Remember when 7-Eleven's biggest worry in New York was whether or not Mayor Michael Bloomberg was going to ban Big Gulps? It turns out those were the good old days.

On Monday morning, agents from the Department of Homeland Security raided 14 7-Eleven shops in New York and Virginia.

The New York Times reports that nine store owners and managers have been arrested on charges of harboring undocumented immigrants smuggled from Pakistan, stealing identification information for them and not paying them the minimum wage.

Roughly 40 7-Eleven locations in all were investigated as part of a nationwide sweep that now includes locations in Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

 

British comic Russell Brand hijacked MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Tuesday, and the Internet exploded.

He managed to stomp out the pretentiousness of co-host Mika Brzezinski and panelists Katty Kay and Brian Shactman in short order by complaining -- rightfully so -- about how "rude" it was that they referred to him in the third person as if he wasn't there. The panel also tried to mock his cowboy boots, but Brand wouldn't have it. 

It's a silly but memorable tune, one you might find yourself singing out loud at inopportune moments, especially given that the song's chorus is "dumb ways to die, so many dumb ways to die."

But the three-minute animated public-service ad for Melbourne Metro Rail in Australia has become a viral hit. It has also been awarded two of the four top honors -- in the public relations and direct marketing categories -- at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

 

If you're on Twitter spending portions of your day sending 144-character missives into the ether anyway, why wouldn't you just send a few out to aliens?

CNNMoney reports that a company called Lone Signal is using the formerly abandoned Jamesburg Earth Station in California -- profiled by The Atlantic late last year -- to send tweets into space. The first one is free (get that "Klaatu barada nicto" joke out of your system early, folks), but Lone Signal charges 99 cents for a package of four extraterrestrial text messages.

That's a whole lot of #Yeezus-tagged messages for the poor sentient beings of Gliese 526 to sort through, but Lone Signal is hoping that the potentially habitable solar system will be amenable to #FF tweets every Friday and Beliebers bombarding them with messages about their interstellar teen pop deity.

 

The best-laid plains of mice and men often go astray, and apparently that's also true for burger chains.

Red Robin Gourmet Burgers (RRGB) wanted to tout its wide range of burger options --- including a veggie burger -- with a new ad, but instead the company has ended up with egg on its face. 

The commercial won't be on the air much longer, the Huffington Post reports, after a spokesman noted that the spot is being phased out of rotation "very soon."

The commercial features an actress dressed as a Red Robin server, gushing about the chain's 24 types of burgers. In a snarky voice, she adds, "We even have a garden burger just in case your teenage daughter is going through a phase."

 

Women in China apparently go to extreme lengths to keep oglers at bay.

Consider these new stockings that make your legs look like those of a very hairy man. A photo of the stockings was uploaded to Sina Weibo, which is the Chinese version of Twitter, and has gone viral, according to Mashable.

The caption accompanying the photo refers to "super sexy, summertime anti-pervert full-leg-of-hair stockings, essential for all young girls going out."

No word on where to buy these stockings, or how much they will cost.

The post has become one of the most popular on Sina Weibo, according to the chinaSmack site. But judging from the comments, you won't see these stockings on anyone anytime soon. 

New York University isn't a cheap place to study: One year of undergraduate education costs about $44,000 per student. 

One factor behind the school's hefty tuition may be the generous deals it gives to its top administrators and star professors, but the latest revelation in its pay practices is truly jaw-dropping.

NYU has made a number of loans to executives and professors for expensive vacation homes in pricey locations such as Fire Island and East Hampton on New York's Long Island, The New York Times reports. 

Among the homes bought via NYU's largess is an elegant, modern beach house owned by the school's president, John Sexton. He purchased the property with a $600,000 loan from his employer, the newspaper noted. 

 

Already under fire for improperly targeting Tea Party groups, the IRS has ratcheted up its scrutiny of pro-Israel organizations, a move that has unnerved some Jewish organizations. That's according to the Jewish Daily Forward, perhaps the leading newspaper covering Jewish issues.

"Several Jewish not-for-profit organizations have faced extensive questioning on their ties to Israel when applying for tax-exempt status, . . . leading to a lengthy approval process," the newspaper recently said, adding that both a progressive and right-wing organization complained of delays.

An IRS spokesperson rejected the idea that pro-Israel groups are being targeted, telling The Forward that any group that transfers funds overseas is given additional scrutiny to make sure its money doesn't wind up in the hands of terrorists. (The article isn't available on the newspaper's website). Most terrorist groups that operate in Israel, such as Hamas, however, are enemies of the Jewish state.