Dirtbag Family Teaches Six-Year-Old "Stranger Danger" By Kidnapping Him

Aleksander Chan · 02/06/15 11:45AM

In a disturbing lesson about not talking to strangers, a six-year-old boy was forced to endure four terrifying hours of being "kidnapped" by his family members. The boy's mother, aunt, and grandmother allegedly conspired with a gas station employee to abduct the child, hold him at gunpoint, and threaten to sell him into sex slavery.

Picasso's Granddaughter Is a Total Badass

Dayna Evans · 02/06/15 11:10AM

The last line in the New York Times profile of one of Picasso's heirs, the artist's granddaughter Marina Picasso, is a quote from her: "I respect my grandfather and his stature as an artist. I was his grandchild and his heir, but never the grandchild of his heart." It is the perfect ending to a story filled with precise criticism of a polarizing, and seemingly terrible, character in her life.

Aaron Schock Adviser Quits After Comparing Black People to Zoo Animals

Aleksander Chan · 02/05/15 03:59PM

Another calamity barreling out of Illinois rep. Aaron Schock's office today: Benjamin Cole, Schock's senior adviser for policy and communications, resigned this afternoon after a series of racially-charged Facebook posts—including one in which he compares black people to zoo animals—were obtained and published by ThinkProgress. In another since-deleted post, Cole writes that he "thinks they should build a mosque on the White House grounds," in an apparent dig at Obama.

The Solitary Confinement Epidemic Continues

Hamilton Nolan · 02/05/15 03:15PM

Texas has one of the harshest and most punitive criminal justice systems in America. A new report shows just how inhuman the state of Texas is when it comes to doling out the punishment of solitary confinement.

Have You Hooked Up With Your College Professor?

J.K. Trotter · 02/05/15 01:15PM

You may have heard that Harvard University banned sex between professors and enrolled students. Which made us curious: How many of you have actually slept with your college professor(s)? And what exactly happened?