Some police shows have had a considerable reckoning in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody, which has sparked a widespread protest movement in the United States and around the world as governments are pressured to reform departments and prevent more police brutality.

Cops was abruptly canceled after it was pulled from the air, and Live PD got the same treatment shortly afterward. While Brooklyn 99 has not had the same fate, the once-revived NBC comedy has apparently gone back to the drawing board when it came to its next season. Terry Crews said the show scrapped a number of planned episodes in the wake of Floyd’s death and the subsequent national conversation about race and police brutality.

According to Access, Crews said the show’s writers were four episodes into plotting out the next season and decided to throw out what they had been working on, starting over with new context about what the show should be in light of the changing perception of police on television and its impact on an audience’s perception of what they do.

“We’ve had a lot of somber talks about it and deep conversations and we hope through this we’re going to make something that will be truly groundbreaking this year. We have an opportunity and we plan to use it in the best way possible,” Terry revealed. “Our show-runner Dan Goor, they had four episodes all ready to go and they just threw them in the trash. We have to start over. Right now we don’t know which direction it’s going to go in.”

Crews also spoke about his own experiences with the police, explaining that he’s always been seen as a “threat” in any role he plays because of his size and physical fitness. But he said that’s gotten him into uncomfortable situations with the police in the past.

“You’ve seen me, in movies or whatever but before all this, I was always a threat. I would be going to the mall or going different places. I’ve had guns pointed at me by police officers in L.A. This was before I was famous. The thing is, they had the wrong guy,” Terry explained to Scott and Kit.

“It’s something that every black man has been through and it’s hard to really try to get other people to understand. I have to say, right here, what is going on right now is Black America’s Me Too movement. We always knew this was happening, but now white people are understanding,” Terry shared.

One episode of Brooklyn 99 did take that lesson to heart and have his character confronted by a white police officer. But often the show has not done the best job of recreating how police are perceived elsewhere, especially in the Black community. A season one plot line, you may remember, involved a contest between two officers racing to arrest as many people as possible. It’s just a TV show, of course, but it seems that Crews and the others involved with Brooklyn 99 understand the opportunity they have with the show to tell different kinds of stories moving forward.

[via Access]

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Being a professional athlete comes with a great deal of stress. There’s the pressure to perform, travel fatigue, the wear and tear on the body, and the need to cultivate a public persona, among many other factors. For far too long, the stigma around mental health has prevented athletes from recognizing these issues and seeking the proper help.

But star players from all the major sports have come forward in recent years to help bring awareness to this issue, and as a result, athletes are more comfortable acknowledging their struggles and being proactive about treatment. One of the most vocal proponents has been Kevin Love.

Love first opened up about his episodes of anxiety and panic attacks and has been instrumental for this cause. As a result, he received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at this year’s ESPYs. Now, he’s taking it a step further and making a sizable donation to help establish a chair at his alma mater UCLA that will be dedicate to research and education in mental health.

Via the UCLA Newsroom:

“I’m concerned about the level of anxiety that people are feeling. Recent events, including the novel coronavirus outbreak, have put our society under enormous stress,” Love said. “I am happy to be able to help UCLA, my alma mater, work toward solving some of society’s biggest underlying issues. I hope one day we are able to erase the stigma around anxiety and depression, and we can only do that by improving diagnosis and treatment, fostering public conversations about mental health and encouraging people to seek help when they need it.”

Love’s contribution, bolstered by the Centennial Term Chair Match, will go to a scholar in the psychology department whose research could help advance more personalized treatments for people living with anxiety and depression.

He’s also the founder of The Kevin Love Fund, which seeks to leverage the considerable wealth of the entertainment industry to generate funds for precisely this type of research. Love joined Trevor Noah on The Daily Show recently to talk about how the pandemic and social distancing have put additional strain on mental well-being and what can be done to help mitigate that. His continued efforts are making a significant impact both in the world of sports and otherwise.

It’s no secret that the way healthcare is handled in the United States is a mess. We are the only developed nation without guaranteed universal healthcare coverage. We tie health insurance to employment, which is silly, and we pay far more than citizens of any other nation for medical care that doesn’t even result in great outcomes. Even the Affordable Care Act, which helped people who previously couldn’t be insured get insurance, comes with a high cost in certain states.

When I talk to people in countries with universal healthcare, they’re often baffled by the inane way our system works. But my favorite part is when I tell them, “Wait til you hear about COBRA.”

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If you’ve always had a job with insurance, you may have never needed COBRA—which stands for Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, and is every bit as “Huh?” as the name suggests. Basically, if you lose your job, you lose your employer-provided health insurance. But lucky you, you can keep it for a buttload of money through COBRA. And that’s supposed to be a good thing, somehow. Like, people say, “Well, at least you can get COBRA,” when you lose your job—as if it’s a gift to pay out the nose to keep your insurance when you just lost your income.

A thread on Twitter highlights the absurdity of the whole concept.

People rightly pointed out how unsustainable our system is, and how ridiculous it is to think that people who have lost a job can afford to pay even MORE for health insurance than they did when they were employed.

Others shared their personal stories.

Others pointed out how it came about and why it feels like it’s almost designed to be a punishment.

Seriously, how can someone who has just lost their income afford this?

But the whole thing can basically be summed up by this tweet:

Come on, America. Universal healthcare. Everybody’s doing it. And the vast majority of Americans want it. It’s an idea whose time has come. And gone. And come back around again. Ad nauseum.

No one should go into debt or die because they can’t afford health insurance or health care. It’s a travesty that we have not figured this out long before now.

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Helpful products that want to help with your tiniest inconveniences.

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Former Anthropologie employees allege racial profiling at their stores, being followed around when they shopped at other locations, and earning less than their white colleagues.

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Raymond = 19 years old?

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Activists are calling to defund the police, but New York City is doubling down on aggressively policing fireworks.

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Who says you have to live in a world without new episodes of Seinfeld? Now, you can make your own stop motion adventures with Jerry, George, Kramer, Elaine, and… Newman with LEGO’s Seinfeld 30th Anniversary Set. You could also just watch Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld itself if you’re missing the show, but since we’re spending more of our summer indoors than ever before, and we can’t just keep making focaccia, it’s time to get to work and start building some sets! (If anyone needs a killer Costanza sound-a-like, call me!)

The Seinfeld collection was originally submitted by Brent Waller in 2019 on the LEGO Ideas platform and voted upon by devote LEGOheads who managed to corral 10,000 votes to turn it into a real thing. Now, according to Brick Fanatics (which is yes, a website for hardcore LEGOheads), an expert LEGO designer will adapt the fan design into an official set, which will likely be released sometime in 2021.

The proposed characters include Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Cosmo Kramer, Elaine Benes, and for whatever reason, Newman. The portly postal employee is an okay edition, but we would’ve dug a Frank and Estelle Costanza set, or even a Puddy or Peterman!

To see more LEGO Ideas collections and fan proposals, head to LEGO’s official site or check out the Seinfeld product idea page to see what a full cast set might like look. LEGO Ideas has resulted in a Friends collection that is already in stores, so you can finally start planning that crossover episode.