It seemed like everyone was getting sued in the bloody Chris Brown / Drake nightclub brawl except for Chris Brown and Drake. Tony Parker had sued the nightclub for $20 million after sustaining an eye injury, and the nightclub had sued New York City for shutting it down. Now the company that owns the trademark to the nightclub’s name (not the club itself) is suing Brown and Drake for $16 million for allegedly starting the brawl, reports MTV....
The top five hazards in the home have been identified in a Press Release from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). According to the CPSC, “each year, 33.1 million people are injured by consumer products in the home. To keep Americans informed of dangers, the CPSC has identified the top five hidden home hazards - associated with products that people may be using everyday, but are unaware of the dangers that they can cause....
People use Facebook for the most random things. And for police, a Facebook photo of a bank robber can lead to an identification. Jazzmyne Dunlap, 21, learned this the hard way in Texas. Dunlap has been indicted on bank robbery charges from a robbery that took place at a Wells Fargo in Haltom City, reports The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The robbery took place on April 19th. Allegedly, the robber handed the teller a note that said she had a gun and that the teller needed to give her all of the money, otherwise she would shoot, the Star-Telegram reports....
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is alerting computer users about a new scam email that contains a fraudulent “court subpoena” purportedly from a federal district court in California, and instructs recipients that they are to appear and testify before a grand jury. The New York Times reports that thousands of company executives nationwide have received the phony subpoena email messages which contain a link that, when opened, installs a program that records the user’s computer keystrokes and forwards the information via the internet – giving criminals access to passwords as well as personal and corporate information....
A federal appeals court ruled that Elmbrook School District violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by holding its high school graduations at a church. For almost a decade, one of the district high schools held graduations at a nearby Christian church. The school had good intentions as it previously held graduations in its hot, stuffy, and cramped gym. The nearby Christian Elmbrook Church offered more spacious accommodations and a more comfortable environment for students and their family....
Google’s new privacy policy is set to take effect March 1. That means time is ticking for Google users to “delete” their search histories before that data is automatically shared across all of Google’s platforms. Under Google’s new policy, user data from all Google-owned sites and products – including YouTube, Gmail, Google+, Blogger, and Google’s search engine – will be consolidated and shared across those sites. For example, a Google user’s search-engine queries will be used to determine what advertisements appear when a user accesses Gmail....
You’ve heard the expression,“the long arm of the law.” Well, the state of Georgia has an even longer reach, as former cornerback Decory Bryant learned to his disappointment on December 4th. Athens-Clarke County Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens dismissed Bryant’s suit against the Athletic Department of the University of Georgia for failing to file the insurance forms that would have provided a cushion after the career destroying injury Bryant suffered on the field in 2003....
When John Oliver committed 24 minutes of last week’s Last Week Tonight episode to the coal industry in general and Murray Energy Corporation CEO Robert E. Murray in particular, he knew he was courting a lawsuit. “I’m going to need to be careful here,” Oliver began, “because when we contacted Murray Energy for this piece, they sent us a letter instructing us to ‘cease and desist from any effort to defame, harass, or otherwise injure Mr....
As the David Letterman extortion case goes forward, TV producer Robert “Joe” Halderman who is accused of grand larceny has drawn on the Tiger Woods sex scandal to try bolster his defense. According to the Associated Press, the attorney representing Joe Halderman is looking to draw a parallel to the Tiger Woods scandal. Halderman is accused of shaking down $2 million from David Letterman in an extortion scheme. “Evidence of celebrity misdeeds has a significant fair market value,” lawyer Gerald Shargel wrote....
What? Lindsay Lohan finally wins in court? Well not exactly, but actress Lindsay Lohan has reached a favorable settlement in her “Milkaholic” e-trade suit. The suit, which sought $100 million in damages, claimed that Lindsay “the milkaholic” baby was modeled after Lohan without her permission. Specifically, Lohan argued that the digitally-mastered baby violated her privacy. The E-Trade ads were featured as commercials during the last Super Bowl and Winter Olympics – primetime entertainment that Lohan claims brought in millions of dollars for the New York-based company as a result of illegally using her name and image....
July is the month when service members recognize Military Consumer Protection Day. While servicemembers protect the country every day, they are often more susceptible to financial exploitation and scams. So, in honor of Military Consumer Protection Day, here are some scams and unfair practices to watch out for: Affinity Scams There is a certain shared connection among all servicemembers. So, you’re more likely to trust someone who is also a servicemembers....
For the family of Natalee Holloway, is this good or bad news? The results of the DNA testing on the jawbone found last week on a beach on Aruba are back, and the bone does not belong to the missing teenager. The jaw bone, found by tourists last week near the Phoenix Hotel, underwent testing at the Netherlands Forensic Institute in The Hague, Netherlands reports CNN. The bone must have been found to be human, because Dutch authorities asked for Holloway’s dental records last week....
A new set of proposed rules from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) aims to strengthen motorcycle safety by making it easier for riders to identify DOT-certified helmets, and avoid “novelty” helmets that do not provide adequate crash protection. Under the new proposed rules announced Monday, manufacturers would be required to place a bigger, tamper-proof DOT label on the backs of all certified motorcycle helmets. According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Press Release, “the new labels will make it harder for vendors to remove the labels on safe helmets and affix them to the unsafe novelty helmets....
More than 800 rape cases in New York City are under special review after the city discovered that a technician made repeated errors while handling DNA evidence. Some alleged rapists who may have believed that they got away with a crime, may find fresh charges pending against them. So far, the re-examination of the rape cases has found 26 sexual assault cases in which the technician incorrectly determined there were no traces of biological material on evidence, reports Reuters....
As of 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time on November 2, a total of 999 people have been killed by police in the year 2015. And even if that total reaches 1,000 before December 31st, it will still trail last year’s number of 1,108. Fatal police interactions have been hard to track until very recently, but KilledByPolice.net and the Washington Post have started to compile databases of police killings and analyzing the data....
Police prosecutions for murder and manslaughter are on the rise. Researchers attribute this to increased public protest over use of excessive force by officers rather than a rise in civilian deaths, Reuters reports. This year, 16 officers were charged with murder or manslaughter as compared to an average of five per year in the previous ten years. But it is too soon to say whether the increase represents a substantive change or a statistical fluke, according to researchers....
Police impersonators are committing crimes, often violent in nature, under the guise of a routine traffic stop or a knock on the door. How can you tell if a law enforcement officer really is who he says he is? Just this week, a 75-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly identified himself as a member of the sheriff’s department and forced his way into a woman’s home. The woman’s son called 911 to thwart the attempted armed robbery, deputies told Los Angeles’ KCBS-TV....
Ricki Lake: fire starter? According to a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, this very well may be true. Hovsep Kousouyan, owner of Lake’s rented Malibu beach house, is suing for unspecified damages, alleging that Lake’s negligence left his multi-million dollar home ablaze and burnt to a crisp. In September 2010, Ricki Lake was in her rented Malibu beach house with her two sons when she called 911 to report a fire....
Once 3D printers became a thing, making some things illegal to 3D print became a thing. Clearly there are some dangerous or illegal items you don’t want people printing off willy nilly in their basements or garages. And firearms are one of those things. Soon after Defense Distributed published designs for its “Liberator” – supposedly the world’s first 3D printed handgun – the U.S. Department of Defense came calling. In the five years since, the two have been battling over the legality of disseminating specs for 3D-printed firearms, and finally reached a settlement that went into effect in June allowed Defense Distributed to publicly release CAD files for the Liberator and other weapons....
When criminal defendants are released from prison, some are “bonded out” while others are “bailed out.” If you consume enough criminal news, the two terms start to look interchangeable, as though they both mean the same thing. While they both have the same effect – temporary freedom – they’re actually different. The difference between bond and bail is a subtle one, but it ultimately comes down to the source of the money....
