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Two on-duty cops who beat a homeless man to death last July are facing criminal charges filed by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office. Officer Manuel Ramos was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Another police officer, Jay Cicinelli, was charged with involuntary manslaughter. Ramos and Cicinelli are implicated in the beating death of Kelly Thomas, a homeless man with a documented history of schizophrenia. Fullerton police officers were dispatched to investigate reports of car burglaries....

The controversy over red-light cameras usually revolves around public safety and the rights of drivers. However, the City of Chicago’s camera vendor stirred up an unexpected scandal involving bribery and corruption. After a few years of investigating and prosecuting, that vendor, Redflex, has agreed to a $20 million settlement with the Windy City. Until the corruption was discovered, Redflex was the city’s exclusive red-light camera provider, and made hundreds of millions of dollars from Chicago alone....

Rapper DMX has only been out of jail for a few months, but it seems he can’t escape the law. The hip-hop star is being sued by a booking agency he had allegedly hired to plan his European comeback tour. As fans know, that tour, which was slated to begin March 29 in Germany, has been cancelled. Booking agency Heavy Rotation has since sued DMX in New York court. The DMX tour lawsuit accuses the artist of souring the deal by failing to stay out of legal trouble....

This week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the ruling of the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) to put sea ice seals, aka bearded seals, on the threatened species list. While adding a species to the threatened species list is nothing new, how the bearded seal made it on the list is quite unique. The Ninth Circuit Court considered evidence that the seals’ habitat was being destroyed by climate change....

A third jury convicted a father of murdering his 4-year-old daughter by throwing her from an ocean-side cliff just outside Los Angeles. The crime occurred in November 2000, but two previous trials resulted in mistrials after juries deadlocked on the issue of guilt. Prosecutors presented evidence indicating Cameron Brown never wanted his daughter, Lauren Sarene Key, and threw her from the 120-foot cliff as revenge on the girl’s mother and to avoid paying child support....

The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to pass the $700 billion financial bailout legislation that has see-sawed through Congress this week, and President Bush put his signature on the bill shortly thereafter. Today’s House vote (263 to 171) approving the historic financial rescue packages comes two days after the Senate approved the measure by a 74-25 vote. The revised bailout plan – different from the version the House rejected on Monday – contains “sweeteners” like over $100 billion in tax cuts and increased limits on federal bank deposit insurance....

Portions of the Credit CARD Act of 2009 goes into effect today. The much discussed credit card reform passed this year seeks to ban certain unfair practices and provide cardholders with clear and understandable terms. In May, President Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act) into law. The new rules come into effect in three waves. First, on August 20, 2009 rules regarding disclosure of contractual changes and when companies can count payments as late go into effect....

The Florida school board shooting video showing gunman Clay Duke shooting (and missing) at point-blank range is a chilling sight. The Panama City man repeatedly fired his gun at the Florida school board members. Amazingly, no one but he himself was killed. In what could have been a massacre, the distraught gunman, 56-year-old Clay Duke said he wanted to kill the board members and then himself because they fired his wife from her job with the school district and the couple was broke....

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin took the stand on April 23 to testify in the trial of 22 year-old David Kernell, accused of hacking into her email account during the 2008 presidential campaign. Palin testified the former college student’s alleged email hacking caused a huge disruption in the campaign and caused her difficulties in communicating with staff and family. Kernell’s defense counsel painted the email hacking incident as a “silly prank....

In an effort to focus on more serious crimes and reduce its backlog of criminal court cases, police officers in Manhattan will no longer arrest people for low-level offenses and prosecutors “will no longer prosecute most violations or infractions.” The new initiative, set to begin today, will allow NYPD officers to issue criminal summonses instead of making arrests for offenses like littering, public consumption of alcohol, and public urination. So can you walk around the Big Apple with a big can of beer or an appletini?...

Everybody makes mistakes. But one made by the Department of Defense for 13 years with Mustafa al-Aziz al-Shamiri takes the cake. He has been held prisoner in Guantanamo Bay for over a decade and he is the wrong guy, Gawker reports. Captured in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan in 2002, the man from Yemen was considered an al-Qaida facilitator, courier, or trainer. But, says the DoD, “we now judge that these activities were carried out by other known extremists with names or aliases similar to [his]....

Actor Mark Wahlberg has petitioned the state of Massachusetts to be pardoned for crimes he committed when he was 16. Wahlberg was arrested in 1988 for attacking two Vietnamese men while trying to steal beer, reports The Associated Press. As a result of the attack, which left one man partially blinded, Wahlberg was convicted on a number of different criminal charges, including assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and criminal contempt....

The Rev. Creflo Dollar Jr.’s megachurch members vowed to support their pastor Sunday as he publicly denied charges he beat and choked his 15-year-old daughter last week. “A family conversation with our youngest daughter got emotional. Things escalated from there,” Dollar, 50, explained from the pulpit, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She was not choked. She was not punched. … Anything else is exaggeration and sensationalism,” the Rev. Dollar continued....

African-American borrowers who secured subprime mortgage loans from Wells Fargo and HSBC – two of the nation’s biggest banks – were much more likely to receive higher interest rate loans than similarly-qualified white customers, according to two class action lawsuits filed late last week by the NAACP. The class action lawsuits allege that the banking giants violated the Fair Housing Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in imposing race-based disparities in their mortgage lending practices....

Peg Perego has issued a stroller recall because of a risk of entrapment and strangulation, especially in children under one year old. The company has recalled two models of its strollers, Venezia and Pliko-P3. The models were sold by retailers between 2004 and 2010. In total, the recall encompasses 223,000 strollers. The recall only affects models with a child tray and single cup holder. Strollers with a bumper in front of the child or a tray with two cup holders are not involved....

You probably already keep records in your daily routine, including receipts and bank statements. When April 15th approaches and you start getting your income tax information together, these records and others become extremely important in preparing a complete and accurate tax return. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) offers tips on recordkeeping for taxpayers: why you should keep records, what to keep, and for how long. Keeping important records with an eye towards tax time can help you identify sources of taxable versus non-taxable income, keep track of expenses for which you might be able to claim a deduction, trace the basis of property ownership and improvements, and provide support for items reported on your tax return....

A three-year study of the effects of Vioxx (rofecoxib) in 2,587 patients showed that use of the once-popular prescription painkiller doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke, confirming concerns over the drug’s health risks that prompted its withdrawal from the market in 2004. Reuters reports that the study shows the risk to Vioxx patients continuing even a year after use of the medication is stopped, quoting an author of the study: “The good news is the data suggests that the risk doesn’t persist forever....

Chrysler has announced it will be recalling almost 68,000 Jeep Wranglers due to a potential fire risk. The recall affects 2010 models equipped with automatic transmissions, according to a report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The recall came after the NHTSA investigated the vehicles in March following eight consumer complaints about fires, The New York Times reports. While most of the Jeeps were sold in America, the recall also touches the international market....

A Baltimore grand jury indicted all six Baltimore police officers charged in the homicide of Freddie Gray. Gray died in April from injuries sustained while in police custody. The officers allegedly gave Gray a “rough ride” in the back of a police van, resulting in fatal injuries to his spine. Gray’s death had already sparked massive protests and riots in Baltimore, most of which were quieted with news of the criminal charges and arrests of the officers....

Aaron Carter, the youngest brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, has filed for bankruptcy. The pop star, who is currently on tour, recently filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. As we saw with Nadya “Octomom” Suleman and rapper Young Buck, Chapter 7 isn’t a pretty process, but it helps debtors get a fresh financial start. Using a process called liquidation, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy involves the debtor’s assets being sold and divvied up to pay off creditors....