brighter, more profitable, and much weirder times. (The AP gets in a pretty good dig, saying, "As for attention on social media, the chain's most memorable recent moment in the spotlight may have been when its Twitter account was hacked.")

The "Subservient Chicken" website is already live, and a new video will be posted there on Wednesday. Eric Hirschhorn, chief marketing officer for Burger King North America, declined to share many details with the AP, but did say that the chicken will be "turning the tables" on people and that the video will include an appearance by Dustin Diamond.

"I don't want to spoil it, but he's an incredible addition to the film," Hirschhorn said.

An incredible addition to the film.

[Photo via SubservientChicken.]

In this edition of The Future, a private firm in China called WinSun has used its technology to build huge 3D printers that in turn print even huger fully-functioning houses. Their printers can manufacturer 10 in a day. Let's assess.

The WinSun printers are 32 feet by 21 feet, and four of them are needed in constructing one house. The company uses the printers by spraying "a mixture of cement and construction waste to build the walls, layer by layer."

Each house costs under $5,000 to build because of its recycled materials and lack of labor. Chinese construction regulations don't allow 3D printing of multi-story houses yet, but let me repeat that, yet.

They seem kind of livable, if not pretty ugly.

[Image via WinSun/BBC]

Re/code reports that the board of RadiumOne fired CEO Gurbaskh Chahal last night because he was convicted of two misdemeanors for domestic violence and battery. Before the news broke, Chahal posted this error-ridden blog post defending his actions, where he described the victim as a whore.

RadiumOne's venture investors were largely responsible for the decision to fire Chahal, according to Re/code. However, Chahal is still referring to himself as CEO.

In the defense post, Chahal blames the victim, the police, and the District Attorney's office. He claims security footage from his penthouse apartment that allegedly showed him hitting and kicking the victim 117 times in half an hour is exaggerated.

Thee [sic] tape in question that was thrown [sic] was also bullshit.

In August when Chahal was charged with 45 felony counts, court documents claimed the incident started when Chahal found out his girlfriend cheated on him. The San Francisco Examiner said:

Prosecutors told a different story in a motion seeking to rail Chahal's bail. According to court documents, prosecutors said Chahal was angry when he learned his girlfriend had gone to Las Vegas with another man and cheated on him.

The alleged attack reportedly occurred about 10:30 a.m. in his home. He beat her, pulled her hair and threatened to kill her despite multiple pleas from the victim, the court documents said.

She called 911 when he left the room, prosecutors said, and commented to investigators that when police rang the doorbell she was "saved by the bell."

Police reportedly seized surveillance video from cameras inside the bedroom. The video provides a "grisly picture" of the attack, prosecutors said.

However, Chahal alleged today that he lost his temper because his girlfriend was having sex for money. He previously denied the tape existed, then deleted that tweet.

The situation that resulted in my legal case began when I discovered that my girlfriend was having unprotected sex for money with other people. (She testified to this in her interviews with the cops.) I make no excuse for losing my temper. When I discovered this fact and confronted my girlfriend, we had a normal argument. She called 9-11 after I told her I was going to contact her father regarding her activities. And yes, I lost my temper. I understand, accept full responsibility and sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart for that. But I didn't hit her 117 times, injure her, or cause any trauma as the UCSF medical reports clearly document. This was all overblown drama because it generates huge volumes of page views for the media given what I have accomplished in the valley.

Kara Swisher, who broke the news of Chahal's ouster, says that RadiumOne will officially announce his firing within the hour.

Chahal hired the same high profile trial lawyer defending alleged arms dealer Leland Yee as well as Sam Singer's crisis management firm. He does not appear to have sought their advice before writing his defense. The tags on the post are: "domesitc [sic] violent, exxageration [sic], injustice, innnocnence [sic], legal case."

Techcrunch got a copy of the victim's medical report, which said she suffered a hematoma after the attack. In light of that, TechCrunch dropped RadiumOne as a sponsor for the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York.

Forbes reported the sequence of events that led to a reduced plea:

The video from the surveillance (sex?) cams was ultimately thrown out by the judge though because the police seized the video without a warrant. The prosecutors said police needed to seize the DVR recording because they worried it would be destroyed, but the judge didn't buy it, even though law enforcement got a warrant before actually watching the video, according to Assistant District Attorney Alex Bastian. That, plus his girlfriend choosing not to testify against him, paved the way for his reduced plea in the case to misdemeanor domestic violence. (It's felony level if there's visible signs of abuse on the victim, the San Francisco Police Department tells me.)

There are also significant legal complexities behind firing Chahal, according to Re/code:

Sources with knowledge of the situation said that this reason the decision took so long is that it is legally complex, due to Chahal's massive stake in the company that gives him a large amount of control over RadiumOne.

Not enough, it seems. It's not clear if this sets up a legal challenge by Chahal, who has long held sway over the board. Whether he can be fired has been suggested by some, but it looks like the board thinks it has the right to do so.

Update: Here is the official statement from RadiumOne (via Re/code). It's unclear whether Chahal will try to contest the decision:

RadiumOne terminates Gurbaksh Chahal as CEO and Chairman
Bill Lonergan appointed as CEO

San Francisco (April 27, 2014) – At a board meeting yesterday evening, RadiumOne's board of directors voted to terminate the employment of Gurbaksh Chahal as CEO and Chairman of the company. Bill Lonergan, the company COO, will take over as CEO of the Company immediately. Bill has an extraordinary professional background and has helped build Blue Lithium and RadiumOne into industry leading brands. We are confident he will continue Radium One's impressive trajectory.

RadiumOne builds software that automates media buying, making big data actionable for digital marketers.

RadiumOne uses programmatic advertising to connect brands to their next customers by incorporating valuable first-party data about behaviors, actions and interests demonstrated by consumers across web and mobile touch points.

Based in San Francisco, RadiumOne has offices across the US, Canada, Europe and Australia.

This post is developing and we will update it as we hear back from the District Attorney's office about Chahal's claims. For more context on the case, please see our previous reports. To contact the author of this post, please email nitasha@gawker.com.

[Image via Getty]