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March Madness is here and ready to distract your employees. They will be filling out brackets this week, crumpling them up, picking No. 5 seeds for upsets. And they’ll be gambling the whole time, too. You may have let it slide during the Super Bowl, but with office pools cropping up everywhere, you’re probably wondering whether you have a legal obligation to shut them down. It depends. Though federal law frowns upon the practice, state law varies as to whether office pools constitute illegal gambling....

Last month, we noted the appeals court ruling in Florida declaring that state’s gay adoption ban was unconstitutional. At the time, it appeared likely that the state Department of Children & Families or Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum would appeal the ruling to the Florida Supreme Court. It never happened. When the deadline came, it was announced that neither party would appeal the ruling. The court further wrote that the ban made little sense since gay individuals were permitted to become foster parents, become guardians of minors and had access to their biological children under custody agreements....

A federal court has ruled that the NY repeat offender law is unconstitutional. The state law which allows judges, not juries, to hand down harsher sentences to repeat offenders was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court. Defense lawyers said the ruling paves the way for challenges to sentences by inmates convicted since 2004 of felonies including robbery, assault and drug distribution. New York’s persistent felony offender statute allowed trial judges to determine whether longer sentences were appropriate after reviewing the “history of character” of criminals convicted of three felonies....

Undocumented immigrants in New York are panicking over reports of raids by authorities, according to the New York Times. But an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official confirmed that no unusual enforcement actions are happening in that state. That said, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did arrest 121 people in the US over the weekend, targeting Central American migrants who arrived in 2014. All reportedly already had orders of deportation issued after their asylum claims were denied or they failed to appear in court....

Summer is here! But before you book that dream jet-setting getaway, watch out for fine print that might be riddled with hidden airline fees. As any air traveler is well aware, the airline industry is constantly monetizing things that used to be free, so be vigilant. Here are five airline fees that might be buried in the fine print: Keep these “hidden” airline fees in mind when you’re planning your summer travels....

Following up on the post last week, Maine has become the latest in a string of New England states to legalize gay marriage. Although it was previously unclear whether Maine’s governor, John Baldacci, would sign the bill (he opposed gay marriage in the past), in the end it reportedly only took him less than an hour to sign the bill following legislative approval. Upon signing the bill, Baldacci gave an arguably conflicted statement about the future of gay marriage in the state, per CNN:...

A New Jersey school district has settled its bully punch lawsuit with a former student. Sawyer Rosenstein, 18, will be paid $4.2 million for a 2006 attack that left him paralyzed from the waist down. At the time of the incident, Rosenstein was a 12-year-old student at Eric Smith Middle School. He had been victimized before the attack and even emailed school officials begging for help. Three months later, Rosenstein was punched in the stomach by a bully....

In America, we pride ourselves on our freedom of speech, and readily point to how much we support the First Amendment, even when it protects speech we don’t like, like racist, sexist, or fascist ideas. But the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are American creations, and their protections don’t follow us as we travel. And Europe isn’t so welcoming to hate speech. Therefore the First Amendment may not apply to our social media speech, if that speech is appearing on platforms in the European Union....

Can a lawyer son represent his dad in a divorce case against his mom? It may sound like a conflict of interest, but Nevada’s highest court says it’s OK under the law. The Nevada Supreme Court’s 3-0 ruling reverses a lower court’s decision that barred lawyer Mark Liapis of Reno from representing his dad Theodore, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. Mark Liapis’ mom Marie objected to her son’s involvement in the case, and offered several legal arguments – all of which Nevada’s Supreme Court rejected....

Generally speaking, you cannot discharge student loans. Bankruptcy law–more specifically, section 523(a)(8) of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act–treats student debt as a priority debt, requiring it to remain after bankruptcy whether it was acquired from a private lender or the federal government. However, if you can show that your student loans would impose an undue hardship, you may be entitled to an exception to this rule. Though the statute does not set out any rule, when deciding whether to discharge student loans, bankruptcy judges usually consider the following:...

Make a sale and you get paid once; set up a subscription sales model and you get paid every month. The drawback: you’re going to have to save financial data for your customers and that can create privacy issues. First the positive: Subscription business models are booming for online businesses. Rather than selling a customer something once, the subscription model guarantees that same sale once a month without any extra work....

Raising a child is already expensive. Raising a child with autism can be even more costly. Since autism treatment can require many doctor visits, therapist visits, and medication, many families cannot afford the cost of caring for an autistic child. However, the government may be able to help. Here are some benefits that your autistic child may be eligible for: Your autistic child may be able to get SSI payments. To be eligible, your child must have a mental or physical condition that causes “marked and severed functional limitations....

When the debts start piling up, you may have to consider bankruptcy. Bankruptcy may sound appealing. You get the creditors off your back and your debts discharged. Sure, it destroys your credit, but that can be rebuilt. However, what about your business? What can happen to your business if you file for bankruptcy? Sole Proprietorships In a sole proprietorship, there is no boundary separating you from your business. If your business has debt, you are personally liable for those debts....

Much has been made lately about some specious calls to the police, the most famous involving a white woman reporting a black family for using a charcoal grill in a “non-charcoal” zone of a public park in Oakland. (Other infamous incidents involved white people calling the cops to report people of color for sitting in Starbucks, touring a college campus, and sleeping in a campus dorm common room.) These incidents are not all racially motivated (a Bay Area man alerted transit police to a fellow passenger eating a burrito), but Oakland Councilmember Lynette Gibson McElhaney highlighted the problem with non-serious calls to the cops: “In a city that needs significant policing services, we can’t have those precious expensive resources squandered in a frivolous way,” McElhaney told HuffPost, adding, “Police are not private security for any white person that’s offended by the presence of black folks in our public spaces....

For Tax Day, here’s something for small business owners to consider: Your business could be paying much less in taxes by taking some tips from big corporations. Some of America’s most profitable companies like Apple and Microsoft have effective tax rates lower than 30 percent, as Forbes points out. So what can you do to effectively lower your small business’ tax rate? Here are five ideas that may pay off for you:...

Valerie Hamilton was the 23 year-old daughter of local police chief Merl Hamilton. Her body was discovered in a self storage unit not far from the location she was first reported missing from earlier this week. Although the official autopsy has not been released, CBS News now reports that there has been an arrest in the Valerie Hamilton murder case. 34 year-old registered sex offender, Michael Neal Harvey is believed to be the man seen exiting the restaurant with Hamilton on surveillance footage on the last night she was seen alive....

Two large-scale recalls have been announced today, involving products that pose serious dangers to kids: 4 million baby pool floats manufactured by Aqua-Leisure Industries, and 400,000 cribs made by Simplicity Inc. Get the recall details below, including the latest information from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Aqua-Leisure Industries Baby Floats. About 4 million inflatable baby floats are being recalled by Aqua-Leisure Industries, based in Avon, Massachusetts. The company has received 31 reports of leg straps on the floats tearing, causing children to fall into the water....

An argument over low-calorie beverage sweeteners might not appear to have an earth-shattering impact on intellectual property law. But when the legal arguments involve getting more patent lawsuits out of the tiny Texas district where almost all suits are brought by patent trolls, that’s exactly what a case before the Supreme Court might do. Last week, the Court heard arguments in TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, and a ruling may alter where future patent cases are filed....

Who hasn’t burned their mouth or fingers in impatient anticipation of that first bite of newly-prepared food? Whether it’s microwaved pizza bites, a bagel from the toaster, or a gourmet dinner, that first bite can lead to instant regret. But some burns are worse than others. A Scalding Burn Theresa Thomas was out to lunch with her husband December 7, 2017 when she ordered the offending lasagna from Patrick Concannon’s Osteria Ottimo Ristorante in Chicago....

You may think you’re protecting yourself and your small business by running background checks for potential hires. As benevolent as it may be, you could still get into trouble hiring someone with a criminal record. And, after all, prospective employees are probably running background checks on your business. So it’s only natural that they would expect you to run background checks on them, right? But potential employees have legal protections when it comes to background checks....