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Reality TV star Chad Johnson – the bad boy from season 12 of “The Bachelorette” and booted from “Bachelor in Paradise” for boozing too much – has filed a sexual misconduct lawsuit against producer Cristina Cimino and Sunset Studios Entertainment. The suit claims Cimino made “persistent and rigorous” advances towards Johnson of a “sexual and provocative” nature, and offered him two movie roles. Johnson also claims he rebuffed those advances, and the movie roles were nixed after he made it clear he didn’t want a sexual relationship with Cimino....

Kody Brown and his four wives – Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn – have overcome the first hurdle in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Utah’s bigamy law. A federal judge has ruled that the Sister Wives lawsuit may proceed against Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Buhman. Buhman had threatened to prosecute the polygamist family even though Brown is only legally married to Meri – the other relationships are “spiritual unions.” However, Utah’s bigamy law criminalizes being married to one person while cohabitating with another....

Politicians in Flint, Michigan are waiting and no doubt worrying. Last week criminal charges were filed against three men involved in the water crisis there. Mike Glasgow, Stephen Busch, and Mike Prysby face years in prison if convicted, according to CNN, and they are the first government workers criminally charged in relation to the water crisis. Governor Rick Snyder responded to the move saying that due process will reveal whether anyone acted criminally....

The web can feel like a world that is separate from real life, but electronic activity can have serious consequences, like landing you in jail or prison. You may rely on anonymity and hide behind avatars and accounts unassociated with you, but things you do online can be traced back to you and charged as a crime. If you’re convicted, your cell will be hell – very real, very small, very crowded and smelly – and you’ll have limited access to the web....

Here’s a bit of a shocker: according to a new study alcohol is more harmful than crack, heroin, or ecstasy. “How can that be?” you might ask. British scientists, led by Dr. David Nutt (unfortunate name for a doctor) analyzed over 20 drugs based on physical harm to the user, addictive properties, and the effect of the drug’s use on families, communities, and society. The comprehensive study, published in the “The Lancet,” analyzed drugs and drug policy factors including economic costs, rates of incarceration and social services....

Baby girl Blue Ivy may only be a few days old, but the Beyonce baby drama has already started. Patients at Lenox Hill Hospital – where Beyonce and Jay-Z paid a reported $1.3 million to seal off and renovate a special wing – are crying foul at the couple’s bodyguards. They were apparently quite rude to a group of mothers attending a breastfeeding class. And they allegedly kept a father from visiting his premature and underweight twins in the NICU....

Rapper Bow Wow is being sued by a Georgia bank for the costs of repossessing and auctioning his Lamborghini Murcielago. The former child rapper and current host of 106 & Park allegedly took out a business loan for $300,165 to purchase the sports car. Bow Wow agreed to pay $4,730 a month for 84 months to pay off the vehicle. The rapper allegedly quickly began defaulting on payments and the car was repossessed and auctioned off, reports The Urban Daily....

President Bush has signed into law a bill that will raise vehicle fuel economy standards and require an increase in ethanol use by fuel suppliers. In signing the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, Bush called the legislation “a major step forward in expanding the production of renewable fuels, reducing our dependence on oil, and confronting global climate change.” Some highlights of the bill include setting of the national fuel economy standard for cars and trucks at 35 miles per gallon by 2020 (which will increase fuel economy standards by 40 percent and save billions of gallons of fuel), and increasing the supply of alternative fuel sources by requiring fuel producers to use at least 36 billion gallons of ethanol in 2022....

With the Internet of Things (IoT) firmly taking hold of nearly every modern convenience, criminal defendants shouldn’t be surprised when the data that gets collected and stored on modern technology gets used against them. This includes things like a person’s internet browser history, IP address history, files stored locally, or in the cloud, and potentially even files a person has deleted. And it doesn’t stop there. A recent news story illustrates how IoT data is helping to solve a murder....

Sounds ridiculous, right? I mean, you’re not even driving, so why would your driver’s license be affected by a pedestrian ticket? But an investigation by the Florida Times-Union and ProPublica discovered that thousands of people have had their licenses suspended for not being able to pay fines tied to pedestrian tickets. And the violations involved are not just jaywalking – the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office was allegedly enforcing over two dozen obscure pedestrian statutes, more often than not against black citizens....

Ex-IMF Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s (or DSK as the French call him) presidential aspirations may come down to a he-said, she-said. DSK’s defense, consensual sex with the victim, might soon be used in his high-profile rape case involving a New York hotel chambermaid. DKS’s rape defense might turn out to be as simple as the victim had consented to the former IMF chief’s advances. DSK’s attorney has said that he believes the evidence will not show that there was a forcible encounter, reports the AP....

As if the American consumer didn’t have enough to be concerned about; mortgage loan modification scams, financial fraud, stroller recalls. Add this to the top of the list of things to be avoided, Swine Flu and now, phony emails about Swine flu. On December 1, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) updated their list of health related rumors and hoaxes with a new warning about a fake email purporting to be from the CDC....

Today, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced they will extend their suspension of foreclosure evictions through February 28. Freddie Mac also announced a plan to help those living in foreclosed home rent the homes back. The rental program announced today by Freddie Mac aims to allow owner-occupants and renters of foreclosed homes to stay in their homes. As stated in Freddie Mac’s press release, owner-occupants of foreclosed homes with Freddie Mac owned mortgages will have the opportunity to rent their home back at market rate....

The music industry plaintiffs sure didn’t. Not satisfied with the monetary award, they also sought a ruling from Judge Gartner that she stop the BU doctoral student in physics from “promoting” the practice of file sharing. Shortly after the July 31st jury trial, a playlist of the songs Tenebaum was found guilty of downloading showed up on that notorious Swedish file sharing service, The Pirate Bay. Say what you will about those guys, they do have a sense of humor....

This week, the last state statue expressly banning all homosexual parents from adopting children was struck down by the Florida Court of Appeals. The gay adoption ban was found by the court to unconstitutionally limit same-sex families from adopting, even though they had been permitted to become parents in other ways. The Florida Department of Children and Families, who defended the law, will almost certainly appeal the decision to the state’s highest court....

George Zimmerman was pulled over for allegedly speeding on a North Texas highway over the weekend, just two weeks after being acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin. A police officer in Forney, Texas, stopped Zimmerman in a gray Honda pickup early Sunday afternoon on westbound U.S. 80, Dallas/Fort Worth’s KTVT-TV reports. When the officer approached, Zimmerman informed him that he was armed. While reports of this incident are just coming to light, it appears that Zimmerman was let go with only a warning....

More and more states are legalizing it, but legalization has its limits. And many parents are finding out the hard way that while the police may not prosecute you for recreational marijuana use, state child protective services may rely on federal pot prohibitions to remove children from homes, even where parents have a medical marijuana prescription. And more and more parents are being arrested for marijuana-related child endangerment. A Wyoming mother and two men were arrested for child endangerment after marijuana paraphernalia was found in the home near children watching television, and a New York father faced similar charges after his son ate a pot gummy candy he found in the car....

“Did I do that?” You know its a sad say when Screech is getting his house foreclosed yet again, and Urkel is accused to slapping around his baby’s mama. Jaleel White, star of ’90s sitcom Family Matters, is accused of domestic violence by Bridget Hardy, the mother of his child and former girlfriend. According to Hardy, Jaleel punched her in one of her breast implants while their child was in the car with them....

Jalen Rose’s DUI made headlines not only because Rose is a former NBA star and an ESPN analyst, but also because of the 20-day jail sentence that was handed down against Rose. The 20-day sentence illustrated how much variation there are in state DUI laws. Rose was arrested last March after he crashed his car in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He pled guilty to drunk driving, and his blood-alcohol content at the time was over the legal limit....

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and KidCo Inc. have announced a voluntary recall of PeaPod and PeaPod Plus infant travel beds. The KidCo recall affects about 220,000 beds and follows the death of a 5-month-old infant in New York. PeaPod Travel Beds are small, portable sleep tents marketed for use by infants from birth to over 3 years of age, reports the CPSC. The tents include an inflatable air mattress and have sides made of fabric....