You Might Want to Rethink

Ex-Penn State basketball player Rasir Bolton says he left the program due to racially insensitive comments made by head coach Pat Chambers ... including a reference to a "noose" around his neck.

Chambers is how apologizing -- saying it was never his intention to offend.

20-year-old Bolton says the incident went down in January 2019 ... days after Chambers was suspended 1 game for pushing another player during a timeout.

"A 'noose' around my neck is why I left Penn State," Bolton -- who transferred to Iowa State after his freshman season -- said in a statement on Twitter.

"Due to other interactions with Coach, I knew this was no slip of the tongue."

According to ESPN, Bolton claims Chambers' whole comment went as follows:

"I want to be a stress reliever for you. You can talk to me about anything. I need to get some of this pressure off you. I want to loosen the noose that’s around your neck."

Bolton says he reported the incident to his academic advisor and the athletic department ... only to hear back from the school 6 months later, after he decided to leave the program.

Chambers has owned up to the comment ... and has since apologized.

"I didn’t realize that word would hurt him, and I am truly, truly sorry for that," Chambers told ESPN.

Bolton says he went public to bring awareness to what players have to deal with ... and he wants change.

"I wasn't the first and I know I wasn't the last. Everyone's position to speak out isn't the same, so I am only speaking for myself. There is a serious need for change in the way players are protected and helped across the country when faced with these situations."

"Surface level resources are not good enough. In most cases, it is the Coach who is protected, while the player is left to deal with it or leave."

"BE the change you want to see."

Lizzo has a brief message for the guy who allegedly booted her and some friends from a rental property a wee bit early this weekend -- bite me, and preferably where the sun don't shine!!!

The singer was documenting her sun-filled weekend with her friends, which started at one pad they rented ... but then shifted over to another one a few days later after the landlord at the first place apparently kicked them out.

In response, Lizzo kept calm and twerked on.

She posted a vid of herself dancing at the new digs, and had this to say to the guy she claims cut her stay short ... "This is for the man that kicked me out of my 7-day rental 3 days early yesterday." She adds, "This is for mocking the way that I dance and for using Instagram footage of me and my 6 black homegirls to say that we could ‘hurt him’ and threaten to call the police." There's no additional footage that shows what she describes here.

Still, Lizzo says she knows the dude's watching and that he won't stop her shine, adding this for good measure ... "Thanks for kicking us out cus this house is better anyways. Xoxo 🖕🏾"

Unclear where exactly Lizzo was staying -- kinda looks like the L.A. area to us -- but just a few days earlier, she was showing off her and her girls having a good ass time at what appears to be the first spot.

A statue of Frederick Douglass was ripped from its base and damaged beyond repair in New York ... and the timing makes it look like revenge for the recent toppling of Confederate monuments.

The famed abolitionist's statue was torn down Sunday in Rochester's Maplewood Park, a site along the Underground Railroad where slaves were ushered to freedom with the help of Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

Police say the statue was found 50 feet from its pedestal and suffered damage to the base and a finger.

The damage is bad enough that another statue will have to take its place ... according to Carvin Eison, a leader of the project that brought the statue to the Rochester park.

The act of vandalism took place on the anniversary of one of Douglass' most famous speeches -- "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July" -- delivered in the city on July 5, 1852.

In the speech, Douglass called the celebration of Independence Day a sham in a nation that enslaves and oppresses Black citizens. Douglass said to a slave, the day "reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim."

Eison believes the statue being toppled might be a retaliatory act due to the "national fever over Confederate monuments right now," and called it disappointing.

An Arizona woman says she was sent by President Trump and a conspiracy theory group to take Target to task for selling face masks ... and to flaunt her alleged high-priced watch.

The Internet has dubbed this gal here "QAnon Karen" after she filmed herself going into a Scottsdale-area Target and knocking down all the face masks on display in one of their aisles. She had to talk herself up before doing it, making it sound like a last stand mission.

She rants and about "not doing it" anymore -- which we think means she's not gonna let face masks be sold anymore??? Who the hell knows, but she went to town on the display.

Some staffer eventually comes over and asks her to stop, but she refuses ... incoherently saying they let "everyone else do it," and then questioning if they're trying to stop her because she's a white, blonde woman. But wait, it gets even more cringe-worthy!

'Karen' ponders whether they're hassling her because she has on a "$40,000 Rolex" ... just utter nonsense, but also hilarious. People have noted that Rollies don't usually shop at and/or terrorize Targets -- not really fair, because Targets are awesome. But again, this woman thinks she was sent by higher powers ... those powers being 45 and QAnon, of which she says she's a spokesperson.

Another video showed the aftermath of all this -- it appears cops tracked her down to her home and arrested her, which she also recorded. You gotta watch that mess on your own.

Elon Musk just dipped his toe into the fashion world -- via his car company, Tesla -- and the man might have a new career on his hands ... 'cause his new streetwear sold out.

The Tesla CEO followed through with a promise he made on Twitter the other day after his company's Q2 profit figures outperformed Wall Street's expectations, sending Tesla stock soaring ... much to the chagrin of short sellers who were betting against EM and co.

The guy said he was gonna roll out a line of Tesla short-shorts as a tongue-in-cheek slight at those same short sellers as well as the SEC (with which he's had beef and legal trouble before) ... and lo and behold, he freaking did it this weekend. Then, he broke his own site.

Elon announced the Tesla short-shorts were for sale Sunday on the company's official site, and they were going for the low price of "$69.420." A few minutes after he tweeted it out, their entire line in every size was sold out. He noticed, saying ... "Dang, we broke the website."

Look, we honestly can't tell if this is just a huge PR stunt with no actual fibers behind it -- but on the face of it, this appears to be a real thing Elon and Tesla sold out of almost as quickly as they launched it. The guy's obviously trolling, but he's doing it at new heights.

4th of July is proving many Americans don't care coronavirus cases are spiking again, which is in line with the White House's new messaging ...  just live with it.

A handful of water-based venues -- including a water park and two lakeside blowouts -- brought out droves of people this holiday weekend in Wisconsin, Missouri and Michigan ... all of which are seeing their own surges in confirmed COVID-19 diagnoses.

That didn't matter to these folks though -- they were ready to get wet and wild for Independence Day, and you can tell by how little mind they're paying to safety precautions.

At the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells, WI, hardly anybody was 6-feet apart from each other as they packed the wave pool. And, masks were out the window, obviously -- studies say they're ineffective if they get wet, so a lost cause right off the bat here.

Elsewhere in Missouri ... the same bar adjacent to Lake of the Ozarks -- Backwater Jack's -- forged ahead with their planned Fourth of July blowout, which they dubbed No Ducks Given. Between Friday and Saturday, the place once again resembled a sardine can.

And, in Michigan, another lake shindig was well underway Saturday ... Diamond Lake in Cass County was packed to the gills along its shores with partygoers raging the day away.

We've seen this behavior all throughout the spring and early summer -- ever since America was put on high alert and states went on full-blown lockdowns. While the shelter-in-place orders seemed to flatten the curve, there has been an explosion of new cases in the wake of reopening.

And yet ... the bad and dangerous behavior continues, despite what the CDC and other health officials have to say. The question ... what's next? Welp, President Trump's administration seems to have an answer, according to a new report anyway. It's simple ... live life at your own risk. Thing is ... he's been putting people -- his own supporters -- in harm's way by holding reckless rallies with no social distancing and few masks.

NBC News reports that big wigs in Trump's cabinet are ramping up for the new messaging to the American people ... that the virus is here, and we gotta press forward regardless.

A total of 4 Aurora PD officers are out of a job after the interim police chief fired 3 Friday over a photo scandal ... in which the cops reenacted a chokehold at the site of Elijah McClain's violent arrest that led to his death.

Chief Vanessa Wilson canned 2 of the 3 cops in the picture -- Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich -- after the third officer, Jaron Jones, resigned earlier this week. Jason Rosenblatt, the officer who received the photo in a text, was also fired for replying with a "ha ha" ... according to Wilson.

The 3 cops posed for the selfie October 20 ... near a memorial to McClain, who died after an arrest in August 2019 in which he was put into a carotid chokehold and lost consciousness, and was later given a strong sedative.

Elijah, who was simply walking home with an iced tea he had just purchased, suffered 2 heart attacks on the way to the hospital and lost brain function. He died days later.

Police released 2 photos of the cops clowning around at the memorial site in October. The one where they appear to reenact the chokehold given to McClain was reportedly sent to Rosenblatt to cheer him up.

Shortly after it was announced an investigation into McClain's death was going to be reopened, an internal investigation was launched over the photo. The officers in question had been on paid administrative leave since June 25.

Brian Austin Green's opening up about his dating life ... and sounds like he's frustrated.

The '90210' star was out grocery shopping in Malibu Thursday when he got asked about the women he's been spotted with recently, and ... he felt like venting.

Regarding his lunch date with Australian model Tina Louise ... he says he just happened to run into earlier in the day when we caught him out. Brian says Tina's "super nice," but gives a firm no when asked if he's dating her.

As for why ... it may have something to do with Courtney Stodden.

As we reported ... the 2 were seen hanging out in early June, but we were told it was just a collab on a business project. But, shortly after Brian and Tina were seen together, Courtney shared a vid of him and her hangin' in a hot tub ... a move that rubbed BAG the wrong way.

He says the video was from several weeks ago, and he was just trying to do something nice for her friend, Ashley. Brian calls what Courtney did "disappointing," and suggests it caused some problems for him and Tina.

Tough break, but the actor says he's not going to slam Stodden for what she did ... he's just not happy about it -- says she makes bad choices.

Here are the faces of a Beverly Hills doctor and his girlfriend, who allegedly stole $52 MILLION in an elaborate scheme that preyed on sober living patients to bilk insurance companies.

Dr. Randy Rosen and his GF, Liza Vismanos, were arrested earlier this week and have been charged with a staggering amount of felonies in 2 separate cases connected to the alleged scheme.

Rosen's facing 88 felony counts in connection with recruiting and hiring numerous body brokers to find and pay patients to have medically unnecessary implant surgeries, cortisone shots and other medical testing and procedures ... according to the Orange County D.A.'s Office.

Vismanos is facing 56 felony counts as Rosen's alleged partner in the scheme. She's also the owner of the Lotus Laboratories in Los Alamitos, CA ... which Rosen allegedly used for unnecessary drug testing for his patients.

Four others have also been charged in connection with identifying and recruiting potential patients for the bogus medical procedures.

According to prosecutors ... several insurance companies were then billed for these unnecessary procedures, but not informed that patients were being trafficked and paid for these procedures. The D.A. claims the insurance companies were fraudulently billed approximately $600 million and paid out approximately $50 million.

OC D.A. Todd Spitzer says of the case ... "Vulnerable sober living patients who were trying desperately to battle their addictions were treated like human guinea pigs just to make a buck."

A child was booted from her daycare because she wore a shirt promoting the Black Lives Matter movement.

6-year-old Journei Brockman had been enrolled in daycare at Arkansas' His Kids Preschool for 6 months. The little girl wore a shirt to the school with the words, "Black Lives Matter" emblazoned on it.

Her mom, Deval Brockman, told Fox16 she was contacted by an employee from the school who had issues with the shirt, saying she didn't like it. Brockman says she was told her daughter should not wear the shirt to school again.

Journei came to school a week ago, wearing a shirt with an image of a raised fist. Brockman says when she returned to pick up her daughter, she was told, Journei could not come back. Brockman says someone from the staff told her the shirt encouraged racism.

She also says the school's director schooled her, by saying, "I am not going to tell you how to raise your child, but you need to reevaluate how you're parenting her."

Brockman has filed a complaint with the state. As for the school Director, Patricia Brown told Fox16 ... "We feel a childcare environment is not a place for a parent's political views to be addressed or played out, regardless of race."

Brockman fires back ... “If I’m supporting something, I’m going to wear it, my child is going to wear it, to help say that our voice needs to be heard."

A heated racial exchange in a Detroit area parking lot -- between a white woman and black mom and her daughter -- led to the woman pulling a gun and pointing it right at the mother's face.

The argument allegedly started Wednesday evening because the white woman bumped into Takelia Hill's 15-year-old daughter, Makayla, as she was entering a Chipotle in Orion Township, MI.

Makayla claims she moved out of the way, but tells The Detroit News ... "She bumped me and I said, ‘Excuse you.’ And then she started cussing me out, and saying things like I was invading her personal space."

Takelia then got involved and that's when the racial tension started rising. As the white woman and a male companion got into their SUV, Makayla and her mom accused them of being racist. The man got out of the car and asked, "Who the f**k do you think you guys are?"

The white woman shouted, "White people aren't racist, no one's racist" -- and then started to back out and leave ... but Takelia was apparently behind the SUV or near it. She claims they were about to hit her, and it sounds like Takelia banged on their window -- and that's when the white woman got out with her pistol ... and aimed it directly at Takelia's face.

The white woman screamed, "Don't you f***ing jump behind my car. Get the f**k back! Back up! Get the f**k back! Back the f**k up!"

Thankfully, the woman finally decided to put the gun down and get back in her SUV to leave ... as cops were called. Takelia says the incident traumatized her and her 3 daughters ... who were in their vehicle.

We've reached out to police, who say they are still investigating the incident but a report has been taken.

Barstool Sports honcho Dave Portnoy is apologizing for his past on-camera usage of the n-word ... and he's now vowing to do better going forward.

"I should have had [my employees'] back from the beginning and been like, 'Yup, I wish I didn't f**king say that sh*t,'" Portnoy said in a video Thursday. "I'm sorry I said it. I'm sorry it offended people."

"I was just trying to be f**king funny."

Clips from around four years ago surfaced of Portnoy this past week ... showing the Barstool Sports founder saying and rapping the n-word on company-produced content videos.

In another one of the resurfaced clips, Portnoy also made insensitive comments about Colin Kaepernick ... saying the 49ers QB looked like an "ISIS guy," and adding, "throw a head wrap on this guy and he's a terrorist."

The unearthed footage was immediately met with backlash ... with critics calling for sponsors to drop partnerships with Barstool ASAP.

Initially, Portnoy defended the remarks ... saying he was "uncancellable." But after he says he spoke with his employees, the 43-year-old decided to issue a mea culpa.

"I can't apologize for my existence, but I can be better," Portnoy said. "And, I'm going to be better for [my employees]."

Portnoy says he'll lean on the diversity of his staff to make sure situations don't arise like this again in the future ... adding, "To all the guys that work for me, I want you to know I have your back."

L.A. City Councilman Herb Wesson says it's time to have the right people responding to situations where force is not needed -- and his plan could be a model for the future of policing in America.

Wesson came on "TMZ Live" Wednesday to discuss a new city-wide measure he and his fellow council members voted on and passed this week, which aims to pull cops off on non-violent calls for service, and instead ... send specially-trained, and unarmed, community members.

The Council's intent is clear ... reduce the possibility of police using excessive force, and have social workers and mental health pros on the scene to deescalate and help citizens in need.

For example, the incident that went down in Tampa this past weekend -- where officers responded to a call for a mother in mental distress. Cops ended up ripping away her children in a heartbreaking scene.

Wesson wants to put a stop to unnecessary roughness like that, by deploying specialists who can calm situations and talk down subjects.

The measure will require defunding the police -- or more accurately, reallocating the city's budget. The City Councilman thinks the change would free up LAPD to better police violent cases. Win-win.