Posts

The real makers of the popular energy supplement 5-Hour Energy, Living Essential, were pleased this week when a California jury found two individuals guilty of manufacturing counterfeit 5-Hour Energy drinks. The federal charges allege that the criminal drink makers produced millions of counterfeit bottles using unknown ingredients in an unsanitary facility. The couple could face over a decade in jail and $2 million in fines. Their conviction comes after the resolution of the consolidated civil suit earlier this year against more than 20 individuals, all involved in a conspiracy to make and sell fake 5-Hour Energy shots....

Phil Rudd, the drummer for legendary Australian rock band AC/DC, has been charged with attempting to “procure murder” in New Zealand. Rudd was the drummer on many of the iconic rock band’s biggest hits, including the somewhat fitting “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” Details regarding Rudd’s own alleged dirty deeds have yet to be revealed. But BBC News reports that Rudd is accused of plotting to hire a hit man to kill two men....

Just because Chris Martin is a front man for a huge pop band does not mean he wants attention. A paparazzo is suing Coldplay’s lead singer for hitting him with a car when the Martin saw he and his now-ex Gwyneth Paltrow were being filmed. The plaintiff claims he is permanently injured by the events of January 25, 2015, according to Courthouse News Service. Richard Terry says Martin intentionally jumped the sidewalk with his car to run him over and that is part of a long pattern of violence by the pop star against paparazzi....

Do you have a “right” to a phone call following your arrest? If your legal knowledge comes mostly from watching movies and TV shows, you may believe that you are automatically granted this right. And in many states, this may be the case. However, the right to make a phone call is typically governed by state law and is not something specifically enumerated in the Constitution. As a result, to learn your exact rights, you may need to talk to an attorney in your state....

If as a child you frequented Chuck E. Cheese’s, gambling problems might be in your future. At least, that’s what Denise Keller, a San Diego mother of two, has alleged in her recent lawsuit against the family restaurant chain. According to Keller and her attorney, some of the arcade games provided at the family establishment are too similar to casino games. Keller pointed out that one of the games in question utilizes a roulette wheel, reports The San Diego Union-Tribune....

A Supreme Court ruling this week limits the use of police drug-sniffing dogs outside of a suspect’s home. In a 5-4 decision, justices held that police cannot use drug-sniffing dogs outside of a home to detect illegal drugs inside, unless officers have a warrant, reports Reuters. The court determined that this use of drug-sniffing dogs constituted a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. As a result, a warrant is required to perform the search....

Georgia authorities found a 15-year-old girl who was forced to live in a chicken coop days at a time and who was forced to wear a shock collar for dogs as punishment. The parents of the girl, Samuel and Diana Franklin, have been arrested and charged with multiple counts of child cruelty and false imprisonment, reports The Associated Press. The girl has been placed in temporary state custody. The unidentified girl was adopted around 2007 and was home-schooled in a small rural town about 85 miles south of Atlanta, reports the AP....

You probably have a mental checklist of precautions you take to keep your house safe from break-ins while you’re on vacation: have the post office hold your mail, put your lights on timers, ask the neighbors to keep an eye on things. But law-enforcement agencies are urging summer vacationers to add another precaution to their list: Watch what you share on social media. Along with your friends, family, and co-workers, your social media feeds may also be monitored by criminals waiting for their chance to strike, as police in Riley County, Kansas, have warned....

In case you missed it: Johnny Depp was subpoenaed to testify in a murder trial, but it looks like he’s off the hook. Depp was originally subpoenaed to testify to support the defendant’s insanity defense. Nancy Lekon, the woman on trial for murder, claimed she was in a relationship with the actor when she had no connection to Depp, according to TMZ. Now Depp won’t have to testify after the attorneys agreed to a stipulation....

The Army Corps of Engineers is not liable for property damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, according to a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Three years ago, U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval Jr. ruled that the federal government is not immune from suits blaming post-Katrina damage on corps’ operation and maintenance. The appeals court overturned that decision on Monday. The same panel of judges had originally ruled in favor of plaintiffs but reversed their decision, reports MSNBC....

Employers who ask for an employee’s social media passwords in Maryland may soon be banned from doing so under a proposed law. The Maryland General Assembly has passed a bill that would prohibit employers from requesting access to employees’ social media accounts, like Facebook and Twitter. The measure has been sent to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley for signing. If it passes, the law would be the first of its kind in the country....

Six Honduran parents part of a caravan fleeing gang violence in Central America have filed a prospective class action lawsuit against Donald Trump, ICE, and other immigration officials, claiming the president’s “professed and enacted policy towards thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional.” The lawsuit asks a federal court to declare the Trump administrations immigration policies unconstitutional and seeks protection from those policies for the parents, their children, and other similarly situated migrants....

The timing could not have been worse for Motely Crue singer Vince Neil who was arrested on suspicion of DUI as he is set to release a new CD, and memoir, titled Tattoos and Tequila. Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil was arrested on drinking and driving charges in Las Vegas, MTV News reports. The singer was taken to Clark County Jail with bail set at $2,000. No other details are available, except that it was accident related....

Consumers will enjoy enhanced safeguards from the deceptive practices of credit card companies – including protection from unexpected interest rate hikes and late fees in many cases – under new federal regulations. The new rule announced Thursday, and expected to be approved shortly by the Federal Reserve, “bans practices often cited as unfair to consumers, such as raising the interest rate on an existing credit card balance when the consumer is paying the credit card bill on time,” according to a Thursday Press Release from the Office of Thrift Supervision, a division of the U....

After years of legal wrangling with major packaged goods brands over antitrust claims, News Corporation has agreed to pay a $280 million settlement to Dial, Kraft Heinz Company, and others. The plaintiffs were seeking a lot more money – $674.6 million in damages – arguing that News Corp quelled competition with exclusionary and illegal practices. Considering that those damages sought, if proven, could reportedly have tripled to more than $2 billion under federal antitrust law, the announced settlement sounds like a steal for News Corp....

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the 39-year-old Nobel Prize winning leader of the civil rights movement, is being honored today in a number of events in cities across the nation, forty years after his assassination on April 4, 1968. The Associated Press reports that thousands of people turned out in Memphis for a march to the Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated, and Presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain are set to take part in commemorative events in Memphis later today....

Celebrity brand influencers have become a major marketing tactic in recent years. But the problem with influencers? They’re only human. So they make mistakes … and cheat. And as one influencer recently learned, sometimes cheating can result in being sued. Sometimes it’s hard to catch influencers violating contracts. For instance, who knows if DJ Khaled really chews Stride Gum or Trident? No one’s going to check his pockets or taste-test his ABC gum....

The members of the South Carolina House of Representatives voted yesterday to censure Governor Mark Sanford for his recent breach of public trust best described as secret trips to see his Argentine mistress and improper use of state aircraft. In a 102-11 vote, the House condemned the Governor for bringing “dishonor, disgrace, and shame not only upon [himself] but upon this State and its citizens…” Unfortunately for the hard work and good intentions of the House in appropriately slapping the Governor on the wrist, reports say the censure is likely to get bogged down in the state Senate or even die in committee....

Once a bad boy, always a… well, the acts speak for themselves in this case. Actor Rip Torn, known and loved for his eccentricity in the New England town of Salisbury, Conn., took his bad boy image a few steps too far and wound up in court last week. A well known character actor and apparently, a well known character around town, Torn had a reputation for hittn’ the bars hard....

The Animal Parasitic Disease Lab, a USDA lab in Beltsville, Maryland, has been hit with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over its refusal to hand over information regarding its killing of approximately 3,000 two-month-old kittens involved in scientific experiments related to food borne illnesses. This isn’t the first hit the USDA has taken over its inhumane treatment of kittens. In May 2018, Republican Rep. Mike Bishop and Democratic Rep. Jimmy Panetta introduced a bill to stop the USDA from using cats and kittens in its experiments, dubbed “Kittens in Traumatic Testing Ends Now Act of 2018,” or KITTEN Act....