Would you want your mom to help you sext? Probably not. And even if you did, it’s doubtful that your mom would even give you sexting help, right? Right. Which is why this story is so disturbing. A 35-year-old Utah woman has been arrested for helping her 13-year-old daughter take nude photos with her cell phone. She allegedly did this knowing that the photos were to be sent to her daughter’s older boyfriend....
(U.S. Ct. of Appeals, 4th Cir., Sept. 24, 2009) - A federal appeals court in Virginia overturned a U.S. district court’s award of $8 million in compensatory damages and $2.1 million in punitive damages in a lawsuit filed by the father of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder against a hate-speech prone preacher and his church for protesting against gays in the military near the deceased soldier’s funeral. Why did the court overturn the verdict for Albert Snyder, Matthew’s father, against Fred W....
New York’s state gun control laws may soon become the strictest in the country. In response to the Sandy Hook school shooting in neighboring Connecticut, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday promised to enact the strictest assault weapons ban of any state in the U.S., reports Reuters. In his annual State of the State address, Cuomo said that gun violence has been on a “rampage” and added, “We must stop the madness” as he outlined his proposed law....
Key parts of Texas’ new abortion law have been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. The stunning legal ruling (attached below) came Monday, a day before dozens of abortion clinics were set to halt operations. U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel barred Texas from enforcing two key provisions of abortion restrictions contained in the controversial new law. Judge Yeakel held that requiring abortion doctors to gain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital was unconstitutional....
What is bribery? With a number of recent high-profile cases involving charges of bribery, it’s a good time to answer this question. As defined, bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of something of value with the intent of influencing the actions of a government official or employee. Both parties can be prosecuted under these laws–even if nothing is ultimately exchanged. A common misconception about bribery is that it involves only the exchange of money, when in actuality it involves the exchange of anything that the government official may find valuable....
Being sloppy can net you prison time. South Carolina woman Linda Ruggles learned this lesson the hard way. She was recently jailed over her messy yard. Ruggles, 53, was cited for a “clean lot violation” by her town. The penalty was $480. Ruggles was unable to pay the fine. Her photography business faltered in 2008 due to the economy. She soon fell behind on her bills, including her mortgage and taxes....
A federal district court has entered a $18.9 million judgment against the operators of an “internet kiosk” business opportunity scam that amounted to a Ponzi scheme, and the court’s move opens the door for the distribution of more than $2 million to victims of the scheme, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week. The scheme involved free-standing computer kiosks designed for public access to the Internet (for a fee) from places like hotels, bowling alleys, and convenience stores....
Muhammad Ali passed away in June 2016, eight months before Super Bowl LI kicked off in February 2017. But Ali still left his mark on the big game, appearing in a three-minute promotional ad for Fox before the game, an ad that, according to a $30 million lawsuit against the broadcaster, “uses Ali to define greatness and ultimately to compare the NFL legends to Ali and thus to define them and the Super Bowl as ‘greatness’ too....
Ride-share app Uber got some unwanted publicity this week, as two Uber drivers were accused of committing crimes in separate incidents – one for an alleged kidnapping and another for an alleged assault. In Los Angeles, LA Weekly reports that a 26-year-old clubgoer woke up in a motel room with an Uber driver shirtless next to her on the bed. And in a separate incident in San Francisco, an UberX driver has been accused of shouting slurs at a customer and striking him when he tried to photograph the driver’s car’s license plate....
Welcome to FindLaw’s DUI Law series. If you have been charged with a DUI, know someone who has, or just want to know about the law and how to protect your rights during a DUI stop, please come back each week for more information. One drunk driving conviction is bad enough. Now you’re facing a second? Like any other criminal offense, the statute is aimed at discouraging repeat offenders, so the penalties you may be facing are bound to be more severe than the first time around....
Prosecutors in Adrian Peterson’s alleged child abuse case have filed a petition to protect the NFL player’s 4-year-old son. The Child in Need of Protection or Services (CHIPS) petition, filed in child protection court on Friday, summarizes the abuse allegations against the Vikings player and details a plan for keeping his son safe. According to Minneapolis-St. Paul’s KMSP-TV, Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman stated that the petition is required by state law whenever serious child abuse allegations exist for a child living in the county....
An Arizona woman with weak English skills can be kept off the ballot as a candidate, Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. But the court declined to immediately disclose a reason for its decision. Alejandrina Cabrera, 35, wanted to run in the March 13 Democratic primary for a city council seat in San Luis, Ariz. Spanish is the primary language in the border town of about 25,000, Reuters reports. Cabrera, who was born in Arizona but spent much of her childhood in Mexico, speaks primarily Spanish and has weak English-language skills....
One such inmate challenged the law, saying in part, that it violates the separation of powers doctrine by interfering with the courts’ discretion and ability to hear and resolve capital appeals and habeas corpus petitions. But the California Supreme Court today upheld the new provisions, relying on the interpretation that the deadline is “directive rather than mandatory.” Embracing Change Death penalty advocates and opponents both conceded California’s appeals system was broken....
A California appeals court has ruled that home-school instruction in the state does not require a teaching credential, reversing a February 2008 ruling which effectively prevented most California parents from home-schooling their children. In Friday’s decision, the court of appeal for California’s Second Appellate District ruled that “California statutes permit home schooling as a species of private school education,” although the state may restrict home education rights if the environment becomes harmful to the child....
Most of these fraudulent providers of tax preparation services have been quite prolific, providing tax returns for as many as 24,000 customers a piece. Perhaps they can turn out so many returns because they are not overly careful about the deductions they list for their customers. For example, court filings in Rhode Island against tax prep services Refunds Now Inc. and Refunds Now Tax Service Inc.,show the filed returns containing made up charitable contributions, inflated employee business expense deductions, and inflated dependent exemptions, among other tricks....
On December 7, 2009, the Environmental Protection Agency finally decided to get behind the wheel and drive. After nearly being run over by states like Massachusetts and California in a hurry to begin to curb the greenhouse gases that most agree contribute to global warming, the EPA is now on board. The Agency announced their in its Endangerment Finding, released yesterday, that certain greenhouse gases are pollutants that “threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations....
Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett was arrested at an airport bar on obstruction charges, which may have resulted from a combination of drugs and alcohol. Jarrett, 59, was picked at around noon at the Northern Lights Grill at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport after an employee called police about the “very intoxicated” reporter. Can Jarrett walk away from this drunken arrest? When a citizen attempts to impede, interfere with, or harass a police officer, an obstruction of justice charge may be warranted....
After being criticized for not revealing what types of information the company turns over to law enforcement, Microsoft has issued a transparency report. The report shows that in 2012, law-enforcement agencies made a total of 75,378 requests for Microsoft user data. More than 4,700 of those requests were for Skype data, reports Slate. These requests affected 137,424 user accounts for Microsoft services such as Skype, Hotmail, Outlook.com, SkyDrive, Xbox LIVE, Microsoft Account, and Office 365....
Your children are going to be on the internet. Sadly, so are the scam artists. And non-savvy internet users can be easy marks for online scams. So how do you keep your kids safe on the internet? By teaching them what online behavior to avoid and what to watch out for. Here are some of our top tips for preventing scammers from targeting and taking advantage of your children. Scam artists know where to look for and how to prey on kids and teenagers online....
Is Joan Rivers really a Prada-clad Miranda Priestly in her own right? Rivers’ “Fashion Police” writers recently filed labor complaints against her production company for back pay with the California Division of Labor Standards. Now, the reality show writers have added another $400,000 to the $1.1 million they are already seeking. The labor issue highlights the question of when an employer owes creative employees wages for overtime. In addition, the writers are relying on the law that requires overtime payment for any work performed beyond eight hours in any workday or forty hours in any workweek....
