IKEA Monkey

Broad City is returning from the longest hiatus in the show’s history, with just under a year and a half off the air. In that time, New York has changed, the world has changed, and the new season of the show hopes to reflect that. The A.V. Club sat down with Broad City creators and stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer…

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He completed a sentence for sexually abusing five boys, but the state argues he still poses a threat. [ more › ]

After sitting on the information for more than a month, yesterday, credit-reporting agency Equifax—one of three companies whose shady algorithms dictate all manner of critically important factors in our lives—reported that the private information of 143 million people, almost half of the entire population of the…

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It’s very rare that my hot mess status ends up being a positive thing, but it turns out my slovenly can help me put more tacos in my mouth which is, frankly, my entire goal.

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In the five months since the spectacular collapse of the Fyre Festival, a multi-day music festival for well-heeled millennials in the Bahamas, its 26-year-old founder, Billy McFarland, has been hit with a dozen-odd civil lawsuits, charged with federal wire fraud, and had one of his companies, Fyre Festival LLC, placed in an involuntary bankruptcy. For now, he's still the CEO of Magnises, an all-but-defunct members-only concierge service.

But new documents exclusively obtained by VICE News show he may still have further to fall. Credit card records show the two companies' fates became deeply entwined late last fall as McFarland used a Fyre Festival corporate credit card to pay for the discounted concert tickets Magnises offered as an exclusive benefit to its members.

Continue reading on VICE News.

Donald Trump Jr. told Senate investigators on Thursday that he set up a 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer after being promised damaging information about Hillary Clinton because it was important to learn about her "fitness" to be President, according to a report about the conversation.

Credit reporting agencies have access to basically all of our most sensitive financial information, and we pretty much all have our records collected and collated by them whether we want to or not. So that makes it a particularly big problem when one of the big three credit agencies in the country has to announce a data breach affecting all its customers, because that basically means all of us… and this one is bad.

What was the breach?

Equifax announced today that it discovered “unauthorized access” to their systems — i.e. a data breach — on July 29.

Whoever got into their systems had access from mid-May through the end of July, so about two-and-a-half months.

Equifax says it has “no evidence of unauthorized activity on Equifax’s core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases,” but plenty of Equifax systems were accessed, and data purloined. The company adds the standard adage about reporting the incident to law enforcement and working with both independent forensic investigators as well as the relevant authorities to sort out who’s responsible.

Bloomberg also reports that three Equifax senior executives, including the Chief Financial Officer, sold a total $1.8 million worth of company stock between the time the breach was discovered and the time it as announced.

What was stolen?

This one is bad. The illicitly accessed data includes:

• Names
• Dates of birth
• Addresses
• Social Security numbers
• Driver’s license numbers

That is, of course, basically the identity theft jackpot. Every account that needs verification that you’re you asks for that exact set of data, so now anyone can be you.

Additionally, Equifax adds, another 209,000 customers had their credit card numbers stolen, and another 182,000 customers had “personal identifying information” listed from dispute documents.

Am I affected?

The breach may impact as many as 143 million people. That’s approximately 45% of the entire U.S. population, so if you have a credit card or loan anywhere, odds are really quite high that yes, this means you.

What can I do about it?

Equifax is, as you would expect, offering to enroll people in complimentary identity theft protection service for a year — specifically, with TrustedID which is, of course, an Equifax company.

Equifax lets you fill in a form here to find out if you personally have been affected, though its results are less than clear. Filling out that form and clicking submit also automatically puts you in the queue to enroll in TrustedID Premier, whether or not you meant to do that. It also warns you that it won’t email or contact you to tell you when your enrollment date was, so you should “mark your calendar.”

For actually protecting yourself, best bet is probably going to be to proactively read, and then bookmark, the FTC’s identity theft guide at IdentityTheft.gov for the foreseeable future, and to — as usual — make sure you’re going over all of your account statements with a fine-toothed comb pretty regularly.

Consumer advocates say that Equifax’s offer doesn’t go nearly far enough. “Equifax should alert all affected people to the benefits of credit freezes and offer them to all Americans for free of charge with all three major national credit bureaus,” U.S. PIRG’s Mike Litt said in a statement.

“Credit freezes help prevent new account identity theft because they keep potential creditors from seeing consumer credit history, without which new accounts are typically not opened,” Litt added. “The firm should be held fully accountable by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.”

"She's so good she wanted to make the trip."

Tiffany Trump is coming to New York City for Fashion Week, armed with her law books, her airbrushing app, and the knowledge that her father named her after an engagement ring store. But no Apple is Big enough to contain this young Trump’s thunderous zeal—for lo, in an attempt to gain entry to the annual Harper’s Bazaar…

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Disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker claims Hurricane Harvey was God’s “judgment” on the city of Houston, where the storm killed at least 60 and left thousands homeless.

Updated at 8:15 p.m.

On Thursday, Equifax, one of three major credit reporting agencies, revealed that highly sensitive personal and financial information for around 143 million U.S. consumers was compromised in a cybersecurity breach that began in late spring. There are only around 125 million households in the U.S.

According to the company’s statement, the cybersecurity breach started in May of this year and continued until it was discovered on July 29. While criminals did not appear to have accessed what Equifax describes as “core consumer or commercial credit reporting databases,” which help in the generating of credit scores, some pretty important personal information was accessed. According to the company, criminals were able to access the social security numbers, birth dates, and addresses for a massive—but as yet unspecified—number of U.S. consumers. The hack also included credit card numbers for more than 200,000 Americans and documentation related to disputes, which contain personal and identifying information, for some 180,000 Americans. On top of that, financial disclosures show that three top Equifax executives sold $1.8 million worth of company stock in the days after the breach was discovered, according to Bloomberg.

"This is clearly a disappointing event for our company, and one that strikes at the heart of who we are and what we do. I apologize to consumers and our business customers for the concern and frustration this causes," said the company’s CEO Richard F. Smith in a statement. Equifax declined to comment further.

As Sarah Jeong has written before for The Atlantic, new technologies have resurfaced old problems related to the collection—and protection—of financial data. The circumstances in present times are reminiscent of the ones that precipitated the creation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970, she explains. But even with rules in place about how to separate and collect financial data from individuals, the transition to digital has brought those problems back, and they haven’t yet been satisfactorily addressed. Add to that the ongoing challenge of securing important information online—one that just about every organization faces—and the ability to harm the public in the course of normal operations for businesses built to collect and create crucial, personal, highly sensitive data becomes enormous.

This breach comes on the heels of a recent finding by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the government agency responsible for monitoring and regulating the financial industry, that Equifax had been deceiving American consumers, signing them up for costly products without their knowledge, misrepresenting credit scores, and violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. At the start of 2017, Equifax, along with another credit reporting agency, Transunion, were ordered to pay $23 million in fines and restitution by the CFPB. The credit-reporting industry is controlled largely by three companies: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Their culling and dissemination of financial data is what allows—or prevents—people from being able to buy or rent houses, get auto loans, have credit cards, and a host of other everyday necessities.

The Equifax breach, in its size, duration, and scope, is more than an unfortunate mishap. Part of the tragedy in all of this is that, those whose information has been compromised never asked to have their information collected in the first place—all major credit reporting agencies receive data directly from a host of financial companies, such as banks and credit card companies, in order to build credit reports. For Americans who want to protect their personal financial information, there is no way, in our current system, to do so.

A grizzly bear attacked a hunter in Montana on Monday when he and his hunting partner were out on a hunting excursion and left the former.

There’s a good reason why Wisconsin’s peninsula is a popular destination in the autumn

There are many areas throughout Wisconsin that have a quintessentially “Midwestern” feel to them—think of the ocean-like shores of Lake Michigan, the craggy otherworldliness of the Apostle Islands, and the beautiful nature in Door County. The latter, which at times can feel and appear more like an East Coast destination than a peninsula in the heart of Wisconsin, proudly boasts a nautical legacy, hip art galleries, and great restaurants.

Hordes of Chicagoans spend time in Door County during the summer months. The droves of tourists armed with swimsuits and sunblock are proof of this. But as Wisconsinites will attest, the best time to visit the peninsula is during the fall when it’s awash in bright foliage and the buzz of traffic is replaced by the lush sounds of the natural environment. An ideal fall trip to Door County includes a mix of seasonal standards and under-the-radar endeavors.

Located less than a four-hour drive from Chicago, Door County makes for a lovely September or October getaway, providing an opportunity to cross things off on your fall bucket list.

Note: The map items are listed in geographic order from the southern most points to northern destinations.

The lucrative corporate headquarters deal would be a game-changer for the Windy City

On the heels of Amazon’s big announcement that it is planning its first headquarters beyond its Seattle home base, Chicago has reportedly thrown its hat in the ring with the hopes of landing the so-called ‘HQ2’ corporate campus. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has spoken directly with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos regarding the matter, a source close to City Hall tells John Pletz of Crain’s. While Emanuel has taken an active role in securing downtown corporate relocations, the HQ2 deal would be by far the mayor’s single largest get to date with 50,000 employees and billions of dollars at stake.

Though Amazon has recently invested in eight Illinois warehouses, a new sorting center, and is expanding its existing Chicago downtown offices, the Windy City will face stiff competition for other US metros—like Atlanta—for what Pletz describes as potentially “one of the biggest corporate tech prizes in memory.” For instance, Illinois currently lacks the tech-friendly targeted tax credits as found in 12 other US states and Washington D.C. In fact, Chicago was entirely left off a recent list of eleven cities deemed likely to land Amazon’s HQ2 by MarketWatch.

Despite the aforementioned setbacks, Chicago still offers some advantages over competing US cities. Chicago is centrally located and has long served as a major hub for both rail and air travel. There’s a reason that catalog powerhouses Sears and Montgomery Ward were based in the Second City. While e-commerce is undoubtedly a different kind of animal, it can be argued that Amazon is the 21st century equivalent of those pioneering mercantile titans.

Chicago also has favorable infrastructure in place with one of the nation’s top transit systems when it comes to drawing talent from outlying neighborhoods and the suburbs to its downtown. This asset has already paid dividends on a smaller scale with the West Loop, Goose Island, and Merchandise Mart experiencing strong growth in the technology sector.

Perhaps the Windy City’s biggest competitive edge is found in its large and well-positioned developable sites. For example, Chicago’s renovation of the Old Post Office building and its 2.5 million square feet of large, tech-friendly office space is expected to be move-in ready in early 2019. The site could also support the construction of additional high-rise towers, as originally envisioned (and zoned) by late developer Bill Davies.

With Amazon willing to spend up to $5 billion on the HQ2 project, other attractive Chicago locations include the Tribune’s 30-acre riverfront Freedom Center, Related Midwest’s 62-acre development site between the South Loop and Chinatown, and Sterling Bay’s 28-acre former Finkl Steel site near Goose Island.

The reported discussion between Chicago’s mayor and Amazon’s Mr. Bezos isn’t the only recent meeting between the Emanuel administration and a high-profile Silicon Valley CEO. Earlier this summer is was revealed that City Hall had reached out to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk regarding the possible use of “high-speed electromagnetic sleds” in a proposed tunnel project that would link Chicago’s downtown and O’Hare International Airport.

• Emanuel wooing Bezos for Amazon's second HQ [Crain’s]
• Amazon announces plans for new HQ in North America [Curbed]
• Could Atlanta win quest to land massive new Amazon headquarters? [Curbed Atlanta]
• Here are the cities that meet the criteria for Amazon’s second headquarters [MartketWatch]

Brittany Howard, the front woman of Grammy-award winning rock band Alabama Shakes, has started a side project. The new band is Bermuda Triangle, a mini Americana supergroup featuring singer-songwriters Becca Mancari and Jesse Lafser, and they’ve just released their first song: a fresh version of Lafser’s song “Rosey.”

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England’s got a new Queen ― that is, if Excalibur’s legend is true.

President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania personally donated $1 million to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, the White House said Wednesday.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gal Gadot reveals that, after a hitching a ride on the Fast And Furious franchise, she was up for two of the baddest roles in recent film history: Diana Prince and Furiosa. Obviously, she landed the former, making a delightful first impression in Batman V Superman: Dawn…

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To witness the death of the multi-billion dollar National Football League, you really don't need to see sportswriters wringing their hands over the moral dilemma of covering America's Roman circus of brain trauma.

And you don't need to watch multi-millionaire football stars, pampered for most of...

You do not need The A.V. Club to tell you that there is a lot to be afraid of in the world, a near-unceasing stream of bad news, dire prognostications, unforeseen catastrophes, and Jake Paulers. Step outside your so-called filter bubble and you will only see your own fears inverted and used to frighten other people.…

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If you didn’t get enough of John Cena vs. The Rock during ‘Once In A Lifetime’ at WrestleMania 28, didn’t get enough of the twice in a lifetime rematch at WrestleMania 29 and somehow didn’t get enough of them teaming up at WrestleMania 32, here’s some good news: you may get to see John Cena vs. The Rock, Thrice In A Lifetime, on the silver screen.

According to ComicBook.com by way of That Hashtag Show, Big Movie John is one of two tentative front-runners for the Captain Marvel Shazam version of Billy Batson in the upcoming DCEU film Shazam!

A new report from That Hashtag Show hints at two possible candidates to play the older, superpowered version of Billy Batson. According to their sources, John Cena and Joshua Sasse are the tenative frontrunners for the part. The film’s previously rumored screentests have reportedly spawned “a third, dark horse contender” for the lead role, but they have “seemingly fallen out of favor”.

It’s too early to tell if Cena or Sasse will end up getting the lead role of Shazam!, but director David F. Sandberg did hint that official casting could be announced soon. With the film officially in pre-production, DC fans can hopefully expect some answers in the near future.

The Rock was offered the role first and turned in down in order to play Shazam’s nemesis, Black Adam. And while currently it doesn’t look like Black Adam shows up in the first Shazam!, you know they’re going to meet. Especially with casting that serendipitous. And that they’ll spend an entire sequel trading finishers and calling each other names.

Can we lean into this and cast Hulk Hogan as the wizard who gives Cena his powers?

The most common “how to” search term on Google is “how to tie a tie.” And the most common “how to fix” search is “how to fix a door,” according to Google’s new visual breakdown of the most popular “how to” searches worldwide from 2004 to 2017.

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The surviving members of Queen had a lot of trouble getting their Freddie Mercury biopic off the ground, mostly because original star Sacha Baron Cohen had a different vision for it than they did, but things seemed to get back on track when director Bryan Singer hired Mr. Robot star Rami Malek to star. Now, …

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WASHINGTON—With the announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program would begin winding down in the next six months, President Donald Trump reportedly fulfilled his long-standing campaign promise Tuesday of finally pushing major immigration decisions onto someone else so he can watch TV. “From the earliest days of his candidacy, Donald Trump vowed to foist large-scale immigration policies onto his underlings so he could lounge around eating snacks and catching up on the cable news shows, and today he made that pledge a reality,” said White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, noting that the millions of Americans around the country who had attended rallies and chanted “pass the buck” had elected Trump to office for this express purpose. “This might not be a decision that pleases the Washington establishment, but it shows voters that when the president says he’s going to make someone else develop policy resolutions so he can flip through a few channels before dozing off in his chair to The Five, he means it.” Hicks added that the administration’s next priority was to make good on the president’s signature promise of indefinitely delaying action on a border wall while he leaves Washington to play golf.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel slammed President Trump's decision to rescind the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy on Tuesday, declaring the Windy city a "Trump-free Zone."

Thanks to the never-ending battle between Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, the thought of someone dropping an anvil on your head seems like a minor inconvenience at worst. But as YouTube’s How Ridiculous demonstrates with a refrigerator, cartoon violence has misled us once again.

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In the history of sitcom romance, the relationship of The Office’s Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer) is generally held up as one of the best—nicely slow-burning over several seasons, resulting in a loving family and mature relationship for what started out as a workplace crush. In particular, Jim Halpert,…

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Jesus died for your sins. Now he’s gonna kick your ass.

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The new two- and three-bedroom units are asking well over the $500,000 threshold

A handful of units in a brand new development located on the residential Winona Street between the popular Andersonville and Uptown neighborhoods have hit the multiple listing service. Simply named 1470 W. Winona, the new nine-unit contemporary block and glass development replaces a large single family mansion which area residents had referred to as “the compound” due to the tall brick wall that surrounded the property. According to a previous report from DNAinfo, the mansion that had previously stood at the site was built more than 100 years ago.

Google Street View

Available units in the new development are listed from $599,900 for a 1,500-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit to $699,900 for a larger three-bedroom, two and a half bathroom unit that spans over 2,300 square feet. A two-bedroom unit that had listed three months ago seeking $475,000 is currently under contract. Monthly association dues for all the units are around $200 or less.

According to listing descriptions, the new condos feature upscale name-brand appliances, soundproofing insulation, outdoor terraces, and parking for one vehicle. Renderings or final images are not available in the listings, however floor plans for each unit are included.