America, fuck no!

Runnin' Scared recently brought you news of the damning 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision that OKs strip searches for any offense -- even something so minor as an unpaid parking ticket.

Yes, it is absurd -- and just plain wrong -- that jailers can now make inmates undergo cavity searches for a parking ticket.

And specifically in New York, there are plenty of minor offenses in the penal code that can lead to these invasive investigations.

Some of these crimes?

More >>

www.yvpc.edu

*UPDATE: Click here to see MTA's response to Jenkins' allegations.

Reginald Jenkins, a former coach cleaner for the Metro-North Railroad, is described by his attorney as a "proud gay man." So, when he claims some of his co-workers started shouting "kill them faggots dead" while shuttling people to and from last year's Gay Pride Parade, he didn't find it nearly as amusing as some of his colleagues. When his foreman allegedly spent the rest of that day calling him "cupcake," Jenkins claims he became "physically ill" from the stress it caused.

"It was extremely disconcerting to be surrounded by co-workers yelling about killing gay people," Jenkins says. "I am proud of who I am, but I know how hostile people can be. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done to experience this and feel like it was to dangerous to speak up."

Jenkins has since spoken up -- he's currently suing the MTA for $1.5 million.

More >>

​A former Hearst intern has filed a lawsuit against the company in Manhattan's Federal District Court, with the intention of making it a class-action motion representing the "hundreds" of other unpaid interns still working for publications like Seventeen and Cosmo.

The intern in question, Xuedan Wang, worked at Harper's Bazaar from August 2010 to December 2011 after graduating from Ohio State University with a degree in strategic communications. She claims to have regularly worked 40-hour weeks for no pay and was in charge of several other unpaid interns.

More >>

​The American workforce added about 200,000 jobs over December, doubling November's rate of job creation. The Wall Street Journal reports, "The new jobs were scattered over a range of industries, including manufacturing, retail, and even the battered construction sector," and "the sector that added the most jobs was transportation and warehousing, which was up 50,000." While the numbers look good, experts warn that it may be a temporary bump, as many of the jobs created in the aforementioned transportation and warehousing sector were likely holiday-related and may be unsustainable. [WSJ]

More >>

​According to regulators at the U.S. Copyright Office, hot yoga guru Bikram Choudhury's lawsuit against free yoga chain Yoga to the People isn't valid because yoga poses count as "exercises" and not "choreography" and thus cannot be trademarked.

In an email contained in a YTTP response to the lawsuit, the chief of the Copyright Office's Performing Arts division said that exercises like yoga "do not constitute the subject matter that Congress intended to protect as choreography. We will not register such exercises (including yoga movements), whether described as exercises or as selection and ordering of movements."

More >>

​There are a handful of magical places in New York City where you can roll your own cigarettes and save considerable amounts of money in so doing. They're under threat, though, because the city has filed suit against the first two in existence.

That hasn't stopped a third roll-your-own-smokes place from opening up in Sheepshead Bay. The Daily News reports that owner Jack Wang opened City Smokes last week without knowing about the lawsuits.

More >>

​As was reported last week, free yoga studio chain Yoga to the People is being sued by Bikram Choudhury, the inventor of Bikram yoga, for "stealing" poses. Choudhury, who is very litigious, and his lawyer sent in an undercover yogi into the YTTP hot yoga class to confirm Choudhury's suspicion that his poses were being used. Bikram yoga involves a specific 90-minute-long series of 26 poses performed in a 105-degree room. Choudhury has trademarked the phrase "Bikram Yoga" and the poses along with it.

YTTP's owner Gregory Gumucio used to be close with Choudhury and "considered himself Choudhury's right-hand man for five years, before the pair fell out of favor," according to DNA Info. Now Gumucio is discussing the situation with Choudhury on YTTP's Facebook page and not mincing words.

More >>

​As we reported earlier, McDonald's employee Rayon McIntosh was cleared of all charges stemming from the infamous beating of two customers who charged at him behind the counter at the fast food chain's West Village location in October. A grand jury ruled that McIntosh was provoked by the two women, citing the graphic viral video of the event as evidence. DNAinfo spoke with McIntosh over the phone after his release from Rikers Island, and he said he feels "elated" and "splendid." He also said he wants to sue McDonald's.

More >>

​Because apparently it doesn't have any bigger fish to fry, the city is suing a place called Island Smokes on Eldridge Street where you can roll your own cigarettes due to a tax loophole. This is problematic for Bloomberg because under the Island Smokes arrangement, you can get a pack for $2.95, way less than the approximately $1K we're all supposed to be paying now.

The city announced in a press release today that they're officially going to try and sue them out of business.

More >>

​As if the students who tore up the Penn State campus Wednesday night in tragically misguided support of Joe Paterno didn't do enough to hurt the university's image, now a former Nittany Lion player wants to organize "support" for ... Jerry Sandusky.

Sam Stellatella, a Penn State lineman from the late 1950s, sent Sandusky a check for $100. "I told him he's going to need a million dollars to defend himself," the 73-year-old Stellatella told Dan Gelston of the Associated Press. "He called me back and said, `What am I going to do with this money?' I said, 'Use it for your lawyer because you're going to need it.'" Stellatella has also written personal letters to the 1959 Liberty Bowl team asking for donations, explaining, "Here's the thing, these are horrendous charges against him. But he's still entitled to his day in court."

More >>