Last week, a routine traffic stop in Maryland made national headlines when a suspected drunk driver plowed into a police officer and his vehicle, putting the officer in the hospital with critical injuries. The driver was not hurt at all and refused to take a breath test at the scene. Police took him into custody and said they expected to charge him, NBC News reported. Noah Leotta, 24, was in critical condition in the days after the incident....
Wildfires in California and hurricanes in South Carolina have forced authorities in both states to issue evacuation orders. While these orders are intended to save lives, not everyone complies with evacuation orders. So what happens if you stick around? Could police arrest you for disobeying a mandatory evacuation order? Evacuation Authority No one wants to be told to leave their home, especially if that home is in danger. But the root of evacuation orders is to protect the people, and state governments are allowed to create and enforce regulations that promote public safety....
Most people are well aware that driving too fast or in a reckless manner is likely to get you pulled over. But a car’s paint job may also attract the attention of law enforcement. It’s not against the law to have a crummy paint job or to paint your car an especially obnoxious color. Fortunately for most of us, the fashion police have not yet been granted the same power as the actual police to make arrests....
Can anything bad happen in place called Celebration, Florida? The community, created in 1996, was set only five miles south of Walt Disney World and was designed to be a picture-perfect community with white picket fences and palm trees. Critics called it lame, a sort of “The Truman Show,” or “Stepford Wives” project, but residents loved it and the community grew. With over 11,000 residents, it was in many ways only a matter of time before something like this happened....
Facebook burglary is real. So real that insurance companies in Australia and the United Kingdom are warning people about the consequences of posting their locations online. That warning also applies here in the U.S., where a string of burglaries was tied to social media just last year. Two of those break-ins were prompted by Facebook posts from homeowners who had gone on vacation. Even your Facebook friends can’t be trusted....
A recently filed lawsuit in the Northern District of California Federal Court alleges that Coca-Cola engaged in unfair and deceptive marketing practices in an effort to mislead consumers. While there is no claim of tampering with the results of the Coke Versus Pepsi challenge results, the lawsuit does claim that the beverage-maker intentionally downplayed the harmful health effects of sugar in their advertising. Additionally, the suit alleges that Coca-Cola has deliberated focused marketing on children despite having pledged not to do so....
Police officers aren’t just playing with the Xbox. No, cops also use Xbox consoles to catch criminals. Today’s gaming consoles are quite sophisticated. They include multi-gigabyte hard drives; connect to the Internet; and record audio and video. They’re a repository of information. And if you’re not careful, your Xbox or PlayStation might just rat you out. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Law enforcement has been pulling data from computers and cell phones for years....
The Duggar family from “19 Kids and Counting” had their family’s dirty laundry aired concerning one brother molesting four sisters, much to the family’s disappointment and dismay. In the months following the release of the news, their show was canceled, and their brother, Josh, entered rehab. Molestation Information Shared by Police Officers Back in 2015, four of the Duggar sisters, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, and Joy, spoke with investigators about their brother, Josh, molesting them years ago....
Watch out for “Bill Shock” Whether or not you have heard of it by name, if you have a cell phone, you have probably had to deal with frustrating business practices such as early termination fees (ETFs). The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, gave a speech on Wednesday and promised that the FCC would work to put and end to bill shock, though he was short on details....
It’s the American way to expect privacy. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees that no warrant shall issue without a detailed description of the person, place, or thing to be searched and probable cause. We expect law enforcement to follow rules that balance our right to privacy with the police’s need for information to track down criminals. But the balance shifts constantly as new technologies are created. Now privacy is threatened electronically, and while the FBI fights Apple over phone encryption, lawmakers are debating warrantless geo-tracking....
Alberto Gonzalez, a hacker previously charged in at least 3 other federal cases, was indicted by a federal grand jury in New Jersey yesterday on charges alleging that he and two co-conspirators located in Russia, hacked and stole the credit and debit card information of 130 million people. The indictment alleges that people affected had their transactions processed by Heartland Payment Systems, Inc., one of the largest credit and debit card processing companies in the world, and 7-Eleven,, and Hannaford Brothers supermarkets....
You were a fan of the video game grand theft auto, and now you wonder what would happen if you played in real life. How much jail or prison time would you serve for stealing a car if caught and convicted? The answer will depend on numerous considerations, such as where the crime takes place, the value of the car, how the theft occurs, whether you have a prior criminal record, and other factors....
Despite disagreement by the CPSC, the Louisiana Senator David Vitter is reportedly calling for a further investigation into the deaths of eight people he says may be linked to the Chinese drywall in their homes. A spokesman for the CPSC said the deaths were promptly investigated by the commission, which found no link to the drywall. According to the AP report, since last November, the CPSC has been investigating problems consumers have reported in new homes made with drywall imported from China....
A John Travolta lawsuit alleging sexual assault by the actor has been dropped, shortly after a judge cleared the way for it to proceed in federal court. The now-defunct lawsuit was brought by a cruise ship steward named Fabian Zanzi. The Chilean man claimed that Travolta exposed himself and forcibly embraced Zanzi while naked in a stateroom on a cruise ship last summer. The most recent legal issue revolved around a mandatory arbitration clause found on the cruiseline’s tickets....
A Virginia man has been sentenced to 43 years in prison for killing the mother of his two children over the prospect of paying child support. Brandon W. Thomas, 28, stood before Judge Harold W. Burgess on Wednesday for sentencing on first-degree murder and felony firearm convictions. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Thomas represented to the court that the investigation and prosecution’s case were “biased, unprofessional, and negligent” and asked that the judge grant him a new trial....
New Edition singer Johnny Gill’s Twitter lawsuit has settled out of court. The singer had previously been accused of defamation by Ira DeWitt, CEO of Notifi Records. The defamation suit started when Gill took to his Twitter account to publicly bash DeWitt. He called her “deranged,” “f**king nuts,” and accused her of running a “fake company.” Where did all of this Twitter bashing come from? Gill says that DeWitt hired some other singer to polish off his song....
Would you die to save your car from a repo agent? That is what happened this week when a woman in Pleasant Grove, Utah crashed her vehicle during a high speed chase – she was trying to get away from a man who came to her door to repossess the vehicle. Now Ashleigh Best, 35, is dead, and Kenneth Drew, 49, is in jail on manslaughter charges. He denies driving Best to her death, reports the Daily Mail....
Sean Kingston lost a lawsuit brought by his former Miami landlord. A court ordered the rapper/reggae star to pay almost $78,000 for trashing the rental home. The landlord claimed that Kingston trashed the Miami Beach rental. The rapper allegedly broke showers, dock railings, put holes in the walls, and even messed up landscaping, reports Gossip Extra. Kingston also allegedly walked away from $50,000 worth of unpaid rent. What did Kingston have to say for himself?...
Servers and bartenders won an important battle in their war on earning a living wage. An 11-member en banc panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that tip credits cannot be used when a server or bartender is performing non-tip credit tasks, so long as at least 20 percent of the employees tasks are non-tip credit related. This sounds confusing – not surprisingly since it’s jargon created by government agencies and lawyers....
Love is blind. It does not discriminate. The same now applies to Christian Mingle and other targeted dating sites owned by Spark Networks, according to an approved settlement in a California court case seeking accommodation for LGBT singles. The lawsuit was brought by two gay men on behalf of a class of plaintiffs and alleged successfully that the Spark Networks dating websites violate state law by not allowing certain preferences to be expressed in a profile or in site searches....
