“There are hundreds of millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period.” -Ted Nugent It looks as though Mr. Nugent was a bit off on this quote, and not just when he remarked that the United States has “hundreds of millions of gun owners....
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals tossed out a portion of a Texas criminal statute that prohibited taking unauthorized pictures in public for the purposes of sexual gratification after finding that the law violated First Amendment free speech rights. The state’s highest criminal court upheld a lower court decision on Wednesday overturning the law 8-1, reports the Houston Chronicle. Under the law, taking surreptitious photos of a person in a public place, such as upskirt photos of women, was considered a state jail felony....
Celebrities – if certain magazines are to be believed – are just like us. They sure do get into legal trouble just like us: they have public child custody disputes like us, sue their former attorneys like us, and pay tens of millions of dollars to settle a multitude of sexual harassment claims just like us. Celebrities, and their legal woes, have been big stories in 2018, and here are the five biggest from the past year....
Everyone who’s attended or worked for UC Berkeley is accustomed to the regular protests conducted on campus. Every day brings a new cause, a new chant, and new protest signs. But only groups like the Occupy Wall Street movement take their crusades to the next level and try to set up camp. After one Occupy group pitched their tents on Berkeley’s campus in 2011, university police used tactics the protestors claimed amounted to excessive force....
Urban green spaces can actually lower the rates for certain types of crime, a study found. While popular belief is that urban vegetation may encourage crime by providing places of cover and potential escape routes for criminals, the Temple University study found the opposite to be true. Well-maintained green spaces were found to lower rates of serious crime such as aggravated assault, robbery, and burglary, reports Red Orbit. The study examined crime and vegetation data with satellite imagery, and found that the presence of grass, trees and shrubs was closely related to lower crime rates in parts of Philadelphia....
A federal judge has tentatively approved the largest class action settlement in U.S. history, allowing Volkswagen’s agreement to pay $15 billion to consumers to move forward. The car manufacturer settlement claims that it doctored emissions data on hundreds of thousands of cars, leading consumers to think they were more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly. With judicial approval, Volkswagen can now start gathering information on some 475,000 consumers eligible for compensation, which could begin as early as October....
The EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas rules are legal, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. Notably, the decision also quoted a few lines from the famous “I’m Just a Bill” Schoolhouse Rock cartoon from the 1970s. The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for the EPA to create new rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles, power plants, and factories, Reuters reports....
While the average internet user is getting older, internet scammers are getting bolder. The old Nigerian royalty phishing scam has gotten much more sophisticated, as have the other tactics of internet scammers. In addition to the new tactics, new technology is enabling scammers to prey upon the elderly more so than ever before. Below are just a few of the scams that older internet users need to be aware of in order to make sure they are not tricked into handing over their nest eggs, retirement funds, or identity....
In May 2017, the Supreme Court struck down congressional boundaries in North Carolina, finding they were drawn to pack more black voters into specific congressional districts. Eight months later, the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the state to again redraw its congressional map, ruling the effort to set the current boundaries was “motivated by invidious partisan intent.” The Supreme Court asked the Fourth Circuit to revisit that decision (based on new precedent regarding whether a voter has standing to bring a gerrymandering claim), but the court came to the same conclusion: Voters in North Carolina provided sufficient “evidence establishing that each of their districts is ‘packed or cracked’ and, as a result, that their votes ‘carry less weight than [they] would carry in another, hypothetical district....
Marijuana DUI laws differ by state, and Colorado is no exception. But now that recreational marijuana use is legal there (for most adults, anyway), how are officers supposed to approach drivers suspected of driving while high? A new law that sets a legal limit for driving under the influence of marijuana is now in effect in Colorado. Much like how there is a legal limit for blood alcohol levels, there is now one for THC – the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana – of 5 nanograms per milliliter of blood....
Getting a DUI is an embarrassing experience, but maybe not as embarrassing as having to relive your drunken driving arrest on a job application. Sharpen your pencils for these tips on whether you have to disclose DUI arrests or convictions on job applications: Whether it’s DUI, DWI, OVI, or a handful of other abbreviations, you should be painfully aware of whether you’ve had a drunken driving arrest. Erasing that night from your shame bank is one issue, but whether you have to tell a future employer is quite another....
Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Eminem – welcome to the Michigan Supreme Court. At issue is Michigan Penal Code Section 750.539c reads: “Any person who is present or who is not present during a private conversation and who willfully uses any device to eavesdrop upon the conversation without the consent of all parties thereto…is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment in a state prison for not more than 2 years or by a fine of not more than $2,000....
Arizona gays and lesbians can get married now pursuant to a letter by Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne. The letter, issued early Friday, instructs the Grand Canyon State’s 15 county clerks to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples immediately, following a recent decision by a federal district court that demanded Arizona stop enforcing its gay marriage ban. The Arizona Republic reports that Horne issued a statement Friday declaring that an appeal on the issue would be “an exercise in futility” and a waste of taxpayer money....
No one can give Keith Allen Harward back the decades he spent in prison but DNA evidence has helped him to win his freedom. Harward is 60 years old, a former sailor in the US Navy who was convicted of killing a man and raping his wife in 1982, according to NBC News. He spent over 30 years incarcerated in Virginia prisons before the state Supreme Court unanimously found that he was innocent....
A Maryland man has been charged with sexual assault following allegations that he preyed on college-aged men through his beer pong league. Joey Poindexter, 38, of Gaithersburg, has been accused by at least three men of targeting them at beer pong tournaments, drinking with them, and having non-consensual sex with them in an intoxicated state, Washington, D.C.’s WRC-TV reports. Poindexter faces serious charges, and police suspect even more victims have yet to be discovered....
Notre Dame is under fire amid at least two accusations of improper handling of sexual assault cases after a student accused a Notre Dame football player of rape before committing suicide. Elizabeth Seeberg, killed herself just nine days after making a police report of a sexual assault. According to Education Department, the inquiry concerns how the historic university designed its policies to respond to complaints of sexual harassment, the Chicago Tribune reports....
Reputation is important to almost everyone, but it’s especially important to celebrities. Often, a celebrity’s reputation is remembered as much as his or her work. That’s why when a celebrity feels that his or her reputation has been damaged by the conduct of another person or company, it’s likely that the celebrity will file defamation or false light claim. Protecting Her Image Last year, a California superior court judge granted de Havilland a speedy trial on her invasion of privacy claims against FX Networks and the creator of the series, Ryan Murphy....
Almost a year after voting to legalize recreational marijuana, today is the first day that pot sales are legal in Oregon. (As if Portland needed to become more popular.) But Oregon is still transitioning into a full-fledged marijuana industry, so here are a few things you should know about recreational marijuana sales in the state: It’s Not the Wild Weed West Although possession and cultivation of recreational pot was legalized in July of this year, Oregon’s marijuana laws still limit the amount that a person may possess....
One in every 100 adults in the U.S. is serving time in prison or jail, according to a report from the Pew Center on the States. Some key findings from the Pew Public Safety Performance Project report, titled “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008”: One in 100 U.S. adults are in prison or jail; One in 30 men aged 20-34 are incarcerated; One in 53 people in their 20’s is incarcerated; Men are 10 times as likely to be incarcerated, compared to women....
Oh San Francisco, such a trendsetter, and this one is no different. A push from animal activists, city supervisors will be considering a pet sale ban this month that will effectively make it illegal to sell any living animal within city limits. Including goldfish. But, the measure, named the Humane Pet Acquisition Proposal, has a few exceptions. For those who like to kill their food and eat it too, the law still permits the sale of live animals for the purpose of consumption....
