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Grammy winner Lizzo's production firm is still a defendant in a harassment lawsuit brought by a wardrobe stylist, but a federal judge has dismissed the singer from the case. According to Rolling Stone, U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha rejected the seven causes of action against Lizzo this week, ruling that plaintiff Asha Daniels lacked the legal standing to sue the artist on an individual basis because her employers were listed as her payroll and touring firms. Big Grrrl Big Touring Inc., Lizzo's production business, is still a defendant in the lawsuit. On Saturday, calls to Lizzo's lawyers and reps went unanswered. Lizzo's lawyer, Martin D. Singer, applauded the court decision earlier this week and threatened to sue Daniels. He told Rolling Stone, "We are very happy that the c...

Authorities said this week that seven persons have been taken into custody and charged in relation to a purported narcotics network on social media at Rutgers University. Middlesex County Prosecutor Yolanda Ciccone said in a statement Thursday that the extensive undercover drug operation, called Operation RU Pharm, had discovered a restricted and private social media network that Rutgers University students used to buy and sell drugs. According to a news release from Ciccone's office, authorities confiscated a weapon, a significant quantity of U.S. money, cocaine, psilocybin mushrooms, Adderall, Xanax, marijuana, LSD, and a pistol. According to the results of the sting operation, a Rutgers graduate established a private social media network where drug dealers could post drug menus and look...

According to a police officer on Friday, authorities suspect that the person of interest in the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a hotel in midtown Manhattan may have fled New York City via a crowded bus terminal. Video shows the man riding a bike in Central Park before he takes a taxi to the Port Authority bus stop near the George Washington Bridge, New York Police Department Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters Friday. To determine whether he took a bus from there and, if so, which one, investigators are searching for further footage. "It's a very busy bus terminal," Kenny told CNN the previous Friday. "We're still working through it, but we want to make sure we have the correct bus. All of the information is new. Investigators have also gathered s...

Social media is usually ablaze with hypotheses and tips from amateur online detectives searching for the suspected culprit of a high-profile violent crime. However, in the growing realm of true crime, an unusual thing occurred after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot dead in New York City last week without a prime suspect being identified: internet silence from highly followed armchair investigators. According to Michael McWhorter, better known on TikTok as TizzyEnt, who shares viral news and true crime content for his 6.7 million followers, "I haven't seen a single video that's hammering the drum of we have to find him, and that is unique." I would definitely be witnessing that in other instances of obvious aggression. The 50-year-old executive was shot and killed Wednesday in ...

Although the gunman wanted in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has not made it easy for the NYPD to track him down, experts said Friday that he left behind some confusing indications that might help them apprehend him. Investigators have yet to publicly identify the gunman who ambushed the 50-year-old insurance executive early Wednesday, despite the fact that he fired the fatal shots in a busy area of Manhattan where numerous security cameras are present and that he revealed his face at the hostel where he is thought to have stayed prior to the shooting. Michael Alcazar, a former NYPD detective and current adjunct lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that he has benefited from the period of time before the shooter's picture was made public. Alcazar to...

As part of a lightning-fast offensive that might further destabilize an already war-torn region, Syrian rebels declared they had taken control of a major city in the southwest near the Jordanian border and that they are advancing on the capital, Damascus. According to Hayat Tahrir al-Shamcommander Hassan Abdul Ghani, who posted on X Saturday, our forces have started conducting the last stage of surrounding the capital, Damascus. A bust of President Bashar Al-Assad's father, Hafez Al-Assad, was being torn down in Jaramana, a suburb of Damascus, according to footage confirmed by NBC News. The Syrian government no longer controls Jaramana, according to a statement released Saturday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a war monitor located in the United Kingdom. HTS previously d...

According to authorities, a three-story apartment tower in the Dutch city of The Hague was partially destroyed by an explosion on Saturday, and four people were injured. The BBC reports that although the origin of the explosion is unknown, Dutch police are looking for information about a car that fled shortly after and have called for witnesses. Only three miles outside the city center, in the Tarwekamp neighborhood, the explosion destroyed multiple flats and started a fire that caused a portion of the structure to collapse. According to a statement from the Hague fire department, which Reuters translated, four people have been retrieved from the debris and transported to a hospital thus far. Along with sniffer dogs, authorities have sent a specialized urban search and rescue team to the l...

New York same-sex couples who claimed Aetna discriminated against them and other LGBTQ clients seeking fertility treatment reached a historic class action settlement this week, sanctioned by a federal judge. In October, the couples and Aetna, a division of CVS Health Corp., came to an agreement wherein Aetna would start paying for artificial insemination for all of its clients nationwide and strive to provide equal access to expensive IVF operations. With the judge's approval of the settlement, LGBTQ couples who were previously denied fertility coverage in the United States are now eligible to petition for reimbursement. In 2021, Emma Goidel and her husband, Ilana Caplan, sued Aetna after the health insurance company turned down many requests to pay for their reproductive procedures. The N...

As they continued their lightning-fast attack on Saturday, Syrian rebels claimed to have taken control of a major city in the southwest near the Jordanian border, threatening to further destabilize an already war-torn region. As the site of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2011 that ignited the nation's continuing civil conflict and a crucial border crossing, Daraa's conquest would represent a strategic and symbolic win for the rebels. In a WhatsApp message on Friday, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) declared that the city of Daraa was fully freed from the criminal regime's and its militias' control. NBC The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a U.K.-based war monitor, stated on Friday that rebels in the south held over 90% of the Deraa region, including Daraa city, although it was un...