After a firestorm of public outrage, the alleged Maryville rape case in Missouri has captured the attention of a leading state politician. Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder wants a grand jury to investigate the case of Daisy Coleman, who claims she was raped at age 14 by a popular 17-year-old football player while others filmed them with an iPhone. Her alleged attacker was never tried. But will Kinder’s call to action make a difference?...
For an ill-formed sentence of just 27 words, the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has caused an inordinate amount of controversy. But perhaps it’s because the clause is so poorly written that it allows for so much difficulty interpreting and applying it to modern times and technology. Today, the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the jumbled construction of the Second Amendment “encompasses a right to carry a firearm openly in public for self-defense....
Whether you’re a rancher or a suburban mom, seeing a coyote can be a bit frightening. Shepherds have always tried to keep them away from their flocks, and as neighborhoods expand, seeing a coyote lope down a street or through a city park becomes more common. So are you free to shoot a coyote if it’s near or on your property? And do you have to prove that you, or your children, or your sheep were in danger?...
A peanut butter recall has been announced for two kinds of Skippy reduced fat peanut butter. The Skippy recall was announced after routine tests suggested the products may be contaminated with the salmonella bacteria. The Skippy recall, for jars delivered to 16 states, involves 16.3-ounce plastic jars of Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut Butter Spread and Skippy Reduced Fat Super Chunk Peanut Butter Spread. Salmonella is a frequent cause of food poisoning and can cause severe infections....
Massachusetts must provide a sex-change operation for prisoner Michelle Kosilek, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, according to The Boston Globe. Kosilek is currently living as a woman at an all-male prison in Massachusetts, the Associated Press reports. She was arrested as Robert Kosilek but has lived for more than a decade as “Michelle.” U.S. District Judge Mark Wolf ruled she is entitled to treatment for gender-identity disorder, and ordered the state to provide a sex-change operation as treatment....
Marion Hugh “Suge” Knight pleaded “no contest” to voluntary manslaughter in the death of Terry Carter in Compton, California. In January 2015, Knight, the former producer and founder of rap label Death Row Records, allegedly hit Carter and Cle “Bone” Sloan with his truck, killing Carter and severely injuring Sloan. According to the deal, Knight will spend 28 years in prison. Though the original charge only carried a sentence of 11 years, that sentence was doubled under the Three Strikes provision, since Knight has a few prior convictions....
Jay Z, known legally as Shawn Carter, has sold drugs, spit rhymes, steered Def Jam Records, and started restaurants, clothing lines, sports agencies, and streaming music services. Now he’s going after the big bucks. The rapper/entrepreneur is launching his own venture capital firm, aimed at funding seed-stage companies. It’s not Jay Z’s first foray into investing, but it might be his biggest. According to Dan Primack at Axios, Jay Z will be partnering with longtime business partner and president of Roc Nation (the “Jays”), with whom he invested in Uber’s Series B, at a $300m pre-money....
“**** Michael Powell, let him sue us.” That little pronouncement by a Home Depot executive upset a federal judge and did not please a jury either. This week, that federal jury awarded the same Mr. Powell nearly $25 million dollars in punitive damages, actual damages, attorney’s fees and costs after the Home Depot corporation was found to have refused to pay Powell for the “Safe Hands” saw protection device he invented....
An affidavit has surfaced in which lawyers at the world’s largest law firm trade casual e-mails about running up legal bills for a client. One attorney jokes “that bill shall know no limits.” Another described a colleague’s approach to the assignment as “churn that bill, baby!” It’s not every day you read documentary evidence of possible churning – the creation of unnecessary work to drive up a client’s bill. But that appears to be what The New York Times found in a Manhattan Supreme Court filing last week involving the law firm DLA Piper....
It feels like a long way from ‘That’s So Raven’ stardom to arrested by a bounty hunter named Lucky while hiding in your underwear in a Las Vegas closet, but it apparently only takes 11 years and a few arrests. Orlando Brown, ex-costar of the hit Disney series and a slew of other television shows and movies as a child actor, was nabbed for skipping a court appearance on domestic battery charges....
Ugly does not even begin to describe the homicide scene “Ugly Betty” actor Micheal Brea left behind after allegedly decapitating his mother with a sword. Police say the 31-year-old actor was said to be screaming bible verses and demanding that his mother “repent” before ultimately inflicting deadly lacerations on Yanick Brea, 55. Police were called to the Brooklyn apartment where the slaying took place and ultimately arrested Brea (bible in hand) in a nearby room....
The class action case against the AARP for unfair business practices related to selling its members Medigap insurance has been revived by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Plaintiff Jerald Friedman sued the AARP and United Health on behalf of all consumers for basically misleading the public into believing the AARP was providing the insurance, and specifically in California where the AARP is not licensed to do so. The case had previously been dismissed by a federal court for not having specific enough allegations that showed an entitlement to court ordered relief....
Aretha Franklin died earlier this week, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Sadly, her death did not come as a surprise, since this is one of the few incurable cancers, and she had been sick for a while. What is a surprise, however, is that she died without a will. Usually the two types of people that do have wills are those that are wealthy, and those that are terminally ill....
Vincent Gallo is suing a Japanese reporter for invasion of privacy for recording and publishing conversations that were off the record, the actor says. Gallo, best known for his cult hit movie Buffalo 66, which he also wrote, produced, and directed, says that Hikari Takano should pay compensatory and punitive damages. The artist claims that Takano took material that was off the record, and which Gallo did not know was being recorded, and used it against his express wishes, reports Courthouse News Service....
Two Bone Thugs-n-Harmony fans paid around $80 to meet the band, including Bizzy Bone, on a tour bus stop in Chicago. For some reason, Bizzy beat the fans - as in, he assaulted them, according to news reports. It’s unclear why Bizzy felt like he needed to lay the beat down on the two fans, according to celebrity gossip source TMZ. The two men told authorities that when they entered the tour bus, Bizzy, for whatever reason, started to get mad, TMZ reports....
With fingerprint-reading technology now being implemented in more and more smartphones, rulings like the one last week really get under people’s skin. Last Tuesday, a Virginia judge ruled that police officers can force a suspect to unlock a smartphone using that phone’s fingerprint scanner, reports The Wall Street Journal. This ruling has many privacy advocates worried that fingerprint and biometric tech on cell phones will become a loophole for police abuse....
Facebook isn’t real, people. Which is why the Facebook defriending murders out of Mountain City, Tenn. are so disturbing. Police believe Marvin Potter and Jamie Curd are responsible for the shooting deaths of Billy Payne, Jr. and his girlfriend Billie Jean Hayworth. The couple was found dead in their home, having been killed in front of their infant daughter. The killings are allegedly tied to the couple’s decision to defriend Potter’s 30-year-old daughter on Facebook....
Drug abuse and addiction aren’t limited to illicit drugs like crack and heroin – more and more people every year become addicted to prescription drugs. And like illegal drug abuse, abusing prescription medications can lead to serious criminal penalties. Fines and potential jail time can vary, depending on the drug possession laws in your state. Here’s an overview of the criminal penalties associated with prescription drug abuse. State Statutes Different states treat drug possession differently....
Sheldon Silver, former New York Assembly Speaker, knows the legal system very well. But this week he became intimately familiar with an aspect of the law that was previously only an abstraction to him – federal criminal sentencing statutes. Silver, who was just one of many local politicians caught up in an anti-corruption sweep by the local US Attorney General for the Southern District of New York, was hit hard. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison for corruption and, reports The New York Times, the judge seemed particularly perturbed by Silver’s determination to do wrong....
In its press release, the auto maker says it initially announced the recall of certain 2001 and 2002 model-year vehicles to replace the driver’s airbag inflator. The expanded recall now includes an additional 378,758 vehicles in the U.S including: some 2001 and 2002 Accord, Civic, Odyssey, and CR-V models and the 2002 Acura TL models. One Honda Pilot and one Acura CL vehicle, produced in late 2002, are also included....
