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Wesley Snipes is reporting to prison and it is not for a new movie role. The actor was ordered to voluntarily surrender to a medium security federal prison in Pennsylvania to begin his three year sentence on tax evasion. The 48-year-old Snipes was convicted in 2008 of willful failure to file income tax returns. At his trial, the prosecution argued that the star had earned $38 million since 1999 but had failed to file tax returns or pay taxes during the decade....

What is an arraignment? It’s a crucial step in any criminal case. Life can present all kinds of surprises. And even the most upstanding citizens can falter every once in a while. The arraignment is also the first time defendants will be allowed to speak for themselves. After the court reads the formal charges, the defendant will be able to enter their plea to each offense. The caveat is that, like on television, a defendant’s only options are “guilty” or “not guilty....

California legalized it. And that’s all well and good for budding weed entrepreneurs in the Golden State, but what about the half-million people arrested on marijuana-related offenses over the past decade? Many, if not all of those arrestees have criminal charges on their record, and some may still be incarcerated for doing something that is now legal. The good news is that legalization has also paved for way for Californians convicted of marijuana crimes to have their criminal records cleared or the charges or sentences reduced....

Anyone can claim to know a bunch of celebrities they can call at the drop of a hat. But it takes a special talent to convince people to pay large sums of money for those pretend connections. One such fraudster has been arrested in a Las Vegas celebrity booking scam after allegedly duping numerous victims out of more than $230,000 for pretend connections to the likes of Justin Bieber and Floyd Mayweather Jr....

Miami police are investigating a woman’s report that she blacked out after drinking and smoking marijuana with San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick and two other NFL players. The police report (attached below) does not allege any crimes but police say they are investigating the case as a “suspicions incident.” “There are no charges, definitely not. There is an investigation,” Miami Police Department office Rene Pimentel told USA Today. A woman (whose name is redacted from the report) said that on April 1 she visited Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Ricardo Lockette, 27, at a Miami apartment....

The San Francisco Academy of Art has agreed to settle the lawsuit filed against them by San Francisco’s City Attorney after nearly a decade-long dispute. The academy will pay $20 million to the city (over the next five years) for various housing, code, and zoning ordinance violations they committed in San Francisco over the past decade, while the housing crisis was at an all time peak. Additionally, as part of the settlement, the academy will spend nearly $40 million on bringing two of their own buildings into compliance and offering 160 units of affordable housing to seniors....

People in Austin, Texas can breathe a short sigh of relief – the Austin bomber has been identified as Mark Anthony Conditt and is no longer a threat. Surveillance video and receipts led to police identifying Conditt as the prime suspect in causing five explosions that injured five people and killed two in the Austin-area since March 2nd. The Clues That Helped Reveal His Identity The police were working hard to identify the person responsible for packages exploding throughout Austin....

Kids are going to be kids. Sometimes that means they’re going to make a mess in the kitchen, and at other times, that means parents are going to get a call in the middle of the night from the police. Most of the time, when a kid commits a criminal act, the consequences will be theirs to face as very few states impose any sort of parental criminal liability. However, when it is discovered that a child has been using drugs, a parent could face criminal liability depending on the situation....

Everybody poops – and it’s showing up in public swimming pools, apparently. That’s right: There’s poop in pools, and researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are not happy about it. A CDC report shows that swimmers frequently introduce fecal material (i.e., poop) into pools, which can spread germs to other people, the researchers wrote. During the course of the CDC study, researchers found a variety of bacteria in the pools they tested last summer....

Tassimo and Bosch single-serve coffee makers can spray scalding-hot liquid and cause severe burns, a federal agency warned in announcing an international recall. In a related action, single-serve coffee “T-discs” sold under the brands Gevalia, Maxwell House, and Nabob are also being recalled. The coffee maker recall affects more than 1.7 million units sold in the United States and Canada. More than three dozen people, including a 10-year-old Minnesota girl, suffered second-degree burns linked to the coffee makers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said....

Bill Cosby thought he had it covered – his homeowners’ insurance promised to take care of costs arising from personal injury, including “defamation, libel, or slander.” But now that he faces accusations from women around the country that he defamed them by denying their accusations of sexual misconduct, the comedian is also under fire from his insurer. Last week Cosby asked a Massachusetts federal judge to dismiss AIG Property Casualty Company’s claims for declaratory relief....

Everyone loves the free food samples available at Costco warehouse stores. But, according to the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control, there is one sample people should avoid right now: Gouda cheese. The FDA, CDC and Costco released statements November 4 warning that the Bravo Farms Dutch Style Gouda cheese, (Costco item 40654) available for sales and samples at Costco stores has been linked with an outbreak of E....

Imagine that you’ve set up a tranquil night at home. You’ve poured a glass of wine, and drawn a nice warm bath. You’re about to dip your toe into your tub when the phone rings. Thinking it might be an emergency, you rush over to pick it up, only to find that it’s someone trying to sell you something. At that moment, you probably really wanted to report or stop the telemarketer....

It took jurors just 14 hours to determine Dzhokhar Tsarnaev deserved the death penalty for his role in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. The same jury convicted Tsarnaev last month on all 30 counts relating to the fatal bombing, 17 of which carried the death penalty. Another Quick Verdict Tsarnaev’s death penalty trial was split into two phases: the guilt phase and the penalty phase. Jurors deliberated for just over a day before determining Tsarnaev’s guilt, and their verdict today was almost as quick....

Makeup companies like Maybelline often make claims about their long-lasting lipstick and clump-free mascara. But just like any other company, their claims have to be based on some kind of facts. Maybelline seems to have forgotten that when it started marketing its Super Stay 10HR Stain Gloss and Super Stay 14 HR Lipstick and consumers weren’t happy. A group of women are suing the makeup company for false advertising, claiming that the makeup doesn’t last nearly as long as the name suggests....

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld New York’s concealed carry law, a ruling that the state Attorney General’s office is hailing as a “major victory” for gun safety. The court rejected a constitutional challenge to New York’s handgun licensing statute, which requires an individual to show “proper cause” in order to carry concealed handguns in public. The court unanimously found that the law does not violate the Second Amendment, reports the Buffalo Law Journal....

Will aggressive overdraft fee practices be curbed? With banks desperate for income, consumers have seen ever-rising overdraft fees. Bank practices in adminstering the fees have drawn lawsuits and calls for reform. To banks, overdraft fees are part of overdraft service, which customers automatically get when they open an account. The “service” protects the customer from having their transactions blocked when they dip below zero balance. Instead of the transaction being refused, you get an overdraft fee....

On January 7, 2005, President Bush announced the establishment of a bipartisan panel to advise on options to reform the federal tax code. This Advisory Panel has been meeting this year and will submit to the Secretary of the Treasury a report by November 1, 2005. At its meeting on Tuesday, October 18, the Advisory Panel agreed to recommend two distinct tax reform plans. Each of these alternative plans would contain major revisions to the tax code, including ending the alternative minimum tax, eliminating the deduction for state and local taxes, and changing the home mortgage interest deduction....

Actor, musician and Kim Kardashian sex tape star Ray J made sex-related headlines again last week when a woman claimed that he touched her butt. But that’s not what got him arrested. The incident, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, was determined by police to be a case of “incidental” contact and not sexual battery, reports TMZ. Ray J still managed to get himself arrested, however. After police determined that a crime had not been committed, Ray J was asked to leave the hotel....

If you want to feel better about your own money troubles, take solace in the woes of Puerto Rico. The Caribbean island, which is an unincorporated US territory, is struggling with its debt and enacted legislation that would allow it to restructure debt similar to entities that do have bankruptcy protection, like states. But the US Supreme Court just ruled that Puerto Rico cannot be a debtor under bankruptcy law, so local legislation passed to restructure the territory’s debt is invalid, pre-empted by the federal bankruptcy code....