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Saturday marks the official start of summer. And alongside the BBQs, pool parties, outdoor adventures, and other awesome summer activities comes something a little less pleasant: the risk of getting cited for DUI. A DUI arrest won’t just ruin your night (or day, depending on how early that pool party got started…). In many cases, it could also put a serious damper on your entire summer, and beyond. Here are five ways a DUI can turn your summer into a serious bummer:...

Jail seems like enough of a burden in and of itself. You lose your freedom, perhaps your job and future employment possibilities, contact with your loved ones, and jail isn’t always the safest place to be. As it turns out, incarceration can be expensive as well. It may not seem like it from the outside, since most people think prisoners basically get free room and board for their time inside, but going to prison can cost you a pretty penny....

A 3-month-old baby girl died in a hot car, and police arrested her teenage father in a tragic incident that shows the dangers of leaving a child unattended in a vehicle. Joshua Stryzanski, 18, is charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in death, The Indianapolis Star reports. Police in Greenfield, Ind., found Stryzanski’s daughter inside his car about 3:35 p.m. Saturday, when temperatures soared to over 100 degrees. Stryzanski’s baby was left in the car for “an extended period of time,” police said, and she was pronounced dead at a hospital....

Countrywide Financial, the largest home loan company in the U.S., announced a plan to help homeowners restructure as much as $16 billion in mortgages, in an effort to stem the tide of loan defaults and home foreclosures. The company states that “dedicated teams of Countrywide specialists will contact customers who are current in their payments and approaching a rate reset to ascertain the borrowers circumstances and advise them about refinance and home preservation options....

Liquor stores are hot spots, attracting crime to a neighborhood “the way honey attracts flies,” according to Susan Cheever. She is the prize-winning writer of a memoir on alcoholism recovery and the daughter of a great American storyteller whose work explored the pleasures and perils of booze extensively. Writing in The Fix, an addiction recovery publication, Susan Cheever examined studies from around the US and the world, concluding that there is a direct link between a liquor store in a neighborhood and the number of homicides that occur nearby, among other alarming things....

Drones are awesome. But along with the awesomeness comes great responsibility. Like many other awesome things, drones are incredibly dangerous, and improper use can actually result in not just injuries, but also severe legal consequences, including jail time. Recently, a Seattle man was sentenced to 30 days in jail as a result of injuring two individuals with his drone. While flying his drone in public, he lost control, crashed into a building, and the drone fell to the ground, striking two people....

As drones start flooding the skies and regulations over drone use proliferate, the Federal Aviation Administration is constantly updating its guidance for both hobby and commercial drones. And while the latest rule might seem so obvious as to not need a federal administrative order, the FAA and Department of Defense are warning drone pilots to avoid flying over U.S. military bases, lest they face fines or jail time. Here are more details on the order....

iPads and tablets in general have become a lightweight substitute for a laptop in many situations. That also means an increased need for digital privacy since they are increasingly full of personal information. Internet browser history, online shopping and banking, and personal chat messages can all be stored on an iPad and in the wrong hands that information can give away a lot. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be a tradeoff between your iPad and your privacy....

With London plagued by riots and widespread looting, it might be a good time to discuss whether, in the United States, there are any situations during which it would be legal to loot. There is, and it’s called necessity. But just like arguing self-defense or defense of others in a murder case, a looter can only claim necessity when acting for a higher good. There is never a wholesale right to loot....

If you have an electric heather, you might want to pay attention. Lasko is recalling around 107,500 portable electric heaters due to a risk of overheating, melting and exposing electrical wires and other components which can cause a fire. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Product Safety Commission, Lasko has issued a voluntary recall. Anyone who owns a heater subject to the recall should permanently stop using it. Do not give it to someone else or attempt to resell it....

Mike Brown, an unarmed teenager, was shot and killed by police near St. Louis on Saturday, spurring a number of protests. Demonstrators expressed their outrage over the death of Brown, 18, who was shot after an altercation with a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri; witnesses say Brown had his hands in the air and was unarmed. CNN reports the protests turned violent late Sunday, with police responding in riot gear....

A Kentucky mom allegedly punched her 10-year-old son in the face during an anger-management counseling session, and her children have been placed in foster care. Misty Lawson, 30, of Louisville, admitted to the website The Smoking Gun she “smacked” her son twice because he called her the “b” word. “They make it sound like I beat my child like an adult,” Lawson complained. The boy suffered a bruise on his face and “redness to the eye,” a police report states....

An ex-teacher’s one-month rape sentence was illegal, Montana’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. Stacey Dean Rambold is now set be resentenced by a different judge, CNN reports. Rambold, who was 49 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old girl who later committed suicide. Rambold was originally sentenced to just 30 days in jail. Why does this convicted rapist teacher need to be resentenced? Mandatory Minimum Sentences Rambold accepted a plea bargain last year in which he pleaded guilty to sexual intercourse without consent (i....

It was only a matter of time after the County of Santa Clara, California, announced it was considering banning the toys offered with McDonald’s Happy Meals, that someone would bring suit. On June 22, The Center for Science in the Public Interest announced that it had served notice on McDonald’s Corporation of its intent to sue over what it calls “deceptive marketing” to kids by giving away toys with fast food....

Philip Markoff, the accused ‘Craigslist killer’ murder suspect, was indicted by a Rhode Island grand jury yesterday on two felony charges: assault with a dangerous weapon and assault with intent to rob. The Rhode Island indictment (see below) charges Markoff with assaulting Cynthia Melton, a previously reported Las Vegas stripper who advertised her lap dance services on Craigslist, and with pistol-whipping her husband, Keith Melton. Although Markoff reportedly told Cynthia Melton, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to kill you,” while he bound and tried to gag her, Keith Melton may have actually saved his wife’s life by knocking on his wife’s hotel room door, catching Markoff off-guard....

Maybe Worth County, Georgia Sheriff Jeff Hobby watched Lean on Me one too many times. In that movie, high school principal Morgan Freeman violates fire codes and countless other laws in order to keep his students safe from drug dealers. Perhaps that’s what Hobby thought he was doing when he and 40 other officers locked down Worth County High School for four hours, ordering around 800 students up against walls, patting them down, and even demanding cell phones as part of a massive, warrantless drug search last April....

There’s a lot of buzz about Google Buzz. A Washington DC area nonprofit group has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Google Buzz. In their complaint, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) invokes Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, claiming that the business practices of Google are Unfair and Deceptive, therefore subject to review by the FTC. The 16-page complaint, dated February 16, effectively requests the FTC to investigate the business practices of Google with regards to their new social networking product, Google Buzz....

What happens if you violate your probation? In criminal cases, a judge will often grant probation, releasing a defendant convicted of a crime back into the community under certain restrictions. Conditions of probation can include drug testing, meeting with a probation officer, and electronic location monitoring – anything a judge deems reasonable and appropriate. If you fail to adhere to those conditions, you could just get off with a slap on the wrist – or you could fare much worse....

Mark Berndt, an elementary school teacher in Miramonte, Calif., recently pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing 23 students in his classroom. But authorities have photos depicting the abuse. They have testimony from current and past students. It seems like a slam-dunk case. So why did Berndt plead as he did? Why do guilty people plead not guilty? In one word: strategy. To start, defendants have a Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination....

Johnson & Johnson has announced that it will recall millions of 1 Day Acuvue contact lenses. For now, most users of the contact lenses in the United States need not worry, the recall is currently limited to Japan and 24 other countries in Asia and Europe. According to the Associated Press for BusinessWeek, some consumers of the lenses have complained of stinging or pain when they used their contacts. The recall was announced on Thursday, August 19....