Dubai's Bugatti Veyron-driving police officer doesn't feel like a rockstar, but he really should because he drives a Veyron. And there's more.

Dubai's police force is said to be the most progressive amongst the Arab countries, with officers getting the proper education in law during training and women making up over half the force.

Their PR department also seems to be rather advanced, and as far as funding and equipment goes, well... they have a pretty amazing fleet to help bring the police closer to the community.

It includes the world's fastest police car, the Veyron 16.4. While the British might argue with that claim, they also have a Brabus B63S Widestar G-Wagen, a McLaren 12C, an Aston Martin One-77, a Lamborghini Aventador, an Audi R8, a Ferrari FF, an AMG SLS, a Bentley Continental, a Ford Mustang and a Nissan GT-R.

Dubai's fleet is sort what an eight-year-old kid would dream up while playing with Matchbox cars. A very, very wealthy eight-year-old, anyway.

Despite a long history as the only institution standing between working class Americans and industrialists' bootheels, unions have seen their influence waning for decades. Their new plan: collective bargaining for union members and non-union-members alike.

Collective bargaining for employees... without a union. What exactly would that mean? Good question. The Wall Street Journal reports today that the AFL-CIO is going to advocate a new law that would require employers to bargain with their workers over wages even if their workers were not unionized. They want to expand on and strengthen the National Labor Relations Act, which is more than 75 years old. From the WSJ:

Existing law doesn't require workers to be represented by a union to collectively bargain — at least not in the traditional sense of what a union is. Employees have the right to collectively bargain if they can demonstrate that they're part of a "labor organization" that represents a majority of the workers, labor lawyers say. The term "labor organization" is broader than a union, including any organization, agency, committee or plan, in which employees participate for the purpose of dealing with employers about labor disputes, wages, work schedules or other working conditions.

It isn't clear if organized labor would seek to legally require employers to bargain without a labor organization in place. Under existing law, private-sector workers can take collective action on their own, such as approaching their employer to try to improve wages, benefits or other working conditions. Employers can't retaliate but aren't required to negotiate with the workers.

This law (which is not expected to pass any time soon) would seem to be quite a coup for workers. But I must admit I'm a little hazy on exactly what form it would take in a non-union workplace. Presumably some ad hoc workers committee would be empowered to bargain on behalf of everyone? Why not just... keep those committees in place, and call them "unions?" This would seem to be a rather selfless gesture by unions—an allowance that even as their membership plummets, the need for the benefits they once provided remains.

Any labor law experts please feel free to weigh in on this in the discussion section below.

[Photo: AP]

Two videos were recently leaked of a teenage Justin Bieber using the word "nigger"—first as a joke, then in song. On Sunday Bieber apologized (this was before the second video aired). Page Six, however, is also reporting that there is additional footage that "explicitly shows this was more than just one regrettable joke."

Over the course of the last week, fans and fellow musicians have spoken out in Bieber's defense. "He's not a racist, he has black friends!" many have said on Twitter and Instagram. Then, today, came CNN anchor and self-appointed Head Negro of Black America Don Lemon, writing:

Some are saying Bieber is racist.

Is he?

I don't know.

Lemon then goes on to blame blacks—who comprise a majority of the "Hip Hop culture" Bieber subscribes to—saying Bieber's use of the racial slur was ultimately our fault. His reasoning:

Very frequently I hear young people of all ages, in public, who can barely get through a sentence without using the word; even calling each other n-words — of all different ethnicities.

Clearly Justin Bieber, a young man who by the way, has immersed himself in black, Hip Hop culture should not be saying the n-word.

So the question is, if you want people like Justin Bieber to stop using it and to stop making excuses for using it, shouldn't you do the same?

Lemon, a black man, and who is no stranger to Respectability Politics, has previously voiced his disdain for the various ways in which black people walk, talk, and generally carry themselves. Like the time, just weeks after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin, he provided several ways we could improve our neighborhoods. "It's time for some tough love," Lemon said. Very seriously, this included: pulling up our pants, no longer using the word "nigga," finishing high school, no more baby-making out of wedlock, and respecting our communities (no littering, y'all). Or the time, three weeks ago, he told us to just "get out of the hood" to escape the violence and ongoing gang warfare, as if leaving is as simple as renting a U-Haul and peacing out. Ta-Nehisi Coates would argue otherwise, bruh.

So Lemon's response to Bieber-gate this morning came as no surprise. He acknowledges that Bieber, who was then just a teen, should "not be saying the n-word," but then completely pours the blame on black people. Lemon so quickly shifts the moral burden of racism onto us—we made Justin do this!—the victims and targets of teenage Bieber's remarks. But what of Bieber, his words, his (repeated and deliberate) actions, his bad judgement? Even if I were to go along with your "we use the word nigga which is why we can't be mad at Bieber for using it" logic, Bieber is still his own man, able-bodied and smart enough to know when he's saying something stupid (at least I hope). But, no, it's our fault. Because it's always our fault, right, Don?

It's all kind of funny considering Lemon's recent interview with actor Morgan Freeman. In it, Lemon briefly raises the topic of race, and how he feels he is constantly engaging in conversations about it on CNN and elsewhere, noting: "... sometimes I just get so tired of talking about it, I want to just go, 'this is over, can we move on?'"

You want to move on, Don? Then maybe shut up.

[Image via CNN]

Nepalese students hug trees during a mass tree hugging on World Environment Day on the outskirts of Katmandu, Nepal, on Thursday. More than 2,000 people gathered in the country's capital in a bid to set a world record for the largest-ever tree hug. Image via Niranjan Shrestha/AP.

I'm not gonna lie: Luigi's Death Stare is my favorite thing to happen in 2014 so far.

Given that I've spent the entire morning watching these ridiculous videos of Luigi's Mario Kart 8 death stare, compiled over at CollegeHumor and the /luigideathstares subreddit, I thought I'd round them up and share them. Make sure your sound is on. The Year of Luigi never ends.

Bonus ShyGuy video:

Michael Egan, the man who has accused four Hollywood power players—including X-Men director Bryan Singer—of raping him when he was a teenager, dropped one of the quartet of lawsuits today, according to the Los Angeles Times. The man no longer being targeted is David Neuman, a one-time executive at Disney and CNN.

The Times reached out to Egan's attorney Jeff Herman to ask why the suit against Neuman has been dropped, but heard no response. The Times posits that the reason Egan has pulled back from this specific suit is because Herman filed a motion to dismiss last month based on 2003 testimony from Egan stating that Neuman never sexually abused him.

Regardless, it's not exactly a surprise that Egan's claims are beginning to fall apart. Nearly every source we spoke with in investigating the Hollywood gay party scene believed that Egan was, at best, exaggerating his accusations.

Further, earlier Egan testimony has also made it easier to question his accounts. All four accused men—Singer, Neuman, Gary Goddard and Grant Ancier—have strenuously denied Egan's accusations.

[image via AP]

There is an image going around Twitter today that purports to be some new Kanye West-related... something. It features Michelangelo's David under the phrase "Kanye West's New Testament." West is reportedly working on his new album, but a source in Kanye's camp has told Gawker what seems obvious: this thing is fake.

"We have no idea what this is," our source says. "It's not coming from us." Even circumstantial evidence makes it hard to believe that "Kanye West's New Testament" is a real thing. The Twitter account @KWsNewTestament—which is a very cool and sleek handle that West would definitely love—currently follows 878 people, almost all of whom are news organizations and celebrities. It even follows Nick Denton, who definitely does not give a shit about the new Kanye West album. Kanye's official account, meanwhile, follows only Kim Kardashian.

So, yes, this is fake—just like Black American Psycho and Rich Black American, which was the pre-Yeezus tracklist that purported to feature Skrillex. Good things come to those who wait.

Caity: I probably go to the Armani store seventy to eighty times a week, but this was my first trip to the restaurant.

Rich: The employee in the elevator knew why we were there. I don't know if that was a compliment ("You dress stylishly and clearly don't need our fashion help") or a dis ("It's VERY expensive").

The best restaurant in New York is

Armani/Ristorante inside the Armani store on 5th Avenue.

Menu style

Prix fixe.

Cost, including two Proseccos and two Diet Cokes, before tip

$137.18

Rich: I felt like everyone we encountered was on the brink of bitchy. Just waiting to be crossed so that they could unleash some catharsis. In that sense, I felt at home in good old Armani/Ristorante. No walk-away ass bitches work there, that's for sure.

Caity: My heart sank when I looked at the menu and saw so many Italian dishes I didn't recognize, because I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable asking for an explanation in that place. ("Bring me two of these!" Mademoiselle, you are just pointing to the word "Armani" on the front of our menu.) As it turned out, though, our waiter was quite playful!

Rich: Did you catch his name? If not, I'm just gonna call him Ruggero. No, wait. Dario. No, I knew a Dario. Our waiter will now be known as Lucio.

Lucio had a deep voice with a sexy Italian accent that I wanted inside of me as soon as he said my choice of prosecco was, "Beautiful." The bubbly was dry, but I sure wasn't ;).

Caity: My Diet Cokes came in tiny glass bottles, which I hate. The soda I ordered sure wasn't cost-effective and neither were the $3,000 Armani suits being sold (discreetly out of sight) yards away from where I sat, sipping my drinks with m e a s u r e d s l o w n e s s.

Caity: The restaurant, located on the third floor of the Armani building, was pretty inside. Big and white and open. Sleek, but inviting. I think more restaurants should be located above ground level, even if it's only a floor or two. It feels like you're in a very low airplane. Removed from the hustle and bustle of other people's tiny, ant-like lives.

Rich: You sat on a giant couch by yourself.

Caity: Removed from the tiny ant-like lives of the people around me—yourself included—who were sitting in regular chairs.

Seated next to us when we arrived was a table of three glamorous matrons who lunch. One of them was in a bright orange Pucci dress. I liked her. She seemed like a nightmare.

Rich: But, like, the best nightmare. A nightmare that would be fun to watch on reality TV. At one point she said, "At Dolce & Gabanna, we had a breakfast meeting and she said we're expanding." And this was apparently funny because one of her friends guffawed.

When their food came, all three ladies said "Pretty. Very pretty!" in rounds.

Caity: I said that when our food came, too, because I had heard them say it and copying them seemed like a safe bet. "A selection of your prettiest items, Per favore!"

The (warm!) bread basket they brought was a bountiful offering to Ceres. When they left it on the table you and I both whispered, "Class."

That free basket of bread was the first and only item we could afford to consume on the menu, but, when in Rome, eat at Armani. We opted for the prix fixe lunch special, which was $44 per person and came with four courses (including coffee or dessert), plus an amuse bouche.

I'll note here that a really fun thing to do while you are in the Armani store, whether for food or fashion, is only pronounce the word "Armani" like ARM'inee—the same way you pronounce the Termini (TERM'inee) bakery in South Philly.

I went dahn ta da ARM'inee store wit my friend Richard awn Tuesdee.

Rich: Is there an ARM'inee in kinuhprussia moll?

For an appetizer, you got the Insalata (salad): Green Asparagus, Arugula, Rhubarb & Almond Vinaigrette.

Caity: It was great!

Rich: Big words coming from a veggiephobe.

Caity: There was one item in it I had trouble identifying, and you said "It's an apple, right?"

Rich: And you said, "I think I know what an apple tastes like." Do you, though? I've never actually seen you eat an apple. I don't think you ever would choose to do so.

Caity: Yeah, that wasn't sarcasm. I meant it in the spirit of "I wonder if I know what an apple tastes like." I do like an apple with caramel on it.

Rich: Everyday is Halloween when you are Caity Weaver.

Caity: Luckily my extensive knowledge of pies eventually helped me solve the mystery: rhubarb.

Rich: Rhubarb is basically like an unsweetened apple. In the apple party, it's the wallflower. My friend's dog was named Rhubarb and one day he chewed up what felt like dozens of my action figures. I had a breakdown.

I got the zupa (soup): white asparagus soup with leeks and yukon potatoes. Mine was delicious. Cream of Lucio.

Caity: When our team of three waiters brought out your soup, Lucio put down your bowl—empty but for a minuscule portion of asparagus—and exclaimed, "Here's the soup!" Then we all laughed (in Italian) and one of his assistants poured it in.

He felt comfortable joking with us because he could tell we were low-class. It was like the scene in Lady and the Tramp when the restaurateur gives them a plate of spaghetti at a romantic table for two. "It is a funny joke to pretend you are people!" Lucio's eyes laughed.

Rich: Next course: You got the Cavatelli Neri (Homemade squid ink pasta with shrimp, escarole and sweet peas).

Caity: When the waiters put down my plate, you and I both fell silent. After they walked away, I whispered what the whole restaurant was thinking: "Rich. They brought me a plate of bugs."

These noodles looked disgusting.

Rich: Pretty horrifying, really. Shiny and black and segmented.

Caity: It was like something out of a nightmare: I put my fork down to skewer my delicious Italian meal, and when I raise it to my mouth, it's crawling with slimy black worms and I'm late for the airport.

Rich: It was like something out of an Italian horror movie.

Rich: I got the risotto "with Red Pesto of dried tomatoes." That risotto was fucking masterful. Not too heavy, blessed with the bite of parmesan, and with the sweetness of tomato. Al dente, if rice can be al dente (can rice be al dente?).

My third course was buttery fish in butter. (Rainbow trout.) There were little purple flowers on it. You asked me, "Can you identify what the flowers are by taste?" I couldn't. I'm gay but I'm not an alchemist. Jesus.

The trout was good, but anti-climactic, really, given how senfuckingsational everything else was. Man, this really is the best restaurant in New York

Caity: My third course—steak—was definitely the weak point as well.

Rich: It seemed bloody.

Caity: That would be the layer of tomato sauce, Rich.

Rich: You asked me if I wanted your blood-soaked vegetables, which you, of course, did not plan on eating. No thanks.

Mmm, I think I'm right.

Caity: You bite into a tomato: "I think I know what blood tastes like."

Our dessert course was also fine: A trio of gelatos and ice creams. A trio, as they say in Italian.

Rich: I don't know which was which. The difference is in the consistency, I believe, and they were all melty and runny, as ice cream tends to get. Hazelnut was aiight, but the strawberry and stracciatella were (I just brought all my fingers to a point, kissed it and released).

Caity: Best of all, we each received a SURPRISE FINALE COOKIE with the check.

Rich: You were in the bathroom when they came. I considered eating both and sending the plate back quickly, but my heart is bigger than my stomach. (Yeah, right. I wish.)

Caity: On my way back from the (completely marble) restroom, I scoped out the restaurant hoping to catch sight of a very minor celebrity. The closest I saw was a beautiful pregnant woman. I still gasped, because pregnant women are celebrities to me. I like imagining everyone being excited for them and treating them with care.

Rich: Before we left, I noticed that seated next to the matrons who lunch was a woman who looked like Iggy Azalea eating with guy who looked like Miguel Ferrer (of Robocop) from afar and Michael Lohan up close.

And I thought to myself, "We are all so fancy." That's what a good restaurant can do.

Is Everything Okay?

Questions about the Dining Experience

Would you go back?

Rich: YES! It's where I met my new husband Lucio. It will forever be "our spot."

Caity: No. I can't afford it. Maybe an Armani Exchange/Ristorante.

Is it a good first date spot?

Rich: Yes. The Armani says, "I have taste," and the Ristorante says, "Taste my taste."

Caity: No. There is nothing LESS chalant than inviting someone to dinner inside a high-end luxury clothing boutique. "I'm gonna take you to eat in all the finest stores, baby."

Is it a good place to have an affair?

Rich: No. Everyone is quietly judging you and it would only compound your guilt. If you're an exhibitionist, though, go crazy. The elevator man will thank you silently.

Caity: No. I have never felt more conspicuous while being ignored by everyone around me (except Lucio).

Is it a good place to bring a doll?

Rich: Since it's SOOOOOOOO gauche, why the fuck not! Go crazy! Bring a trashy-ass Bratz for all I care!

Caity: No. There's room on this giant couch for a hundred dolls, but I would prefer to sit alone.

It's a good place to bring your doll if she needs to be humbled.

There are a bunch of restaurants in the world, including some in New York City. But in a city of over 24,000 restaurants, how do you find the best? You begin your search in places that are already popular: New York's hottest tourist destinations. In The Best Restaurant in New York Is, writers Caity Weaver and Rich Juzwiak attempt to determine the best restaurant in New York.

Previously: The Best Restaurant in New York Is: The Crown Cafe at the Statue of Liberty; The Campbell Apartment inside Grand Central; The U.N. Delegates Dining Room; Play at the Museum of Sex; Le Train Bleu inside Bloomingdales; LOX at The Jewish Museum; The American Girl Café

[Images via Rich Juzwiak]

So You Think You Can Dance is the type of show where a dancer who goes by the stage name "Marie Poppins" not only isn't a walking punchline, she's fucking awesome. The episode saved her for last, for obvious reasons, but there are no such rules about waiting to show the best part of the show here at Morning After. Roll the tape:

Like, she danced to "Smooth Operator," so she was already ahead of the game, but damn girl, don't hurt 'em. Or do. Whatever she chooses is probably for the best.

Did anyone else forget how adorable Fik-Shun is? No wonder he won America's Favorite Dancer last season. For the Los Angeles auditions, he's in the audience alongside Cyrus and Legacy, and not only is there the moment with Marie Poppins, but there's a dance battle:

We can certainly talk about Kyle Taylor, as long as it's about how he's joined the ranks of people who quit during the choreography round after auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance without any partner experience. Awards are handed out by TJ Lavin of The Challenge, king of all quitter-hating.

Some other highlights from the episode:

Fabrice Calmels' face. That's it. Just that.

It's kind of alien while at the same time super attractive. And the accent, oh the accent.

Also, no clip included, but Christina Applegate's "The good news is...you have passion" during the quick (so quick—no joke auditions at all, this week) failure montage was a pretty good line. One can only imagine she also said that to NBC before leaving Up All Night.

But if we have to talk about other dancers...

Kailee Payne is going to be ADORED by Tyce Diorio, not doubt about it. (That wasn't meant to be an insult, but it stands.)

Jaja Vankova is a red-headed, curly haired, krumper/animator, and if that doesn't intrigue you, what even does?

Dani Platz and Justine Lutz probably made you or someone you know cry.

Franchesca Bass has alopecia, which will either be mentioned all the time from now on or not at all (to the point where you'll wonder why it's not being mentioned all the time and it will drive you mad). But until that happens, we still have her alien-inspired audition routine to hold us over.

Jessica Richens has a couple of things going for her. First, she introduces herself to America by saying that one of her favorite things to do is be sexy on stage, which leads to the hashtag #WerkIt. Then, she dances to Juliet Simms' version "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World," which could only have been topped by her dancing to Amanda Brown's version of "Dream On." She also wears a fedora, which goes back to the first thing she has going for her in a way.

One of the judges says that she could win the show, so maybe we should get on board?

Or we can rewatch Marie Poppins' routine again and again and again.

As for Bieber's Best Dance Crew, we can talk about that (and why he speaks like he's never spoken before/like he's high as all hell) in the comments.

[Image via Fox]

Morning After is a new home for television discussion online, brought to you by Gawker. Read more here.

Two reports released today reveal new details about the dealings of the capture and release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from Taliban forces. The first report, from the New York Times, states that Bergdahl walked away from designated areas on military bases twice—once in Afghanistan, and once in California—before disappearing in June 2009.

The report, based on a 35-page classified military document completed two months after Bergdahl's disappearance, points to his history of leaving assigned areas, complicating public accusations that Bergdahl is a deserter. From the New York Times:

The issue is murky, the report said, in light of Sergeant Bergdahl's previous episodes of walking off. The report cites accounts from his unit mates that in their predeployment exercise at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., he sneaked or crawled off a designated course or range either to see how far he could go or to see a sunrise or sunset.

The report is also said to cite members of his platoon as saying that he may have taken a shorter unauthorized walk outside the concertina wire of his combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan before he left for good, in an incident that was apparently not reported up the chain of command.

http://gawker.com/the-treason-ca...

The second report, from the Associated Press, cites three congressional officials who said Congress wasn't informed of the deal to trade five Guantanamo prisoners because the Taliban had threatened to kill Bergdahl if the deal was made public. From Associated Press:

The threat, — not just concerns that Bergdahl's health might be failing — drove the Obama administration to quickly make the deal to rescue him, the officials said Thursday. The threat was transmitted by Qatari officials at the height of the negotiations, they said.

The reports come one day after video of Bergdahl's handoff from the Taliban was released.

[Image via AP]

Uber is so hot with investors right now, they're in the position to dictate their own valuation. And now that number is set to hit $17 billion, the ride-sharing darling is poised to mint a new class Uber-rich investors.

According to Fortune, Uber's latest fundraising round means that early investors have already seen a 2000x return on their initial investments—on paper, at least. That return means that a small $20,000 angel investment would be worth $40 million today.

Similar to the way early bets on Facebook solidified the status of top-tier investors like Jim Breyer, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and David Sze, Uber is the game-changing home run for dozens of angel investors.

Among the next wave of top-tier investors?

— Shawn Fanning. Fanning was the co-founder of Napster. He's a co-founder of Path.

— Jason Calacanis. Calacanis recently launched Inside.com, a news app. He's led several syndicates of angel deals on AngelList, and in addition to Uber, backed Chartbeat and Whisper.

— Chris Hollod. Hollod manages A-Grade Investments, the startup investment vehicle of Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary and Ron Burkle. The fund has backed Foursquare, Soundcloud, Warby Parker and Fab.com.

— Tony Carter. Known as Lady Gaga's former manager, Carter has made a name for himself as a venture investor through his fund, AF Square, which has backed Fab, Warby Parker and Dropbox.

— Adam Leber. Leber, who has worked as a producer for Britney Spears, has also backed Path and Everlane.

— Robin Sloan Bechtel. Bechtel works with musicians on digital strategy. She helped Britney Spears partner three of her investments: Path, Everlane and Uber.

— Jeremy Stoppelman. Stoppelman co-founded and is the CEO of Yelp. Other notable deals include Eventbrite, Palantir Technologies, Pinterest and Airbnb.

— Zachary Bogue. Bogue co-manages Data Collective with Ocko. He's also invested in AngelList and Square, and is married to Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

Universal Music Group, however, will not be joining the list of newly-minted Uber titans. The company, which sold Uber its uber.com domain in 2010 for stock, quickly sold the stock back to the transportation company for "a small profit." Had they held out, they'd be sitting on over $100 million in profit.

[via Fortune, photo by maxjc]

A very important clarification, from the political world: when Pennsylvania State Sen. Scott Wagner compared labor unions to Hitler and Vladimir Putin, he wasn't actually comparing them. Okay? Can we clear this up?

Here is what Scott Wagner said, on the state Senate floor, in support of his own stupid bill to bar the state from deducting union dues from employee paychecks, via the AP:

During the floor debate, he said, "The unions are about power and control. And there are two things that I continue to remember about power and control. There was a gentleman by the name of Hitler, he was about power and control. There's a gentleman by the name of Putin, who's across the ocean, that's about power and control."

Damn, it really makes you think.... VITAL CLARIFICATION:

"I'm not comparing the unions to Hitler and I'm not comparing them to Putin," Wagner said. "I'm talking about the concept of power and control. … I didn't say the unions are out killing people."

There was a gentleman by the name of Hitler, who was always talking about the concept of power and control... just like Scott Wagner. Wouldn't hurt a fly ;)

All of this took place in Harrisburg, PA, hometown of Caity Weaver.

[Photo: FB]

Drummer Brad Kuehner of Alabama rock band band Atticus Avenue recently worked some extra practice time into his schedule by giving his toddler son, Max, a "drum beatin'," using his back as an improvised drum kit.

Kuehner writes on Facebook that what you hear in the video wasn't "altered or mixed or enhanced in any way." The squeaking sound is just Max "giggling during the beatin' and squeaking as the beat squishes him."

[H/T Reddit]

A worker at a Target in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina discovered a loaded handgun resting on top of a superhero Playskool box in the store's toy aisle on Friday night.

WMBF reports that the employee, a loss prevention worker, thought the gun was a toy at first. He later noticed that it was loaded with live ammunition.

From the Associated Press:

The employee told officers he had seen a man repeatedly walking around that section of the store, but authorities said they didn't know if that man had put the gun among the toys.

Authorities said the 9-mm handgun had not been reported stolen and had eight bullets inside. Officers said they would review security camera footage to try to determine who left the gun in the store.

Target released surveillance footage to police and issued a statement to WMBF.

"The safety and security of our team members and guests is a top priority for Target," Senior Specialist of Target's Public Relations Department, Evan Lapiska, said in the statement. "We take these matters very seriously and we are partnering with local law enforcement on this incident. Because this matter is under active investigation, we are unable to share additional information."

Earlier this week, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America launched a petition urging Target to ban the possession of firearms in its store. The petition, which has since garnered more than 10,000 votes, targets gun rights groups that have held open-carry demonstrations at several Targets.

The leader of one such group, Open Carry Texas, which held an open-carry demonstration at a Target this past January, told BuzzFeed gun control activists might have planted the pistol in the South Carolina store.

"I wouldn't doubt if a gun control extremist planted the gun there to further his agenda of blaming gun owners for deaths of children," CJ Grisham, the group's president, said. "Whoever did it is a despicable excuse for a human being and should be charged with attempted murder and fried in in a chair."

Seems like a reasonable guy.

[Image via AP]

There are 16,000 ranchers who graze their cattle on federal land. Of those, 459 owe grazing fees to the government. One rancher's late grazing fees are greater than the fees of the other 458 combined. Guess who?

After Stanford University officials condemned sexist emails sent by Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel during his time at school, Stanford students who have long protested the university's weak policies on sexual violence are making a more aggressive push to reform "the Rape Culture here at Stanford," as one current student described it to Gawker. The initiative gained momentum this afternoon, with a campus rally led by rape survivor Leah Sharon Francis from the class of 2014.

Francis, who gave Gawker permission to use her name, distributed an email (printed below) to the Stanford community, including the entire undergraduate class, recounting how Stanford invited "my rapist back to campus for grad school." She also launched a Change.org petition addressed to President John Hennessy, Vice Provost Greg Boardman, and Provost Etchemendy.

According to Francis, the student who raped her "was found by Stanford to be responsible for sexually assaulting me through use of force." The school not only permitted him to receive his degree, she claims, but to return to Stanford for graduate school "as long as he agrees to do community service and complete a sexual assault awareness course."

Student advocates say that "insufficient response" to sexual violence is far too common at Stanford. In the past two days, there have been two editorials and one news article in The Stanford Daily about "the problem of sexual assault on campus."

The increased backlash to the school's secretive, internal Alternate Review Process seems to have been prompted by the number of incidents on campus as well as the ongoing national debate about whether colleges offer justice for victims. Recent statements made by Provost John Etchemendy condemning sexist emails offered protestors another opportunity to steer public discussion toward their cause.

The emails, published by Valleywag, were written by Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel while he was attending Stanford and a member of a fraternity. The provost's response somehow found its way to TechCrunch, an industry blog. One of the editorials in the Stanford Daily said:

As we heed Etchemendy's call to "reflect on our common values," we find ourselves wondering this: How can we launch a more powerful response to sexual violence?

We are offended by Spiegel's language and the culture it promotes, but we are more incensed by the very real violence perpetrated by and against Stanford students and our collective insufficient response to it. Too many of our peers are violated by their classmates every year. A 2012 Vaden student survey revealed that four percent of Stanford students report that they have been raped, seven percent penetrated sexually against their will and 15 percent have engaged in intercourse under pressure. This must change.

The Stanford undergraduate who decried "Rape Culture" requested anonymity from Gawker. She said that the ordeal Francis described was an institutional issue:

There are countless coverups and victims are almost never believed. Stanford instantly swoops in and "hush hushes" a situation; it's pretty disturbing. What's especially shocking is that Rape is punished with about as much seriousness as frat hazing: that is, not at all. To be honest it seems like certain people (heterosexual, wealthy white males almost entirely in fraternities) are completely immune to the law to an extent that is baffling and terrifying. I feel like Hennessey et al. is personally willing to cover for his frat bros and university image at the expense of suffering students.

And I feel as though if I were raped in broad daylight, Stanford would still give the rapist no more than a slap on the wrist. The law simply does not apply to certain students, students who happen to have their own houses and hang out in very powerful packs and move on to become the CEOs of Silicon Valley.

Spiegel's emails are irrelevant to this issue, except that all of a sudden, the administration is concerned. Last week, the New York Times dubbed Stanford "America's 'it' school," surpassing Harvard primarily by "riding a wave of interest in technology." In 2012, The New Yorker called Stanford "the farm system" for Silicon Valley, detailing how the school bent over backward to foster Spiegel's ambitions.

The anonymous student told Gawker that President Hennessy is more sensitive to perception of Stanford in the tech press than to the students who have been sexually assaulted. (In that same New Yorker article, venture capitalist Marc Andreessen said: "John Hennessy is the godfather of Silicon Valley.")

That might be why the Snapchat memo showed up on TechCrunch and why a new list-serv was created just to distribute that response, the student told Gawker:

But of course, Stanford admins never react to a situation until it starts to bring in bad publicity on their precious tech blogs. After all, John Hennesey wouldn't want to be embarrassed in front of all his friends at TechCrunch and Stanford Graduate School of Startups aka Y Combinator. So all of a sudden when you posted the Spiegel emails on Valleywag and Stanford got some bad press they created a special all-undergrad email list just to send that response from Dean Etchemendy (who nobody had ever heard of prior) out to all of campus talking about "intolerance for blah blah blah"

It was all PR. Funny how that note from the dean got released to TechCrunch and wrapped the whole Spiegel situation up in a nice little bow. Now everyone's pretty much over it. Stanford came out scot free as ever, just like this rapist.

The email from Francis, which was sent out this Tuesday, is perhaps the most powerful sign that Stanford's insufficient approach to sexual violence will no longer be tolerated, the current student added:

For someone to put herself out there like this, sending an email to the entire campus signed with her own name, putting herself at risk——you know it's gotten really, really, bad.

Stanford spokesperson Lisa Lapin sent a statement to Gawker in response to questions about rape culture and claims made by Francis. Lapin described Stanford as ahead of the curve in progressive policies toward victims of sexual assault. It does not address the limits of the ARP process that Francis detailed in the Stanford Daily.

Here is Lapin's full statement:

There is nothing recent that has prompted Stanford to pay "more attention" to the issue of sexual assault, and it would be completely erroneous to suggest any of the theories you propose below. In fact, in 2010, we were one of the first universities to revise our process for adjudicating sexual assault cases, adopting our Alternative Review Process well ahead of federal direction to all univeristies to revise their practices (what is known as the "Dear Colleague" letter from the Office of Civil Rights.) That ARP process has resulted in more sexual assault cases coming forward for review in the past three years, and a higher percentage of cases being adjudicated.

What seems to have heightened recent attention is the heightened national conversation, and we are very pleased that our students are engaging in this dialogue.

The Provost's note was in response to a specific instance of the emails that were shared about Evan Spiegel. I should note that in 2009-2010, the period in which those fraternity emails were written, the fraternity in question, Kappa Sigma was suspended by Stanford and lost its privileges to have a house on campus for its alcohol excesses as well as its behavior toward women. Stanford took strong action at that time, this is nothing new.

With respect to your discussing a "rape culture" and recent conversations, including the rally today, as I am sure you can appreciate, Stanford cannot comment on pending cases in deference to the privacy and due process rights of the parties involved. But It might be helpful for you to know we do regret any circumstance in which a student believes a process here at Stanford has not met their expectations. We take very seriously the pain and trauma that are generated by sexual assault. We have strengthened our programs in the area of sexual assault response and prevention over the last several years, the ARP process I mentioned, and seek to provide support to individuals in crisis, encourage reporting, ensure fair and thorough disciplinary processes, and educate the community to prevent future incidents. But we are always looking to improve what we do, and we genuinely welcome input from students on how we can do better.

Stanford absolutely must be a safe and respectful environment for all students to pursue their education. The University has just hired a new Title IX Coordinator (though we have long had a Title IX coordinator) who will continue to help us identify areas for improvement. She will be gathering input from across the Stanford community and recommending additional things for us to be doing. The feedback being provided by students now will help inform that process.

Here is Francis' email in full:

————— Forwarded message —————

From: Leah Francis<leahf@stanford.edu>
Date: Tue, Jun 3, 2014 at 9:53 PM
Subject: MESSAGE FROM '14 RAPE SURVIVOR
To: cooperating@lists.stanford.edu, ebf_1913-1914@lists.stanford.edu, cw-undergrad@lists.stanford.edu, overseasstudies@stanford.edu

* Please forward on to at least 5 individuals and all of the lists you are a part of

What: RALLY FOR REFORMING SEXUAL VIOLENCE RESOURCES AND POLICY AT STANFORD

Where: WHITE PLAZA

When: NOON, THIS THURSDAY, 6/5/2014

Dear Fellow Stanford Students, Classmates, and Staff:

Five months ago, I was forcibly raped by another Stanford student. I reported the sexual assault at the beginning of Winter quarter and then I proceeded to go through the ARP (Alternate Review Process). Months later, the student who raped me was found by Stanford to be responsible for sexually assaulting me through use of force.

Stanford did not expel the man who raped me. They suspended him effective 2014 Summer quarter so that he could finish his classes and walk at graduation. They also moved him out of Stanford housing, required that he complete community service, and required that he complete a sexual assault awareness program before receiving his degree or coming back to Stanford for grad school.

What this amounts to:

After his suspension (gap year) is complete, Stanford invites my rapist back to campus for grad school (where he has already been accepted) as long as he agrees to do community service and complete a sexual assault awareness course. Should he change his mind and decide to go to grad school elsewhere, he can choose to walk away from Stanford with no significant undergraduate consequences for forcibly sexually assaulting me.

What you can do: Posters and people!

This Wednesday, 8-10 pm, at EBF, join us in making signs for our rally. What message do you want to share?

This Thursday, 12 pm, at White Plaza, join our rally to demand change of our administration and our community:

• Mandatory expulsion for individuals found responsible of sexual assault (following the example of Dartmouth, Amherst, and Duke)
• Better enforcement of sanctions for assailants to comply with Title IX
• Expanded mandatory education on definitions, consent and bystander intervention for all undergraduates
• Increase SARA office capacity by hiring more staff
• Better resources for survivors throughout their chosen process, including safety measures and academic support

Show your support for survivors and demand action. I'll be there - will you?

Thanks for reading,

Leah Sharon Francis

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

[Image via Wikimedia]

Jet magazine, which has been around since 1951, has printed its last issue. It's becoming an app now. Damn, the future is weird.

General Motors, reeling from millions of recalls and an ensuing scandal, fired 15 employees today. That's just two more than the number of people killed by a defect in the company's cars. In announcing the firings, CEO Mary Barra refused to name those who were axed. That is where you come in.

The firings came after an attorney hired by GM to do an internal investigation found that the company was "incompetent and negligent" in failing to prevent dozens of deaths due to an ignition switch defect that it was aware of going back to at least 2004. But that investigation—which was carried out by Anton Valukas, the chairman of Jenner & Block, a law firm with deep ties to GM—was careful to note that GM did not willfully cover up its knowledge of the defect.

According to the New York Times, the 15 people fired today were mostly in "senior and executive roles." One of those, per the Detroit Free Press, was a suspended engineer named Ray DeGiorgio, who was implicated in a 2006 memo about the defective part. Two others have been named by Bloomberg: Bill Kemp, a senior lawyer "responsible for safety issues within its legal department" and Gary Altman, a program engineering manager. The other 12 remain unnamed.

Much like it did with our "too big to fail banks," it's unlikely that the Justice Department will prosecute any individual connected to the GM recalls. GM has already been ordered to pay $35 million—a "record fine," much like the banks years ago—which amounts to less than one day of the company's revenue. Still, the families of the victims want more: namely, they want to see those responsible put in prison.

Maybe the 15 GM employees fired today are scapegoats, or maybe they played significant parts in the deaths of 13 people. Either way, we want to know who they are.

If you know which other GM employees were let go today—or anything else about the ignition switch scandal—email me at jordan@gawker.com, or leave a comment below.

[image via GM]

50 Cent is better at acting than he is at throwing a baseball or sticking to a strict anti-masturbation regimen. Sort of.

On Thursday night, Jimmy Kimmel upgraded the trailer for Maleficent by replacing Angelina Jolie with Fifty, giving the world Malefiftycent. The rapper could barely contain his giddiness at introducing the clip, and for good reason: This should be a real movie, featuring an hour and a half of shit getting magical.

It wouldn't be any worse than the original.

[H/T Digg]

At present, the debate about Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is an either-or exercise. Is he a Hero? Or a Deserter? As it's put like that, you can see that "deserter" for certain people has precious little relationship to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is, for them, another way of saying "coward."

Pretty much every war—just, unjust, and in between—has seen its share of deserters. Most of them have received more public and military sympathy than the pundits are conjuring right now.

The deserters usually bleed from either side of the front. In the Civil War, which was particularly desertion-prone, more than 100,000 men deserted from each side. It was, for a time, official federal policy to encourage Confederate soldiers to desert, to use attrition against the enemy. Ulysses S. Grant even signed off on giving such defectors money, if they pledged their newly uprooted loyalty to the union. And Robert E. Lee himself was granting blanket pardons for deserters as late as 1865:

That just shows that heroism and cowardice are relative terms. And that it's always been that way, even in an era where "honor" and "loyalty" had perhaps more obvious content than they do in our own.

Even when the desertion is a clear-cut case, which it isn't in Bergdahl's, the punishment varies because the circumstances matter. In the entire 2oth century America shot only one man for desertion. All 24 of the men sentenced to death in World War I saw their sentences commuted by Woodrow Wilson; most of the convicted deserters in World War II managed to escape that fate too. The exception was a man named Eddie Slovik, from Detroit. He was originally classified as unfit for service, due to a minor criminal record, but then they reclassified him and suddenly he was on the front lines in France.

Slovik was, as Charlie Glass points out in his book The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II, brave in his own way. When he decided he could no longer fight he simply told people he was refusing and turned himself in to a cook several miles behind the front. Eisenhower refused to commute his death warrant anyway and a firing squad was assembled by the wall of a nearby farmhouse. Slovik's last words were:

They're not shooting me for deserting the United States Army, thousands of guys have done that. They just need to make an example out of somebody and I'm it because I'm an ex-con. I used to steal things when I was a kid, and that's what they are shooting me for. They're shooting me for the bread and chewing gum I stole when I was 12 years old.

At first Slovik's case was covered up; his widow herself only learned how he died when a journalist told her about it in the mid-1950s. When that journalist published a book, the story briefly became the subject of a national debate about whether Slovik had been properly treated. There was so much public interest in this question that they made a television movie out of it, starring Martin Sheen. (Frank Sinatra briefly wanted to produce and direct the story.)

Glass contrasts that case with another World War II deserter, Wayne Powers, who had a very different leave-taking from the service. Powers met a French woman, fell in love with her. Later, in trouble with his unit over a missing truck, he fled to her house. He proceeded to live in hiding for 15 years before being discovered and handed over to military police in 1958. In between, the Frenchwoman had had five children by Powers; she went to work in a factory and he was housebound with the children, who were forbidden to speak of who their father was.

When Powers' story broke in the papers the American public was charmed by the love story. And as such, although his court-martial originally sentenced him to 10 years' hard labor, Powers did only six, and was then released. He later married the Frenchwoman in question.

The deserters of subsequent wars have raised more ire, perhaps because they tended to be more overt about their politics. In the late 1960s so many GIs deserted and went to Sweden that they were able to organize. They had a litany of complaints that ranged from the injustice of the war in Vietnam generally, to racism in military ranks more generally, and on out to the wholly abstract debate of whether America should serve as the world's policeman. For these complaints they were sometimes excoriated in the press, called immature, but they tended not to be damned for it either.

Even the ones who were less directly political managed to enjoy a certain kind of public mercy. Charles Robert Jenkins, who was serving in Korea in 1965 but feared he might be sent to Vietnam, got drunk and ended up surrendering to forces in North Korea.

He was subsequently kept there for almost 39 years in the kind of conditions you'd expect from the North Koreans: indoctrination, beatings, huts without running water, a kind of arranged marriage to a fellow abductee. Reading about it makes you wonder how and why he survived it. But when Jenkins was eventually released to Japan he did not get a pardon. He had to report for a court martial, was dishonorably discharged and the rest of it, and received a sentence of 30 days' confinement. Jenkins admitted then that when he'd deserted,

"I no longer wanted to be in the military, I just wanted to go home," he said when he learned just after his Christmas 1964 home leave that his unit was to be sent to Vietnam.

"I knew Vietnam was combat, jungle warfare," he said in response to a question from the presiding Army judge, Col. Denise Vowell. "I had never been in the jungle in my life. How could I lead soldiers?"

Bergdahl's case seems, in many ways, to be closest to this last case. Bergdahl's suffering was shorter, but still long enough, and motivated at base by a rash decision. Someone with a better knowledge of the facts than have presently been reported will be the best judge of whether his abandonment of his post was really all that political. My own suspicions are that it was "political" in the sense that an alchemy of idealism, fear, and youthful bad judgment led him off his post. But then as you can see, it was always that way.

[Illustration by Jim Cooke.]