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As much as jobs discourage it, many folks have hooked up with their coworkers – some have even ended up dating. We wanted to test this theory, and see which professions are truly the horniest.
From Ren Faire employees to Olympians, here’s what our research dug up.
Enjoy!
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Zach
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Relationships are equal parts love, laughter, chaos, and compromise – like accepting he may just wear his best joggers on the most important day of your relationship.
Whether it’s trying to decide what to eat for dinner, juggling kids and responsibilities, or just collapsing on the couch after a long day, couples know the routine all too well.
These memes capture the highs, the lows, and the “oh, that’s us” moments of everyday partnership. From marriage jokes to parenting chaos to the kind of tired only a couple can understand, it is all here.
Love might be patient and kind, but it is also messy, sarcastic, and sometimes brutally honest. And that’s what makes it fun.
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Ryder
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The art of seduction is one of subtlety, confidence, and a touch of humor. That being said, do any of us truly know what we’re doing? Do any of us really know how to flirt?
Honestly I believe that we’re all just winging it until something sticks. Thanks to Reddit, we’ve gathered some signs and strategies that may or may not be helpful in this area.
Enjoy these subtle signs of seduction!
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Zach
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If you’ve ever wanted to get kinky with a partner, you’re not alone. A 2017 study on sexual diversity found that Americans are interested in a wide range of kinky behaviors, and a survey of 2,000 Americans by the sex toy company EdenFantasys found that one in four Americans consider themselves kinky. Whether you’re in the mood for dirty talk, role play, edging, or all of the above, there are many kinks to try that can shake up your sex life—consider these 10 kinky sex ideas your starter kit. After all, embracing your kinky side can potentially boost the connection between you and your partner.
“Exploring kinks can increase intimacy, trust, and pleasure,” says Sarah Melancon, PhD, a certified sexologist and lead researcher at Women’s Health Interactive. “Kinks can add excitement and novelty, making sex more fun and interesting—and by opening up about our fantasies, we allow our partners to know and pleasure us on a deeper level.” Since getting kinky with a partner requires clear, consistent communication about personal boundaries, the experience can help you both feel closer, Melancon adds.
Maybe you’re brand new to kink… or “BDSM” is basically your middle name. Either way, exploring kink with someone can feel like uncharted territory. It’s natural to feel excited, intimidated, turned on, and nervous all at once, but know that you never have to do something beyond your comfort zone, and clear consent is key (more on that soon). To help you get started, here’s what kink means, why it matters for your sex life, along with 10 kinky ideas to try, according to certified sex therapists.
Like many terms in the sexuality world, the meaning of kink varies for everyone. A 2020 study in the Journal of Positive Sexuality defines kink as an umbrella term that addresses “a wide range of atypical erotic interests, identities, behaviors, practices, and relationships.” In short: Kink generally refers to sexual experiences that fall outside of a perceived conventional norm. But of course, there is no single “norm” when it comes to sex, and what one person defines as kinky, another may see as vanilla.
“What is considered a kink also varies by culture,” Melancon adds. “For example, historically, oral sex was extremely uncommon, and at one point would have been seen as kinky. But currently, oral sex is part of our ‘typical’ repertoire of sex acts, so it would not usually be considered kinky [today].” (A quick scroll through #KinkTok—where many kinksters flock to educate, share stories, and find community—will show you that kinky experiences come in all forms).
Often, popular depictions of kink include elements of bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism, and masochism (BDSM). If you’re a beginner, the term “kink” alone might even conjure up ideas of leather and latex. However, kink exists on a wide spectrum, and there is no single “right” or “wrong” way to experience it. It’s also worth noting that kinks are different from fetishes, which refer to attraction to inanimate objects (think: foot fetish), although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably.
Exploring kink can be a meaningful experience that enhances your romantic connection, according to sexperts. “Trying a new kink can increase intimacy, improve communication, enhance sexual satisfaction, and add ‘spice’ to a relationship,” says Katie Schubert, PhD, a licensed mental health counselor, certified sex therapist, and owner of Cypress Wellness Center. “When couples choose to explore kinks together, it can offer a shared interest that can bring them together in new and intimate ways.” Even if you and your partner aren’t into the exact same kinks, exploring your sexy sides together can deepen your bond.
Elyssa Helfer, PhD, a licensed marriage and family therapist and AASECT-certified sex therapist, says that exploring kink can even help you connect deeper with yourself. “One of the beautiful things about kink is that it requires folks to lean into the expansiveness of their eroticism,” she explains. “There is an inherent vulnerability that exists when someone is new to kink, as they are beginning to explore fantasies that may have been shut down, kept hidden, unacknowledged, or even out of one’s awareness.”
Telling your partner you’re into dirty talk or sharing your secret threesome fantasy requires vulnerability, which can strengthen a relationship, Helfer says. “The trust, consent, and heightened connectedness that accompanies kink can fundamentally alter the ways in which folks engage with each other.” Plus, learning how to express your boundaries, needs, and desires can be a valuable tool inside and outside the bedroom.
Before diving in, Schubert recommends doing a quick Google search to explore options you might be interested in (NSFW warning!) and having your partner do the same. “This can be followed by a date night trip to your local sex toy store to pick out items to facilitate exploration,” she adds. You can also take this fun quiz to learn more about your turn-ons. In the meantime, here are 10 kinks to try that’ll spice things up in bed.
Dirty talk with a partner can be a beginner-friendly way to ease into kinky sex, according to certified sexologist Mystkue Woods. “Dirty talk can include degradation—a.k.a. putting someone down consensually, like ‘You dirty slut’—or an affirmation, like ‘You’re doing such a good job,’’’ she explains. If that sounds too intense, start by sending your partner a hot selfie, sexting them during the workday, or describing what you want to do with them later. Then, later on, try different phrases IRL to see what turns you both on the most.
For some people, getting kinky means playing with power dynamics, which usually involves a “pre-negotiated hierarchical structure,” says Helfer. This is often seen in BDSM, where one person takes on a more dominant (“dom”) role, and another leans into submission (“sub”). “You may find that having one or more partner(s) lean into a dominant or submissive energy adds a whole new dynamic to your play,” Helfer explains.
If you feel empowered to lean into one of those energies, go for it! However, there are many ways to enjoy power play without the pressure of taking on a specific role. You might even find that it depends on your mood—sometimes, you’re down to be “dominated,” and other times, you’d rather be in control—and that’s totally normal.
New to kink? Helfer recommends leaning into your and your partner’s sexual fantasies to create a role play scenario. “Role-play can be a fun addition to someone’s erotic life,” she says. “This can include taking on different personas and playing into those roles.” For example, you might try teacher-student, cop-robber, pretend to “meet” your partner as a stranger at a bar, or come up with your own sexy dynamic.
“Role-play can be another way to begin understanding how power dynamics can be integrated, and/or it can serve as a method for creativity and imagination,” Helfer says. You may find that taking on fictional roles is a sexy way to explore new dynamics that you otherwise wouldn’t. Everyone’s turn-ons are different, so take time to listen to your partner and make note of what they find hot and why.
Experimenting with your five senses can be another pleasurable way to heat things up in bed, Melancon says. “Sensory play involves stimulating the senses to increase anticipation and arousal, including sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and forms of touch,” she explains. “Examples include the use of blindfolds, temperature play, oils or lotions, foods or drinks, candles or other lighting, massage, or tactile sensations via feathers, silk, fur, or other fabrics.” Keep safety and hygiene in mind by choosing safe, non-irritating materials and ingredients.
Amanda Pasciucco, PhD, a clinical sexologist, AASECT-certified sex therapist, and author of Playtime, suggests using a blindfold as a fun, fairly low-risk way to explore kink with your partner. “Take a T-shirt or scarf and wrap it around your eyes,” she says. This can help add an element of excitement and help heighten your other senses.
To amplify your sexual experience, she also recommends pairing the blindfolding experience with direct eye contact before or afterward. “Another thing could be eye gazing with your partner, as it’s very intimate to look into one another’s souls before trying a sexy scene,” Pasciucco says.
For some people, experimenting with impact—like spanking, flogging, or slapping—can be a turn-on. For beginners who want to explore this kink, it’s important to keep physical safety in mind—especially since it involves pain, stinging, and potential bruising, and you don’t want to risk injuring yourself or your partner, says Helfer.
“I’d encourage anyone who is interested in playing with pain to approach their interests slowly, cautiously, and with abundant education,” Helfer says. “Whether utilizing body parts, toys, or various objects, bringing consensual pain play into a relationship needs to be done with patience and care.”
Discuss your boundaries beforehand and make sure you know what’s OK and what’s totally not. Over time, you can explore what feels good for you and your partner—for example, spanking might feel amazing for you, but your partner may enjoy a different level of impact or have a different pain threshold. “[You should also] learn the proper technique for [impact], starting with the hand, then move on to other objects such as paddles, floggers, and more,” Woods suggests.
For some people, bondage—aka consensually tying, restraining, or binding a partner during erotic play — can be a hot way to explore BDSM and kink. Popular forms of bondage include using handcuffs, rope, and other items to tie your wrists, ankles, or and other parts of the body to create a sense of restraint, but you can also explore bondage by holding your partner’s hands down during sex, or similar (as long as it’s consensual!).
“If adopting this energy seems like a challenge, using restraints (like rope and cuffs) can inherently bring that energy into the room,” says Helfer. “However, when any form of restraint is concerned, it is absolutely vital to ensure that nothing is too tight, as one of the most common kink-related injuries is nerve damage.” Before tying up a partner (or being tied up), try the loosest possible setting to gauge your comfort level. You may eventually experiment with elaborate, intimate forms of bondage like Shibari (a type of Japanese rope bondage).
If the idea of being seen or watched in a sexy context gets you going, exhibitionism might be one of your kinks. “Exhibitionism refers to sexual arousal from revealing aspects of one’s body to another person or people—with consent, of course,” says Melancon. “Exhibition may include arousal from showing off particular body parts or one’s entire body, enjoying being seen wearing lingerie or other sexy clothing, having sexual or erotic photos or videos taken, pole dancing, and/or public sex acts.”
To explore this kink, Melancon says you can try dressing up for yourself or your partner, taking sexy selfies, having your partner take photos or videos of you, or even having sex in a semi-public, but hidden location like a car, hotel balcony, or secluded outdoor area. (Keep safety in mind, though, and exercise caution, since public nudity is still illegal in most places!)
On the flip side, you may be interested in exploring voyeurism—a.k.a. deriving pleasure from consensually watching someone else (or multiple people) engage in sexual or kinky activities. “This could include watching your partner get undressed or in the shower, watching them masturbate or dance erotically, or enjoying adult film,” Melancon explains.
Voyeurism, she says, can make a person feel “special, like you’re being let in on a secret,” which can heighten your erotic experience. Additionally, consensual exhibitionism and consensual voyeurism go hand in hand, Melancon explains: “An exhibitionist needs a voyeur, and vice versa,” making them two exciting kinks to pair together.
To try this kink, you might ask your partner to dance for you or watch as they undress, but always touch base with your partner first, Melancon says. “Communicate with your partner the reasons you like watching. Some people can feel self-conscious, but it can help to understand that your partner sees you as attractive in these moments.”
Like any other kink, humiliation isn’t necessarily for everyone. But for some, it can be a major turn-on. “Our deepest fears and embarrassments can often turn us on the most!” Melancon says. “For instance, many [people] are aroused at being called a slut or whore, while some [people] enjoy being laughed at for the size of their penis (i.e., small penis humiliation).”
That said, it’s extra important to communicate with your partner and only try forms of humiliation that feel comfortable and safe, Melancon says. “Humiliation is very personal and what will feel enjoyably humiliating to one may feel truly disrespectful or even boring to another. Talk about preferred themes and terms ahead of time,” she explains. “Any gender can dominate or submit, and switching roles can often be enjoyable.”
Although kink can be sexy and enjoyable, exploring kink without boundaries and communication can be detrimental. “While defining kink or identifying as kinky can look different for everyone, the thread that must exist in all kink endeavors is consent,” Helfer says. If you and your partner aren’t aligned, your kinky experience can quickly shift from hot and healing to harmful.
“For any sex act (kinky or not!), consent is essential,” Melancon says. “Discuss your desires ahead of time and check in continuously. Agree on a safe word and signal—because sometimes words can be difficult to use during sex.” For example, if you’re engaging in impact play and the pressure or speed is too much, have a safe word prepped so your partner knows when to stop, or a hand signal that will indicate that the sensation is too much.
Schubert suggests openly discussing consent with your partner before, during, and after kinky play. “Having open discussions of what you’d like to try and what you’re not interested in is so important,” she says. Also, your feelings about certain kinks may change after you start exploring, and you may feel uncomfortable—and that doesn’t mean you have to keep going. “There may be something that sounds fun, but when you try it, it doesn’t feel good. Don’t be afraid to tell your partner you’ve changed your mind,” she says. “The best thing you can do with exploring kinks is engage in open honest communication with your partner.”
Woods recommends creating a “yes, no, maybe” checklist before getting kinky with someone—especially if it’s your first time experimenting. You should also be clear about what you’re hoping to get out of specific kinks. She says, “For example, wanting to feel empowered, to feel in control, to be cared for, or embarrassed—which are all valid responses.” Work through each item on your list, discuss any boundaries or concerns, and you’re bound to feel more comfortable and turned on when the moment finally arrives.
Whatever kinks you decide to explore, remember that safety, communication, and consent are key. After all, this is meant to be a pleasurable, empowering experience—not one that brings up fear or anxiety. “It’s crucial to understand the steps that go into a scene: communication, negotiation, the scene itself, aftercare, and a debrief,” says Helfer.
Although kink might push you out of your comfort zone, you should never feel pressured to do something you’re not OK with. Keep your personal boundaries in mind, explore kink solo or with a partner you trust, and as Helfer says, enjoy it! “While kink can feel intimidating at first, slowly integrating it into someone’s erotic life can be extremely rewarding and, for many, life-changing.”
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Jonathan Borge
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New York
CNN
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Alexandra is a very attentive girlfriend. “Watching CUBS tonight?” she messages her boyfriend, but when he says he’s too busy to talk, she says, “Have fun, my hero!”
Alexandra is not real. She is a customizable AI girlfriend on dating site Romance.AI.
As artificial intelligence seeps into seemingly every corner of the internet, the world of romance is no refuge. AI is infiltrating the dating app space – sometimes in the form of fictional partners, sometimes as advisor, trainer, ghostwriter or matchmaker.
Established players in the online dating business like Tinder and Hinge are integrating AI into their existing products. New apps like Blush, Aimm, Rizz and Teaser AI (most of them free or with many free features) offer completely new takes on virtual courtship. Some use personality tests and analysis of a user’s physical type to train AI-powered systems – and promise higher chances of finding a perfect match. Others apps act as Cyrano de Bergerac, employing AI to whip up the most appealing response to a potential match’s query: ‘What’s your favorite food? or “a typical Sunday?”
Around half of all adults under 30 have used a dating site or app, according to 2023 Pew Research findings – but nearly half of users report their experience as being negative. Empty conversations, few matches and endless swiping leave many users single and unhappy with apps – problems that many in the AI dating app field say could be solved with the technology, making people less lonely and fostering easier, deeper connections.
Of course, the average online dater now has other issues to deal with, having to wonder if the person they are are speaking with might be relying entirely on AI-generated conversation. And is it even possible that a computer can identify a potential love connection? Is it a way of cheating the dating game?
“It’s like saying using a word processor is like cheating on generating a novel. In so many ways this is just a new tool that enables people to be faster and more creative. AI is just honestly no different from sending a friend a gif or a meme. You’re taking existing content, and you’re repurposing it to connect with somebody,” Dmitri Mirakyan, co-founder of AI dating conversation app YourMove.AI, told CNN. “The world’s becoming a more lonely place, and I think AI could make that easier and better for people.”
And many people seem ready for AI to take part in their online dating life. A March study by cybersecurity and digital privacy company Kaspersky found 75% of dating app users are willing to use ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot, to deliver the perfect line.
“There is a growing fatigue with dating apps right now as there is a lot of pressure on people to be ‘original’ and cut through the noise created by the continuous choice being offered to single people – unfortunately dating has become a numbers game,” Crystal Cansdale, dating expert at global dating app Inner Circle, commented on the study.
Founders of the new apps say they are doing a fair share of good. Here are a few of the ways AI apps are now trying to help you fall in love:
Try Rizz.app, Teaser AI or YourMove.AI.
Founders and designers of these apps say people find starting and keeping conversations going the most challenging part of the process. “Dating app conversations are exhausting,” reads YourMove.AI’s homepage. “We can make it easier. So you can spend less time texting, and more time dating.”
Rizz.app and YourMove.AI allow users to upload words or screenshots, receiving a witty AI-generated response to be used either to create their own dating app profile, respond to someone else’s or just keep a conversation going. Mirakyan says he was hoping to help people like himself who have struggled in social situations.
“I was a really freaking awkward kid…I couldn’t really read social cues, but I remember reading this book called ‘Be More Chill’ about a computer that you could put into your ear that would tell you what to say so that you could sound cool and fit in,” Mirakyan told CNN. “It feels like it’s an opportunity to really make a difference with this fairly large subset of people that for various reasons find the current social environment challenging.”
Teaser.AI is a new stand-alone dating app from the makers of viral camera app Dispo, and it adds an unusual twist. Users build the average profile – but also select personality traits for their AI bot they train. (Options include “traditional,” “toxic,” and “unhinged.”) When matching with another person, users first get to read a conversation between their two AIs they’ve created to “simulate [what] a potential conversation between you two might look like,” according to the app. Once a human messages, the bots takes a back seat.
“We see it as an improvement, a tweak of the current dating app ecosystem,” Teaser.AI co-Founder and CEO Daniel Liss told CNN. “So many of those apps it feels are not really designed to get you out there meeting people. They’re designed to keep you on the app for as long as possible. So for us, we view this technology as a way to give people a nudge… just starting that conversation and to creating connection.”
Find out on dating apps Iris and Aimm.
These apps are among those using AI technology to better pair potential couples, relying on gathered data to determine how compatible two people are.
Dating app Iris is all about AI-determined mutual attraction. It initiates new members by putting them through “training” where they are shown faces of “people” of their desired gender – some stock images, others AI-generated – and prompted to hit “Pass,” “Maybe,” or “Like.” The app uses the information to learn a user’s physical type, then only offers potential matches with a high data-backed chance of mutual attraction and lower odds of rejection.
Also hoping that AI can find better matches is Aimm, a full service digital matchmaker that uses a virtual assistant to perform intense personality assessments before conducting a matchmaking process to find an optimal match. Founder Kevin Teman says the technology is really good at putting two people together who have the possibility to fall in love – but that it can only go so far.
“The tug of war that I see is thinking ‘how can a computer be able to know what real human love is,’ and the way people assess whether they’re in love with somebody may not be able to translate perfectly into a machine,” Teman told CNN.
Try Blush or RomanticAI. These startups offer an array of AI potential matches, digital girlfriends and boyfriends that users can chat with.
Both apps market themselves as places to practice relationship skills, giving users a chance to converse with bots in a romantic environment. Blush uses a traditional dating app set-up, letting users swipe, chat with matches and even go on virtual dates. Before entering the app, users get a warning: “Be aware that AI can say triggering, inappropriate, or false things.”
Blush reports that their audience is mostly men and largely people in their early 20s who are struggling to connect romantically with others. “A lot of people reported that exploring different romantic relationships or dating scenarios with AI really helped them first boost their own confidence and feel like they feel more prepared to be dating, which I think especially after COVID was definitely a problem for many of us,” Blush’s chief product officer Rita Popova told CNN.
Romantic.AI is set up more like a chat room, offering several male and female bots to choose from- though there is a much larger selection of female options, including Mona Lisa and the Ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti. The bots have bios with interests, career and body type, giving users a multi-faceted idea of a person while chatting.
It creates a “safe space for any kind of desire, any kind of sexuality relief or something like that. AI is giving the ultimate acceptance of whatever you want to bring over there,” COO Tanya Grypachevskaya told CNN.
RomanticAI has over one million monthly users using the app for over an hour a day on average, according to the company.
One user left a rave review after using the app to find closure after a breakup. “He created his custom-made character with the traits similar in personality as his girlfriend. He talked to it and he talked and he was able to tell all of the things he wanted to tell but didn’t have the opportunity before. So the whole review was about ‘guys, thank you so much. It really gave me an opportunity to close this chapter of my life and move on,” said Grypachevskaya.
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CNN
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Erica Herman, who was a longtime girlfriend of professional golfer Tiger Woods, has accused the 15-time major champion of sexual harassment, according to a court filing by Herman’s attorney in Florida on Friday.
Woods is accused of pursuing a sexual relationship with Herman while she worked for him and then forcing her to sign a non-disclosure agreement or she’d be fired from her job, according to the document.
Herman was an employee at his South Florida restaurant, The Woods Jupiter, at the time.
“Tiger Woods, the internationally renowned athlete and one of the most powerful figures in global sports, decided to pursue a sexual relationship with his employee, then – according to him – forced her to sign an NDA about it or else be fired from her job,” the Friday court document said. “And, when he became disgruntled with their sexual relationship, he tricked her into leaving her home, locked her out, took her cash, pets, and personal possessions, and tried to strong-arm her into signing a different NDA.”
“A boss imposing different work conditions on his employee because of their sexual relationship is sexual harassment,” Herman’s attorney Benjamin Hobas states in the filing.
CNN reached out to Woods’ representatives for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The document also alleges a “scheme” used against Herman last year where Woods asked her to pack for a weekend getaway to the Bahamas. She was allegedly driven to the airport and then was asked to speak to Woods’ attorney.
“Then, Mr. Woods’s California lawyer, out of the blue, told her that she was not going anywhere, would never see Mr. Woods again, had been locked out of the house, and could not return,” the document said. “She would not even be able to see the children or her pets again.”
Herman was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, which she refused to do, according to the document.
Herman has brought two separate complaints involving Woods in the past year.
The first, filed in October 2022, alleges a trust owned and created by the golf star violated the Florida Residential Landlord Tenant Act by breaking her oral tenancy agreement to continue living in Woods’ home.
As part of that suit, a trustee of Woods’ trust, Christopher Hubman, has asked the court to order Herman to arbitrate her claims pursuant to an arbitration provision in a non-disclosure agreement she signed in 2017.
In an earlier briefing, Herman cited a statute that says plaintiffs in sexual harassment or assault disputes cannot be compelled to arbitrate those claims.
The most recent suit, filed in March, Herman argues the 2017 agreement is not enforceable in part because of a new federal law invalidating arbitration clauses in sexual assault or sexual harassment cases.
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CNN
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A sweeping multi-day manhunt continues for a suspect accused of brutally beating and kidnapping a woman in Oregon who remains in critical condition, according to police.
While Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, has evaded capture since Tuesday, police say he is still active on dating apps. The Grants Pass Police Department warns he may be using the apps to find potential new victims or manipulate them into helping him escape.
State and local investigators have been working “around the clock” to find Foster, who is wanted on suspicion of attempted murder, kidnapping and assault, Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman has said.
Investigators have been searching for Foster since Tuesday after they found a woman bound and beaten into unconsciousness in a residence in Grants Pass, police said. The suspect, identified by investigators as Foster, had already fled by the time police arrived, the department said.
Prosecutors accuse Foster of trying to kill the victim while “intentionally torturing” her, according to charging documents obtained by CNN affiliate KDRV. Hensman said Thursday that the victim had been enduring the alleged abuses for a “protracted amount of time.”
“I’m disgusted by what I know happened. This was an evil act,” Hensman said Thursday.
The victim was brought to a local hospital where she remains in critical condition, police said Sunday. As of Thursday, police were providing security for the victim, according to Hensman.
Police said Foster “likely received assistance in fleeing the area.” A 68-year-old woman has been arrested for “Hindering Prosecution” as authorities searched for Foster, the department has said.
Police are urging the public to send in tips on the suspect’s whereabouts or any potential sightings. In a statement Sunday, the department said people should pay particular attention to his eyes and facial structure, as they believe he may try to alter his appearance by changing the cut or color of his hair and beard.
In the statement, police said people should not approach the “extremely dangerous suspect” and should instead call 911 immediately. Authorities have said Foster could be armed.
The department has set up a tip line and is offering a $2,500 reward for information leading to Foster’s capture and prosecution.
“This is an all hands on deck operation and we won’t rest until we capture this man,” Hensman said on Thursday.
During a Thursday press conference, Hensman said he is “troubled” by Foster’s history of domestic violence and assault charges, which are detailed in court records.
Between 2017 and 2019, Foster was charged in two separate cases in which he was accused of attacking women in Las Vegas, according to Clark County court records.
In the first case, Foster was charged with felony battery constituting domestic violence, the records show. Foster’s ex-girlfriend testified in a preliminary hearing that he tried to strangle her on Christmas Eve of 2017 after he saw that another man had texted her.
While that case was still pending, Foster was charged with felony assault, battery and kidnapping for alleged abuses against his then-girlfriend in 2019, according to charging documents.
The victim told police “Foster strangled (her) to the point of unconsciousness several times” and kept her tied up for most of the next two weeks. She said she was only able to escape after convincing Foster they needed to go shopping for food and water, and ran away when he got out of the car to let their dog use the bathroom, the court records show.
The woman was able to run through a store and into a nearby apartment complex, where somebody offered to take her to a hospital, according to a Las Vegas police report. There, she was found to have seven broken ribs, two black eyes and abrasions to her wrists and ankles from being tied up, the report said.
Foster accepted plea deals in both cases. In the first case, he was sentenced to a maximum of 30 months in prison but given credit for 729 days served.
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CNN
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Authorities in southwestern Oregon are warning that a man suspected of kidnapping a woman and beating her unconscious may now be using dating apps to evade capture or find potential new victims, according to police.
The suspect, 36-year-old Benjamin Obadiah Foster, has so far evaded capture but he appears active on online dating services, the Grants Pass Police Department said in a statement Friday.
“The investigation has revealed that the suspect is actively using online dating applications to contact unsuspecting individuals who may be lured into assisting with the suspect’s escape or potentially as additional victims,” Grants Pass Police said.
The search for Foster began Tuesday after officers found a woman who had been bound and severely beaten into unconsciousness, Grants Pass Police said. She was taken to a hospital in critical condition and is being guarded while the suspect remains at large, police said.
The man fled the scene before officers arrived, but investigators identified Foster as the suspect and asked members of the public to call 911 immediately if they see him, warning he “should be considered extremely dangerous.”
Police said Foster “likely received assistance in fleeing the area.” A 68-year-old woman was arrested “for Hindering Prosecution” as authorities searched for the suspect, according to the department.
As the search continues, a $2,500 reward has been offered for information leading to Foster’s capture. Police said he is wanted on suspicion of kidnapping, attempted murder and assault.
Prosecutors accused Foster of attempting to kill the victim “in the course of intentionally torturing” the woman, according to charging documents filed in court and obtained by CNN affiliate KDRV.
“This is a very serious offense – a brutal assault on one of our residents that we take extremely serious and we will not rest until we capture this individual,” Grants Pass Police Chief Warren Hensman said in a news conference Thursday.
This is not the first time Foster has been accused by authorities of violence against women.
Court records in Clark County, Nevada, show that Foster was charged in two different cases years earlier, accusing him of attacking women.
In the first case, Foster was charged with felony battery constituting domestic violence, court documents show. Foster’s ex-girlfriend testified in a preliminary hearing that he had attempted to strangle her in a rage in 2017 after another man texted her.
While that case was still pending in court, Foster was charged with felony assault, battery and kidnapping for allegedly attacking another woman – his girlfriend at the time – in 2019, charging documents show.
The victim told police “Foster strangled (her) to the point of unconsciousness several times” and kept her tied up for most of the next two weeks. She said she was only able to gain her freedom after convincing Foster they needed to go shopping for provisions, and escaped while in a store, according to the court records.
The woman was left with seven broken ribs, two black eyes and abrasions to her wrists and ankles from being tied up, according to a Las Vegas police report.
Foster ultimately agreed to plea deals in the cases, the documents read. He was sentenced to a maximum of 30 months in prison but given credit for 729 days served in the first case.
“Am I troubled by what I know already? The answer is yes,” Hensman said when asked about the previous charges in Nevada.
“We’re laser focused on capturing this man and bringing him to justice,” Hensman said.
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CNN
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As the Supreme Court gathered for more than two hours on Monday to discuss whether a graphic designer can refuse to do business with same-sex couples, the justices somehow strayed into dueling hypotheticals concerning Black and White Santas and dating websites.
Hypotheticals are nothing new at the high court as the justices probe how cases before the court could impact different challenges down the road. But Monday’s hypothetical was unusually awkward, with a reference to children wearing a Ku Klux Klan outfit to visit Santa Claus.
It all began when Justice Ketanji Jackson expressed some alarm about the extent of arguments put forward by the graphic designer, Lorie Smith, who wants to expand her business to celebrate marriages, but does not want to work with same-sex couples out of religious objections to same-sex marriage.
“Can I ask you a hypothetical that just sort of helps me flesh” this out, Jackson asked a lawyer for the designer.
Jackson wanted to know about a photography business in a hypothetical shopping mall during the holiday season that offers a product called “Scenes with Santa.” She said the photographer wants to express his own view of nostalgia about Christmases past by reproducing 1940s and 1950s Santa scenes in sepia tone.
“Their policy is that only White children can be photographed with Santa,” Jackson said and noted that according to her hypothetical, the photographer is willing to refer families of color to the Santa at “the other end of the mall” who will take anybody, and they will photograph families of color.
Jackson asked Kristen Waggoner, Smith’s lawyer, “why isn’t your argument that they should be able to do that?”
Waggoner finally said that there are “difficult lines to draw” and said that the Santa hypothetical might be an “edge case.”
That drew incredulity on the part of liberal Justice Elena Kagan.
“It may be an ‘edge case’ meaning it could fall on either side, you’re not sure?” she asked.
Jackson returned to her query later and expanded it. She said her hypothetical photographer is doing something akin to the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” and wants it to be “authentic” so that only White children could be customers.
Waggoner suggested that in the case at hand the “message wins,” but never really explained what she meant.
Artist explains why she thinks she shouldn’t have to work with same-sex couples
When a lawyer for Colorado stood up to defend the state’s anti-discrimination law, Justice Samuel Alito chimed in.
He wanted to know if a Black Santa at the other end of the mall doesn’t want to have his picture taken with a child who’s dressed up in a Ku Klux Klan outfit whether the Black Santa has to do it?
Colorado Solicitor General Eric Olson replied that there is no law that protects a right to wear a KKK outfit.
That spurred Kagan to jump in, noting that objection would be based on the outfit, not whether it was worn by a Black or a White child.
Alito then uttered an extremely awkward aside that could have been an attempted joke gone astray. “You do see a lot of Black children in Ku Klux Klan outfits, right? All the time.”
At another point in arguments Alito was posing a set of hypotheticals and again engaged Kagan – his seat mate – as he searched for how the case at hand could impact other cases.
He was referring to a “friend-of-the-court” brief filed by lawyer Josh Blackman on behalf of the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty in support of Smith. The aim of the brief is to discuss problematic situations for Jewish artisans who object to speaking out about certain topics. A series of hypotheticals was included to show instances in which a Jewish artist would be compelled to betray his conscience.
“An unmarried Jewish person asks a Jewish photographer to take a photograph for his JDate dating profile,” Alito began, referring to a hypothetical in the brief.
He paused. “It’s a dating service, I gather, for Jewish people,” Alito said.
Kagan, who is Jewish, chimed in to laughter, “It is.”
Alito decided to plow awkwardly forward with another hypothetical from Blackman’s brief .
“All right. Maybe Justice Kagan will also be familiar with the next website I’m going to mention,” he said. “A Jewish person asks a Jewish photographer to take a photograph for his Ashleymadison.com dating profile.”
The audience laughed as Ashleymadison.com appears to refer to an online dating service and social networking services marketed to people who are married or already in relationships.
It was another awkward moment with Alito adding: “I’m not suggesting that – she knows a lot of things. I’m not suggesting – okay … Does he have to do it?”
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Washington
CNN
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President Joe Biden made false claims about a variety of topics, notably including gun policy, during a series of official speeches and campaign remarks over the last two weeks.
He made at least five false claims related to guns, a subject on which he has repeatedly been inaccurate during his presidency. He also made a false claim about the extent of his support from environmental groups. And he used incorrect figures about the population of Africa, his own travel history and how much renewable energy Texas uses.
Here is a fact check of these claims, plus a fact check on a Biden exaggeration about guns. The White House declined to comment on Tuesday.
Beau Biden and red flag laws
In a Friday speech at the National Safer Communities Summit in Connecticut, Biden spoke of how a gun control law he signed in 2022 has provided federal funding for states to expand the use of gun control tools like “red flag” laws, which allow the courts to temporarily seize the guns of people who are deemed to be a danger to themselves or others. After mentioning red flag laws, Biden invoked his late son Beau Biden, who served as attorney general of Delaware, and said: “As my son was the first to enforce when he was attorney general.”
Facts First: Biden’s claim is false. Delaware did not have a red flag law when Beau Biden was state attorney general from 2007 to 2015. The legislation that created Delaware’s red flag program was named the Beau Biden Gun Violence Prevention Act, but it was passed in 2018, three years after Beau Biden died of brain cancer. (In 2013, Beau Biden had pushed for a similar bill, but it was rejected by the state Senate.) The president has previously said, correctly, that a Delaware red flag law was named after his son.
Delaware was far from the first state to enact a red flag law. Connecticut passed the first such state law in the country in 1999.
Stabilizing braces
In the same speech, the president spoke confusingly of his administration’s effort to make it more difficult for Americans to purchase stabilizing braces, devices that are attached to the rear of pistols, most commonly AR-15-style pistols, and make it easier to fire them one-handed.
“Put a pistol on a brace, and it…turns into a gun,” Biden said. “Makes them where you can have a higher-caliber weapon – a higher-caliber bullet – coming out of that gun. It’s essentially turning it into a short-barreled rifle, which has been a weapon of choice by a number of mass shooters.”
Facts First: Biden’s claims that a stabilizing brace turns a pistol into a gun and increases the caliber of a gun or bullet are false. A pistol is, obviously, already a gun, and “a pistol brace does not have any effect on the caliber of ammunition that a gun fires or anything about the basic functioning of the gun itself,” said Stephen Gutowski, a CNN contributor who is the founder of the gun policy and politics website The Reload.
Biden’s assertion that the addition of a stabilizing brace can “essentially” turn a pistol into a short-barreled rifle is subjective; it’s the same argument his administration’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has made in support of its attempt to subject the braces to new controls. The administration’s regulatory effort is being challenged in the courts by gun rights advocates.
Gun manufacturers and lawsuits
Repeating a claim he made in his 2022 State of the Union address and on other occasions, Biden said at a campaign fundraiser in California on Monday: “The only industry in America you can’t sue is the – is the gun manufacturers.”
Facts First: Biden’s claim is false, as CNN and other fact-checkers have previously noted. Gun manufacturers are not entirely exempt from being sued, nor are they the only industry with some liability protections. Notably, there are significant liability protections for vaccine manufacturers and, at present, for people and entities involved in making, distributing or administering Covid-19 countermeasures such as vaccines, tests and treatments.
Under the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, gun manufacturers cannot be held liable for the use of their products in crimes. However, gun manufacturers can still be held liable for (and thus sued for) a range of things, including negligence, breach of contract regarding the purchase of a gun or certain damages from defects in the design of a gun.
In 2019, the Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit against gun manufacturer Remington Arms Co. to continue. The plaintiffs, a survivor and the families of nine other victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, wanted to hold the company – which manufactured the semi-automatic rifle that was used in the 2012 killing – partly responsible by targeting the company’s marketing practices, another area where gun manufacturers can be held liable. In 2022, those families reached a $73 million settlement with the company and its four insurers.
There are also more recent lawsuits against gun manufacturers. For example, the parents of some of the victims and survivors of the 2022 massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, have sued over the marketing practices of the company that made the gun used by the killer. Another suit, filed by the government of Buffalo, New York, in December over gun violence in the city, alleges that the actions of several gun manufacturers and distributors have endangered public health and safety. It is unclear how those lawsuits will fare in the courts.
– Holmes Lybrand contributed to this item.
The NRA and lawsuits
At a campaign fundraiser in California on Tuesday, Biden said the National Rifle Association, the prominent gun rights advocacy organization, itself cannot be sued.
“And the fact that the NRA has such overwhelming power – you know, the NRA is the only outfit in the nation that we cannot sue as an institution,” Biden said. “They got – they – before this – I became president, they passed legislation saying you can’t sue them. Imagine had that been the case with tobacco companies.”
Facts First: Biden’s claim is false. While gun manufacturers have liability protections, no law was ever passed to forbid lawsuits against the NRA. The NRA has faced a variety of lawsuits in recent years.
Machine guns
At the same Tuesday fundraiser in California, Biden said that he taught the Second Amendment in law school, “And guess what? It doesn’t say that you can own any weapon you want. It says there are certain weapons that you just can’t own.” One example Biden cited was this: “You can’t own a machine gun.”
Facts First: Biden’s claim is false. The Second Amendment does not explicitly say people cannot own certain weapons – and the courts have not interpreted it to forbid machine guns. In fact, with some exceptions, people in more than two-thirds of states are allowed to own and buy fully automatic machine guns as long as those guns were legally registered and possessed prior to May 19, 1986, the day President Ronald Reagan signed a major gun law. There were more than 700,000 legally registered machine guns in the US as of May 2021, according to official federal data.
Federal law imposes significant national restrictions on machine gun purchases, and the fact that there is a limited pool of pre-May 19, 1986 machine guns means that buying these guns tends to be expensive – regularly into the tens of thousands of dollars. But for Americans in most of the country, Biden’s claim that you simply “can’t” own a machine gun, period, is not true.
“It’s not easy to obtain a fully automatic machine gun today, I don’t want to give that impression – but it is certainly legal. And it’s always been legal,” Gutowski said in March, when Biden previously made this claim about machine guns.
California, where Biden made this remark on Tuesday, has strict laws restricting machine guns, but there is a legal process even there to apply for a state permit to possess one.
The ‘boyfriend loophole’
In the Friday speech to the National Safer Communities Summit, Biden said “we fought like hell to close the so-called boyfriend loophole” that had allowed people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence to buy and possess guns if the victim was not someone they were married to, living with or had a child with. Biden then said that now “we finally can say that those convicted of domestic violence abuse against their girlfriend or boyfriend cannot buy a firearm, period.”
Facts First: Biden’s categorical claim that such offenders now “cannot buy a firearm, period” is an exaggeration, though Biden did sign a law in 2022 that made significant progress in closing the “boyfriend loophole.” That 2022 law added “dating” partners to the list of misdemeanor domestic violence offenders who are generally prohibited from gun purchases – but in a concession demanded by Republicans, the law says these offenders can buy a gun five years after their first conviction or completion of their sentence, whichever comes later, if they do not reoffend in the interim.
It’s also worth noting that the law’s new restriction on dating partners applies only to people who committed the domestic violence against a someone with whom they were in or “recently” had been in a “continuing” and “serious” romantic or intimate relationship. In other words, it omits people whose offense was against partners from their past or someone they dated casually.
Marium Durrani, vice president of policy at the National Domestic Violence Hotline, said there are “definitely some gaps” in the law, “so it’s not a blanket end-all be-all,” but she said it is “really a step in the right direction.”
Biden said at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Saturday: “Let me just say one thing very seriously. You know, I think this is the first time – and I’ve been around, as I said, a while – in history where, last week, every single environmental organization endorsed me.”
Facts First: It’s not true that every single environmental organization had endorsed Biden. Four major environmental organizations did endorse him the week prior, the first time they had issued a joint endorsement, but other well-known environmental organizations have not yet endorsed in the presidential election.
The four groups that endorsed Biden together in mid-June were the Sierra Club, NextGen PAC, and the campaign arms of the League of Conservation Voters and the Natural Resources Defense Council. That is not a complete list of every single environmental group in the country. For example, Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, Earthjustice and Greenpeace, in addition to some lesser-known groups, have not issued presidential endorsements to date.
Biden’s claim of an endorsement from every environmental group comes amid frustration from some activists over his recent approvals of fossil fuel projects.
In official speeches last Tuesday and last Wednesday and at a press conference the week prior, Biden claimed that Africa’s population would soon reach 1 billion. “You know, soon – soon, Africa will have 1 billion people,” he said last Wednesday.
Facts First: This is false. Africa’s population exceeded 1 billion in 2009, according to United Nations figures; it is now more than 1.4 billion. Sub-Saharan Africa alone has a population of more than 1.1 billion.
At a campaign fundraiser in Connecticut on Friday, Biden spoke about reading recent news articles about the use of renewable energy sources in Texas. He said, “I think it’s 70% of all their energy produced by solar and wind because it is significantly cheaper. Cheaper. Cheaper.”
Facts First: Biden’s “70%” figure is not close to correct. The federal Energy Information Administration projected late last year that Texas would meet 37% of its electricity demand in 2023 with wind and solar power, up from 30% in 2022.
Texas has indeed been a leader in renewable energy, particularly wind power, but the state is far from getting more than two-thirds of its energy from wind and solar alone. The organization that provides electricity to 90% of the state has a web page where you can see its current energy mix in real time; when we looked on Wednesday afternoon, during a heat wave, the mix included 15.8% solar, 10.2% wind and 6.6% nuclear, while 67.1% was natural gas or coal and lignite.
In his Friday speech at the National Safer Communities Summit, Biden made a muddled claim about his past visits to Afghanistan and Iraq – saying that “you know, I spent a lot of time as president, and I spent 30-some times – visits – many more days in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Facts First: Biden’s claim that he has visited Afghanistan and Iraq “30-some times” is false – the latest in a long-running series of exaggerations about his visits to the two countries. His presidential campaign said in 2019 that he made 21 visits to these countries, but he has since continued to put the figure in the 30s. And he has not visited either country “as president.”
At another campaign fundraiser in California on Monday, Biden reprised a familiar claim about his travels with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who is, like him, a former vice president.
“It wasn’t appropriate for Barack to be able to spend a lot of time getting to know him, so it was an assignment I was given. And I traveled 17,000 miles with him, usually one on one,” Biden said.
Facts First: Biden’s “17,000 miles” claim remains false. Biden has not traveled anywhere close to 17,000 miles with Xi, though they have indeed spent lots of time together. This is one of Biden’s most common false claims as president, a figure he has repeated over and over in speeches despite numerous fact checks.
Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler noted in 2021 that Biden and Xi often did not even travel parallel routes to their gatherings, let alone physically travel together. The only apparent way to get Biden’s mileage past 17,000, Kessler found, is to add the length of Biden’s flight journeys between Washington and Beijing, during which Xi was not with him.
A White House official told CNN in early 2021 that Biden was adding up his “total travel back and forth” for meetings with Xi. But that is very different than traveling “with him” as Biden keeps saying, especially in the context of his boasts about how well he knows Xi. Biden has had more than enough time to make his language more precise.
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