Italian police this week managed to pull the plug on what authorities in the country are calling the biggest wine fraud ever carried out in the wine-loving nation, when a scam artist managed to sell what amounted to a whopping 220,000 fake bottles of pricey Montalcino red wine. The culprit, a wine expert and consultant, dressed up cheap swill with fake labels and sold it on the wholesale market to distributors over a three-year period from 2011 to 2013.

“The seized wine was still with the distributors and no bottle was yet on the market,” Luca Albertario, head of the financial police in Siena, Italy told Bloomberg. “If sold as Montalcino on the market, the wine could have earned him about 5 million euros [$6.5 million].” “It’s the biggest fraud ever carried out in the agricultural and food sector," Albertario told Agence France Presse. “Had the scam succeeded, it would have resulted in fake Brunello di Montalcino wines ‘ending up on the tables of half the restaurants in the world.’”

Here’s more from Bloomberg on how the scam was orchestrated:

The consultant used his relationship with some producers to steal official seals and other documents certifying the authenticity of the wine as Montalcino, according to the statement. In reality, the wine sold was described by police as “common” and below the needed standards. In addition to stealing seals, the consultant hacked into the region of Tuscany’s agriculture department adding records that matched the wine’s fake documentation, making it more difficult for buyers to doubt the wine’s authenticity.

Yahoo was threatened with massive fines by the U.S. government if it refused to hand over users’ data, court documents released on Thursday show. The now declassified documents show Yahoo rebuffed NSA data requests in 2007 deeming them “unconstitutional and overbroad surveillance,” but faced a $250,000 fine for each day it resisted.

The 1,500 pages worth of documents show Yahoo fought a secret legal battle against the government, but lost in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA Court. “The company’s loss required Yahoo to become one of the first to begin providing information to PRISM, a program that gave the National Security Agency extensive access to records of online communications by users of Yahoo and other U.S.-based technology firms,” according to the Washington Post. “The ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review became a key—but almost entirely secret—moment in the development of PRISM, helping government officials to convince other Silicon Valley companies that unprecedented data demands had been tested in the courts and found constitutionally sound.”

“The released documents underscore how we had to fight every step of the way to challenge the U.S. Government’s surveillance efforts,” Yahoo general counsel, Ron Bell, said in a blog post on Thursday. “Today we are pleased to announce the release of more than 1,500 pages of once-secret papers from Yahoo’s 2007-2008 challenge to the expansion of U.S. surveillance laws.”

A Wall Street Journal report sourced to an anonymous NFL owner says that commissioner Roger Goodell believed that Janay Rice had been knocked unconscious in an Atlantic City elevator because she fell during a "scuffle" with her husband:

In conversations about the Rice case over the summer, the owner said, Goodell privately told other owners that during his investigation, in a meeting with the Rices in June, Janay Rice said she had struck her then-fiancée and that she believed she was partly at fault for the incident. Goodell also said he left the meeting believing that Janay Rice had become unconscious because she had fallen during the scuffle.

Footage from the elevator posted by TMZ this week, of course, clearly shows Janay Rice being punched hard by her now-husband, whereupon her head strikes a railing as she falls. It's not clear that Janay Rice strikes Ray Rice at any point shown in the footage, though she does throw her left arm out in the direction of his face before they enter the elevator—though even that gesture comes after his head moves toward her in a manner that might suggest, as ESPN reported, that he was spitting on her.

Update, September 11, 5:50 p.m.: It's worth noting that an Atlantic City police summons, which has been available since February, states plainly that Janay Rice was knocked unconscious because Ray Rice struck her with his hand.

Here is something surprising: Many businesses that lost money because of the Boston Marthon bombing—and previously purchased terrorism insurance—don't currently qualify for payouts on said insurance. Why? The Boston Globe explains:

The Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew has not certified the attacks as an act of terrorism for these insurance purposes, a requirement under the wording of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA).

“The Secretary has not determined that there has been an ‘act of terrorism’ under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act,” a Treasury spokesperson emailed on Thursday.

So why is that? Because America's post-9/11 terrorism insurance law defines a terrorist event as one that causes more than $5 million in damage. And while stores that were ordered to close by police in the days after the bombing certainly suffered losses as a result of a terrorist attack, they apparently didn't suffer enough to reach that certification mark. It's a problem exacerbated by the fact that some didn't have policies that covered lost income—which, if my reading of the law is correct, would mean that any harm they suffered doesn't count as an "insurance loss" under the federal law and thus does not contribute toward the $5 million total.

Police reported this morning that two Molotov cocktails were thrown through the window of Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City office at approximately 2:50 a.m. From the Kansas City Star:

Responding officers found a broken window on the northwest side of the building.

On the ground below the window were two broken liquor bottles — one rum and one Jagermeister — with paper towels sticking out of the necks of the bottles, police said.

They resembled Molotov cocktails and the paper towels appeared to have been ignited but extinguished during flight, police said.

The only damage was the broken window. There was no fire damage to the building.

No one was in the office and no one was hurt. Cleaver's chief of staff told the paper that a similar incident had occurred six years ago.

Cleaver, Kansas City's first black mayor, has been in Congress since 2005. He was highly critical of Missouri authorities' response to the protests that followed the death of Michael Brown. "Ferguson resembles Fallujah more than it does Ferguson," said Cleaver on MSNBC. "Having military style weaponry moving down the main street of a middle-American town is as un-American as a coup d’état rather than an election."

If you run the social media account of a corporation or small business and are wondering how to commemorate 9/11 without looking crass or exploitative, this handy flowchart is still the perfect guide.

It seems like every year, though, some social media or brand manager at some U.S. business fails to consider this very good advice and posts a tacky, stupid, or otherwise insensitive promotion or social media message about 9/11. Last year it was AT&T's idiotic “never forget” photo blunder.

While I’ve yet to see a major corporation step in it this 9/11, the early contender for worst 9/11 promotional campaign and apology for said campaign comes from an Arlington, Virginia, yoga studio. Bikram Arlington's “9+11=20% off” Patriot Day sale might even be the worst 9/11 promotion of all time. As a bonus, the initial apology included a Truther tweet that only made matters worse. 

The promotional tweet and the “building 7” comment were eventually deleted and Bikram Arlington offered this somewhat better apology on Facebook. Fortunately for Northern Virginia’s bargain-hungry Bikram fans, though, the “9+11=20% off” website is still up.

CNN has obtained a video, taken shortly after Michael Brown was shot, that shows a contractor who had been working near the shooting site describing the incident in a manner that matches other eyewitness testimony—raising his arms and shouting "man, he was going like this," as if to suggest that Brown had adopted a posture of surrender before he died.

Two contractors are shown in the video, and both have spoken to CNN; one also spoke previously to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and one to Fox affiliate KTVI. The individual who is shouting and raising his arms in in the video told CNN that "the cop didn't say get on the ground. He just kept shooting." The other said that he saw officer Darren Wilson "chasing" Brown, that Wilson fired a shot at Brown while Brown's back was turned, and that Brown raised his hands before he died, though it's not clear at what point the witness saw Brown's hands raised. (For what it's worth, it seems like the worker who spoke to KTVI is the one wearing a pink shirt in the video and that the worker who spoke to the Post-Dispatch is wearing a green shirt.)

The CNN account notes that the workers are not from Ferguson and did not know the Brown family—a detail that could increase their perceived objectivity vis a vis witnesses from Brown's neighborhood.

South African judge Thokozile Masipa has cleared Oscar Pistorius of murder charges in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, but still could—and according to some observers, will—convict the sprinter of "culpable homicide." From the BBC:

The judge questioned the reliability of several witnesses who apparently heard screams and gunshots at the time of the incident, saying most of those who said they had heard the incident had "got facts wrong".

The prosecution had used these witnesses to try to prove that Mr Pistorius had killed Ms Steenkamp with premeditation after an argument.

Later in her judgement, Judge Masipa concluded that the prosecution had failed in this.

"The state has not proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused is guilty of premeditated murder," she said. "There are just not enough facts to support such a finding."

Crucially, though, the judge also said that Pistorius's conduct on the night he shot Steenkamp had been negligent and that a "reasonable person" would not have fired a weapon during the incident—statements that, according to the BBC's Andrew Harding, point toward a culpable homicide conviction.

The punishment for that conviction could mean anywhere from no jail time to a 15 year sentence according to the judge's decision. Judge Masipa, however, adjourned court until tomorrow before finishing her discussion of all the charges against Pistorius, a decision that the New York Times said was unexpected and unexplained.

President Obama, in a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday night, laid out the administration’s strategy for confronting the Islamist militant group ISIS—also referred to as ISIL—in Iraq and Syria. “We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” Obama said.

Facing criticism for the perception the administration has been sluggish in responding to the group’s growing influence in the region, Obama outlined a sustained military and counter-terrorism effort, including training local forces in the region and expanding airstrikes beyond Iraq, inside Syria. The President, however, reiterated his earlier commitment that any military operation will not include American combat troops on the ground. “I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Obama said. “It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”

Here’s more from the President’s speech on how the U.S. will combat ISIS:

First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists. Working with the Iraqi government, we will expand our efforts beyond protecting our own people and humanitarian missions, so that we’re hitting ISIL targets as Iraqi forces go on offense. Moreover, I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are. That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.

Second, we will increase our support to forces fighting these terrorists on the ground. In June, I deployed several hundred American service members to Iraq to assess how we can best support Iraqi Security Forces. Now that those teams have completed their work – and Iraq has formed a government – we will send an additional 475 service members to Iraq. As I have said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission – we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq. But they are needed to support Iraqi and Kurdish forces with training, intelligence and equipment. We will also support Iraq’s efforts to stand up National Guard Units to help Sunni communities secure their own freedom from ISIL control.

Across the border, in Syria, we have ramped up our military assistance to the Syrian opposition. Tonight, I again call on Congress to give us additional authorities and resources to train and equip these fighters. In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its people; a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost. Instead, we must strengthen the opposition as the best counterweight to extremists like ISIL, while pursuing the political solution necessary to solve Syria’s crisis once and for all.

Third, we will continue to draw on our substantial counterterrorism capabilities to prevent ISIL attacks. Working with our partners, we will redouble our efforts to cut off its funding; improve our intelligence; strengthen our defenses; counter its warped ideology; and stem the flow of foreign fighters into – and out of – the Middle East. And in two weeks, I will chair a meeting of the UN Security Council to further mobilize the international community around this effort.

Fourth, we will continue providing humanitarian assistance to innocent civilians who have been displaced by this terrorist organization. This includes Sunni and Shia Muslims who are at grave risk, as well as tens of thousands of Christians and other religious minorities. We cannot allow these communities to be driven from their ancient homelands.

A former New York Mets senior vice president, who was fired last month by the club, sued the organization on Wednesday alleging that she was discriminated against on the basis of her sex, and ultimately fired for becoming pregnant while unmarried. Leigh Castergine, who joined the Mets organization in 2010, was the head of ticket sales when, the suit says, she was fired by team COO Jeff Wilpon because he was “morally opposed” to Castergine having a child out of wedlock.

Here’s more from the suit:

[T]he Mets recognized and rewarded Castergine’s accomplishments through annual six-figure bonuses, significant raises and a promotion to the position of Senior Vice President—the first woman to hold such a position in the Team’s fifty-two year history. Until, that is, Castergine announced she was pregnant. Wilpon, the Team’s Chief Operating Officer and son of the principal owner, became fixated on the idea that Castergine would have a child without being married. He frequently humiliated Castergine in front of others by, among other things, pretending to see if she had an engagement ring on her finger and openly stating in a meeting of the Team’s all-male senior executives that he is “morally opposed” to Castergine “having this baby without being married.” Wilpon told Castergine that, when she gets a ring, she will make more money and get a bigger bonus. Castergine complained to the Team’s Human Resources Department. Wilpon responded by firing Castergine. According to Wilpon, “something had changed” in Castergine after the birth of her child—with still no ring on her finger. Wilpon told her that she was no longer as “aggressive” as she used to be.

Castergine is suing the Mets, as well as Wilpon, for damages. The Mets responded to the suit in a statement: "We have received and reviewed the complaint. The claims are without merit. Our organization maintains strong policies against any and all forms of discrimination."