On April 6, The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia handed down a decision expected to have a major effect on the on-going policy debates over net neutrality. Net neutrality is the practice of ensuring broadband providers use their networks to treat all traffic on the network equally. The FCC sought to enforce its rules regarding net neutrality against Comcast and was defeated by the decision of the court....
An FDA inspection of a Georgia food facility has revealed that the company at the center of a nationwide salmonella outbreak investigation likely knowingly shipped contaminated peanut products. The investigation – and the hundreds of peanut product recalls it has spawned – has prompted Congress to call for hearings on the outbreak that has sickened more than 500 people and caused at least eight deaths. The FDA inspection report released Wednesday details a number of questionable practices at the Peanut Corporation of America processing plant in Blakely, Georgia....
The U.S. Department of Education has released its first report on state standards used in (and progress towards) attaining student proficiency under the No Child Left Behind Law. Under the law, all students must be brought to a standard of “academic proficiency” by 2014, but specific proficiency standards and tests may be determined by individual states. According to the Washington Post , the study “found that most of the scores that would label a student proficient on state tests don’t yield that grade on the national tests....
The price of a United States Postal Service (USPS) first class postage stamp has increased from 41 to 42 cents, effective today. Other USPS mailing service costs have also increased as of today, including rates for postcards, certified mail, international letters, and package services. See a Complete List of USPS Prices for Domestic and International Services. The Associated Press reports that consumers may want to stock up on the USPS “Forever Stamp,” because although the price of that stamp is now also 42 cents, the USPS is expected to adjust its prices again next May....
Love that early 2000’s Honda? You might need to take it back to the dealership, as Honda has expanded an air bag recall. Honda has expanded a previous recall to check driver’s air bags to include another 833,000 vehicles. The added vehicles include 2001 and 2002 Accord and Civic, 2002 Odyssey, 2002 and 2003 CR-V, 2002 and 2003 Acura 3.2 TL and 2003 Acura 3.2 CL models. Honda announced that 2,430 faulty air bags were installed after crashes, but it doesn’t know which vehicles got them....
Well, it’s hardly on the scale of an assault from Voldemort, but it may be that J.K. Rowling is wishing she could fend off a this attack with a few swipes of a magic wand. According to a London Times Online report on February, 18, Rowling has been added to a suit, originally filed last year, accusing her of plagiarism. That is correct, according to the estate of the late author, Adrian Jacobs, Rowling may not be Harry’s “onlie begetter....
A federal jury in New York City convicted Pakistani-born Aafia Siddiqui of assault and trying to murder Americans who tried to interrogate her in Afghanistan after she was taken into custody in 2008 by Afghan National Police. Before she was apprehended, the 37-year-old Siddiqui was on the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted” list. According to Siddiqui’s federal indictment (below), she had in her possession handwritten notes referring to a “mass casualty attack,” notes about making “dirty bombs,” chemical and biological weapons, and listed different locations in the United States, including the Empire State Building, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, the Brooklyn Bridge, Wall Street, and the Statue of Liberty....
Four years after the action thriller Kill Bill films, Quentin Tarantino has been hit with a plagiarism lawsuit which alleges copyright infringement along with a host of other claims. According to E!, the lawsuit was filed by Dannez Hunter in Los Angeles Superior Court. He claims director ripped off his concept for the film and he submitted a treatment to Miramax back in 1999. Hunter claims the parallels between his and Kill Bill were too similar and he had to take legal action....
A husband and wife walked into a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California yesterday morning and opened fire. The two were killed after a police pursuit and shootout, but not before they killed 14 people and wounded up to 21 others. Details were hard to come by as the story unfolded yesterday, but law enforcement and news organizations have begun to piece together a narrative of the shooting....
Most people know that if your drive drunk you can get your license suspended. But many aren’t aware that suspensions aren’t limited to driver’s licenses. And a new law in New Jersey mandates that if a train engineer loses their driver’s license because of a DUI, they will also be suspended from operating trains. But two Jersey unions are pushing back on the law, claiming federal statutes governing rail workers already consider DUI offenses and the new law is overly punitive....
A national pediatricians’ organization urged parents to stop putting their children in shopping carts on family trips to the grocery store. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), comprised of more than 60,000 pediatricians, cited the growing number of shopping cart-related injuries (and potential defects in the design of the carts themselves) as evidence of the need for a safer alternative to the placement of kids in shopping carts. Read the News Release from the AAP The AAP’s Policy Statement on Shopping Cart-Related Injuries to Children [PDF file] AAP Parent Page: Shopping Cart Safety [PDF] FindLaw for the Public’s Accident & Injury Center You Don’t Have To Solve This on Your Own – Get a Lawyer’s Help Civil Rights Block on Trump’s Asylum Ban Upheld by Supreme Court...
National businesses and prominent cities filed two amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage. The groups urged the court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in U.S. v. Windsor and Proposition 8 in Hollingsworth v. Perry. The businesses include financial institutions, medical centers, airlines, energy and high technology businesses, law and professional firms, retailers, restaurants, non-profit organizations, and several others. Both briefs state an interest for the businesses in their desires to recruit, retain, and secure a talented workforce, and state that the laws in question impinge upon those interests....
The felony case against Randy Quaid has been dropped after the actor was jailed for a few hours for missing a series of court appearances. Randy Quaid and wife Evi showed up two weeks late to court to answer to their charges. The couple was jailed briefly and then released after posting $100,000 bail each, Reuters reports. As previously discussed, the couple were wanted fugitives for missing court appearances. The couple however, recently showed up to court after missing several court dates to answer the charges....
StarKist is offering aggrieved customers the option of $25 in cash or $50 in tuna in order to settle a class action lawsuit that accused the tuna company of shorting the amount of fish in its cans. The total payout will come to about $8 million, although StarKist has not admitted any fault. Federal consumer laws require 5 ounce cans of tuna to contain between 2.84-ounces and 3.23-ounces of actual fish, depending on the type....
A 30-year-old San Diego woman has died after she had an adverse reaction to receiving an IV infusion that included turmeric. She was seeking treatment at a naturopathic clinic, where the IV supplement was administered to her. The San Diego medical examiner has attributed the death in large part to the turmeric IV. The popular cooking spice has been gaining in popularity over recent years as a natural cure-all of sorts....
Though they still grapple with tools like computers, cameras and microphones, courts have recently faced a new technological problem: what to do about Twitter. While a $12 million jury verdict in Arkansas is threatened by one of the juror’s in-trial tweets, a federal court in Kansas recently made headlines for allowing a reporter to cover a trial with Twitter. These cases illustrate the good and the bad in any tool used for communicating what goes on in a trial, and why reporters twittering could be good, while juror twittering is bad....
Last night’s episode was the season finale! Here’s what you need to know from last night’s episode, entitled “Wanna Partner?” Legal References: Season 6, Episode 22 “Wanna Partner” When Can I Sue Police for False Arrest? If You Insult a Cop, Will You Get Arrested? Can You Sue for False Imprisonment? Prior Post in This Series: More Legal Analysis of CBS’ “The Good Wife”: Season 6, Episode 21 Episode Recap (Spoiler Alert): The Illinois Democratic Committee wants Peter to run for president....
Making headlines across the country tonight, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower federal district court’s order, issued last week, blocking President Trump’s controversial immigration executive order, commonly referred to as the “Muslim ban,” from taking effect nationwide. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a rare unanimous per curium decision, repeatedly explained that the federal government’s arguments were untenable. The lower court put a stop to the executive order, which allowed immigrants, and lawful permanent residents, who were being denied entry under the order, to enter the country....
It’s no joke to Reality TV star Kim Kardashian. She doesn’t find anything amusing about her alleged stalker who shows up to her appearances as the Joker from “Batman” covered in facepaint. The 26-year-old man is accused of stalking while trying to keep up with Kim Kardashian at her promotional events and online through Twitter. According to the Associated Press, the Keeping up with the Kardashians reality tv star got a temporary restraining order against a man she describes as “extremely delusional,” court records show....
Fans of black licorice should know the Red Vines brand of the sweet treat has been recalled due to concerns over lead in the candy. Testing of black licorice made in Union City, California showed that the popular treats had elevated levels of lead. This is especially dangerous for children who are likely to be a large portion of the consumers for black licorice. Red Vines discovered the high lead levels and issued a voluntary recall of products containing black licorice....
