It’s rare these days that a person makes it out of high school–let alone to age 21–without engaging in at least one instance of underage drinking. Despite its pervasiveness, underage drinking is a criminal offense and can result in prosecution under a minor in possession (MIP) law. An MIP is serious business that may require an MIP lawyer. Here’s why. Underage drinking isn’t the only way to get busted for an MIP....
Paula Deen may have dropped 2 pant sizes, but it appears she’s gained back the weight in other, less-flattering areas. The butter-loving chef and her brother are the proud new owners of an employment lawsuit, filed by a former general manager at Uncle Bubba’s Seafood and Oyster House in Savannah. Lisa Jackson is accusing Bubba Hiers and Paula Deen of sexual harassment. When promoted to the managerial post, Deen allegedly told her she was “going to do something I’ve never done....
Country star Randy Travis is suing over some naked, drunken driving arrest footage, reports the Austin American-Statesman. It was just earlier this year in January when Travis pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence. The incident itself occurred in August 2012, when Travis was found stark naked at the scene of a car accident he was involved in. His reported blood-alcohol level was also 0.21%, well over Texas’ legal limit of 0....
“This isn’t a good day fellas.” Those were the words of rapper Ja Rule as he left a Manhattan court house after being sentenced to two years in prison on gun charges. The 34-year-old rapper (real name: Jeffrey Atkins) was caught with a loaded gun in his car after leaving a Lil’ Wayne concert in 2007. The arrest, which came the same night as Lil Wayne’s gun possession charge in a separate incident, was the result of a routine traffic stop for speeding....
Representatives of the Subway Sandwich restaurant chain in Illinois are apologizing for a salmonella outbreak that sickened more than 97 people in 28 counties across that state from mid-may to the early part of June. Although the exact cause of the contamination has not been pinpointed, the chain quickly replaced all its lettuce, green peppers, red onion and tomatoes from restaurants in Illinois as soon as it became aware of the contamination....
A far-reaching proposal to overhaul the nation’s “broken immigration system,” has been unveiled by a bipartisan group of senator’s called the “Gang of Eight.” The detailed framework of principles was described as a way to resolve the plight of millions of undocumented immigrants living illegally in society’s shadows and to modernize and streamline the legal immigration system. Now President Barack Obama is expected to lay out his principles for immigration reform in a speech in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday....
A hearing on the temporary guardianship of Michael Jackson’s children is likely to happen sometime soon and T.J. Jackson may be applying to be their guardian. The 32-year-old cousin of Prince, Paris, and Prince Michael II (also known as Blanket) is having his attorney draft papers asking for temporary guardianship. The executors of Michael Jackson’s estate are also filing for temporary guardianship after the disappearance of Katherine Jackson. The matriarch’s home was invaded by Michael’s siblings and the kids were removed from the home for their safety....
Toyota recalled more than 300,000 RAV4 and Highlander vehicles Thursday to fix an air bag issue. The recall includes about 214,000 RAV4s from 2007 and 2008 and approximately 94,000 Highlander and Highlander HV vehicles from 2008, the Associated Press reports. All of the vehicles involved were sold in the U.S. This particular recall does not include any other Lexus or Toyota vehicles. Over the past 18 months Toyota has wrestled with numerous recalls covering a wide range of defects, including faulty floor mats, sticky gas pedals and glitches in braking software....
Verizon’s $2 fee is no more. The nation’s largest wireless announced a new few that was to appear on invoices each time a customer makes a one-time payment via phone or Internet. But the next day Verizon backed down. The company has reversed its decision to charge a $2 fee for one-time ill payments after a storm of criticism from consumers and the U.S. communications regulator, Reuters reports. The biggest U....
Appearing in Las Vegas court on Wednesday, MMA fighter War Machine pleaded not guilty to all 32 charges against him, including kidnapping and assault. War Machine, whose birth name is Jonathan Koppenhaver, was captured by law enforcement in Ventura County, California, in mid-August after several days on the lam. Koppenhaver is accused of attacking former girlfriend Christine Mackinday (aka “Christy Mack”) several times over the last 15 months, reports Las Vegas’ KVVU-TV....
A recent outbreak of salmonella linked to Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal led to a recall of 1.3 million boxes, but it is widely believed that there are even more contaminated boxes out in the public. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has made it very clear to consumers – “Do not eat Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal of any size package or with any ‘best if used by’ date.” They tweeted it even more bluntly – “Do not eat this cereal....
A DUI crash is nothing to laugh out loud about. Just ask a Kentucky judge who sent DUI suspect Paula Asher to jail for a Facebook post that seemed to make light of her legal ordeal. “My dumb (expletive) got a DUI and hit a car… LOL,” Asher’s Facebook post said, according to Louisville, Ky.’s WAVE-TV. That may have been funny to Asher and her friends, but it didn’t get her any “likes” in court....
As the Supreme Court said in one of the seminal free-speech-in-school cases, “It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” So if students still have First Amendment rights on school grounds, what about speech that takes place outside of school? And do “likes” on social media posts fall under freedom of speech protections? A student at a high school in the Bay Area started a racist Instagram account, and had other students interacting with the posts....
You get drunk and break into a bank while armed and suddenly judges just won’t cut you a break. So Rip Torn has learned after a judge denied probation Wednesday. Torn, 79, an Emmy-winning actor with roles in “Men in Black,” “Dodgeball,” “30 Rock,” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” had hoped to enter a two-year program that would lead to all charges being dropped after a successful completion. He had no prior criminal record....
Five months after hearing arguments challenging Arizona’s controversial S.B. 1070, the 9th Circuit has affirmed the lower court’s injunction prohibiting the enforcement of four of the law’s criminal provisions. Despite this decision, portions of the bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Jan Brewer in mid-April, still raise constitutional questions. The injunction prohibits enforcement of provisions that require officers to ask about immigration status and allow them to effect warrantless arrests of illegal aliens....
Sure, there are speed limits. But why would a car’s speedometer go all the way to 150 mph if you were only supposed to drive 55? Well, one Texas mother put her speedometer, and her luck, to the test early Sunday morning. Kierra Beaty was arrested and charged with street racing and child endangerment after her car clipped a pole, spun out of control, and crashed. In the car with Beaty were three passengers and her 13-month-old son, who was allegedly unrestrained in the back seat....
Floundering under the weight of an unusual type of “emergency,” Florida Governor Charlie Crist directed a letter be sent to FEMA requesting emergency funding for the substantial group of Floridians suffering damage to health and property due to the Chinese drywall their homes were built with. Unfortunately for the Governor, FEMA took all of two days to devise a reply: no. According to a report by the Herald-Tribune, FEMA regional manager, Major P....
California chicken producer Foster Farms has issued a recall for 170 different chicken products originating from the company’s Fresno facilities in March for possible salmonella contamination. The products affected by the recall include drumsticks, thighs, chicken tenders, and livers under various labels including Foster Farms, FoodMaxx, Kroger, Safeway, Savemart, Valbest and Sunland. According to The Associated Press, the products were distributed to California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Arizona, and Hawaii; they all have “use or freeze by” dates from March 21 to March 29 of this year....
Johnny Depp settled the lawsuit brought against him by Robin Eckert. Eckert claimed in her lawsuit that Depp’s bodyguard dragged her across the VIP section of an Iggy Pop concert, causing her pants to slip down and exposing her “buttocks” to the crowd, reports TMZ. Although the case settled, Eckert has faced some legal challenges up to this point. Eckert Can’t be a “Lone Ranger” Unlike the Lone Ranger, Robin Eckert couldn’t keep her identity a secret in her lawsuit against Johnny Depp....
The Kansas Supreme Court has overturned a law making it a criminal offense to refuse a blood alcohol test during a DUI investigation. The law had made it either a misdemeanor or a felony to refuse to submit to warrantless breath or blood tests. Many states have penalties for refusing sobriety tests, but the court in this case determined that criminal convictions based on refusals violate drivers’ Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures....
