Are you starring in an Ashton Kutcher stoner flick? No? Then chances are you didn’t misplace your car. It was probably stolen. Don’t panic. When your car is stolen, you need to keep a level head and figure out what to do. It’s important to act fast. Still panicking? Follow the list below, and you should be fine. That said, we can’t guarantee that you’ll get your car back. Call the police....
It used to be that someone who committed a felony was barred from voting in state or federal elections for life, pretty much wherever they were. Now that is not so, and felons have a range of voting rights, which vary from state to state. Four states still bar felons from ever voting in governmental elections. Meanwhile, in two tiny New England states felons may vote even while incarcerated. In other words, the variation in law on felony voting rights is wide....
As part of the Obama Administration’s goal of getting the housing market back on solid ground, the federal government has launched a new website, makinghomeaffordable.gov. To help stem the foreclosure tide and keep people in their homes, the new portal gives financially-strapped homeowners the latest information on reducing mortgage payments through refinancing and mortgage modification. “Putting resources and tools directly in the hands of homeowners will expedite the process of delivering relief to responsible homeowners, and stabilizing the housing market is central to our overall economic recovery,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a statement announcing the new website, as reported by Reuters....
Earlier this month, former Fox News figure Gretchen Carlson sued the company and its CEO, Roger Ailes, for sexual harassment and wrongful termination. Now, reportedly, media mogul Rupert Murdoch is planning to oust Ailes from Fox after the Carlson lawsuit prompted similar harassment complaints from other women. According to The Daily Beast, the harassment claims were the impetus for an investigation into Ailes’ management style generally, which has apparently been found wanting....
Bill Cosby’s wife, Camille, will have to testify in the civil lawsuit against him. Camille, who is also the actor and comedian’s business manager, had asked the court to throw out the subpoena requiring her to give a deposition in the defamation suit filed by seven women against her husband. What happened to one spouse not being forced to testify against another? Does the spousal privilege apply to civil lawsuits?...
Each month FindLaw highlights a legal topic. Despite the high cost of gasoline and rising airline ticket prices, many families are taking to the roads and the skies for summer vacations, so this month’s spotlight is on summer travel. FindLaw’s July 2008 Spotlight: Summer Travel Tips offers information on new passport and border entry requirements, tips on carry-on luggage for air travelers, things to keep in mind when booking a room, information on resolving legal disputes related to travel, and more....
Alleged serial killer Anthony Sowell’s trial has taken an exploratory turn, as members of the Sowell jury tours the house where bodies of 11 women were found. Sowell, 51, has been charged with multiple murder counts. He was arrested in 2009 after decomposing bodies were found in his residence in the Mount Pleasant community in Cleveland, reports The Cleveland Plain Dealer. The jury tour went through the basement and the three floors of the house....
Rhode Island’s top court has overturned a 2006 jury verdict against three lead paint manufacturers, which had held the companies liable for lead paint-related health problems and could have forced them to pay billions of dollars to clean up lead paint contamination throughout the state. Today’s Rhode Island Supreme Court decision overruled a jury’s finding that the manufacturers – including Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries Inc., and Millenium Holdings – were liable for failing to disclose the health risks posed by lead paint....
Picking the right lender, taking out loans, and trying to make your monthly payments is stressful enough. You shouldn’t have to deal with unanticipated or dubious charges on top of all that, especially when the lending institution specifically states that you won’t be charged those fees. In a rather satisfying turn of events, the FTC is targeting one such institution for doing just that, alleging the LendingClub misled customers with its “No Hidden Fees” claims....
Kristen LaBrie was found guilty on Tuesday by a Massachusetts court of attempted murder, permitting serious bodily injury to a disabled person, permitting substantial injury to a child and reckless endangerment of a child. The crime? She withheld chemotherapy drugs from her 9-year-old autistic son who later died of cancer. Kristen LaBrie’s autistic son was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2006, and by February 2008, was still undergoing chemotherapy treatments....
Those street signs announcing red-light cameras are becoming more and more rare, and that trend doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. More cities are getting rid of the cameras that were once hailed as a high-tech way to catch red-light runners and to help identify vehicles and drivers after an accident. It seems that for many local lawmakers, the costs have outweighed the benefits. The craze for red-light cameras was big a few years ago, but it seems like that fad has faded....
The recent Netflix price increase has stirred the pot - but in a negative way. Many customers are irritated and some are angry that their Netflix subscriptions, now facing a 60% increase, may soon be much more expensive. But, maybe these prices are necessary considering the increasing cost of licensing fees and contracts from big studios: Netflix’s NBC Universal contract was just renewed. Netflix is doing away with its package DVD and unlimited streaming deal that had originally cost $9....
A newlywed couple was arrested for allegedly luring a man for “companionship” on Craigslist before stabbing and strangling him to death. Miranda Barbour, 18, and her new spouse, Elytte Barbour, 22, are accused of arranging a meeting with their victim online, killing him in their car, dumping his body, and then heading to a strip club, reports CNN. What is the state doing to prosecute the alleged thrill killers? Troy LaFerrara, 42, was the unwitting key to the Barbours living out their alleged killing fantasy, with Elytte telling police that “he and his wife had tried to kill others” but the plans “didn’t work out,” reports CNN....
If you’ve seen the Ben Affleck heist movie “The Town,” then this news story might seem a bit like déjà vu. Wearing nun masks, robbers hit a Chicago bank last week. It’s a scene that seems to be taken straight out of the film. There’s an incredibly eerie similarity between the posters for “The Town” and the surveillance footage of the masked, habit-wearing nun robbers. The duo of robbers entered the bank (TCF Bank), jumped the counter, and ordered the teller and manager to fill a duffel bag with the cash from the vault, reports the New York Daily News....
President Barack Obama broke down in tears while introducing an executive order on gun control and condemning the gun violence and Congressional inaction that necessitated it. “Each time this comes up,” the president said, “we are fed the excuse that common-sense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, or the one before that, so why bother trying. I reject that thinking.”...
‘Tis the season to earn yourself a protest arrest. Well, at least if you happen to be Daryl Hannah, Mayor Vincent Gray of the District of Columbia, or an ad-hoc member of hacktivist group Anonymous living in the San Francisco Bay Area. But such incidents are actually nothing new–even if there is a constitutionally guaranteed right to assembly. What gives? Protest arrests exist because your constitutional right to free speech is not absolute....
Every week there seems to be another celebrity announcing a new canna-biz. The latest is pop goddess Rihanna, whose love of weed has apparently been long-documented on her Instagram account, reports Pop Crush. She allegedly announced the forthcoming “Marihanna” brand marijuana at the High Times Cannabis Cup in Negril, Jamaica. But neither Rihanna, nor her people, have confirmed the reports since then. This Is Personal Marijuana cultivation and sales make for a promising investment, particularly for people who have promoted the product before it was legal … and before they had a commercial interest....
Let Me Love You is just one of the many chart-topping songs singer Mario has produced. It seems that he has a funny way of showing his love. Mario was recently arrested for assaulting his mother, Shawntia Hardaway. According to the New York Daily News, 24 year-old Mario (real name: Mario Dewar Bennett) was arrested on Friday morning for second degree assault and later released on $50,000 bond. The NY Daily News adds that police found several broken items in the apartment Mario shares with his mother, including a broken mirror, china cabinent, and hole in a hallway closet....
You’ve seen the commercials. A big brute of a pickup truck tows a cluster of boulders through a wall of fire, as a deep-voiced announcer touts the truck’s strength. Even the minute disclaimer at the bottom of the screen warns you that you’re not tough enough to try this. But results of a new crash test study show that a number of large pickup trucks aren’t even as safe as most cars when it comes to providing protection in side-impact crashes....
Sure he can win the physically and mentally grueling challenge that is Survivor but he can’t seem to navigate his way around the law. Richard Hatch, winner of season 1 of Survivor spent three and a half years behind bars for his very famous tax evasion case following his $1 million Survivor payday. Apparently that was not enough time to read over the terms of his probation. The 49-year-old Hatch’s probation was fairly straightforward: hold down a job, stay in Rhode Island, complete a mental health program, adhere to a privacy agreement, and re-file the 2000-2001 tax returns that he so conveniently forgot the first time around, according to E!...
