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The “Jobs for Main Street Act” Of 2010 is legislation passed by the House that promises to deliver some hope to small business owners. It aims to create jobs for small business by slowly thawing the frozen lines of credit for small businesses. This proposed piece of legislation is intended to help Americans directly affected by the recession. Congressman William Clay (Dem-MO) was quoted by the American Chronicle as saying, “I voted against the Wall Street bailout in 2008 because it lacked accountability and did very little to help my constituents....

An Ultimate Power Meal lawsuit blames the over-the-counter vitamin and energy supplement for causing an elderly New Jersey woman’s death. Helen Shulman, 89, suffered kidney failure and heart damage after she consumed Gary Null’s Ultimate Power Meal over a three-month period, the lawsuit claims, according to the New York Post. Shulman died in July. The suit, filed in Manhattan by Shulman’s relatives, is believed to be the first wrongful-death lawsuit in connection with Gary Null’s Ultimate Power Meal....

When the captain puts on that “fasten your seatbelts” sign, you should pay attention. A United Airlines flight from D.C. to L.A. was diverted to Denver to treat the 26 passengers and 4 crew members who were injured, one severely, in turbulence encountered over Kansas. United Flight 967 was hit with bad weather over the Midwest, according to a report from the Associated Press. The flight crew made the decision to divert the flight to Denver International Airport on the evening of Tuesday, July 20....

Cody Wilson, founder and CEO of 3D printed gun designer Defense Distributed, has been charged with felony sexual assault of a minor after allegedly paying a 16-year-old for sex in an Austin hotel. According to reports, Wilson, an outspoken gun rights advocate, was traveling in Taiwan and may have been tipped off to the charges, as he apparently skipped a scheduled return flight to the U.S. and remains at large....

You understand the importance of a good relationship. That is why you got married and it’s why you are now getting divorced and in need of a lawyer you can trust. How do you find the right divorce attorney? The general answer is by choosing carefully. We’ll get into specifics below. Get recommendations: Everyone probably knows someone who has gotten a divorce. Talk to the person or people about the lawyer that they used and how they chose them....

An Applebee’s restaurant has fired three employees and temporarily closed after admitting to racially profiling two diners. It’s a lesson for all small business owners in the importance of properly training employees, being sure about your facts before accusing people of stealing from you, and social media’s power to quickly embarrass you. The franchise based in Independence, Missouri had interrupted two women’s meal to accuse them of having “dined and dashed” at the restaurant the previous night....

Women: You’re not crazy. That feeling like you can’t get warm in the office? That’s because the office air conditioning wasn’t designed for you. And it turns out a chilly office can have some adverse effects on the entire staff. So, bosses, here’s how to make your office a comfortable and constructive work environment for the whole team, not just the dudes. The Problem With Cold Offices A study published in National Climate Change revealed that the majority of office thermostats are set on a formula devised in the 1960s and based on a warmer male metabolic rate....

Arizona just can’t stay out of the headlines these days. The Grand Canyon State has been at the forefront of the immigration debate in the past few years. First with its labor policies and more recently with S.B. 1070. Now the state has set its sights on the 14th Amendment and the so-called “anchor-baby” clause. The state legislature has begun hearings on two proposals, known as the Arizona birthright citizenship laws....

In Europe, merchants abandoned magnetic credit card swiping machines long ago, in favor of cards with embedded computer chips. Thus far, American stores and shops have lagged behind. But that’s all about to change. Starting today, retailers who don’t install microchip card readers could be on the hook for any fraudulent charges on old magnetic swipe machines. So what does your small business need to do to catch up with this new technology?...

With Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, we do not lack for forums to share all of our troubles and joys with the world. Got injured at work? Post it on Facebook or Twitter. The stream of well wishing comments and commiserations will make you feel better. Or will it? People have been fired for discussing work online. Thirteen Virgin Atlantic crew members were fired for insulting passengers and criticizing the company’s sanitation and safety standards on Facebook....

Rosetta Stone is suing Google over the company’s AdWords policies, which they say are confusing and give their competition an unfair boost. According to Rosetta Stone, AdWords allows smaller businesses to “piggy back” on the names of bigger, well known companies. So if you (or who you hire to do your internet marketing) use such tactics, this case could have an impact on your business. You may have to adapt or face a potential lawsuit from your competitor....

Casey Anthony, the Florida mom convicted of lying to police as they investigated the death of her 2-year-old daughter, is set to be served with a defamation lawsuit. Anthony has been in hiding since a jury acquitted her of murder, manslaughter, and aggravated child abuse in July 2011. But investigators for a woman named Zenaida Gonzalez tracked Anthony down, The Huffington Post reports. Gonzalez is suing Anthony for allegedly ruining her life with a sordid lie, but she had trouble finding Anthony in order to serve a subpoena....

In Kurt Vonnegut’s short story Harrison Bergeron, he tells a tale of the year 2081, where everybody was finally equal. Not only before God and the law, they were actually equal in every way. Thanks to the United States Handicapper General, anyone with better than average intelligence, talent, strength or beauty was handicapped to bring them back to even. Gifted athletes wore large sacks filled with heavy weights and beautiful women wore hideous masks....

As a small business employer, you probably carry all kinds of insurance, with policies covering everything from slip-and-fall accidents in your store to cybercrime. Even with all those policies, it’s probably a question most employers have never had to ask: Does my insurance cover rape? But a recent ruling out of California’s Supreme Court says that insurers must cover employers’ legal fees in rape lawsuits incurred by their employees. How did the court get there?...

We all know that workers’ compensation benefits cover workplace injuries. If you’re hurt on the job, you can still get paid for time you miss while recovering. What many of us may not know is whether those benefits cover our mental health, and whether we can get workers’ comp for psychological conditions like anxiety, stress, or emotional distress. And the answer, as with most legal questions, is a resounding “It depends....

Following closely on news that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) intends to sue McDonald’s as a “joint employer” along with its franchisees, 10 former McDonald’s employees in Virginia are suing the franchisee and McDonald’s for employment discrimination under the Civil Rights Act. The ex-employees claim that they were subject to racially charged language and that supervisors at their McDonald’s fired black and Hispanic employees because they didn’t “fit the profile....

The meningitis outbreak that stemmed from contaminated pain medication has over a hundred victims so far but only one has filed a lawsuit. Barbe Puro received a steroid injection for chronic back pain in September and shortly after the injection she suffered headaches and nausea. But she was later informed that the shots she received may have been contaminated. To test for meningitis Puro had to undergo a painful spinal tap, reports Bloomberg Businessweek....

The recent GlaxoSmithKline (Glaxo) settlement means the drug company will be paying $41 million to 37 states and the District of Columbia. The settlement is about Glaxo’s “bad drugs,” arising out of medicine manufactured at the company’s former factory in Puerto Rico. The company made “bad drugs” between 2001 and 2004. The drugs included anti-nausea drugs, diabetes drug, and the antidepressant Paxil, according to prosecutors, Bloomberg reports. The company failed to make sure that certain drugs were not contaminated, and some tablets may have contained too much or too little of the active ingredient, says the criminal complaint....

Civil rights icon Julian Bond passed away at the age of 75 on August 15. Bond was an accomplished politician and professor, but above all he was a social activist, becoming one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in his 20s and continuing to fight for equal rights into his 70s. One of Bond’s most enduring legacies is the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a legal nonprofit that has been fighting hate groups, racism, and inequality since its founding in 1971....

If you’ve ever tried to decipher a section of your state’s code or make sense of a legal document, you’ve likely encountered legalese, the specialized language of lawyers, judges, and those in the legal field. Each week, as part of a continuing series Legalese From A to Z, we’re taking a closer look at noteworthy bits of legalese. Today, we take on five legal terms that start with the letter “O”:...