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Worth a Click: 10 Stories You Need to Read Today

By DNAinfo Staff | March 8, 2016 3:03pm | Updated on March 8, 2016 6:35pm

 Sportscaster and television host Erin Andrews was awarded $55 million in a lawsuit against the franchise owner and manager of a luxury hotel and a man who admitted to making secret nude recordings of her in 2008.
Sportscaster and television host Erin Andrews was awarded $55 million in a lawsuit against the franchise owner and manager of a luxury hotel and a man who admitted to making secret nude recordings of her in 2008.
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Sportscaster Erin Andrews Awarded $55 in Stalker Lawsuit

Remember when a creepy guy secretly videotaped then ESPN correspondent Erin Andrews in her hotel room in 2008? Eight years later, Andrews, who said her career and mental health suffered in teary testimony, is finally getting some retribution. She was awarded $55 million by a Nashville jury in the case. [NBC]

Leaked Screenshots Reveal Glimpse Into Uber’s Sexual Assault Track Record

Screenshots leaked to Buzzfeed News from a former Uber employee revealed thousands of customer complaints containing the words “rape” and “sexual assault.” When asked to comment, Uber first claimed that there were only five rape claims and 170 sexual assault claims. But a day later the company backpedaled saying that they found more than 17,500 emails from customers containing the word rape. [Buzzfeed News]

Trump’s Crackdown on Protesters at His Rallies Includes a Protester Intelligence Squad

Protesters have been disrupting rallies for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for months now, and his supporters have been ganging up on them with vigor. Now he’s having private security do research on potential protesters and scan the crowd for possible opponents. He also started a recent rally by having attendees raise their hands and swear an oath to vote for him. [Politico]

New App Will Split Restaurant Bill by Privilege

The new app EquiTable will split restaurant bills based on a diner's earning power relative to their gender and race according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. The app, which launches next month in the App Store, also has features that determine the diversity of your dining group; if your group is too homogenous, it gives you the option to donate to charity. [Quartz]

Google Searches for At-Home Abortion Methods Spiking in States Where Clinics Are Forced to Close

An economist explains what conclusions can be drawn from a spike in searches for phrases like “how to have a miscarriage,” “buy abortion pills online” and “how to do a coat hanger abortion” in states like Mississippi, where all but one clinic have been forced to close. He also compares abortion and birth data and finds that states with few abortion clinics had many fewer legal abortions that in previous years, but not significantly more births, and says this suggests women may be having illegal abortions. [NYT]

Computer Programmer Who Transformed Email Dead at 74

Raymond Tomlinson transformed how we use and write emails in 1971, when he added the “at” symbol to send messages from one host computer to another. The symbol went on to transform how people communicated online and took on a “personality” all of its own, according to Tomlison’s obituary in the New York Times. The cause of death hasn’t been determined. [NYT]

Whole Foods to Sell ‘Ugly’ Fruits and Veggies

In an effort to curb food waste, some Whole Foods stores in California will begin selling weirdly-shaped fruits and vegetables — food that would normally get tossed out by retailers because it didn’t meet conventional standards for what’s considered a good-looking apple or carrot, part of a growing “ugly produce” trend. [NPR]

Meet Petro, the ‘Cat-Mayor of Carroll Gardens’

In its “Pet City” feature, the New York Times profiles the sassiest cat on First Place, Petro, who has a home but prefers hanging out with his Carroll Gardens neighbors, passersby and whoever will give him some attention. “One time he somehow got into my apartment,” one resident recalled to the Times. “I turn around and this freaking cat is on the back of my couch.” Cat journalism at its peak. [NYT]

Do Bay Leaves Actually Do Anything?

This is the best thing on the Internet right now (that’s not on DNAinfo). [The Awl]

'21 Jump Street' + Men In Black = Box Office Smash?

For those of you who enjoyed the recent “21 Jump Street” movies but wished there were more aliens, or for those of you who enjoyed the “Men in Black” movies but wished there were more anti-drug messages, you’re in luck: the third installment of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum’s reboot of the 1980s series will apparently be a crossover with “Men in Black.” The film hasn’t been officially greenlit yet but would be directed by James Bobin and used as a way to relaunch the “Men in Black” franchise, which hasn’t had a new movie since all the way back in 2012. [The Verge]

This column was compiled by DNAinfo reporters Irene Plagianos, Jeanmarie Evelly, Gwynne Hogan, Danielle Tcholakian, Emily Frost, Noah Hurowitz, Rachel Holliday Smith, Eddie Small and Carolina Pichardo.