With students heading off to college, taking safety precautions is essential. From Yale to Duke, quite a few colleges across the country are coming to grips with soaring crime rates, as The Daily Beast has reported. Vigilance is the key to safety. Here are 10 tips to stay vigilant and steer clear of college crime: Sexual assault. If you go to a party, go with friends and keep tabs on them while at the party....
A video posted by a California woman on YouTube documenting the antics of her “neighbors from hell” has led to DUI and an assortment of other criminal charges against the woman shown in the video. Huntington Beach resident Sarah Oliver posted the video – which appears to show her neighbor Laura Angela Cox in a violent confrontation with her boyfriend – on Sunday to YouTube, where it quickly went viral, racking up over 2 million views in less than four days....
You bought a defective product and it is really bothering you. This goes beyond a little dissatisfaction. You believe the item is dangerous. Where do you turn? The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) provides guidance to companies and individual consumers about dangerous products and recalls. Anyone can file a complaint with the bureau and there is a form online that enables you to do so. But some parties must report a defective product when they become aware of it, and that applies to toy manufacturers....
In a surprising ruling on Wednesday, a Texas judge determined that cheerleaders displaying “Bible banners” at high school football games did not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The ruling means cheerleaders in Kountze, Texas, can resume making banners with messages like “If God is with us, who can be against us?” after they trounced their school district in court, reports Reuters. How does this ruling square against the U.S. Supreme Court’s long history of separating church and state in schools?...
The parents of ‘Expendables 2’ stuntman Kun Liu have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the producers Nu Image and Millennium Films. The suit also names the movie’s stunt coordinator as a defendant. Liu was died last year while working on the movie in Bulgaria. He was performing on a rubber boat in Ognyanovo dam when a nearby explosion went wrong. The accident killed Liu and injured two others. No one is arguing that the accident was intentional but Liu’s parents are still suing for his funeral and burial expenses along with loss of society and companionship....
The Federal Communications Commission has issued a warning to cell phone users … but it’s based on rumors. The agency said that it has received alerts and heard accounts circulating of cell phone batteries sparking and starting fires at gas stations. There are no confirmed reports, and the agency warns that the possibility of a phone actually catching on fire at a gas station is very remote. The FCC believes that the rumors about the fires are based on warnings posted at gas stations and on text in phone user manuals....
Disgruntled Yelp reviewers have filed a class-action lawsuit demanding compensation for the reviews they post on the site. We are not making this up, this is an actual lawsuit (attached below). The reviewers claim they are actually unpaid employees and legally deserve pay for their contributions, given the importance of the reviews to Yelp’s business model. “Yelp earns its income by selling advertising on its site, the content of which is created free-of-wages by hordes of solicited posters, in violation of the Federal Labor Standard Act,” the lawsuit alleges....
Driver inattention is the leading factor in most crashes and near-crashes, according to a landmark research report released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). Nearly 80 percent of crashes and 65 percent of near-crashes involved some form of driver inattention within three seconds before the event. Primary causes of driver inattention are distracting activities, such as cell phone use, and drowsiness....
Curious members of the public trying to find out Casey Anthony’s probation location should stop looking. The Florida Department of Corrections will not be putting her photo and information on their website, and a judge has blocked public release of her personal information. Anthony is on probation for a 2010 conviction of check fraud, reports The Ledger. The recently voted “Most Hated Person in America” met in private with a probation officer Wednesday evening at an undisclosed location....
How much whole grain must be in a Cheez-It cracker to label the box “Whole Grain” or “Made With Whole Grain”? Evidently that’s a matter of law, according to the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A three-member panel overruled the district court’s decision to dismiss the class action alleging “false and misleading” labeling on Kellogg’s Cheez-It whole grain crackers for failing to make a claim. As such, the lower court will hear the case on its merits....
Pop star Carly Rae Jepsen is being sued by a Ukrainian singer/rapper named Aza who claims Jepsen stole her song to create “Call Me Maybe.” Aza is filing her lawsuit in Los Angeles, and claims that Jepsen’s song is a direct ripoff of her song “Hunky Santa,” reports TMZ. The Ukranian singer says that producers simply tweaked her song to create Jepsen’s surprise summer hit. Aza reportedly told TMZ that she was so “shocked and surprised” when she first heard Carly Rae Jepsen’s song on the radio that she almost got into a car accident....
The December 30 product recall announcement by the CPSC actually has little to do with the favorite maternal command: “go outside and play.” The play yards at issue are for infants and are a combination play-pen, sleeping area, and bassinet, some featuring built in changing tables. This is a voluntary recall from the CPSC in conjunction with the importers of the product, Dorel Juvenile Group Inc., of Columbus, Ind. No injuries have been reported....
Rapper Foxy Brown’s mooning charges have been dismissed because the mooning victim has decided not to testify - and she didn’t even have to whip out the tried-and-true “underwear defense.” Brown’s mooning of her neighbor, Arlene Raymond, had allegedly violated an order of protection, reports the New York Daily News. How did this all begin? It all began with a simple feud. Raymond and Brown reside in the same Prospect Heights building....
Today, June 28, the Supreme Court handed down a ruling that has been called a major symbolic victory for advocates of gun rights. In the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, the Supreme Court followed up on a 2008 decision and held the 2nd Amendment right of individuals to own guns to extends to state and local, as well as federal, laws. According to The New York Times, the Court’s decision in District of Columbia v....
The requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance by 2014 was one of many controversial parts of the Obama healthcare law. It has now been challenged and dismissed a couple times over, with close to two dozen challenges still awaiting review in federal court. The latest dismissal was a 54-page opinion by federal judge Norman Moon that examined the constitutionality of a healthcare requirement. Specifically, the issue before the Virginia court was whether the federal government could, in fact, govern how and when Americans get healthcare insurance....
Last week eight members of one family, the Rhodens, were executed in Ohio, in four different homes on the same night. Local authorities still haven’t found the killer or killers, and all of Pike County, the rural Ohio region where the slayings took place, is reportedly on edge. There is reason to believe that the murders may have had to do with illegal marijuana growing operations allegedly discovered on the properties where the Rhodens were murdered....
Kids and teenagers can find themselves in all kinds of trouble. Hopefully, most of it will be of the harmless variety. But even some small crimes with no apparent victim can be a big deal for minors and their future. Take petty theft, for example. So named after the French word petit, meaning small, it refers to thefts of property having a relatively low dollar value. While it may not sound like a big deal, this small crime can have lasting consequences for minors, and should not be taken lightly....
Artists must be allowed the creative license necessary to make their art. Sometimes, though, this creative way of viewing the world shifts over into real life. Case in point: artist, producer and potential refugee, Randy Quaid and his wife Evi. Randy and Evi Quai have sought refugee status across the border in Canada from what they term a “criminal conspiracy” to deprive them of their livelihood, and possibly, their lives....
New Orleans police have issued a misdemeanor warrant for Russell Brand’s arrest, accusing the 36-year-old of criminal damage. The comedian, who was in town filming a movie, took a photographer’s iPhone on Monday and tossed it through the glass window of a local law office. Though he immediately contacted the firm and offered to pay for the window, the courtesy was not extended to photog Timothy Jackson. A peeved Jackson filed a police report, citing $700 in damage....
You can’t sue the United Nations for sexual discrimination. And, you can’t sue diplomatic officials in sex discrimination lawsuits, or in any other civil lawsuits. At least not according to the New York Court of Appeals, which upheld a 2007 District Court decision. The 2007 decision stated that the United Nations had immunity under the 1946 Convention on Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. Essentially, what the New York court said on appeal was that certain officials of the United Nations and, of course, the United Nations as a whole, had diplomatic immunity from lawsuits....
