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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS), established in 1981, is tasked with inspecting and ensuring the safety of eggs, cattle, pigs, sheep, and other animals used for human food. When the FSIS finds something worrisome in your chicken or beef, they will notify the producer or distributor who will then institute a recall. These recalls are then classified (Class I, II, and III) by the FSIS and made public information....

There are a variety of laws that protect people from various types of harm. For example, California’s Proposition 65 – the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act – requires businesses to inform Californians about exposure to chemicals that are known to cause cancer. And, now coffee companies and retailers have been added to the list of businesses. The Reason Cancer Warnings Should Be Added to Coffee In 2010, the Council for Education and Research on Toxics (CERT), a nonprofit organization, filed the lawsuit against several coffee retailers and companies....

He’s rich! Do you understand? He thinks he can get away with anything. Jake Gittes, the character played by Jack Nicholson in one of Roman Polanski’s best known films, “Chinatown,” said that line. If it applies, or does not apply, to today’s news in the more than 30 year-old Polanski case, is up to the individual to decide. However, what is fact is the July 12 report of the Swiss authorities’ decision that they will not extradite Roman Polanski to the United States....

By now nearly everyone has heard of the tragic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shooting. U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and 18 others at a campaign event in Tucson on Saturday were also shot. The alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, has officially being charged with attempted murder, murder and attempted murder of a U.S. Congress person. A question for many now is: Could either the feds or Arizona give Jared Loughner the death penalty?...

Donald Trump is inescapable. The bombastic businessman and reality TV star’s campaign for the presidency is a reality for all now, as he increasingly delights voters on the right according to the results of Republican primaries. His presence in the national spotlight inspired Law Newz to review Trump’s record in federal court. Going back to 1983, Donald Trump has reportedly been named in 169 lawsuits and that’s only at the national level....

Work on off-shore oil platforms involves risk of highly dangerous accidents. As seen in recent helicopter crashes, the commute to and from such jobs can also be risky. On Sunday, a helicopter operated by Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. (PHI) crashed, killing eight in transport to an oil platform off Louisiana’s coast. The helicopter went down shortly after take-off on Sunday afternoon in the marshes of southern Louisiana’s coast, reports the AP. It killed workers from Louisiana, Florida, Alabama and Texas....

The heat in the kitchen has definitely been turned up for TV chef Paula Deen, whose deposition in a lawsuit was leaked to the media last week. This time, though, bricks of butter and piles of sugar have been set aside for an even more offensive meal of racial slurs (including usage of the N-word – and, no, not “nutrition”) and a preference for what could be construed as a traditional Southern “plantation style” wedding with all-black servers....

Will this syrup, by any other name, taste as sweet? And have as many calories? While interesting, these will not be the most pressing of the questions facing the FDA, now that the agency has been asked by lobbyists to change the name of high fructose corn syrup. Producers of the beleaguered product would like to change its name to “corn sugar.” High fructose corn syrup is used in sodas, bread, cereal and many other foods....

The Second Amendment protects “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms.” But it has little to say about the ammunition for those arms. Given that just about every gun that existed at the time the Constitution was written fired a single shot at a time, it’s likely that the framers didn’t envision large capacity magazines feeding dozens or hundreds of rounds of ammunition into a single firearm, much less protecting the right to those magazines....

A new enforcement unit within the U.S. Justice Department in Chicago has been formed to fight health care fraud. The new Health Care Fraud Unit was announced around the same time as the announcement of the major $1.2 billion prosecution for a massive health care fraud scheme. The goal of the unit is to seek out and prosecute the individuals and businesses that engage in all types of health care fraud....

A staggering number of car owners ring in the New Year by reporting car thefts. Alas, New Year’s Day is traditionally the number one holiday for car thefts. Unfortunately, this year will likely be no exception. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), New Year’s Day topped the list with 2,228 reported vehicle thefts in 2012. Here are five ways to help prevent your car from being stolen on New Year’s Day:...

Like everything, free speech has its limits. One of those limits was defined by the Supreme Court on June 21 when it handed down its decision in the companion cases of Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, et al. and Humanitarian Law Project, et al., v. Holder. These are the only “war on terror” cases the Court will decide this term and the decision is a momentous one. The conservative wing of the Court made up the majority opinion, joined by long time liberal, Justice John Paul Stevens....

Parents can make most decisions about the health of their children, but not all as a case in Alberta, Canada shows. A couple that gave their child a home remedy for his meningitis is facing five years in prison and the loss of their other children after a 19-month-old with meningitis died, according to Raw Story. The baby was given supplements with an eye dropper rather than being brought to a hospital....

George Zimmerman’s defense team is growing, suggesting that he’s planning for a grand jury indictment and a subsequent criminal trial. Interestingly, his new attorney has begun releasing some previously unknown facts. Did you know that, on the night of Trayvon Martin’s death, Sanford police gave George Zimmerman a voice stress test? A voice stress test is like a polygraph, but instead of measuring heart rate and blood pressure, it looks for changes in an individual’s voice patterns that are thought to suggest psychological stress....

Headlines are proclaiming, “Prince Andrew sex abuse allegations thrown out!” Well, not exactly. The headlines can be a bit misleading. Two women’s allegations against Prince Andrew have been stricken from the record of a lawsuit because the judge ruled them irrelevant. Jane Doe No. 3 and Jane Doe No. 4 claimed that they were forced to have sex with Prince Andrew when they were underage. They claim that Epstein prostituted them to Prince Andrew....

Police officers likely had a bit of a surprise when they pulled over Glodualdo Moreno Lojan for driving slow in the fast lane on a freeway in South Carolina. Lojan was concealing about a kilogram of cocaine in his prosthetic leg. Lojan was pulled over in July for driving 50 miles per hour on Interstate 85, reports WYFF-TV. When being patted down, police officers felt what they thought was an odd bulge, only to find that Lojan had hidden a bag of cocaine in between his leg and the prosthetic leg, according to WYFF-TV....

The Starz-Netflix partnership will come to an end on February 28 as a result of a negotiation breakdown between the online streaming company and cable content provider. As Netflix’s most valuable source for recently released movies, Starz will be taking with it films from both Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures, reports the Los Angeles Times. Subscribers will only be able to access recent releases tied to Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate and MGM, as the paper further reports that HBO has refused to license the rights to 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros....

For the first scam of Christmas, my true love gave to me: One free iPad. The “12 Scams of Christmas” list has been released and a free iPad is among the top scams on the internet this year. Software security firm McAfee released the list to help educate shoppers who may get a little too carried away in their quest for bargains and fall victim to a scam. “Every holiday season BBB hears from holiday shoppers who paid for a supposedly great deal online, but received nothing in return,” said Alison Southwick of the Better Business Bureau....

Warrantless cell phone tracking has been upheld, at least when it comes to “historical location data” kept by phone companies, in a federal appeals case that was decided this week. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling, held that a warrantless search of historical location data (and other metadata) stored by cell phone service providers does not raise any Fourth Amendment concerns, The New York Times reports....

Just the name Snowden is polarizing. Hero, traitor, patriot, rat – depending on your political leanings, any one of these can fit Edward Snowden in your mind. It turns out movies about Snowden, and his disclosure of mass NSA surveillance, can be just as divisive, legally speaking. After a former Naval officer tried to sue makers of a Snowden documentary for “billions of dollars” to be paid to the entire populous of the United States, a slightly more specific lawsuit has been filed over the fictionalized film account....