A gay teen has won the right to bring his boyfriend to the prom. Stacy Dawson, an openly gay 17-year-old student in Missouri, wanted to take his high school sweetheart to the prom. It just so happened that the high school sweetheart was another male, reports NBC News. Officials at Scott County Central High School initially told Dawson that he could not bring his boyfriend to the prom, set for April, and pointed to a written policy....
So you’ve been in a car accident, and you’ve filed suit (or are considering a suit) against the other party. However, the idea of going to trial and all the costs involved have you thinking twice. You just want to be compensated for you injuries and damages as quickly as possible. Have you considered car accident mediation? What Is Mediation? Mediation is one of many alternative dispute resolution programs that offer litigants a way to work out their issues outside of a courtroom....
It’s the first question that comes to mind when anyone gets into legal trouble: How much will this cost? And while hiring an attorney may be expensive, not hiring one could end up costing you even more. The total cost of hiring an attorney will depend on the attorney and your case, but there are some general principles regarding legal fees, depending on whether you’re hiring a family, injury, or criminal lawyer....
Being a landlord with a tenant who won’t pay rent, damages your property, or commits illegal acts on your property is a miserable situation, for you and for your other tenants. If it becomes necessary, you may legally evict your tenant. However, there are specific legal restrictions you must follow, or you could end up sued by your tenant in return. The laws for landlords who wish to evict a tenant vary from state to state, so be sure to check your local laws with an expert before proceeding....
Ikea, the company known for affordable, flat-pack furniture that buyers must assemble themselves, has agreed to settle three wrongful death cases filed against it for $50 million. The three cases, filed in the state court in Pennsylvania, claim that the furniture maker was negligent in not manufacturing their dressers to meet industry standards, which resulted in the death of three toddlers (in three separate incidents) who were crushed when the dressers toppled over onto them....
Whether it’s euthanasia, abortion, or the death penalty, life-and-death issues are highly controversial and hotly debated. Talking heads rankle over the issues and politicians use them as rallying devices. In an ongoing debate out of California, an end-of-life law seems to be meeting its own end as a judge has ruled it was unconstitutionally approved by lawmakers. The End of Life Option Act In 2015, state legislators passed – and Governor Jerry Brown signed – the End of Life Option Act, making California the fifth state to enact an “aid-in-dying” law....
The Maine legislature is considering sticking to its own state policy instead of following the new federal rules allowing guns in national parks. That could make Maine the first state to specifically cut against the new federal law, which allows licensed gun owners to take firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges. As previously discussed, the new law allows firearms in national parks as long as they obey the gun laws of the state in which the park is located....
Missouri teachers are not going to lose their Facebook privileges without a fight. The Missouri State Teachers Association has filed a lawsuit against the new Missouri Facebook law, which prohibits private chats and online communications between student and teachers. The Facebook law, otherwise known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, was implemented to curb sexual abuse of students by teachers. But, the Teachers Association claims that the law goes too far....
An Alabama judge declared Natalee Holloway legally dead today, more than six years after the teenager’s unsolved disappearance in Aruba. After the court hearing, Holloway’s divorced parents said they expect the prime suspect in Natalee’s disappearance, convicted murderer Joran van der Sloot, to be extradited to the United States to face justice in a separate matter, the Associated Press reports. The legal declaration of Natalee Holloway’s death allows Holloway’s father to stop paying medical insurance for his missing daughter, and to use $2,000 in Natalee’s college fund for her younger brother’s education, the AP reports....
When it comes to breastfeeding at work, times are changing. MSNBC recently profiled mother Stacey Weiland, who said that when she was a new mother, she received little sympathy from colleagues who saw her requests to breastfeed as an inconvenience, like going out to smoke. Women returning to jobs after childbirth often have had to choose between breastfeeding at work and their jobs, according to Chris Mulford, a spokeswoman for the U....
As of last Thursday night, small restaurants in Newark, New Jersey must hire and post armed security guards on their premises if they wish to remain open at night. The so-called Newark armed guards law applies to restaurants that can serve a maximum of 15 patrons, and that remain open after 9 p.m. However, those that close at 10 p.m. are not required to arm themselves. Why is Newark targeting only small restaurants?...
Oregon medical marijuana advocates are seeking to secure a November ballot measure to create a system in which state-licensed pot growers would distribute their crops under new marijuana dispensary laws. According to the Associated Press, backers of the initiative have turned in 61,000 petition signatures in hopes of qualifying the issue for the ballot. A total of 82,769 valid signatures are needed to qualify the measure, and backers have until July to collect the remainder....
Bites and scratches from dogs and other animals are infecting people with an antibiotic-resistant strain of staph bacteria, a new study finds. Now is a good time for dog owners and parents to take steps to prevent the occurrence of dog and animal bites. In hospitals and veterinarian offices across the country, there is a rising number in cases of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections shared between pets and humans, according to the study Bite-Related and Septic Syndromes Caused by Cats and Dogs, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases....
Will States Implement Suggested Standards? Prison rape has sometimes been viewed as an “inevitable feature of confinement”, but a report from the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission makes clear that the problem is actually a pervasive blight on the justice system, one “with life-altering consequences for victims.” Indeed, survey results suggest that over 60,000 inmates across the nation were sexually abused in a 12-month period. Perhaps just as alarmingly, more prisoners reported abuse by staff than abuse by other prisoners!...
Where there’s smoke, there may be fire. And when a reality show makes a number of changes because of the non-cooperation of one of its stars it can hint to non-compliance with an existing contract. In the case of Jon Gosselin, there’s no need to look for nebulous signs of employment contract trouble, because the case was officially filed by the television channel TLC in a circuit court in Maryland last week....
So you’re at the airport, you’ve gone through the inevitable check-in and security line, when you walk through a machine you think is a metal detector, just like you probably have a number of times before. However, if you’re at one of nineteen airports across the country testing new “whole body imaging” scanners, you might be interested in knowing just what the security official on the other side of the screen is seeing if you go through one of the machines, according to CNN....
A woman who says her Airbnb host made sexually suggestive comments, used drugs in front of her, and ultimately sexually assaulted her is suing the company, claiming it failed to do a background check on the man and failed to disclose that it did not do background checks to users. According to her lawsuit, the man faced domestic violence charges and was enrolled in a pre-trail diversion program to avoid prosecution on those charges....
Are you interested in becoming an expert witness? If you have the requisite background, enjoy controversy, and have a passion for righteousness, this could be the job for you. Here’s a few tips to potentially launch your next career, or side-hustle. According to the Federal Rules of Evidence, an expert witness can be anyone with special “knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education.” If that sounds broad, you’re right! Almost anyone can be qualified as an expert in something, but to be hired, and to be believed by a jury, you need to quantify your qualifications....
You’ve been scanning real estate listings, looking at vacant lots and plots of land, and you are very tempted. The prices are so nice compared to parcels with homes on them, and you like the idea of a clean slate. But wait. Before you dive in and find yourself in a mess, consider these five questions. They should help get you thinking about what you need to know before you buy a lot in any state....
A summer intern’s tasks should involve supervision. Television station KTVU and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are learning that the hard way. During the California TV station’s noon newscast last Friday, an anchor read aloud four fake names of the pilots of the Asiana Airlines jet that crash-landed in San Francisco. The racially insensitive names were reportedly confirmed by an intern with the NTSB. It seems the NTSB either gave an unpaid intern the power of an employee, or it failed to properly supervise the intern....
