Surveillance footage showing city workers in Tel Aviv painting a handicapped spot around a woman's legally parked car and towing her car away has shocked many around the world after it was uploaded to the victim's Facebook page.

Hila Ben Baruch, a local student, wrote in her Facebook post that she had lived on that street for "nearly half a year," so knew well "where I can and can't park."

Which is why when she left her apartment on Sunday to find that her car had been towed away, and a freshly painted handicapped parking space had appeared in its place, she knew something was terribly wrong.

The city was, unsurprisingly, skeptical of Ben Baruch's story, and she was directed to pay her 1,350 shekel (~$365) fine in full.

In a last-ditch effort to prove her innocence, Ben Baruch sought the assistance of a security guard at the building across the street, hoping CCTV footage might help exonerate her.

And sure enough, it did.

"To see and not believe," Ben Baruch wrote in her description of the security feed. "While the car was parked in a white-and-blue [legal] zone, two city hall workers arrived and began painting a handicapped space around the car!"

Two hours later, with the space now designated a handicapped spot, Ben Baruch was written up and a tow truck was called to haul her car away.

Knowing now that she wasn't going to win her fight against the Tel Aviv city hall without a bit of backup, Ben Baruch posted the footage on Facebook.

Within hours, her post had been shared thousands of times, landing her multiple interviews on Israeli television.

And that's when the apologies started coming in.

The municipality was first to issue a statement calling the incident "a severe mistake and a case of incompetence."

Apparently the workers who painted over the parking space were supposed to notify the city inspection department before moving forward, but didn't.

Next, Deputy Tel Aviv mayor Asaf Zamir apologized for Ben Baruch's inconvenience, again putting the blame on a miscommunication between city workers and the parking inspectors' office.

Finally, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai himself posted an apology on his Facebook page, vowing to prevent a similar "mistake" from occurring again.

[video via Times of Israel]

Neil Drumming is a veteran journalist who's written and edited for the Washington City Paper, Entertainment Weekly, and elsewhere. Last year, he decided to turn his screenplay into a movie, and—unlike many other would-be filmmakers—actually made it happen. His film Big Words is making its NYC premiere at BAM next Friday.

Neil is here to answer questions from you in our discussion section right now. Go ask! A Q&A with him about his work is below.

You were a journalist by trade. A lot of journalists dream about writing screenplays and making movies, but few ever actually do it. How did you make your movie a reality, while so many other people fail?

ND: Unfortunately, like most of my answers, this one will be sort of long and complicated. I started writing screenplays while I was still at Entertainment Weekly. I hadn't gotten anything produced, or even optioned. But because I was covering a lot of film for the magazine, I felt like a conflict of interest was imminent and I wanted to avoid that. Fortunately, my wife supported — and even encouraged — my rather ridiculous decision to leave a cushy, much coveted job at a huge, well-respected media outlet for the wilds of screenwriting.

Even after that, I didn't have much interest in directing or the logistics of actually making a film independently. But my producer Matt Smith, then friend, and a few others (Ta-nehisi Coates among them) loved the script for Big Words and pushed me in that direction. I went through some mishaps with other collaborators and finally realized that the only way the film would get made is if I did it myself. Following that, ignorance of the pitfalls of the process, sheer bullheadedness, and a fantastic cast and crew carried us through.

I guess, then, the short answer is: I had a lot of support.

How did you get the idea for the movie?

ND: As is often the case with first films, it could be said that my entire life lead up to Big Words. On the surface, the film is about three grown men who used to be in a rap group. I grew up listening to hip-hop music. As much as I dislike the phrase "hip-hop culture," I guess you could say I was raised in it. I rapped for years and still write the occasional rhyme. I've been making beats since I was a tween, back when that word didn't exist. So many people around me did the same. I began my career as a journalist mostly writing about hip-hop and interviewing rappers. So I have a lot of insight into — and am privy to some interesting stories about — the purveyors of the culture.

At the same time, when I started writing the screenplay I was getting into my mid-to-late thirties. I was thinking a lot about growing up, regrets, roads not traveled, all that crap. Also, I had this weird relationship with hip-hop where I sort of didn't jibe with a lot of the ideas that seemed to have become the hallmarks of the culture. And there was this common notion that hip-hop was purely youth culture. I started wanting to write about what it's like to grow up and — possibly — out of hip-hop. I started paying attention to other films that had tread similar territory with other cultures, like The Big Chill and High Fidelity. The movie came out of all that.

Big Words deals with the growing-up and adult-ification of the hip hop generation. What do you think the legacy of the "golden age" of hip hop is going to be? How has your own thinking about hip hop changed as you've grown up?

ND: I'm doing my damnedest not to become some sort of champion for the Golden Age of Hip-Hop. I don't want to be a 40-year-old man trying to tell some 14-year-old Nicki Minaj fan to go back and study Busta Rhymes. I came of age listening to Special Ed, Chubb Rock, De La Soul, X-Clan, Tribe, UMCs, Diamond D, Wu-Tang, Jungle Brothers, Beatnuts, the Liks, Leaders of the New School, Souls of Mischief, Black Sheep, Ice Cube, Black Moon, Cypress Hill, etc. Those groups created the soundtrack for some of the greatest, most exciting, most uncertain periods of my life, and so I am unapologetic about my affection for their music. But my nostalgia is not a political stance. It's just context for who I am and some of the stories I want to tell. I also really like Death Cab for Cutie.

Writing and filmmaking are both fields with far more people that want to be in them than actual jobs. Which is harder?

ND: Fuck if I know. When I was a journalist, it felt like everybody wanted to be a writer. Now that I'm a filmmaker, the competition seems just as stiff, if maybe a bit younger. The thing I liked about journalism, though, was that it didn't seem like you had to sell yourself as much. The work stood for itself a lot of the time. A good piece is a good piece. But with movies, a good screenplay will only get you so far. You need to convince investors, actors, crew, and a shitload of other folks to help you actually finish this thing and make a movie. To that end, you have to get people to believe in you as much as they believe in what you're trying to make. There's a lot of pressure in that. The upshot, though, is that if you do get people to believe in you, then you have support. You're working with a group of enthusiastic, excited individuals who bring their own ideas and ingenuity to the table. It's not just you alone in the dark with a bottle of Jack Daniels and Microsoft Word open on your desktop.

Ask Neil questions in the comment section right this minute.

[Original image via Getty]

Denver police are investigating a shooting this morning that left three dead, including two children. Another child was injured and taken to the hospital; all three children involved are under 10 years old.

Police aren't saying much about the shooting except that it happened just before 7:00 a.m. local time.

"At this time we're not going to release the particulars as it relates to the ages or the names of the individuals pending notification of family members," said Denver Police Chief Robert White.

KUSA's reporter on the scene, Brooke Thacker, reports the Denver Police Department does not believe there is a shooter on the loose or danger to others.

UPDATE 1:58 PM EST: The girl who was taken to the hospital has made it out of surgery and is now in the ICU.

UPDATE 2:38 PM EST: Tony Nunez, speaking with KUSA has identified the deceased as 23 year old Mayra Nunez, his sister. The two dead children are Eric, 1, and Neveah, 6. Nunez claims that his sister shot her children and then herself. Three-year-old Isabelle reamins in critical condition at the hospital.

[Screengrab via KUSA]

The musician Claire Boucher, better known as Grimes, is responsible for one of last year's most acclaimed indie albums, Visions. This morning, she posted an essay on her Tumblr regarding her pop-filled best-of 2012 music list. In it, she praised Beyoncé ("She is everything good"), "Gangam Style" mastermind Psy ("Psy is a genius and I don't think it's so terrible that he's been recognized for this") and Mariah Carey ("The first time I heard Mariah Carey it shattered the fabric of my existence and I started Grimes").

Pitchfork wrote about Grimes' writing, excerpting large chunks. Grimes responded in another Tumblr post:

my tumblr is not a news source im debating whether or not i should delete this shit i will decide in the next 5 minutes

my specific problem is that i dont like it when what i say on here is taken out of context and posted elsewhere. its not a story and its not an official statement.

Then she deleted all of the posts that preceded that one. Then she posted this:

im out because i need some semblance of a normal life in order to be happy.

bye internet <3

Then she deleted the "my tumblr is not a news source" source post. Then she reblogged someone's screenshot of Pitchfork's update to its story ("Grimes has deleted her entire Tumblr") alongside an anime gif, adding:

haha im still on the internet

Clearly, and every post is more excerptable than the last. An active Tumblr user responsible for a viral video whose music has been mostly discussed and distributed online, you'd think that Grimes would understand how the Internet works. In fact there's a chance she understands it so well that this little slice of Tumblr Theater has been for our amusement.

But if this is genuine frustration over what is essentially reblogging from someone who clearly knows how to reblog, it's bizarre. It's bizarre that Grimes isn't used to being excerpted by now, it's bizarre that she doesn't realize that the Internet runs on decontextualization. We know that she's not a news source but a provocative thinker whose affinity for pop is fascinating given the melodic, but noncommercial nature of her music.

In sum, if you don't want attention for what you do on your Tumblr, don't post on your Tumblr and certainly don't start deleting shit from your Tumblr. Leaving the Internet for the sake of normalcy and happiness, though, isn't the worst idea. I'll give her that.

[Image via Getty]

People of color looking to break into the startup world or tech journalism will be happy to learn, per blowhard entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, that "there isn't a race wall in tech." Why, then, is tech journalism so overwhelmingly white (not to mention male)? Calacanis, who is white, isn't sure, but he has some advice: Be more like Jason Calacanis.

Calacanis, who sold a network of blogs to AOL for $25 million nine years ago before launching Mahalo, a Google-spam "search engine," spent most of his day yesterday responding to a thoughtful essay by Jamelle Bouie, a black politics and technology writer, exploring why the tech industry, and tech writing, is so white and male, even as people of color and women make up a large (in some cases the largest) share of its consumers. Bouie's conclusion is that "implicit networks"—social, educational, geographical—operating nearly invisibly, keep tech homogenous.

This rubbed Calacanis the wrong way. He tweeted at Bouie (and others) insisting that tech journalism was race-blind and meritocratic (ideas Bouie had already responded to in his essay). Calacanis' feeling was the because he'd done it—broken in to tech journalism—anyone could. (You can read the whole conversation here.)

Eventually, Calacanis took it to his blog, in a post entitled "Doing the Right Things." It's a shockingly un-self-aware document, even by the low standards of tech writing; it opens with the lines "I'm a white guy so I'm not allowed to talk about race. At least that's what they tell me," and goes downhill from there.

He drops the factoid "Ninety percent of the people in Silicon Valley were not born there" as a rebuttal to the straw-man charge "Silicon Valley is in some way a closed, secret society." (Very few Bonesmen were born inside the Skull and Bones clubhouse at Yale, either.)

He jokingly apologizes to his father for the attenuation of identifiable white-ethnic identity in his mixed-race kids.

He posits that maybe those of us in the "1st world" shouldn't be allowed to talk about "inequality," because he "can't talk about race because I'm white"—to show how illogical and unfair this prohibition against white people discussing race is. (He never names or identifies the "they" who have told him that as a white person he is not allowed to discuss race.)

He describes his former employee Rafat Ali: "much darker skin than mine (brown, but not black for those obsessed with the exact tone — really?)" It is unclear whether or not this is a joke, or if he actually thinks that Bouie or his other critics are "obsessed with the exact tone" of anyone's skin.

He ends a paragraph with "boom."

He seems to conflate his advice about putting in a lot of work to build an audience with Malcolm Gladwell's idea that spending 10,000 hours at a craft will lead to mastery.

He claims to to have never "met or read [Bouie] before," which, well, Q.E.D.

"You can sit there and look backwards at the racist old-world, or you can look forward and create the new post-race world," he advises his readers. This echoes his tweets from yesterday:

Silicon Valley is built on a series of myths, but none is more important than the myth that individual resolve can overcome the weight and inertia of systems. (There is someone out there right now, I guarantee you, seeking to "pivot" race, and thereby "disrupt" racism.) Calacanis and his ilk have no interest in examining the systemic effects and implicit biases that, in aggregate, result in white, male mastheads and employee lists because it might lead them to understand that their success was determined not by their talent and drive only but also by the institutional advantages of their whiteness and maleness.

Such an understanding would be dangerous to Silicon Valley, not just because it would undermine its own maverick self-image, but because it would demonstrate that there are systems and forces that no single individual can overcome, no matter how many Tim Ferriss books he's read. "The resolve of the individual" didn't make Calacanis' stint as manager of Netscape successful; it also didn't save Mahalo. It's not going to magically make Twitter or Tumblr profitable, either. Once that's understood, who's going to keep pumping capital into the valley?

So confronted yesterday with the idea that his business, his industry, his career, his successes, his sense of himself, might be founded on denial and mythology about meritocracy and individual talent, Calacanis couldn't do much more than spout platitudes:

That's a Kanye West paraphrase, or, at least, the first line is. The preceding lines: "Who complains about what he is owed?/And throw a tantrum like he is 3 years old."

The Augsburg branch of Germany's Federal Labor Office was forced to apologize to a 19-year-old woman who was inadvertently assigned to work at a local brothel without her knowledge.

19-year-old "Christine" told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper she was "totally shocked" to receive the employment agency's letter telling her to show up at the Augsburg Colosseum (NSFW) to start her new job as a bar waitress.

"I was looking for a decent housekeeping job," Christine told the paper, "not working at a brothel bar."

Making matters seedier was the agency's requirement that the letter's recipient have an "attractive appearance," and be willing to work late nights and weekends.

The agency's CEO said in a statement that the letter was "a mistake," and that while they regularly offer job hunters the opportunity to work at brothels, they should have checked with Christine first before signing her up for the gig.

Prostitution is legal in Germany, and brothels are a common sight. The Colosseum is a so-called "wellness brothel," where other accommodations such as a swimming pool and sauna are typically offered to patrons.

[photo via Augsburger Allgemeine]

Have you made plans for this weekend that include traveling outside of your house for even the briefest moment? Cancel them! Or maybe make more of them? The Northeast is about to get walloped or tenderly caressed with either a couple inches or a couple feet of snow.

Current forecasts place the total amount somewhere between 2.6 and 29.3 inches.

Such is the maddening, exhilarating unpredictability of weather patterns on this rock-and-lava spinning blueberry we call home.

Right now, all we know for certain is that when you emerge from your hoarder's lair on Saturday morning, there will be some sort of weather occurring in earth's atmosphere. It might be rain; it might be snow; it might be "cold, sunny day" or "fire-clouds." Whatever the outcome, have no fear: There will be plenty of oxygen and adequate air pressure to keep your blood in a fluid state.

In search of answers, we turn to machines. Here's what three computer weather models are predicting for this weekend's precipitation:

USA! USA!

Right now, American (GFS) computer models are predicting a few inches of snow for much of the tri-state: a little over two inches for New York City; under an inch for much of New Jersey. Some of it might be rain. The sky-water is expected to start falling Thursday night through Friday morning, but the the brunt of the storm probably won't hit until late Friday night.

Combat equivalent: Gloved slap across the face

The European Model: So Hot Right Now

The European model, like a European model, is much more intimidating (and mean). According to the ECMWF (European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting — boring name; brainstorm improvements while trapped in your home this weekend), the amount of snow in New York could reach over a foot by Saturday evening (about 15 inches). The European model is generally considered by meteorologists to be the most accurate (it was the first to accurately predict the track of Hurricane Sandy).

Combat equivalent: Punishing right hook

Utter Annihilation by Snow

The third model, the RPM (Rapid Precision Mesoscale), is calling for a staggering amount of snow: almost thirty inches in New York City. If this turns out to be correct, society as we know it will crumble. The wealthiest members—those who can afford to eat out every night—will starve in their stairwells, while those capable of whipping up a Thanksgiving feast from a few packets of Ramen, some sriracha, and a cat that died of "natural causes" will emerge as chieftains; perhaps even gods.

Combat equivalent: Bayonet through the entrails, plus a head butt, plus all your teeth falling out in an unrelated incident

In any case: Be careful out there this weekend or don't be careful because you don't need to be.

[Images via Storm Team 4 NY]

Police in San Antonio say a group of friends panicked after one of them accidentally shot another in the back, and tried to pin the whole thing on a "Hispanic male" who never existed.

Three men and two women were inside a car near the Las Colinas Apartments on Chase Hill Blvd, having just returned from picking up a gun.

One of the men, a 19-year-old, was reportedly handling the weapon in a "reckless" manner when it suddenly went off, striking one of the women in the lower back.

Emergency services arrived at the scene around midnight and rushed the 20-year-old to a nearby hospital where she remains in stable condition.

According to investigators, the friends who rounded up told officers that the shooting took place during a robbery attempt by an Hispanic male who forced his way into their vehicle.

It was ultimately revealed after hours of interrogation that the story was fabricated to cover up for one of the car's occupants.

He was ultimately found hiding behind the apartment complex, and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and evading arrest.

[screengrab via KENS 5]

Serial employee-assaulter, probable perjurer and popularizer of the phrase "I'm not here for that" Naomi Campbell is a "coach" on and executive producer of Oxygen's new modeling show The Face. Per the series' brazen ads, the reality competition combines the guts of America's Next Top Model with the team-oriented angle of The Voice. Basically, this means that supermodel mentors Campbell, Karolína Kurková and Coco Rocha are creating sororities out young (but not, you know, young enough) aspiring clothes hangers.

Antics ensue, or at least they did on last night's casting special (the proper "premiere" episode airs next week). Campbell is made out to be the villain, a role that she seems to be accepting with relish. All she is missing is a long mustache to twist. Granted, she's not all mean all the time — she flattered some girls, said eliminating them was "gut-wrenching" and actually hugged another human being at one point. On top of that, so many of her villainous vibes come via the commentary of her co-workers. But she seems more than happy to be cutthroat. She gleefully dismisses the would-be models she's rejecting by chirping, "You are not the face!" And, as we saw on an extended trailer for the rest of the show's first season, she'll soon refer to Kurková as an "idiot" repeatedly.

After one episode, the show itself seems great, if you're into this sort of thing. It could pull a Top Model and take a turn for the circus, but the challenges seem like they will be relatively realistic, and the show will cull its drama from human interaction. The "three supermodel coaches" angle that host Nigel Barker proclaimed every chance the narrative would allow is a good one — high-profile drama amongst household names is reality TV's current obsession, and the squabbling amongst the coaches (all competing for glory) is a welcome alternative to the show's offering of young women clearly raised on reality TV. One cried immediately upon facing the judges, another told a sob story about being orphaned that superseded her incompetence and kept her on the show, while yet another proclaimed to be "not here to make friends" but to win. Yawn. Step aside amateurs — let the pros show you how it's done.

This coming April, Broadway's biggest tourist trap will be going dark. Of course Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark isn't closing, it makes like a billion dollars a day. But it will be turning on the dark for one special performance geared specifically toward children on the autism spectrum.

The Theatre Development Fund has purchased all the tickets to the show's April 27 matinee and will be re-selling them at discounted prices. The matinee show will become a special show dedicated to children with autism and their families. Tickets are priced between $35 and $80.

People with autism are often sensitive to loud noises and flashing lights. They also often have trouble sitting in one place for an extended amount of time, which can make watching a 165-minute musical with strobe lights difficult. It's estimated one in 100 children in the U.S. today falls somewhere on the autism spectrum, from mild to severe.

For the audiences, the show is slightly altered, to remove harsh lighting cues and loud sound effects. There are also sections of the theater with beanbag chairs and coloring books set up for children who need a break.

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to share our production with those affected by autism," said "Spider-Man" producers Michael Cohl and Jeremiah J. Harris in a statement.

This show will be the fifth autism-friendly show sponsored by the Theatre Development Fund. Other shows to put on special performances are The Lion King, Mary Poppins and Elf: The Musical.

[Image via AP]

If Goethe were a 14-year-old girl living in modern times, his Faust might have played out like the real-life story of Rachel Baier, a Massachusetts teen who was convinced by her dad to quit Facebook in exchange for money.

Rachel's father Paul, a VP at an energy technology firm in Salem, drafted a legally binding "Facebook Deactivation Agreement" that guarantees his daughter a sum of $200 if she agrees to quit Facebook and relinquish her password.

Per the deal, Rachel will receive $50 in April and a further $150 in June if she continues to abide by the terms of the agreement.

On his blog, Baier claims that the arrangement was entirely Rachel's idea, "which I support fully."

"She wants to earn money and also finds Facebook a distraction and a waste of time sometimes," he told the Daily Dot, adding that she still plans to return to Facebook once the contract expires.

[image via PracticalSustainability]

The "bare fleshy under curves" of everyone's buttocks are drooping a little lower today, as CBS' Standards & Practices department has issued a harshly-worded email forbidding all Grammy attendees from flashing their softest, roundest parts (boobies, butts, and "puffy" crotch skin) on camera.

"Thong type costumes are problematic," the email explains, in an observation most likely directed at Taylor Swift. "Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible ‘puffy' bare skin exposure."

Uncovered buttocks, "bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks," and exposed "buttock crack" are all banned; ditto uncovered "female breasts," and exposed "female breast nipples."

Worst of all, the policy specifically hones in on those unconventional areas of the breast most highly prized by thee modern breast connoisseur: side boob and reverse cleavage.

"Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic."

The desperate plea for all trick bitches to keep their tits in check, PUH-LEASE was first published by Deadline, who received it from a disgruntled recipient:

CBS Program Practices advises that all talent appearing on camera please adhere to Network policy concerning wardrobe.

Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered. Thong type costumes are problematic. Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack. Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic. Please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples. Please be sure the genital region is adequately covered so that there is no visible "puffy" bare skin exposure. Please avoid commercial identification of actual brand name products on T-shirts. Foreign language on wardrobe will need to be cleared. OBSCENITY OR PARTIALLY SEEN OBSCENITY ON WARDROBE IS UNACCEPTABLE FOR BROADCAST. This as well, pertains to audience members that appear on camera. Finally, The Network requests that any organized cause visibly spelled out on talent's wardrobe be avoided. This would include lapel pins or any other form of accessory.

Perhaps it's a good sign that the only CAPSLOCK FREAKOUT of the email is reserved for a ban on obscene language.

We might be able to sneak in a puffed out crotch box after all.

[Deadline // Images via Getty]

On Super Bowl Sunday, President Obama told CBS' Scott Pelley that the Boy Scouts of America should end its ban on gays. Today, BSA board members decided to table a vote on whether the group should lift that ban, saying in a statement that "the organization needs time for a more deliberate review of its membership policy." The board will now vote on the measure in May, potentially bringing an end to the century-old BSA's longstanding and bullshit rule preventing gay boys from becoming scouts and gay men from becoming scout leaders. Alas, if and when that vote ever does come to pass, it's important to remember that the BSA doesn't actually intend to fully "end" anything.

All of this is largely a copout, and, funnily enough, it's a copout used by President Obama himself.

The dispiriting truth behind the proposed integration of the Boy Scouts is that it's not a serious integration at all. If ended, the gay ban would only be ended nationally, allowing individual Boy Scout troops to continue refusing to accept gays into their folds if they so choose. And it appears as if many would keep the ban alive: At a "Save Our Scouts" rally this morning at the BSA national headquarters in Texas, dozens of scouts and their parents turned out show their support for keeping the Boy Scouts "morally straight."

In essence, the BSA has heard the criticism of its bigoted rules and it has decided to—maybe, possibly—respond to that criticism by one day voting to wash its hands of the matter and letting specific troops and troop leaders themselves continue to be bigots.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it's the same tack President Obama took last year to respond to questions about his stance on gay marriage. Forced to address those queries after Vice President Joe Biden said publicly that he supports same-sex nuptials, the president said that while he personally supports gay marriage, he also believes states should be able to decide for themselves whether they want to allow the practice. It was a weak-ass equivocation, and Gawker's John Cook said as much at the time:

Equality is not a state-by-state issue. There is no reason other than ignorance and hatred that two men can get married in New York and not North Carolina. At a time when vindictive hucksters are rolling out anti-gay marriage amendments across the nation, and when conflicting state and federal laws portend an insoluble morass of divorce, custody, and estate issues, and when gay Americans are turning to the U.S. Constitution and the courts to seek an affirmation of their humanity, "it's a state-by-state issue" is a shameful dodge.

If the BSA ever does get around to a vote that will "end" its ban on gays, it will be a semblance of progress, but it won't at all reflect the values of "bravery" and "friendliness" for which the Boy Scouts claim to stand. It will be an artful evasion, an artful evasion they learned from the best: the commander in chief.

A few weeks ago, Barack Obama became the first president in American history to broach the subject of gay rights in his inaugural address, leading some to believe he is changing his mind about same-sex marriage being an issue for the states. But hinting at ideas is not manifesting change, and until our nation's most powerful leader gets serious about letting gays get married, regardless of what individual states want to do, we can't be surprised when the BSA does what's become the American thing and continues passing the buck on gay rights.

Image by Jim Cooke.

We are not "yellow" journalists who would sensationalize stories in a way that might have a negative impact on the economic livelihood of an entire region. So we will not go out of our way to urge anyone not to visit Acapulco, Mexico. We will simply pass on this latest incident to you, as reported by the AP.

Six men and six women rented a beach house near Acapulco for a vacation. All were from Spain, but most of them lived in Mexico City. On Monday, five unknown men burst into the house, tied up the men, and raped the six women. There was one Mexican woman in the group as well; she was spared after she told the attackers she was Mexican. After raping the women, the attackers drank some booze in the house before they left. The local attorney general says the motive of the attack was "robbery, and to have fun."

Local officials fear this may harm Acapulco's tourism industry. Which is already flagging:

Oceania and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, some of the last lines making port calls at Acapulco, cancelled them in December, the company confirmed.

The violence has included drug gang shootouts along the resort's main coastal boulevard and the dumping of severed heads on city streets.

Well, I don't know that xenophobic mass armed rape, rampant homicide, and a few severed heads should cause anyone to cancel a vacation. Let's not be hasty.

[AP. Photo: Sally/ Flickr]

Hyperlocal news site EveryBlock announced today it was shutting down for good. The closure marks an unexpected end to the site, which was once hailed for its innovation and ideas; the phrase "future of journalism" was once tossed around in reference to the site.

The site's homepage now bears only a short farewell message:

We're sorry to report that EveryBlock has closed its doors.

Thank you for having let us play a role in how you get your neighborhood news. Thanks for the contributions, for the questions, and for allowing us to connect you to each other, in many cases to make great things happen in your community.

For a bit more info, please visit our final blog post.

Your neighbors,
The EveryBlock team

Poynter spoke to senior vice president and chief digital officer of NBC News Vivian Schiller about the sudden closure, and why NBC didn't try to sell EveryBlock before closing down completely.

"I understand that the Everyblock community is disappointed. So are we. We looked at various options to keep this going, but none of them were viable. It was a tough call to make."

EveryBlock was founded on a grant from the Knight Foundation in 2007 by Adrian Holovaty. The idea was simple but new: news more local than ever before. EveryBlock didn't just cater to your television market or your entire city, it was broken down into neighborhoods so that what you were reading was happening practically in your own backyard.

MSNBC (and therefore NBC News) bought EveryBlock in 2009; two years later it was relaunched as a sort of hyperlocal social network, equal parts news aggregation and citizen journalism. Neighbors could chat about what was going on around them, as well as read news that directly affects the area in which they live. It's a similar concept to, and former competitor with, AOL's Patch. Holovaty left EveryBlock last year.

On his blog today, Holovaty said he "had no idea NBC News would be shutting it down," and was "saddened" by the news.

A suspect matching the description of Christopher Jordan Dorner, the ex-LAPD officer who allegedly set out on a revenge killing spree earlier this week, is said to be barricaded inside a hotel at Point Loma in Sean Diego.

Update: According to KTLA's Tara Wallis, the hotel barricade was a false alarm, and the man detained is not Dorner.

Dormer, a former U.S. Navy reservist, was removed from the LAPD after a 2009 Board of Review hearing that found he'd made false statements about a fellow officer whom he'd accused of kicking a suspect. According to the authorities, on Sunday Dormer shot and killed the daughter of the retired LAPD captain who'd represented him in that hearing, as well as her fiancée.

In a manifesto he posted to Facebook, he warned a number of the individuals involved in his dismissal from the LAPD that he was hunting them down:

Your lack of ethics and conspiring to wrong a just individual are over.

Suppressing the truth will leave to deadly consequences for you and your family. There will be an element of surprise where you work, live, eat, and sleep. I will utilize ISR at your home, workplace, and all locations in between. I will utilize OSINT to discover your residences, spouses workplaces, and children's schools. IMINT to coordinate and plan attacks on your fixed locations. Its amazing whats on NIPR. HUMINT will be utilized to collect personal schedules of targets. I never had the opportunity to have a family of my own, I'm terminating yours.

Dorner shot two Riverside police officers on Thursday morning, killing one. During the manhunt, Los Angeles police officers mistakenly shot two people in Torrance while they delivered newspapers.

[KTLA]

It's been nearly a week since a mysterious transient named Kai used a hatchet to save a woman from the clutches of a racist man claiming to be Jesus, but still very little is known about the Internet's newest hero.

Since his interview with Fox affiliate KMPH went viral, there has been next to no news about Kai's current whereabouts.

A year-old video of the homefree celebrity jamming strumming his ukulele on a beach in British Columbia surfaced on YouTube yesterday, but that hardly provided any insight into the man behind the myth.

"He's kind of like a superhero," reporter Jessob Reisbeck, who introduced Kai to the world, told Mashable. "He's impossible to get ahold of because he has no phone and he's this mysterious guy, but he has this hero status."

But Kai was still out there. He even said as much in a Facebook post: "I'm sleeping in a hay field across I99 from the chevron/days inn in Lathrope CA. Do any, uh, new friends feel like sharing couchspace?"

Finally, yesterday, Reisbeck managed to track Kai down not far from the site of the incident that made him a digital star.

"Shock and awe," Kai responded when Reisbeck asked him for his thoughts on his overnight fame.

But besides feeling a bit more loved by the Universe than before, Kai remains unchanged. "He's just doing the exact same thing he's always done," Reisbeck said. "Living a homefree life, as he calls it. He's living the same homefree life that he's always lived, man."

[screengrab via KMPH]

The ongoing American obesity crisis has doubtless had a negative impact on our nation's health, appearance, and collective long-jump ability. And that's not all: it's also actually making us dumber. The latest evidence is irrefutable.

Ask any child, "Which is better, a lot, or a little, for the same amount of money?" And they'll answer, "A lot, obviously, what am I, a fucking idiot? Don't patronize the youth demographic." Alas, you know who can't figure this simple truth out? That's right—adult Americans, who are financially rewarding restaurants that give them less food. Unsurprising, perhaps; this is the same demographic of humans that spent millions of dollars on magical butt-toning shoes. Still, the success of the restaurant industry's blatant scam may shock you. A new report from the Hudson Institute finds that sales of the all-American french fry are down, while sales of "basically the same food we were selling before but less of it for the same price" are skyrocketing into the stratosphere:

In this landmark study, researchers examined NPD restaurant servings and traffic data, and Nation's Restaurant News sales trends, to analyze whether or not growing sales of lower-calorie menu items in 21 national restaurant chains, accounting for half of the top 100 chain sales, resulted in superior business performance...

The findings of this study clearly demonstrate that between 2006 and 2011 lower-calorie foods and beverages were the key growth engine for the restaurants studied. Restaurant chains growing their servings of lower-calorie foods and beverages demonstrated superior:
• Same-store sales (SSS) growth • Increases in restaurant customer traffic • Gains in overall restaurant servings

There you have it: offer American consumers less to eat, and they will reward you with more money. Whereas in previous generations, such a "counterintuitive" (meaning "stupid") proposal would have been perceived as restaurants snatching the leftovers right out of consumers' doggie bags, modern Americans are so unable to control their own mouth-shoveling that they are more than happy to pay premium prices for a lack of sustenance. What a strange, strange world we live in, as obese Americans.

Unrelated, I am opening a new "concept restaurant" where you Paypal me money and I give you nothing to eat at all. Luscious temptation!

[The full report]

The experts said it would all be OK. They told us there would be no rat invasion of New York City after Superstorm Sandy. The scientists swore to us that the rats would not flow from their underground burrows in a squirming tidal wave of horror, fleeing the rising waters.

The experts were wrong. The rat invasion of New York City has begun. Maybe.

"Driven from shorelines, the rodents came inland, in droves," writes the New York Times today. The Times article follows with a parade of horror stories from a city seemingly besieged by rats:

Shortly after the storm, exterminators were inundated with calls from Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights and Lower Manhattan. And once the rats were resettled, they grew accustomed to their surroundings, feasting on the garbage created by the hurricane as well as by the normal churn of the winter holidays.

"They became so bad I couldn't even take all the jobs," said Jonathan Vargas, a partner with All Day Exterminating, who estimated that his rat complaint calls doubled in number after Hurricane Sandy.

News of a rat invasion comes as a surprise. During Sandy's immediate aftermath, actual scientists and everything said there was no cause for alarm. At the time, I spoke to a veteran rat hunter who assured me that the rats might be temporarily disturbed by the floods but would soon return to their normal habitats.

"There will be a lot of activity and then they'll die down," he said.

But now rats are running wild in the streets? Crashing our homes like disease-ridden Air BnB guests? I called the rat hunter up again: Robert L. Reynolds, leader of the Ryder's Alley Trencher-fed Society, a group of dog-owners who unleash their working Terriers onto the streets of Manhattan to hunt and slaughter rats. Roberts took issue with the Times story. He told me he hadn't seen any more rats.

"We have seen absolutely no change whatsoever in the demographics," Reynolds said. "In fact it's so stable that it's scary." Reynolds has been out rat hunting in alleys and abandoned buildings about four times since the storm hit, everywhere from Lower Manhattan, to the Upper East Side, to Riverside Park on the Upper West Side.

So who do we believe: The exterminators who might be knowledgable but have a natural incentive to exaggerate the threat of rats? Or the hobbyist? We'll see in a few weeks when New York either is or is not gnawed to a raw nubbin by hordes of rats.

[Image via Shutterstock]

Fans of police chases were in for a treat last night when a freeway pursuit of a suspected drunk driver in a red Chevrolet Camaro ended with the car slamming into the sidewall and bursting into flames.

"Smash! Overturned car! Boom! On Fire!" KTLA's reporter can be heard exclaiming.

According to police, the driver's speeds reached well over 100 MPH prior to the collision. Despite the dramatic scene, officers were able to pull the suspect out of his burning wreck alive, and he was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Though it has been several hours since the crash, police have yet to provide an update on the condition of the driver.

Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly identified the suspect's car as a Ford Mustang.

[photo via KTLA]