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According to a new FBI crime report, the nation experienced a slight increase in violent crimes in 2012, along with a decrease in property crimes. Which states had the highest (and lowest) rates of violent crime? The FBI’s annual Crime in the United States report compiles criminal data under the Uniform Crime Reporting program from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Perhaps surprisingly, the 10 states with the highest rates of violent crime in 2012 didn’t include the most populous states of California, New York or Texas....

You’ve heard of identity theft, but let’s take it up a notch and talk about tax identity theft. Tax identity theft is when scam artists use stolen Social Security and Tax Identification numbers to file false refund claims. It’s pretty scary, if you think about it. Nobody wants to land in hot water with Uncle Sam. But if you’re not careful, you might find yourself in an inconvenient back-and-forth game with the IRS, based on a mistake so tiny that it could easily have been prevented....

Today, tattoo artists are weeping tears of joy into their ink. On September 9, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down their decision in Anderson v. Hermosa Beach, which finds tattoos and tattooing are “forms of pure expression fully protected by the First Amendment.” Well, it is almost cause for tears, as the city has told the Los Angeles Times that it plans to appeal to the full 9th Circuit Court....

Some corporate bankruptcy attorneys get paid over $1,100 per hour to help their clients negotiate the bankruptcy restructuring process. Creditors, however, often get much less than what they are owed after all is said and done. While one might balk at lawyers getting $18.50 per minute while creditors get 35 cents on every dollar they are owed, bankruptcy can be a useful tool for businesses and individuals looking to right their financial ship....

Subscription service revenue models have been on the rise. After all, what’s more reliable to a company’s bottom line than a monthly subscription revenue stream? But this practice has taken a drastic turn lately, as online consumers unknowingly default into monthly subscription services, and many fail to see the small check box to opt-out. What seems like a one-time purchase can surreptitiously become a non-refundable recurring monthly fee. And many consumers have only been able to recover their losses by filing a lawsuit....

A federal appeals court rejected a host of legal challenges to the sale of nearly all of Chrysler’s assets to let the carmaker emerge from bankruptcy. In a 53-page opinion, judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously ruled that all of the objections raised by investors and tort lawyers to prevent Chrysler’s sale were all “without merit.” You can read the complete decision here: Related Resources Chrysler’s Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Petition Fiat closes Chrysler deal; new management team named, Reuters (Jun....

Keywords, Adwords, trademarks, counterfeits, it’s enough to make a legalista fall off her Choos. The latest case in the bag-full of legal issues between Silicon Valley’s eBay and LVMH owned French fashion house Louis Vuitton, was decided at least for now, in a French court on February 11. MSNBC writes that LV sued eBay for its purchase and use of such search terms as “Viton,” “Vitton” and “Wuiton” so that online shoppers typing these misspellings into a search engine, along with anyone using the brand’s correct spelling, would be directed to links promoting eBay, said a Louis Vuitton spokeswoman....

Apparently Ford felt that they couldn’t let the end of 2010 pass without one more set of automobile recalls. As we have reported, it has been a very busy year of recalls in the auto industry. Toyota was the front runner with its massive recalls involving the Prius, RAV4, Corolla, Matrix, Camry, Highlander, Tundra and Sequoia vehicles.Not to be outdone, Ford is recalling 15,000 vehicles because of electrical systems malfunctions that can short and potentially start a fire, Carscoop reports....

A federal grand jury just indicted 89 year-old James Wenneker Von Brunn for the June 10, 2009 murder of Stephen Tyrone Johns, a guard at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. In addition to first-degree murder charges under D.C. law, the indictment charges Von Brunn with assault, violating federal civil rights laws, committing federal and District hate crimes, and weapons violations. Von Brunn was originally charged in a criminal complaint one day after he was apprehended, and while he was hospitalized....

Celebrities are usually known for being sensitive about revealing their age. In fact, AB 1687 was passed in California to restrict the disclosure of actors’ ages (if requested by an actor) on entertainment databases that required a subscription. However, a federal judge has ruled that the law violates the First Amendment. More Than Just Vanity While celebrities are known for generally being vain, there was more than just vanity at the heart of the age law....

Although toys have come a long long way over the past few decades, parents are right to be concerned about getting young kids toys that connect to the internet. If you were considering purchasing a 21st century stuffed animal for your 21st century kid, you might want to consider getting something other than a Cloudpet. Actually, considering the massive data breach suffered by Cloudpets, you might just want to avoid getting kids any sort of toys that connect to the internet, or at least avoid being an early adopter....

Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is suing the makers of a weight-loss spray that was featured – and dismissed as a “scam” – on ABC’s “Shark Tank.” The “I Know What You Did Last Summer” actress is claiming the company behind Slim Spray used her celebrity status to promote its product without her permission, writes The Hollywood Reporter. What is Hewitt doing this summer to stop the company from continuing to bank on her image?...

It seems that our definition of celebrity is wildly flexible these days. Possibly as flexible as our definition of privacy. The world’s most famous “plumber,” “Joe the Plumber” Joe Wurzelbacher is back, and this time it’s personal. Joe has filed suit against three Ohio state employees for allegedly improperly accessing his personal information from state databases. Helen Jones-Kelley and Fred Williams have since resigned, and Douglas Thompson had his employment “revoked,” after Inspector General Tom Charles found the state databases containing information about Wurzelbacher had been “improperly accessed....

The Supreme Court began hearing oral arguments for its October term on Monday, and if you want a rundown of the biggest cases on the docket this month, we’ve got it for you. But just as important as the cases that the Court will hear this term are those that it won’t. By declining to review certain cases on appeal, the Supreme Court is essentially saying the lower court got it right, or there is no issue for the highest court in the land to figure out....

In this corner: The Manny Pacquiao Foundation, which allegedly tried to ship used clothes as “relief goods” from the United States to the Philippines… And in the other corner: The shipping company, which claims it never got paid. Gossip website TMZ reports on a strange lawsuit against the Pacman’s California-based foundation, which aims to “foster, support and transform the health, education and overall well-being of disadvantaged communities in the Philippines.”...

Julianne McCrery has confessed to killing her 6-year-old son, then dumping his body along a rural road near South Berwick, Maine. The 6-year-old, referred to prior to identification as the Mystery Maine Boy, was Camden Pierce Hughes, reports ABC News. McCrery, of Irving, Texas, told Massachusetts State Police after they questioned her at a roadside stop near Chelmsford, Mass., that she had killed her son. She also said she wanted to kill herself....

A Florida woman who fired a warning shot at her abusive husband will not receive a pretrial “Stand Your Ground” hearing in her assault case, a judge has ruled. Marissa Alexander, 33, was hoping the judge would take into account Florida’s new law extending “Stand Your Ground” to warning shots in granting her a pretrial self-defense hearing. Reuters reports that Alexander, whose original conviction in 2012 was overturned on appeal, had her claim of self-defense rejected during her first trial as well....

Oklahoma and Nebraska are suing Colorado over its legalization of marijuana, and the U.S. Supreme Court gets to be the first court to hear it. The complaint filed Thursday claims that under Colorado’s new marijuana scheme, the state has created “a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system” and has allowed the drug to flow into neighboring states. According to The New York Times, law enforcement on the borders of Colorado have complained that marijuana arrests are stretching jail budgets too thin....

A man is in federal custody today on charges he groped a fellow plane passenger while she was sleeping. The 61 year-old defendant, Ranchhodbhai Lakha, was on a Delta flight from Texas to Georgia, when he allegedly assaulted the 20 year-old passenger beside him. CNN reports that the victim awoke to find Lakha touching her “below the waist.” According to the federal indictment, she told him to stop, but Lakha responded, “Is that OK?...

Nearly a quarter of Americans say they have noticed problems on their credit reports, according to a new FindLaw.com survey. Among the most common problems: inaccurate information, identity theft, incorrect credit scores and being denied credit because of mistakes on a credit report. The survey found that 23% of Americans have come across one or more of these problems. Impact of Credit Report Errors Mistakes and other credit-report inaccuracies can have huge personal, financial and professional implications....