While many heads across the country are still spinning after Tuesday’s results, voters in four states will be able to slow their roll with some legal marijuana. California, Nevada, Massachusetts, and Maine all legalized marijuana for recreational use by adults, but there are some limits to be aware of. For example, it will still be illegal for minors to use recreational marijuana and it will be illegal to drive with under the influence....
Cell phones have made our lives easier, giving us the Internet at our fingertips no matter where we go. With all the ways cell phones help us in our daily lives, it’s no wonder they can help us stop crimes as well. Here are five ways that you, or law enforcement, can use cell phones to fight crime: Cell phones, used by citizens or police, can help reduce crime committed by citizens and police, given that all parties use them responsibly....
Almost one year ago, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly lost his job when it came to light that he had paid over $13 million to keep quiet sexual harassment lawsuits from women at the television network. It appears that O’Reilly’s troubles haven’t ended as one of these women, ex-anchor Laurie Dhue, has filed a federal defamation lawsuit against O’Reilly after he denied mistreating her. Defamation in the Form of Denials An article published in the New York Times in April 2017, included information that Dhue was paid over $1 million by 21st Century Fox to settle sexual harassment claims....
Christina Milian found gum in her steak salad in a Studio City, California restaurant last week. Milian was reportedly happily munching on her Kobe beef salad when she chewed on something that did not have the right texture - namely, a giant wad of gum. Let’s try to guess what might have popped into Christina Milian’s mind at this exact moment: “This doesn’t seem like a piece of lettuce. Lettuce is crispy....
Lindsay Lohan’s father will reportedly seek a conservator for his daughter. Last week, Michael Lohan tried to orchestrate an informal intervention for his troubled daughter. The father reportedly worked in conjunction with Lindsay Lohan’s lawyers and manager in an attempt to stop the troubled actress’ alleged drug and alcohol abuse. But Lindsay Lohan reportedly turned away her father at the door and then called the cops, reports Fox News. Now Michael Lohan is planning to go to court and seek a conservatorship for Lindsay....
Violent crimes and property crimes were both down nationwide last year, according to a preliminary report on 2007 crime statistics released Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In Crime in the United States 2007, the FBI reports that the nationwide violent crime rate dropped for the first time since 2004, down 1.4 percent from 2006. Property crimes saw a 2.1 percent decline from 2006. In terms of crime rates by U....
Brendan Dassey was just 16 when he was railroaded into confessing involvement in the rape and murder of Teresa Halbach. Those who watched his interrogation in “Making a Murderer” saw all the hallmarks of an impressionable and possibly mentally impaired teen harangued by officers until he gave them a nonsensical confession, all without a parent or attorney present. Now 27, Dassey has been ordered to be released from prison after a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling that Dassey’s confession had been coerced, calling it “death by a thousand cuts....
When your TV show becomes a huge success, why does it seem like everyone wants to get their hands on it? Fox is not happy that someone is trying to lay claim to the title of its hit new series, “Empire.” Fox is proactively suing Empire Distribution, Inc. to declare its rights to the title “Empire.” Fox took the proactive step after Empire Distribution, Inc., a California record company, sent a demand letter accusing the television company of trademark infringement and trademark dilution....
Under new guidelines issued by the Department of Health and Human Services, birth control co-pays will be a thing of the past come next year. As part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) passed in March 2010, health insurance providers are responsible for covering the entirety of evidence-based preventative care services as dictated by the government. A panel of experts from the Institute of Medicine, which advises the government, explained last month that preventing “unintended pregnancies is essential for the psychological, emotional and physical health of women,” reports the Associated Press....
Harry Belafonte filed a lawsuit in federal court against Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s estate after it prevented him from auctioning off three MLK documents at Sotheby’s in 2008. Belafonte was trying to raise money for charity. Belafonte is suing Dr. King’s estate to seek unspecified damages and a court declaration that he is the rightful owner. The three documents at issue include: A three-page outline for Dr. King’s 1967 speech “The Casualties of the War in Vietnam,” written on a legal pad in Belafonte’s New York apartment; A condolence letter from President Lyndon B....
The Olsen twins have come a long long way since their rise to child celebrity status. Although the twin sisters don’t garner nearly the same amount of attention as they once did as Michelle Tanner, a recent lawsuit against the twins’ fashion empire has put them center stage, but not in a good way. Fortunately for the Olsens, the nightmare of bad press should be coming to a close very soon as they have recently settled the class action claims against them over allegations of illegal unpaid internships....
Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo was arrested on suspicion of DUI over the weekend. The Republican lawmaker was driving in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Alexandria, Virginia, where a police officer stopped him after seeing him run a red light, Reuters reports. Crapo was given “several” field sobriety tests, which he allegedly failed. He also took a blood alcohol test and measured 0.11 percent, slightly above the legal driving limit of 0....
On Monday, July 30, 2007, higher fees went into effect for applicants for permanent residence in the U.S. and people filing for U.S. citizenship. The new fee schedule was released by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in May 2007. Total fees associated with obtaining a permanent resident visa (or “green card”) are now $930 (increased from $325), while the cost of filing an application for U.S. citizenship has risen from $330 to $675....
Former Essex County College professor Lisa Durden was defending the decision of Black Lives Matter to exclude white people from a Memorial Day Event to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson last year when she said: “What I say to that is, ‘Boo hoo hoo.’ You white people are angry because you couldn’t use your ‘white privilege’ card to get invited to the Black Lives Matter’s all-black Memorial Day celebration.” Two days later she was told to cancel a class and suspended, and three weeks after her television appearance, she was fired....
President Obama signed his first piece of legislation into law today. It was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which will increase workers ability to sue for past pay discrimination. As the New York Times reports, Lilly Ledbetter may not get her money from Goodyear, but a law in her name has changed the playing field for employees looking to recover for discriminatory pay. In 1998, Lilly Ledbetter sued the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, where she had worked for almost twenty years, because Goodyear allegedly paid her less over time than it paid men holding similar titles and performing the same work....
Note to self: do not post violent threats on Facebook. Michael Adams, 36, wrote a Facebook comment reading “I hope that Governor [Dannel] Malloy will be shot by an angry New Yorker during his visit to New York.” Can you guess what happened next? Why Mr. Adams was arrested, of course. He was picked up by Connecticut police on charges of harassment, inciting injury, and breach of peace. Police said that they were taking all threats seriously considering the timing of the visit....
Murder by abortion pill: That’s the alleged weapon of choice for a Florida man charged with the first-degree murder of his ex-girlfriend’s six-week-old fetus. John Andrew Welden, the 28-year-old son of a fertility doctor, has been indicted by a federal grand jury for tricking Ramee Lee into taking a labor-inducing pill called Cytotec, used to cause abortions. Lee thought she was taking antibiotics prescribed by Weldon’s father to treat a bacterial infection, the Associated Press reports....
Mike McQueary, a key witness in the trial that led to Jerry Sandusky’s arrest for child molestation, has filed a lawsuit against Penn State for defamation, misrepresentation, and whistle-blower charges. The complaint alleges, among other things, that McQueary’s cooperation with investigators back in 2001 led to the suspension and eventual firing of the former assistant football coach. The complaint also alleges that his treatment by the university since Sandusky was arrested in November has caused him distress, anxiety, humiliation and embarrassment....
Between internet streaming, rights to deceased artists’ work, politicians stealing songs for rallies, and remixes and sampling, music licensing has become a hot legal topic over the past decade. And in a time when so many artists are co-writing, co-performing, featuring, and guest appearing on other artists’ work, figuring out who owns how much of a song can get pretty heated, especially when someone wants to use the song. But a federal appeals court recently ended a standoff between the Department of Justice and songwriters and music publishers, ruling that a consent decree between the government and the publishers permits “fractional licensing,” meaning that instead of one license for a song with multiple writers, users must obtain a license to use a song from each of the songwriters in order to use it....
Naked Juice has settled a class action claim for more than $9 million, in an attempt to put to rest the legal battle over its “All Natural” claims. Naked Juice, owned by PepsiCo, still denies that its labels were false or misleading. But the company has agreed to redesign its labels and to stop describing its juices as “all natural,” reports LA Weekly. This isn’t the first time a food or drink manufacturer has hit a wall with the word “natural,” but perhaps this case will prompt the FDA to move on the issue....
